VAULT: A Madison Kate Novella Read online

  VAULT

  MADISON KATE NOVELLA

  TATE JAMES

  Contents

  SOCIALS

  IMPORTANT NOTE TO READER

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Also By Tate James

  Tate James

  VAULT: Madison Kate Novella

  Copyright © Tate James 2021

  All rights reserved

  First published in 2021

  James, Tate

  Vault: Madison Kate Novella

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All characters in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Cover design: Stephanie Heinritz

  Editing: Heather Long (content) and Jax Garren (line).

  To everyone who cursed my name and got the angry eye twitches when I pretended this novella didn’t exist.

  We all know that wasn’t a typo.

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  IMPORTANT NOTE TO READER

  Vault is a Madison Kate Novella but is intended to be read after the Hades series as several events overlap and this story DOES contain multiple spoilers for the Hades series. Please consult the recommended reading order for Shadow Grove World on my website if you are uncertain what order to read the books in.

  This novella is set on a timeline parallel to the events of Club 22 and Timber.

  Once again. This story WILL spoil the Hades series for you if you haven’t read or finished it prior to picking this up.

  You’ve been warned.

  1

  Madison Kate

  Early morning sunlight sparkled over the pool, and I yawned into my measly, normal-person-sized coffee. We’d only been at this safe house a couple of days, but I had yet to find a coffee mug bigger than eleven ounces and Steele had given me a hard look when I’d pondered filling up a flower pot. Not that I actually would have... It had holes in the bottom.

  “This fucking sucks.” My pale, red-haired friend sulked from underneath a wide umbrella. Even first thing in the morning, she was cautious not to get sunburned.

  “Drinking coffee by the pool of an Italian villa?” Kody asked, his fingertips trailing down my bare arm. He was seated behind me on the sun lounger, my body snuggled between his legs and his chest against my back. “I dunno, there’re worse places to be.”

  Seph lowered her sunglasses to shoot him a glare. “You know what I mean, dickhead. This whole Italian vacation is total bullshit. Dare is being massively overprotective—like, worse than usual. I think she might have finally lost the plot.” She mumbled the last part, and none of us believed she meant it. Not even her.

  I tipped my head back to give Kody a hard look, but he just shook his head in return. No, I wasn’t permitted to fill my friend in on all the dark, depraved things that had happened to her family. It wasn’t my place, and Seph’s sister—the infamous and downright terrifying Hades—wouldn’t appreciate it.

  I huffed a frustrated sigh and pushed up from my comfy position on Kody’s chest. “I feel you, girl,” I sympathized instead of saying what I really wanted to: That we’d moved from her aunt’s vineyard in Tuscany after multiple remote explosive devices had been found planted around the house. That her sister wasn’t being overprotective... just plain protective. I didn’t blame her.

  “Come on, let’s get wet before the sun rises enough that you hibernate indoors,” I teased, stripping my sundress off since I already had a bikini on underneath.

  Seph shot me a sly smile. “Oh, like you haven’t been wet enough this morning.”

  My cheeks heated instantly, and I shot Kody an accusing glare. “So much for being quiet.”

  He just grinned and finished off my coffee, which I’d left beside the sun lounge. “I said quieter, as in you didn’t deafen all the neighbors this time.”

  I had no good comebacks for that. In my defense, though, I wouldn’t be such a screamer if the sex wasn’t so goddamn incredible. The way his gaze heated as I met his eyes said he knew it and wasn’t the slightest bit sorry.

  “Guys, quit it,” Seph complained, standing up to pull her own sundress off. “You’re doing that eye-fucking thing again, and it’s making me uncomfortable as shit.”

  Not giving me a chance to eye-fuck Kody anymore, she shoved me hard, and I flew backward into the pool with a laugh. She followed me a split second later, showing me her middle finger under the water before we both surfaced.

  For a while we just played around in the pool while Kody dozed in the early morning sunlight, but I knew Seph was itching to get out of the house. She’d been protected and sheltered her whole life, but now that she was aware of it, she was going stir-crazy.

  “Hey, why don’t we head down into Sorrento for brunch,” I suggested after we climbed out. I grabbed a couple of towels and tossed her one. Kody had already gone inside, so I probably should go and run it past the guys first. But whatever. “We could go shopping and have pizza...”

  Seph wrinkled her nose. “Pizza for breakfast?”

  I shrugged. “Brunch, but whatever. When in Rome.”

  “We’re not in Rome,” she shot back, but she was grinning. I was confident she was on board with my idea.

  “Semantics,” I replied with an eye roll. “Go shower and change; I’ll work on getting the guys to agree.”

  Seph groaned dramatically. “I’ll be sure to wear my earplugs and make it a long shower in that case.”

  Snickering, I followed her into the house. “You wanna go to town or not? Because they’re not just going to agree without a little persuasion.” Especially not after the bomb scare in Tuscany.

  “You’re an addict, MK,” Seph told me with a smile. “But yes, I want to go shopping and eat pizza for breakfast, so... go work that magical pussy energy.”

  “Brunch,” I corrected as she hurried upstairs to her bedroom and attached bathroom.

  I made my way through the huge villa to the rooms I was sharing with my guys and found Steele still sprawled out in bed, reading something on his tablet. Archer was on the phone, pacing the room with a pair of low-slung sweats barely holding onto the curve of his ass and no shirt on.

  Steele looked up when I headed across the room and tossed his tablet aside. “Hellcat,” he greeted me with a smile. “You’re all wet.”

  I licked my lips and shot him a suggestive look. “Around you? Always. But I just suggested to Seph that we all head down to Sorrento for shopping and brunch—“

 
“No,” Archer snapped, still in the middle of his call but answering my yet unasked question.

  I cocked one brow at him, then turned back to Steele. “As I was saying, before being so rudely interrupted, Seph is going nuts being cooped up all the time. It might be nice to—“

  “I said no,” Archer barked again, then scowled. “No, not you, Rich. Sorry, I was talking to Kate. Yeah, continue.”

  Steele and I both gave him a long look. Then I shot Steele a smirk. “Max, baby. You don’t let Sunshine call the shots, do you?”

  His smile was slow and lazy. “Nice try, Hellcat. What’s in it for me to side with you against Arch?”

  “Blow job?” I suggested, grinning.

  Steele barked a laugh. “Sold.” He crossed his ink-covered arms behind his head, his tongue stud flashing as he smiled at me.

  I wasn’t messing around. He was only in a pair of boxers, so I tugged them down and palmed his rising cock as I licked my lips. “Good deal,” I murmured, stroking him harder, “shopping and brunch in Sorrento.”

  Steele’s response was a sharp inhale as I dipped down to swirl my tongue around his tip.

  “What the fuck?” Archer exclaimed.

  I tipped my face to throw him a smirk, then licked my way down every one of Steele’s eight piercings lining the underside of his dick.

  “No, Christ! Not you, Rich,” Archer snarled into the phone again, his knuckles turning white with how hard he was gripping it. “Can I call you back?”

  I chuckled softly, then filled my mouth with Steele’s dick. My tongue flicked each of those piercings as I took him deeper, and his hands went to my hair.

  “Surely this isn’t that important,” Archer was growling to his manager on the phone. “I can call back in half an hour.” Pause. Curse. “Fine. Yes, yes, I get it. Fine, carry on.”

  “Oh shit,” Steele groaned as I sucked his length. “Fuck, Hellcat.” His fingers wove tighter in my hair, his hips bucking up to slam deeper into my throat. My damp towel slipped off my body, and I wiggled my ass teasingly in Archer’s general direction. Now that I thought about it, he had mentioned an important call with his manager this morning.

  “Well, well, this is a nice surprise,” Kody purred, strutting out of the bathroom with a cloud of steam billowing behind him.

  “Fuck you, don’t you fucking dare,” Archer snapped, stalking over to the window seat to slouch against the glass with his phone still at his ear. “Not you, Rich. Kody. He’s being a prick.”

  Kody just grinned. “If I was being a prick... I’d probably do something like this.” Humming a happy tune, he circled around to the foot of the bed, then tugged the ties of my bikini bottoms open. The wet swimsuit dropped uselessly to the bed, and Kody gave a snicker of pure evil as he did the same to my top.

  “Hellcat wants to take Seph into Sorrento for shopping and brunch,” Steele informed Kody with a short groan as I sucked him deep again. “Arch said no.”

  Kody grabbed my ass cheeks with both hands. “I fucking love brunch.” A split second later his tongue was inside me, and I almost choked on Steele’s dick.

  I pulled back a moment to catch my breath, and Kody took that as encouragement to bury his face deeper between my legs, his lips finding my clit. Archer just glared death at the three of us, which, really, he should know only made us act up worse.

  Steele bucked his hips, reminding me I was in the middle of something. So I broke eye contact with Archer and went back to business, stroking and sucking Steele’s dick.

  “Arch still talking with Rich about that fight in Monaco?” Kody asked, surfacing for air and replacing his tongue with his fingers.

  Steele grunted a sound of confirmation, his hands pushing my head down on his metal studded cock.

  Kody gave a low chuckle. “Too bad, bro.” He shifted to his knees, then gripped my hips as he pushed his thick cock into my pussy.

  I moaned around Steele’s girth, shudders of intense arousal rippling through me.

  “Keep it quiet this time, babe.” Kody chuckled, pushing in further as I rocked back against him. “I don’t need another lecture from Demi.”

  “No, Rich,” Archer snapped to his phone, “clearly I wasn’t listening. Repeat the question.”

  I glanced over, my mouth still full of dick, and watched as he shoved his hand inside his sweatpants to take care of the tent he was pitching. He met my eyes and gave a slow shake of his head like he was silently trying to warn me not to keep messing with him.

  Idiot. That was just waving a red flag at a bull.

  I rocked harder onto Kody’s dick and hollowed my cheeks as I sucked Steele, my elbows holding my balance on the mattress. Kody didn’t need any further encouragement, though, gripping my hips and pumping into me with whispered curses on his lips.

  Steele pushed my head down harder, his hips bucking faster as he fucked my mouth, and I squeezed the base of his shaft with my fingers to hold him steady. He was so close already; I could feel it in the way his cock throbbed and swelled against my tongue.

  “Make her come while she’s still gagged,” Steele ordered Kody, his breathing rough.

  Kody huffed a laugh. “Good thinking.” His hand slipped around to find my clit, and his fingers rubbed it with quick, well-practiced circles as he fucked me harder and harder until—

  “Shit,” Steele exhaled as I moaned and thrashed, bucking my hips as I came. “Yep, that’ll do it.” His dick thickened, and he pushed deeper as he came, pulsing his seed right into my throat. I swallowed on reflex, drinking him down and still moaning with my own climax lingering.

  Kody grunted, his fingers digging into my flesh as he fucked me hard enough that Archer’s manager surely heard the slapping of skin on skin. Then he found his own release inside me, gasping and cursing as his cock jerked.

  When he released me, I pushed myself up on shaking arms, then wobbled over to the window seat where Archer still had his hand inside his pants and his phone to his ear. Not that he’d probably heard a word that had been said.

  Biting my lip, I sank to my knees and tilted my head in question.

  He held my gaze, his lids heavy and his breathing harsh. When I didn’t move, he gave a long exhale.

  “Fine,” he muttered. “Brunch, no shopping.”

  Grinning my victory, I peeled his sweatpants down and used my mouth to finish the job his hand had started. What had Seph called me, again? Addicted? Yeah, no denying that. I was a certifiable dick-addict. But only for these three... my true loves.

  2

  Steele

  As badly as I wanted to watch my girl as she skipped along the cobblestone street, arm in arm with her friend, I had to stay alert. We’d been hired to do a job, not take a vacation, and the recent discovery of bombs around Demi’s vineyard had given us the reminder we needed. Seph was still in danger, and if we let anything happen to her on our watch... well then, it’d be the three of us in danger.

  “This is a bad idea,” Archer muttered beside me, his sharp gaze scanning our surroundings. His hand was under his loose jacket, probably resting on the butt of his gun.

  I gave a small shrug. “Probably, but you agreed, so quit your bitching.”

  He shot me a salty glare. “Under duress.”

  Kody and I both snickered at that.

  “Oh yeah, you hated that persuasion,” Kody teased. “We could tell.”

  Arch had nothing to say back to that, so he just flipped us a middle finger and moved to catch up with Demi and her wife, Stacey. Stacey was the only one of us who spoke fluent Italian, so she was playing the role of translator and tour guide when we ventured out into public spaces.

  “As if he wouldn’t have agreed if she’d just batted her lashes and called him Sunshine,” Kody muttered to me with a chuckle as we made our way inside the restaurant the girls had chosen. “Under duress, my ass.”

  I smirked my agreement, my gaze moving over every patron inside the restaurant. The odds of Chase Lockhart having one of his goons planted in the
randomly selected restaurant that we’d had no plans of visiting were low. But it never hurt to be vigilant.

  Archer, big protective bastard that he was, tried to maneuver MK into the most protected seat at our table, but she just shoved him and put Seph there instead—as it should be when Seph was the one in danger. Still, I got where Arch was coming from. My own natural instinct was to protect MK over anyone else too.

  While he was busy engaging in a silent argument with her via intense eye contact, I slid into the seat directly beside her. The one Archer had his hand on the back of like he’d been about to sit there.

  “You snooze, you lose, D’Ath,” I told him, stretching my arm out around MK’s shoulders and getting comfy.

  Seph wrinkled her nose as she eyed us. “The fact that you guys are still fighting over who gets to sit next to your girlfriend is equally adorable and nauseating.”

  My Hellcat just gave me a warm smile, leaned into my embrace, and smacked a kiss on my cheek. Meanwhile, Archer huffed and sank down into the seat beside me.

  “Wife,” he muttered. “She’s my wife.”

  Seph rolled her eyes. “Don’t start with me on that.”

  “I still have those divorce papers if you ever need them, MK,” Demi offered from further down the table, a mischievous smirk on her lips.

  Archer looked downright murderous at that, though. MK was tuned into his moods enough that she’d sensed it just as easily as Kody and I had, and she simply smiled as she inspected the heirloom D’Ath ring on her finger.