Akker glanced at me. “I hope you know what you’re doing, helping him out like this. You could take a step back now and allow us to take control. That way, if this doesn’t go as planned, you can deny being involved.”
I thought about that for a moment. It would be better for the future of my career if I walked away now. If I was caught working with people who’d hacked the police department’s computers, I could not only lose my job, but I could go to jail. I had nothing else in my life but my job. But just thinking that, just weighing that in my mind, seemed awfully sad. The whole reason I got involved in this in the first place was because I’d finally come to a place where I thought I might be able to trust someone enough to let him into my life. How could I walk away from that?
“I appreciate the thought, but I started this. I need to finish it.”
Akker lowered his head, a show of respect.
My heart stuttered a little as we pulled into the underground garage beneath Caballo. It’d been a long time since I’d doubted myself this deeply. But then I thought of Ox and the way he’d looked at me in his office last night before all this began. Just that memory made my heart settle in my chest.
He was worth whatever bit of the fallout fell on me.
Chapter 6
Ox
The sun was beginning to rise. My wrists were sore from trying to get the pipe to break, from pulling on the cuffs in an attempt to slide my hand out. I’d even beaten my hand on the counter a few times, trying to dislocate my thumb so that the cuffs would have more give to pull off, but I couldn’t seem to get the right angle. Everything I did seemed to be futile.
I couldn’t believe I’d been taken hostage by a cop! By Kinsley Salazar of all people!
When I’d imagined being handcuffed by Kinsley, it was an entirely different scenario from this one, let me tell you!
I kept thinking about the people she would have called for help, the things they would do to try to solve this thing for me. They had no idea of the wasps’ nest they were about to pull down on themselves! Akker, Brock… Cheryl, maybe. Who else? Would she dare approach Oliver on this?
I certainly hoped not. There were things a big brother protects his younger brother from. This mess was one of those things. He didn’t need to know the truth—not this truth, anyway.
I think that was what worried me the most. I mean, I was terrified that Kinsley would lose her job for helping me, that one of my operatives would get hurt trying to gather information. But the idea that Oliver would learn the truth about our parents… a worse truth than he already thought he knew. After everything he’d gone through the past few years? He didn’t need that.
I needed out of here so that I could stop what they were doing. I’d worked too hard to protect Caballo to allow them to undo it all.
I jerked at the cuffs again, trying to work that pipe loose from the wall. Once again, all I did was make my wrist hurt.
I dropped to the floor, sitting on the pile of pillows Kinsley had brought me. She’d intended for me to sleep on them, I thought, but how was I supposed to sleep when I felt so powerless to prevent the storm I could see coming? If she only knew what force she was unleashing on the people I cared the most about!
Even as the thought filled my mind, a flash of lights on the walls alerted me that someone had pulled up outside. I pulled myself to my feet and cried out.
“Hey! I’m in here! Help me!”
The lights went out and I could hear a door slam. I yelled again.
“Help! She’s tied me up! Call the police!”
The door burst open and Kinsley’s familiar face, slightly amused, met my gaze. “Who are you calling to?” she wanted to know. “The nearest neighbor is that way about a mile,” she informed me with a jab of her thumb over her shoulder. “You’ll scream yourself hoarse before you get their attention.”
“I heard the car. I was hoping it was a caretaker or something.”
“Don’t you think I would have thought of that?” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, scrolled through it a moment, then began to read. “Mr. Lewis, the owner of the cabin on Gateway Drive has decided to spend this month occupying the cabin, so your services will not be required until the first. I have forwarded payment for the month because of the short notice. Thank you for your hard work.”
“How did you know this place was here? Do you know the real estate company leasing it out?”
“Does it look like it’s been occupied recently?” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter how I know about this place.”
She glanced toward the bed, then quickly turned her attention back to me, storming into the small space that made up the kitchen to yank open the fridge. “You haven’t had anything to drink since I left!”
“I’ve been thinking of other things.”
She span on her heel, her gaze immediately falling to my wrist. “For crying out loud, Ox!” She came to me, her fingers gentle on the quickly forming bruises on my wrist and thumb. “What have you done?”
“I need to get out of here.”
She looked up at me, clearly confused for a moment, like she didn’t understand what I was talking about. A second later, she was digging keys out of her pocket to release me from the pipe. I almost believed she was going to release me altogether, but then she snapped the free cuff onto her own wrist.
“Let’s go clean you up. I think there might be a first-aid kit in the bathroom.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked as she pulled me toward the far side of the room where the bathroom door stood partially open. “Why won’t you let me face the firing squad alone?”
“Because it’s literally going to be a firing squad if you’re not careful!”
“Do you think I wasn’t prepared for this? Do you think I don’t know what kind of a cop Lindsay is? Do you think I don’t know what I’m going to have to face, inevitably, no matter what you do here?”
She skirted around the bed, giving it a wide berth, almost like she was afraid to even look at it. I glanced at it, finding it to be a normal bed—a little old with its metal frame—essentially harmless. Was it the bed that gave her pause, or was it the idea of what people do on beds like that one? Was my strong, independent detective shy when it came to romantic moments?
I moved closer to her, wrapping my arm around her waist. She was stiff as a board and she shuddered a little when I touched her, like she was frightened by my touch. I couldn’t remember her ever reacting that way to my touch before.
“What’s the deal with this cabin?” I asked as she pulled away, tugging at my cuffed wrist to pull me into the bathroom. “Do you own it? Never saw you as the hunting type, but I guess people are full of surprises.”
She snapped on a light and reached with both hands to get a heavy first-aid box off a top shelf, forcing my arm up alongside hers. She set it on the edge of the narrow pedestal sink, popping it open on its rusty hinges. There was so much dust on the things inside that I couldn’t imagine any of them were any good. But it was a well-equipped kit, filled with bandages of every size, bottles of antiseptics and painkillers. There was even a surgical kit with a scalpel inside.
“That looks like something we would have used in Afghanistan.”
She didn’t respond. She complained that I wouldn’t give her any information, but she was pretty skimpy with the information, too.
“Sit,” she ordered, gesturing to the narrow toilet seat beside the sink. It looked just as old as everything else in this place, but I figured porcelain was fairly strong and didn’t really erode. I sat gingerly, testing it out, my imagination seeing me plunging to the ground as the wood underneath gave way. But it all held under my weight.
She tugged a package of four-by-fours from the box, ripping them open and peeling one out. She checked the expiration date on a bottle of Bactine, considered it a moment, then poured it generously on the gauze.
“It’s expired, but it’s probably still safer than the rusty water that’ll come out of these p
ipes.”
“How long has this place been empty?”
“Not long enough.”
She pulled my wrist up onto the counter and began dabbing around the bruises and the thin cuts I’d given myself in my attempts at escape. She was gentle, but the cuts still stung like a son of a gun. I gritted my teeth as I watched, my thoughts coming to a halt for the first time all night.
“You should know better than to fight steel cuffs. You’ll tear up your flesh before you’ll ever get out of them.”
“It was worth a try.”
“Why?”
I’d already told her a dozen times, but I supposed another attempt couldn’t fall on any deafer ears.
“Because you don’t know what kind of a mess you’re wrapping yourself up in. It’s a Pandora’s box you’re trying to open here, Kinsley, and everyone involved is putting themselves in danger by helping.”
“Is that why you never asked for help?”
“I knew what I was doing. I didn’t need to involve anyone else—to protect them.”
She was quiet for a moment, still dabbing at my cuts. She moved the cold cuff around to get at every spot, making sure to cover them with a good amount of the antiseptic. And then she took out another, clean bit of gauze and pressed it to my wrist, preparing to make a bandage of it.
“You’re good at this. Almost like you’ve had practice.”
“I’ve had plenty of practice.”
She nudged a roll of tape that was already out of its package, choosing instead to grab another one that was still in a sterile plastic wrap. I hadn’t noticed before that there was used equipment in the box—open bandage packages, antiseptic with stains on the lid that indicated use—an indication that someone staying at this place had been hurt before. But the thing was so filled with dust, I knew it hadn’t been recent.
“Why don’t we play a game?” I said, tilting my head so that I could look her in the eye as she concentrated on my wrist. “You answer my questions—honestly—and I’ll answer yours. Any question you want to ask, one at a time.”
She seemed to consider this as she worked at taping the gauze to my wrist. “How many questions?”
“As many as you want.”
Kinsley’s eyes were dark when she looked up at me. She was a beautiful woman, this brunette lady. The tip of her tongue slipped out as she licked her full lips, clearly thinking this idea over with some seriousness. But what she was really doing was making me forget the world outside these four walls. I’d never wanted to kiss a woman as desperately as I wanted to kiss her in that moment.
“I’ll think about it,” she said, suddenly pulling away, tossing items back into the box before closing it up. “You should use the toilet before we go back out there.”
I stood, forced to my feet as she lifted her arm to put the box back where it’d come from. I grunted as the cuff hit against a bruised section of my wrist. She glanced back, an apology on those perfect lips.
“Are you going to give me some privacy?” I asked even as I moved closer to her, pretending it was her movements that made me need to be so close. “Or do you want to see what I have to offer?”
“Don’t be a fool,” she said, briskly brushing past me to step close to the door. “Just do your business.”
“I can’t reach with you standing there.” I pulled on the cuff chain with my free hand. “I need a few more inches.”
She sighed, this huffing sound that made it clear she was annoyed. She took two steps into the bathroom, stopping again as she gestured for me to get going.
I turned my back to her and unzipped my pants. The truth was, I’d given in and used the kitchen sink a while back, but the opportunity to use a proper toilet was not something I was going to pass up. I tugged at the cuff again as I positioned myself. She made a noise, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.
“Haven’t you watched male perps take a piss before?”
“More times than I care to remember.”
“Then this should be familiar.”
I began to relax my bladder, sighing as it emptied itself into the surprisingly clear toilet bowl. The warm smell of it wafted up to my nostrils, and I knew she could smell it, too. That embarrassed me a little, but not enough to take away the amusement of catching her trying to catch a glimpse of my manhood. She even leaned forward slightly, but then turned her head like she was a child about to get caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“It’s okay to look.”
“Just hurry up, would you?”
I was already about done, but I flexed those muscles, trying to prolong the moment just a bit longer. When I was done, I yanked on the cuff to force her closer to me while I tucked and put everything back to rights.
“I’d imagined this moment to be a little more romantic. Some soft music playing, a bottle of wine, maybe some strawberries. Do you like strawberries?”
“Let’s go back to the kitchen.”
“Come on, Kinsley; you have to give me something. I don’t even know what kind of music you like!”
She pulled at the cuff, dragging me toward the kitchen, once again giving a wide berth to the bed. Once we were back at my familiar spot against the far wall, she pulled those keys out of her pocket again. Out of instinct, I reached for them, snatching them clean from her fingers before she even saw me move. Then I turned her, pushing her back against the wall.
“Look at this! That was easier than I thought it would be.”
“You think you’re clever?” she said, looking up at me. “Big bad man gets control over the little woman?”
“Exactly.”
“So, what now? You going to cuff me to the pipe?”
“I’d rather cuff you to the bed.” I touched the chain on the cuffs. “You wouldn’t happen to have another set of these, would you?”
She paled a little, clearly the idea I’d put into her head not one she wanted to pursue. I frowned, studying her face for a long moment. “Hey,” I finally said, “I didn’t mean—”
She pushed herself up onto the tips of her toes and kissed me. Her lips were soft and slightly sour, the long day having created a film over them. I kissed it away, pressing hard into her as I took what she’d so willingly offered. She moaned softly, lifting her free hand to my shoulder, pulling me even closer to her. The way she kissed me back, the heat burned through me, making me once again forget about the world outside these four walls. All I could think about was how badly I wanted to touch her, how desperate I was to feel real flesh under these burdensome clothes.
I transferred the keys to my cuffed hand, using the free one to cup her ass as she wrapped her leg around my thigh. I lifted her skirt—a process since the damn thing was cut to hug her gorgeous legs—my fingers beyond pleased to feel the flesh of her thigh. My hand explored like it had a life of its own, sliding higher and higher under that skirt until I was cupping her luscious ass in my palm. I lifted her up, pressing her hard against the wall, our bodies fitting together like puzzle pieces that were born to coexist. She knew how to respond, this beautiful woman, her lips and mouth doing incredible things to mine, her hips moving just right against all the right places.
Damn, she knew just what to do!
I explored her ass, searching for all those beautiful places that she’d kept from me thus far. There was lace on her underwear, a wide swatch of cloth over that lovely ass. I sought the edge of it, beginning to think I was never going to find it. I wanted to explore with both hands, wanted to touch other places that were at that moment heaving against my chest, but the cuff kept my arm drawn behind her back where she’d tucked her own hand.
I just wanted to touch her!
She lifted that arm, pulling mine up over my shoulder, too. Her fingers played in my hair, brushing against the back of my skull and my neck. I groaned as I moved to explore her throat. She pressed her fingers into my scalp, pushing me down, encouraging me to investigate the top of her blouse. If only I had a free hand to release a few buttons!
I heard the snap, but it didn’t occur to me what it was until she jerked my arm downward and another clear ratcheting snap filled the air around us. I jerked back in time to catch the satisfied smile spread over her lips.
“Do you really think I’ve never fought a perp for the cuff keys?” She licked her lips quite seductively. “Though, I do have to say that this was a most satisfying way to distract a man.”
I jerked my cuffed arm and discovered she’d reattached me to the pipe and the keys were nowhere to be seen. I pulled back and let her fall, finding it almost amusing as she caught herself awkwardly against the wall.
“Touché,” I said, anger burning through me as I rattled the cuff against the pipe. “You got me.”
She walked around me, climbing up on the counter beside the sink, studying me from a safe distance. “You should be happy I didn’t just slam my knee into your nuts.”
“I think that might have felt a little better.”
She blushed slightly, but she didn’t comment.
I threw myself back against the wall, shoving my hands into the front pockets of my pants to hide the evidence of what her touch had done to me. We were both quiet a long few moments, each of us wrapped in emotion I supposed we just weren’t ready to share.
“Your game,” she eventually said. “Were you serious?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t have anything else to do, I suppose.” I rattled the cuffs again. “And I’m clearly not going anywhere.”
“Did you know Chad Lindsay before that embezzlement case last year?”
Again, I rolled my shoulders, staring down at the ground rather than at her. “We’d had a few run-ins.”
“What kind of run-ins?”
“It’s my turn.” I glanced at the bed across the room. “Do you own this cabin?”
“Yes.” She reached up and brushed her hair back over her shoulder where it’d fallen against her face. “What kind of run-ins did you have with Chad Lindsay?”
“A month after I took over Caballo, he came to visit me. Said he was there to advise me about getting in over our heads. Said he wanted to make sure we didn’t make an enemy of the police department. Then I saw him a few times over the next few years, ran into him at convenience stores and things like that. Then the night of Oliver’s accident, he was the one who arrested and interrogated him.”
Caballo Security Box Set Page 82