Blue Blooded
Page 18
Most men might be scared of a virus with an 80 percent mortality rate, but then again, they hadn’t suffered through fifty-eight years of torture. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d be laid up bleeding from every orifice, pain suffusing his joints and muscles. However, it would be the first time he’d received medical attention for it. There was a slight risk the hospital would question his multitude of healed and unhealed injuries, but his wife knew to pay them well for their silence.
As his lover commenced the next portion of the torture and the scream tore from his throat, he came violently, ejaculate splashing the floor and mixing with his blood. He bowed his head in a prayer of thanks and waited silently for the torture to end.
More blood would be shed this afternoon.
He couldn’t wait.
Chapter Twenty-One
“SO ONCE YOU get into the mechanical room, you’re just going to what exactly?” Oz asked, munching on Rachel’s new addiction, chocolate-covered potato chips. “Walk off with the tank and . . . ?”
She looked at Logan and shrugged. “As long as we stop the virus from releasing, the rest we’ll play by ear.”
They had spent the past three hours going over every step of tomorrow’s operation to save the world. While Logan’s friends wanted to come with them to the Tuscany Hotel, they all agreed that they’d need to stay behind to provide any necessary intel and serve as the second line of defense should anything go wrong. The fact was she and Logan didn’t want to draw them into it any more than they already had. They’d already broken several federal and state laws that would put them behind bars for the rest of their lives. If things got ugly tomorrow, she and Logan didn’t want the guys’ lives on their consciences.
“Any luck finding out if Evans and Fink have gotten any large deposits of money in the past few months?” she asked Rowan.
Every time she looked at him or Oz, her cheeks heated. Last night’s memory of them was burned onto her retinas. Even though they knew she’d watched them, Oz remained the same smart-ass as yesterday and Rowan was just as reserved. It was hard to believe only hours before, Oz’s tongue had been on Rowan’s cock while today the two of them barely interacted except to discuss something technological.
“I did find something,” Rowan said flatly. “Fink’s mother has received a deposit of just under ten thousand dollars every week for the past five weeks from an Antiguan bank. The foreign account is registered to a dummy Antiguan corporation that was set up to shelter its multiple clients by keeping their names off of it, and unfortunately, the list of who those clients are isn’t kept online.”
She sighed. “So it’s impossible to trace.”
“No, not impossible,” Rowan said. “Just more difficult. I need more time, but I’ll be able to get you that information.”
“Why did you even think to look at his mother’s bank account?” Logan asked, his shoulder knocking into hers as they sat next to each other on the small couch in the corner of the room.
Rowan turned to them. “When I didn’t find any deposits into his account, I checked his closest relatives. Sometimes people hide money in their spouses’ accounts, and since Fink doesn’t have a spouse, I checked his next of kin, which was his mother.”
“Maybe the money his mother is receiving is legitimate,” she offered. It was unusual but not unheard of. Maybe it was some kind of investment that was finally paying off.
Rowan avoided looking in her eyes, choosing to keep his gaze on Logan. “Probably not. Before the deposits, she had less than twenty dollars in her account. Her police records show multiple arrests and short prison sentences for drug possession and intent to distribute. She’s a junky and, from the looks of it, a bad one.”
She shot up from the couch. “You can get into the police reports?” At the rise of his brow, she switched tactics. Of course he could; the man had already proved his hacking talents. “I mean, since you can get into the police reports, would you mind pulling up the one on Logan and me? I want to know what evidence they’re using to support their claims that Logan killed Rinaldi.”
They couldn’t have any evidence since Logan hadn’t committed the crime, right? Everything she’d heard on the news so far was mere conjecture about his motive for wanting Rinaldi dead. Nothing had been released about the evidence.
She paced the room as Rowan worked his magic. It wasn’t more than a couple of minutes later that Rowan pulled up the report.
“Here it is,” he said. “According to this, the Beretta M9 pistol used to shoot Anthony Rinaldi was registered to Logan Bradford.”
Logan jumped up from the couch. “No way. Yes, I used the Beretta M9 in the army, but I have a Glock now. There’s no way that gun was registered to me.”
She joined Logan’s side and rubbed the back of his neck in reassurance. “Obviously, once Evans and Fink had someone to pin Rinaldi’s murder on, they doctored the records. Any fingerprints on the gun?”
Rowan scrolled down the screen. “Wiped clean. They also didn’t find any of Logan’s prints at the scene of the crime.”
“But of course, they did find Evans’s and Fink’s,” Hunter pointed out. “What does it say about why the agents were there?”
Rowan paused, reading. “Evans and Fink were assigned to follow Rinaldi once he was released from prison to see who he communicated with. According to the report, Rinaldi went home and discovered his wife and his children had gone into hiding. Evans and Fink observed through a telescope as Rinaldi went on a rampage through his house and broke down. An hour later, he snorted three lines of what was later confirmed as a potentially fatal combination of exceptionally pure cocaine and heroin and got into his car, driving west and parking in front of Cole DeMarco’s home. Evans and Fink couldn’t pass the gate, and since they were to remain out of sight, they parked farther down the street, keeping their eye on Rinaldi’s car.”
“That explains why Rinaldi was walking funny,” she said to Logan. “He was drugged.”
“How does a guy who had been in prison for months get drugs that fast?” Logan asked, moving to stand in front of her.
She smiled, the thrill of putting together the pieces of a story a high she never got tired of. “Two corrupt FBI agents give it to him as a coming-home present. They must have known he used. It would have been in his records. And after going without drugs for months, he wouldn’t turn them down.”
Logan nodded. “The drugs were supposed to kill him. When they didn’t, Evans and Fink had to come up with a different plan. But why did Rinaldi come to Benediction?”
It was a good question and something that had bothered her since that night. The man had just gotten out of prison. Had he really come to Benediction just to gloat about his release? The report stated he’d broken down upon finding his family gone. That had to mean something.
“One thing you could always say about Rinaldi was he loved his wife and kids,” she pointed out. “He never would’ve placed them at risk of becoming sick with the Leopold virus. With them gone and out of his control, he couldn’t guarantee their safety. What if in that moment he changed his mind and decided he wanted to back out of the plan? Who would he go to for help? Not the FBI, who were already involved. Who would believe a man like him?”
Understanding dawned in Logan’s eyes. “You think he was coming to convince Cole to help him?” He gritted his teeth. “Only we never let him get the chance.”
She laid her hand on his cheek. “Bullshit. He had the chance. He just didn’t take it. The man was a psychopath. Who even knows if he remembered why he came to Benediction in the first place. He was hopped up on a high dose of cocaine and heroin, and he wasn’t sane to begin with. You did the right thing by throwing him off of Benediction’s premises.”
Logan nodded as he scratched the back of his neck, but she could tell he shouldered some of the blame for the events that followed Rinaldi’s appearance at Benediction.
“Didn’t Cole’s video cameras catch the murder?” Logan asked Rowan.
“When we were behind the bushes,” she muttered.
Rowan continued, speaking over her. “The camera picks you up again when you ran up the driveway and back into Cole’s house.”
Logan clenched his hands. “So there’s nothing on the tapes to help exonerate us.”
“It’s worse,” Rowan said. “Evans and Fink claim they witnessed it all, but didn’t get there in time to save Rinaldi.”
“Son of a bitch,” Logan shouted, startling her by punching the wall.
“Shh.” She rubbed his back. “Don’t worry. We’re going to stop them and prove we didn’t do it. Trust me.”
After a large exhale, Logan turned around. “Isn’t that my line?”
She gave him a smile she didn’t quite feel at the moment. “I thought I’d borrow it. Hope you don’t mind.”
“I don’t.” He bent and whispered in her ear. “How you feeling by the way? Sore?”
Arousal blasted through her. Heck yeah, she was sore. And she loved it.
She opened her mouth to reply when Oz interrupted. “Hey, guys. Did you know you have an attorney who held a press conference in defense of you two?”
Oz put the news article up on one of the larger monitors.
“Holy shit,” Rachel said. “It’s Kate.”
She wasn’t sure why she was surprised. It wasn’t the first time Kate had proved how far she would go to help out those she cared about.
“She’s my law partner,” Logan explained to his friends, his eyes never leaving hers and conveying everything he didn’t say. And nothing more.
“And my best friend,” she added, giving Logan a real smile that this time she felt all the way into her bones.
“Well, she’s fighting to clear your names,” Oz said. “Already got the charges dropped for the dog kidnapping and the gas station robberies.” He whistled. “That girl is fine.”
“She’s taken,” Rachel said, thinking of Kate lighting up every time she spoke about Jaxon. “Very taken.”
Sawyer stood from his chair. “Who’s that woman standing behind her?”
She squinted, barely making out the figure in the background. “That’s Lisa. Another one of my friends. She’s a publicist, so she helps coordinate press conferences for Kate and Logan when necessary. Why?”
Sawyer stared intently at the photograph. “She looks familiar. How long have you known her?”
She bit her lip, thinking back to when she first met her through Kate. “Not too long. She was a legal secretary at the firm where Logan and Kate interned their third year of law school. Kind of mousy, but she’s a spitfire when she needs to be. I’d hook you up, but she’s not into kink. Like at all. I don’t even think she dates.”
None of her friends were an open book, with the exception of Gracie, which was probably why she felt comfortable with them. They all had their secrets, and they didn’t need to share every detail about their lives with one another. But Lisa didn’t volunteer anything about herself. She was almost as good as Rachel when it came to deflecting personal questions. In fact, Rachel didn’t know much about the woman’s life before she’d worked at the law firm. But it wasn’t as if they knew about how Rachel had been raised either.
Sawyer raked his fingers into his hair and blew out a breath. “Fuck. I need . . . ” Without saying anything more, he strode out of the room.
“What’s with him?” Hunter asked, stealing the bag of chips from Oz’s hands.
Oz frowned. “No idea.”
She guessed their meeting was over. It was just as well. They were ready for tomorrow—or, at least, as ready as they could be. She could think of a dozen things she’d rather be doing with her mouth right now than talking.
As if reading her mind, Logan pushed an errant hair behind her ear before whispering into it. “So, one more night in this place. Got any idea of how you’d like to spend it?”
He was going to make her say the words.
She looked into his eyes, her heart suddenly pounding so hard she wouldn’t be surprised if the other guys could hear it. “You said when I was ready, you’d show me what it was like to be fucked by two men. Well, I’m ready for it. Tonight. With you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“ARE YOU SURE you want this?” Logan asked her once again. “You can change your mind at any time.”
They were in their hotel room, she and Logan lying naked under the covers of the bed, on their sides facing each other, after having taken a nap. A nap. In less than a few days, she’d gone from sleeping two hours a night to a full night’s sleep plus a three-hour nap. She sure was making up for lost time. She had an insatiable appetite for more than junk food now. Sex and sleep had become her new addictions, in that order.
In ten minutes, someone would knock on their door. She didn’t know who because Logan had set it up after their meeting. He promised his friend would be discreet, but it wasn’t as if the other guys weren’t going to figure it out. When one of the guys didn’t show up to Paradise Found, the others were bound to put two and two together.
She threw her leg over his, hooking his ankle with her foot, and ran her hand over his chest. “I’m sure. I want to know what it’s like to completely lose control. One thing I have learned this week is that life is unpredictable. I’ve played it safe for so long, scared to truly lose myself, but what I realize now is that I’m the same girl I was when I left my parents’ house at eighteen. I was so afraid to lose control of my life again that I never started living it. Anything can happen, and I don’t want to spend another night wondering what it feels like to make love with two men. Plenty of women have the fantasy, but far too few of them make it a reality. I don’t want to be one of those women. I want to live the fantasy.”
She couldn’t do it back in Michigan. Here in Vegas, where sinning was not only acceptable but encouraged, she could live out the fantasy she never imagined would ever become a reality. With Logan, she felt safe to explore her sexuality. He didn’t chastise her for craving a sexual act that most of the world would consider deviant. Instead, he made plans to give it to her.
She never would’ve guessed he was such a dirty, kinky man or that she would like it so damned much. They had all of the country’s law enforcement looking to arrest them and at least two men who wanted them dead, and she’d never been so happy in her entire life. She didn’t want to stop and analyze why or think about what would happen when it was finally resolved and they returned to their real lives.
A quiet knock fell on the door.
This was it.
Nervous excitement buzzed through her. She sat up and combed her hair with her fingers while Logan rolled out of bed to answer the door. She didn’t know why she was bothering to fix her hair when it was just going to get messed up soon anyway.
Logan slowly pulled open the door, revealing Hunter standing behind it. As he walked in, Rachel instinctively pulled up the sheet to cover her breasts.
He tossed her a chocolate bar. “My momma raised me right. Figured it was only polite to bring a girl candy before I fucked her.”
She stared at the chocolate before flicking her gaze up to Hunter. And she laughed. With that one smooth move, he’d eased the awkwardness. His eyes sparkled and a grin pulled at his lips, the hoop at the corner catching her eye.
“Thank you for the candy,” she said, smiling, tearing open the wrapper. She’d never turn down chocolate.
Unabashedly naked, Logan strode back to the bed and sat beside her, not bothering to cover himself. Hunter didn’t pause before sitting on the edge of the mattress on her side of the bed, twisting himself toward Logan.
For a couple of minutes, the men talked about baseball while she sca
rfed down the candy bar. It would almost pass for normal had two of the three of them not been naked. She understood they wanted her to feel comfortable about the threesome, but this was ridiculous.
She crumpled the wrapper into a ball and shot it across the room toward the trash. Damn, she missed. She dropped the sheet, exposing her breasts. Enough of the small talk. “If someone doesn’t touch me soon, I’m going to have to take care of it myself.”
Logan smirked as he brushed her arm with his knuckles. “No you won’t. You love the anticipation. The idea that you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Whose cock you’re going to have in your ass and whose will go in your pussy.”
Starting with her calf, Hunter stroked his hand over her covered leg, resting it on her upper thigh. “You want me to go at any time, you just say the word.”
She squirmed, her pussy already growing wet from their touches. “I don’t want you to go. I want this. Both of you. And I don’t want to wait any longer.” She turned her head to Logan and begged him with her eyes. “Please don’t make me wait any longer.”
He cradled the back of her head in his hand and pulled her into him, his lips crashing over hers. His tongue excitedly plunged and retreated, over and over, mimicking what she’d like him to do with his cock. She felt Hunter’s heat at her back. His hand curled around her to palm her breast and swipe his thumb over her nipple.