by Jillian Neal
Her laughter rushed fresh breath to my lungs. “That is true. Guess I’ll stick with Hannah. But wait until I tell you what I just heard.” If I didn’t let her tell me soon, she was going to vibrate off the bed.
“Talk, baby.”
“I went out into the hallway, and Ms. Mallory and Ms. Rutherford were having an argument. I couldn’t have timed it better if I’d tried. But Fred said they’d been arguing before I went out there so maybe I could’ve. I don’t know.” Her words flew out in rapid-fire sentences.
I fought not to laugh at her outright. “Deep breaths, baby doll. What did you hear them say?”
“Apparently, Ms. Rutherford’s check bounced. That’s why I’m wondering about the dead husbands. If she really killed off eight guys for life insurance policies, wouldn’t she have plenty of money?”
“Maybe. Keep going.” My mind considered every possible angle.
“Obviously, Megan was pissed. Ms. Rutherford said she’d get her another check by the end of the week. Megan said she needed it now because she had to make a down payment on a flight, which makes no sense at all. When you book a flight, you have to pay for the whole thing, right?”
“Depends on the kind of flight.” The whole fucked-up thing lay before me in pieces. I needed more to even put the edges of the puzzle together. For half a second, I wished the guys were all there. We worked better together.
“Wait, there’s tons more. Ms. Rutherford was really angry and kept saying things about Ms. Mallory not following through on her promises or something. Apparently people named Ashley and Karen were supposed to be there last night, and they weren’t. Oh, and they were talking about you, too.”
“What did they say about me?”
“They didn’t say your name. She just said something about someone who makes a lot of money who works for a government security firm. Obviously, that’s you.”
Frustrated with my own inability to figure anything out, I huffed, “Why the hell are they interested in me? Guess it’s good I’m a sexy motherfucker. That makes up for me being a dumbass.”
Hannah giggled and shook her head at me. “You’re not a dumbass. You are a sexy motherfucker though. I can’t figure anything out either, but isn’t that how mysteries are supposed to work? You have to find clues and stuff.”
“You’re adorable, you know that?” I razzed her hair and then popped a kiss on her cheek.
She combed her fingers through her hair, righting it, and then hemmed. “It gets worse.”
“Define worse.”
“Well, I know where Ms. Rutherford is staying because I saw her go in her suite. It’s eleven. But then Megan caught me spying on them.” She cringed. Dammit, how could I have let her do this on her own? I should never have sent her out there untrained. I really was a damned fool.
“Did she call you on it?”
“Yeah. Kind of. She said I’d ruined everything and then told me to watch my step.”
With that, I was off the bed. My hip protested the sudden movement, but I didn’t give a shit. “She threatened you?” I hadn’t quite intended it to come out in a roar of fury, but it did.
“Griff, I’m fine. I swear. I’m not afraid of her. Honestly, she seems afraid of you. She asked me why I hadn’t mentioned that you were a Beret on the form I filled out to get you into the auction.”
I tried to think through the haze of rage swamping my vision. My general beliefs ran along the lines of, if you scare or threaten my baby, I’ll arrange for you to meet your maker instantaneously. Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. “Wait. I thought T entered me in this thing?”
She shook her head. “No, his job was to get you here. I pretended to be you and entered you in the auction. Guess I didn’t do that very well since she figured out it was me, but what did I ruin? This whole thing is insane. We should just leave and go vacation somewhere else. I’ll pay for it. We could go to Hawaii.”
“We’re not running away. We’re staying, and we’re fighting.” Walking away from a mission just wasn’t in me. I couldn’t do it.
35
Hannah
The soft fabric of my favorite sundress fluttered down to my thighs while I watched Griff lock and unlock the exterior doors that led from the bedroom to our pool. Nervous energy churned in my stomach. I heard the distinctive click once again, and he stepped into the bedroom. “Damn, you’re pretty.” He grinned at me.
“Are you sure this is okay? I might wear it over a bikini if we were hanging out at the pool so it’s sort of legit.” I’d purchased an entirely see-through lace cover up to wear over my favorite bikini specifically for the purposes of making him drool, but that wasn’t on the agenda for this portion of our evening.
“It’s perfect, sweetheart.” He hooked his thumbs in the hem of his T-shirt and brought it up over his abs. Now my mouth was the one that was watering.
“Damn, you’re pretty,” I quoted back.
“I know.” He laughed and tossed the shirt in the general vicinity of his suitcase. When he shed his jeans, I hated Ms. Mallory and Ms. Rutherford even more. “You know, we could be on a flight to Honolulu right now.”
Seating himself on the bed, he eased his injured leg into a pair of khaki shorts I knew he hated. The scalpel marks around his knee were more than apparent. “It’s like a ten hour flight to Hawaii. I can’t wait that long to fuck you. We’d end up trying to join the mile-high club and then we’d get arrested because, baby, you get so damn loud when I bring you. They could hear you over the engines. I look like shit in prison orange. We have to stay here.”
“You are so full of yourself,” I teased.
“That’s right, sweetness, and as soon as we catch the three senior stooges you’re gonna be so full of me.”
How the hell he figured out how to turn me on with a sentence that included the words three stooges I had no idea, but that’s what love can do to a girl. “We can’t use trios anymore, remember? Now, Ms. Mallory is in on this, too. There’s four of them.”
“Fuck and I spent all day coming up with trios. I’m going to have to rethink my whole internal monologue for this dinner. That’s bullshit right there. I had good stuff. Wait, how many Spice Girls were there?”
“Five. That’s a no-go, plus I like Victoria Beckham.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me as he eased off the bed and dug in his suitcase. “You like her, or you like looking at her husband?”
“Yes.” I laughed. “But he has nothing on shock and awe.”
“That’s right, baby, and don’t you forget it.” He flexed one and then the other, making his pecs dance for me.
“Are you planning on attending dinner shirtless? Because I’ll bet you could get some answers out of people that way.”
“Guess I could.” He shrugged.
I rolled my eyes. “Put a shirt on, Sergeant. You’re all for me. I don’t share. Just ask Smith.” That last part leapt out of my mouth without my permission. Dammit, why did I have to bring him up?
“I don’t have to ask him. I’ve tried to get you to give me bites of your ice cream before.” He let the comment roll off of his back.
“You know me and ice cream have a symbiotic relationship. It makes me happy, and I give it a place to live, on my clothing generally.”
One of my very favorite sounds in the whole world was him laughing. “I keep telling you I’m happy to clean you up with my tongue anytime. I’ll see if Jeeves can come up with us some ice cream after our mission.”
“I take it Jeeves is actually Fred?”
“Dumbass name,” he mumbled.
“He checked on me after Ms. Mallory threatened me and kind of helped me spy on the felonious four…”
“Hey, now that was a good one. Gonna have to step up my game to keep up with my girl.”
I slipped my feet into a pair of flip-flops, and Griff shook his head. “Do you have anything that doesn’t make noise when you walk?”
“Right. Almost forgot we’re breaking and entering for
an appetizer.” I pulled a pair of high-heeled wedge sandals out of the closet and got another head shake.
“Can you run in those?”
“I officially hate these women.” I flung the sandals back in and went with my kicks because I had nothing else.
“I can throw you over my shoulder and get us anywhere we need to go, but I’d prefer it if you can run without breaking an ankle just in case.”
“I feel like we should start calling them all the Rat Pack because that fits, right? We are in Vegas.”
“Yeah, but there were five of them, too.” He was trying to cover it with our typical banter, but I didn’t miss him popping the knuckles on his right hand. Something about this made him nervous, and the pain of that day still darkened his eyes.
“Yeah, but that one guy no one really remembers.”
“You ready, baby?” Griff left his polo untucked and unbuttoned. “We need to be in the casino in a few minutes and then back here.”
“I guess so.” The plan was for us to hang out near the doors of the casino and wait on the witchy bitches to go by to get to the banquet area where dinner was being held. Once we were sure they were gone, we’d come back to our room, go out our own back doors, and then reenter theirs. “Do you break into hotel rooms often? Like is this a common security firm thing?” I couldn’t believe how little I actually knew about what he did for a living.
“I do it on occasion. The last time was a few weeks ago. The police suspected a few runaway girls were holed up with some piece of human waste trafficker at a hotel outside Omaha, but they couldn’t get a search warrant.”
“Did you find them?”
“Two of them. Never found the third but I did get the sick bastard arrested. He’s currently serving thirty to life. Fucker.”
Despite all of that, I knew the third girl still ate at him. He couldn’t stand it that he’d missed one. He was all or nothing. There were no margins that he’d be proud of.
36
Griff
Like a fucker, I asked Hannah to fix me a glass of water, because that shit was the best excuse I could come up with to get her out of the room, while I shoved my personal Glock 23 in the back of my shorts. I didn’t want to frighten her. She would insist that the elderly mutant ninja grannies wouldn’t be packing and that I was overreacting. Dammit, famous foursomes left me with precious little workable material.
“Thanks, baby.” I downed a few sips of the water I didn’t really want. That fist that always collided with my gut when shit was about to get ugly had already knocked the wind out of me. She’d threatened Hannah. My brain couldn’t work through that.
All I could grasp was that I would forcefully remove anything that wanted to do her harm from this earth. But there had to be a reason. Keeping her safe was all that mattered, but I also had to figure out how Megan Mallory had been shoved so far into a corner she’d come out with threats. Rule-makers often made and clung to the rules so they could also create and cling to the loopholes, but she didn’t strike me as that kind of policy maker. She worked for a freaking nonprofit not Congress. My brain offered me precious little in the way of answers, but my gut was crystal clear. Hannah was in danger. Keeping her safe was the only mission that mattered.
“Want to tell me why you look so miserable? I thought you liked missions.” She traced her fingers over my scowl.
“I…” didn’t know what to tell her. The truth generally worked even if it was only a portion of it. “I love that you did all of this just so we could spend a week together, and I hate that we’re going to spend even one moment of it chasing down the sisterhood of the traveling girdles.”
Based on Hannah’s laughter, that was clearly a good one. Maybe I could do the foursomes. Just needed to loosen up a little.
“Hey, we can still do the Golden Girls, too. There were four of them.” She gave me one of those grins that took up residence in the depths of my chest. “Let’s go catch some bad girls and then I’ll bring you back here and be a bad girl all for you.”
An overly-eager, guttural grunt clogged my throat. My cock immediately sprang to life and got on board. I was starved for her. So damn parched I wasn’t sure how long I could go without drowning myself in her creamy pussy. I needed to hear those sweet little gasps and moans she made for me. I was desperate to hold her in my arms where I knew she was safe. Under me, letting me worship her, letting me tend her, letting me protect her above all others. That was the only way my life would ever work. And maybe, it was high-time I manned the fuck up and stopped bowing out of the battles it would take to have her. She was a war worth fighting. “Then let’s get this over with because if you want to be a bad girl for me, honey, I’m gonna fuck you senseless, over and over again, fuck you until you’re my sweet baby again.”
“Oh God, yes.” She swayed under the power of my promises. Yeah, we needed to get this mission over with as soon as possible.
After a few kisses meant to assure her that I would make every single one her fantasies a reality, we headed out the door.
“Sergeant Haywood, sir, I don’t know if it might interest you to know that Ms. Rutherford has had numerous large ticket items delivered to her room today.”
Hannah grinned. “I told you he was sweet.”
“I did a little digging on your behalf, spoke with James, her attendant. Seemed to me if checks weren’t clearing, her shopping might be hampered. Apparently, that wasn’t the case.”
“Thanks, Fred. I appreciate it.”
“Anytime. I’m here to serve and help if I can. Maybe I can give the universe a nudge.” He winked at Hannah. No idea what that was all about, but I’d take help from anywhere I could get it.
“She’s right. You are a good guy.” I offered him my hand. We made our way out of the suite corridor and headed toward the casino trying to blend in like your run of the mill tourists.
“Oh, hey, sweet. You’re here,” bellowed from an all too familiar voice.
“Son of a bitch,” I ground out as Ryan Winch class of 2017 bounced into view. He now had five other guys with him.
“These are a few of my buddies. We figured we’d hang out tonight.” His eyes zeroed in on Hannah’s cleavage. “You wanna hit up the nightclub here? Pretty sure they have poles.”
Hannah snapped. “No, we do not want to hit up the nightclub, Ryan, but do me a favor, if my father ever asks you about our encounter, do tell him that you wanted to take me to a place with poles.” Before she effectively scalped the air force lackey, I eased her away.
“It’s cool. You going to the casino first? We can do that.” His buddies all nodded in agreement.
I glared at Ryan and his backup dancers. “Dude, I’m gonna spell this out as clearly as I can for you. You really seem to have vastly more dick in your personality than you could ever even hope to have in your shorts, and she isn’t interested. The next time you see my face it will be approximately one split second before you see my fists up close and personal. Not just one. Both. Repeatedly. Do you understand what I’m saying to you right now?”
“You don’t want us to go to the casino with you?”
“Good, and…?”
“You don’t want us to hang with you tonight?”
“Bingo.”
“Griff,” Hannah spoke through her teeth. Panic set hard in her eyes. “Ms. Rutherford.” She gestured her head to the side. I let my eyes take the same path, and dammit all to hell but she was heading our way with Moe and Curly in tow.
The Berets are fond of quoting Mike Tyson. He has a saying they goes something like - Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face. We just add to it. Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face; expect to be punched in the face.
Some kind of promoter for the nightclub approached a gaggle of women nearby and offered them passes and free drinks if they went to party at the club. That was more than enough incentive for Ryan and the Ryanettes to go on with their plans for a night of staring up at women on poles and paying exorbita
nt prices for drinks. They offered us waves and dissolved into the crowds.
Act intelligently in the worst possible case scenario. That’s what I’d been trained to do.
“Why, Ms. Hagen.” Ms. Rutherford promptly coughed hard enough to bring up what was left of her lungs. Edith whacked her forcefully on the back with her handbag until she recovered and then sucked down another draw on her cigarette. “We were hoping you’d be joining Mr. Haywood this evening. It’ll be a lovely dinner.”
Hannah’s face said she thought that was a load of bullshit. “You were?”
“Of course, honey,” Gladys assured her. “We got four men. We need another gal, right?”
“Hell yeah, the more the merrier. Besides we all want a taste of the Sergeant here.” Edith waggled her overly-plucked eyebrows. Okay, maybe she was always this nuts.
“You do?” I watched Hannah grapple with their bizarre change of heart. “Well…uh…we were going to the casino for a few minutes before dinner, but we’ll see you there.” Bless my sweet baby trying her damnedest to stick to the plan. Her big brother had nothing on her.
“Now, you don’t want to miss anything. We’re gonna sing our rendition of America, the Beautiful before we eat,” Edith encouraged.
“We wore our sequined bloomers for the routine.” Gladys lifted the long skirt of her knitted dress. A flash of red sequins over pink tights burned into my retinas.
“Ma’am, I really think you should keep your dress down in the lobby,” Hannah scolded.
“Ah, honey, men love a show. If you can’t put one on, get out of our way.”
“Oh my dear God.” Hannah’s mouth hung open.
“Yeah, He’s really the only one who can save us now.” I shuddered. “We’ll be in there in just a few. You go on.” I spoke with authority, pointed the direction of the room where the catered dinner for the event was being held, and prayed just once they’d follow orders.