I was going to get these guys if it was the last thing I did.
Chapter 23
Mina
The house was suddenly flooded with people again. Mabel came over to help me figure out what to do because Joss had stopped by her house to pick up Carrington’s daughter, McKelty. David and Ricki took David’s old cottage, and it seemed simple to put Donovan and Kate in his old cottage, but it had been cleaned and emptied for Rose to move in this weekend. So we put them in Joss’s old cottage since the small house wouldn’t be nearly big enough for the four members of her family. Instead, we put them in the guest bedrooms at the back of the first floor of the main house.
Kate stayed at the main house and helped us box up supplies for everyone, making a list of things we’d need if this confinement lasted longer than just a day or two. When there was nothing more to keep us busy, Mabel made a pot of coffee and we sat around the table, staring out the darkened windows at the menacing world beyond them.
“Who could do something like this to Rose?” Mabel finally asked, putting voice to the question everyone had been wanting to ask.
I stared down into the depths of my coffee cup, not because I was contemplating the answer, but because I knew the answer. I just didn’t know what to do about it.
“Donovan thinks that someone Gray Wolf put behind bars might be behind this.”
“But who? And why would they do this now?”
Kate’s hands were shaking. I reached over and pressed mine over hers.
“Ash will figure this out,” Mabel said.
“And if he doesn’t?” Kate shook her head. “If something were to happen to Donovan…”
Mabel and I exchanged glances. We were both thinking the same thing. Only, of course, Mabel was thinking of Kirkland and I of Ash.
And I knew the answer. I didn’t know how they could be stopped, but I knew the who. I had to tell someone.
“What if they knew who was doing this?” I asked.
Kate looked at me. “Obviously they’d know how to stop them.”
“What if knowing the who just made things worse?”
“How could it?”
“You haven’t been around all this for very long,” Mabel said. “You don’t understand how they work. But knowing the who…knowing who is after them could go a long way to helping them figure out how to stop them.”
“But what if it was someone they couldn’t go after on their own and someone the cops couldn’t stop, either?”
“There’s no such thing,” Kate said.
“I guess what I’m asking is, if we knew that the who could place them in more danger if they knew and went after them than if they stayed ignorant of the whole thing, should we tell them?”
Mabel and Kate stared at me. Then Kate said, “You can’t fight an enemy you can’t see, no matter how big and frightening that enemy might be.”
“Exactly,” Mabel agreed.
The last excuse I had for not telling was gone. However, I couldn’t tell anyone but Ash. It had to be Ash.
***
Donovan called to say that Rose was going to be in surgery until early morning, so everyone should try to get some sleep. Kate was reluctant to go to the cottage alone, but she did. Then Kirkland came for Mabel. I climbed the stairs alone, peeked in on Ford, then went and sat on the window seat in Ash’s bedroom.
My thoughts were swirling, but I knew what I had to do, and I was pretty sure I knew how I was going to do it. I just had to have the opportunity.
I’d never meant to bring trouble to Ash’s door. I knew that Dimitri was after him before, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the fact that I was living here, that I’d run to the enemy to find protection, had made things worse. Dimitri was a dark man, one capable of atrocities that even Ash might not have ever seen. I was in the room on more than one occasion when he planned out these things. I heard what he did, what he wanted done. It was sickening, but what could I do about it?
When I saw Ash’s picture in that magazine, the one Dimitri threw on the ground, I knew it was the face of a good man. I knew he would help me. When I ran away, I hid out there in those woods, the ones that grow up on the outskirts of the fence. I’d thought about climbing the fence, but understood Ash was not a man who would make it that easy for someone to infiltrate his property. So I watched. I waited. And then I saw my opportunity.
I hoped for a little help. I hadn’t expected all that Ash had given to me.
It was a little before dawn when I heard him come up the stairs. I stood because it didn’t seem like the kind of moment I should sit through. He paused in the doorway, exhaustion coming off of him in waves. I couldn’t help but go to him, curl up against his chest, and take in the comfort that came from the feel of his arms around me.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly.
He touched my lips with one finger, replacing it with his lips a second later. It was a hard kiss, a kiss filled with an overwhelming need. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he lifted me, carrying me to the bed. He needed oblivion. I could feel that in his touch, in the desperation that sat just below the surface. He needed me.
I’d never been needed quite like that before.
We tumbled onto the bed, and he grabbed my wrists, holding them over my head. His mouth moved over my throat and down into the space revealed by my t-shirt. One hand snuck under the bottom hem of the shirt, sliding up over my hip, my ribs. He exposed my breasts to his mouth, nibbling until a little milk dribbled down the bottom edge of my breast. He licked it, taking it into his mouth with a soft, mewling sound that was everything and nothing like the little sounds Ford often made.
He moved down my body, touching me and kissing me everywhere. I lay still, afraid to distract him, to bring him back to the reality of all that had happened tonight. He tugged at my panties, and I pressed my head back against the pillows, a groan slipping from my lips. I ached almost desperately, my belly tight at just the thought of what he was about to do. And when he did, when he touched me, my thighs quivered and the tightness in my belly grew.
He nibbled at my lips, his tongue brushing against my clit. He was the one who craved oblivion, but it was my body experiencing the most intense pleasure it had ever known. I moved my hips, encouraging his touch. He slipped his fingers against me and…oh, God!
He pulled me to the edge, and then he backed off, removing his fingers and pressing his lips against my inner thighs. And then his warm breath washed over me, his tongue touching my clit again. And then his fingers slipped inside of me, and I was writhing my hips, unable to sit still as he touched places inside of me that stood up and cheered with each brush of his fingers.
“So good,” I whispered.
“I want to watch you come.”
Our eyes met, and there was this smoldering need in his eyes that made my heart skip a beat. And then his mouth was back against my cunt and my head was spinning and I couldn’t think of anything but the feel of his lips on my innermost places. I rocked my hips, unable to hold back the groans that wanted to escape my lips.
I was so close. I writhed against him, needing his touch everywhere. It wasn’t enough to feel his teeth nibble at my lips, to feel his fingers inside of me. I wanted him to twirl my clit behind his teeth, wanted him to kiss my inner thighs, wanted everything he could offer and more. I wanted the paradise he was promising.
And then…I clutched at the sheets, tugging at them as my hips froze in midair. Right there. That spot was just…and then the tightness turned into a quiver, and my nerves exploded with the most intense orgasm I’d ever experienced. My vision darkened, my ears rang. It felt beyond good. But it wasn’t over. He slid up the length of my body and turned me onto my side, pulled me back against his chest, and pressed his finger to my clit, sending even more explosions through my body. And then he slid inside of me, his cock hard and thick, touching things that his fingers couldn’t quite reach. The rhythm he established, the quiver of my muscles, turned that one, singular orgasm into somet
hing bigger. Something better.
I couldn’t catch my breath. His arms around me, cradling me back against his chest as he rained kisses on my shoulder. It was all just too much. I was lost in him when I was supposed to be the one taking care of him. I was supposed to be comforting him. Yet, I was the one reaping all the benefits.
I never wanted it to stop. And it didn’t. For a long time, he held me there and made me feel like I was the only one that mattered. He filled me with his seed, but it didn’t end. We moved together again, slowly, our kisses lingering and gentle. And then the fever came back and we both walked off that cliff again. When we were both exhausted, our bodies satiated, I curled up against his chest. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but…I should have told him.
Chapter 24
Ash
I didn’t sleep much. My dreams were filled with images of Rose, lying battered and unrecognizable in that hospital bed. It hurt me in ways I couldn’t even begin to describe to see her that way. This woman who’d held my rag tag bunch of operatives together, who made us the family we’d become, never should have known such pain. The people who did this…they were going to pay.
The sun had been up a while when I heard Ford making noises in the other room. I dropped a kiss on Mina’s temple before slipping out of bed, tugging back on the jeans I’d worn the day before, and crossed to the guest room. Ford was kicking his legs up in the air, not crying, but not making the happiest sounds in the world. I lifted him up and cradled him against my chest, whispering words of affection against his ear.
“You’re okay, champ,” I said softly. “You’re going to be okay.”
We walked around the room a little, and he began to nod off again. He did that sometimes, waking before he was really ready to greet the day. I was putting him back in the basinet when the chime on my phone sounded. It was in my pants pocket, forgotten this morning when I came home. I tugged it out, thinking it might be something about Rose even though my logical mind knew that it was the tone for an email, not a phone call.
I didn’t recognize the sender’s email address, and there was nothing in the subject line. It crossed my mind to delete it without looking at it, but with everything that had been happening and the email David had shown me yesterday, I thought it might not hurt to look.
I wished I hadn’t.
You think if you hide behind fences you’ll be protected. But we can get to you anywhere, any time.
There were several attachments. A picture of Donovan’s SUV after the accident. A picture of Kirkland sitting on the sidewalk after he was shot. A picture of the outside of Rose’s house. But what made my blood run cold, what really underscored the creepiness of the whole thing, was a picture of Mina and Ford in a restaurant somewhere.
No one knew about Mina and me. Not even my brother and my friends had known that our relationship had turned romantic until the barbecue yesterday. Yet, someone had known a picture of her would upset me. A picture that, based on how big Ford was, was taken some time ago.
I didn’t understand. Who would want to hurt us? Who would be close enough to us to know who to hurt and how to do it and be close enough to know about Mina? I briefly wondered if Mabel or Ricki or Kate, the outsiders, the new members of our little group, but I knew how ridiculous that was as the thought burst through my mind.
Emily and her husband Jack…but what motive would they have to give information on us to an enemy?
A bug on our phones was a possibility, but David had a program that checked for that sort of thing during routine updates.
It didn’t make sense. The only thing I knew to do was to ask Mina.
She was still asleep, curled up with her dark hair tangled around her face. I sat on the edge of the bed and touched her shoulder, reluctant to take away the peacefulness on her face, but needing this information. If she knew something that could help me find the people who did this…
“Mina, babe,” I said, shaking her shoulder. “I’m sorry, baby, but I need to talk to you.”
She rolled onto her back, rubbing at her eyes with side of her hand.
“What’s going on?”
She was beautiful, this woman lying in my bed. I’d never thought I could ever want anyone other than Alexi. I’d thought I’d found my one and only and no one else would ever be good enough, would never be more than the meaningless sex that had filled my life before her. But that was before Mina, before the first time I tasted her lips, before the first time I touched her bare skin. That was before I knew how perfect it could be with her.
I was almost grateful that Alexi had been so selfish. If she hadn’t disappeared from my life, I might be married to her now, locked in a marriage that couldn’t have possibly made either of us happy.
“I need to ask you something, and I’m not sure how to do it.”
She sat up, propping herself up against the pillows. “There’s something I need to talk to you about, too.”
“First, I—”
“I know who attacked Rose. And I’m pretty sure it’s the same people who attacked Donovan and Kirkland.”
Cold fingers started to play a symphony on my spine. I cocked my head, trying not to jump to conclusions.
“How do you know that?”
“Have you ever heard of Dimitri Avdonin?”
No, no, no…
I studied her face, the symphony’s tempo accelerating.
“Mina…”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, tugging the sheet up over her bare breasts. She stared at her hands in her lap, her hair falling down around her face. “I’ve tried to tell you before.”
“Tell me what?”
She shook her head, color rising on her cheeks.
“Mina, tell me how you know the name of one of the leaders of the Bazarov Cartel.”
My words were slow, measured, but there was anger behind them. And fear.
“He’s Ford’s father.”
No, no, no….shit, shit, shit!
I got up and started to pace.
“How did you get mixed up with Avdonin?”
“I…” she hesitated. “It’s going to sound really bad.”
I stopped to look at her, really look at her. “What do you mean?”
Her head came up, and there were tears on her face. “Ash, I told you, I was not in a good place when I first came to Los Angeles. I didn’t have money. I was desperate.”
“That’s a reason to get involved with criminals?”
“I didn’t know at first.”
I couldn’t believe that. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the idea that she would not know what Avdonin was. I’d never come face to face with him, but we’d had two cases through Gray Wolf where we had a run in with other members of the cartel. The first case ended when a group of cartel members tried to take Kirkland out in an alley in downtown Los Angeles. Joss managed to take them out by running the client’s car into them—one of the last cases in which we allowed the client to use his own car—and they backed down. The second involved Joss again. Ironically, it was the case that brought her and Carrington together, but not before she was forced to take out Vitaly Bazarov, the head of the cartel.
Bazarov was dead, and his son was in prison. We’d assumed that meant that the cartel would dissolve itself without leadership. Apparently we were wrong.
“How do you know they did this, that they hurt Rose?”
“It’s their M.O., and I know they wanted to hurt you.”
“Me?”
She brushed at her face again, wiping away the tears. “That article came out in Mabel’s magazine and it incensed Dimitri. He couldn’t believe that you would advertise yourself that way, and that you could gloat after what you’d done to the Bazarovs. He’d been planning on getting revenge for what happened last fall, but seeing that article…”
“You knew who I was when you approached me that night?”
It just sank in, like a branding iron against a heifer’s flank. If she knew about the article, the article that c
ame out two weeks before Ford’s birth, then she knew who I was when she asked for my help that night. Why? Why would she do that? Was she—?
I didn’t want my thoughts to go there, but I couldn’t help it. Was she in on this thing with Avdonin?
“I ran away. I knew you could help me.”
“But if I knew the truth? Is that why you never told me?”
“Ash, I—”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear any more.”
“No, Ash, you have to let me explain.”
She climbed off the bed, naked and so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. I turned away, but she grabbed my arm and tugged at my bare skin.
“Please,” she said, her voice just a choked mutter. “Please, you have to let me explain. I didn’t mean for it to go on like this. I wanted to tell you, but I was so afraid. I can’t go back out there; I can’t take Ford outside the fence. He’ll come after us. He’ll hurt us.”
I jerked my arm away.
“You used me.”
“I didn’t…”
Even she knew it was useless to argue.
I turned, and there was just something about the way she was standing there, no shame in her nudity, no regret in her eyes. It made this incredible anger build in my chest, so painful that I couldn’t ignore it. I needed to lash out; I needed to make her hurt as much as I was hurting.
I grabbed her upper arms and shook her, pushing her back toward the bed. She fell when the back of legs hit the mattress, and I tumbled down with her, my knee forcing her legs apart.
“You lied to me. You betrayed everything I thought we shared. I trusted you, and you took advantage of that.”
“No.”
It was a whisper, barely loud enough for me to hear. She didn’t even believe in her own lies enough to speak them loud and clear. This beautiful woman wormed her way into my bed and made me believe that I could actually move on with my life. I’d imagined things I was afraid to put into words, a future…a life.
But that was over now.
“Did he send you here? Did he want you to report back to him, tell him how successful his little attacks on us were? Did he want to know how pathetic we were? Did the two of you laugh at us? At me?”
ASHFORD (Gray Wolf Security #5) Page 10