I unzipped my suitcase. “I guess I should put on dry clothes. I’m freezing.”
“It should warm up in here soon with the candles clustered together.” He shoved them in a circle. “Too bad there isn’t a fireplace in this room instead of out in that sitting room.”
“But there’s no wood.” I rummaged through my suitcase looking for something dry and warm to wear. I never under packed.
“True.” He smirked. “This house is unique, isn’t it?” He ran his hand along the doorframe.
The inside was in better shape than the exterior. The hardwoods were worn, but smooth and full of character.
“When I pulled up in the driveway, I actually believed for a little while that this was where my mom lived. That this was her house. Like it was some kind of perfect maternal sanctuary. It seems so stupid now that I’ve seen it up close. It was only a mirage.”
He turned toward me. “I’m sorry, Syd. I’m sorry someone used your heart against you.”
It came out of nowhere, but the sob hit me. I had held it in. But it was too much to contain it any longer. It was bigger and stronger than I was. It ripped through my lungs until I was on my knees.
AJ crouched next to me, cradling me against his chest. “You don’t have to do all this on your own. You never did.” He ran his hands through my hair. “I can do it with you. Let me in this time.”
I nodded, sniffing into his wet T-shirt.
“I’m sorry I took off like I did.” I looked in his eyes. His thumb brushed over my lips, before his mouth crushed mine with a heavy kiss.
“I know, babe. You were just scared.”
We rose forward on our knees, curling our hands around each other’s bodies. AJ tugged at my soaked shirt while our tongues flicked and lashed.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry.”
My hands snaked down his back until they froze on the cold metal of his gun. I stopped abruptly. I sat back on my heels.
“Oh shit. My gun.” He quickly unsnapped the holster.
He crawled toward me, pinning me under him. My back arched off the pile of quilts, searching for contact with his body. His fingers skimmed my stomach. Every touch created goosebumps.
“You’ll be warmer out of these wet clothes.” He pulled the shirt over my head.
His mouth crashed into mine. Our tongues wild with thirst for each other.
I tugged and wrestled with his T-shirt until it was in a heap next to us. I traced over his chiseled chest.
“Where are your bandages?” I asked. He was supposed to wear that wrap for weeks.
“I don’t need it. I’m fine.” He leaned in to kiss me again.
“What about the door?” I whispered. “Don’t you need to watch it?”
Thunder shook the house and I clung to AJ.
He grinned wickedly. “Doors are locked and I don’t think anyone’s going to be out in this. I’ve combed every inch of this house. We’re alone.”
“Is that your cock or your instinct talking?” I purred.
“Both,” he growled.
He unhooked the clasp on my bra and tossed it across the room. The candle flickered and I whimpered when his teeth clamped against my nipple.
“Oh shit,” I hissed, digging my nails into the back of his head.
We had given up being gentle and cautious with each other. He sucked relentlessly until I was clawing at the quilts for more. He shirked my capris over my thighs and off my ankles. It was harder to work the wet denim off his legs, but I wasn’t giving up until his jeans were gone.
Our bodies slid together, rubbing and grinding. Starved for one another. We had a taste the other night and it was as if the addiction had been reignited.
His hand slipped under my panties and I panted in erratic bursts as he pried my legs wide. The candlewax dripped on the floor and the lightning lit up the hurricane sky. I barely noticed the apocalypse outside. I was consumed with binding myself back to AJ.
He ran a finger through my wetness, circling my entrance before teasing my clit. Was he punishing me? Making me beg for it? Testing my limits?
“AJ,” I murmured his name, begging him to take me. To edge me farther than I had ever come—back to him. Back to us. He sank his finger inside me and I sighed with pleasure.
“Syd.” His voice was strangled as he raked his teeth across my neck.
I wanted to come apart in his hand. My head fell to the side. My hips bounced under his command.
His mouth covered my nipple and I moaned for more. I wanted his cock inside me. I wanted to feel our bodies come alive together.
My eyes locked on his. The lust and desire dripped between us. I untangled my arms from his neck and slowly rolled on my stomach. I heard him growl with pleasure as he positioned himself behind me.
I bit my lip, anticipating the exhilaration his body gave mine. AJ gripped my hips, sliding the tiny bit of fabric to the side enough to nudge his cock to my entrance.
I moaned, trying to rock my hips enough to coax him inside, but he held fast. He made me feel the fullness of him in that moment. The pure pleasure and pressure of him widening me. Spreading me. Preparing me for the way he was going to satisfy me with his solid shaft.
I watched him over my shoulder. He eyed my ass hungrily, sliding his palm over the roundness just as he slammed into me.
I cried out.
He thrust again. My eyes rolled from the impact. He pushed into me as I rocked back. I used my palms to match his thrusts with more power and force. Our grunts grew louder. The sweat dripped from his chest. I panted and mewed for more.
I squealed when AJ flipped me to my back. He lifted my ankles to his shoulders and sank his cock deep inside me. So deep I saw stars and blinding light that filled me with white-hot pleasure. I felt the tears sting the corners of my eyes.
He reached forward, flicking my clit with a constant rhythm. I writhed beneath him. My legs bouncing, until the climax took off like a firework.
“Oh God!” I screamed, searching for anything to keep me grounded. “AJ. AJ,” I begged. “Fuck me.”
He kissed my ankle, nipping at my skin with his teeth. I’d never seen anything sexier in my life. This man was incredible. We were either perfectly right or perfectly wrong together. All I knew was that my body craved his. I craved this. The unleashing. The freedom. The erotic dance we staged until we were exhausted. Until we were raw and exposed. Until we passed out from our untamed need.
We climbed higher. He lifted my hips in the air. Our eyes met. I knew the impact would shatter me, but I wanted it. I wanted him to make me feel. To fill me with heat and fire.
“Syd, I love fucking you.”
He buried himself with a final thrust. There was nothing holding back the cascade of quakes. Our moans filled the small room as we reveled in our orgasms. My body vibrated and tingled. I sighed.
“Fuck, babe. You make me lose my mind,” he whispered. His voice gravely and low.
I smiled. “In a good way.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know about that.” He winked, gently placing my feet on the floor. He lay next to me on the bed I had made us for the night.
“I’m not cold anymore,” I added. “I think we heated this tiny room up.”
He chuckled. “I told you.”
The wind whipped and I jumped when the shutter broke from a hinge and smacked into the window. AJ’s arm wrapped around me.
“It’s ok. Just a shutter. The storm must be closer. It will pass by morning.”
My eyes widened. I exhaled. “Ok. I wasn’t jumpy for about thirty minutes. You distracted me.”
He grinned. “That doesn’t seem nearly long enough,” he growled, pushing me on my back. “You need more distractions?”
I traced his lips with my finger. He had the most perfect kissable lips. “I’m sorry I took off the way I did. I really am.”
“Don’t do it again, Syd.”
I shook my head. “Never.” I meant it.
Nine
/> I walked out of the tiled bathroom and sat on the quilt beside AJ. “I’m starving,” I whined. “I haven’t eaten all day.”
I was glad he had brought in the bucket of rainwater. It made spending the night in a house without running water a little less awkward.
“Maybe there’s something in the kitchen,” he suggested. “I thought I checked all the cabinets, but I can look again.”
I twisted my lips together. I didn’t like it any time we were separated. Not even in the small farmhouse. He had eased my worry about immediate danger. He had to be right. No one would go out in this nightmare of a storm.
“Why would there be food?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Why is any of this stuff here?”
“Good point.” I nodded. “Oh! I might have a protein bar in my suitcase. I always pack a few when I travel.” I walked over to the corner of the room.
“You look for some of your cardboard food and I’m going to check the kitchen. God, I hope there’s something in there.”
I held my breath when he walked out of the room. It was silly. I could hear his footsteps. I knew he was close by. I just liked it better when he was next to me.
I knelt on the floor. This was the same suitcase I had packed to go to Dallas to meet Ethan Howard. So much had happened in the past week, I couldn’t remember how many bars I had packed and how many I had eaten. I had been living in a state of shock. Going through the motions. Spurred by curiosity. Haunted by guilt.
I combed through the back pockets, sliding my hand between makeup bags and my compact hairdryer.
“Ah-hah!” I pulled a blueberry protein bar into the air. “AJ, I found one,” I called toward the kitchen. We could split it. It had nineteen grams of protein. We wouldn’t die from starvation overnight.
Holding the bar like a trophy, I scrambled back on the quilt. I straightened the ends. We had balled it into a mess. Sex on top of sex made it look more like a love nest than a bed. I tried to flatten the corners when I felt something. I dropped the protein bar in the center and ran my hand over the corner of the quilt again.
There was no mistaking it. There was something tucked inside the quilt square.
“AJ!” I yelled.
He ran into the bedroom. “What’s wrong? What happened?” His eyes were wild. They darted to the gun.
I held up the blanket. “There’s something in here.” He had to have heard the fear in my voice. It was mixed with excitement. I didn’t know why I was excited. This wasn’t a treasure hunt.
“In the quilt?” He knelt beside me.
I nodded. “Feel it.” I handed it to him. “I think it’s folded paper. Maybe an envelope? It feels thick.”
He ran the corner panel between his rugged palms. “Hold on. I have a knife in my bag. I can cut it out.”
I waited while he searched for the utility tool. He flipped open the sharp edge of the knife blade and started cutting. I stared while the threads popped.
He lifted the flap of the quilt square. I picked up the paper. I looked at AJ as I unfolded it in my hand.
There were several sheets stacked together. I laid them in front of us so we could examine them. AJ pressed the creases in the center to keep them flat. They had been doubled over twice. How long had they been inside the blanket? Who put them there?
We leaned closer. It was hard to see clearly in the candlelight. AJ brought one over next to the quilt. It flickered from the movement.
I brushed my bangs out of the way.
“Look. Look.” I poked the pages.
I tried to take in the images, but I couldn’t process them. My eyes darted from one page to the other. They were simple black and white photos copied on regular paper. Anyone could have printed them out on a home printer.
“Who is this woman?” he asked.
“I’m not sure, but all of those pictures were taken here. She’s here at this house. Look. She’s sitting on the swing on the back porch. And the barn. I was there today. That’s the barn door.” My voice picked up speed. “And that oak tree. The one you think is going to crush us. She’s on a tire swing.” I wanted more. There weren’t enough.
AJ flipped one of the pages over.
My throat clamped shut. I couldn’t swallow.
Scrawled on the back were the words: Penny Neworth.
He looked at me. “Syd?”
I covered my mouth with my hand.
“Oh my God. AJ, it’s my mom.”
Ten
That answered the question of whether we were supposed to find the pictures or not. They were planted, just like the other items. AJ peered at the photos, not saying anything. I tried to read his silence the same way he was reading the pictures.
“This is her house. Or was her house. It’s something,” I argued. “You see that, right?” There was a slight giddiness in my belly. I knew I needed to be cautious, but I couldn’t stop it from surfacing.
“Syd,” He stopped to turn toward me. “These are black and white copies on paper. There’s absolutely no way to verify them. Anyone could have made these. Photoshopping and picture distortion are easier than ever. You don’t know if that woman is your mother.”
“No.” I shook my head. “These were taken here. It’s her. I feel it.”
There was a mixture of sympathy and concern in his eyes.
“Ok, but what about the name on the mailbox. It says Harper by the main road.”
I pulled my shoulders back. “That’s her new name, sort of. Her married name. Neworth was her maiden name.”
“Did you know that before this trip?” he asked.
“No. It’s new information.”
“Information you got from this guy Ethan in Texas?” His eyebrows rose. I still worried about the stitches over his eye when he did that.
“Yes. From Ethan.” I wanted to study the pictures more. I wanted to memorize them. God, I’d jump into them if I could. Like that scene in Mary Poppins when the kids spent the day in the cartoon chalk drawings.
AJ collected the pages and folded them together. I had to keep myself from yanking them away from him. “I think we need to split that damn protein bar and figure this out.”
I huffed. “So you are hungry?” I eyed the stack in his hands.
“A little.”
I ripped through the wrapper and tore the chewy bar in half and handed him one end.
“Thanks.” He popped the whole thing in his mouth.
“You’re starving.” I looked at him.
“I’m fine.”
“But you have broken ribs and you’re recovering. This isn’t good.”
“Syd, stop worrying about me.”
I shook my head. “I can’t believe the FBI would send you after me like this. You shouldn’t even be back on duty. How irresponsible is your boss?”
He looked toward the window.
“Wait. You aren’t back on duty?”
He shook his head. “No. But it was either me, or the entire Bureau trying to haul you in. I thought this was the better option. They need your statement about the hijacking. Jelly Bean Jack is now at the top of their wanted list. You have to talk to them. You know more than anyone about what was in the dark web marketplace.”
I groaned. “I want to forget about him. I don’t want to think about the marketplace.” I chewed slowly, trying to make the bites of blueberry last longer. It only made my stomach rumble angrily.
“There is a fucking map out there with every location you’ve visited in the past six months.” The sharp angles of his jaw clenched together. “He isn’t going away. None of this is going away. You can’t bury your head in the sand on this.”
“I know what’s going to happen when I give my statement.”
“What’s that?” He folded his hands over his knees, watching me.
“They aren’t going to give me a choice about Project Compass. If I go in, they’ll take me in. I’ll lose my freedom.”
AJ cleared his throat. “Don’t you see if you’re on the i
nside, you are safer? You can be the one tracking Jack instead of the other way around? You can get out ahead of him. You can send the FBI after him. You will have the power, Syd. You. Not him. Don’t you want that?”
I bit the inside of my cheek. “I stopped hacking.”
“It’s time you start doing it again.”
“This is your job, right?”
AJ cocked his head. “To protect you?”
“No. To recruit me. That’s your job on Project Compass. You’re supposed to add me to the team. The nerdy one. I fit that peg. This is all for work.”
“I’ve been honest with you about my role in Project Compass. I told you exactly why you are needed.”
“But is that why you’re here? Because of the project or because of me?”
He pressed his lips together before he spoke. Lips that I had just kissed raw. Lips that had skimmed every inch of my body.
“You are the reason I’m here. I didn’t want you to get killed. I chipped your equipment when you were in the shower the other night in case you were kidnapped again. I would have done more, but it wasn’t like we were there long before you took off.” I heard the accusation in his voice. “I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe. And if that means convincing you to join an elite team that gives you the highest level of security in the country, then yes. I’m going to keep recruiting you. I can’t separate one from the other if it means you stay alive. You are the job right now.”
His words tore at me.
“I’m not an FBI agent. I didn’t go to the Academy. I’m not an investigator or a detective. I’m a Lit major, AJ. I don’t belong in the Bureau. That’s your life.” I didn’t want to finish my argument with how much I had learned to detest the FBI. After all, wasn’t it the reason he left?
He huffed. “I don’t see what choice you have.”
“I do have a choice,” I seethed. “I don’t have to do it. I don’t want to be on the Project Compass team. I’m finally doing what I want to do. This is my goal. This is my dream. They can’t force me to be a hacker. I finally figured out my path. I’m not giving this up. My show is my career now.”
Shattered Hart: Hart Pursuit Trilogy Book 2 Page 4