Bones and Marina did as they were told. Whiteside reluctantly followed suit. Then he began pointing at them. “They’re trespassers! I’m supposed to be here! I work here. Arrest them! They attacked me and my men.”
A man separated himself from the other law enforcement personnel and approached Marina. “Ms. Reyes?”
“Detective Benchley, I’m so glad to see you.” Marina put her arms down and took the hand the detective offered her.
“When I heard that another woman had been found in that same emergency room, I came right away.” Benchley looked sick. He gestured to the bodies in the corner. “More victims?”
Marina nodded. “Yes.” Then she pointed to Bones. “This is Marlon Jackson. He’s been helping me. That other jackass is Lieutenant Will Whiteside. He’s up to his neck in this thing.”
“It’s bigger than we thought, isn’t it?” Benchley said grimly. “I can’t tell you how many of my supervisors have told me to look the other way.” He gestured to the bodies. “But they can’t hide this. Not now.”
Marina felt Bones approach her from behind. He stood as close as he could get without touching her directly. She appreciated the way he respected her space, but what she really wanted was to collapse against him.
The officers were rounding up Whiteside’s men. They hauled each man to his feet and put him in cuffs. Marina wondered what would happen to the guys. They were idiots who followed bad orders, but they were still just pawns. This went so much further than a few selfish decisions made by bad men on US soil.
Benchley exhaled a long sigh. “We saw that holding room on our way in. Is that where you were held all those months? Is this the place?”
“Yes.” It was the only thing Marina could muster up to say. There were a million possible responses, but none of them could possibly convey the depths of her anger and sorrow. “You and I both know that this case will never make it to court. It will be shut down long before that. But we have to find out what records are in this place. There has to be a record of the women they burned.” Marina turned to stare at the incinerator. “He told us that’s how they disposed of the bodies.”
The detective grimaced. “Then we’ll have to shut it down and have forensics come in and look. They should be able to retrieve bone fragments. Burning gets rid of most of the physical evidence, but not all. The human body takes a lot to completely destroy.”
“I want their families to know,” Marina whispered. She gave up the fight to remain aloof and slipped her arm around Bones’s waist. Turning, she buried her face against his chest. “They deserve to have some peace at last.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Marina and Bones returned to her place after the police had finished at the Hansen Pharmaceuticals warehouse. She had a feeling that Whiteside had been behind the attempts on her and Bones’s lives. In any case, she wanted to be home with her own possessions and familiar surroundings. If someone wanted to come after them on her turf, she was willing to give them the smack-down anytime.
Bones touched her shoulder once they were safely inside her spacious living room. “How are you doing?”
There was something in his voice that made her uneasy. She turned to face him and could not read his expression. He was utterly closed off to her. “Don’t,” she said softly.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t close yourself off like this.” She put her finger in the middle of his chest. “You’re planning to walk out that door. Don’t try to deny it.”
His brows drew together. “I’m not going to deny it. You’re going to be just fine. We’ll contact you when we know more about this investigation, and, of course, if we need your assistance we won’t hesitate to ask.”
“My assistance?” She gaped at him. “After everything, that’s what I get? If you need my fucking assistance?”
“Marina, what’s wrong?” Now he looked wary.
She understood that he was a guy who didn’t hang around one place very long. He was a SEAL, a military man. He was expecting to return to the field at any given moment. That did not mean that Marina wanted to lose him.
She put both hands flat on his chest. The power there was incredible. She slipped her hands down his chest and found the hem of his T-shirt. The two of them were grimy after skulking through that disgusting warehouse. He had a myriad of tiny cuts on his arms. Yet as she pulled the tail of his shirt from his waistband and lifted the cotton over his head, she noticed that his chest was utter perfection.
He tossed his shirt aside, seemingly unconcerned about his nakedness. “Marina, what are you doing?”
“Shut up. I’m going to make love to you until you stop acting like a robot.” She lightly scraped her nails over his pectoral muscles. He hissed and pressed his hands against hers, flattening her fingers against his skin.
“Marina, please. I’m trying to protect you.”
“Maybe I don’t want or need your protection.” She hazarded a look up at him through her lashes. “You’ve already given me so much. I know that. But I just want you. Don’t you understand?”
She kissed his chest, before dropping to her knees and moving her lips to his belly. Finding the fastenings of his cargo pants with her fingers, she undid the buttons. He was stiff in more than one way now. His body was rigid. Still, his cock was harder. As far as she was concerned, that proved that he wasn’t immune to her, at least.
“Marina,” he said raggedly. “What are you doing?”
“Getting rid of your resistance.”
BONES COUNTED EXACTLY twelve steps between where he was standing and Marina’s bed. His cock was throbbing, and he wanted her so badly that he could think of almost nothing else. Almost. There was a niggling voice of doubt in his head that told him he needed to let her go, and this was not the way to make that happen.
Then she gently drew his cock out of his pants and into her hot little hands. He looked down the length of his body to find her gazing back up at him. The sight of her with all that sexy dark hair and big dark eyes was so incredibly erotic that he groaned and shuddered at the sight.
She wrapped one hand around his shaft and put her lips on the head of his cock. He watched her lick him. Squeezing the muscles in his ass and legs tight, he forced himself to stay still. It would not do to grab her head and fuck her face. She looked so confident right now. That was the only thing that really mattered. The way she laved her tongue around and around the head was exquisite. Each time she gently brushed the puckered flange he thought he would die of overstimulation. Jolts of electric arousal shot through his limbs. His toes began to tingle, and he felt his balls draw up tight beneath his body as he fought the urge to come then and there.
Then she began to suck in earnest. She closed her eyes and took as much of him into her mouth as she could. She wrapped her hand around the base and began bobbing her head up and down in a quick rhythm that drove him insane with lust. He could only picture her lovely body and what it felt like to be inside her. He wanted her so badly right now he could hardly breathe.
She banded her fingers tight around the base of his cock and sucked hard. He snarled something unintelligible. Lifting his hands, he locked them behind his head and forced them to stay there. He clenched his teeth and growled like an animal. It felt so damn good. She swirled her tongue around his length and found the most amazing spot to tickle him. His whole body convulsed with the need to come, and it was suddenly too much.
“Marina,” he groaned. “Enough. Enough. I yield.”
She drew back, a confused expression on her face. “I wasn’t trying to overpower you.”
“Weren’t you?” He reached down and plucked her right off the floor. Twelve strides and they were standing in front of her bed. “I want you so badly right now I feel like an animal. I don’t want to scare you. I’ll walk away if you want.”
WAS HE STUPID? How could he not know that this was exactly what she wanted? Marina grabbed her own T-shirt and yanked it over her head. She reached up behind her and unfastened her bra. She
got rid of it while she was already stepping out of her boots. Socks, pants, and underwear were next. When she was finally naked before this man, she put out her arms.
“I’m yours to have however you wish. I trust you, Bones. I’m not afraid of you. I want you so bad that I ache with it. Please give me what I want.”
He didn’t respond verbally. Instead he shoved his pants and underwear down his legs. The undignified manner of his stripping proved that he was beyond formalities with her. It was sort of humbling to realize that she had so completely overcome this powerful man.
Once they were both naked, he took her in his arms. Marina gasped in pleasure as she felt the warmth of his skin on hers. It felt so good to have every inch of her body pressed against his. And when he lowered his mouth and took her lips in a hot kiss, she melted as though he had lit her on fire.
Marina twined her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe to kiss him back. There was no more being passive or tentative. She wanted this, and she wanted him. And there was a part of her that believed wholeheartedly that if she just showed him how good they were together, he would not leave.
Bones backed her slowly toward the bed. There were flutterings of nervous excitement in her belly. The anticipation was delicious. When the backs of her legs hit the mattress, she climbed up without hesitation. The sight of him standing before her gave her chills. There was a look of such intensity on his face. She spread her legs in invitation and was gratified to see his gaze drawn to her inner thighs.
He put one palm on the inside of her leg. It felt so good when he touched her. There was no fear anymore. She wasn’t afraid of losing control or of seeming weak. There was nothing but her and this man and the fact that she wanted him so badly that the insides of her thighs were wet with the juices spilling from her pussy.
“Touch me,” she begged. “I want to come again.”
Was that a smile curving his lips? She couldn’t tell. Her brain was mush. Then he climbed up onto the bed and slowly covered her body with his. Marina’s eyes slid shut as she whimpered in anticipation. He kissed her belly, right below her navel, where the touch of his lips made every single one of her inner muscles clench with need. Then he moved his mouth up the center of her body. He paused between her breasts.
She forced her eyes open as she watched him lick her right nipple. She arched involuntarily, needing to be closer to him. He sucked first one breast and then the other. The deep pull seemed to connect straight to her pussy. She moved restlessly beneath him. Lifting one leg, she wrapped it around him and slid her calf against his. He seemed to like this. Feeling braver, she raised her other leg and wrapped them both around his waist.
BONES NEARLY LOST control when she put her legs around his waist and pulled him in closer. The tip of his cock brushed her cleft. She was so damn wet. Her thighs were slick with her juices, and he could feel the heat of her like a brand against his skin.
He reached between them and palmed his cock. He watched her face as he fit the head of his erection to her tight opening. She was holding onto his biceps. Her nails dug into his skin as he slowly penetrated her. The erotic sensation made him groan in pleasure. Her inner muscles yielded so prettily to his cock.
Bones pulled out just enough to push back in. He started a slow, teasing rhythm that made her gasp and pant as he fucked her. He could not stop watching her face. The emotions that crossed her beautiful features were incredible to see. He felt liquid heat begin to build at the base of his spine and knew that he was going to come this time. There would be no holding back.
“Bones!” she gasped.
He felt her inner muscles tighten. She shuddered once, then again, and then she came. He felt her climax acutely. Her whole body convulsed, and wave after wave of pulsing muscular contractions squeezed his cock until he could no longer hold back his own finish.
The look of wonder on her face seared him. There was almost an element of awe there in her expression. She held so tightly to his arms as she moved her hips against him.
“It feels so good!” she panted. “Oh God. Oh God.”
Her words dissolved into garbled mutterings, and Bones could feel her body creeping steadily toward a second climax. He felt the sweat beading on his head and rolling down his neck. He wanted this for her. The muscles in his haunches began to burn as he forced himself to hold back just a little longer.
He squeezed his eyes closed and felt her tighten even more around his cock. The friction was unbearable. He had to come. He had to let go. He had to mark this woman as his. With a groan and a shout, he gave in to his release. Ejaculate poured from his cock into Marina’s body. She cried out, and her thighs clamped around him as she came a second time. The two of them gasped and pushed as they gave in completely to the erotic dance of give and take.
Bones lost all track of time. He only knew that he collapsed to the bed and rolled to his side to avoid crushing Marina beneath him. He kept his arms around her, and she held tightly to him. The position was strangely intimate. Not just because they were naked, but more because they seemed to be utterly lost in each other and unashamed of it.
“Bones, please don’t give up on me,” Marina whispered.
“I’m not giving up.”
“Leaving is giving up.” She sighed. “I know that you have a job to do and that it will involve being in the field in places that I can’t go. I know you’re a soldier. I get that. But I want to be the one you come home to. I want to be yours.”
“Marina, I don’t know what to say.”
She was holding so tightly to him now that he could feel her nails digging into his skin. “Just say that I’m strong enough for you. I know that I am. I want you to know it too.”
“I have no doubts.” He realized then that he didn’t. “I just didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You’ll hurt me more if you turn your back. Especially if you feed me some bullshit line about it being for my own good.”
“I love you,” he whispered. “Everything I do is because I want you to be safe and happy and whole.”
“And I love you.” She pressed a kiss to his chest. “So stop thinking that I’m weak, and let me do my thing.”
He laughed. How could he not love and cherish this woman? She was everything he wanted but did not deserve. He would take every moment that he got with her and just be thankful.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Marina gazed at the long tables of human remains that had been pulled from the incinerator at the Hansen Pharmaceuticals warehouse. It was both gratifying and sad to see such a thing. The police station had turned one of their evidence rooms into a temporary forensic lab.
Techs bustled about the room labeling, coding, cataloguing, and swabbing for DNA. There had already been a widespread call for those with missing female relatives to come forward and offer DNA samples for testing. It was going to take months and maybe years to identify all of the remains. For now, it was like a macabre puzzle.
Detective Benchley approached Marina and Bones. She reached down and twined her fingers with Bones’s. She didn’t think she would have been able to stand here and remain calm without his stoic presence by her side.
“I always believed you,” Benchley told her. “I just never grasped the magnitude of what was going on.” He gestured to a group of very official-looking men and women in trademark black suits. “We’ve had to call in an FBI forensic team to help us.”
Marina glanced at Bones. That wasn’t good at all. The FBI would be sure to report back to a military branch or the State Department, which would in turn receive pressure to sweep it all under the rug.
Bones chuffed out a big sigh. “Just promise me one thing, Detective.”
“What’s that?”
“When the FBI or some other three-letter agency forces you to release Whiteside, tell me.”
“Surely they wouldn’t do that!” Benchley protested.
Marina and Bones watched the feds. Then Bones gave a grunt. “They will. And when they do I need t
o know about it, because I’m going to pick him up, and my team and I will have a chat with him.”
Benchley gave Bones an appraising look. “How far back do you go with this guy?”
“All the way,” Bones admitted. “This is so much bigger than you can imagine.”
Marina touched the detective’s arm. “Thank you. We couldn’t have gotten this far without your help. And I know that you won’t let this go even when they tell you that you have to. Bones has seen similar things happen farther south, in DC and in Richmond. These people—people like Whiteside—they have powerful friends.”
Benchley turned back to the plethora of remains. “Nobody could cover this up, Marina. Nobody. Look at this destruction! Whiteside is scheduled for arraignment this week.”
“It will never happen,” Bones murmured. “They’ll be too afraid of what he knows.”
“Sir!” A uniformed officer bolted into the room. “Sir, the prisoner hung himself in his cell! The medics are there now!”
“What?” Benchley bolted away.
Marina glanced at Bones. Neither of them followed. There was no need. The grim set of his jaw told her that he already suspected what had happened. Whiteside had become a liability the moment he went into custody. They could not allow him to be arraigned. He might mention names, and that would have made certain people up the chain of command uncomfortable. Better to put him quietly out of the way and be done with it.
Across the room Marina could see the feds whispering to each other. She wondered how much they really knew, or if they were just lackeys following orders that they didn’t fully understand.
“Who is it that pulls all the strings?” Marina murmured to Bones. “I know we said that the princes are the men behind the operation. They’ve done this for so long now that it’s probably a family institution. Fine. But we’re on US soil, and there are federal agents dancing to someone’s tune. You cannot tell me that there isn’t a very high-ranking person lining his pockets with the spoils of this war.”
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