by Sybil Bartel
The thought made me grin like a fucking idiot, but I didn’t give a shit. The Cobalt flying across the water, the sun sinking past the horizon, my woman by my side, I finally fucking got it. I finally understood what I’d been working so damn hard for.
My cell vibrated in my pocket.
I glanced at the screen and took Tyler’s call. “What do you have?”
Tyler exhaled. “It’s not great. I got satellite images, and I compared pre-raid headcount estimates to body count and arrests post-raid. I dug up as much as I could without setting off alarms. Collins went in before sunset, and he’s been feeding me a head count as he finds them. There’s one to two outside the perimeter fence at all times, three to four patrolling just inside the perimeter, and so far, he’s counted seventeen men and twenty-two women and kids.”
Mierda. “Any sign of Stephens?”
“Not yet.”
“The plot of land?” I needed them to find it.
“We think we found it on the sat images, but it’s nearing the swamp so it could just be the tree line naturally diminishing. Collins is checking it out, and I’m joining him in a few.”
“Any activity going on?”
“The men seem to do fuck all except move between buildings in groups while the women crawl around the pathways, gardening or some shit. Collins said it looks like they’re pulling weeds? Anyway….” Tyler hesitated. “The place is fucked-up, boss. Collins says the vibe is making him twitch.”
I couldn’t do shit about the damn vibe, it was a fucking cult. “Firepower?”
“All the men are armed, but only the patrols on the perimeter have rifles. The rest have handguns.”
That evened the odds considerably. “All right, let me know about the plot, then get out of there.”
“Copy.” Tyler let a beat pass. “Boss, I respect your decisions, but this would be a cakewalk with a full team. We could surround them and lessen the odds of casualties. All the men would be on board and none of the clients would suffer. A few hours tomorrow without protection and we’d get this done by noon.”
“No.” What we were doing was illegal at best, fatal at worst. I didn’t want any of my men dying at the hands of a cult leader. I didn’t want them dying, period. It’s why I vetted all my clients. But Kendall wasn’t a client.
“Boss—”
“Drop it,” I warned, maneuvering the Cobalt into Neil’s marina. “I’m pulling into the slip. Did you leave me keys?”
“Yeah. Rear wheel well. And you’re all clear. There’s been no activity at the marina, your condo or the office since this morning. I’ll report in a few hours after I know more.”
“Copy, thanks.” I fucking owed him.
“Be careful with my ride.”
I smirked, but I was religiously scanning the marina as I got closer. “I’m not the one who got a company SUV riddled with over a hundred rounds.”
“Yeah, well, I paid for that.”
I sobered. It hadn’t cost him a thing, insurance had paid out, and now I had two armored vehicles as a result, but Tyler had taken a beating that day. “Over and done. I won’t get the Camaro shot to hell, promise. Report when you have something.”
“Copy.”
I hung up and angled the Cobalt into Neil’s slip. I was about to cut the engine when Dane Marek stepped out of the shadows on the dock and about gave me a fucking heart attack. My response time shit, I drew on him, but I would’ve been too late if he’d been an LC.
His dark gaze cut to my weapon before he squatted and tied down the bow. “You would’ve been dead already.” His voice, deep and quiet, barely cut through the night.
I holstered my gun and glanced at Kendall. She was still out. “I was distracted. Won’t happen again.” I couldn’t afford for it to happen again.
Dane tipped his chin toward her as he moved to the stern. “She okay?”
“Tired and wrung out, but yeah.” Her strength fucking amazed me.
He glanced at her again as he tied down the stern. “She’s pretty.”
My nostrils flared in anger a split second before irrational possessive jealousy made me see red. “Watch it.”
Dane studied me a moment before responding. “That will get you killed tomorrow.”
Fuck. I sucked in a breath then exhaled with effort. “Copy.” I nodded.
He tipped his chin at Kendall. “You going to let her sleep?”
I scanned the marina.
Dane read my thoughts. “You’re clear. No activity since I’ve been here.”
“How long was that?”
“Ninety in the parking lot, thirty on the dock.” He stepped onto the boat without making a sound. “You should train your men to be more vigilant.”
“Tyler didn’t see you?”
He shook his head once and looked again at Kendall like he couldn’t look away. “She really River Stephens’s daughter?”
“Yeah. Neil or Talon tell you?” One of them had called him. I wasn’t pissed they had, just pissed neither of them had told me.
“Neil.” He casually looked up and over his shoulder like he was looking at the stars, but I knew the maneuver. Same as me, he was scanning the marina. “He said you wanted the product, asked if I needed it. I said no then he told me he was moving it today.”
“Thanks.” The only reason we had the guns in the first place was because of him.
He shrugged. “I don’t need them.”
I pulled two waters out of the cooler and handed him one. “But you didn’t come out here to tell me that.”
“No.” He drank half the water. “Figured you needed another body.”
Dane wasn’t another body. He was a ruthless mercenary. Ex-marine, his reputation as a cold-blooded killer wasn’t bullshit. He had almost as many kills as me and a roadmap of scars to prove it. He’d gotten out of the Marines three years ago, but he hadn’t left the killing behind. If I didn’t know him, if I hadn’t saved his life once and he’d decided I was his friend, I’d stay the fuck away from him.
I drank my water and considered his roundabout offer of help. “I don’t know what I’m walking into.”
“You’ll be outgunned, outnumbered and underarmed. Nothing will be predictable.” His lethal gaze cut to me. “Different longitude and latitude, same odds as downrange.”
I nodded and leaned back in the captain’s chair. He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. Didn’t mean I was fucking happy about it though. “I’ll handle it.”
“You don’t have to.”
My gaze cut to his. I knew what he was offering. “Appreciate the offer, but I gotta take care of my own business.” I wouldn’t ask another man to kill for me. That was crossing a line I couldn’t in good conscience cross.
He nodded once. “Understood.”
I glanced at her, thankful she’d put clothes on before falling asleep. “She wants to go in.”
“Can you blame her?”
That was just it, I couldn’t. I’d been thinking about it since she’d fallen asleep. One way or another, I’d want closure. Would I deny her that? “I don’t want her anywhere near the place.”
Dane didn’t hesitate. “A caged bird is never free.”
The night air thick with humidity, I looked at the same stars I’d stared at from Afghanistan. “There’re two ways to take that.”
“Either is relevant.”
I didn’t want her in a cage. I knew the feeling of having a bounty on your head. It ate at you until you questioned everything. “I want her to be free of him.” She also deserved to be free of needing me to protect her.
“But not free from you.” Dane didn’t ask it, he stated it.
I stared at her, envious and in awe that she was still asleep. I hadn’t slept like that since before I knew the value of two dollars. “Is it wrong to want her tethered to me?”
“Love is never wrong,” he said simply.
Did I know her enough to love her? Did I even have a choice? Love wasn’t simple, and this conversation with a m
an who killed for money was anything but. I changed the subject. “I’m not asking you to be there tomorrow.”
His gaze cut from the marina to her to me. He stood. “She’s waking up. I’ll make sure you get back to the penthouse.”
“I’m going to the office.” We could sleep in my apartment there. My condo was secure but I’d sleep better knowing I had armed men downstairs.
Dane nodded and silently got off the boat. He disappeared into the shadows before I could say thanks.
Kendall drew in a long breath, and the back of her hand coasted over her eyes. Then, as if someone yanked on a string attached to her spine, she jerked. Her terrified gasp filled the night before her whole body went rigid.
I cupped the side of her face. “Sh, sh, baby girl, you’re okay.”
Wild, riddled with fear, her eyes darted around.
“I’m right here.” I put my forehead to hers. “You’re safe, chica. I got you, you’re okay.”
Her pulse pounding, her heartbeat thrumming, she sucked in a breath. “We’re stopped.”
“We’re at the marina. I didn’t want to wake you.” I stroked her cheeks with my thumbs.
“You should’ve.” She pushed me away.
This was what Candle had been talking about. “You have nightmares.” It was killing me not to pull her into my arms.
“I’m fine.” She pushed herself to a sitting position with more grace than any woman I’d ever seen.
“You were prescribed sleeping pills?”
“I don’t take drugs.” She looked everywhere but at me.
“How long have you had them?” I asked, but I could guess. Humans could conquer a lot of shit—hell, she was a rock star in that arena—but lying down at night? Closing your eyes and letting your guard down? That shit could turn south fast. I was no stranger to nightmares about my time downrange.
“I’m fine, André.”
Purely reactionary, I smiled.
“What?” she snapped.
I winked. “You used my name.”
She closed her eyes and groaned in frustration.
I took the in. I pulled her into my arms and stroked her back. “I don’t like seeing you scared, chica.”
“I don’t need to be comforted every waking moment,” she protested, but she put her arms around my waist.
“Too fucking bad.” I kissed her wind-tangled hair. “You need me, I’m gonna be here.”
She was quiet a moment. “I’m not going down a one-way street.”
I breathed in the salt air. Fuck, I’d missed this smell downrange. “Tell you what.” I tipped her face up to mine, but then the words disappeared. She was so damn beautiful—both fragile and strong—she took my breath away. But curled into me with no attitude on her face, and her eyes steadily holding mine, I didn’t want to burden her with my shit. If I opened this door, there was no closing it. But Jesucristo, she was staring at me like she trusted me.
Fuck it.
I sealed my fate. “Next time I can’t sleep because I’m counting my kills, I’ll let you know.”
She stared, and I held my fucking breath. Nothing in her expression changed. Not one tell of body language surfaced. Then she breathed three even breaths and asked the simplest of questions. “You recount them?”
“Sometimes.” Every goddamn night.
She kept studying me. “More than sometimes,” she said confidently.
Always. Every shot replayed, testing my conscience, making me wonder what kind of a man I was. Making me ask myself what else was I capable of. “We even?”
“Life isn’t a competition.”
That’s exactly what it was. I’d fought for every damn thing I had, and I was fighting for her. But I didn’t say shit. I took in her sexy curves and the white dress covering them. After we’d ruined her other dress, she pulled this one out of the backpack. Folded, it hadn’t looked like anything more than a scrap of fabric. But when she’d put it on, she looked like a goddess. It was the only thing I’d ever seen her in that hadn’t been black. “Have I told you that you look sexy as hell in white?”
Her long fingers tamed her hair into a just-fucked looked. “If you have a virgin-whore complex, I want my money back.”
Tired as fuck, but amused as hell, I chuckled. “You didn’t pay me, chica.”
Gracefully unfolding herself from me, she stood and stepped just out of reach. Stretching, she looked around the marina. “Then it’s a good thing I’m not a virgin either.”
“Get over here.” Forcing myself not to reach for her, I kept my arms across the back of the seat.
Her eyes on mine, teasing, challenging, she took one step.
Hell yes. I smiled. “Keep coming.”
“I haven’t started coming.” She moved between my legs. “Yet.”
Damn. I dragged my gaze over her strong thighs and sexy hips. Lingering on her full tits, I watched her nipples pebble under my gaze, and my cock hardened. “You know what I think?” I wanted to taste every inch of her. “I think you want more.”
“What gave it away?” she deadpanned.
Knowing she had no underwear on, I glanced down and let my gaze linger on her sweet cunt before I looked back up and winked. “You like me.”
No humor, no smile, no bullshit, she shot back a response. “I more than like you.”
My heart fucking soared. I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down on my lap, then I dragged my nose across her neck. “Good, because I’m addicted to you, chica.” Licking then gently sucking, I swirled my tongue against her sensitive flesh.
A moan vibrated up her throat and her arms caged my head in. “I hear music.”
Knowing Marek was keeping watch, I chuckled with a false sense of security. “Wish I could believe my mouth on you is making you hear it, but there’s a nightclub around the corner.”
She abruptly captured my face in her hands. “I want to go dancing.”
I was already shaking my head. “When this thing is over, I’ll take—”
“One dance.” The lights from the marina reflected in her hazel eyes. “Please.”
Dios mio. Hearing her beg was a new kind of torture, but I shook my head. “Tonight’s not the night, chica.” Damn, I liked hearing her say please.
“But what if this is my last—”
My amusement spun on a dime. “Not going there,” I warned.
She stared at me. Then she opened her sweet mouth like she knew the very arsenal to bring me down. “Please,” she quietly pleaded. “You can even call one of your steroid-pumped bodyguards to watch us.” She glanced down at her dress. “I’m wearing white. Who’s going to recognize me?”
My cell vibrated in my pocket. Needing the distraction, I grabbed it and answered. “Luna.”
“I heard,” Dane stated, the music getting louder in the background. “Use the back entrance to Zen. Go to the second level.”
I looked over my shoulder. How fucking close had he been? “Forget it.”
“Talerco’s been all over South Beach on your Ducati looking for a tail. If they’re going to follow anyone right now, it’ll be him. You can spare thirty minutes. It’ll distract her.”
Jesucristo. If I didn’t know him, I’d think I was being set up. “You just wanna watch.”
He didn’t laugh, because Dane Marek never fucking laughed. “You gave me my life back. Returning the favor.” He hung up.
“Dios mio.” I shoved my cell back in my pocket and held her questioning gaze. “One dance, chica.” I held a finger up. “One.”
Shy and reserved, she smiled.
I groaned. “Woman, stop doing that to me.” I shook my head, but I was smiling right back at her.
I’D BEEN TO TOO MANY biker bars with Candle, but never a club. Candle didn’t do nightclubs, and I’d never bothered. It wasn’t because I didn’t love to dance, I did. I just avoided people. But dancing in the women’s quarters after evening meal and prayers, it was one of my only happy memories of growing up on the compound.
&n
bsp; Some of the women had contraband records, and we’d wait till the men were in counsel, then we’d let loose. It was forbidden, and heart pumping and nerve-wracking, but it was free. One of the women taught us moves that were scandalous to my impressionable mind until I’d been with Hero. Then I’d gotten it.
One arm around me, his other hand on his gun at his waist, André scanned the parking lot as he led us to a Camaro and reached behind the rear wheel well. Coming away with a key, he popped the trunk.
“And here I would’ve thought you drew the line at stealing cars,” I joked.
His throaty half laugh escaped and shivers crawled across my skin. “Not stealing, chica. It belongs to one of my men.” He dumped our backpack and his holster in the trunk, then untucked his shirt. “Keep an eye out. You see anyone you think you recognize, let me know immediately.” He slipped his gun in his back waistband and pulled his T-shirt over it.
“Kinda hard to miss a biker in a cut.” He’d given me this speech on the boat twice already. “But copy that, or ten-four, or whatever the hell I’m supposed to say.”
He shook his head as he shut the trunk, then he grabbed me with a growl. Wrapping his arms around my waist, he picked me up off my feet. “Did you do what I asked?”
I wanted to smile. An entire MC out to kill me, my biological father responsible, sixty crates of guns about to be traded for my freedom, and I wanted to fucking smile. Instead, I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I have underwear on.”
Gentle and sweet, his soft lips landed on mine. His tongue teased across my bottom lip, barely sinking inside my mouth before he retreated and put me back on my feet. “Thank you.”
The quieter he spoke, the raspier his voice became. Scraping across his vocal chords, the deep timbre chafed his throat and grated past his lips. Next to his growl, or the dip in his tone when he said chica, it was the sexiest sound I’d ever heard.
“I love when you whisper to me.” The thought passed my lips before my mind could sensor it.
His arms stiffened, his expression shut down and his nostrils flared with an inhale.
I instantly tried to pull back out of his grasp. “Sorry,” I muttered. “I didn’t mean that.”
Rough, calloused fingers caught my chin and intense brown eyes searched mine. “Why are you taking that back?” he quietly demanded.