by Josie Kerr
“What? He called me yesterday and expressed his concern about the progress.” Geoffrey massaged his temples with his hands. “God, I ask him to do one simple thing.”
“Where the hell were you yesterday?” Jason looked like he was going to get in Geoffrey’s face again, so Meghan wrapped her hands around his thick forearm to remind him to keep his cool. He glanced in her direction and put his arm protectively around her shoulders.
“I was in the middle of a nightmarish meeting in Nashville. I literally got off the plane and headed here to check out this quote, unquote disaster waiting to happen.” Geoffrey shook his head. “I don’t know what the hell he was talking about.”
“So you were in Nashville yesterday.” Meghan’s mind raced. She looked up at Jason to find the same question in his eyes.
“Yes, that’s what I just said. What is going on?” Geoffrey looked from Meghan to Jason and back. “What?”
“I got stuck in the walk-in freezer yesterday.”
“No, you got locked in the freezer yesterday, Meghan. I checked out the cart that was blocking the door. The caster locks are tight. There is no way the cart just rolled and stopped in front of the door. Someone had to physically place it there and lock the wheels.”
Meghan felt her stomach drop. “So . . . that means someone tried to . . .”
She started to shake, and Jason pulled her close. “Hey, babe. Calm down, okay? It’s all good. I’ve got you. We’ve got you, okay, darlin’?”
Meghan closed her eyes and tried to submerge herself in Jason’s embrace, his earthy smell of soap, sweat, and man. She felt his voice rumble through his chest as he and Geoffrey continued talking, but she had no idea what they discussed. Finally, she was aware of strong arms lifting her off her feet and carrying her into the pub and up the stairs to the apartment.
Jason laid her on the bed and lay down beside her. She nuzzled into his chest, and he cradled her in his arms. Then she finally cried. Cried for the loss of her father, for the potential loss of the pub into which he poured all his grief, for all the uncertainty that surrounded her. All the while, Jason held her tightly, petting her hair and her back, until she fell asleep.
Chapter 28
Meghan closed her eyes so she could concentrate on Jason’s rough hands on her breasts, the feel of his cock buried deep inside her, and the filthy words he was rasping in her ear as he drilled into her from behind. The early morning sun was warm on her face and upper body, and Meghan sighed contentedly.
“Tilt your ass up a little, babe.” Jason nipped her on the neck as he urged her to spread her legs wider. She did, and those thick, rough fingers of his found her nub. He began to roll that sensitive bundle of nerves between his fingers in the same rhythm as he did one of her nipples, and she thought she might pass out from pleasure.
Meghan leaned back against Jason’s chest so she could grab his ass. She dug her fingers into his cleft and spread his cheeks so she could explore. When she found his pucker, she tapped it lightly once.
“Fuck yeah, Meghan. That’s the spot, baby,” Jason growled in her ear. “Harder now.”
“Like this?”
“Oh, holy. Yes. Yes, yes, yes.” Jason increased his pounding as she rubbed her fingers across his taint and hole. “Babe, I am not gonna last if you keep doing that—good Lord, do not stop doing that.”
Hearing how much Jason enjoyed her playing with his ass, coupled with what he was doing to her, sent Meghan flying. She clenched around him before she had time to say anything.
“Baby,” he whispered. “Meghan.” Jason wrapped his hand around her jaw, turning her face to him. “Meghan,” he whispered in between greedy kisses while his cock jolted inside her. “Meghan.”
She smiled against his mouth as the waves of their climax subsided. When it was finished, Jason collapsed backward on the bed, pulling her with him.
“Love you,” he whispered. “I know it’s a crappy time for me to tell you, but—”
“Shut up, Richards.” Meghan rolled over. He grunted as he slid out of her, but she covered his mouth with her own hard kiss. “I love you, too.”
Jason grinned. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, I do.” Meghan pressed her lips against the tattoo above his heart. “I truly do.”
He smiled at her and stroked her lock of pink hair between his fingers. “I want to bury myself in you again for saying that, but damn, baby, I don’t think I can get it up again.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, Jason, but I need to be able to walk today,” she said with a chuckle. “We need to get up. The rest of the group will be here soon.” She rolled out of bed and wobbled a little, her legs still unsteady from their lovemaking session.
“Man, I like the looks of that.” Jason had made no move to get up, just shifted to prop himself up, his back against the headboard. “You parading around in the altogether in front of those mirrors so I can see all of you at once? Hot damn.”
“You are insatiable, and you’re a liar.” Meghan shook her head, grinning at his burgeoning erection. “ ‘I don’t think I can get it up again,’ ” she mocked.
Jason shrugged and began to crawl toward the end of the bed. “What can I say? I was mistaken.” He stepped off the bed and went to her. “Shower?”
“Most definitely.” She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss, then whooped when he swung her up into his arms and carried her to the bathroom.
☆☆☆
“You need to stop looking at me like that,” Meghan groused, not taking her eyes off the computer screen.
“Like what?” Jason schooled his face into what he hoped was an innocent look, because damn, he was having some filthy thoughts. Between the exchange of the three not-so-little words and the fact that Meghan was in sexy-business-woman mode with her glasses and topknot, he wanted to shove everything off the desk and take her right there in the office. Maybe next time.
“Like you want to have me for lunch.” She arched an eyebrow and lasered him with a scorching look.
No, definitely next time.
“You need to be good.” Meghan chuckled, turning back to the monitor. “Because I don’t know how long I can resist you.”
“One more kiss, then worky-work.” He swooped in for a kiss, which she didn’t deny him. “Okay, babe, gimme your phone.”
“What? Oh, okay.” Still halfway stunned, she handed Jason her phone.
He chuckled while he tapped through screens, downloading a monitoring app for the security system. “Okay, Meghan. This will make your life a lot easier and more secure.” He handed her the phone and walked her through the setup, following Kyle’s instructions exactly.
“Oh! So I can monitor stuff even if I’m not at the computer?” She swiped through a few screens. “This is cool.”
“Right? And you can control the cameras remotely as well—everything from changing their angles to turning them off and on.”
“Nice.” Meghan beamed at him. “If you talk to your brother before I do, tell him I owe him a bottle of whatever he wants.” She continued flipping through the screen. “Man, if only these had been in place when I—” Meghan sucked in a breath. “I . . . Jaysus.”
She brushed her hair back from her face, her hand noticeably shaking. Jason put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Even as much as her breakdown the night before seemed to have provided a catharsis, Jason knew his brave woman would most likely be dealing with the effects of all the recent emotional upheaval for several months, if not years. PTSD was a sneaky rat-bastard, waiting to smack someone when they least expected it, and Jason was not about to let Meghan be blindsided. He figured they would end up fighting about it because, hey, that was kind of their jam, but Meghan was just going to have to put up with him being an overprotective ass.
Meghan patted his hand and looked up at him. “Thanks, Jase. I mean it. For everything.”
He cupped her cheek in his hand, bent down, and pressed a sweet kiss to her lips. “Anything for you, Meghan. Anythi
ng.”
Her phone chimed with a message, and she groaned when she saw whom it was from.
“Ugh. Fuckin’ Knox.” She shook her head. “I don’t get him. After the conversation with Geoffrey yesterday, I really wonder if Knox is the problem.” She frowned at the phone, flipping absently through the images. “I mean, Geoffrey’s a royal ass—there’s no denying it—but he sounded truly baffled about Knox’s report.”
Jason leaned back against the wall. “I know. I called Kyle last night and had him run a deeper background check on Knox. He’d done a superficial one earlier—hey, as soon as he came sliming around you, no way was I going to let it go. You can get mad all you want.”
Meghan chuckled. “I’m not going to get mad. It’s intrusive and obnoxious, but that’s why I love you.”
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get tired of you saying that.” He gave her another kiss. “So what does Knox say?”
“He wants to quote, unquote clear the air this afternoon.”
“I’m going to be here when this little meeting happens, period.”
Meghan nodded. “I wouldn’t expect any less.” She frowned and held her phone up. “Where is this camera, Jason? The angle is really weird, like it’s not even attached to Foley’s.”
He peered at the view on the monitor. “That’s because it’s not attached to Foley’s.” He quickly called up the monitor on his own phone. “I had to install the app so I could calibrate stuff. I was planning on deleting it when you got all set up.”
“No, leave it. It’s good that someone else has access. Consider it a fail-safe, right?”
“Damn straight,” Jason murmured while tapping out a text message to Kyle. “Okay, Meghan. I want you to lock the doors and don’t let anyone in, not even Knox. Tell him you have to reschedule. I’m going to check this out.”
“Jason!”
“Babe, Kyle knows where I am—he’s tracking the signal. He’s called Johnny, and he’s texting the guys right now.” He gave her a hard kiss on the mouth. “It’s all good. Just hang tight and I’ll text you when I’m finished so you can let me in.”
She nodded, but Jason could tell she didn’t like the situation one bit. Still, he had to go investigate. He needed to find out who tapped into the feed so quickly and if it was deliberate. If it was an intentional breach, chances are whoever it was had been watching Meghan since before the extra cameras were installed. That could be either good or bad. It would be good if the peeper had more insight into the crash, or even the freezer incident. But it would be bad if it was just some asshole who was spying on Meghan.
“I’ll be right back, Meghan.” He gave her another kiss and bolted out the door, following the path Kyle sent him.
Chapter 29
Jason jogged toward the newly constructed apartment building, growing more and more agitated. He checked the signal again. He was even with the blinking dot on the map; unfortunately, the signal could be coming from any of the apartments on any of the seven floors. He stepped back to take a better look at the balconies, hoping for a better clue as to where the camera was located.
Bingo. On a fourth-floor balcony, he could see a camera and what looked like a telescope.
Son of a bitch.
He quickly counted the number of balconies and took off into a run. He took the stairs two at a time to burst through the stairwell door and down the hall, where he banged on the door with his fist. When no one answered, he banged again, harder. He saw the peephole darken momentarily, so he stepped up close.
“My name is Jason Richards and I’d like to ask you some questions,” he said to the door. “It’s about something the camera on your balcony might have picked up.”
The door cracked open, and a face peered out. “Holy crap—it’s you.” The guy inside the apartment tried to slam the door, but Jason quickly wedged himself in the space.
“Aw, now you’ve piqued my interest,” Jason hissed, his voice menacing. “You need to open the door, now, because I will tell you what—it’s been a hell of a few days and I’m about out of patience.”
Jason forced the door open a little more, enough to get a look at the person who was trying to force the door shut.
“You’re a fuckin’ kid.”
“I’m nineteen,” the guy retorted, offended, as he strained against Jason’s bulk.
Jason rolled his eyes. “Like I said, a kid,” he scoffed and pushed his way inside the apartment.
The kid immediately began to shake his head, backing up toward what looked like a command center set up in the dining room of the apartment.
“I swear I was gonna delete it! I swear! I didn’t mean to tape you! I was just trying to see if I could catch the guys who are stealing bikes!” The fellow woke up the monitor as he babbled. “Look, you can watch me delete it! I swear there are no other copies!”
Jason latched on to the back of the guy’s neck. “Copies of what?”
The guy swallowed hard. “You and that woman . . . in the parking lot.”
“Excuse me?” Jason gave the guy a shake.
“The cam . . . you know, on the car? You two . . .” The guy cracked a nervous grin. “Dude, that was better than any subscription-service video.”
“Let me see.”
The guy visibly paled. “You . . . you wanna see?”
“Did I fucking stutter?”
“N-n-no.”
Jason slammed the guy into a chair in front of the computer but didn’t let go of him. “Let me fucking see,” he seethed.
With a shaky hand, the guy clicked through some icons, and the spot in front of Foley’s back entrance appeared on the screen. A few seconds later, Jason’s truck appeared. Nothing seemed to happen for five minutes, then Meghan appeared. Fascinated, Jason watched as he stripped and then set Meghan on the hood of his truck.
“Okay, stop. Stop it!” Holy shit. Jason scrubbed his face with his hands. “What’s your name, kid?”
“T-Tom. Tom Whedon.”
With a heavy sigh, Jason shook his head. “Delete that shit, Tom. Delete it now.”
“Sure thing.” Tom clicked through a few screens again but hesitated before clicking the button marked “Delete.” “You sure you don’t want me to transfer this to a flash drive or something?”
“Dude.”
Tom held up his hands. “Okay, my bad. I thought you might want to—”
“Delete. It.”
Then Jason grabbed Tom’s hand. “Stop!” He jerked the guy back in his chair. “Is that the only thing that was taped?”
Tom nodded. “Yes, I promise! That’s the only thing I kept of you two, I promise!”
“No, is that all that was captured from that night?”
Tom shrugged. “No, there’s a ton of shit captured. The camera is motion sensitive, so any movement at all, the camera goes on. There are hours and hours of footage. I fast-forward through stuff. The only reason I paid attention to you guys was, well, because . . . I mean . . .”
Jason huffed an irritated breath. “Fast-forward until about three o’clock that same night.”
Tom did what Jason asked, and the two watched as a family of possums wandered across the screen. After the third round of wildlife setting off the camera, Jason was about to give up when a set of headlights illuminated the side of the building.
“Stop. Let it run, real time.”
Jason watched as a white Range Rover flashed across the screen, followed a few seconds later the sound of a loud crash and a guy in a hoodie leaping out of the vehicle and disappearing from view. Then, five long minutes later, the hapless Buster Waddell fell out of the passenger door and stumbled away.
“Holy shit,” Jason whispered. Jason tapped on the table. “Rewind it to the part where the first guy gets out of the car.” They watched the video several more times, magnifying the image, slowing it down to half speed, and trying every other variation, but could never see Hoodie Guy’s face.
Tom shook his head. “I know that second guy. I see him ha
nging around at the bodega on the corner. He’s harmless.”
“Yeah, I know.” Jason’s mind raced. Buster was set up, that much was obvious because of the presence of the other guy. He needed to get this tape to Dolly. He got ready to call his brother’s partner, when he froze.
“Cue up three days ago, Tom, midmorning.”
Again, Tom clicked through the days, fast-forwarding through the hours of the stonemason crew rebuilding the side of the dining room, as well as more mundane activities like garbage pickup. Soon, a sports car pulled up to the back door, and Chuck Knox got out of the car. He looked around, seemingly to make sure he wasn’t seen, before unlocking the back door and disappearing inside Foley’s. The scene stayed static for a few minutes, and then Knox reappeared, walking briskly to his car and driving away.
“That son of a bitch.”
Then the same car pulling into the same spot caught his eye.
“Is that the tape?” Jason asked.
Tom shook his head. “No, this is live. That car just pulled up.”
“Fuck! Call nine-one-one and tell them you’re seeing a woman being attacked!” Jason was almost out the door, and Tom was still sitting at the table, frozen. “Do it now, Tom!”
Jason ran out the door and down the stairs. He’d called Johnny before he got to the first floor, leaving a frantic message on his brother’s voicemail. Then he called Gunny.
“ ’Sup man. I’m just leaving the range and headed your way,” Gunny said as soon as he picked up.
“Meghan’s in trouble. I need you to set up across the street on the top of the apartments. Now!”
“On my way, brother.”
They both hung up without speaking further, and Jason barreled across the alley and through the back door of Foley’s.
Chapter 30
Meghan jumped when she heard the back door open.
“My God, Jason, don’t ever run off like that again! I know you’ve run headfirst into dangerous situations, but this isn’t war and this is not Afghanistan! I—”