Connie's eyes fluttered open and the first thing she noticed was she was starving. She almost reached for her phone, only to have it handed to her. "Who the fuck is in my room?"

Three different chuckles made her struggle to sit up and she gave them a nasty glare until her husband caught her eye. "Watch your attitude, Connie." He pushed off the wall and placed a tender hand to her face. "I sure hope I don't have to hurt you to remind you of your place."

She smiled and shut her eyes, pleased with his hand on her. "My entire body aches and I'm starving. I'll act any way I like until I get some food and Tylenol."

He smiled with his eyes and nodded to Jacob smoking in the corner with the rest of them on the other side of Steven and Connie's extremely massive bed. "Jacob is waiting for it to come out of the oven."

Her eyes turned to him and he sat up straight. "What did you make me today?"

A corner of his lips upturned, the damn kid thought everything was funny even at 23. He was unafraid and wild. Staring at the wall behind her he said, "I made—,"

Steven growled and snapped his fingers. "Look at my wife when you speak to her. Is she not precious to you?"

Jacob smirked bigger and met her eyes. "She very much is, Sir. I made your favorites: Aloo Gobi, a proper caesar salad with freshly grilled and seasoned chicken to your liking, Durian cake, and my coveted crème brûlée, Madam."

Connie grumbled and chucked her phone at him. He didn't even flinch. "Wipe that ridiculous grin off your face. I already know I'm naked."

His brows raised and he tipped his head, not dropping it even a bit. "It's permanent, Madam."

Steven tossed Connie a stare and she crossed her arms huffily. "I'm not seeing any hickeys so you must not have had very much fun making my meal."

Jacob's eyes shot to the ceiling, throughly embarrassed. His companion, Adam, chuffed under his breath and did the same towards the floor.

Her husband chuckled. "The things I miss when I'm away irritate me. Get lost, all of you."

The filed out in a single line, but Steven stopped Jacob and Adam. "Don't let me catch you breaking each other's hearts or I'll rip them out of your bodies with my bare hands." He was dead serious, they could see the hostility they were afraid of being directed at them and doing exactly that: making them very afraid. Steven had a hard gaze almost all of the time, he didn't display his affection with hugs or kisses unless it was to his wife or he was having an exceptionally good day.

Exceptionally good days were rare.

Adam nodded, careful not to move too fast with a much larger apex predator so close. "Yes, Sir. It's... very unlikely."

He regarded Jacob and he, still blushing, muttered, "Yes, Sir. I'm certain it's impossible."

Both knew this display was Steven being affectionate. If he didn't care, he didn't care, and it was clear he did greatly to threaten the lives of his best men.

He turned to Connie and scowled. "You've been doing quite nicely without me. I'm proud of you."

She brought the blankets up to warm herself and sighed. "You don't look like you're proud of me."

"It's because you're so fucking beautiful it pisses me the fuck off." He crawled over her and kissed her before trailing down her neck and settling to lie on top of her. "And you smell the way you're supposed to: like me."

That was his way of flirting, and Connie snaked her arms from under the covers to rub at his head the way they used to do when they were young and pure in spirit. "Are you trying to have me again?"

He snarled and bit down so hard she was sure he was going to kill her. Fear raced through her until she realized he wasn't biting to be mean, he was upset. "Don't talk to me like that after five years of little contact. Don't make me hurt you."

Connie blissfully relaxed in the presence of her husband and raised her arms above her head. "I've missed you too."

He didn't unbury his face from her neck. The man was not shy, but rather touchy about feelings. It had taken him a lot of crime to become this hardened, he'd lost everything and everyone but his crew to time or violence against him. He was powerful, but at a crushing price.

When he started to cry even a single tear about it, a massacre was underway.

She could hear his breathing shuttering as he kissed and licked over the mark quickly appearing with the indentations of his teeth. He regretted it, but he didn't need to when she loved him so. Steven was abusive and terrible, he just was. But not to her and not to their Special Six. His threats were as empty as his eyes as he played that role for five years, 1,826 days of yearning and intense mediation. He'd had time to think, but all it did was solidify his change.

He could not ever be who he once was. He was this now and he had to be the one landing the punches, not rolling with them.

It seemed like leaving his wife for so long was the first ever punch he'd received.

"I love you," He mumbled achingly. "I missed you." The last confession came out in a whisper as his arms tightened around her painfully. "I hate you to hell and back for making me fall in love with you."

When he pulled away to look at her, nearly ready to venomously reprimand her for her silence, he found her with tears streaming down her heavily blushing face. "Speak."

His voice held command no one could ignore. The feeling welled up inside of her and burst out of her mouth. "I hate you for leaving me."

"They were going to kill me," He protested shallowly, grabbing her face to wipe away her tears with shaking hands. His eyes were showing her feelings now, the black was brown again. "Stop that, Connie."

She couldn't. She really did try but having him here and not in a fantasy made it worse; he would need to leave but she just might blow her brains out if he did. "I-I'm trying."

"Try harder," He seethed, his own eyes watering heavily. "I swear to god if you make me cry, Connie. Don't you do it." Her lip trembled and his grip tightened in frustration. "Aren't you listening to me?! Stop it!"

Her deep breath was intended to calm herself down but when it was finished, the next thing that came out was a pained, angry scream. They had so little time to be alive, he could be taken tomorrow or vice versa. They could be blown up in five minutes. They could be thrown in separate high security prison cells in different countries right now, the police could have killed all of their pawns and were waiting in the other side of their door.

Once she started, she couldn't control her anger. Her fists beat into his chest again and again and she was no bitch. He would have bruises and welts, he would be sore if she didn't end up breaking a rib.

He let her shove him off of her and wrap her hands around his neck to kill him. How dare he hurt her so badly when she loved him so deeply? How dare he leave her with so little time to see him as she took over everything for him? She hated him.

He didn't even struggle, tears of his own streaming down his face even as he began to turn purple. Her hands slackened and she sobbed into her hands until she felt his palm against her cheek. "I know what you want. Consider it done."

"Don't ever, ever leave me again or I'll kill myself, Steven!" She sobbed brokenly.

His face hardened but his hands went gentle. "Don't ever, ever threaten me again."

She looked him dead in the eye and slapped him across the face. "It's not a fucking threat if I do it! It's not a threat if I do it Steven and I will!"

She felt his heart rate pick up and he hugged her close to rub her head. "I know."

Connie clung to him and he lifted to stand and wrap her in a blanket. Then, thinking better, grabbed his best hand gun.

Lots of people were going to die brutally tonight, and his men needed to be prepared.

He found them like he thought he would, flirting as a massive group of heartless and cold criminals acting like they were at prom. It was ridiculous and sweet, so he watched, careful to keep his eyes off of Adam so he wouldn't be alerted to his presence.

After five minutes, Adam slowed what he was doing for a split second. His skill was far more fine tuned than Steven had suspected it would be. "Dinner is almost finished, Sir."

Steven pulled the trigger and Adam turned just as slowly to repeat his sentence, not even bothering to flinch like the others or stare at the cupboard where the bullet had landed not inches from his head. "Dinner is almost finished, Sir."

He nodded his approval. "You're lucky I didn't blow your fucking brains out. Have you forgotten your place?"

He lifted his shirt and shook his head. "No, Sir."

Steven couldn't help his intrigue showing through a raised eyebrow. "And what is that?"

"A brand, Sir. Madam has us branded after you left," He informed him with a slightly airy tone, the fucking masochistic sadist.

Steven glanced at the others and they followed Adam's lead, all were now showing him where they had been branded; his field team of men were branded just under their navels, his girls and his Alex were branded on the left side of their ass like a tramp stamp. All were diamonds with an S and M converging in the middle for Sir and Madam and Sadism and Masochism. "Why?"

He pointed to Hazel and he spoke immediately. "Madam was very angry with you, and she took it out on us."

Steven moved her from resting on his shoulder to cradle so he could glare down at her. "How much anger did you take out on them?"

"It was manageable and not very much," Jasmin spoke up.

Steven froze, irritation turning to fury as he walked to Hazel to set Connie in his arms before he stood before Jasmin and fought the urge to slap her. His hands found its way to her chin to grab roughly and tilt her head up hard. "I don't recall asking you to speak. Alex, remind me if I asked her to speak."

"No, Sir, you did not." He unclasped his hands carefully and brought them in front of him. The man was fresh, learning the best ways not to get killed by watching the others around him.

He was very lucky Steven was so annoyed with Jasmin. His gun pressed to her throat and multiple breaths caught. "Then why did you speak out of turn?"

"Madam is clearly upset, and I will protect her dignity with my life or die trying," She replied evenly.

Steven removed the gun and kissed where he'd pressed so hard the indentation was there now. "How correct of you."

"Thank you."

She gave him a little smile that lifted his spirits slightly and he snapped his head to see his men staring at him in concern. "What are you looking at?"

Hazel started to reply but Steven pointed to Jacob. His quiet breath of irritation made Steven chuckle. "I was concerned you were going to ruin Connie's dinner, and I happen to fancy Jasmin like I do Adam."

"We're going out tonight," Steven told them, already bored with this conversation. Connie went to him with a look that said to stop picking on the poor boy but he couldn't care less. "Every single officer that was on my case needs to die to satiate my bloodlust. We will not return home until the task is—,"

They all fell to their knees in sync, the Apology Position. Their hands went out palms up and their heads lowered until their chins were pressing against their chests. It was taught but never used, because Steven did not like to receive apologies. He liked solutions and would kill if they weren't delivered in a timely fashion, which amounted to whenever his thin patience snapped like twine.

"What have you idiots done?" He snapped viciously. "And speak wisely or—," Steven cut himself off when Jacob reached into his satchel and pulled out a thick stack of papers.

"These are their addresses, places they frequent, people that may take their place and reanimate the case, relatives as far as second nephews and nieces, their friends, their license plates and card numbers, their mothers maiden names, their social security numbers, the streets they grew up on, teachers they've had, schools they went to and pets they've owned and their current ones, Sir," Jacob recited with an eager edge to his voice. "I can continue if you'd like me to."

Steven's heart grew heavy with an uncomfortable feeling: love. Deep, aching adoration for his team of expert criminals with a taste for cruelty flooded him so badly he had to turn his back to them and wait out the inevitable blush that appeared from his surprise.

Not once had a single member of his team surprised him in their ten years together. "Continue."

"We also have their phone numbers tracked, their cars tracked, every property and asset they own, we have their children on surveillance, though at our teams discretion and your and Madams encouragement keep it light, we have their passwords and birth certificates and are alerted when their names change, as well as any of them in the witness protection program and the officers overseeing their cases."

Steven felt the blush completely disappear but kept his back to them. "And you have done this without my knowledge or permission?"

He could hear Jacob swallow. "Yes, Sir. We missed you terribly, and have been waiting for your word to make them suffer for taking your important time away."

He nodded and lumbered over to look over them all. "Get up, you look ridiculous."

"I wasn't aware that wasn't the goal, Sir," Adam chuckled boldly. "Thank you."

Steven could hug them all for the first time, but he felt that would be better saved for a bigger occasion. He gave them the next best thing: a bright smile. "I am very proud of you all, and would like to extend my gratitude through a significant increase in your pay starting now. Your rank is higher, which means the second you make a mistake I will force the rest of the squad to kill you while I eat a fucking sandwich."

He moved to readjust Connie and every single one of them ducked for cover.

Steven couldn't help his laughter, he belly laughed for all he was worth as they all got to their feet again in humiliation. "Get lost, I'll see you all next week."

"Are we not going out anymore, Sir?" Anna's voice was laced with thick disappointment. That made him proud too.

"We will begin next week," He announced with a boom. Though he was joyful, he could very well decide to be enraged with their sneaking around and they needed to be reminded even if they could never forget what happened to Louise after she'd tried to escape.

He'd drowned her, revived her with skilled CPR, and repeated the process, then doused her in gasoline and lit his blunt in the flames.

"But this week I will spend reintegrating into my life. None of you are to leave without my clearance and be back by ten or be hunted down."

Steven didn't want them to leave this next week when he felt he was so proud he couldn't hardly contain himself. "Do not address me again tonight. This Monday you will all sleep in my bed with my wife and I. You are dismissed."