Page 133 of Fool Me Twice

Fix nodded. “It’s too much to be a coincidence. The list itself and the two curses coming from casters that are tied to it is too much evidence to ignore. And the cyber messages too? Something bigger is at play here, we just don’t know what the hell it is.”

They all brooded for a few moments before Black did a full-body shudder.

“Well, that’s enough emoting for one day.” Black pocketed his phone. “We’re not going to figure it out right now, so I’m gonna go bother Cyrus a bit.”

He flounced out in a whirl of sunflower yellow.

“We’re off too,” Ash said, pulling Morgan up. “We have a date, and I think Fix has a mission to find a certain blond man.”

“It’s not a mission,” Fix said, playing with his beard in agitation.

Ash cackled as Morgan pushed him toward the door. “Looked like a mission to me,” he threw back.

Fix sighed heavily before sending Hart a smile. “Get some rest. And call if you need anything.”

He ambled out of the room, leaving Cane and Hart alone in the house.

Chapter 27

Cane

Fuck, but life was perfect.

Cane stood in the middle of the ring in his warehouse a couple weeks after it had all gone down, the space yawning empty around him. But it was clean, the police tape gone, the black cloud of the curse removed. Everything was back in order and ready to be opened up again that very evening. Cane’s best fighter was going up against a promising newbie from Kinport, and the fight had been what everyone was talking about in their circles for days now.

The message he’d sent back with the hit men hired to kill him had been enough for the crime bosses to put a pause on ending him. Crime was a fickle mistress, after all, and it had been reconsidered whether Cane was really as down and out as they had labeled him.

Notoriety paid off in his line of work, even if it came with police investigation strings attached.

Cane snorted at the thought of the investigators digging and questioning and breathing down his neck without finding a single thing to actually pin on him or his business. Ares, despite the curse hiccup, had done his job well. Their asses were covered. The fact that they could pin half the bullshit on the curse was good too. Even the shit that had had nothing to do with it suddenly became the curse’s fault. Convenient, if annoying.

And now with the added infamy of his almost downfall, the curse, and the following resurgence, he was doing better than ever. People seemed to have the impression that he was invincible. Or maybe just a cockroach that wouldn’t die. Either way, it brought people slithering to his side again like they hadn’t abandoned him in the first place, begging to be a part of what Cane was reclaiming.

Who fucking knew?

“You look awfully smug,” a voice said from behind him, and he felt himself heat at the sound of it—the other, larger part of why Cane was living the life he never thought he’d get.

Hart.

He turned around and threw a smirk at the cursebreaker, running his gaze over his lean body. Hart was dressed like he was going to a damn movie premiere. A black suit, a dark red shirt, polished boots, and a floral tie and pocket square. There was a rose-shaped pin on his lapel, catching the dim lights in the warehouse. His hair was perfectly pinned into place, face clean-shaven and shiny from all the products he used.

He was so damn high maintenance. So out of place in Cane’s warehouse. But also, he was meant to be there, by his side finally, after fighting for it tooth and nail. Against the world, against Hart’s family, against Hart himself.

When Hart had finally agreed to be his, it had been the happiest moment of his life so far. He finally felt full. That aching hole inside of him had been satisfied, and the realization had dawned that he could have lived without his business, without all of it if it meant he got to have Hart.

He guessed he should thank Arianna and consequently Sarah for teaching him that.

“I have every reason to be smug, sweetheart,” Cane said, reaching out and inviting Hart to step into the ring with him.

“Oh really? Do tell,” Hart said, ducking under the ropes, slipping through the metal doorway, and walking right into Cane’s arms. He wrapped himself around Cane’s body, brushing their lips together quickly.

Too quickly, if you asked Cane. He pulled Hart in by the waist and deepened the kiss, plunging his tongue into Hart’s mouth and drinking in the soft moan he released. He felt him coil closer, grip him harder, open his mouth wider to let him in, and felt that same sense of pride and caveman-like satisfaction return full force.

“I don’t know a man in this world who wouldn’t be smug about making you react like this,” he growled between their lips, hands straying down until his palms had Hart’s ass in them, squeezing and pulling him forward, lining their hips up perfectly.

Hart was rock hard against him. Cane swore he could feel the heat radiating off him even through all the layers of clothing they both had on.

“Is that all it takes?” Hart asked. He was trying for teasing and aloof, but the tremble in his voice gave him away. Cane knew he could make him falter and crumble. Every single time.

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