by M. S. Parker
“Now that we have that taken care of,” he said as he sat down again. “I think it's time to look over the rest of what you have.” He glanced at the clock. “I'll have Ms. Holcomb call in lunch. Do you like Indian food?”
***
By the time lunch arrived, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to work today.
Right after lunch, Mr. Hurst excused himself, and when he came back into the office, he had a look of aggrieved frustration in his eyes that made me almost feel sorry for him.
He’d had a dirty ADA in his house, and he hadn’t known. Now he had to clean house, and try to explain how he'd missed it. I had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to stop with Bethany either. If Washington's intel was accurate, a lot of people were going to spend a lot of time in jail.
Sometime around three, Mr. Hurst escorted a couple of men in suits into the room, and I had my first encounter with the FBI who were investigating Bethany. Washington had been right about that.
The two FBI agents subjected me to a rather grueling series of questions about where I’d come up with my information. I supposed they believed they were intimidating me, but considering everything I'd been through over the last few days, I just found it aggravating.
When I explained my source was confidential, they threatened to arrest me. Before I could say a word, Mr. Hurst intervened and handed them their asses. They didn't like me any better after that, but at least they didn't try to threaten me again.
The day was proving to be insightful, frustrating, aggravating, enlightening...and damn long.
At the end of the day, however, Mr. Hurst did give me the news that made all of it worthwhile.
Bethany had been detained just as she tried to leave her office that afternoon. She’d also attempted to have a janitor shred a rather substantial number of documents that had somehow found their way into the hands of the New York City Police Department.
I wasn't a huge fan of Washington or Pierce, considering how that investigation had been run, but I was glad their source had given the information to the local cops rather than the Feds. Granted, it was probably to ensure that it stayed in-house, but after the way the FBI agents had acted toward me, I wasn't feeling particularly friendly toward them.
As Mr. Hurst walked with me to the elevators, he said, “You worked pretty damn hard to help out somebody on the opposite side of the law.”
I stopped and looked at him. “It was never about Leayna Mance being accused of murder or me versus her. It was about justice, about making sure an innocent person wasn't sentenced for a crime they didn't commit.”
“I like your attitude, Dena.” For the first time in several hours, he smiled. “I hope this hasn’t soured you on working for this office. I’ll be needing to fill some positions soon, I suspect. You’re not quite ready to go solo, but I need people like you around here.”
He held out his hand.
Slowly, I reached out and took it. “Thank you, sir.”
He nodded at me.
As I turned to leave, I saw a cluster of men in suits waiting for the elevators as well. The FBI, come to play. I sighed, then almost tripped over my feet, as my eyes landed on one of them.
“Son of...” I dropped my bag, my fingers suddenly nerveless.
The man I’d seen came up and knelt in front of me. He gave me an easy grin, smiling as he began to gather up the things I’d spilled.
The last time I’d seen him, he’d been bleeding, but those eyes had still been laughing. Laughing as he'd been taken from Arik's apartment in handcuffs.
Adrenaline flooded through me, and I grabbed the first thing that came to hand – my phone. Like I'd be able to do anything with that.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said, his voice softer than it had been, but the accent still there. “Ms. Monroe, are you well?”
“Mikel, come on,” one of the agents behind him said, his voice hard and flat.
He ignored the man, leaning in. “You broke my nose, Dena. I almost broke my cover over that, you know,” he said, whispering directly into my ear. “Good work, by the way.”
Broke his cover?
What the hell was going on here? Why were the Feds not dragging him away from me?
Dazed, I watched as he straightened, and when he did, I saw the badge.
Hanging around his neck was a lanyard with the words FBI in large, unmistakable font. His picture and the name Mikel Bobrov.
But that…that wasn’t the name I'd seen with his picture before.
Were they fucking kidding me? Rubbing a hand across my eyes, I shook my head. After all the shit those two agents had given me, they'd never even once thought to tell me that Arik and I hadn't actually been in danger the other day. Or that they had a fucking inside man high enough in the mob to be considered one of the top assassins on the payroll.
I was going to be so fucking glad when this shit was all over.
***
I’d wanted to get through the rest of the day without any surprises, but as I walked down the steps and saw the man waiting for me, I thought maybe I could change my mind about that.
Arik had his hands in his pockets, and a smile on his face, which told me that at least he wasn't delivering bad news. I wanted to smile in return, but the entire day – hell, the entire month – had worn on me, and I found I had a hard time smiling or even standing there. I wanted to drop down on the ground and just sit. Sit and stare and not think about anything.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true, I amended as I made my way down the steps. If I was going to be honest, what I really wanted was to curl up with Arik, have him naked against me. On top of me. Behind me.
My breath hitched a little as my heart gave an unsteady thump. Maybe what I really wanted was something I hadn’t had in a long time, but this wasn’t really the time and place to tell him that. Especially since I really didn't know how he felt.
“You look like you’ve had a rougher day than I have,” Arik said softly as I took another step toward him.
All around us, the city continued to buzz and rush, but with him standing there, I felt like I could be still for a little while. I felt like I could just…be.
“Yeah.” With a slow nod, I said, “That sounds about right.”
He brushed his fingers across my cheek, a light touch, but enough to confirm my previous revelation for me.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, his voice doing that warm caress thing that made me shiver.
I tried not to lean into him, but it was where my body wanted to be. Where I wanted to be. I couldn't tell him that though. Not here, not like this. “I really want to be outside of my head for a while. But...” My voice trailed off.
He finished my thought. “We need to talk.”
“Yeah.” I forced myself to look away. Talk seemed like such a small word to describe what we needed to do.
“Come on.” He took my hand as he raised his other one to hail a cab. Apparently, he hadn't driven in today. We were silent for a minute before he spoke again, “They've dropped the charges.”
Whipping my head around, I looked up at him. “Leayna's free?”
“Yeah.” He crooked a grin at me, and then lifted his face to the sky, sighing deeply. “She’s already packed a few bags, contacted some personal security, and she’ll be hightailing it out of the city first thing tomorrow. She's going to stay with some friends out of town, and has promised to contact me as soon as she arrives so if anything happens to her between now and then, I'll know. I don't think it'll be a problem though. I think pretty much all of her new security detail are ex-Marines or Rangers or Seals or something like that.”
“Good for her.” I meant it. Her freedom wasn't just a reminder that the justice system, however flawed, could still work. I felt glad for her personally. She'd been through a lot and deserved a fresh start.
“Good for us, too.”
I looked over at Arik, startled by his statement.
He opened the back door of the cab an
d stepped aside to let me get in first. After he'd slid in next to me and closed the door, he gave the cabbie an address, then turned back to me.
“Now that we don't have her case between us, we can finally have a real conversation.” His gaze was intense, making me want to squirm. “No more interruptions. No excuses. One way or another, we're going to figure this out.”
Shit.
Chapter 8
Arik
The Waldorf Astoria wasn’t exactly the place I would have chosen to take Dena, but we couldn’t go to my place in the city – it was still off limits. I wasn’t sure if her place was safe yet either, and the club just seemed like a bad idea. We could've gone all the way back to the house, but I wasn't sure I could last that long of a drive without addressing what was unsettled between us. Besides, I had a feeling neutral ground was the way to go.
But I wasn’t about to take her to the Holiday Inn.
Judging by the expression in her eyes, she seemed to appreciate the surroundings, even if she didn't say it. As we rode the elevator up to the room, she slid me a look, a nervous little smile on her lips.
I didn’t let myself lean over and kiss her.
I wanted to.
It was going to be hard enough to keep my hands off her once we got inside a room that had a bed right there, so the last thing I needed to do was start down the road to temptation. And even a chaste kiss with her, an innocent touch, was a temptation. Hell, just looking at her, thinking about her, made me want to...shit. I needed to get my thoughts away from that direction immediately.
With my hands securely in my pockets, I said softly, “I was surprised to hear from the DA’s office so quickly.”
“Eugene Hurst apparently doesn’t waste time.”
She stared at the doors, her fingers toying with a charm hanging from her necklace. The necklace itself was a slim silver collar, while the charm was long, thin and black, elegant and simple. I wondered if it was some sort of good luck charm, something with sentimental value. A flash of jealousy went through me at the thought that maybe someone had given it to her. A male someone.
Fuck.
I wanted to see her wearing nothing but that necklace while I wore nothing but her, wrapped around my cock.
Focus.
“I take it he believed you.”
She blew out a breath, but before she had a chance to answer, the elevator stopped and the doors silently glided open. I gestured for her to exit and followed her into the hallway. In silence, we moved to our room and I unlocked it, stepping aside so she could enter. After closing the door behind us, I moved through the room, checking it out to ensure it was as secure as I'd hoped it'd be.
Once I'd finished, I turned to find her at the window. She stood with her arms wrapped around her middle, head tipped to the side so that her hair hid her face. I hadn't realized how much longer it'd gotten since I'd first seen her.
The need to gather that hair in my hand, bare her neck, brush my lips across the elegant slope hit me hard. I wanted to kiss her skin, lick my way down, down, down...
Fuck.
I wanted her against me through the night, wrapped in my arms. I wanted to wake up with her in the morning.
I sighed and raked my hands through my hair. “You were right when you said this would be complicated.”
She angled her head, smiling a little as our gazes met. “I’m right about a lot of things.”
The calm confidence in her voice was just one more thing that got to me. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed seeing her like that, enjoyed knowing how strong she was...and how it felt when someone that strong submitted.
Still, there were things we needed to discuss.
“Has all this soured things for you at the DA’s office?”
Dena took a slow, steadying breath and turned to face me fully, leaning back so that her hips were braced against the windowsill. With the city as a backdrop, she studied me, and I waited, knowing she'd answer when she was ready.
“I thought it might,” she said after a minute. “But Bethany wasn’t a real lawyer. I can’t let her be the filter through which I base my choices. Besides, I spent more than half my life wanting to be a lawyer, wanting to put the bad guys away so they couldn’t hurt people. What would it say about me if I let the first real bad guy I came across be the one to take that dream away?”
I crossed over to her.
Her eyes swept toward mine, and her breath caught as I brushed her hair back. Her lips parted, her tongue sliding out to dampen her lips.
Shit. I had no idea how I was going to have this conversation if she kept doing things like that.
“What made you want to be a lawyer?” I asked suddenly. “A prosecutor?”
She bit her lower lip and her gaze slid away. But not before I'd seen the shadow on her face, in her eyes.
“When I was four, the girl who used to baby-sit me disappeared suddenly. It wasn't until I was twelve that I found out what had happened. Jenny was married to this guy who used to beat her. One day, he went too far. Killed her.”
Fuck.
“He got off on a technicality though,” she continued. “Went away for a couple years. Then he came back and married the older sister of one of my classmates. He killed her six months later. Beat her to death, the same as Jenny. Manslaughter. Six to ten.”
Pushing a hand into her hair, I tangled my fingers in the soft strands. “I'm so sorry.”
“What about you?” she asked. “What got you into this?”
I gave her a sad smile. “Actually, my story's not too different from yours. Just from the other side.”
She looked up at me, puzzled.
I didn't like telling this story, but she'd told me hers.
“The house I took you to, it was my uncle’s. When I was a kid, he was arrested. His wife was found dead in a hotel, and the cops arrested him. It couldn’t have been him, though. He was with us when she died. No one believed us. Said we were his family, of course we'd lie.”
Sighing, I dipped my head and pressed my forehead to hers, rubbing my thumb against the soft underside of her chin. She didn't say anything, but I didn't need her to. All I needed was her to be there.
I continued, “The trial, all of it...it was too much. He killed himself, put a bullet in his brain the day before they read the verdict. I don’t think he would have been found guilty, but he was tired. Tired of the guilt, the speculation. Tired of missing her and wondering who had really killed her.”
Dena reached up and put her hand on my face. “Did anybody ever find out what happened?”
“Not officially.” Rubbing my cheek against her palm, I thought back to the side investigation I’d done on my own, years later. “But she’d been involved with somebody. A cop. And when she died, she was pregnant.”
“Oh, baby.” Dena’s expression softened and she pressed a kiss to my lips. “I guess we both went into this for our own reasons.”
“Yeah.” Looking out the window to the city she’d been staring at, I said softly, “You don’t get to pick and choose your cases, Dena. A prosecutor for the city of Manhattan can’t.”
Something flickered in her eyes, and I knew she was thinking that I was ending things, that it was too much.
Hell, no.
Stroking a finger across the soft curve of her lower lip, I tugged her closer, and told her what I needed to tell her before I chickened out.
“I can. I’ve talked to the senior partners, and I told them I don’t want to take any cases that'll be in Manhattan.”
“Arik–”
I kissed her hard and fast, pushing my tongue past her lips. I had to have that one taste, now. Just in case.
She was panting when I pulled back until only a few inches separated our mouths.
“I want this to work,” I told her roughly, silently begging her to agree. “We have something. You know it. I know it. I want it to work, but if we're constantly dancing around things because of our jobs, we won’t have a chance. Since you don’t h
ave any control over the jobs you’ll be assigned, then I’ll control the clients I’ll accept.”
Dena closed her eyes and curled her arms around my neck, but she didn’t say anything.
Nerves started to pulse inside me. Shit. I was usually a patient person, but I didn't think I could make it much longer.
“You know, you could give me an idea what you’re thinking.”
“Be quiet a minute,” she said, her voice husky.
I was hoping that was a good thing. She hadn't pulled away, and she still didn't as I held her, skimming my hand up and down her spine. I focused on that, on the feel of her, hoping to distract myself.
I tried. I really did. But I couldn’t give her that minute. I had to know.
“Dammit, Dena. I just moved here. I'm trying to make senior partner, and I’m making demands on the top guys. You’re worth it, but it would be nice to know if I’m doing this for a reason or wasting my...”
Dena’s mouth slid against mine. As the chaos in my head tumbled to a halt, she stroked her tongue across my lower lip, scraped her teeth over it. Then she pulled back enough to speak.
“I’m not entirely sure how you ended up in my life, Arik, but I’m damn grateful.”
Her words slid over me, through me, settled deep inside me. The relief was enough to make my knees weak.
Gripping her waist even tighter, I pulled her flush against me. I had to hear her say it. “Then we’re going to make this happen?”
“Seems to me that we already are.” Her mouth pressed to mine, then widened into a smile. When she spoke, her breath was hot against my skin. “You know, we’re in this beautiful hotel. It seems that we should take advantage of it.”
I liked the sound of that.
“Yeah. We should.”
Chapter 9
Dena
The feel of his hands on me was every bit as erotic as it had been that first night. The impact of his eyes just as cutting, just as deep.
Now, standing in front of the window, with him behind me, we stared at our wavy reflections, my breath hitching as he freed one button, then another and another.