04

"WHERE IS IT!"

The meeting space is in absolute disarray. Tables flipped, chairs broken and files spattered across the floor as everyone searched and rummaged through every suitcase, backpack, nook, and cranny of this place. How could I be so careless? I'm usually really careful about these things and the one time I fuck up it's something this important. Fuck.

"Where's the last place you had it?" Maurice asked from across the table and if he wasn't damn near right feet away from me I would've lunged over the dark marble table and wrapped my hands around his throat, but I'm pretty sure that's why he said it because he knows I can't reach him from here. I hate when people ask me dumb questions like that.

"If I knew the answer to that Maurice do you seriously think I would be sitting here right now?" I exhaled a heavy sigh, fingers rubbing against my aching temples.

We've been searching the hideout for nearly an hour now and the hard drive is still missing. I had it this morning, I remember it so vividly. I put it in my coat pocket on my way to the hideout this morning. I've searched every way, every vehicle, and everyone's pocket, and the shit is nowhere to be found. I felt a groan erupt from my lips, my fist balling and smashing against the table causing most of the men in the room to pause in their steps for a moment, all except Maurice who took a sip from his glass full of Whisky.

"Relax Stone, you'll find it. You got guys out searching the entire perimeter of New York it's bound to come up soon." He said to me, a small smile on his beige-skinned face and if he wasn't so far away from me I'd smack it off of him.

I've known Maurice since I was thirteen. We went to the same private school together, played football together, and our fathers worked together. His father was my father's secondhand man. Out of everyone that works for me I've known him the longest. I remember how much he would cry when our fathers would take us to the gun range and make us shoot. He'd complain and say he didn't like the way the gun felt in his hands, say he didn't want to hurt anybody and his father would make an example out of him for the rest of the newer recruits as some sort of lesson because if a man can beat his son in front of you just imagine what he'll do to you.

I don't see Maurice crying anymore so I guess his father's teachings were effective. He's more tech-savvy than most, despite how he may come off at times, his IQ exceeded most of the men in The Rose including myself. He's usually on the computer hacking firewalls and breaking code, but don't be fooled because he's very skilled with a firearm and his fighting skills aren't too bad either.

"Hey," he calls out to me from across the table. I look over at him with a raised brow waiting for him to continue. "have you been sleeping?" he asked.

"I don't have time for sleep Maurice," I tell him, hands falling onto the table out of frustration.

He takes another sip from his glass. "Do you know that not sleeping can kill you," his dark eyes furrowed at me before letting out a small sigh. "What about the medication I got from you?"

"Nothing." I shake my head.

"And those rare teas and herbs I had delivered from Thailand?"

"Those just made me horny." I muffled into my hands.

"Stone, you should really get some sleep soon. That's why everything stressing you out so bad, you haven't rested in weeks."

"How the hell can I rest," I say to him. "Between this missing hard drive, my father, my brother being a fucking dumbass every other weekend, and my sister off on her honeymoon with some nigga we don't even know for real how the hell can I rest Maurice!"

He flinches at the mention of my sister. I know he thinks it's a well-hidden secret but I know he has feelings for her and her getting married to this random guy from some Russian mafia family across the water for an alliance threw him off, but Maurice is too loyal and he knows that he and my sister could never happen which is why he didn't even bother to show up to her wedding which I know hurt her deeply but my sister has always put family first even before her own suffering. She has a duty and she's doing it.

Maurice clears his throat, I realize his glass is empty now but he doesn't bother to call on one of the other men to come and give him a refill. My phone vibrates on the table and look down to see a familiar name flash over my screen, a text message following soon after, and another and then another.

As if my migraines weren't already bad enough. I pick up the phone, my thumb hovers over the keyboard pondering on whether I want to reply or not. If I don't he'd probably just text again and again, and if I did I'd have to see him. Either option didn't seem to interest me at the moment. I decided on leaving the boy on read, knowing it'll only infuriate him more which if I'm in the mood later will give me all the more of a reason to fuck the attitude out of him.

I take my phone and put it in my coat pocket that hangs off the back of the chair. As I was fumbling with the wool trench coat I heard Maurice call my name.

"Stone, that coat looking a little too small for ya huh?" he says with a slight chuckle.

I kissed my teeth at him. "Shut up. It's a large."

"It's giving smedium!"

"Man what the fuck are you talking about," I grabbed the coat from off the chair and held it up, my face immediately dropping once I realized. "Fuck me," I groaned placing the trench coat down on the table.

"Flattered but you're not my type." Maurice cocked a teasing grin and I nearly tossed the chair at him.

"I grabbed the wrong fucking jacket," I admitted. Stupid.

"It's not all that bad this is a good thing," Maurice stood up from his chair, reaching down into his bag and pulling out his laptop. He made his way over to me placing the laptop down in front of me. "You said the last place you were was that café right? Well I can try to hack into the CCTV cameras on the street and see who walked out with your jacket and I can get their information from there." his fingers are typing rapidly against the keyboard. It's like a foreign language on the screen, all types of code and access keys flying across the screen I begin to grow dizzy.

"How do you not realize you have the wrong coat?" He asks.

"I didn't put it back on after I left. It gets hotter as the day goes on give me a fucking break." I told him.

Maurice throws his hands up in defense before he goes back to typing on the laptop. Before long camera footage of this morning outside the café starts to play on the screen.

"Now we just look for someone with the same jacket as you," he says to me as he plays the footage. He speeds it up and I see myself on the screen eating the donut with the jacket folded across my arm. I finish and head to the car. A few moments pass and more people come out but they're not wearing the same thing as me, but after a moment or two passed I see a familiar face with a familiar coat draped around his arm.

"Stop," I tell him and Maurice pauses the footage and zooms in. "That's him." It's that guy again. The one from the restaurant, the one from the café, that one that I can't seem to get away from.

"You know him?" Maurice turned to me and asked.

"I don't but I've been seeing him a lot lately. He might be following me. He might be working for someone trying to gather intel."

"You think so?"

I locked eyes with him. "Once is an accident, two is a coincidence, third time something is definitely up and now he has the hard drive."

I grabbed the coat and my phone before pushing myself out of my seat about to head out. "Where are you going?" I hear Maurice call from behind me.

"Handle something," I wave my phone at him but he only shakes his head at me in reply. "just send me all the details you find about the kid, alright?" and with that, I made my way out of the hideout and towards the car waiting for me outside.

••••

I could feel myself getting close, my hands gripped tightly around Akeno's waist, fingers deepening in his tan skin as I thrust him back onto my dick. His back arched with each thrust, stomach touching the bed sheets while his ass remained in the air. His loud moans filled the bedroom, and heavy breathing came from both of us. Lifting Akeno by his hips, I was able to angle myself to hit deeper than before, resulting in the boy moaning my name.

"Stone... Ston... Sto... oh fuck... ahhhh... more... please, Stone..."

I picked up the pace; Akeno's chanting matched every thrust.

Complying with his wishes, I began pounding into his ass, putting more of my weight on the smaller frame under me, falling completely on top of him as he lay under me. The exquisite sound of flesh slapping against flesh perfectly punctuated Akeno's breathless refrain. I grabbed his dark hair roughly lifting him up to my face as I bent down slightly picking up my pace and feeling myself becoming closer. I felt the warmth forming in my stomach, and my breath beings to catch in my throat. When I finally toppled over the edge, Akeno followed right behind me, uncontrollable grunting erupting from me as I finished inside him while he released upon the towel placed out on the bed.

I pulled out of him sweaty and drained. I pulled the used condom off of my throbbing member as Akeno rolled over on the bed, long limbs stretching out as he smiled brightly at the ceiling. "They should piss you off more at work," he breathed out. "that was amazi-"

I don't bother to stay and hear him finish. I turn around and make my way towards the bathroom connected to the bedroom. I flush the condom down the toilet before making my way over to the marbled sink. I run some water and wash my face, letting the cool water flush my skin and clear my head. I dried my face and grabbed my robe tying it around myself before coming back out of the bathroom.

Akeno is at the edge of the bed in nothing but his underwear as he types away on his phone. He notices me come back out and runs a hand through his tousled dark hair, a smile on his sharp face. "Well, this was fun," he says with his deep and sultry voice, always tempting and playful like every word is a joke to him but it's not that's just how he talks. I learned that a while ago.

It's been about two years since I first came in contact with Akeno Hirai — the son of a well-known Yakuza boss over in Tokyo, Japan. We met when I went with my father to meet with his father for a discussion on cargo trading through the Izu Islands and the Pacific. I don't know how it exactly happened but later that night the guy found himself in my hotel room and we've been playing this game of back and forth ever since. Akeno is a change from what I'm used to experiencing in the past. He doesn't cling to me like a leech and he doesn't pester me with questions of our future together because he already knows what this is. No more no less.

He likes to fuck and I enjoy fucking him.

He can be a bit childish at times with his begging whenever he finds himself in the city but in a way that turns on me knowing he's somewhere thinking about my dick inside of him, practically pleading for me to meet him somewhere, hop on the nearest private jet and fly to him and load him up just as quickly as I left. He's also missing a few screws up there in the head but I think that's why he fucks the way he does so I don't mind it as much.

I watch him as he pulls his shirt over his head, the spine dragon tattoo shifting as he moves around on the bed. "When are you gonna be free again? Or am I gonna have to keep blowing up your phone to get your attention." he turns around and asks.

"I don't know," I tell him dryly, as I sit on the bed.

Akeno doesn't seem too pleased with this answer. He twirls around to me, sharp eyes and dark-cut brows furrowing at me. "Do you really me to beg?" he questions, long tattooed limbs reaching out in front of him as he begins to crawl towards me. He's mastered the art of seduction, the aroma radiating off him like a cat in heat. He knows he's attractive and uses it as a weapon. Unlucky for him his charm does not affect me. Yeah, my dick gets hard but that's the normal reaction for any man.

He crawls on my lap, straddling me with his hips. He's only in a shirt and briefs, the only thing separating us is the robe I wore. "I think you like hearing me beg. Hearing me fumble like putty in your hands that you love wrapping around my throat and pulling my hair." he places soft kisses on my neck between each sentence, tongue licking up to my ear.

It's entertaining a bit I won't lie and I could feel my dick growing a bit underneath him but then my phone goes off beside us on the nightstand and I reach for it to see Maurice calling.

I answer.

"Check your laptop." He says, no introduction is needed. I immediately pick Akeno up off me, earning a groan and a disheveled look. I ignored him as I grabbed my laptop and opened it already seeing the information Maurice was sending over on the screen.

"Kylo Noa Johnson," Maurice voices to me over the phone, my eyes glued to the picture of the guy on my laptop screen. "I gotta be honest here there wasn't much I could find on him, nothing more than the basics which is a little strange but it's enough." I scroll down seeing pictures of the guy in what looks to be a dance studio and then another one of him on a performance stage. The spotlight shone down on him, and a costume that reminded me of the dead presidents you see on money. He's smiling brightly, the picture taken as he's giving a grateful bow.

"He's twenty and from Arizona. Which city he came from is still unclear.  My guess is he was probably bouncing around a lot as a kid for a track record to stick. Couldn't find much information on his parents either other than he was raised in a single-parent household. Mother is Kylie Johnson while the father who I assumed to be absent or most likely deceased because he's not on any of the files but he appears to be of Hispanic descent, records show may be that of the Dominican Republic."

I scroll some more.

"I'm gonna be honest Stone, this kid doesn't really seem like that much of a threat. He's a fucking ballet dancer for crying out loud. He even goes to the same school as Enzo, I doubt he'd have any real reason to come after you. It seems this was all just a simple coincidence of the picking up the wrong coat."

"Maybe so but even still he has the hard drive and I need it back," I said to him, watching from the corner of my eye as Akeno got dressed.

"I can send you his apartment location but it's on the university campus so I'll have to hack into their database a bit which shouldn't take that long."

"Hurry."

"Will do."

I ended the call and saw Akeno fully dressed inspecting himself in the nearby mirror. "Do you ever take a day off?" He turned back and asked.

"Days off aren't a thing in this world," I answer.

"Sucks for you," he sighs and turns back around the mirror, fixing himself one last time before he began to make his way out of the room. "I'm off to Dubai, it's one of my friend's birthday weekend. I'll text you when I'm back in the city. See ya." he winks at me playfully before closing the door behind himself.

I looked down at the laptop again, the picture of the boy with the hard drive on my screen. "Who are you Kylo Johnson?" I mumbled to myself.

••••

EXCUSE ANY MISTAKE OR ERRORS

This crazy bitch