A Corruption Dark & Deadly (A Dark & Deadly Series Book 3)

by Heather C. Myers

  His lips trailed up her neck until they found that sensitive area where her throat met her shoulder, and he sucked on her skin until she knew there would be a mark she would have to cover up with makeup tomorrow morning. Her head tilted away from him, giving him much better access to her throat to do whatever he wanted to her.

  “You are mine,” he said through each kiss, his teeth gently gnawing on her skin before his tongue ran across it. “And I want everyone to know it. Take off your shirt.”

  Annie glanced sideways. She knew they had privacy in the car and that the driver wouldn’t be able to hear them. But that didn’t mean there were any secret cameras positioned in the back, ready to catch Jericho on tape having sex with some woman they could sell the tape to for a shit-ton of money.

  “In the car?” she questioned. Surprising even to her, she wasn’t entirely opposed to having sex with him in the backseat of a car. She didn’t even care that the chances of them being caught increased dramatically considering the fact that there was a driver a couple of feet away from them.

  “Yes,” he said with one nod. “Tell me your concern.”

  He already knew something was bugging her thanks to her hesitation. At least he didn’t seem upset with her or frustrated at her caution. He simply wanted to hear her out in order to help alleviate the situation.

  “Cameras?” It was only one word. That was all she was concerned about.

  “None,” he told her. “Do you trust me?”

  She nodded once. “With everything,” she told him.

  The corners of his lips twitched up. “Take off your shirt,” he repeated.

  She did as he told her to without hesitation this time. Her shirt fluttered to the ground so she was left in her bra.

  “Jesus, you’re beautiful,” he said, his eyes dropping to her neck, her shoulders, her collarbone, her breasts, her soft stomach, before trailing back up to her face. “Take off your seatbelt.”

  She clicked it off and felt a rush of danger. His eyes sparkled with delight at the fact that she listened to him without question. He did the same thing to his own seatbelt and all but lunged for her, wrapping his arm around her throat and bringing her to him so his lips could crash onto her. With his free hand, he reached around her back and undid her bra like he was some kind of expert – which he probably was. The straps slid forward and he tugged the bra off of her, tossing it down where her shirt was.

  Without waiting to stare at her naked breasts further, he sucked a nipple into his mouth and she moaned – but cut herself off due to the fact that she remembered there was a driver not two feet away from them.

  “Don’t,” he snapped, bringing his head away from her breast so he could look into her eyes. “Don’t even think about not making noise. I want to hear you.”

  “But the driver,” she said.

  “He can’t hear you,” Jericho assured her. “But I promise you I’m going to make you come so hard, he will.”

  Without waiting any longer, Jericho reached for her yoga pants and started sliding them down her legs. When she was left in her thong, he instructed her to remove it from her body so she was completely naked.

  “Your juices are getting into the leather,” he told her, his eyes grass-green and bright. “The car is going to smell like your cunt for a long time. Each time I get in, I’m going to get so fucking hard just smelling you.” He grabbed her hand and put it on his cock through the material of his jeans. “Feel how hard you get me, Annie. No one gets me like this. Shit, the minute I stick my cock inside of you, I’m going to fucking explode.”

  She let out a helpless whimper, letting her head fall against the leather seat. Jericho ripped his clothes off in record time. Typically, he liked being the one to dominate her body, to be in complete control, but due to the lack of comfortable positioning, Jericho was forced to have Annie sit on his cock and be in control. She started slow, partly to get used to his size, partly to tease him. When she finally acclimated to him, she proceeded to arch her back so when she moved up and down, her cock hit her core in just the right spot. Jericho’s hands immediately clutched her breasts, caressing her nipples as she did so. Granted, this wasn’t the most comfortable position, but she was going to come and there was no room between her and Jericho for her to touch herself against him.

  Jesus, she was going to come with no clitoral stimulation for the first time in her life, and the thought itself nearly pushed her over the edge.

  Jericho, himself, was moaning and grunting. She had never seen him look so powerless before, and she got off on the fact that she knew she had this sort of power over him in the first place. Her grip on his shoulders tightened to the point where she was certain he was hissing in pain just as much as he was hissing in pleasure. His grip on her hips was also tight and she was almost certain she would bruise because of it.

  She didn’t care anymore. She wanted it. She liked when he marked her up, whether it was because he was holding her so tight or if it was because he spanked her on the ass. It was like he marked her as his so no one else would even look at her.

  It didn’t take long before she felt the familiar lightness start to build up in her pelvis and as she released her orgasm, she moaned his name. That seemed to do it for Jericho because he lifted her and thrust into her a few more times before grunting and biting her shoulder, releasing himself into her.

  She felt her forehead hit his shoulder as they both came down from their high. He slowly kissed her shoulder, her neck. She shuddered one last time, feeling his cock soften inside of her.

  At that moment, the car came to a stop, the engine turned off. Luckily, no one came around to the side of the door to open it. No one popped the trunk to gather their luggage. If anything, it was eerily silent.

  “We’re here,” Annie murmured against his skin.

  He agreed with a nod.

  “We should probably get inside,” she continued.

  “We can stay in here as long as you want,” Jericho said, his voice still raw and husky. “Barney will wait.”

  “Barney?” Annie asked, though she was too exhausted to pick her head up and give him one of her raised eyebrows.

  “My driver,” she said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  “Oh.” She slid onto the leather and slowly started to pull on her clothes. Her limbs were limp noodles and every time she did something with them, she could feel them start to shake beyond her control.

  "Ready for tomorrow?" Jericho asked her as he, too, pulled on his clothes.

  "No," Annie said, "but it is what it is."

  --

  Getting up and going to work was the most difficult thing Annie had to do in her life. But she did it. She slid into her chair, powered up the computer, and slouched in her chair, wondering why she was even here in the first place when she could be sleeping in. It was raining hard and she hated leaving the house when it was raining. Raining should mean getting to stay home and sleeping in and warm covers and fire in the fireplace and books, not traffic and honking and bad drivers.

  After an hour, she got back into the groove of work and was reminded it wasn't as bad as she thought it was. A couple of her colleagues stopped by her desk to inquire about her honeymoon and to ask how she was and how being married felt. No one really knew about Jericho and she wanted to keep it that way so she told them nearly everything but his name.

  Just after lunch, two strangers knocked on the wall of her cubicle. Annie peered around her computer and raised a brow.

  "Can I help you?" she asked.

  They definitely did not work here. There were a male and a female, both probably in their thirties. The woman had long red hair pulled back in a ponytail, a large sweater, and jeans. The male was tall and slender, with blond shaved hair and a goatee.

  "Ms. Brennan?" the male asked. He had some kind of urban accent and Annie was sure he was teased because he sounded like an Eminem wannabe.

  It felt strange to hear her former last name. It had onl
y been a couple of weeks but she was already used to being Mrs. Steel.

  "Yes," she said slowly.

  "My name is Handen," he continued, pulling up his oversized hoodie to reveal a gold badge clipped to his belt. "This is my partner Powell. Would you mind if we asked you a few questions?"

  "Sure." She gestured at the two seats in front of her desk. "Please sit down."

  Handen glanced at his partner and they both took a seat.

  The pair looked completely opposite - him, tall and gangly, her, full and short. But they had an underlying chemistry between them where they could read their partner with a glance, could communicate with their eyes, and they subconsciously positioned themselves in a way that ensured the other was protected. They didn't dress like typical cops; then again, the little Annie knew about law enforcement dictated that detectives didn't actually have to wear uniforms the way patrol officers did. Either way, their clothes were definitely not business casual and that seemed to work for them.

  "How can I help you?" Annie asked, folding her hands on the surface of her desk and politely looking between the two.

  Again, the partners glanced at each other.

  This time, Powell spoke. Her voice was smooth like a stone and low like a cello. It was soothing but serious.

  "We found the body of a Ms. Gisela Gonzales," she said. "Do you happen to know who she is?"

  Annie felt her entire body go still. "Well," she said slowly. "If I remember correctly, she's the woman the cops believed was responsible for my parents' deaths."

  Powell nodded once. "Yes," she said. "When we found her body and ran her throughout the system, your parents' file came up. It was pretty cut and dry: hit and run DUI. She also caused some property damage and some damage to the city. When we found the car, it was already abandoned. Registration came back to her name but a different address. No one lives there. She just disappeared. We couldn't track her down."

  "Luckily for you, somebody else did," Handen said, his dark blue eyes accusing her of something Annie didn't know of.

  "Excuse me?" she asked, pushing her brows together. "You think it's lucky for me that the woman who allegedly killed my parents because she decided to get behind a wheel while shit-faced and somehow turns up dead a year later makes me lucky? How in the hell do you figure that?"

  "My partner speaks before he thinks sometimes," Powell said, offering no apology for him. In a way, Annie appreciated that. She would rather have Handen be an asshole than if he faked sympathy. Regardless, she wasn't going to let him talk to her in a certain way, especially about her parents' deaths.

  "Gonzales was murdered," Handen continued. He looked somewhat chastened but not enough to actually show he felt bad for what he said. "Someone put their hands on her throat and squeezed the life out of her. You know strangulation is an exceptionally intimate way to kill someone. You literally have to look into their eyes and watch as the life in them disappears. You really have to hate someone to do that. Or be some kind of psychopath."

  Annie pressed her brows together and tilted her head. "Are you insinuating I did this to her?" she asked.

  Handen stared at Annie for a long moment before slowly leaning back in his chair without breaking eye contact. “No,” he finally said. “No, it wasn’t you. Whoever did this had to be strong because Gonzales fought back. DNA has been scraped away. Whoever did do this to her knew what he was doing.”

  “Then why are you here?” Annie asked, furrowing her brow and looking between both detectives. “If you don’t think it was me, why are you telling me this?”

  “Don’t you care that your parents’ killer is dead?” Powell asked in her soft voice, her red eyebrows furrowed.

  Annie shook her head, flicking her eyes back over to the female detective. “Not really,” she replied. “If I’m being honest, I managed to survive a year without dealing with her. I don’t care either way that she’s dead. And maybe that makes me out to be an asshole and I get that, but she took away my parents because of her selfish decision. I don’t know who killed her or why she’s dead but I know I didn’t do it.”

  “Maybe you didn’t do it,” Powell agreed, “but we think you might have an idea of who did it.”

  “Why would I know who did it?” Annie asked. “Only me and my brother were told who the police suspected. It’s not like I went to my friends and told them who she was. I expected you guys to do your job and bring my parents justice.”

  “Right,” Handen said slowly, placing his elbows on his knees and leaning forward. It almost seemed like he couldn’t sit still. “You and your brother.”

  “You think my brother did this?” Annie shot him a look of disbelief. “Bruce is tall, sure, but there’s no way he could take somebody’s life. The guy is a Pacifist.”

  “You’re right,” Powell said. “We don’t think it was your brother. But we looked into him. Just in case. He is tall, and while his values don’t include violence, and he certainly has the strength for it. The passion would be there. The motive. But then we came across something interesting.” Her cold blue eyes found Annie’s and she held them without flinching. “Your brother works at The Red Door.”

  “So?” Annie asked.

  “His boss is Jericho Steel,” Handen said. There was an undertone of aggression in his voice that Annie didn’t quite understand. It wasn’t like it was her fault her brother worked for Jericho. “Crime boss and Seattle’s own billionaire.”

  Annie shot Powell a look that basically asked her to help Annie translate Handen’s insinuation. “Okay,” she said slowly.

  “Okay?” Handen asked. “Okay?”

  “Look,” Annie said, furrowing her brow. “I don’t appreciate the fact that you’re talking to me like I’m a goddamn idiot. Just tell me what you’re trying to say and cut the shit.”

  Powell pressed her lips together to keep from letting an amused smile slip onto her face. Handen’s facial expression didn’t change except maybe there was a flicker of what looked like respect in his pale blue eyes.

  “We think Jericho Steel murdered or had someone murder Gisela Gonzales a couple of months ago,” he finally said.

  Annie furrowed her brow and looked at Powell, almost as though she was confirming what Handen said because it was pretty ridiculous.

  “You think Jericho Steel,” Annie began slowly, “killed some no name woman who ran down my parents because my brother works for him? You think he would risk that for some bartender?”

  She looked between both Powell and Handen. "You know that sounds insane."

  "We don't think he did it because your brother works for him," Powell said slowly. She reached behind her where Handen was handing her a familiar looking gossip magazine and placed it on Annie's desk. "This is this month's Seattle Life and Style." She paused, waiting for Annie to take the magazine and take a good look at it.

  Annie, while not entirely familiar with what was on the cover, had a feeling where this was going. Her heart rate jumped but she tried to play it off like nothing was going wrong and she had no idea what these two detectives were saying.

  "The DV charity event was thrown at this hotel this year, just a month ago, I believe," Powell told her.

  "In case you didn't know, DV means domestic violence," Handen said.

  It took everything in Annie to hold back on shooting him a dirty look. Powell pressed her lips together, though it was difficult to discern if she was holding back an amused smile or a frustrated scowl.

  "It seems you were there with Mr. Steel, perhaps as his special guest?" Powell pushed her eyebrows up when she said special, like it had some kind of dirty connotation behind it.

  Annie bristled at the implication, finally dropping her eyes to the photograph they pointed out. She pressed her lips together, her eyes softening as she looked at it. She recognized the soft lavender dress, the way her smile, while small, was genuine and full of adoration simply because Jericho hadn't forced her to do anything, had told her they didn't have to take pictures if she didn'
t want to, and held her hand through it all.

  He was constantly there through it all.

  And the way he was looking at her... he really had loved her in that first moment, hadn't he? She swallowed and forced her eyes away from the picture. Annie was certain she had already revealed too much with the lingering stare, but hoped maybe they hadn't noticed.

  Fat chance.

  "I attended with him, yes," she said. "Why do you ask?"

  Handen rolled his eyes. "You can't be an accountant and be this stupid, girlie," he told her, his voice louder than it should be at her office. "He killed Gonzales for you. Or he had someone kill her for you."

  Annie cut him a look. "Considering you haven't arrested me yet and are only here to ask me questions," she said in a quiet but sharp voice, "I would appreciate if you didn't shout my business for everyone to hear. I'll look over the fact that you insulted my intelligence just as long as you can respect my place of business." She looked over at Powell. "As I've said, I highly doubt Jericho would go out of his way for me. We went out on a couple of dates. It isn't serious. If there's anything else, feel free to come back but I'd prefer if you left your partner back at the department."

  "He doesn't play well with others," she agreed, standing up. Handen followed suit. "Maybe ask him why his right-hand man, Bennet, was found on him via DNA. Thank you for your time, Ms. Brennan."

  Hanson gave her a long look before following his partner out of the cubicle.

  Annie felt her entire body relax. She needed to head home and talk to Jericho.

  Now.

  Chapter 12

  When Annie burst through the front door, Jericho was at home on the phone. He still looked put together – every hair still slicked back, his posture rigid, with shoulders rolled back. There was a slight worry line between his brows but other than that, there was no indication that he knew the police had found the body Bennet had supposedly disposed of. She thought Bennet was supposed to be his right-hand man. Why would he turn in Jericho? And what could they do about it?