A Steel Town (A Gateway to Love #3)

by Chloe Barlow

  Claudia reached for his face, turning it to kiss him, and he let her.

  “Okay,” he continued slowly. “She knew I’d gotten busted by the FBI in high school for a pretty big hack I did of the San Francisco school system. It was just a prank that got out of control. It pulled in way more data than I’d ever intended. My dad got me off, but the feds were keeping tabs on me. Dad was convinced their plan was to use my brain down the road — see if I’d slip up and give them enough leverage to get me to work for them.”

  “Your dad wasn’t crazy. They do that, and you would be quite the prize. It’s how they got you to help them now with Jack Taylor’s case.”

  “It’s why they want you, too — brains like ours are quite a commodity,” he grumbled.

  “But he was right to worry — you’re very special, Trey.”

  “Because I’m Aldous Adler’s son?”

  “No, because you’re you.”

  It was embarrassing how warm he felt at those words. He cleared his throat and started rambling on again. “Well, no matter what the FBI was thinking, I didn’t want to put my dad through all of that shit again. Problem was, I’ve never been able to keep out of trouble for very long. It was never about money or notoriety for me. It’s always just been curiosity — I’d get an idea and then I couldn’t wait to see if I could do it. A.J. was different. For her, she wanted to prove to the whole world how capable she was — kind of like someone else I know,” he added, leveling a meaningful gaze at Claudia.

  She looked shy for a moment, before inquiring, “Do you know who she sold it to?”

  Trey snorted. “They came for us,” he started to talk quickly, eager to spit the words out as fast as possible.

  “Did they hurt either of you?”

  “They shot her and knocked me out. They kept me locked up in a fancy hotel room somewhere in Europe, judging by the electrical outlets.”

  “What about A.J.? Did the gunshot kill her?”

  “I begged to see A.J. They said she was gone, but I could work for my own freedom. The virus wasn’t enough for them. They wanted me to make more like it.”

  “What did the Starling virus do?”

  “It would mimic a server perfectly, replacing the nest of its host, if you will. Everything the server did — such as, accessing other mainframes or co-opting devices — the virus would be able to do, as well, all while barely leaving a trace. The Russians had this scheme of using it to impersonate and control the U.S. power grid — hold America hostage for a much bigger ransom than they’d get for me.”

  “Hurting or killing millions of people in the process…”

  “Exactly. Not like I would help those fuckers forge a library card, much less with something like that. Instead I used the computer they gave me to infiltrate and corrupt their systems. I tried to use it to figure out where A.J. was, too, but there was no record of her anywhere in their systems. Whatever other data I was able to access, I sent to my dad.”

  “Did it work?”

  “Yes. He came for me, with his own team of paid muscle and bought me back to the States. The Russians didn’t know I’d stolen all that intel from them until it was too late.”

  “What about A.J.?”

  “They demanded millions for her body, but would never show evidence of her being alive or dead.”

  “Why’d you believe she wasn’t dead?”

  “Because they didn’t get what they wanted from me. I thought if I could just get safe, maybe I could find her. But I hated myself because…”

  “You believed if you’d helped them, maybe you could’ve saved her?”

  “Exactly. I became obsessed with figuring out what happened to her, so I used all the data I stole to try and find her. For me, my dad rescuing me was just the beginning.”

  “You only mentioned your dad. Your mother is alive, isn’t she? Wouldn’t she have been worried sick, too?”

  “I have limited interactions with her.”

  “Why?”

  “Now you’re just being nosy,” he answered, grinning.

  “Guilty. Like you say — humor me.”

  “They split when I was young. My dad swore I wasn’t safe with her. He paid her a fuck ton of money to let him raise me alone. She fought for a while, but he was too powerful. She eventually took it. Used her solitary treasure to travel around the world. After I got busted, she met me outside of school, and took me on a little trip that ended with a boat ride — in the Mediterranean Sea. My dad went nuts. She told him he was turning me into him and that a boy needed his mother, and all that kind of shit. He told her there was no way she could keep me safe from all the people that would want me, and what I can do. I figure it took another small fortune and a few threats for him to get her to let me go again.”

  “Trey, I’m so sorry.”

  “Yeah, me too. I guess you could say I’ve been kidnapped twice… That’s something special, right?”

  Claudia fell silent for several minutes, until he couldn’t take it anymore.

  “I can hear your brain working, little one. What do you want to know?”

  “What happened after your dad saved you from the Russians? How did this turn into a ten-year hunt for you?”

  “After I dropped out of Stanford I couldn’t go back home, even though my dad wanted me to. It was all my fault — what happened to A.J.”

  “That’s just silly. You can’t blame yourself. She made her choice. She was the one who took it too far, lying to you in the process.”

  “It’s not that simple. We have to take responsibility for the damage we cause, even if we never saw it coming. No matter how much benefit one person gets for doing the wrong thing, someone always ends up paying a price. And I know that had to be me. That’s when I started searching for A.J. on my own. I had no idea what I was doing. I thought if I could just find out what they did to her and take them down, then maybe I could fix everything — and move on.”

  “Did it work?”

  “About three years later, I met a nice Irish girl in Budapest, she fell for me hard and I thought I might be able to love her.”

  “What happened?”

  “I lost Maura, too.”

  “Lost her? You mean… Jesus… How?”

  “They ruled it a suicide, but I never believed it. I’d gotten a mysterious email from her account before it happened. The cops called it a suicide note, but I never bought it.”

  “What was the MO?”

  “She was found hanged…the noose tied by someone left-handed. Just like David.”

  “Shit.”

  “Did they suspect you?”

  “Not officially, but it wouldn’t take much for the FBI to find out about it — and add it to my laundry list of suspicious activity.”

  “It sounds like these people are fixated on you.”

  “They should be. I’d been chasing them for years. After Maura died, I knew it was too dangerous for me to care about anyone — until I met you.”

  “Trey…”

  “People always like to say things happen for a reason — that you can get over everything, if you just try. But there are some things in life you shouldn’t leave behind. They are there to remind you of just how imperfect you really are — how damaging you can really be.”

  “Maura wasn’t your fault either.”

  “I didn’t keep her safe. I let her love me and she was killed. It’s that simple.”

  Claudia gritted her teeth, ready to speak, but she let him continue.

  “And no sign of A.J. being alive?”

  Trey paused. How could he explain his greatest fear — that A.J. had done what he wouldn’t — she’d become one of them.

  “No. I couldn’t imagine them letting her go, and there was never a sign she escaped.”

  Claudia narrowed her eyes, appraising him coolly, but he kept his face passive.

  “So you just accepted she was gone?”

  “I became obsessed with finding the team who took me and A.J. One day, I finally ha
d a breakthrough — hunting down the source of Maura’s suicide note. It came from a group called ‘Lexis.’ That’s how I hooked up with Stephen. He runs a CIA task force focused on international mercenary groups — and Team Lexis is his prime target. We’ve been two steps behind them for years. The Jack Taylor investigation was supposed to be my own thing, but when you saw the connections to Lexis…”

  “You got scared?”

  “Hell yes, I did. Claudia, if that team has you in their sights, they will get you. And they’ve killed every woman I’ve ever cared for. I can’t lose you, too.”

  “Trey, you wreck me,” Claudia whispered.

  “Does that mean we can take a break from this conversation?” he asked, gripping her ass with his hands.

  “Hell yes,” she answered, kissing him hard. She was getting bolder with him by the minute, and he loved it. If he was going to throw away everything he’d learned about how to live his life over the years by allowing himself to fall for her, at least he wasn’t alone in the madness.

  Holding her hands firmly with his, he stood, before hoisting her up, so she could wrap her legs around his waist. He carried her back to the patio through the slightly ajar French doors, then straight to his room.

  “It’s a good thing you’re so light, little one.”

  “Why? Are you worried about hurting your back, old man?” she teased, her breath hot against his neck. She began nibbling the juncture of his neck and shoulder, and he groaned audibly.

  “Damn it, woman,” he growled, coming to a stop at the foot of his bed.

  Claudia slithered her denim-clad legs down Trey’s sides, setting her feet on the bed.

  She yanked her sweater over her head impatiently, with her tee shirt not far behind. He couldn’t blame her, as he felt possessed, too — frantic to wipe away all the toxic memories with each slide of his hands across her perfect skin.

  She was now a bit taller than him, placing her pert breasts conveniently close to his eager mouth. He closed his lips around an upturned nipple, letting the tip of his tongue play with the taut flesh. Her responding shiver sent another jolt of arousal through his bloodstream.

  If the past half hour hadn’t left him so crazed, he would’ve joked about how she’d finally given his neck a rest from constantly straining to look down at her. Yet, he had no room inside of him for playfulness. His brain was overtaken with the need to bury himself deeply inside her. Perhaps if he hid from the world with her long enough, he could figure out how to drag them from the nightmare currently spiraling around his life.

  Claudia whimpered slightly, grasping at his shirt with a feverish desperation, which matched his own madness. The stretch of the cotton over his head separated him briefly from her warm skin. Trey growled in frustration, licking his lips to savor the lingering taste of her.

  Once freed, he reached up to grip her hair, his hands ready to form into fists, but before his mouth could find her throat Claudia forced her way to his chest, alternately licking and sucking his left nipple, then using her teeth to pull gently at the metal piercing running through it. His head swung backward, releasing himself to the freedom of each hot swipe of her deft tongue.

  Shock and heat ran through his chest at the sudden sensation of the tip of her tongue sliding across his chest, between his pecs, and down the length of his stomach. She flicked her tongue over every ripple of his abs, which were clenching with each warm, lapping motion.

  Her hands yanked off his belt, then quickly undid the button of his jeans and slid down the zipper. Trey’s hands twisted and tugged at her hair, trying to stem his urge to guide her movements.

  Glancing up at him briefly, Claudia rubbed across Trey’s length through his boxer briefs with the heel of her palm. Hesitating for a moment, she sucked at her bottom lip, revealing her two front teeth. He took a sharp intake of breath, growing harder under her excited touch.

  When she finally pulled down the elastic band, Trey’s cock sprang free so jubilantly that Claudia smiled and swiped her tongue across her lips in response. The sight of her innocent and beautiful, young face next to his rock-hard erection was enough to force him to access every ounce of self-control not to come right there.

  Stilling his body, Trey let her take her time. At first she tentatively licked around the head and down his shaft, as though she were charting a course of him. He ground his teeth together at the almost painful pleasure it caused. As if emboldened, in one surprising motion, Claudia took him into her mouth. The velvety smoothness of her engulfed all his senses, filling him with pleasure, desire…and hope, all at once.

  “Fuck,” Trey muttered with a jagged growl. The word seemed to make her even more impassioned, as she quickened her pace. Her little happy slurping and humming sounds elicited another series of expletives, until Trey couldn’t take it anymore.

  The pleasure was too intense, yet Trey didn’t want to finish like this. He needed to be truly connected to her — to wipe away every word and painful memory with each stroke of him in her.

  Trey eased himself out of her mouth. He clutched her jaw in his palms, his fingers spread wide along her cheeks and jawline. With the press of his thumbs, he tilted her chin up so he could see her brown eyes — impossibly wide, and accented by her wet red lips.

  The sight of Claudia kneeling in front of him assured Trey she could truly be his. She was giving up everything for him, and to him, and that realization acted as a steadying force to his heart, which was still reeling from the roller coaster of a morning.

  Needing to confirm she was real, he slid his thumb across her plump bottom lip.

  “Eres mi todo,” he whispered, the words cracking slightly.

  Claudia gasped a little, clearly stunned by his use of Spanish, and his choice of words.

  “You’re my everything, too,” she responded after a beat. A lone tear welled in one eye. For a moment, it glistened like a newly discovered pearl until it gave way and slid down her face.

  “Does that scare you?” Trey asked.

  Claudia shook her head vigorously.

  “Don’t you get it? As long as I’m with you, I’ll never be afraid.”

  Trey took a rough breath and leaned down to lick the tear away. Claudia’s hands held both sides of his face, her lips so close to his. Trey sealed his lips over hers, massaging and teasing her with his mouth and tongue, nibbling at her with his teeth.

  Claudia broke from him. “I need you, Trey,” she panted. “Do you need me?”

  “I need you so much it fucking hurts,” he blurted out hoarsely. Trey grabbed behind her knees, flipping her on her ass.

  Claudia unclipped her pump from her waistband. They both fought with her jeans, yanking them off, along with her panties, unceremoniously.

  She was barely naked for a second before Trey thrust fully inside her, his hip bones grinding against her. Claudia arched her back, releasing a loud cry. The debilitating feeling and completeness stilled Trey for a moment, and he gulped for air.

  “Yes! Trey…please,” she begged, clutching at his arms, urging him to continue.

  Her desperation reignited his madness. With his hands still behind her knees, Trey thrust hard and fast inside her, his body a broken piston of frustration and pain, which could only be repaired with this rough touch. Claudia started screaming in complicated Spanish words he couldn’t understand, until she clenched around him tightly. The sharp bite of her nails in his arms told him he didn’t have to hold back anymore. With one last hard push, he released himself into her.

  She breathed heavily beneath him for a minute, clumsily wrapping her legs around his waist. Once Trey regained his senses, he shook off his pants, which had pooled around his ankles, and joined her on the bed.

  They held each other tightly, as if the connection of their bodies was the only recovered buoy from a sinking ship.

  Then reality sunk in. “Shit. I forgot to wear a condom. I’ve never done that before…”

  “Don’t worry,” Claudia stated calmly. “I’m on
the pill. I have been since I was sixteen. With all my other issues, having irregular periods wasn’t something we wanted to worry about, too.”

  “That’s good. I probably shouldn’t get you pregnant and fired in the same month,” he added, a wry smile playing on his lips as he wrapped an arm around her. She swatted him lightly, before taking a deep inhale and resting her cheek on the un-inked portion of his chest. Trey craned his neck to look down at her, “I’m clean, I swear.”

  Claudia made small swirls in the shape of an infinity symbol repeatedly on his skin before speaking.

  “I’m sure you are. I know you would never put me at risk.” She paused the motion of her fingertip and met his eyes before intoning, “I trust you.”

  Her words lumbered through the air like two-day-old helium balloons — bouncing in slow motion around their heads.

  “Thank you,” Trey said finally, his eyes staring at the ceiling, sensing the words slicing clumsily into the air like a dull knife.

  “Don’t thank me, silly. Even though you piss me off royally sometimes, you’re a lot easier to believe in than you realize,” Claudia muttered, wiggling her body flush with his, her hair spreading across Trey’s chest. She smelled like fresh air and sweat. He couldn’t breathe her in deeply enough as he let his eyes close before falling into an uneasy sleep.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  “Theodore, sweetie, can you hear me?”

  “Mom?” he mumbled.

  “Did you fall asleep in front of the computer again, you silly boy?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry.”

  “It’s your dad’s fault, making you crazy like him. I need you to wake up. I was bored with your father gone all week, so I have some new friends over.”

  “Again?”

  “Oh, don’t be crabby. One of them has been dying to meet you. All he can talk about is how he hears you’re so smart. He actually wants to know about all those computer games you keep making up.”

  “Dad says I’m not supposed to talk to people about those.”