by Jones, KD
He didn’t like it, but he didn’t have any choices but to have her help him stall. “Okay, go find a place on the upper level that will keep you hidden, but where you might have a good place to get your shots off. Keep the engines running. As soon as you spot an opportunity to move around them, take it and get us out of the alcove. Whatever happens, don’t come down and don’t let anyone get up that ladder.”
“On it!” She turned to leave but stopped abruptly to turn back toward Vic. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him hard. “Stay safe, babe.” Then she released him and headed for the ladder leading to the top deck. Vic watched her go, feeling worried.
“I’ll go below and stay out of the way,” Dan said.
“No, you don’t. You get the best job ever. You’re bait. You’re going to stand right here out in the open. I need you as a distraction.”
“Dude, they want to kill me.”
“Actually, I think they will try to take you in alive so that they can question you first. Roland will want to tie up any loose strings.” Vic grabbed Dan by the shoulder and turned him to face the approaching boat.
“If you give me over to them, they’ll still kill you and Lexi. They can’t afford to leave witnesses,” Dan warned him.
“I know. I don’t plan to give them the chance. You’ll go back to lock up and serve your time but you don’t deserve to die. I’ll do everything I can to keep you alive.”
“Are you sure your friends are really coming? What if they decide it’s too dangerous and bail on you?”
Vic gave him a smirk. “For one, I’m their boss. I pay their paychecks. They wouldn’t have a paycheck for long if they leave me. Secondly, I’m their friend. You may not understand that concept because you don’t have any real friends, but my friends wouldn’t abandon me when things get rough.” Vic meant it, too. He hadn’t thought about it, but he did have good friends, even if he didn’t have many. He didn’t let many people into his personal life, but the ones that he did allow in were there for him during the good and the bad times. Plus, he knew his cousin Jagger would seek vengeance if anything ever happened to Vic. They were more like brothers than cousins. No his friends were definitely coming, he just had to bide his time until they arrived.
*****
He reached for his gun and held it behind his back. The other boat approached and he noticed two men plus the boat captain. He only recognized the guy who had hurt Lexi. He was obviously in charge of the men as he spoke first and stared at Stratford.
“Nice to see you again, Dan.”
“Ted, can’t say the same.” Dan rolled his shoulders.
Ted looked at Vic. “You’ve done quite a bit of damage to my men, bounty hunter. I lost two of them with your little booby traps. I’m not happy about that.”
“I’m sure you’ll get over it.”
“Look, bounty hunter, hand over Danny boy and his pretty little wife and I’ll let you leave here alive.”
“Lexi has nothing to do with this,” Dan said. “I’m the one you want. Leave her alone.”
Ted rubbed the scar on his face. “Lexi and I have unfinished business. Also, Mr. Roland has developed a curiosity for the woman. Where is she by the way? Downstairs?” He glanced around the boat, trying to spot her. “Lexie girl, come out, come out wherever you are!” he called.
“Give it up Teddy. You won’t get your hands on her a second time. You might as well turn around and go back to your boss and let him know that you failed,” Vic warned him.
Ted snorted. “Mr. Roland doesn’t accept failures. I’m not about to disappoint him.” He turned to his two men. “Take out the bounty hunter first, bring Dan and his bitch wife on board, and then sink the boat.”
“Yes, sir.”
Vic shoved Dan toward the upper deck where Lexi was hiding. “Go up there. Don’t let them get their hands on Lexi.”
Vic pulled his gun out and started shooting at the two men trying to board the boat. They returned fire. Vic jumped and rolled to a position a few feet away. He got one of the guys in the side and made him drop his weapon. Both men managed to get on board. They rushed Vic, making it hard for him to fire off another shot.
Vic smiled at the humans who were no match for a full Decaros. His horns extended as his anger increased. He caught the punch of one with his hand and twisted the man’s arm until he heard a snap. The man howled in pain and fell to his knees.
The other man rushed at Vic, holding a knife in the air. A shot rang out and the man dropped the weapon. Vic looked behind him to find it was Lexi who had shot the man’s hand. She was a good shot and she looked sexy with that gun in her hand.
“Good shot, babe!” He winked at her before punching each of the men and knocking them down. He looked up at Ted, who was now on the boat a few feet away and was pointing a gun at him.
“Guess your luck is out, bounty hunter.”
Something shiny about twenty feet behind Ted caught Vic’s attention. “Actually, it’s your time that’s up, asshole.” Vic nodded in that direction. Ted turned around and froze.
“Shit.”
Chapter 13
Ted dropped his gun at the sight that met him. A large boat pulled up with several heavily armed men standing on the front deck.
“What took you so long?” Vic called to Blade and Isaac.
“We had engine problems,” Isaac responded. Blade jumped on board Ted’s boat and went to check it over. Isaac boarded the boat and helped Vic handcuff the three men. “We almost turned around when we realized you had your top shooter up top taking care of you.”
Vic smiled and looked up at Lexi. She was watching them, or him more importantly. He liked that she didn’t take her eyes off of him. He gave her a wink making her blush from being so obvious. She seemed to be handling things okay but he’ll check on her when they were alone. “She’s a great shot.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of hot.”
Vic growled at him. “Don’t hit on her.”
Isaac held up his hands and took a step back. “Hey, I get it. She’s spoken for.”
“I didn’t mean it like that…” Damn it! Vic did mean it exactly like that. He was lying to Isaac and himself. “Just don’t flirt with her.”
“Okay, man. I’ll take these three over to our boat. We have a space below deck that we can shove them into and head back to the mainland. I’m ready to get the hell off this rocking boat.”
Vic laughed. “Me too. I’m definitely a land lover.”
*****
Lexi watched as the other bounty hunters helped round up Ted and his men. She felt relieved but at the same time, a sadness came over her. Would he take Dan and leave with his fellow bounty hunters? Would she ever see him again after today?
“It’s about time they showed up,” Dan commented as he leaned on the upper railing right up against her side.
She glared at him. “You’re lucky they arrived when they did. We don’t know if they have other boats around here or not.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I feel real lucky to be heading to lock up.”
“If you don’t like it, then you should have kept out of trouble.”
“See, this is why we got divorced. You come across has some goody two shoes but the truth is you are just as screwed up as the rest of us; you stripped and now you run a strip joint.”
“My place used to be a strip joint but it isn’t that any more. I only stripped because you convinced me it was the only way we could get the money we needed. You took advantage of me.”
“You loved it, all the money and the men falling all over you.”
She smacked him in the face, hard. “The money you spent on booze and other women. The men were usually drunk, drugged, married or abusers looking for their next victims. You didn’t give a shit what happened to me. I hated you for making me do that. You were nothing but a user and worthless. Nothing has changed.” She went to the ladder and started going down to the deck below.
She reached the bottom and found Vic standin
g there, watching her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. When can I go back to my business?”
“We’ll be going back in about ten minutes.”
“What are you going to do about Ted’s boat?”
“We could sink it?”
Lexi shook her head. “Hell, no. People dive here.”
“Fine, we’ll tow it back. I was thinking it would give them more space to spread out and maybe they could take Dan back with them.”
“With them? Not with you?” She tried to hide her excitement.
“I thought I would go back with you.”
Yes please. “Why?”
“I just wanted to spend more time with you.”
Did he just want to fuck her more before he headed off the planet with his perp or did he feel more for her than that? She wouldn’t know the answer to that unless she took a chance.
“Okay, I’d like that.” She headed down below to get out of the way. She needed to get her nerves under control. Maybe she was feeling the excitement from all the danger she had been under. She just felt antsy.
She dropped onto the bed and closed her eyes. Her body immediately settled down and she fell asleep quickly. It wasn’t until she felt the bed give in to a weighty presence that she woke up.
“What’s going on?” She felt the rumbling of the boat moving through the water.
“Hey honey, I didn’t want to wake you up. I just came down to check on you.”
“Who’s driving the boat?”
“I had Isaac set it on autopilot. We have a few hours before we get back to land. You can rest longer if you want.”
“No, I’m up.” She sat up and looked at him. She couldn’t tell what he was feeling. Was their chemistry off? She reached out and touched his face with gentle fingers. He was so handsome. He growled at her touch and she glanced up to see his horns starting to peek out from his hair.
“I was worried our chemistry might be off.”
He pulled her to him and kissed her hard. “Our...chemistry...is...not...off.”
“Definitely not off.” She tilted her head back as he nibbled on her neck.
“Vic, we need to talk.”
“You’re right.” He released her and scooted a little bit away from her.
She missed his heat and his lips. The man was amazing with his mouth. She stared at his lips, wanting to lick them and suck on them.
Vic cleared his throat. “What did you want to talk about?”
Now that she had his complete attention, she didn’t know what to say. “When...when will you take Dan back?”
“As soon as we dock. He’s a major flight risk so we need to get him to the authorities as soon as possible.”
“Will I see you again?” There, she finally asked the question she had been scared to vocalize.
“I don’t know. I hope so. But I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back this way.”
“I understand.” She didn’t want to deal with his impending departure from her life. She wanted to enjoy him for as long as she had him. She got to her knees and pulled her shirt over her head. She wiggled out of her shorts. She was in nothing but her bra and panties. She crawled over to straddle his lap.
“I thought you wanted to talk.”
She pulled his shirt up and off of his body. He groaned when she opened his zipper and pulled out his already hard cock.
“I think we’re done talking for now. I want to feel you deep inside me.” She placed his tip at her opening.
“That works for me.” He gripped her hips and drove up into her core in one smooth motion. They both moaned with pleasure as he filled her completely. Lexi didn’t think she had ever felt anything better. Then he began to move and she realized she was wrong.
*****
Vic struggled against his Decaros instincts, which demanded that he take her hard and fast and claim her as his. He had never felt the claiming need before, even when he had previous girlfriends. He was always able to let them walk away or he found it easy to walk away from them. Lexi was different.
It wasn’t just that she was gorgeous. It was a combination of so many things about her. How she was smart and brave enough to open her own business. How she cared about people who others would have left to lie in a gutter. How she helped an ex-husband who had hurt her in the past. Most of all what attracted him to her was the way she treated him like he was more than a rough and crude bounty hunter. She made him feel good about being himself — horns and all. No woman had accepted him fully, except for his aunt. He recognized how rare and precious that was, and how precious she was to him.
He looked up at her. Her head was thrown back with her long blonde hair cascading down around them. Her eyes were closed and the expression on her face was of a woman enjoying her passion. She didn’t hold anything back. She rode him hard. She ground herself against him, her juices coating his shaft, making it easier for him to move in and out of her.
Vic felt the tingling in his spine as it traveled all the way down to his cock. He wanted to make this last longer but this time it would be rough and fast. He would work the rest of the time they had left to make it up to her.
He pumped into her harder, wanting to mark her. He couldn’t stop himself from gripping her shoulder with his teeth. Every thought he had was to claim her as his. Vic fought those instincts. He felt the fire racing through his blood letting him know that he was about to come.
He reached between them and used his thumb to tease her clit. Her inner walls began to squeeze him tighter and tighter as she spiraled to her release. Then he was finally able to come and it seemed like he was never going to stop. He didn’t want it to end. He wanted to keep her forever.
*****
Marcus Roland glared at his second in command, Rod. The news he just received had him furious. He threw his letter opener at the other man. “I don’t give a shit that they were outnumbered! They failed me and for that their lives are worthless to me. Have Ted and the rest of those idiots exterminated. I want Stratford secured for questioning. If he talked to anyone about what he witnessed, I want to know.”
“Yes Sir.” Rod turned to leave but stopped when Marcus called out to him.
“Rod! I want the woman alive.”
“Sir, she has been a witness to the attempts to get Stratford. She’s a liability.”
“Bring me the woman alive. Not one mark on her.”
“How am I going to get her without at least knocking her out?”
“I don’t care how you get her. Just bring her in without a single bruise.”
“Yes, sir. I will see to it personally.” Rod turned and left the office. What the hell was Marcus thinking? The woman was a threat. If they kidnapped her, it wouldn’t go unnoticed. He was saddled with the Stratford mess because he had been the one to hire that idiot. Had he known what trouble the man would be, he would have ended his life months ago. Well, it was his shit to clean up. Now he had to think of a way to get the girl without drawing too much attention. She was going to be on alert after what Ted had put her through.
The best thing they could do was just let the bounty hunters have Stratford. They had people on the inside of lockup who would take care of him for them. That wasn’t a bad idea. It wasn’t exactly how Marcus wanted things to be handled, but at this point … fuck Marcus. He would get things done his way.
Chapter 14
Vic wanted to say something to her, but he didn’t know what. He had never been good at the whole communication thing. She seemed pretty quiet too, and kept her distance from him. He didn’t like that at all. They had made love tenderly, slowly. It was the first time he had been tender. He had wanted to make it good for her. He needed to make it perfect for her.
Vic wanted to be able to convince her to see him after everything was done with this case. He wanted to take time off to come down here and just be with her so that they could get to know one another without someone trying to kill them. He ran his hand through his thick hair. He wasn’t a w
ine-and-dine-’em type of man. If he was attracted to a woman, he would just tell her he wanted sex. If she was interested, they would find somewhere secluded and do the deed. It had always been like that, always.
He had never wanted a woman for more than a night or two. His cousin had had girlfriends, but he saw how they tried to manipulate him and use him. That wouldn’t happen to him, though. He refused to get serious enough about any woman to allow her control over him. He was glad that his cousin had found his sweet wife, Daniela. She was the first woman who had given Vic hope. Watching them together, as they acted so loving toward one another, made him feel an ache in his heart. That ache disappeared when he was around Lexi.
Lexi. He sighed as he looked back toward the inside of the boat. She was sexy, beautiful, and so full of spirit she made everyone else around her just as happy. The thought of leaving her even for one day hurt him inside. He rubbed the area over his chest. Damn it! How did she come to mean so much to him so fast?
He was about to go back down below to her. There should be words exchanged, promises made, something so that she knew he wasn’t just using her for sex, that he wanted more.
“We’re almost there, right?” she asked as she came up the stairs.
“Yes. I am about to dock the boat. Listen…” Vic’s sat phone rang. He answered it abruptly. “What?”
“Hey boss man, sorry to interrupt you with whatever you’re doing, but we just got a tip that Danny boy has a hit put out on him. We got to get him off this planet and back in lockup ASAP,” Isaac told him.
“Shit. Okay, go ahead to the spaceport. I am docking now and will catch a ride over.” He hung up and looked over at Lexi.
“You’re leaving?”
“Yeah, we got a tip that there is a hit put out on Dan. For his own safety, we have to get him off the planet and into lockup as soon as possible.”
*****
Lexi turned her back on Vic. She didn’t want him to see how she was fighting her tears. The thought of never seeing him again was tearing her up inside. How did he come to mean so much to her so soon?