by Becky McGraw
“What other stuff?” she asked, her perfectly-arched eyebrow lifting.
“The fact that me being here could get you killed if one of the Abu Sayyaf hitmen realize I’ve popped my head up. Like the FBI and CIA have a terrorist hit list, they have one too, and I’m sure I’m number one on that list.”
She harrumphed. “Bullshit. You can be helped, if you let us help you. But it seems you’re too stubborn to accept that.”
“That group is brutal and have a very long memory. It will never go away, unless that terrorist organization ceases to exist,” Griff said calmly. “They killed my family, and if we get involved, they will kill you and Layla too. Thomas Griffin can never live outside of the shadows again, or he and anyone he’s associated with, will be dead. You make me want to forget about that, but I have to remember, because I care about you.”
“You promised me today—that’s all I’m expecting,” she replied, putting her hand on his face. “But tomorrow, after we find Layla, I’m getting to work on fixing your problem.”
His stomach clenched. “You promised me that you would stay out of it.”
She shrugged. “Promises are made to be broken, but I’m holding you to the one you made. Stop talking and start kissing,” she said, her eyes falling to his mouth.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Lou Ellen.”
“You can’t hurt me, I’ve been told I’m tougher than a nickel steak,” she said with a sexy smile as she reached for the hem of his t-shirt.
Griff knew that was one-hundred-percent not true. She was as kindhearted and sensitive as a woman could be, even though she pretended otherwise. And she cared deeply about the people in her life. In another life, he’d want to be one of those people. In his present form, there was no way he could allow that. He swallowed hard and decided to be blunt to make sure they were on the same page.
“As soon as we find, Layla, I’ll be gone, Lou. Tell me you accept that. Tell me you’ll take care of her and get her back into foster care. I can’t keep her with me anymore and I don’t want her on the streets again.”
Her eyes glistened. “I don’t accept it, but I’ll live with it if you want to hide again. Don’t expect me to stop trying to fix it, though. I will take care of Layla and I will find a solution to your problem.”
A tremor rocked him, but it wasn’t from relief. Her hand had found his fly, and she stroked him through his borrowed jeans. She flicked the button from the buttonhole, eased down the zipper, then slid her hand into the Superman briefs he had to force himself to put on. When her fingers closed around him, he groaned. Her hot palm scorched his flesh and Griff had to fight to stay standing.
“Let’s go to bed, Griff,” she whispered, and he pulled away.
Bending, he put one arm behind her back and the other behind her knees. She giggled when he lifted her into his arms.
“I haven’t been carried to bed in a long time,” Lou Ellen said, her voice trembling.
“I haven’t been in a bed in a long time, so we’re even,” he replied, lowering his mouth to hers to kiss her as he carried her to the bedroom.
Chapter 13
Strong arms squeezed tightly around her middle, waking Lou Ellen up. She smoothed her hand up the lightly-furred forearm she’d been snuggling to her body to pull his hand up closer to her sore breasts, while pushing back against the steely erection nestled into the crease of her ass.
She’d forgotten just how delicious it was to wake up in a man’s arms.
Wake up? Hell, it felt like they’d barely been asleep.
She knew now that Griff’s claim to be old enough to know what he was doing, yet young enough to go the distance hadn’t been bragging. She’d forgotten all about age when he put his mouth and talented hands on her.
He proved to her making love was ageless when two souls connected like theirs had. And she found out, sex was like riding a horse—she had no problem getting back into the saddle. With a sigh, she stretched and her hair dragged through his beard stubble as she turned in his arms. Their bodies melted together and she lifted her face to kiss his chin.
“Again?” he grumbled, kissing her forehead, but his hand slid down the curve of her waist to pull her hips closer.
Goosebumps raised on her flesh and she shivered as she lifted her leg to his thigh. He sucked in a sharp breath, then moaned as his cock settled between her legs. The corner of her mouth kicked up as she wiggled her hips until he was at the center of her heat.
“You not up to the challenge, Mr. Young Enough?” she asked, nipping his lower lip.
One of his eyes popped open to glare at her before he growled, his fingers dug into her hip and he flipped her onto her back, pinned her with his leg between her knees and covered her mouth with his. Lou Ellen moaned into his mouth as her body caught fire, dug her nails into his shoulders and kissed him back just as fiercely. His hand skimmed down her stomach to the apex of her thighs and she whimpered when the tips of his fingers dipped inside.
God, she hadn’t thought about him torturing her with orgasms again when she started this new round. She thought he’d just take her fast and quick, but it looked like there was nothing fast about this man. He rolled the oversensitive bud between his fingers and she moaned as she writhed under his touch.
Moisture flooded her already wet folds and she reached to stop his hand when she didn’t think she could take more, but he laughed as he dragged his mouth from hers.
“Can’t take what you dish out, sweetness?” he asked, his voice raw with passion.
Before she could answer, he devoured her mouth again, his fingers played her body like a fine-tuned instrument and delicious pleasure swamped her body with every note. Lou Ellen lost her place in time and space, she floated higher on wave after wave of pleasure, sang it out for him, until she was mindless and desperate to feel him inside of her. But he kept pushing her until she fell over the edge into sensual oblivion, until she shook violently with another mind-blowing climax, and he held her until the tremors stopped.
She felt his smile on her cheek as he moved his hand to her breast. He lifted up and spread her knees wider then settled there. He lifted her leg over his elbow and leaned in to cover her mouth in a gentler kiss as he pushed into her body and moaned.
Lou Ellen had had a fair amount of sex in her life, with at least six different men. Four of those men were great lovers. She had never been with anyone who made it a transcendental experience like this man did.
He pushed deeper with another thrust, her body stretched and pulsed around him and he stopped to move his hand up to stroke her cheek.
“I guess you can take as good as you give, beautiful,” he said, and the soft intimacy of the gesture, the adoration in his voice, his smile, made her pounding heart squeeze hard.
You cannot let yourself love this man, Lou Ellen. But she knew that was a toothless warning. She’d had this feeling inside twice in her life, so she knew exactly what it represented.
Griff held her gaze and their souls connected as he made a final thrust to fully enter her body. She knew he didn’t have to make another thrust to be fully inside her heart. While he held her hips and moved in and out of her body, Lou Ellen plotted to figure out how she could keep him in her life.
* * *
Griff woke up and a delicious, decidedly feminine smell greeted him. Warmth like he hadn’t known in a long time filled him and a deep, satisfied sigh escaped his lips as he opened his eyes. He hugged the hot female body pressed to his tighter. Lou Ellen stirred, and turned her face back to kiss his shoulder. His hand skimmed over her hip to squeeze her ass, and he was shocked he was ready to go again.
But the alarm on her phone going off said there wouldn’t be time for that. There wouldn’t ever be time again if they found Layla today. Was it wrong of him to hope they wouldn’t? That he would have one more day with her?
He moaned as he rolled onto his back and covered his eyes with his forearm. Yes, it was wrong. They had to find her today, or there might not be
a tomorrow for her.
Lou Ellen rolled over and snuggled into his chest, her hand dove under the sheet and he groaned when her fingers curled around him. Her thumb stroked the head of his cock, and he knew he had to stop her. And he had to stop himself of having the fantasy of waking up with her like this every morning. If they found Layla today, he would be sleeping in his sleeping bag tomorrow night. But he would move his tent, so they would never find him.
“It’s time to get up, Queenie,” he said, his voice morose. “We need to hit the road.”
Chapter 14
“I’m worried about Lou Ellen,” Caleb announced, as the team drove toward Tent City.
“Why are you worried about her? She stayed at the office,” Griff asked, looking at him.
Leaving her there had been for the best. He said his goodbyes, without saying goodbye, so he could disappear with a clear conscience, if they were lucky today. She was more than safe, even alone, at the company fortress in the country on the outskirts of Dallas.
“Because leaving her behind was too easy,” he replied. “She’s got something up her sleeve and that worries the shit out of me.”
“You’re right,” Levi chimed in.
Dave looked back at them in the rearview. “There’s nothing to worry about. She knows she wouldn’t have been of use coming with us today and would only have been in the way. If nothing else, she’s reasonable and that’s why she’s hanging back with Dex.”
“Reasonable?” Slade repeated with a snort. “Are we talking about our pistol-packing office manager who helped Gray take out the mob?”
Griff tensed as icy fear froze his blood. “She did what?!?” he shrieked, his stomach knotting.
“Long story, but Grayson, our accountant, got involved with some bad hombres while he was in Washington setting up the new operation. She was with him and she wasn’t a bystander.”
“What about when she saved those women at the trafficked women’s shelter?” Slade asked, shaking his head. “God, I love that woman.”
As quick and unexpected as it was, Griff loved her too.
He loved her spunk, her sass, and her class. She was stubborn, strong, sexy and independent. A woman a lot like his deceased wife, someone who he thought he could never replace. She didn’t replace Glynna in his heart, but she covered the gaping wound his wife’s death left there and bored her own place beside it. Even though he didn’t want her there.
Lou Ellen Wells was the whole package wrapped in a golden bow, but Griff wouldn’t accept that gift. She was too special, and he wasn’t man enough to give her the life she deserved. The dark shadows would always be chasing him as long as he stood in her bright sunshine.
He would leave that bow tied tight for some other lucky bastard. He just hoped that man would realize what a precious gift she was. If Layla was included in that box, the man would grab the brass ring, and he better hold onto it with both hands.
While the other men continued to laugh about her other exploits, Griff remained silent, learning more about her, soaking it in and committing it to memory. These men respected her, protected her and loved her. She would be fine without him. Layla would be fine without him, because he trusted the woman who they held in such high esteem would take care of her.
Before he knew it, Logan pulled the SUV into a parking lot within sight of the overpass he called home just as the sun came up.
“Let’s do this thing. Layla Smith, fifteen, five-feet-four, bi-racial, long, curly black hair and green eyes. That right, Griff?” Slade asked, as he opened his door.
“Yeah, and she has a mole on her left cheek by her nose. Like a beauty mark kind of thing, and several cigarette-type burns on her right forearm.” The anger that always came when he noticed those resurfaced with a vengeance.
“Dex and Mac gave me more intel right before we left. I think I know within a three block radius where their stronghold is.” Logan opened his door, then leaned back inside the truck to grab his body armor. He shrugged out of his shirt and put it over his t-shirt. “We probably should do recon and plan a snatch and grab tonight, but this is not somewhere I want any of us to be after dark. If a former Recon Marine is afraid, you should be too. Let’s get this done and get the hell out of here.”
Griff and the rest of the men in the backseat filed out and walked to the back of the SUV where Slade handed out body armor and weapons. After they were all suited up, and redressed so no one knew they were protected, Logan unfurled a map on the hood of the SUV.
“Caleb and Levi, you take this block. Slade and I will take this block, and Griff is with us. Try to blend in and talk to the locals.”
“I don’t have enough tats for that, or enough firepower most likely,” Caleb said with a snort. “Can’t we just take a mission in Afghanistan or something?”
Levi elbowed him in the side and he grunted as he glared at him. “Don’t be a pussy, dude. I’ve dealt with worse down on the bayou when I was a teenager. These assholes are wannabes.”
“Just because you grew up in the swamp and wrestled gators for fun, doesn’t make you a badass, Cajun Boy. This is serious shit. These assholes don’t use guns, they use machetes. There’s five of us and hundreds of them. If you get cocky, I’m not carrying your stupid ass back out.”
“I didn’t ask you to,” Levi said. “But I’m not going in with you, if you’re scared.”
“I’m not scared,” Caleb growled. “Kill shots are my specialty, not close combat. Why don’t you sit on a roof and try it sometime? Let’s see how badass you are, then.”
“Did you bring your rifle?” Logan asked, his eyes snapping to Caleb.
“It’s like American Express—I don’t leave home without it,” Caleb replied with a grin.
“Good, then Griff can go with me and Slade can take Lola and go with Levi. Caleb, you set up somewhere central to give cover fire if we need it.” Dave looked back at the map and studied it hard. “Find a sniper hide somewhere in this area where you can watch 360. If anyone gets into trouble, run to this square block.” He refolded the map and turned to lean on the truck and fold his arms. “Let’s get our com equipment on and test it, then get moving.”
They split up and Griff walked with Logan toward their assigned quadrant, the pistol under his arm feeling all too familiar. He hadn’t fired a weapon in almost six years, or even taken target practice. Expert marksmen, government assassins, lived at the range and practiced live shot scenarios to stay sharp.
He hoped like hell if it came down to brass tacks, he would still have the skills to have Logan’s six. The thing he prayed for most, though, was that those brass tacks stayed in the box where they belonged and this would go down quietly.
Chapter 15
“Clear,” Logan said into the lapel of his coat when they reached the end of the third block they’d checked. “Are you sure she’s here, Griff?” he asked with a puff of breath.
“I’m sure she’s with a gangbanger,” he replied. “I cleared the other two territories in the area. By process of elimination, I’m as sure as I can—” he said, but stopped when his eyes snagged on a guy who pulled a girl back inside a building. A girl that looked a lot like Layla.
“What?” Dave asked, frowning as he squinted to look in that direction.
“I think I just saw her,” he whispered, giving a chin nod toward the warehouse that looked to be abandoned from the graffiti-strewn plywood over the windows. “She was coming out of that building with a guy, but he jerked her back inside when he saw us.”
“We are at the end of block three in our area and have visual,” Dave grated, as he put his mouth to his lapel. “Find us. We’ll wait.”
Griff heard footsteps behind him and knew it was too soon for Levi and Slade to have found them. So much for quiet, he thought, as he reached inside his coat for his pistol just as something hit him flat across the back and he went flying forward.
As soon as he landed, he rolled in case the guy was going to take another whack at him. He lunged to his
feet and saw two thugs circling Logan, one with a cane knife in his hand. He released the pistol grip, because he couldn’t take the chance of accidentally shooting Logan. Instead, he dove for the thug with the knife and tackled him.
They rolled and the tango ended up straddling his stomach. His flat, black eyes narrowed as he raised the machete with purpose. Griff grabbed his t-shirt and he looked surprised when he flipped over Griff’s head. Turning over, he jumped on the banger before the guy recovered and pounded his fists into his face until he stopped moving. He looked down the street and saw two more coming toward them, one with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.
“Fuck,” he grumbled as he stood and reached for his pistol, but saw Levi and Slade running down the block.
“Lola, sic!” Slade growled and Lola lunged from behind him to charge down the sidewalk with teeth bared.
Seeing her fly through the air and tackle the thug with the bat was a beautiful thing. Him landing and getting right back up to take a swing at her was not. With a ferocious snarl, she lunged and buried her teeth in his thigh. He squealed and dropped the bat to pull at her collar, but Slade took a flying swing and landed a blow that rocked his head on his shoulders. The thug fell like a tree and Lola got in his face to snarl like a demon dog from hell.
Loud, thumping music Griff felt in his chest bounced off of the dilapidated buildings as a black, big-rimmed SUV turned onto the block. He glanced at the building where he thought he’d seen Layla and took off running. The guy he’d seen drag Layla inside leaned into the door opening to fire a bullet with his name on it.
Griff dove to the pavement, the bullet ricocheting off the street near his thigh. He rolled and came up with his pistol in his hand and aimed at the opening. When the guy reappeared, his arm was around Layla’s neck, and the end of his gun—Griff’s gun—at her temple.