A shadow moved through Zeke’s eyes. “I haven’t been clean in a long fucking time.”
* * *
“Just about there,” I said, typing in the final code that would shut down the camera surveillance in Edwards’s apartment building and deactivate all keypad access doors and elevators. The cameras would stay down, but we only had ten minutes before the locks overrode what would look like a system failure and reengaged.
Zeke shifted in his seat beside me, the sound of the magazine sliding free of his 9mm then clicking back into place the only other noise apart from me tapping keys.
“Done.” I shut the screen, reached around, and placed my laptop in the foot well of the passenger seat behind me. “Let’s go.”
We climbed out and strode across the street, bypassing the main doors and slipping down the side to the service elevator. I checked my watch as we climbed in and hit the button for the tenth floor. It wouldn’t take us to the penthouse suite, and the timing would be tight, but we could make it.
The door slid open and we strode out. I’d done recon on the building earlier and memorized the floor plan. I checked my watch. Five minutes down. We found the main elevator and hit the button for the penthouse.
“Remember there’ll be two guards. One at the door, one inside.”
Zeke nodded.
The elevator doors slid open, and I stepped back.
Zeke stumbled out without pause, sticking to our plan, and after swaying like a drunk, hit the ground, all while managing to keep his face down and concealed. The guard rushed over, gun raised, leaning over him. I came up behind the guard and grabbed his wrist, twisting the gun out of his hand, kicking it away. The guy spun to face me and I punched him, knocking him out.
Zeke pulled some cable ties from his jacket and secured the guard then, scooping up the other man’s dropped weapon, we entered the apartment.
I took the lead and we moved down the hall to where the living room should be. It was empty. I motioned Zeke to take the other side of the penthouse and we split up, Zeke down another hall, me up the stairs. The first two rooms were bedrooms, a bathroom down from that. The door across from it was ajar. Gun at the ready, I pushed it open, checking it out.
There was a large mahogany desk, bookshelves. I walked in and tested the drawers. Locked. Easy enough to pick. There had to be something here. Something that would lead me to this Mom woman, that could get this fucker locked away.
I glanced up and . . . froze.
Fuck. There were pictures of Ruby. Screen shots, taken from footage of her in her room. Ruby getting dressed, naked and fresh from the shower . . .
I sucked in a rough breath, fingers curling into a tight fist.
Lying on her bed, her hand between her legs.
I stood there staring, feet glued to the fucking spot. I was going to find Colin fucking Edwards and take him out.
I heard footsteps. It wasn’t Zeke. You didn’t hear Zeke coming. You didn’t hear any of us coming.
I didn’t move. I waited, eyes on the door.
Edwards rounded the corner and pulled up short. “What the . . . how the fuck did you get in here . . . who let you in?”
“I let myself in. It wasn’t exactly hard. You might want to do something about that.”
He shifted from foot to foot. “What do you want?”
“If you run, I’ll shoot you.”
His jaw went hard. “What the hell do you want?” he repeated.
I kept my hands at my sides and tilted my head to the pictures of Ruby on his wall. “She’s mine.”
The guy’s chin jerked back. “What?”
“You tried to buy my woman, like she’s a piece of fucking meat.” I shook my head. “I’m not real happy about that.”
His gaze slid to the pictures then back to me and I wanted to pluck his eyeballs from his fucking skull.
“She’s . . . yours?”
I stared at him.
He was quiet for several seconds, then squared his shoulders. “Everything has a price.”
I shook my head.
“I’m rich, fucking loaded.” He licked his lips. “I want her and I’m willing to pay. You bring her to me, and you can name it, whatever you want.”
This guy was not only sick, he was insane. Which meant he was also fucking dangerous. “No.”
“I will have her.” The guy tilted his head. “I’ll make this offer only once. You agree, you walk out of here alive . . . you don’t . . . well . . .”
The sound of a gun being cocked behind me explained his sudden show of bravado. The second guard. “You can’t buy me, and you sure as fuck can’t buy her.”
Edwards nodded to the guard behind me.
I dove for the ground as a gunshot rang out, rolling, pulling my gun free as I did, and aimed. But when I looked back at the doorway, instead of the guard, Zeke stood there, his 9mm in his hand, and a body at his feet.
I gave Zeke a nod of thanks and stood. “I don’t negotiate with sick fucks like you,” I said to Edwards. “Now pick up your phone. It’s time to arrange another meeting.”
His face flushed red, sweat sliding down his temples. “You won’t get away with this.”
“Make the call.”
He reached for his phone. “Where and when?”
I rattled off a time and place. “Put it on speaker.”
A woman answered, voice raspy, like she smoked at least a packs a day. It was impossible to miss the desperation in her voice, how fucking happy she was that Edwards still wanted to do business with her. I listened as he set up a meeting with this bitch then disconnected.
“You realize this woman can’t deliver? That she lost her shot when Scott failed to bring in Ruby weeks ago.”
He smirked. “Maybe, maybe not.”
My finger tightened on the trigger.
“Are we calling this in?” Zeke said. “Or are we ending this shit here?”
I wanted to end this motherfucker more than anything. But we might need him. “I’ll call it. Besides the pictures, there’ll be phone records and ties to the site Ruby was on. We’ll get Jude to call Connor, pull some strings . . .”
A gun went off and Zeke’s body jerked back, blood soaking his shirt at his stomach instantly.
I twisted and aimed at Edwards. The guy had moved fast, and now had his own piece pointed my way.
“Drop it,” he screamed.
I kept gun on the guy. “Zeke?” I didn’t take my eyes of the fucker in front of me.
Zeke grunted. “I’ll live.”
I wasn’t so sure about that. I needed to get him to a hospital before he bled out.
“Drop it,” Edwards screamed again. “Or your friend takes another bullet, this time to the head.”
“You do that and you won’t make it out of here alive.”
“I mean it, I’ll blow his brains out.”
“Put the gun down,” I said low.
“I’m going to do it,” he roared.
“Put it down!” I yelled.
He spun to Zeke, aimed . . .
I fired and Edwards dropped to the floor.
* * *
Ruby
I knew the minute Neco walked into the bedroom. He walked on silent feet, but I sensed him. I’d always been able to do that, like his soul somehow called to mine. The sound of clothes rustling came next. We needed to talk, to clear the air, but I craved his hands on me. He’d denied me earlier, had shook his head, warding off my touch. It was a small thing compared to everything we’d said to each other, but I hadn’t been able to get it out on my head.
The covers flicked back then the bed dipped. I didn’t know what to expect, but him rolling so he was pressed against my back wasn’t it.
“Ruby,” he murmured. “We need to . . .”
I rolled in his arms. I didn’t want to argue, and that’s what would happen if we tried to talk this out right now. I shook my head and pressed closer. “Just let me touch you. I need to touch you,” I said against the corner of h
is mouth.
His arms convulsed around me. “Baby?”
I hadn’t done a good job of concealing my panic. He’d heard it, and like the protector he was, responded. I didn’t want to say the words, express the way I was feeling, the awful realization I’d come to while he’d been out. I just wanted to feel. No thinking. Not now.
I shook my head again and pushed him to his back and gazed down at him.
He reached up and tucked my hair behind my ear. “You’re so beautiful,” he rasped.
“So are you,” I whispered back.
For now, he was going to let me have my way and I was more thankful for it than he could ever know. Taking the bottom of my shirt in my hands, I drew it up and flung it aside. His hands slid up my thighs to my hips, fingers tracing the Superman symbol there. He didn’t break eye contact with me and I didn’t look away from him. I trailed my hands down his chest, soaking it in, his warmth, his hardness, his strength.
“I love you, Ruby,” he said in a soft, intense voice that had the ability to destroy me.
I stretched out on him, curling my hands around the sides of his neck, along his jaw, pressing kisses in their wake. His hands trailed over my back, my waist, my ass. I lifted up and looked down at him, taking in every familiar precious detail of his face. Would I have to give this up? Was my independence worth losing the love of my life? That was the question I’d been asking myself since he walked out the door. If he didn’t bend, and I turned into the Ruby he wanted me to be, would I survive it?
I didn’t think so.
I couldn’t go back to that, and I didn’t know how to make him understand.
One of his hands trailed up my body and he slid his thumb over my jaw, my cheek.
“I love you, too,” I whispered back, then pressed my mouth to his. He kissed me deep and slow, and I kissed him back with just as much intensity.
Then both his hands were at my hips, his fingers sliding down the sides of my underwear, and he was pushing them down. I helped, shimmying out of them, then I did the same for him. He lifted his ass and I tugged his boxer briefs down his muscular thighs. I was desperate for him, in a way that was more than just physical. Taking him in my hand, I rose up, positioned him, and took him inside me.
He groaned. “Fuck, babe. You even ready for me?”
I wasn’t fully ready, and I was. There was a little pain, but I gloried in it. There was no way I could have held out any longer. I needed this connection with him. “I want you,” I said simply.
“You feel so perfect.”
He did too. No one, nothing could feel better than this. Nothing ever would and I knew that with everything in me.
For once he didn’t roll me to my back and take over, he let me lead, let me take what I needed. Those big hands moved restlessly, sliding along my thighs, gripping my hips when I started to roll them. His lifted sharply, pushing deep and my back arched, a cry bursting free. Neco cursed, fingers digging deeper, holding tighter as if he was afraid to let me go. Even now, he felt that fear.
That killed me.
Tears stung my eyes as I moved faster, as a rolling, building need in me climbed higher. I was torn between heartache and bliss. My head spun as I ground deeper, harder against him, letting the feeling overtake me, overwhelm me. I started to shake, and then I was crying out, collapsing against him. Neco banded his arms around me, one to my upper back, the other across my ass, and he held me immobile, thrusting up into me over and over again, prolonging my release. Then he slammed up, going deep, and stayed there, pulsing as he came hot and hard inside me.
We stayed like that for the longest time. Finally, he rolled us to our sides, carefully sliding out of me then tugging me close.
The way he wrapped me in his arms wasn’t just about holding me; it was more, so much more, it was that thing inside him, that fear that he needed to face if we were ever going to survive.
Somehow, I fell asleep like that, with those thoughts circulating my mind, and when I woke, it was to an empty bed.
I climbed out and tugged on my panties and Neco’s shirt I’d been wearing and headed out to the living room.
He was sitting at his desk, working. He turned and when he saw me, closed the screens down on his monitors. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“Just research for a case. How’s Harry?”
“He’ll be fine. He’s angry that Edwards man got the better of him, but he’ll be okay. Have you heard from Jude? Do they know any more?”
“We know the woman running the show likes to be called Mom and is a sick, twisted individual. She befriends her targets, then sets the cameras up.”
I frowned. “That’s not what happened with me.”
“Yeah.” The muscles in his forearms jumped as he clenched his fists. “Wish we’d had a chance to interrogate Scott. There’s a lot that’s been left unexplained. But we’ll get this bitch and we’ll figure it all out.”
“Coffee?” I asked as I headed to the kitchen.
“Yeah, thanks.”
I could feel his eyes on me as I moved around, but he didn’t say anything more. I made our drinks and tried to work up my courage. Now was as good a time as any to try and hash this out. I passed him his drink and he curled his arm around my waist, holding me against his side.
He took a sip of his coffee, put it down on his desk, and then maneuvered me between his splayed thighs. “Morning,” he said.
“Morning.” My belly flipped.
His fingers at my waist gave me a squeeze. “Last night was . . . shit, amazing, baby. But I know there was more to it, and I know it was my fault for the way I handled things.”
A tiny glimmer of hope started to unfurl and grow behind my ribs. “We need to sort this all out, what’s going on between us.”
“I think so, too.” His forehead furrowed.
“I’m sorry I lied to you.”
He didn’t answer, just stared at me in a way I couldn’t interpret.
“I had backup the whole time. Harry knows his stuff, Neco.”
“I know he does.”
I slid my hand up his arm, to the side of his strong neck. “Does this mean you’re okay with me working for him?”
His eyes closed for a second then were back on me. “Not even a little bit.”
My knee-jerk reaction was to push away from him, but I kept a lid on it, determined not to overreact, not until we’d properly talked this out. “I know this is hard for you. But it’ll get easier. We’ll work it out together.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple sliding up and down his throat. “I haven’t changed my mind, Ruby. I don’t want you working for Harry anymore.”
I did pull away now, anger, hurt, so many emotions firing though me. “Do you have some kind of compromise you want to discuss?” I asked, hoping like hell he did. Like me returning to the King Agency, but this time as an agent.
He reached for me, but I stepped back. “You’re asking me to agree to let you risk your life, to put yourself at risk every day.” He shook his head. “I thought I could, but I can’t do that.”
Oh God.
I hugged myself. “You know this isn’t just about me doing a job that’s dangerous, don’t you?”
He frowned. “Ruby . . .”
“You’re holding on too tight, Neco. Too damn tight.”
He flinched.
“This is about your mom, this is about feeling helpless.”
He shook his head. “No, this has nothing to do with her.” He stood, but stayed where he was. “I love that you found your voice, found that confidence, that you shut that bitch of a stepmother’s voice down in your head, but you’re not bullet proof. You don’t need to prove her wrong, not anymore.”
“That’s what you think I’m doing?” I rasped.
“Yeah, that’s what I think you’re doing.”
I glanced out the window, sucking in a sharp breath. “You still see me as that broken, sad little girl, don’t you?”
A pause. “No . . .”
I didn’t believe him. “As someone to be strong for.”
“Ruby . . .”
“Looking out for me gave you that, gave you the strength you needed when your world was as fucked up as mine.” I shook my head. “I can’t be the Ruby you want me to be. I can’t be that Ruby anymore. I can only be me.”
“Fuck.” He dragged a hand over his head.
“I’m not weak. I’m not a victim. I know what I want, and it has nothing to do with Valery.” I met his eyes, mine pleading with him to see, to see me. “But it has everything to do with you. You were the one to help me find my strength. You made me believe I could be anything I wanted. That she had no power over me. I took that to heart, Neco. I believed it. I still do. Valery . . . she’s nothing to me. She certainly has nothing to do with my decisions.” I took a steadying breath. “I can’t give up what I want . . . what I need, to make you feel better. I can’t be a prisoner in this apartment.” My eyes locked with his. “I can’t be your prisoner.”
His whole body jerked back at that, my words making a direct hit. I hated it, but I couldn’t say nothing and hope he’d change his mind, or carry on sneaking around behind his back, just to live my life. What kind of a relationship was that?
“You’re not a prisoner,” he said, deep and rough.
“But that’s how I feel when you act this way. You love me, I know that, but this, the way you’re acting, it doesn’t come from love, it’s born from fear and it’s . . . it’s too much, Neco.”
He stood there, staring at me, chest rising and falling fast.
“Neco,” I said when he said nothing. “Please.”
It was one word, but it said everything. Please fight for us. Please fight for me.
“I can’t,” he said.
I dragged in a deep breath, a tear streaking down my face. “Then this won’t work.”
He froze. “What won’t work?”
“Us,” I choked, shaking my head. “I can’t be with you.”
He stood like a statue, eyes boring into me. “You don’t mean that.”
“I’ll be gone before you get home.”
“No,” he choked.
“You can’t control this, Neco. Not this time.” Then I turned and walked away, shutting myself in the bathroom.
Broken Rebel: A Lawless Kings Novel Page 25