Gummy Bears & Grenades

  "So you gonna put your money where your mouth is and play? Or you afraid you're gonna get your tail whipped? I'm sure Dex will make it all purrrfect."

  Sloane eyed him. There was something Tony wasn't telling him. "Why did you say it like that?"

  "What?" Tony frowned. "I was just saying that Dex knows how to make it all better." A wicked gleam came into his dark eyes.

  Purrrfect.

  Sloane's jaw went slack. He shook his head. "No."

  Tony's smile was terrifying. "Oh, yes."

  "He told you! That little--"

  Tony cleared his throat, and Sloane shut his mouth. Right. Probably not a good idea to curse out the son of your soon-to-be father-in-law. However, Sloane couldn't help sounding pained when he spoke. "I can't believe he told you about the purring."

  "In his defense, he hadn't meant to. He'd had a few too many on pizza night last week, and it slipped out while he was helping me in the kitchen. He didn't even realize it. You're lucky Ash wasn't there." Tony motioned down to the table. "So, we doing this, or you expecting an ear scratch?"

  Sloane took position at the end of the table. "It's on. You're going down, old man."

  "Son, don't make me get out Old Betsy."

  "Sorry, sir." Sloane cleared his throat. "That was the booze talking. You're not old. I mean, you're only, what? Sixty?"

  Tony narrowed his eyes. "Not until end of next year. Just shy of a year after your wedding. To my son, who highly values my opinion."

  "Um, right." How about you not piss off your fiance's dad? That would be good. Also, he has a baseball bat that he's named and threatened you with before. Who names their baseball bat? And why Old Betsy? Why not the Hulk, or Thor? Dex would probably name his something crude and inappropriate. No, wait. He'd definitely name it Bat just so he could call himself the Bat Man. Dork. Sloane snickered.

  "Boy, you okay?"

  "Hm?" Sloane blinked at Tony. "Sorry, what?"

  "You were staring off at nothing at all, then laughed at nothing."

  "Oh, I was having a conversation with myself."

  "You know, sometimes I wonder who the real nut in your relationship is. I thought it was Dex, but after tonight, I'm not so sure."

  Sloane turned on the table and snorted. "The only one here missing a few marbles is you, because you seem to think you can beat me. I'm a Felid. It's in my nature to swat at things and not miss." Sloane tapped his head. "Feral instincts."

  Tony grunted. "Yeah, yeah. Less talking and more hockey."

  As they played, Sloane made sure to keep a close eye on Tony. The man was incredibly sneaky. Sloane stuck to drinking water, lots of water. When they took a break, he made himself a cup of dark roast, splashed some water on his face, and did a few stretches. Tony just shook his head at him. By the time they were into their fourth game, Sloane was sober and still kicking Tony's ass.

  Sloane dove, smacking his striker against the red floating puck and sending it into the goal on Tony's end of the table. He threw his arms up and did a little dance. "Woo! That's twelve! In your face." He thrust a finger at Tony, who glared at him. "Uh-oh." Sloane took off upstairs, Tony right on his heels.

  "I'll show you who's old when I get you in a choke hold," Tony growled.

  Sloane ran to the living room and stopped abruptly when he saw the news on TV. Tony stopped beside him.

  "Sweet baby Jesus."

  It can't be. Who the hell was he kidding? Of course it could. There was no doubt in his mind. None. He quickly took a seat on the couch and swiped up the remote, then turned up the volume so he could hear the news anchor describe the scene. Unfortunately, Sloane had missed the live broadcast, so who knew what the hell had happened. Why had no one called him? Someone was probably hoping he wouldn't see this.

  "There seems to be a blond man in what looks like an orange bear costume, suspended upside down from the High Line."

  "It sounds like he's shouting something, Barb."

  "You're right, Scott. He appears to be apologizing to someone. Repeatedly."

  "A significant other, perhaps?"

  "It may be, Scott. I think someone might be sleeping on the couch tonight."

  Sloane shook his head. "Where...? How...?"

  "Really?"

  "You're right. I should know better," Sloane said with a sigh. He turned to Tony and gave him a pointed look.

  "Why are you looking at me? You're the one marrying him."

  "He's your son."

  "He's an adult."

  Sloane thrust his hand at the TV.

  "Okay, maybe adult is too strong a word here. What I meant to say is he's your fiance. Deal with it. Don't act like this is the first time he's done something weird." Tony turned his attention back to the screen. "You know, I suddenly feel marginally better about the whole TIN thing."

  "Oh?"

  Tony nodded. "Yeah, because whoever your new boss is, they're going to have to deal with a lot worse than this all day, every day." He motioned to the TV and the close-up of Dex's reddened face as he promised Sloane on national television that it wasn't what it looked like.

  What it looked like was a crazy person in a bear costume hanging upside down. A crazy person who was in a world of trouble.

  Sloane let out another heavy sigh. "Do you think he's drunk?" One could only hope. At least then it would make more sense, but he knew what Tony's answer would be.

  "Nope. He's stone-cold sober." Tony stood and patted Sloane's shoulder. "Good luck with that." Tony left him, and Sloane pulled out his cell phone and put in a call to Hudson. The phone was answered, but no one said anything. There was some shuffling before Hudson's breathless voice came on the line.

  "Seb pushed the head at me, and I didn't know what to do with it! It was so big. Where was I supposed to put it? I wanted to go after Dex, but the bloody head was weighing me down."

  "Please stop talking." Sloane groaned. His friend was plastered. "I really don't want to hear about your sex life."

  "What?" Silence, then peals of laughter. "Oh! You thought I meant--" More laughter, then a very indelicate snort. It stopped suddenly. "Sloane, I think I might--"

  Sloane closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as Hudson retched. Clearly he should have called Seb, but he figured wherever Hudson was, Dex couldn't be far. They were like a couple of peas in a pod these days. A couple of peas who couldn't seem to keep themselves out of trouble. "You okay there, Doc?"

  A groan, then a sigh. "Yes. Thank you. I was talking about the bear head earlier, not... what you thought."

  "I'm relieved to hear that," Sloane grunted. "Where is your husband?"

  "He went after the drug dealers."

  Sloane sat up. "What drug dealers?"

  "Well, you see, Dex wanted to try on the bear, and despite my telling him it would be an awful idea, he commandeered the bear and then found the tummy was filled with drugs. These men showed up asking for the drugs, and when they realized they were in trouble, they legged it. Dex ran after one, because they all spread out, you see, and Seb gave me the bear head so he could give chase. I told Ash like I was supposed to, and everyone split up and left me here with the stupid bloody bear head, and I think I'm going to be sick again, excuse me."

  More retching sounds. Wonderful.

  Hudson returned. "I may have had a wee too much to drink."

  "You don't say. So Dex took some guy's bear costume, tried it on, found drugs, and then ran after one of the guys who came to buy them. Am I following that right?"

  "Yes."

  "And Seb took off after some of the other guys after handing you the bear head, and told you to get backup."

  "Correct. All the men were arrested half an hour ago, including the one Dex was after."

  "And how did he end up hanging over the rail of the High Line?"

  "Well, from what I've been told, the man Dex was chasing tried to jump over the rail as there was a flower stand beneath it, but Dex grabbed him, and they both went over, only Dex's costume got snagged. The
HPF arrested the man, but Dex was good and stuck, and unfortunately the newspeople arrived before they could get him down."

  Sloane checked the news, and they were back to reporting incidents in the city that thankfully did not involve his fiance.

  "Where's Dex now?"

  "On his way back to the club. He gave his statement, and they released him. Please don't be cross with him, Sloane."

  "Maybe he should come home."

  "Or, perhaps we should continue the evening. It is his bachelor party. I imagine he's worried you're going to be upset with him, and I have no doubt Sparks isn't going to be too pleased that he's ended up in the news. Again."

  Sloane sank down into the couch. This wasn't how he'd wanted Dex's evening to go. He wasn't thrilled about Dex ending up on the news the way he had, and Sloane was certainly going to get to the bottom of whatever the hell had happened tonight, but it hurt his heart that Dex's evening took this kind of turn. He'd wanted Dex to look back on this night with fond memories.

  "I'm not upset with him. I'm not happy about it, but I wanted tonight to be fun for him."

  "He's missing you terribly."

  Sloane couldn't help his dopey smile. "I miss him too." With a sigh, he sat back. "Tell him I said to have fun and not worry about what happened. We can talk about it later. This is his night. Everything else can wait."

  "Wonderful! Cael and I will take care of it."

  "Good. If you need me, you have my number."

  "Thank you, Sloane."

  "You're welcome." He hung up and shook his head. Was he really surprised? Had it not been for the news vans showing up, the whole incident would have been pretty low-key, at least where Dex and Destructive Delta were concerned. He supposed he should be grateful nothing got blown up.

  Chapter 7

  IT WAS close to two in the morning, and the dance floor was packed so tight it was hard to tell who was dancing with whom. Dex didn't care. He was running on profuse amounts of booze and sugar. Three hours ago he stopped caring about what his hair looked like. It was plastered to his head from the sweat, and when his dress shirt started doing the same, he'd stripped it off, remaining in his white short-sleeved V-neck undershirt. He'd noticed several of his friends had done the same.

  Whoops and catcalls caught his attention, and he found his friends cheering Cael and Ash on. Ash was clearly drunk. He'd already stripped down to his black tank top, and was pressed against Cael from behind. As "Cum on Feel the Noize" by Quiet Riot blasted through the speakers, Cael danced down low, and Ash followed him, one arm around Cael's waist as they moved together. Dex had to give Ash credit. The burly lion Therian didn't miss a beat. He matched each one of Cael's slinky, seductive moves.

  "Mind if I cut in?" Dex not so subtly turned the guy dancing with Zach onto someone else. The guy didn't even realize. He was way too drunk. Dex waggled his eyebrows at Zach. "Hey there, big fella."

  Zach shook his head, but Dex could tell he was trying hard not to smile. It seemed to be Zach's mission in life to make sure Dex knew he was the most annoying thing in Zach's world, and it made Dex laugh every time.

  "Having a good time?"

  Zach nodded.

  "Awesome!" Dex grabbed the wrist of the guy dancing to his left and jerked him in between himself and Zach. "Oh, look who it is."

  "What the hell, Daley?" Austen growled at him over his shoulder.

  "Shut up and dance," Dex said, crowding Austen the extra few inches needed for Austen to be pressed up against Zach. With a pointed look at Zach, Dex motioned down to Austen. "If you don't hold on to him, he's gonna run."

  Austen cursed at Dex, and Zach did what Dex had been hoping he'd do. He didn't hesitate in wrapping both beefy arms around Austen and holding him tight.

  That's my boy.

  "This isn't over, Daley," Austen hissed as Dex rode the pony in the opposite direction while the Eagles sang about life in the fast lane.

  "Nope. It's just the beginning!" Dex laughed and went to cause mischief elsewhere. He found himself in the middle of the crowd and realized he'd wandered from his posse. He turned to go back, but a familiar scent had him stopping. An arm wrapped around his waist and brought him back up against a hard body. Dex smiled. Had Sloane come back?

  He let his head fall back with a moan, his hand sliding up his man's leg. "I missed you." He was about to turn around, but then a smooth voice whispered in his ear.

  "Hello, darling."

  Dex froze. No fucking way. It can't be.

  The posh British accent was unmistakable. "I missed you too."

  Dex spun around, bringing his fist with him. Wolf caught his wrist in one hand and wrapped his other around Dex's waist, his lips curling in a sinful grin.

  "Easy there, love. We don't want to cause a scene."

  Dex narrowed his eyes and spoke through gritted teeth. "You have two seconds to get your hands off me."

  Wolf released his wrist and dropped his other arm. "You look deliciously disheveled."

  "If you ever, ever use Sloane's scent like that again, I will fucking end you. Do you understand me?" Dex was so pissed off, he was practically vibrating with anger. The fucking balls on this guy.

  "It was the only way to get close enough to warn you."

  "You used my mate's scent to touch me. That's not just fucking creepy, it's out of line, even for you. Then again, you are a psychopath."

  Wolf smiled. "I'm actually rather well-adjusted."

  "Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. I mean, what well-adjusted person doesn't go around torturing for money? Silly me."

  Wolf held his gloved hands up in front of him in surrender. "It was a deplorable deed. I apologize for deceiving you. You smell divine, by the way."

  Dex rubbed his temples. He was already feeling far too sober for this. "You're not sorry at all, are you?"

  Wolf didn't even pretend to think about it. "No, but you wouldn't have allowed me near you otherwise."

  "The key word there is near, and not all up in my space. Why the hell am I even talking to you? I should be kicking your ass."

  "You are absolutely adorable," Wolf purred, his hands still up at his side as he took a step closer to Dex, his voice low. "You'll do nothing of the sort. In fact, you're going to invite me to sit with you in one of those cozy little alcoves over there."

  Dex laughed. "That is so not going to happen." Had the guy completely lost his mind? Wouldn't surprise Dex. Wolf had lost so many qualities most decent folks tended to have, like morals, compassion, the ability to walk into the room and not have everyone in it want to inflict physical pain upon his person.

  "It's most certainly going to happen, Dexter, because you're going to want to hear what I have to say."

  "I doubt that."

  "It concerns your sweet little brother."

  Dex balled his hands into fists at his sides. "Talk."

  "Not here."

  "How about down at THIRDS HQ?" Dex said with a smile. "All I have to do is give the order, and you'll have eleven THIRDS agents and three TIN agents breathing down your neck. We don't have to kick your ass, just hold you until TIN arrives. I bet Sparks is just dying to catch up."

  Wolf chuckled. "I do love your optimism."

  "Your brother's one of those THIRDS agents. You know he's here. Oh, and he's mighty pissed off with you, by the way. Then again, that seems to be people's general reaction to you, huh?"

  Wolf's smile fell off his face, the amusement in his eyes vanished, and his pupils dilated, the black almost spreading to replace the blue. A combination of Human killer and feral wolf Therian looked back at Dex. Dex raised his chin and refused to be intimidated as Wolf loomed over him, their chests touching.

  "I hope you're not suggesting using my brother against me."

  The ice in Wolf's quiet, polite tone was unlike anything Dex had ever heard, and it reminded him that despite Wolf's interest in Dex, the guy would drop Dex where he stood if he dared do what he implied he could do.

  Dex's gaze never wavered. "If
I was a different type of agent, if I was like you, I would. Lucky for you, I'm not."

  Wolf's smile sent an icy shiver through Dex. "Lucky for you you're not."

  "I won't let them use him. Not even to get to you."

  The warmth returned to Wolf's eyes like it had never left. "And that's why I find you so fascinating. You have the means to bring in one of the world's most wanted men, but your heart forbids it."

  For a moment, the guy actually looked... sad. What the hell?

  Wolf put his finger to Dex's chest where his heart was. "This right here, Dexter," Wolf said softly as he tapped his finger lightly against Dex's heart, "is going to cause you an extensive amount of pain. It would be an awful shame if the world lost a man such as you, and I'm not speaking of death." He dropped his hand and shoved it in his trouser pocket. "Who knows? You might surprise us all."

  Dex didn't know what to say to that. This whole encounter was just too weird. With a sigh, he nodded toward one of the empty booths. "Come on. Let's get this over with." He headed for the booth, unable to believe he was doing this. For all he knew, Wolf was playing him. Would Wolf risk exposure, his life, just to annoy the shit out of Dex? Possibly. But he would never be so cavalier with Hudson's safety, and Wolf's presence alone was putting Hudson in danger.

  Making sure none of his friends could see him, Dex slid into one of the darkened booths. Seeing as how the whole point of the booths was privacy, and Therians could see into the shadows, the deep purple curtain provided the extra discretion needed. He waited until Wolf was seated beside him before pulling the curtain closed. At least none of his friends would be able to spot him. Dex sat as far away from Wolf as the two-seater allowed.

  "Relax. Is this really so bad?"

  Dex gaped at him. "Is it--I'm huddled in a dark booth with some dude who is not my fiance, and happens to be an ex-spy turned assassin/mercenary for hire, who tortured me for days! Yes. Yes, it is so bad."

  Wolf pouted. "Well, when you put it like that, of course it sounds awful."

  "Can we get on with it?"

  "Anything for you, darling."

  Dex peered at him. "Your face makes me want to punch you."

  "And yours makes me want to do terribly naughty things to you."

  "Fuck this." Dex got up, only to be jerked back down against Wolf, his chin caught in Wolf's gloved hand, their faces inches apart. Dex narrowed his eyes and released a hiss.

  "What a shame. You would have made a much better wolf."