Excuse The Obscene

I usually pride myself on how unshakeable I am. More often than not I can feel someone sneaking up on me long before they even get close. But this morning, sitting at the kitchen counter and staring at the information Johnny had pulled up on my computer, an earthquake could have struck and I hardly would’ve noticed. As it was, there was no earthquake but a certain someone did sneak up on me.

“You slipped out of bed early this morning.” I jumped a little as Zacky’s arms wrapped around my waist and his words whispered across my ear.

“Yeah,” I shut the computer quickly and slid it away, hoping Zacky hadn’t noticed what was on the screen. “I just had some things to take care of,” I shrugged nonchalantly.

“Hmm” was all he said before picking me up, sitting in the chair and putting me in his lap so my legs straddled both sides of his waist.

We stayed like this is silence for a few moments before Zacky spoke again.

“How’re you holding up?”

“What do you mean?” I muttered evasively, running my left hand through his hair while my right traced his exposed tattoos. If I was lucky, he’d be easily distracted and we wouldn’t have to talk about what happened yesterday.

“I talked to Brian,” Zacky said, grabbing both my hands and shooting me a smirk that clearly said he was on to me and wouldn’t be falling for my distraction ploys.

“There’s nothing you could have done.” He gave me a serious look before brushing my hair aside and burying his head in my neck.

“Exactly. So let’s move on.” Zacky didn’t need to know that there was plenty I could do and thanks to Johnny I had all the information I needed to do it.

“Whatever you say.” He mumbled, nibbling on my neck. “But I’m still taking you away from here.”

I leaned back and looked down at him with a questioning stare.

“What are you talking about?”

“I think you need a little vacation.” He ran his hands up and down my back before starting on slow massage on my shoulders.

“With everything that’s happened in the last few days? Slade is –”

“My problem. Not yours.” Zacky cut me off. “And I won’t let you carry the shit from my past. This whole fucking Slade mess has already hurt you too much – even if you’re too proud to admit it.”

He pulled me back in and started trailing his lips along my neck again, leaving bite marks along the way.

“But what if Slade –”

“Brian will handle it.”

“Yeah but he might –”

“Brian will handle it.” He caught my chin in his rough hand and pulled my face to his before pushing his lips against mine. He nipped at my lower lip before sliding his tongue into my mouth. I found myself instinctively grinding my body against his. A growl erupted from his throat as he dove into the kiss and urged my lips to part wider. I couldn’t hold back my moan and matched his rhythm, my tongue seeking his when he retreated, my hands clinging to his shoulders. Finally, we pulled away for the sake of breathing and Zacky ran his fingers down my spine.

“Anywhere,” he kissed my neck again, a brush of lips, a sting of teeth, “in the world. Pick a place,” he dropped a kiss on my chin, “and we’ll go. Today. Right now.”

Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered Val telling me that Zacky never took vacations – that he never dropped everything long enough to get away.

“Zacky, you can’t be serious.” I fought to gather my thoughts while his mouth continued to use my neck like its own personal playground.

“I’m very serious.” He replied, putting his hands on my ass and grinding me against him.

And with him doing all the things he knew would make my body tremble it would have been so easy to just agree; to disappear for a while with only him; to forget about the shit storm of the past week and just spend 24/7 being blissfully and asininely in love with the one man who could get my blood boiling just as quickly as he could soothe me.

“Okay. The beach.”

Zacky pulled back again and shot me an incredulous look.

“I offer to take you anywhere in the entire world and you want to go to the beach? Do you mean the beaches of Hawaii? Cancun? Miami at least.”

“No. The beaches of good old California.”

Zacky might have been willing to disappear for a while and leave the guys to handle the Slade clusterfuck but I wasn’t. They needed him and Zacky might think that everything would be fine under Brian’s control but at the end of the day Zacky was – well Zacky, fearless leader down to his last bone. And the guys were all very strong, powerful, and capable but even the strongest empire suffered without its emperor. And God forbid something went wrong while Zacky wasn’t here – I’d never forgive myself for being the person that pulled him away. That’s not to say I wouldn’t love anything more than to just leave it all behind for a while and just be with Zacky but the guys and Val were my family. And now wasn’t the best time to abandon ship, even for a few days.

“Toni, if I wanted to take you to the beach I could do that any time.” Zacky stated in the obvious, clearly waiting for me to change my mind.

“You’re right. No beaches. Let’s go to Big Bear.”

Zacky let out a short laugh at my suggestion.

“That’s barely two hours away. Shitty idea of a vacation.”

“Oh come on.” I muttered, running my hands beneath his shirt and up his chest. I knew his body so well, I didn’t need to see his many tattoos to trace the outlines of them beneath his shirt. “It would be perfect. We leave today. Spend some time in a nice cottage. Alone. Maybe rent a boat the next day. Jet skiing, fishing, hiking. I don’t know, whatever normal people do on vacations. Or we could spend the whole time indoors just relaxing. Jacuzzi – swimsuits optional. In fact, the enter trip should be clothing optional.” I laughed against his neck, my tongue savoring the taste of pure Zacky. And then the day after that we come back here. There’s only so much damage that can happen in a day and a half without you.”

“And that’s your idea of a vacation?” Zacky asked, eyebrows raised.

“No that’s my idea of quality Toni & Zacky time.” I bit his chin. “The real vacation can come after the shit storm has settled. Can I take a rain check on ‘anywhere in the world’?”

I looked into his sparkling green eyes and ran my fingers through his hair.

“Whatever you want.” He responded before pulling my face down and attacking my lips again.

A few moments passed before we pulled apart and Zacky placed me on my feet.

“Go get ready.” He said, giving me one last kiss before spinning me towards the door and patting my ass.

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t stop the smile taking over my face as I raced up the stairs to shower and pack.

Zacky’s P.O.V

I cracked my neck before standing and walking out of the kitchen. I’d made it to the front of my office when Johnny popped out from around the corner.

“Zack man, I need to tell you something.”

I nodded for him to follow me into my office and dropped into my chair while he took the seat across from me.

“Toni called me over this morning. She’s looking into Berry’s kid and I just thought you should know.”

“I already know.”

Johnny shot me a confused look and waited silently for me to continue.

“I caught her this morning looking at a whole bunch of shit she shouldn’t have access to on her computer. She slammed the computer shut the second she knew I was there.” I spoke, remembering how Toni had slid the computer away so quickly you’d think it was dangerous. “How’d the fuck she get access to information on Matt Berry’s daughter anyway?”

I asked the question but we both already knew the answer. Toni was brilliant but she wasn’t exactly a hacking veteran. Johnny on the other hand was the only guy I knew who could break into encrypted police files mere hours after they’d even been put into the system.

He just shrugged unapologetically. Toni was his best friend and I didn’t doubt for a second that she could convince him to help her in any way she needed. It was just a part of Toni, persuasive as all hell. Fuck knows she could easily convince me kill for her.

“What’d you say to her?” Johnny asked, leaning back in his chair and getting comfortable.

“Nothing,” I replied easily, “she doesn’t know I saw it.”

“So you’re going to let her keep digging into this?”

I let out a low laugh – I’d let Toni do whatever the fuck she wanted as long as it kept her happy and out of danger.

“She needs closure. Toni’s tough as shit so it’s easy to forget that she hasn’t been in this life as long as the rest of us. She can’t walk away from the memory of Berry’s kid screaming bloody murder. So let her do her little investigating routine – once she sees that the girl’s fine she’ll let it go.” I waved my hand dismissively.

“The girl’s in foster care.”

“The girl’s alive, which considering how fucking psychotic Slade is, is a good thing. She’ll be fine.”

“And your vacation?” Johnny asked, glancing down at his phone while he spoke.

“Now there’s the actual fucking problem.”

When I’d got up this morning and decided to drop everything and get Toni away from here, I’d let the guys know in a matter of minutes. Everything had been set to go, except for the part where Toni fucking said no.

“What?” Johnny asked, looking up from his phone and shooting me a confused glance.

“She won’t go.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Because she won’t let me leave you guys with Slade getting so close.” I responded, thinking back to the look on Toni’s face when I suggested we get away to anywhere in the world.

“She said that?” He asked.

“She didn’t have to. I know Toni.”

“Or maybe she said no because she knows why you offered the vacation in the first place.”

When I’d first told them of my plans to disappear for a while the guys had all but lost it. Now obviously isn’t the fucking time for me to abandon my crew when we should be displaying a united, and un-fucking-breakable front to Slade, wherever the fuck he was lurking. But more important than rehashing some war from the past, hell more important than finding Slade’s pathetic ass and ripping him limb to fucking limb, was Toni’s safety. And the best possible way to keep her safe with Slade within killing distance was to get her as far the fuck away from here as I could until we had Slade in a bodybag.

“No.” I said in response to Johnny’s suggestion that Toni knew I was whisking her away to keep her out of Slade’s reach. “If she knew that was why she’d make damn sure that I knew it.” I said with a smile on my face, thinking of how fiery Toni got when she thought I was sheltering her or being overbearingly protective. If she thought I was trying to hide her from Slade she would have turned the kitchen upside down throwing shit at me.

“We’re going to Big Bear for a day or two.” Hell, if I couldn’t keep her tucked away safely in some other part of the world at least I could still enjoy being alone with her for a little while. “Brian will keep shit in check.”

“And when you get back…?” Johnny asked, clearly referring to what I would do about keeping Toni out of the shitstorm rolling our way.

“Do you think I could convince her to take a vacation without me? It’d settle her fucking fears about me leaving you guys to fend for yourselves.”

Johnny snorted and shot me a disbelieving look.

“This is Toni we’re talking about. She wears holes in the fucking carpet pacing when you’re gone on business for more than a few days. No way in hell is she going to willingly separate herself from you, especially now with all this shit going on. If you even suggest it, she’ll know you’re only pushing a vacation on her to get her out of the way.”

He was right – trying to convince Toni to disappear for a week or two on her own would only lead to an explosive fight.

“What about a girls’ vacation? She and Val could go to some resort for a while until this shit’s cleared up.”

“Have you considered just letting Toni stay here and fight back? I know you keep the girl on a glass covered pedestal but we both know she’s far from breakable. She can hold her own.”

“I don’t love the risk involved.” Before I could stop it, images of Slade getting his fucking hands on Toni raced through my mind. The thought alone made my hands itch to strange the fucker.

“Hate to break it to you man but it’s your only choice.” Johnny said, pulling me back from my rage filled thoughts. “There’s no way in hell Toni’s going anywhere without you and there’s no fucking way she’s letting you leave Huntington right now.”

After a moment of silence Johnny’s laugh filled the room. I raised one eyebrow and shot him a questioning look.

“You have to admit, it’s fucking insane. How many guys have to sit around thinking of ways to convince their girlfriends to take an all-expense paid vacation to anywhere in the world? It’s un-fucking-believable.”

I let out a short laugh before standing, knowing Toni must be ready by now.

“If it was normal, it’d be boring.”