by Elise Noble
Alaric wrapped an arm around her shoulders because that was allowed, right? He was only offering comfort.
“Tomorrow’s a research day for me, so I’ll drop you off at the ranch in the morning. Judd mentioned having a report for you to format in the afternoon, but you don’t need to sit around here all day while I make phone calls. Just keep an eye out for anyone visiting the senator, okay?”
Alaric didn’t expect any further contact, but it might make Beth feel useful.
“Okay.”
“Hey, here’s a movie with horses in it. You want more wine?”
“I’d better not.”
He kissed her hair because as he said, he was an asshole, and then sat dead still when she rested her head on his shoulder. Actions have consequences, idiot.
A white horse pranced across the screen. Wasn’t Beth’s old horse white? Which reminded him, he’d promised to search for the beast, and he hadn’t done a damn thing about finding it. He needed to speak to Naz and get the ball rolling. Tomorrow. He’d speak to Naz tomorrow. Tonight, he’d accept his punishment as a human pillow and watch a terrible movie with Beth.
Damn, this bed was uncomfortable. Alaric shifted, trying to avoid the lumps, then realised his mistake. He wasn’t in his bed at all. No, he was still on the couch downstairs, and the lumps were partly Beth. She was lying half on top of him, her legs tangled in his, and when she shifted against his chest, burying her head tighter against his shoulder, her hair tickled his face.
The sensible thing to do—the gentlemanly thing—would have been to carry her upstairs and tuck her into her own bed. But despite his earlier words, Alaric was no gentleman.
He wrapped his arms around her, closed his eyes, and returned to his filthy dreams.
CHAPTER 14 - SKY
“LONG DAY?” HALLIE asked.
To hell with the vegetables. I needed comfort food tonight. Luckily, there was a dish of macaroni and cheese in the fridge, and I scooped half of it onto a plate before sticking it all back into the dish again and microwaving the entire thing.
“You could say that.”
“Did you meet Rafael?”
Did I meet him? I’d embarrassed myself totally in front of him. I stared at the food going round and round on the turntable as memories of this morning made an unwelcome reappearance.
Rafael hadn’t put me down when we got out of the gym. No, he’d carried on walking through the house and up the stairs to the next floor, where he’d dumped me onto a velvet sofa in the corner of what looked like a meeting room.
“Do you want me to get a doctor?” he asked.
“What? No!” I tried to force a laugh past the lump in my throat. “Why would I need a doctor?”
“Because you were having a panic attack.”
“A panic attack? Don’t be silly.”
I’d thought I was over them. A year had gone by since the last one, since Lenny hugged me and stroked my hair and told me everything would be okay. That time, it had been set off by a man’s cologne. He’d walked past us on the street, I’d caught a whiff, and bam! I was right back in the limo with my rapist again.
“I know what a panic attack looks like, Sky. A friend of my sister has them.”
“Well, you clearly don’t know that much, because that’s not what it was. And I’ve got no idea why you brought me up here. Alex is gonna be pissed.”
Rafael just pulled out his phone and tapped away at the screen for a few moments. What was he doing? Messaging Alex to tell him to go easy on me or something? Now I’d look like a wimp.
“Alex is booked onto a course this afternoon. He’ll have to go to headquarters.”
“What kind of a course?”
“‘Staff motivation: how to get the most out of your team.’ Now he’ll be pissed at me instead.”
Don’t laugh, Sky. There really wasn’t anything funny about the situation.
“Yeah, well, I’ll still get into trouble. I’m supposed to be on a schedule here. Boxes to tick and all that.”
“You’ll stay on schedule.”
“How? You just sent Joseph Stalin off for a lesson in bullshit, which, by the way, is a complete waste of time because Alex isn’t exactly a team player.”
“Because you’ll do your close-quarters combat training with me this afternoon.”
“With you?”
Rafael folded his arms, and his tanned biceps bulged under the flimsy sleeves of his T-shirt. I took in the rest of him. He was big, nearly as big as Alex, and his dark eyes were a whole lot more dangerous. Black hair, black clothes, black boots, black aura.
“What? You don’t think I’m capable?”
Oh, I thought he was capable of doing his job. I just wasn’t sure I was capable of doing mine.
“Yeah, but I thought you’d have better things to do. Like fighting orcs or eating kryptonite.”
“What’s an orc?”
“You haven’t watched Lord of the Rings?”
One of Lenny’s druggie pals had the whole set on DVD. I’d watched all three of the movies half a dozen times while the idiots went on their benders, in between checking for vital signs at regular intervals.
“I’m not big on TV.”
Preferred his violence in real life, did he?
“Well, whatever. Just get the punishment over with, will you?”
Rafael smiled for the first time, revealing a set of straight white teeth. Whose ass did he kiss in the gene pool?
“Take a half-hour break, then meet me in the gym. Sky Malone…” He gave his head a slow shake. “My uncle was right. You’re a real ray of sunshine.”
His uncle?
Oh, shit.
After the way Rafael flung Alex against the wall, I’d expected to finish the afternoon with broken bones or at least a full complement of bruises. But he surprised me again when he lay on the floor.
“Let’s do this differently. This time, you’re the aggressor. Choke me. You look as if you’ll enjoy that.”
Choke him? Presumably he meant the way Alex had tried to choke me earlier. Thanks to the break, I’d had time to steel myself for what was to come. To block out the memories of the past and focus on the here and now. Which basically meant lying on top of Gulliver here. When I knelt between his legs, I could barely reach his neck without sprawling on top of him.
“Do I need a crash mat?” I asked. He could toss me like a rag doll if he chose.
“Not today. But pick a safe word.”
“A safe word? What do you think this is? Fifty fucking shades of grey?”
“No, but I also don’t want it to be fifty shades of black and blue.” Rafael touched my forearm. “He bruised you.”
“Emmy said that the more I bleed in training, the less I’ll bleed in combat.”
“There’s more than one way to train. You’ll get bruises later, but you need to understand the tools you have before you can learn to use them properly. And it’s not just your body you need to keep in shape.” He tapped the side of my head. “Up here matters too. Pick your safe word.”
I could have come up with something awesome. Something funky and cool-sounding. But what popped out of my mouth was, “Piggles.”
“Piggles?”
Rafael might have looked all boy-next-door handsome when he laughed, but I still wanted to slap him.
“It was a toy I had when I was little, okay? A cuddly—”
“Let me guess… A sheep?”
“Shut up.”
“Piggles.” He started laughing again.
“Yeah, Piggles.” I had to own it. “What’s your safe word?”
“I don’t need a safe word.”
“You think? What if I kick you in the balls and mistake your gasp of pain for pleasure?”
“Fine.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “Butt-Head.”
“Huh? You want me to headbutt you?”
“That’s my safe word. Butt-Head. He was my pet goat when I was a kid.”
“You had a pet goat, and he was ca
lled Butt-Head?” I asked, wanting to check I hadn’t fallen into an alternate universe, one where I wasn’t lying on an admittedly hot guy having just confessed to owning a cuddly pig named Piggles. Piggles had been my favourite toy until my father shredded him in a fit of anger. I forced those memories to the back of my mind too, my father’s yelling and his fists. They were easier to push away than the rape. I’d had years’ more practice.
“I did. And now we have our safe words, so choke me or I’ll spank you.”
“Did you read Fifty Shades?”
I tightened my fingers around Rafael’s neck. Rather than break them, he crossed his arms over mine and gripped both wrists. Then he pushed his elbows down, forcing my arms to bend and my grip to loosen. Half a second later, he tipped me to the side, got one foot on my stomach, and pushed me backwards.
“That’s what Alex was trying to make you do earlier. Again.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Did I read the book? Yes, I read it. I was curious.”
“What did you think?”
I leaned over him again, and my hair brushed across his chest where my ponytail had come loose. He fisted it in one hand and pulled me closer.
“I don’t understand why a man would want a woman to submit to him like that.”
“Well, that’s something we have in common. I don’t understand why a woman would let a man boss her around either.” I started to push myself away from Rafael, then quickly remembered where I was. “Outside of work, obviously. I’m getting paid for this shit.”
This time, he shoved me off with both feet.
“Don’t hold back on my account,” he told me.
“Fine, I won’t.”
“Again.”
Okay, I was getting used to this. Crawling between his thighs didn’t feel quite so weird anymore. I wrapped my hands around his neck again and squeezed harder. Let’s see what you’ve got, buster.
He raised his pelvis, and I just caught sight of the oversized bulge before he hugged my arms and slammed his hips back down. Fuck! I didn’t even have time to freak out. My arms felt as if they’d snapped, his shirt rode up, and I ended up splattered against his bare stomach, close enough to lick his belly button. Fortunately, I managed to resist.
“That’s what you do if your opponent is stronger. Now, let’s switch.”
“Oh, brilliant.”
“On your back, Sunshine.”
“Sunshine?”
“Get too close, and I’ll burn.” His hands came to my throat. “Now, get me off.”
Get him off? How? He weighed twice as much as I did. My mind went to entirely the wrong place before I remembered to cross my arms over his to break his hold. Rafael had been Mr. Nice Guy at the beginning of the session, but now he wasn’t cutting me much slack. It took me two hip-bumps and a bit of a struggle before I managed to kick him away.
“Bien hecho.”
“What does that mean?”
“Well done. It’s Spanish.”
“Where are you from?”
“Colombia. Again.”
He didn’t wait for me to get my breath back, just dropped his weight on me. But with him, I didn’t panic, not the way I had with Alex earlier. All I had to do was mouth my safe word, and I trusted Rafael to yield. Arms, hips, legs, kick. With that trust came strength, and I was able to buck him off faster than the last time.
“Good. Again.”
Rafael was a hard taskmaster, emphasis on the hard—his muscles were solid. But although he was tough, he was also fair. Yes, I came away with a few bruises, but I hoped he did too, and for the first time since I arrived, I thought that maybe I could do what was being asked of me. At the end of the session, I wondered if he might do a debrief, but he just announced I’d be running with Alex first thing tomorrow morning and then walked out. Talk about confusing.
“Yes, I met Rafael,” I told Hallie. “He’s…”
“Intimidating? Moody? Oh-so-serious?”
“He’s big.”
Hallie laughed. “Yeah, that too. Did the training go okay?”
“It was challenging.” Not to mention awkward.
“I know the feeling. Dan’s got me learning about science and procedures and legal stuff. And she tosses random questions into the middle of conversations to try and catch me out. ‘Hey, where do you want to get lunch? And what’s the half-life of Rohypnol?’ I’m reading old case files in bed at night.”
“Like murders and stuff? How can you sleep?”
“Oh, easily. I used to listen to true-crime documentaries to nod off, so this isn’t much different. And next month, I’m starting a six-week secondment in the forensics lab, so I’ll probably switch to textbooks for a while.”
“Rather you than me. I think I prefer the bruises.” I nodded towards the stack of files on the table beside her just as the microwave pinged. “Did you find anything new on the Emerald case?”
“Not a lot, and I’m beginning to understand why it went cold. Come and look at this video.”
I took my dinner out of the microwave and juggled it over to the table. I really needed to find the oven gloves. Or even a tea towel. This place was so damn tidy. Back in London, the squat I’d lived in had shit everywhere. There was usually a tea towel or two lying on the floor. At Riverley, there was a full complement of shiny cutlery in a caddy on the table, and I burned my tongue as I took the first mouthful. Fantastic.
“Where’s this video, then?”
Hallie angled her laptop so we could both see the screen. “This is the camera outside Alaric’s old office at the FBI.”
The footage was sort of a let-down. A younger Alaric walked through the door with a briefcase. Walked out again a minute later. Five minutes passed, and then he came back again. A grey-haired guy ambled in behind him, and the pair of them left pretty quickly, this time with Alaric carrying the briefcase.
“There you go,” Hallie said. “That was the only time the briefcase was left unattended at FBI headquarters.”
“There was nobody else in that room?”
“Alaric doesn’t recall seeing anyone, and there were only two desks in there. The guy he shared with was on vacation that week.”
“What about the grey-haired guy? Who was he?”
“Richard Latham. Alaric’s boss. His statement says there wasn’t anyone else in the office.”
“What if they hid? Was there a closet?”
“The report doesn’t mention that, but even if there was, the scenario would be pretty far-fetched. Nobody knew Alaric would take a bathroom break at that moment.”
“Not for certain, but if he had a long drive coming up, it would be an educated guess. He was coming here, right? Where’s FBI headquarters?”
“Washington, DC. It’s a three-hour drive. Or two if Emmy’s behind the wheel. Have you been in a car with her?”
“Yes. I’m thinking of taking out life insurance.”
“Blackwood provides life insurance. When the HR lady found out I’d be riding with Dan, she made sure to give me all the policy details.” Hallie thumbed through the paper file. “I guess I should look into the hiding-in-a-closet idea. Honestly, I’m starting to think the original briefcase was beamed up by aliens.”
“What about last night’s theory? That someone else in the FBI was working with the thieves?”
“That’s the only other credible hypothesis left. According to Dan’s notes, four people besides Alaric knew the lock combination, but in the eight years since the incident, none of them have suddenly started spending oodles of money. Two are still with the FBI, one—Latham—retired, and the other quit to drive across South America in an RV.”
“That doesn’t sound cheap.”
“I checked his Instagram. The RV’s fifteen years old, and the guy’s got a cult following for his ‘travel on a shoestring’ tips.”
“Maybe it was one of the other three and they’ve squirrelled the money away for a rainy day?”
“One of the curren
t agents, his sister has a GoFundMe for her kid’s broken leg. He’s been posting links all over his Facebook. Don’t you think he’d have taken a few bucks out of his stash for that?”
“Okay, so that leaves two. Plus the possibility of someone at the gas station or on the boat, and have you double-checked whether an intruder could have snuck onto the Riverley estate? Undergrowth or no undergrowth, if people broke in once, they could have done it a second time. What if they blocked a sensor? I saw a movie once where the bad guy used a mirror to complete the circuit or whatever.”
“I’ll add it to the list. I just wish we had the briefcase. What if a member of the boat crew jammed the lock so it would open with any combination?”
“Is that possible?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You could try asking Ravi. He works with Alaric, and I heard he’s good at opening things he shouldn’t.”
“When Alaric comes back, I’ll see if he can put me in touch. Any other brainwaves?”
“No, but I’ll keep thinking.”
Because this case was bugging me now. Emmy had called to say they’d found Red After Dark, but that was only one piece of the puzzle. Like Hallie, I wanted to solve the whole thing.
CHAPTER 15 - BETHANY
OH, HELL.
I’D been an idiot.
When I woke on the sofa in the middle of the night, wrapped up in Alaric’s arms, I should have done the honourable thing—wriggled free, put a blanket over him, and tiptoed back to my bedroom. But did I? Did I heck. No, I’d snuggled closer, then mostly regretted it when we both woke at dawn. The awkward “I’m sorry—no, I’m sorry” conversation had been mortifying.
But I’d slept well. And I say “mostly regretted” because I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t make the same decision again.
Now I had to try and act normal while I made coffee for everyone. Well, almost everyone. When I got into the kitchen, I found the coffee machine already on and the jug half-full. Voices came from outside, and I glimpsed Emmy and Dan sitting at the wooden table on the patio.