Boston Avant-Garde 6: Chiaroscuro (29 page)

A thin sheen of sweat covered all their bodies. There was nothing but the sound and scents of sex as they finger-fucked Mattie and prepared her for the joining. Her clit became hard and distended. The hood swelled and pouted for attention, and Owen lavished as much as he could on the tiny nub. He could feel Lars’s fingers circling the sensitive bud. The two of them were barely hanging on to their sanity, but Mattie’s soaking-wet pussy still felt too tight to accept the two of them at once.

Mattie moaned with sudden intensity. Owen met Lars’s gaze over her full breasts, knowing his partner felt it coming just as Owen did. Mattie’s insides seized and bore down hard on their fingers. She came in a rush of feminine fluids. The viscous juices left her pussy relaxed and lubricated, perfect for what was to come.

“Now,” Owen said hoarsely. “It has to be now.”

He shifted Mattie to face Lars and moved in close until her back was flush with his front. Owen palmed his shaft and probed Mattie’s sweet center. He could see Lars maneuvering himself between Mattie’s legs in order to enter her body. The head of Owen’s cock rubbed against Lars’s as they pushed into Mattie’s sleek, wet opening together. She moaned and moved against them. Her inner muscles flexed. They felt like a kiss of liquid heat against Owen’s shaft.

The circle seemed to fill with their energy. Electricity zipped through his nerve endings. He was more alive at that moment than he’d ever thought possible. His soul soared high, meshing with the souls of his lovers. Owen felt elemental. It was primal and beautiful. His heart swelled with emotion.

Mattie’s head lolled back to rest on Owen’s shoulder. He locked gazes with Lars and felt a bond so strong he knew it would last from this life into the next. His sac tightened with his seed, and he felt the heaviness of the life within until he threw his head back and ejaculated with a shout.

Lars trembled and then cried out as he came. Mattie convulsed around them, coming apart and collapsing against their bodies with the intensity of her orgasm. Tears ran down her cheeks as she whispered their names over and over again. As Owen held on to Mattie and Lars, he marveled at the sensation of renewal that descended over them all.

Chapter Twenty-Five

The place that had felt hostile less than an hour ago now felt warm and homey to Mattie. She and Owen made gestures to the points of the compass before stepping out of the circle. She grinned at Lars as he shrugged and awkwardly followed suit with a self-deprecating chuckle.

“If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right?” she teased.

Lars reached for his pants. “Might as well. It’s two to one when it comes to this spiritual stuff.”

Mattie turned Owen’s shirt right side out and pulled it on. She gathered up her bag and started out of the cottage door as Owen hopped to get his jeans over his lean hips.

She hadn’t even made it past the tiny paving stone walkway when she saw Jason Bloodmoon leaning against a tree. Cold fear made her stop in her tracks, reaching behind her for Lars.

When Owen stepped into the open, Jason pushed away from the tree. “Hello, little brother.”

Tobias Meecham and Daniel Hyde appeared not far behind him. Meecham looked as nervous and twitchy as Mattie had ever seen him. Hyde’s glowering frown could’ve peeled paint. Mattie felt like an idiot. They’d all been so caught up in the security of success they’d forgotten to be at all cautious on the exit.

Owen and Lars stepped in front of her, closing ranks until she could no longer see anything but a wall of warm male flesh before her. Mattie’s heart pounded so fast she could hardly breathe. What was going to happen? They’d negated Hyde’s ritual. It was over. The man was bound to be really pissed off.

“You know, I was trying to be nice,” Hyde began. “I never intended to harm Matilda.”

Owen snorted. “Because what every woman wants is to be gang-raped by five strange men.”

“Ritualistic sex is not rape.” Hyde’s vehement tone sent chills down Mattie’s back.

She peeked through the space between her lovers’ bodies to see him pacing back and forth with the kind of zealous expression every other psycho throughout history had in common. The guy truly believed what he was saying.

“Now the two of you have defiled my sacrifice.
Defiled
her!” Hyde threw his arms in the air as though he were begging help from the gods. If any deity was listening to this bullshit, Mattie hoped the assistance they’d send would include a lightning bolt to his head. He stopped short and turned toward them, brows drawn down into a line. “I can still save this. I can! If I slit your throats and saturate the ground inside the circle with your blood, all of you, it will negate whatever bullshit you tried to pull.”

“Daniel, surely that’s too extreme.” Meecham’s eyes were like saucers in his face. “I can’t be on board with something like that. It’s just so violent…”

Before Meecham could continue his whining tirade, Hyde whipped a machete from its place at his waist and slashed him across the throat. Mattie put her hands over her mouth and choked back a scream. Meecham shuffled to the ground, choking on his own blood as he died.

Shaky and light-headed, Mattie pressed closer to Owen and Lars. Their warmth and vitality was an anchor in a storm. She’d never thought things would go this far. It was craziness, pure and simple. The world had gone absolutely insane.

“Well, shit,” Jason drawled. “That was a little messier than necessary.”

Hyde wiped the machete blade on a patch of grass. “Shut up, and help me secure the sacrifices.”

OWEN HAD VERY rarely felt this calm sense of purpose. Mattie was freaking out. He could feel her behind him struggling to hang on to her composure. He’d never been more proud. She could’ve lost it, but she hadn’t. Beside him, Lars was in the same frame of mind as Owen. They had no choice but to keep their wits and fight their way out of this mess.

Jason and Hyde split up, coming at Owen and Lars from opposite sides. With Mattie sandwiched between them for safety, it was no time to play nice. Owen drew his knife. He got a comfortable grip on the hilt and was glad he’d decided to bring the familiar weapon.

Unfortunately Lars was unarmed, and Hyde was approaching fast with a machete. Owen half glanced over his shoulder. “You want my knife?”

“No, I think I’ll acquire a weapon from this psycho, but thanks for the offer,” Lars said lightly.

Owen couldn’t help the chuckle that slipped out. The three of them were truly meant to be together. Then Jason lunged, and Owen forgot everything but the necessity of protecting what was his.

His half brother came in low, attempting to reach around Owen and snag Mattie. Owen blocked the move and retaliated with a left-handed punch. Jason dodged and pulled out a knife. He began slashing wildly, aiming his strikes at Mattie and forcing Owen to continually place himself between them. The knife sliced a thin trail down Owen’s belly. The cut burned as the sweat of his skin mingled with the blood welling to the surface.

Behind them, Owen could hear Lars grappling with Hyde. He’d already taken the weapon and was now working the man away from Mattie. Owen wished it were possible to do the same with Jason, but his brother was no dummy. Mattie was Owen’s weak spot, and Jason knew it.

Mattie cried out as Jason’s knife nicked her bare arm. Instant rage turned Owen into a machine bent on destruction. He grabbed Jason and head-butted him, breaking his half brother’s nose. Jason swung wildly, and Owen caught the arm and twisted it into a hammerlock. He applied pressure to the choke hold until the scent of Jason’s fear filled his nose.

Owen swept his brother’s feet out from underneath him. Jason’s body crashed to the hard ground with a
thump
. Owen knelt over his prone form, knife in hand. It would be so simple to end it, cut Jason’s throat the same way Jason had intended to do Mattie’s. His instincts were screaming to finish the job. How could it be over if Jason still breathed? He was a threat to Mattie, to Lars. It was up to Owen to protect the ones he loved. Jason had taken so much over the years. It was only right to take his life.

Mattie’s soft voice brought him back from the brink. “Owen, stop.”

“He would have killed you.” Owen hardly recognized the guttural voice as his own.

Lars appeared on his other side. “He’s not worth the stain on your soul. Let it go.”

Their hands settled on Owen’s shoulders. The warmth of their touch reminded him of the good things, the life he wanted to live with them. There was no place for this sort of darkness in that life.

Owen chose to end it the same way he’d ended the Terminator in the cage. He whipped the hilt of his knife across Jason’s face and made him unable to cause any more trouble.

“Here.” Lars handed Owen a length of rough twine. “They were nice enough to provide supplies for just this eventuality.”

Owen took stock of the scene in the clearing before the tumbledown cottage. Daniel Hyde was groaning in a heap on the ground, his wrists and ankles bound together and then connected by a length of rope to keep him in a horribly uncomfortable position on his stomach.

Lars saw the direction of his gaze. “That was Mattie, actually. Word to the wise,
never
allow her to experiment with bondage.”

The bark of laughter caught Owen by surprise. He felt as if he were walking in the twilight place between the regular world and the one that lay just beneath. Then Mattie flung her arms around his midsection and snuggled close. Lars joined the hug, grabbing both of them and holding tight.

“It’s going to be okay now,” Mattie whispered. “It’s over.”

* * * *

Lars kept an eye on Owen as he consulted with the local police that had arrived on the scene not long after he’d placed the call. Mattie, Lars, and Owen had collectively decided to let Lars handle the details. He’d put a slightly different spin on the story, leaving out the part where they’d intentionally walked to the ruins of a shack in the woods without their shoes in order to have ritual sex inside. There was just no way to try to explain that one without making them all look like they needed a forty-eight-hour lockup in the psych ward and a Thorazine drip.

Still, Lars was worried about Owen. He was even more quiet and withdrawn than usual. He sat with Mattie on his lap on the back steps of the ambulance. She was wrapped in a blanket for modesty’s sake while the EMT treated the shallow knife wound Jason had left on her arm.

The officer in charge was scratching his head. “So the three of you were on the porch of Ms. English’s residence when you heard someone out here and decided to investigate—without shoes?”

“It was barely daylight.” Lars fought back a grin. “Let’s say we were engaged in ‘exercise’ and heard a commotion, but Owen and I had been well aware of both Mr. Meecham and Mr. Hyde’s interest in Mattie and the cottage. They’ve repeatedly threatened her and admitted to Owen that they had intentions of kidnapping and assaulting her in conjunction with some bizarre ritual.”

“Yeah, we found the altar and the chalk markings on the floor.” Captain Drecker shot a baleful look at Jason. “Not to mention Mr. Bloodmoon over there is singing like the proverbial canary now that he thinks it’ll get him a reduced sentence.”

Lars had already carefully established the good ole boy rapport using his status as a Boston “native” as well as his clout with Interpol. He gave the captain a knowing look. “If you want some additional charges against Jason, I suggest looking into his illegal fight ring. He and his father have been running it out of a building in Milton for decades.”

“Is that right?” The captain immediately perked up at the thought of being center stage in a huge investigation ending in multiple arrests and maybe even a bonus.

Lars nodded and scribbled his number on the captain’s notepad, since he didn’t have any business cards on him. “Feel free to call me anytime if you need any more info.”

“Oh, will do, Mr. Aasen. I think this is pretty cut-and-dried. This guy Hyde has a record as thick as an encyclopedia, and we’ve got him cold on the murder here this morning. He didn’t even bother to deny it.”

Which made Jason an accessory to murder. Lars was fully aware and glad to hear it. He clapped the cop on the shoulder. “Sounds like you guys have it all under control. I’m going to head over and check on Owen and Mattie.”

“Sure, go right ahead.”

Lars gazed at his bare feet as he walked. He hadn’t been this grubby since his childhood days climbing trees and running wild on the Brookline estate during his summers with Selena. He was in dire need of a shower. They all were, which brought to mind the need for a few renovations at Mattie’s place.

Mattie smiled as Lars approached. He stroked two fingers down her petal-soft cheek. “How are you doing with all this?”

“I’m fine. I think we can go home.” She glanced back at Owen. “They offered us a ride, but I actually think I’d rather just walk.”

Owen rose silently and set her on her feet. “Are we clear with the police?”

“Yes, for now. There may be some questions down the road, but nothing we can’t handle.” Lars gazed at his partner, willing Owen to understand it was all over and they were fine. Lars couldn’t help but think Owen was trying to take the responsibility for this on his shoulders.

“And my brother?”

Lars shrugged. “He’s under arrest. They’ll likely charge him as an accessory to murder because he was here as Hyde’s lackey, and Meecham’s death was a by-product of their association.”

There was nothing on Owen’s face to suggest how he felt about that development. Instead he took Mattie’s hand and began walking in the direction Lars guessed her house to be.

Lars fell in step beside them and was relieved when the forest closed in and blocked out the remnants of chaos going on back at the cottage. It was peaceful here with the birds calling to each other in the branches overhead and the occasional rustle of a larger animal in the undergrowth.

“What’s wrong, Owen?” Mattie finally asked. Lars was glad she’d broached the topic.

“I dragged both of you out there, and we were almost killed because of it,” Owen said vehemently. “I was an arrogant fool, and it almost cost you your lives. Then I nearly lost control of myself with Jason. I just— I don’t know what’s happening to me!”