Page 16 of Tear Me Down
“Oh, like I give a fuck about that,” Damien quietly retorts.
“Well, you should. You just missed where Hugo announced that Washington State Senator, John Avery, supports his community action plan.” Tyler nudges his head towards the right side of the stage, gesturing to the simpler looking man among Dranan’s close friends tonight.
“What?” Damien jerks his gaze back to the stage and narrows his eyes, visibly caught off guard. He clearly wasn’t expecting such a high official in the government to attend, much less publicly state that he supports someone like Hugo.
“What does that mean?” I ask him quietly.
“That this just got really fucking complicated.” He looks back down at me, and I watch as the worry takes over his face again before turning back to Tyler. “I’m going to take her home. Take notes and relay back to me. None of you sign a fucking thing until we figure this out.” They all agree and focus back on the presentation as we turn to leave.
Chapter seven
Damien
As soon as we got home, I sent Ashia upstairs to lay down. She clearly wanted to stay down here with me and the guys, but I saw the look in her eyes and how her skin was flushed. The redness in her cheeks, neck, and chest wasn’t from lust, it was from the discomfort she was feeling. I could tell the moment we finished having sex that she was in pain. We were way too rough earlier, but fuck, she felt like heaven.
The way that she has started to feel empowered by my presence in her life is doing something for me, causing the pride I already felt for her to grow. My Queen is learning her place, and she’s just that. Fucking royalty. She saw what that woman did, instantly knew she was beneath her, and handled it like the Goddess she is.
I had turned the corner just in time to see her smash Cheryl’s face into the desk, and there has never been another moment that I’ve ever been so turned on. That is, until she pulled on my tie and teased me with her pussy. Sitting there and having to listen to her cute little rant almost killed me. I wanted to jerk her up and fuck her over the desk the moment I walked into that room, already about to explode the moment she pushed me onto the couch.
She could’ve done anything to me at that moment, and I would’ve let her. Slap me around a few times, suffocate me with my tie, or even take the knife to my skin. My little wolf does love to play with blood, and I’d let her scar me a thousand times over if she kept that feral look in her eyes. I would even let her reverse the roles and tie me up before having her way with me. If I'm ever tortured by anyone, fuck, I hope it’s her.
After internally telling my dick to calm down, I walk over from the coffee table to the kitchen counter, deciding to take a break to make Ashia one of her smoothies. She still can’t eat anything too solid, and with her not feeling well, I'm sure she won’t want to eat anything else. I know she’s tired of soup and broth. So, she'll be relieved to have her comfort food.
Carter, Zeke, and I are looking up information on Senator Avery while the other members of Hugo’s little group are running through the facial recognition software. There’s plenty of shit about his life, where he grew up in Washington, where he went to school, and all of his volunteer programs, but nothing remotely believable. There’s something about him that isn’t sitting right with me. The man doesn’t even have a speeding ticket that we can find. So, what’s he doing with Hugo? What’s he hiding, and how is he doing it so well? There’s no reason that Avery should even be affiliated with someone like him, and yet, he just so happens to be? I don’t think so.
My kitchen island looks like one of Carter’s desks right now, but we had to adjust after evacuating the Basement. The Attic is almost complete, just a few finishing touches tomorrow while we move everything in, and we’ll beoperational again. My guys have still been going out onto the streets, and Carter, Zeke, and Alex have done a good job of handling the organization while we were out, but it’s time to get back to business.
“Hey, D? You cool if Ser heads over?” Carter asks.
“Yeah, I don’t give a shit. Did Ashia not answer her or something?” I reply without turning back to him.
“I don’t know.”
I turn and look at him, halfway surprised that he is so comfortable with a woman as brazen as Serena.
“Oh, so you two are on texting terms now?” I raise a brow.
“After last week, she’s lucky I didn’t start stalking her, like someone else I know.” He glares at me before we all laugh, but there’s something behind that glare I recognize, a darkness that doesn’t normally find its way into Carter. I don’t comment on it now, not wanting to expose him in front of Zeke, but we’ll need to talk about his own extracurricular activities another time.
“Yeah. Well, to be fair, I started stalking her without the sex,” I retort. They start laughing again, thankfully keeping the mood light.
Zeke watches me with curious eyes, glancing over at the blender and back at me.
“Damn, D. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so domesticated,” he snorts out.
“Says the one that went to a Rachel Ray cooking class with his girlfriend,” I retort. Carter starts cracking up and Zeke shoots him a look before flipping me off, holding his finger out to me as he keeps his eyes on Carter.
“Alright smartass, when you two are past the ‘we’re just fucking’ stage you’ll find out pretty quick we do some dumb shit to make our women happy,” Zeke tells Carter.
“Yeah, especially with how high maintenance Serena seems, it won’t be long,” I throw sideways at Carter. “Speaking of dumb shit, did you two ever find a new apartment?” I ask Zeke as I turn back to pour the smoothie out.
“Nah, I told her I didn’t see the point. I'm not there enough to need a bigger space.”
“Well, I can get Alex or someone else to cover so you can be home more, or shit, she can come here while you’re watching the house, if you want. I don’t give a fuck.” I shrug, not thinking anything of it.
“Just to put a target on her back too? Nah,” Zeke retorts, as if the idea of having his girlfriend at my house was the most ridiculous thing that has ever come out of my mouth. I stiffen at the comment, because as much as I hate it, he’s right. The entire mood shifts, and the aura around us sinks to the floor. My spine runs cold. “Fuck, D. I'm sorry. I didn’t mean that.” Regret possesses his tone.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Zeke?” I hear Carter scold him.
