by Brynne Asher
Weston jerks, causing Foxy to lose his footing and claw at Weston’s arm that’s cinched around his neck to keep hold. As spry as Foxy is, it’s easy to see he’s in pain. Especially when Weston roughly shoves the nose of his gun into his temple.
“Come with me and I’ll let him go, Maya. Do it fast, I’m tired of this shit. And I’m tired of seeing you with him.” At the last word, Foxy moans from Weston jerking him again.
“You stay right there, baby,” Grady says to me without taking his eyes off Weston. When he starts to move efficiently, stepping sideways toward the middle of the room, he keeps talking. “I just got an interesting call, Wes. Your dad and most of your cronies were taken down this morning. They’re being interrogated as we speak.”
Weston processes that bit of information for two beats before he looks back to me. “You’re coming with me!”
Miss Lillian Rose screams, “You let Foxy go!”
I move quickly and wrap my arm around her. Her old hand grasps mine as tight as she can, and I feel her body shake with fear.
Grady holds steady and speaks without hesitation. “Guess what else? I hear they have an eye witness as to who killed your buddy, Murray.” Grady moves two more steps, but I can still see Weston, and his face falls just a touch, but I caught it. Grady keeps talking. “That’s right. It’s over, Wes. Let the man go.”
“No,” Weston breathes and his hold on Foxy tightens.
“Yes,” Grady confirms. I have no idea what they’re talking about.
“Let me go, you damn little bugger.” Foxy tries with all his might to get away, but it doesn’t help.
“Please, Weston,” I cry. “You’re going to hurt him. Let him go.”
He doesn’t let Foxy go, but he shakes his head and looks straight into my eyes. “I can’t lose you.”
“Weston.” I lower my voice. “You haven’t had me for a long time. I’ll never come back to you. Now please,” I feel my voice crack with emotion and tears fill my eyes, “you’re going to hurt him. He’s done nothing to you, let him go.”
“Don’t make me kill you,” Grady says, his voice low. “I can, I will, and I’ll do it gladly.”
“Maya,” Weston calls for me one more time, but before he has the chance to say anything else, I see movement in front of me.
Betty is sitting next to where Weston is standing with Foxy, and by the look on her face, she’s determined. She doesn’t take her eye off Weston as she slowly brings her cane up, then all of a sudden, stabs him right in the crotch.
I have to hand it to her, she got him pretty hard for as frail as she is.
Weston buckles at the waist from the jab, loosening his hold just enough for Foxy to twist away. Weston tries to reach for him, but Foxy moves fast enough to escape his grasp. That’s when we hear scurrying in the hall.
But Weston, even keeling over in pain, lifts his arm enough to point his gun right at Grady. “She’s not yours!”
“Grady!” I scream.
Grady’s prepared, but his whole-body tenses right when someone from behind Weston clocks him on the side of his head. Weston’s wrist is lifted, his gun pointed to the ceiling before being twisted out of his hand. Weston instantly collapses to the ground on his hands and knees.
More men come rushing in, and I scream, “Grady, it’s him!”
It’s the man who grabbed me at the Buffalo airport, the man with Byron Murray who attacked us. This is the same man who just basically knocked Weston out and disarmed him.
“FBI, get your hands up!”
FBI?
A team of men file into the room, but I can’t take my eyes off the one who had me on the tarmac in Buffalo. Trevor, I think? He looks the same, yet still, very different.
He’s tall with thick, dark hair and a trim body with a muscular frame. He’s bulky, wearing a bulletproof vest with FBI printed across the front and black utility cargos. If the bulletproof vest wasn’t enough to give it away, the badge clipped onto his belt loop is.
Trevor, the guy who tried to kidnap me, isn’t a bad guy?
He’s an FBI agent?
Miss Lillian Rose exclaims, “It’s the FBI! My stars, it’s just like my evening shows.”
Grady, who’s between the action and me, quickly pulls his hands back, pointing his gun toward the ceiling. “I’ve got a C and C.”
“Cain,” Trevor calls to Grady. “We know who you are and were expecting you to be close. You can holster your weapon—we’ve got it from here.”
The agents move to Weston, and since he’s still reeling from Betty’s brave shot to his groin and hit to the head, he complies easily.
The second I see it’s safe, I run to Foxy and stoop low to look into his eyes. “Are you okay?”
He crooks his head this way and that way, stretching from where Weston was holding him. I reach for his neck to rub it for him, hoping he just needs to loosen his muscles. The scene alone was frightening enough, let alone for someone at the ripe age of eighty-eight.
“I’m fine,” Foxy tries to brush it off, but it’s easy to see the relief in his face. It cuts through me he had to endure that because of me.
I put my arms around him, and he follows suit. “I’m so sorry. Are you sure you’re okay? I can get a doctor to take a look at you.”
However, I know he’s fine because he pulls me into him tighter and starts to rub my back almost to my ass with one hand, and fingers my hair with the other.
That’s when I hear Grady growl, “Are you kidding me?”
With all that’s happened, I have to laugh.
When I finally disentangle myself from Foxy’s old-man grope, I look over to see Weston being cuffed by Trevor, and it seems Weston is just as confused as I am.
“You’re a pig?” Weston yells. “You fucker, I should’ve killed you when I had the chance.”
Trevor looks bored. “Probably, because now I’m an eyewitness to you murdering Byron Murray. Don’t think you’ll be able to plea manslaughter for that one. I also just got word you’ve got soldiers flipping for lesser charges. We’ve got agents on the way to locate two additional bodies and it’s not even noon. Looks like your time’s up, MacLachlan.” Trevor looks to a fellow agent and says, “Mirandize him.” We all watch Weston being led out of the activities room before Trevor turns back and offers his hand to Grady. “Eli Pettit.”
Grady puts his left arm around me and shakes the hand of the man we knew as Trevor-the-bad-guy. But as it turns out, he isn’t. Grady mutters, “Things aren’t as they seem. Nice work.”
Eli Pettit turns his attention to me. “Sorry about your fall, Ms. Augustine. I did everything I could to keep Murray from touching you—it wasn’t easy. Sorry I didn’t do a better job at keeping you safe.”
After all that’s happened, I melt into Grady’s side, not quite sure what to say, so I wave him off. “It’s, um … it’s okay. I’m fine, really.”
I feel Grady exhale. “Glad I didn’t shoot you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t either, but trust me, that wasn’t the first time I about got my head blown off working this case. I’m glad this shit’s over.”
Grady wraps his other arm around me and puts his lips to the top of my head. “So am I.”
Pressing into Grady, I watch Eli Pettit turn and follow the other agents and Weston as they file out of the activities room of Rolling Hills Ranch. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“Took long enough,” Grady mutters before he sighs again. I feel his hand on my cheek that’s not scraped. “You okay?”
My face softens into a small smile and I lift up on my toes to kiss him. “Yeah. I think I’ll be
okay until forever.”
“Forever is good with me.” He gives me a squeeze before he kisses me back, and we hear clapping around us from my favorite group of senior citizens.
Chapter 27 – Orgasm Purgatory
Maya –
The last week has been surreal. But it’s been surreal because it’s been normal.
I haven’t had normal in a long time.
When I get right down to it, I’m not sure I’ve ever had normal. I know I didn’t grow up normal, and running away from the mob and my ex-fiancé was anything but. And being engaged so quickly to a man I creeped on is definitely not normal.
No one is after me because they’re all in jail. Grady spoke to our new undercover FBI friend a couple of times since last week. Eli assured us they have enough charges on the MacLachlans and the rest of the higher ups, they’ll all remain in jail while awaiting trial. He also added they have enough charges stacked up against them that I should be safe roaming the countryside until I’m at least eighty.
I’m free to come and go, work, and even socialize without having to look over my shoulder. It’s seriously been a strange sensation.
It took a whole week, but Grady finally convinced me to give notice at Whitetail. I knew in my heart I’d have to give up that job eventually, but actually telling Addy I would only be able to work for two more weeks was hard. I know they’ll be shorthanded until she can hire someone else but, as always, Addy was gracious and didn’t make me feel bad.
She grabbed my hands and smiled big. “I wondered what was taking you so long. You have a houseful of furniture being delivered later today and you’re getting married—you have no business working seven days a week anymore. I’m happy for you, and I’m super happy we’ll still be neighbors. You’ll be here drinking wine all the time anyway, I won’t even know you’re gone.”
She then proceeded to make sure Grady and I were still coming to her farmhouse for Christmas dinner.
Well, that’s done.
Addy’s right. We do have furniture being delivered today. Grady dragged me out every free hour we’ve had over the last week to shop. It might seem like a houseful of furniture is being delivered, but it’s really not. That’s because the house that Grady bought across the street from Whitetail is pretty big. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no mansion, and this makes me happy. I love it so much I can’t ever imagine wanting to live anywhere else. So today, furniture is coming for the family room and master bedroom. That took long enough to pick out, the rest will have to wait.
The property is beautiful and goes on forever. However, I have no idea what we’ll do with the barns. The previous owners bred horses, so they’re quite fancy as far as barns go. Grady keeps teasing me that he’s going to buy me some cows. I hope he’s not serious.
I just got off early from my shift at Whitetail and I’m on my way to pick up Grady at Crew’s house. Winter has officially arrived in Virginia, and the recent snow will give us a white Christmas.
As I pull onto Crew’s property, it’s still hard to believe what they do here. Grady has answered all my questions, and doesn’t pretend he’s not relieved I didn’t freak out and leave him after he told me. I explained it just needed to sink in, but over the last week, I’ve come to find what he did fascinating. Now I have a million questions about what they do to train their up-and-coming replacements.
Grady felt guilty for being away from Crew’s operation for so long and wants to dive in to make up for his long absence. He explained how some of their recruits are ready to start working on their own.
I park outside the barn where I dropped him off this morning and decide I want to see it firsthand. When I get out of the car and walk to the door of the barn, I pull it open, but I’m stopped in my tracks.
Holy shit, I cannot believe the sight in front of me.
“Grady!”
Crew’s standing there with his arms crossed, grinning, not at all surprised to see me. He says nothing, but he does look up to Grady. “Man, I told you she was here.”
I step into the warm barn, slamming the door behind me and exclaim, “What do you think you’re doing?”
Grady doesn’t answer and I can’t see his face. He’s got his back to me, with no shirt on, every muscle in his back and arms are taut. He’s doing pull-up after pull-up, but not just that, his legs are bent at the knees where he’s holding a barbell steady with enormous plates on each end. Who knows how much weight he’s lifting besides his own. All I know is any pull-up is bad for his shoulder and these are worse.
“Grady, stop!”
He listens this time and drops enough to hang from the bar, but doesn’t let go. Crew steps forward and lifts the barbell before Grady drops his legs the rest of the way and falls to his feet. All he has on is a pair of loose athletic shorts hanging low on his hips and a pair of tennis shoes. It’s clear to see he’s been working out well beyond what I just witnessed.
But looking at him here, mostly bare, with his muscles taut, and skin glistening with sweat—I struggle to hang on to my irritation. If possible, he’s more beautiful than ever, and this makes my panties wet.
He’s breathing heavy from the workout he should not be doing and grins. “You ready to go?”
I shift in my snow boots and cross my arms, trying to pretend I’m not affected by … all of him. I toss my hand out between us. “You shouldn’t be doing any of that. You’ll reinjure your joint.”
He looks unapologetic when he keeps on grinning. “I’m fine. It feels good, thanks to my physical therapist.”
“Speaking of,” Crew butts in, grinning almost as big as Grady. “You never billed me.”
I roll my eyes and shake my head. “Honestly.”
Grady bends and tags his shirt off the floor and starts for me. When he gets close, he puts his hand to my lower back and pulls me in for a kiss. “Let’s go. I’m anxious for furniture, and since all we own are clothes, moving in will take less than fifteen minutes.”
“See you tomorrow,” Crew calls, as we walk out through the snow to Grady’s Escalade.
Truth be told, I’m looking forward to furniture, too, but I’m really looking forward to starting a life with Grady.
*****
Grady takes my hand and pulls me out of the kitchen. “We can finish this tomorrow.”
After the furniture was delivered, Grady was on a mission. He loaded me up again and we headed for Target. When we got there, he pushed a cart my way and told me we were to divide and conquer.
I was told my mission was simple—buy “shit to sleep on and shit to eat off of.”
I grinned and asked if he was serious. The look on his face told me how serious he was, right before he told me to hurry.
But I didn’t hurry. I reached up and gave him a kiss before turning to Starbucks. I needed a coffee and he, of course, headed for the food.
Since we got home, we’ve been washing new sheets and towels in our new washer and dryer, setting up our bedroom, putting dishes away, and eating. Grady even bought me four bags of the Flamin’ Hot Fritos.
Now it seems he’s tired of setting up house. He leads me through the family room to our new bedroom.
“I was almost done,” I say as we round the corner where our new bed, mattress, and other furniture fill the room. Even with the room full, it still feels empty and I make a mental note that we need stuff to hang on the walls.
Grady moves to the side of the bed and turns. There, he pulls me to him and his hands instantly come to the hem of my shirt. After he lifts it up and over my head, his eyes are heated. “Time to break in our new bed.”
Even if I feel that between my legs, it reminds me of earlier when I walked in
on him working out in the barn. I run my hands over his arms and shoulders. “I’m still upset about the pull-ups no matter how hot it was.”
He smirks. “You liked that?”
I bite my lip and my eyes go big. “There was a lot to like. But you still shouldn’t put that much strain on your joint yet. You could’ve at least started with normal pull-ups, not the super-uber-strongman kind.”
His fingers start to work the button and zipper on my jeans, making quick work of taking them off. “I have been doing the normal ones. I had to work up to the weights, it’s been a while.”
I step out of my jeans and kick them to the side at the same time I give him a little push, only it was just for effect. It didn’t move him an inch. “How long have you been working out like that?”
Reaching around my back, he efficiently pops my bra. “Long enough. But trust me, I’m fine. I know my body.”
“I’m the physical therapist. I think I know better than you what your body is ready for.”
Grady pushes my panties down until they’re lying on the rest of my discarded clothes on our brand-new area rug. He’s just undressed me in record time.
“If you know my body better than me, then I’m determined to know yours better than you.” He leans down to kiss me as he twists my nipples, creating sensations in my lower belly that shoot straight between my legs. I rub my thighs together, because if I thought I was wet before, now I’m soaked.
When he releases my lips, I open my eyes and ask about his state of dress compared to my state of nakedness, “Are you not joining me?”
His hand runs down my tummy and his fingers slide easily between my legs, making my eyes heavy. “See? I knew you’d be wet. I’m getting to know your body better every day.”
I exhale and am forced to find my voice to point out, “If you told me to do something in my best interest, I’d listen to you.”