Solid Gold Seduction (The Drakes of California)

by Zuri Day

  Cedric crouched down and watched Sam’s stealthy movements as he crept beyond the outer edge of the area where they knew motion lights were placed. He knew that his homeboy would go counterclockwise to the guard’s movements, placing himself next to the office when the guard most likely to cause problems—other than the one at the door—would be the farthest away. Once a minute or so had passed, Richard and Cedric followed a similar path to the one Sam had taken, except instead of heading straight to the office they crept toward the stables. While Richard did a quick check to make sure no two-legged animal was on their side of the building, Cedric positioned himself under the stable’s overhang, totally hidden against the outer wall. While waiting for Sam’s signal he took a deep breath. For now he was safe; no eyes were on him.

  None, that is, except that of the long-range camera attached to the stable roof, outfitted with spy-vision night scope and aimed squarely at where he was hiding.

  Less than five minutes passed before Cedric’s phone lit up beneath his shirt. The guard had been immobilized. He stood and joined Richard, who’d remained near the edge of the building, watching for movement. Silently, quickly, they covered the distance between the stables and the office. Having honed his skills while serving time, Richard went to work on the office door locks and within seconds they were in.

  * * *

  “This house is stunning.”

  “I’m glad you like it.” Warren had finished the upstairs tour and now he and Charli were cuddled in his king-size bed.

  She reached between them and massaged his dick. “This is pretty stunning, too.”

  “Hmm, you think so?”

  “Yes,” she said, sitting up and throwing back the covers.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Judging beef is my business, you know.” She continued talking casually as she straddled him, as if they were discussing her latest livestock buy. The only hint of her devilishness was her saucy demeanor as she looked at him, and the way she tossed her hair away from her eyes. For a moment she simply stared, took time to appreciate this magnificent, toned specimen, his dark skin highlighted against stark white sheets. “I have an eye for good color and yours is...” She gave his hardening manhood a squeeze. “Spectacular.”

  Of course...one good squeeze deserved another.

  “Another quality one looks for is nice muscle.” Sliding her hand up and down the length of him, she cooed, “This piece right here is thick—” she bounced his shaft against her hand a couple times “—weighty.” And then alternated between pulling and squeezing. His sex became as hard as steel. She cocked a brow. “And firm.”

  Her clinical analysis of his body was driving him crazy. When she scraped a nail across his mushroom tip, he almost whimpered.

  “Of course,” she continued, “the final and most important test of any good grade of beef is...” She became silent, smiling, rubbing his dick as she looked at him.

  “Is what?” The question came out in a hoarse tone.

  “The taste.” She wet her lips, lowered her head and took the tip of him into her mouth.

  He hissed and from the corner of her eye she saw his hands grab the sheets.

  She raised up her head. “You okay?”

  “Perfect,” he eked out between gritted teeth.

  The taste test continued. “Did I tell you that I love mushrooms?”

  His head moved from side to side. For the life of him, he couldn’t speak. Not a word.

  “Well, I do.” She outlined the perfect mushroom at the tip of his penis with her fingernail before repeating the process with her tongue. “Very nice.” Once again, she took him into her mouth, the assault shifting between tongue and tugs, nails and nips, while fondling his delightfully soft sac.

  “Baby, I—I—I can’t take it...”

  She chuckled, the throaty, knowing laugh of a woman fully in control. “Then let’s go to part two of this inspection.” She lifted up and poised herself over him. “Oh, yes,” she breathed, settling slowly down on his rock-hard cock. “This is an amazing—” she slid up “—grade A—” she slid back down “—prime—” she gyrated her hips and he joined her “—piece of meat.”

  “You know,” he panted, meeting her stroke for stroke. “That as soon as we finish with this part of your inspection...I’m going to do mine.”

  “I’m counting on it, cowboy.”

  He squeezed her juicy butt cheeks, grabbed her hips and helped her get to know every single inch of his prime grade-A beef.

  Chapter 33

  Warren’s ringing cell phone woke him out of a deep sleep. He’d first awakened a couple hours before, when Charli had insisted on slipping out of the house around 2:00 a.m. He looked at the clock. It was seven-thirty.

  “Yes.” He answered the call and put it on speaker, his voice gruff as his head hit the pillow and he closed his eyes.

  “Sorry to wake you, Warren, but we’ve got a problem.”

  Warren’s eyes flew open. “What kind of problem?”

  “A break-in.”

  He rolled out of bed in an instant. “Where?”

  “The office building.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Less than ten minutes later Warren, wearing a T-shirt, sweats and slip-on sandals, reached his office. Standing just outside the door was Johnny, the head of Warren’s security detail, and another of the guards on duty last night.

  “Where’s Dennis?” Warren asked.

  “He’s at the hospital. He’s okay,” Johnny hurriedly added. “Took a pretty hard knock upside the head and has a concussion. But he’ll be released by the end of the day.”

  Warren turned toward the office door.

  “Don’t touch anything,” Johnny warned. “We don’t want to mess up fingerprints, fibers, DNA or any other type of evidence.” Johnny used a paper towel to push the door wider so that they could enter. “They got into your office,” he continued, over his shoulder. “Obviously they were looking for the gold that’s kept here.”

  “Did they find it?” Warren asked, able to deliver a slight smirk despite the circumstances.

  “You know what the security room is made of,” Johnny answered, smiling himself. “Not even the heaviest door ram could penetrate that many inches of steel. There are scratches around the lock where the thief obviously made a valiant effort at trying to get in. No such luck.”

  They’d reached Warren’s office. He looked around. Fortunately when it came to his professional domain, he liked a minimalist look. Most of the books had been pulled from the shelves, and his file cabinet had been broken into. “They took my golf clubs,” he noted, looking at the now-bare corner.

  Johnny noted pieces of broken porcelain behind the desk.

  Warren followed his line of vision. “There were a few gold nuggets in that jar, worth about fifty cents, maybe a dollar.”

  “Anything else missing that you can think of?”

  “No.” Warren continued to look around. “Oh, wait. I did have two fairly large chunks of gold sitting on that bookshelf. So I guess they got me for, oh, a few hundred maybe.”

  Johnny gave Warren a sympathetic pat on the back as he passed him. “I guess I’ll go and look around the place, check the stables, the horses. Maybe it wasn’t someone after the gold. Maybe it was just some kids trying to vandalize—saw there was nothing here and moved on. But I guess we should get the police out here and make a report.”

  Warren turned to look at him. “Do you really believe that?”

  “Not for a second. Just don’t want to have you worrying, boss. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  “Johnny, you are absolutely right.”

  * * *

  Charli was humming a tune by Adele as she sat astride Butterscotch looking at the cattle. She’d led a group of them to the stream while Griff was at the house helping the men there to fix the roof. Bobby and the other men were busy doing their various chores. It was a typical yet beautiful September morning, one even more special
to Charli because of how she’d spent a good part of last night—in Warren’s arms.

  Her phone vibrated against her side. She pulled it out of its holder and as if she conjured him up, saw his name on her screen. “Hey there, cowboy.”

  “Hello, Charli.”

  There was no sexy in his voice. “What’s wrong?”

  “We had a break-in last night.”

  “A break-in? Are you serious?”

  “Unfortunately, yes. Someone found out or figured out that a small amount of the gold is sometimes kept here, in the office building. They tried to get it.”

  “Were they successful?”

  “No.”

  He sigh was audible. “Good.”

  “I take it that nothing is out of place over there? Nothing’s missing?”

  “Not that any of us has noticed. Hold on a moment.” She placed the call on hold, whistled for Bobby who was nearby. “I’m going over to the Drake place,” she told him, then turned her horse in that direction.

  “I’m back, Drake. So they didn’t take anything?”

  “They broke into my office. Took my golf clubs, those tiny nuggets I showed you and a couple larger chunks that were sitting on my shelf. That’s about it. Can you come over here?”

  “I’m already on my way.”

  By the time Charli got there, the police had also arrived. One officer looked around while another took the report.

  “We have security cameras,” Warren said to the officer beside him, after detailing the other information.

  The officer’s head shot up. “Well, let’s have a look.”

  Warren, Charli, Johnny and the officer squeezed inside the room the thieves hadn’t bothered with but probably could have gotten into, the room filled with screens from six security cameras and holding expensive photography and video equipment.

  “This obviously wasn’t a random robbery,” the officer said with a quick look around. “They only broke into your office, and missed all of the valuables in here.”

  A look passed between Johnny, Charli and Warren. These three knew exactly what the thieves had wanted.

  The group huddled around the screens and after designating a person to view each one, with Warren and Johnny each looking at two, they began the tedious process of going through footage.

  “We can adjust the speed so that it fast-forwards,” Warren said, turning a series of knobs. The pictures were a bit grainy but the night-vision cameras had lived up to their price tag. And after about ninety minutes of searching the previous night’s footage, shadows appeared on screen number four.

  “I think I have something!” Charli shouted.

  Warren paused the tapes and rewound the one for screen four. “That’s the one over the stable,” he muttered.

  Four heads moved as one toward the screen.

  “I think I see two figures,” the officer said. “One crouched, and the other standing near the edge of the building.” He pointed toward the figures.

  “Too dark to make them out, though,” Johnny said with a sigh.

  They watched. Waited. Soon, the two men by the barn crept closer to the camera as they headed toward the office building. As the lead man stepped from beneath the overhang, his face was lightened by the light of the moon. Illuminated just enough to enhance his facial features.

  As one, four heads moved closer to the screen.

  “Any idea who it is?” the officer asked.

  Warren shook his head, squinting as he looked. “Wait, I can isolate a part of the screen and blow it up. Hold on.” He messed with a few more knobs. “Dang, I haven’t played around with this board too much. Oh, here it is. Here we go.”

  He moved a rectangle over the area where the man sat, cropped the picture and then, using another knob, began to increase the picture’s size. As it did, the face became clearer.

  “I still can’t tell...” Warren’s words died as he tried to recognize the subject.

  “I can.”

  Three pairs of eyes looked at Charli.

  She looked at Warren. “It’s Cedric.”

  Warren frowned. “Are you sure?”

  Johnny asked, “Who’s Cedric?”

  “Ma’am, do you think you can make a positive ID?” the officer queried.

  Charli crossed her arms and looked at the officer. “I am positive that the man in this picture is an old acquaintance of mine. He’s a local and knows this area very well. His name is Cedric. Cedric Martin.”

  “You’re sure about this?” the officer asked.

  Charli gave her signature curt nod. “Positive.”

  Chapter 34

  Warren and Charli stood in his driveway as the police cars drove away. He put a protective hand on her shoulder as they watched the cars until they were barely visible.

  Charli turned into Warren’s chest. “This is crazy. Cedric is a lot of things but I didn’t count thief among them.”

  “Any man who will assault a woman is capable of the lowest of crimes.”

  She looked up at him. “What will you do now?”

  “What the officers said, increase the number of men on security, install more lights, cameras and a more advanced security system.” He felt her shiver. “Don’t worry, baby. The police know at least one person responsible and after they lock him up, I’m sure this little problem will go away.”

  She stepped away from him and looked around. “I don’t even have the money yet and already it’s causing me problems.”

  “Is that what you think? That having money isn’t a good thing?”

  “I didn’t say ‘not good.’ I said ‘problematic,’ and I won’t take that back.”

  “There are more things to worry about, more responsibility, when you have wealth. But the benefits heavily outweigh the disadvantages.”

  “If you say so.” Charli felt her phone vibrate. “Hold on.” She touched the screen. “Hello?” A frown immediately appeared on her face. “Why, what’s wrong?” She listened for a few moments. “How did that happen?” She was already running to her car as she concluded, “I’ll be right there.”

  Warren rushed to catch up with her. “Charli! What’s going on?”

  Her eyes were wild with worry. “It’s Griff. He’s taken a fall. It’s serious. I’ve got to go.”

  Charli jumped in her truck and flew down the highway. In minutes, she was jumping out of it and running toward the house.

  Bobby came from around the side of the house. “Charli! He’s back here!”

  She jumped off the porch and ran around to the back of the house, on Bobby’s heels. As soon as they turned the corner she saw him: sprawled out on the ground, mouth tight, fists clenched, in obvious pain. She ran and dropped down beside him. Placing a shaky hand on his shoulder, she took a breath and said, “I know you didn’t want me on the Drake place, but isn’t this attempt of getting me to come back a bit dramatic?”

  He shook his head and groaned. Not quite the reaction she was expecting. This might be worse than she thought. “Can you talk, Griff? Tell me where you’re hurting.”

  “Leg,” he ground out between clenched teeth.

  “Just lie there and don’t move, okay? The ambulance is on its way.”

  “Drink.”

  “Bobby, go pour a shot of Griff’s whiskey and bring it here.”

  One of the workers commented, “Charli, I don’t think we should—”

  “Shut up!” She turned to Bobby. “Do it. Now!”

  Bobby raced to the back door and quickly returned with a full shot of the clear liquid. Charli eased Griff’s head up just enough to rest on her knees. Then she slowly placed the glass to the old man’s lips. He drank down the liquid and sighed. “Another.”

  She gave the glass to Bobby, who raced back in the house, throwing a warning glance in the direction of the worker who’d earlier commented. The newbie averted his eyes. By the time Bobby arrived with the second shot of liquor, they could hear the blare of the ambulance sirens in the distance.

  “Hear
that, Griff? Help is almost here. Hang in there, Uncle. You’re going to be fine.”

  Three hours later, a weary yet relieved Charli neared the city limits of Paradise Cove, having left Griff at the nearest hospital, almost thirty miles away. She hated the thought of him being injured but was thankful that he’d live. Remembering that she’d earlier seen a missed call from Warren, she called him.

  “Drake, it’s me.”

  “I’ve been worried about you, baby. How’s Griff?”

  “His leg is busted up pretty good and he sustained a bruised wrist when he tried to break the fall, but otherwise he’s all right.”

  “What happened?”

  “He was up on the roof.”

  “Oh, no.”

  “Yep. Being hardheaded. The men tried to talk him out of helping, but Griff has a hard time seeing other people working and not joining in. It’s just his nature. Somehow his foot got tangled in a rung and he took a fall off the ladder.”

  “How long is he going to be in the hospital?”

  “The doctor said four to five days, but I doubt they’ll be able to keep him that long. I doubt that Griff has slept more than six hours or lain in a bed longer than eight at a time in twenty-five, thirty years. But they’ve got some cute nurses. That might provide some incentive.”

  “There you go.” A pause and then, “How are you doing?”

  “I was pretty shook up a while ago, but I’m better now. Seeing him lying there, it hit me just how much he means to me. Next to Grandpa, I’m closest to Griff. If anything happened to him I couldn’t handle it. After patching him up, they gave him a sleeping pill. Said that he’d be knocked out until morning.”

  “I read somewhere that sleep is a healer. He’ll be back to his old self in no time.”

  “Hopefully you’re right.”

  “Of course I’m right. I’m always right.”

  “Cool it, Drake.”

  He laughed. “Listen, why don’t you come over, spend the night? We’ll take a nice, long bubble bath. And you can cook me dinner again. I could get used to that.”

  “That sounds really tempting, but I think I should stay at the house tonight. There are chores to be done and one of the heifers is close to birthing. I’ll call you later, when I’m lying in bed. Naked. Wet. Thinking about you.”