by Blair Grey
He grinned at me, clearly realizing exactly what he was doing.
He thrust into me only once before I spilled, my body helplessly clenching and releasing over and over again. I was stuck on the feeling of his cock pushing into me again and again, hitting that spot inside of me, making me cry out over and over, moaning wantonly, my eyes squeezed shut. He slowed again, and this time, rather than protesting, I used it as a chance to catch my breath.
Grant cupped my cheek with his palm again, and my eyes flickered open. He smiled and found a quicker rhythm with his thrusts, driving me to the edge again. My fingers twisted in the sheets as I met him thrust for thrust, urging him to move faster and harder until his hips were snapping against mine over and over again.
We came together this time, his seed spurting into me while my walls milked him for the last of his pleasure. I felt like my whole body was hypersensitized, and I couldn’t help twitching as he ran his hands down my sides. I couldn’t even find the strength to open my eyes as he rolled away from me. I was still stuck somewhere in the brilliant white light of pleasure.
Finally, I was able to force my eyes open, and for a second, I stared at the ceiling. Then, I rolled over toward him, needing the contact. He wrapped an arm around me, lightly kissing my forehead, and I hummed contentedly.
I should probably leave. I knew that. I didn’t want Vera to start wondering where I was or to ask the questions that I knew she was doubtlessly going to ask. But I didn’t want to move, not yet. I wanted to stay here, in this moment, for all of eternity. If only I could.
I didn’t want to think about work. I didn’t think I could string together enough of a thought even to ask Grant any of the questions I had. I definitely wouldn’t be able to be subtle. Fucked out like this, I was more likely to be totally blunt, to ask him about Red Eyes and what they were going to do in the aftermath of the arson.
I couldn’t do that, though. That would totally blow my cover. Best to just stay silent, to doze off, to address those questions another time.
Grant said something, but my mind had a hard time parsing it. I pulled back, peering up at him. “What was that?” I asked, feeling a certain amount of lucidity return to me when I spoke.
Grant smiled. “I said I’m thankful to have you,” he repeated.
He wouldn’t be so grateful if he knew that the me that he thought he knew was really a lie. If he knew that I was an undercover cop. If he knew that I had lied about Montana and everything else. But I couldn’t get into that now.
I smiled at him, hoping he didn’t see how sad the expression really was, and curled closer to him, burying my face against his side. His arm squeezed more tightly around me for a moment, and I drifted off to sleep.
25
Grant
I didn’t hear more from Braxton or Cameron before the Monday meeting at the clubhouse, which led me to believe that unfortunately they, like me, hadn’t been able to find out anything about who had been behind the arson attack. It was frustrating as anything. There had to be some sort of clue somewhere that we were missing.
I had to believe that if someone was trying to take on Red Eyes, they would want us to know who they were. They would want to really stake their claim on the area. But instead, they seemed to be hiding in the shadows.
It made me wonder what they were planning to do next.
I was surprised to see Ray when I got to the clubhouse. “What are you doing here?” I asked, unable to hold back my shock.
Ray gave me a tight-lipped smile. “I figured it was about time that I talked to the group,” he said. He nodded at Braxton and Landon, who were sitting on what had always been their couch. “Landon flew in last night.”
I gave the twins a look to say that I was sorry, even though I knew that that was entirely inadequate. Some of the other noncore members and the recruits were looking around in confusion, like they still didn’t know what was going on. As for me, I started panicking that Ray was going to tell everyone that he had chosen his successor in the club and that it was going to be me. Surely, he would talk to me about it first, though, wouldn’t he?
Then again, he had talked to me about it. He had told me that he thought I’d make a great leader for the club someday, and I hadn’t outright said no. I had tried to tell him that I thought Braxton would be a better leader, I had tried to persuade him that I wasn’t the best choice. But I had never told him no.
What exactly was Ray planning on announcing to the group right now? How much was he going to tell everyone?
Fortunately, Ray cleared everything up quickly. He looked around the group, pausing on each person’s face. “It’s time that I told you all something,” he said. “I’ve seen a decline in my health lately. The doctors have concluded that I have lung cancer.” He paused. “But you can rest assured that I’m going to run this MC until the last day of my life. Nothing has changed.”
He fell silent, still staring around at everyone. No one else said anything. The room was so quiet, so tense, that you could have heard a pin drop.
“As some of you may also have heard, one of our businesses burned to the ground over the weekend. Candy’s on Anderson street, for those of you who didn’t know. Now, we’re still trying to find out who was behind this. At Grant’s suggestion, we will be paying the wages for the workers at the business until we get the place back up and running.”
I was thankful to hear that, at least. I had called to talk to Ray about that the previous afternoon, and he had agreed with me without any question. Now, I had to wonder if it was because he actually thought it was a good idea, or because he just had other things on his mind, like telling his sons that he had cancer. Either way, though, it was good for Linda and the rest of them, and I was sure that it would keep things good with the other businesses in the area, at least for now. Until another building burned to the ground.
“Unfortunately,” Ray continued, “we have no leads on who did this. Braxton checked into the Unknowns, the guys who were giving us trouble before, just in case they were somehow involved. But they haven’t done anything to break our agreement with them. What it mainly means for you all right now is you’ll need to exercise even more caution than usual. The police are probably going to use this incident as yet another example of how we need to clean up the streets of Las Cruces. I don’t want them to catch any of you doing anything they don’t like. Is that understood?”
There were nods all around. But I could tell that there was more to that warning than Ray was letting on. As the rest of the people filed out the door, I headed to the front of the room. “What’s your theory?” I asked immediately, keeping my voice low. “I can tell you think you know something.”
Ray gave me a small smile and inclined his head toward me. “I have a theory,” he agreed. “I think the police are somehow involved. We know that they’ve been watching us. We know that they have to know that Candy was one of the businesses that’s loyal to us. She said that these guys came in there asking for information, wanting specifics about us and about our interactions with her. That sure sounds like something the police would be interested in right now, don’t you think?”
I frowned at him. “But would the police really burn down one of the businesses that they’re supposed to be protecting?” I asked.
“If they thought they could use it against us? I don’t know what they would do anymore,” Ray said grimly. “By burning down a business that’s loyal to us, they don’t feel like they’ve lost anything, I don’t think. They feel like they’ve gained some sort of propaganda. That they’ve proven to the local businesses that we can’t protect them. And what’s more, I think they’re just waiting for us to come after them. As soon as we move to strike, they’ll have a reason to throw us all behind bars.”
I thought it over. There was a certain sense to that; I had to admit. But it made me angry to think that it might be the local police preying on the businesses that they were pretending to protect. If it really were the police, I wanted to go after
them, to show them that they couldn’t do things like that. But I supposed that was exactly what they wanted us to do. They wanted us to get angry and do something stupid. We couldn’t give them that satisfaction.
“Have you been talking to anyone?” Ray asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked in surprise.
“Cameron told me you don’t think any of the recruits is a rat. But I can’t help thinking that this seems pretty targeted. Like they had some way of knowing how loyal Linda has always been to us. I know you brought some of the recruits there for their first taste of a stakeout. If you don’t think it was one of them who mentioned it to someone, maybe you mentioned it to someone?”
“I’m not stupid,” I said gruffly, but inwardly, I was starting to wonder. I couldn’t remember saying anything about it to Holly. I couldn’t remember mentioning anything about Red Eyes to her. I wasn’t that stupid. But somehow, she had happened to show up at Candy the night before, and she had immediately been keen on helping me go through the wreckage. Could she be with the cops? Could that be why she wanted to get close to me? Why she wanted to be there at the burned-out business just in case I found something that would link the police to things?
Maybe she was an undercover cop. I really had no idea about her background. She kept mentioning a sister, but I didn’t think she had ever mentioned her sister by name—well, maybe once, but if she did, I couldn’t remember—which seemed odd now that I thought about it. And she had said she was from Montana, but I also knew that she was hiding something to do with that.
Could Holly be the spy? Could she know that Ray wanted me to follow after him as leader of the MC? Why else would she want to get so close to someone who was so not her type?
I swallowed hard, suddenly worried that maybe I had given away more than I should have. After all, I had practically told her that Ray was in the hospital. Who knew what else she had managed to piece together.
If she was a spy. If she was with the police.
One thing was for certain: I had to find out for sure. One way or the other, I had to know if Holly was a rat.
26
Holly
Grant called on Monday afternoon, and I immediately picked up the phone. “Hey,” I said, knowing I sounded breathless. I was just glad that he had called. We had woken up together the previous morning, and he offered to make me breakfast. I declined, lying and saying that I had plans with Vera for the morning. An excuse to get out of there.
I knew that I already had feelings for him, so it wasn’t like brunch was going to make things even worse, but I could still feel myself hovering on the edge of saying something that I really shouldn’t say. Instead of asking questions about Red Eyes, though, I had been tempted to just tell him the truth. That I wasn’t really from Montana at all, and that I was an undercover cop and he was my target.
What a way to tank my case. And possibly even put my life in jeopardy. It wasn’t like I had really gotten any information from Grant, but he wouldn’t know that. He might think that he needed to take me out, just to make sure that Red Eyes was still safe.
I couldn’t tell him that.
Fortunately, I was feeling a lot more stable today, after a decent sleep in my own bed the previous night. And Grant sounded cheerful when I answered the phone.
“I was wondering if you wanted to meet me at the diner,” he said. “I’m craving a patty melt for lunch.”
“Mmm, sounds good,” I said. “I’d love to. Be there in fifteen minutes?”
“Sounds perfect,” Grant said.
When I hung up the phone, I had to take a deep breath to calm myself down. I couldn’t think of this as a date. It was a job. At least this was an afternoon meeting, though. Maybe it wouldn’t end in sex this time.
I headed over to the diner. When I got there, Grant was at his usual table already. I slid in across from him. “Hey,” I said.
He leaned across the table to kiss me lightly, almost like we were really on a date. I smiled, fighting the urge to babble all about my real job to him. This guilt thing was getting to be a little too much.
“How was the rest of your weekend?” Grant asked.
“It was good,” I said. “I just hung out with my sister mostly. We did brunch yesterday and then just did some things around the house. She’s really trying to make the place feel like home since we just moved in. I don’t think it’s ever going to feel one hundred percent like home, but she’s optimistic.”
The lies just kept coming. It was partly built in truth, though: that place was never going to feel one hundred percent like my home again, not without my parents there, and not since I had gone off to the police academy. I had worked hard to distance myself from it. For a moment, I wanted to talk to Grant about that. I was sure that of anyone in this world, he would understand me.
But that would mean admitting that I hadn’t just moved here. And I couldn’t do that.
In actual fact, Vera and I hadn’t had the most pleasant day of it the previous day either. She had been furious to learn that I’d spent the night with Grant again. And even though I tried to tell her that it was just for work, she didn’t believe me.
“You just told me that you’re starting to develop feelings for him!” she snapped. “And you know what having feelings for someone does? It clouds your judgment. Meaning he could kill someone right in front of you and you’d probably still try to find a way to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s not a good guy, Holly! He just isn’t.”
“You don’t even know him!” I protested. “How would you know if he was a good guy or not?”
“If he was a good guy, you wouldn’t be thinking about leaving your job just for him. God, I feel like I should call your boss myself and tell him that you’re compromised and that you can’t stay on this case.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her.
Vera threw her hands in the air. “Well of course I wouldn’t!” she shouted. “But the fact that you even feel like I might just disgusts me.”
Things had been frosty and silent between us following that little spat. We had both done what we normally did to cope with a fight: throwing ourselves into cleaning up the house, each taking our separate rooms. She had disappeared for dinner, leaving me to fend for myself. I had made a quick sandwich. I wasn’t hungry.
I knew I shouldn’t let this thing with Grant screw up everything in my life. Things had been going so well, and I had been so proud of myself. Crazy how one little mission could upend all of that.
But I didn’t want to tell Grant about that.
“I’d like to meet your sister at some point,” Grant said. “I know she’s important to you.”
I gaped at him for a moment, my mind racing. Did he somehow know? Was he looking for revenge by going after my sister? I could never forgive myself if something happened to Vera because of me. She had been so against me joining the police force because she’d been worried about my safety, and I had barely given a second thought to her safety through all of this.
But no, he couldn’t know. And even if he did, Grant just wasn’t that kind of person. If he realized that I was on the police force, I had no doubt that he would confront me about it. He just wouldn’t go after my loved ones.
He knew what it felt like to lose family after all. And he had always wanted a sibling.
“I’ll have to talk to Vera about it,” I said. “I don’t know what her schedule is like these days. But I’ll try to set something up.” I hoped it didn’t sound as awkward to him as it was to me. I just didn’t know what to give as a reason for the two of them not meeting.
To be honest, I liked the idea of him meeting her. I had a feeling that if Vera just got to know Grant, she might realize that he wasn’t such a terrible guy. She wouldn’t want to meet him, though. She would be too scared that he would do something to her, that he would put a hit on her. And she definitely wouldn’t want me to bring him back to our house.
I couldn’t arrange a meeti
ng, as much as I might want to. But it was normal enough for guys to meet their girlfriends’ sisters, so I didn’t know what to say. Fortunately, Grant didn’t seem to notice any weirdness.
“I was happy with that rain that we had yesterday,” he said, changing the topic as though he wasn’t really concerned with meeting Vera. I hoped it would be a while before the conversation came up again. Maybe long enough for me to think up a more believable reason for why he couldn’t meet her.
Grant was smiling at me, and I forced myself to focus on the current conversation. “The rivers are pretty high at the moment, and you know what that means?”
“What?” I asked.
“Fishing,” Grant said. “And I know you probably had some way better fishing in Montana, but I know a few decent spots around here. I was thinking maybe I could take you out with me. We could make a day of it. Bring a picnic and some beers, enjoy the weather.” He winked at me. “Enjoy each other?”
I laughed, my worries gone. He didn’t suspect that I was a police officer, and he wasn’t going to press me about meeting Vera. I had to relax. “I’d love that,” I said, liking the idea of a whole day with him. I had never been fishing in Montana, so I was sure I wouldn’t be disappointed.
“I would take you tomorrow, but I have an important meeting scheduled with my adoptive father and another business owner,” Grant told me.
I tried not to let my surprise show. If his adoptive father was Ray, I had to wonder who the other business owner was and what they could be meeting about. I didn’t know how to ask, though.
And what’s more, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know. It had taken a nightmare on Saturday night—while I was curled into bed with Grant—to realize why Candy had been targeted. I had told Ryan about the recruits. I had told him that that was one of the businesses that Grant had taken the recruits to deal with. Ryan must have gone after Linda strictly because of the information that I had given him.