by Bex Dane
"I've been clumsy."
"Right." He stands and walks toward the skip. "C'mon, buddy. I got a place you can wait while I get the truck ready to take you in."
The guy grunts as Wayne walks him back to a room he uses as a holding cell.
It's been fifty days without seeing or hearing from Loralei. Every second of the holidays sucked without her there. I missed her yams at Christmas, missed kissing her on New Year's. Why? Why did I let her go? Beating the crap out of fugitives isn't helping. Nothing will help but seeing her again.
Wayne returns and gives me a disapproving look. "What's going on?"
"Guy's an asshole. Owes tons of child support. Doesn't show up for his hearings."
"I'm asking about you."
I sit down in the chair opposite his desk. "You remember Loralei Valentine from back in the day? Emrick's daughter?"
"The crazy bitch who kept coming back for revenge?" He's shuffling through the papers on his desk, reacting without thinking. Still, it pulls on my nerves hearing him talk about her like that.
"Since we go way back, I'm gonna let that one slide, but I'm giving you notice. Things have changed. She's a good girl. We've forgiven each other, and I'd appreciate it if you don't bring up the past."
He stops shuffling and folds his arms on his desk as he levels his gaze on mine. "I'm surprised to hear you talk like this, Mace. Not like you to take up a cause for a woman."
"She'd been kidnapped, couldn't remember what happened. I helped her retrace her steps to get it back. By the time she did, I was falling for her." I haven't said it out loud to anyone, but now that I have, I know it's true.
He nods and raises his eyebrows. This is not the way I normally talk, and he has a smile brewing under his mustache waiting to taunt me.
"Anyway, haven't seen her in over a month."
"Who's fault is that?"
"Mine. All mine."
"You might wanna go see the girl so you can stop assaulting people for skipping bail."
"Went to see her. No one there. Her car's gone. Not returning my calls. Been searching for her. Worried Diablo got to her."
"Give me her picture and some contacts. I'll send out a BOLO for her."
"No. I don't want to draw attention to her like that. I'll find her myself." Wayne's eyes narrow in on my fingers, which are tapping on his desk. I didn't even know I was doing it. I run my hands through my hair, trying to cover.
"It's okay, Mace. I know you fidget. I don't mind."
"I shouldn't do it."
"Who says? It's who you are. Your fingers tap, your knee bounces. All that energy is what makes you a damn good bounty hunter. Quick and alert. Don't be ashamed of it." He's back to looking through papers on his desk. "I was gonna send you out after this guy next, but I already gave it to Helix, and you're busy looking for Loralei." He sets a folder aside.
"Helix doing more bounties and less hits?"
"It looks like Helix may have fallen under the spell of a woman too. There must be some voodoo in the air. Oh, how the mighty have fallen."
"Helix? Impossible. The man has no heart."
"I might've said the same about you five minutes ago. Now that I think about it, I don't really know if he's involved with her. Maybe they're just working together. He gave Leona half his cut on the last skip."
"Leona?"
"Leona Hart. You heard of her?"
"I haven't, but the name sounds familiar." I could swear I heard that name or read it somewhere. "It could be Loralei."
"Why would you say that?"
"I call her lioness. Leona. Hart, Valentine. Helix knows her. They'd been communicating. It has to be her."
His brows draw together, and he leans forward. "Helix is baggin' your girl?"
My fingernails dig into his wood desk. "He'd better not be, or he'll face the Volcano."
"You boys don't kill each other. You both make me a lot of money."
"I'm not going to have to kill him because he's smart enough not to fuck with me, and Loralei would never sleep with him."
"I hope you're right." He tosses the folder my way. "Go get her."
I check out the file and the picture. "Bobby Morrison. Twenty-five grand for his return. Nice. This his mother's address?"
"Looks like it."
I tuck the folder under my arm. "Thank you, Wayne."
"I didn't do nothing."
"You did more than you know."
I tap his desk twice more and head out of his office. Helix and Lola together. If they're fucking, I'm going to bash his face. I might even bash his face if they're not because screw him for not telling me he was in contact with Lola knowing I've been going insane looking for her. The man lied to my face. Said he hadn't seen her. Helix is about to find out what happens when you lie to the Volcano.
***
I'm parked outside Bobby's mother's house when it hits me. I didn't hear the name before, but I read it on the dark web. I passed over it quickly, but I did read something about Leona Hart.
Logging in on my burner phone, it takes me a while to find it. Here it is.
A bounty on Leona Hart. Five hundred grand alive, a million dead. Well shit.
After another hour staking out Bobby Morrison's mother's house, I'm not any calmer when he finally comes out. His hair's standing up, and he's wearing pajama bottoms and an old ratty T-shirt. He gets into a red Challenger, and I pull out behind him.
A truck with two people in it falls in line behind me. Fuck. Yep. Lola and Helix are trailing him too. This should be fun.
We end up at a house in downtown Sacramento. Bobby parks and enters through the front door, but I pull around to the alley and break in through a back door.
Bobby is walking down the hallway when I catch him and hold his arms behind his back. "You missed your bail hearing, Bobby."
"What? No. It's next week."
"It was last week, and you were a no-show. So I'm gonna bring you to Wayne, and you can explain it all to him."
"C'mon, man. I got a kid."
"Yeah, a kid you're doing a shitty job of role modeling for. All you gotta do is pay your child support, show up to your hearings, and act like a mature adult. You can't do that?"
"I can, it's just…"
There's a knock at the door. I need to lock up Bobby somewhere, so I can deal with Helix. There's a big hamper in the corner, like the kind you find at a hotel for dirty linens.
"I'm gonna need you to wait in here for a while."
"What? In the hamper?"
"It'll just be a minute."
"No."
I lift him between his legs, hoist him in, and shut it. He screams and bangs on the lid.
"Be quiet."
"But—"
I open the lid and punch him hard in the face. He shuts up. "Good boy."
Helix bangs on the door. "Bobby! Need to talk to you."
I hide behind the door before Helix kicks it open. When he walks in, I nail him with a surprise punch to the jaw.
He flashes into fight mode instantly, not even looking to see who hit him.
I block and punch, but he's strong like a robot. My fists bounce off his metal head, and he's not showing any signs of feeling pain.
I sweep his legs and he falls on his stomach. I hop on his back and pin his hands to the floor.
"What the fuck, Mace?"
"You sell her out?"
"What?" He grunts and tries to get up.
"You told Diablo about Leona Hart."
"I did not."
"You told me you hadn't seen her."
"She asked me to do that. Get off me, asshole." He gouges my thigh with his elbow and bucks his hips, throwing me forward over his head.
I'm struggling to get him back under control when Loralei enters the room from the hallway. She's holding a taser gun and pointing it at us. She looks hot as hell in black leather pants, jacket, heeled boots, fierce hair and makeup.
"You gonna tase me, Lola?" This is it. The test. If she tases me, she's screwing Helix and we're
done. I'll never be able to trust her.
If she doesn't tase me, she's badass, hot as hell, not screwing him, and I want her by my side.
Everything hinges on what she does next.
Chapter 15 Jealousy
Loralei
My ears buzz and my heart flatlines.
Mace has Helix pinned.
His hair hides his face, but his arms are taut with the pressure of holding Helix down.
"You gonna tase me, Lola?" I can barely hear Mace repeat his question.
"What're you doing here?" My voice wobbles.
"I'm taking Bobby in." He's wearing his fringe jacket and torn black jeans. He looks so damn sexy. My body feels instantly pulled toward him like I want to jump his bones, not tase him.
"No, you're not. Twenty-five grand says I'm taking him in." Oh no. Mace is not going to steal this bounty from me.
"You're a bounty hunter now?" He chuckles.
"Yes, and this is my skip, so get out of here, and let me do my job."
Helix squirms under Mace. "Let me up, asshole."
"You want Bobby, then tase me, and I'll let Helix up, you get your man." Mace's dark intense eyes taunt me. He's daring me to betray him. I should do it. He's hurt me many times, and this is my chance to get even. But no. I can't.
I see Mace in my mind all the time, but seeing him in real life is like standing at the base of a skyscraper. He's so massive, he eclipses everything in the room. I should hate him, yet I feel weak in the knees and excited to see him.
I lower my taser. "I'm not gonna do that."
"Good." He struggles with Helix until they both stand.
"What the hell is going on?" Helix pushes Mace, but he doesn't budge.
Mace pulls his shoulders back, and he's spitting fumes. "You tell me. Are you fucking Loralei?"
"I wish I was, but the girl is hooked on some other dude."
Mace squints and glances from Helix to me. "Then what're you doing with her?"
"He's training me, Mace. I can be working with him and not screwing him."
He just glares back at me like he doesn't believe me. God, I hate him.
"Where's Bobby?" Helix looks around the room.
"He's in the hamper." Mace points at a box without looking at it. He keeps his eyes on me.
"What's he doing in there?" Helix walks over to the box.
"He's being quiet."
Helix chuckles, but Mace and I are locked in a staring match.
"You can have Bobby if you take him and leave now," Mace says to Helix.
Helix puts his hands on his hips. "You okay with that Loralei?"
Part of me wants to say no and fight with Mace over Bobby, but a bigger part wants to be alone with him. "Yep. See you later, Helix."
Helix walks over to the laundry bin, opens it, and looks inside. "Let's go." He lifts Bobby out and plants him on his feet. Bobby stumbles as Helix leads him out the front door. "Bye, Loralei. You wanna catch more bad guys, you call me." He signs off with a wave.
"I will."
Mace growls as Helix leaves and closes the door behind him.
Just like that, I'm alone with Mace.
"You didn't tase me," he says with wonder in his voice.
"No."
"Why not? You and Helix would get Bobby and the money, leave me reeling on the floor."
"I wouldn't do that to you. That's not who I am, and I'm offended you'd think I would."
"You didn't sleep with Helix?" I can hear the jealousy scrape in his throat like he has a claim to me, but he doesn't.
"If I did, would it bother you? Drive you wild with jealousy?"
His jaw tightens, and a vein in his neck throbs. "Who's this other guy you're hooked on?" He takes a cautious step toward me like he's hunting a skittish doe.
I cross my arms and pop a knee. His eyes lock on my hips and flare with heat. He's as affected by me as I am by him, but I have the advantage. I'm going to play with him. "No one you know." I raise my chin and challenge him.
"Hmm." His lips curl. "It's not someone you used to hate?"
Great. Now he's playing with me. "No." I try to keep my voice strong, but he has me figured out, and with his cobalt eyes locked on mine, it's quite a challenge.
"Did this mystery someone help you regain your memory? Maybe rescue you from an island?"
"It's not you, Mace. Totally vain of you to suggest it." I press my lips together to hide my smile, but the glint in his eyes tells me he knows I'm lying.
"Maybe it's the guy who fucked you on top of a mountain and made you scream his name into the Great Basin?" He's close enough now he could reach out and grab me. "The only man that brings out the lioness in you." He's full-on grinning now.
"The lioness is out full-time lately."
"Oh, really? I like that." He wraps a hand around my waist and tugs, but I stand strong. If I fall into his arms, I'm done. I won't be able to resist him. He steps so close our breath mingles, and the heat from his body caresses my skin. I step back, but he pulls me up against his chest. "I've been looking for you."
"Oh really?"
"Was worried about you."
"Here I am. Safe and sound."
"I see that. You look fucking fantastic."
"I know." It's like my body was made to wear leather pants. I'd never tried them before, but now that I have, I'll never go back to jeans or slacks.
"What the hell happened to you? Where's the headbands and anchor scarfs?" His gaze travels over my cleavage, which is visible in this tight black shirt with criss-cross straps over the front.
"Nothing happened to me. I'm out of work indefinitely. I needed some money. I have the skills. I called up Helix and he's mentoring me." I shrug like this is simple when I know it's totally not.
"Helix is a hitman."
"Well, he agreed not to kill anyone when I was training with him."
He tilts his head. "He only agreed because he thought you were gonna fuck him."
"How do you know that?"
"Trust me. He may look like a machine, but he's a man under there. No man could look at you and not want to fuck you." He smirks, and I hate it that he looks so darn good doing it too.
"Either way. This is who I am now, and you can back off, so I can get out of here and back to work." I push on his shoulders, but he's solid as a redwood.
"I'm not done talkin' yet." He pushes me, and we shuffle backward until my butt hits an old wooden armoire with a desk and a big oval mirror. "I was looking for you for a reason." He leans down to line his lips up with mine. He's just a breath away from kissing me.
"And I suppose now you're going to tell me what that is whether I want to hear it or not."
"That's right." He mashes his hips into mine, and my butt digs into the wood. "You may not want to hear it, but I'm gonna say it. I shoulda said it when I had a chance, but I blew it."
"I'm listening."
He looks down like he's struggling to find the words. I hold my breath and watch him. When he looks up, his eyes have turned a darker blue, almost black, and his mouth is a firm line. "I don't give a shit what happened with Remy."
My gasp fills the air between us. "You don't?"
He shakes his head slightly. "I don't care what happened in the past. It's forgotten. Right now, I want you with me. My family is gonna learn to accept you for me because they'll see you're the one who makes me happy."
"I do?"
His hand, still in my hair, cups the back of my head and brings my face closer to his. "There's something happening between us, and I won't let anything get in the way." He strokes my hair and squeezes my neck. "I like everything about you. Anchors, scarfs, wicked evil, sweet cop, tempting lioness. It was never what happened with Remy. It was me being stupid not wanting to accept I'd fallen for you."
"Wow."
My spine tingles as he works his fingers up into my hair. "I'm not a settling down man. I need to roam."
I huff a laugh. "I see no lies here."
He presses a brief
kiss to my lips as he smiles. "I think you want to roam with me."
"I might like that," I concede.
"I want to work through whatever bullshit we have to because I think if I could find a woman to give my heart to, it'd be you."
Okay. These words coming from Mace, who always seemed so closed and distant, are rocking me to my core. I didn't know he had it in him. "I can't believe you're saying this." My voice is a whisper.
"Neither can I." His smile grows wider. "I missed you bad. Not just the physical. I missed all of you."
My lips sputter, and I have to hold back a sob. "I missed you too."
"So come back up to Pleasure Mountain with me."
Mace makes it sound so easy, but… "Your family…"
"They'll support it. They know you're who I want."
"Wow."
"Now I'm gonna kiss you now, Leona."
He presses his closed mouth to mine. The tightness of his lips, the passion in his eyes is so honest and hungry. The kind of kiss that curls your toes and weakens your knees at the thought of what it means. He said he cares for me, and the kiss reinforces his words like the echo of a promise, the chorus of a song repeating, but building and crescendoing.
I'm not gonna fight him on this. I want to be back with him. I want to roam with him.
His lips part and suck me in greedily like he was eyeing a box of cookies and finally gave into the temptation to devour them.
He lifts me by my thighs and something falls to the floor as he plops me on top of the armoire. He moves in and I tilt my head and arch my back to keep contact with his mouth. I work his massive arms out of his jacket and swipe his shirt up. He helps me get it over his head, and I'm faced with the hairy chest of the man of my dreams. He smells like a delicious manly conglomeration of sweat, soap, and possibly the acidic linger of beer.
My fingertips explore the grooves and sinewy muscles of his back. Every inch of him is covered in taut, solid iron like he's made of metal and not skin and bones.
With a deep hoarse groan, he breaks the kiss and trails his lips down my cheek, my neck, my chest. For a man with a body of iron, his lips are silky soft, just a hint of saliva wetting my skin and leaving a tingle behind, not sloppy, uncontrolled licking like some men.
His hands tug and stretch the fabric of my shirt until my breasts are exposed. He pulls one nipple into his mouth through the lace of my bra, and his tortured moan reverberates in my soul like a drum.