Somehow I convinced all three of them to crash with me in my bed in a big old snuggle, and I slept one of the best sleeps of my entire life. How could I not? I finally saw a future for the four of us. Together. I hadn't realized just how anxious I'd grown about what our future might look like until that piece clicked together. Now it genuinely felt like we were a team, no matter how unlikely the players.
Zed was first to stir, kissing a line down my bare back until he reached my butt, which he bit playfully, making me swat at him sleepily.
"I'm going to get breakfast started," he told me in a husky whisper, kissing my cheek before climbing out of the pile of limbs.
The movement roused Lucas slightly, and he rolled over to tuck his arm around me, drawing me in tight against his body before drifting back to sleep. I cuddled into his warmth, letting my eyelids drift closed once again, but just dozing.
So when Cass stirred on the other side of me, I opened my lids to meet his sleepy gaze.
"That's a view I'd happily wake up to every morning," he mumbled, his cheek smooshed into the pillow just inches away.
Lucas made a sleepy sound of annoyance, burying his face in my hair like he was still desperately clinging to sleep. Except his body had other ideas, as his hand shifted to my breast and his erection pressed into my back.
"What's that?" I teased Cass in a whisper. "Your girl being groped by another man?"
Cass gave a huff of a laugh, then reached up to gently stroke some hair from my face. "My girl," he clarified.
Before our wake-up could turn heated, Zed came rushing back into the room with his phone to his ear and a stricken look on his face. He went straight to the wall-mounted TV facing the bed and flicked it on while Cass and I watched him with curiosity.
"Zed, what—" I started to ask, but he shushed me with a gesture, flicking through the channels until he reached a news report.
"Yep, I found it," he said in a grim voice to whoever he was speaking to. "Hades is here too. Give us a second." Shooting me a pained glance, he turned his attention back to the TV and to the news report playing out on the screen about a break-in at an apartment in West Shadow Grove in the early hours of the morning.
As the story developed, I sat up in shock, jostling Lucas awake in the process. The pretty brunette reporter was detailing the crime, describing how the female resident had been asleep at the time of the break-in. She was thought to have surprised the intruder, who then beat the girl so badly the first responders had called the coroner before realizing she was still breathing.
"Zed," I breathed, dread clawing at my chest. "Please don't tell me this is another of your exes..."
The look in his eyes was pure guilt when he turned to look at me. "It's Maxine. She's been taken to Shadow Grove Memorial, but they don't think she'll make it. Her parents are there now, talking about taking her off life support."
On the TV they were interviewing the neighbor who'd called the police after hearing screams. "...never seen anything like it," the haunted man was saying. "There was so much blood, all over the place. She was dead. I was sure of it. No one can survive that..."
"Turn it off," I barked, clambering out of bed and grabbing clothes from my dresser, not really paying attention to what I grabbed. "Shadow Grove Memorial?"
Zed nodded, his eyes sad.
"Fine. I'll be ready in five. We need to get over there." I started out of the bedroom, heading for the shower so I wasn't turning up to the ICU covered in dried semen.
"There's nothing we can do for her now," Zed called after me, making my shoulder blades tighten.
I paused a moment, my teeth grinding together, before spinning around once more. All three of them watched me with cautious expressions bordering on pitying.
"Maxine wasn't hurt because she's your ex, Zed," I told him in a hollow voice. "She was hurt because she’s my friend. I have to go and see her... even just to... I don't know."
"I get it," Lucas offered. "I'll go with you." He hopped up and grabbed his pants, heading for his own bedroom to get dressed.