by Amy McKinley
My stomach growled again.
“So you know the owners of this place?”
“Don’t read more into it than there is, Stella. It’s just a place for us to regroup.”
She pursed her plump lips, and I was momentarily distracted. Once the burgers were ready, I removed them from the heat and put them on the buns. We took our food to the table and added the burger fixings.
After she’d eaten half of hers, she set it down and nursed her beer. Shit, here come the questions. I didn’t want to answer any. I didn’t want her to get closer because it was never a good idea when it came to me. On the other hand, I didn’t want her to be afraid, especially given what she’d already seen me do. There was no doubt she would need some reassurances where her safety was concerned.
“You told me you’re a part of a security company or team? I can’t remember exactly what you said. But what you did earlier, then this place… I’m impressed with your skills. Seriously, though, is there something I should know? You said you’re not a cop, but are you FBI?”
That was funny, and I fought the grin. If she knew my family and me, she would know that wouldn’t have been a route open to us. I finished off my last bite before answering her. “No. Not at all, I swear. I haven’t been watching your brother and have no plans of turning him in.”
“But—”
“I know where you’re going with this, and I promise that’s not what’s going on. I am a part of a security team, but we mostly do rescues and recoveries. Helping you was just being in the right place at the right time.”
“Oh, wow. Okay.” Her face heated. Her expressive eyes darkened too.
In what? Awe? Desire? I wanted to know.
“I can accept what you’re telling me, but you’re doing an awful lot for Max, who’s a guy you don’t even know, and me.” Her eyes narrowed.
“What do you need to know to feel safe?”
White teeth flashed as she nibbled on her full bottom lip. “What do you intend to do with my brother when you find out exactly what he’s done and who is after him? That is the plan, right?”
I rotated my beer a few times on the table, wondering how much to tell her. Deciding, I took the last pull from the bottle. “The men after your brother are organized. They’re professionals to a degree. I don’t know what your brother is involved in, but I have a bad feeling it’s on a much larger scale than you’re used to dealing with.”
“I figured that after they tried to grab me when I left work and then went through my apartment. What am I going to do?”
“You’ll stay with me, and I’ll figure it out with my team. My goal is to keep you safe.”
“I don’t know why you’re helping me, not really, but I’m grateful. But you do know that my job is also to save my brother.”
I nodded even though I wasn’t sure what to do about him. “No contacting him for now. I’ll give you a burner phone that you can text him the number. It can’t be traced. If he needs to reach you, he can do so that way.”
Her shoulders drooped. “Right. Because they found us from my talking to him, didn’t they?”
“If what you said is true about the family heirlooms, then you’re valuable to your brother’s connections. The potential for money or jewels changes things—it’s beyond them using you to hurt Max.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. They were shooting at us.”
“At me. If they’d been aiming at you, they would have hit you with that first shot. Your back was to the window. My guess is they were aiming for me, as the person who’s helping you.”
“I don’t know how to process this. I’ve put you in danger.” She pushed away from the table, stood, and started pacing. “If I hadn’t involved you at all, then you wouldn’t be in so much danger. They could have taken the jewelry box if it would help my brother.”
“That wasn’t what they were after though, was it?”
She stopped her restless movements and looked at me. “No.”
“It doesn’t matter if you find what your grandmother was talking about when you were a kid. It won’t make everything go away. That’s just how they work. Their harassment will only stop when they bleed you dry, and then only when you and your brother are dead.” Max was an addict—drugs, gambling, or both. That’s what they would use to continue to control and drain Max and Stella.
The fear swimming in her beautiful eyes was my undoing. As she shivered, I stood and pulled her close. When her arms wrapped around me, she clung to me, and I could almost feel the click in time when my fate was irrevocably sealed. I would help the woman even if it meant my death.
Chapter 15
Hawk
“Took you long enough.” Jack’s voice snapped through the line late the following day.
If I didn’t know him so well, I would have thought he was an ass, but that was just him. He made snap decisions that often saved our lives. His rough exterior was that of a leader shouldering more than his burden. I owed Jack and Mike my life. I’d never forgotten what they’d done for me.
“It hasn’t been that long,” I defended.
“This is a vacation for him? Is that what he’s telling you?” Mike yelled to be heard through Jack’s phone. Mike didn’t speak unnecessarily, and his words snapped my spine straight. I’d known him since I was a kid, lost and needing a place to live. He and Jack had saved me—they’d given me a roof over my head and a family that was stronger than any blood ties.
“Not a fucking vacation.” I shoved away from the cabin’s kitchen island to pace. Something was going down, and his accusation meant it had to be bigger than we’d thought. “What do you have so far? Tell me you’ve got something on those guys.”
I could picture Jack running his hand through his short hair with each second that ticked by with no response. “It’s not that we don’t know anything. The problem is that we don’t know enough, and without involving Rich…”
We don’t need a CIA contact right now. “If we did involve Rich, that wouldn’t be good for her brother. He’d be in more trouble than he is now.” I grabbed the back of my neck with my free hand. Max was putting us in a bind.
“Exactly,” Mike said. “I don’t have a problem with that.”
“I wouldn’t either if it wasn’t for Stella. She has strong family values.”
Jack snorted. “Could they be misplaced?”
I leaned back against the counter and stared at the ceiling. The majority of my team came from hellish childhoods. Those experiences had taught us when we needed to cut our losses and run. It could have been that Red had never had to do that. “I don’t know. I want to say screw him and let him hang. But I can’t do that to her. She’s adamant that she needs to protect Max.”
“There’s our answer, then.”
“Is Chris there yet?”
“No. He’ll be here today, though. When he gets here, we need to have a meeting, all of us. We have some news, but Mike and I want to go over it with you at the cabin.”
Chills raced over my arms. That sounded ominous. I scrubbed my hand over my face. I would manage, like always. It would be interesting with Stella and the guys together. “Right. Let’s deal with that after Chris gets here.”
“Are you worried about the woman?”
The fear in her eyes ate at my soul, but her determination told me she could handle anything, especially a group like ours. At first, we might be overwhelming, but she would get over it. “I’m not concerned that she’ll betray us. It’s more that this is a lot for her to process.”
“It was for Liv and Mari too.”
“I wonder if it would help to have Liv, Mari, Hannah, or Jo talk to her.”
“Who were you thinking? Jo might be hard to reach right now. The others should be available by Skype at least.”
“There’s this thing she’s been talking about, and I think that’s part of the reason the people after her brother are also targeting her. Seems he’s told them about a treasure Stella knows how to find.”
It did sound pretty far-fetched. “No clue really, but I doubt it. Maybe family heirlooms or jewelry?”
“I know where you’re going with this, and it’s not happening or what she wants to happen, ’cause I know you wouldn’t have driven on this side trip. This isn’t the time to go on a treasure hunt then turn whatever we find over to the people her brother owes money to.”
I couldn’t stop the grin from spreading over my face. “It’s like you know me.”
“Damn straight, bro.” Jack chuckled. “All right. We’ll head over around dinner. You cooking?”
“Seems like it. No Liam, Connor, and Matt?”
“No. They’re still tied up with another job. Trev too.”
“Too bad about Trev. It would’ve been like the old gang on this one.” There was comfort in familiarity.
“Get Hannah on the phone—or better yet, Skype. She can talk to Stella and make headway in a way we may not think of.”
Jack was right. Hannah used to be a Russian sleeper agent, and she saw things we often didn’t. “Good idea.” When we hung up, I called Hannah and filled her in. She agreed and suggested Liv too, as she had a background in fine art, which might help her bond with the jewelry artist in Stella.
With Hannah and Liv helping, I had hope that we would figure out the clues in the locket and the letter. Maybe we would even find the heirlooms Stella’s Oma had talked about.
Stella
I couldn’t get that kiss out of my head. Hawk was on the phone while I found another shirt, one without blood. Again, my hand went to my swollen lips, and I admitted something that I’d known from the moment I laid eyes on him. I wanted him. There was something so enduring about Hawk. He held quiet reserve. He’d been so gentle with me, so protective. He’d dropped everything to help me.
I sensed a deep hurt that lived inside him. I recognized it because my brother harbored it too, albeit to a lesser degree.
But Hawk… He would be mine. I was tired of tiptoeing around the attraction that I suspected was as strong in him as it was in me. It was happening. As I made my decision, I swapped my shirt for a tighter one then applied a fresh coat of light-pink lipstick, just enough to add some color and hopefully draw his eyes to my lips again.
I would say I heard him approach, but that wasn’t true. He moved like a freaking ghost, which was shocking for someone that tall and muscular. When he filled the doorway to the room where my stuff was, a slow smile spread across my face.
“I was just thinking of you.” Heat crawled over my skin from my toes to my scalp in anticipation of what I wanted to do with him. I had to push through that shyness of his. Because honestly, I needed a break, a momentary relief from the constant worry and tension we were drowning in. And I’d been thinking of him since our first tentative “hi” in the hallway.
“You were?”
His gaze flitted from my eyes to my lips, and I knew he was thinking of the kiss we shared too. I moved a few steps closer and placed my hands on his biceps because why the hell not? They were incredible. His hands went to my hips, and he tugged me to him. I went willingly.
My lips parted when I saw the matching desire swirling in his eyes, dilating his pupils. He dipped his head slowly, giving me time to pull away. That wasn’t happening, I wanted him badly.
When his lips brushed across mine, I melted. My arms wound around his neck as he took control of the kiss, coaxing my mouth open. The bite of his fingers urged my hips even closer. I moaned into his mouth as one of his hands slid up my back to bury his fingers at my nape. The gentle pull on my hair sent sparks of need from the roots all the way to my toes.
With subtle movements, he commanded my body. With another light tug of my hair, my neck was exposed. Then he left a trail of kisses until he nipped at the sensitive spot at the crook of my neck, and I shuddered.
I wanted more, and I whimpered, squirming against him. Slowly, he peeled my shirt off. His mouth followed each inch of skin revealed, and light burst behind my eyelids at his touch. My breath was coming faster, and my pulse pounded. The feel of his lips on my skin was driving me crazy. I needed more. I needed him.
I gripped his shoulders, his muscles rippling beneath my fingers. God, he was a work of art. I had to see him. I urged him to help me with his shirt. He grasped the back and pulled it over his head in a very sexy way. Holy hell. I’d known he was lean and ripped, but I had no idea. I feasted on him with sight alone. I salivated, wanting to lick him everywhere.
He was so tall, so intimidating in such a delicious way.
The button on my jeans was suddenly undone. How did that happen? Then he slowly pushed the denim down my legs. The next second, his chest pressed against mine and I squirmed, reveling in his hardness. My fingers automatically traced each groove and dip, my lips and tongue following. A jolt of power shot through me at his intake of breath. I could do this all day long.
“You’re good with this, Red?”
Damn straight I am. “I want you,” I said breathily. Talking was so overrated.
A wicked grin curved his sexy mouth. Apparently, that’s all the confirmation he needed, and his hands traced the underside of my breasts.
“I’ve wanted you since I first saw you,” he almost growled, “when you were bent over in front of the mailboxes to pick up a letter you’d dropped. I wanted to take you right there. When you stood and looked at me over your shoulder, I had to fight not to touch you.” His teeth sank into the sensitive flesh at the base of my neck, and I cried out, heat rushing through my body. I clenched my thighs together, my core a tight ball of need. I wouldn’t survive him. He was both tender and wild. I craved both.
“I remember.” I moaned as his mouth traveled down between the valley of my breasts, his hands cupping and kneading. “I called you ‘hot neighbor’ for the longest time.”
He snorted against my burning skin, his body shaking with laughter. “Damn, Red. That would have told me so much. You should have said it. I would have taken you hard and fast against the mailboxes.”
Fabric tore as he whisked my panties off. His body was pressed tightly against mine. Nothing was between us anymore. My hands moved restlessly over him. I reached for his hard length that was bruising my thigh. I wanted to stroke him, take him in my mouth, and watch him lose control just as he was causing me to do.
Somehow, he moved us to the bed. I was losing track of my surroundings. He was becoming my world, the air I needed to breathe. Electric pings sizzled along my skin every time he touched me. I’d never felt anything like that strong and all-consuming connection.
I shifted so I could touch him, and my fingers skimmed along the side of his cock. His head whipped up, desire burning in his cobalt eyes. I sucked my lower lip between my teeth as my fingers curled around his thickness. Holy hell, he was long and large.
With a slow shake of his head, he grabbed my wrist and removed my greedy hand. I growled at him, and he laughed, easing some of the tension that had pulled his features tight.
“Later.” His mouth descended on mine, and I lost time in the way his tongue explored my mouth. When he drew back, the glint in his eyes should have warned me. He flipped me over and lifted my hips. Ass in the air, he spread me wide. Vulnerable. A half groan, half growl sounded behind me. I shivered in anticipation.
With one hand on my hip, holding me in place, his other slid down my spine to rest on my lower back, applying a small amount of pressure until I arched more. My body quivered with need. He shifted, and the loss of his heat against my skin raised goosebumps along my body.
I almost fell in a heap when his tongue caressed me, his teeth nipping gently at my nub. Oh, God. His mouth is magic. The more he feasted, the wetter I got. Panting, I could feel myself plump beneath his lips, and then his tongue vied with his fingers as they plunged into me.
“Please.” I peered around my shoulder at him and begged. He teased then slowed
his touch, making me crazy. “So close.”
He looked up, withholding that talented tongue of his. “Please what, Red?”
Impatience warred with desire as I lifted my head again and glared at him. The sight of him almost sent me over the edge alone—his lips were full and slick from tasting me, and his blue eyes smoldered against his tan skin. His size made me feel small and delicate. Broad shoulders, muscles bunching. So fucking sexy. “Make me come, Hawk.” My voice was lower, hoarse, and so very wanton.
He flashed me a wicked grin, then his mouth descended again.
I don’t know what the hell we were doing or how he learned that, but holy hell. Explosions rocked my body, and I screamed his name. When the last tremor quieted, my body went limp, sated. I would have fallen except for Hawk’s grip shifting and wrapping around my waist.
I heard the tearing of a wrapper, and then he was pushing into me. Electric pulses shot through my body, and I gripped him as he slowly eased in. I felt stretched to the max, and I shifted so I could peer over my shoulder at him. His shoulders were tense, with corded muscles strained against tight skin. My panic at his size subsided when I noticed his restraint. I had nothing to worry about, and that kicked my desire to unchartered heights.
I pushed back, desperate for more. His hands held me in place, and I growled, “Hawk!”
He laughed. “Red, I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of you.” With a final push, he was fully seated, hitting that magical spot. My body reacted—it detonated. I screamed his name as my body gripped his.
He flipped me onto my back, and my legs automatically wrapped around his waist. The brief levity was gone, and intense desire pulled his features taut. He drove into me, each thrust making me whimper with need. I arched against him.
My core shot sensation after sensation with each powerful thrust. I gripped his biceps, mesmerized by every inch of him. Beneath my fingers, his corded muscles flexed and bulged. When he slid a hand under my hips and lifted me higher, I cried out, my body convulsing around his again.