Vengeance Unleashed (The Wanted Men Series Book 1)

by Nancy Haviland

  So what was it? Why did she look as if she expected someone to come charging down the hallway and put a bullet in her chest?

  “Hey.” His voice was gentle as he stroked his thumb across her jawline. “It’s okay.” Man, he wanted that look gone.

  She dropped her lids, shutting him out, and shook her head. “I have to go.”

  He scowled at the sensation those words caused somewhere behind his breastplate. He didn’t want her to go. He wanted to take her upstairs to his suite and…talk to her? Fuuuck. Find out her name. Find out what she really did for a living. He wanted to know where she lived. When he could see her again. And, yeah, of course, he wanted to fuck her into a boneless puddle.

  “I have to go,” she repeated a little louder, her fingers releasing his leather.

  And since the last of the prying eyes had just disappeared around the corner, he had no real reason to keep her there. Dammit. “Then go,” he gritted out without moving.

  Her gaze locked with his and the visible regret staring up at him just about had him asking what the hell her story was. Instead, he dropped his hand from her neck to give her a way out. “Go. Before I change my mind about letting you.”

  Her features tightened at his bark, instantly making him want to smile through his discontent. She obviously didn’t care for taking orders. But she went. And he didn’t watch her leave him. Couldn’t, for some reason. He stayed where he was, his hand on the wall, head bowed.

  Until he heard, “Just in case you really were under the impression I was following you earlier…I wasn’t.”

  His head whipped to the side as she turned and passed through the door he’d been holding open earlier.

  Vincente’s stomach cramped like someone had hooked his abs to a set of jumper cables as he watched the redhead cross over and enter the same meeting room he’d been heading to himself.

  TWENTY

  Two servers entered with loaded trays, signifying everyone should take their seats once more. Gabriel was just shaking out his napkin when V let a zinger fly across the table.

  “Enough with the staring, asshole. If not creepy, you’re coming off fuckin’ desperate.”

  The warning, spoken in Russian, was aimed at Maks, who hadn’t taken his eyes off Nika since she’d entered the room. He was currently looking at her like she was sitting there naked. Which would have taken some doing since she was noticeably overdressed for the beautiful summer day it was.

  “You having a bad day, V? What the fuck’s your problem?” Maks didn’t revert to English, which kept the girls and Paynne in the dark.

  “Stay off that girl. She has enough to deal with without adding your tired dick to the pile.” Vincente’s Russian was as fluent as Gabriel’s, but somehow sounded more guttural and threatening.

  A server paused the action when he came between the two meatheads, placing plates of fresh salmon with dill sauce, steamed veggies, and a colorful rice pilaf on the table.

  “The Reaper ever warn you off a woman before, Alek?” Maks asked as he picked up his fork and began eating. “No?” he said without waiting for an answer. He turned to Gabriel. “How about you? He ever tell you to keep your tired dick in your pants while he does everything in his power not to stare at the goddess sitting in our midst?”

  “Maks…” Gabriel warned when he saw V handling his fork like he was considering the damage it might do if he were to take a couple of stabs. In English, he changed the focus by making introductions. “Nika, you met Alek yesterday.” He motioned across the table. “That’s Maksim Kirov. That’s Vincente Romani.”

  Nika looked mildly amused as she returned Maks’s appreciative, glint-eyed nod. But when her gaze shifted to V, her humor faded. “We met outside already,” she said shortly before dropping her eyes and picking up her fork.

  The table went silent.

  Since he was the host, Gabriel felt it was only right that he pursue that. “Where?”

  When Nika glanced up, she and Vincente shared a look just long enough to make it clear the meeting hadn’t been a good one.

  “Out front,” V answered before scowling at Paynne. “Next time, you insist on accompanying her. Stefano needs just one opportunity.”

  “Like I said earlier, she refused—”

  Vincente cut the biker off. “That’s what I meant when I said insist. You don’t take no for an answer. In fact, you shouldn’t even have given her a choice,” he added as he unrolled his cutlery.

  “Uh, excuse me,” Nika interrupted. “She is in the room.”

  V stilled and raised his dark eyes from his plate to pin the girl to her chair. “Yeah. I know.”

  Gabriel sat back and noticed Maks’s entertained gaze moving from Vincente to Nika and then back again, as though he were waiting for them to hop on the table and get down to business in front of everyone. Couldn’t blame him. Had those three words been any more loaded, every occupant in the room would be run through with shrapnel by now.

  Sensing Nika’s discomfort, Gabriel shifted the focus again by bring up why they’d assembled. “So, boys,” he said, looking from Alek to Maks and finally Vincente. “Let’s talk.”

  V spoke first. “Stefano knows who has my loyalty. If he isn’t here already, he’s on his way.”

  Okay. They’d run out of time. Not a shock. “What’s his plan?” Gabriel forced himself to eat as they talked.

  “Last info I got says they’re heading to a hunting cabin near…” V handed things off to Maks.

  “Enumclaw. Little place east of Tacoma.”

  “Isn’t that where you used to go deer hunting, Caleb?” Eva, who’d been unusually quiet, wasn’t eating so much as pushing her food around on her plate.

  The biker nodded. “Lots of forest around there, tons of secluded cabins.”

  “You know offhand how far away it is?” Gabriel asked.

  “Forty-five to an hour,” Maks supplied, his thumb tapping on his phone while he ate with his free hand.

  Paynne nodded his agreement as Gabriel’s cell went off. He picked it up from where it sat next to his empty water glass.

  “Yeah.”

  “Your brother arrived not long ago. In a place called Enumclaw.”

  Dread filled Gabriel’s gut as Lucian confirmed the information. Dropping his fork, his food forgotten, he got to his feet and moved to the corner of the room, ignoring the inquiring expressions he left behind.

  “I just heard.”

  “Because my business in LA did not take as long as expected, we are on our way to you. I think you should know your brother has a full crew with him, some of whom currently have eyes on you. I am told Furio is also circling, hoping to find Vasily’s daughter on her own. Do not let that happen.”

  Gabriel’s skin tightened as he absorbed all of that.

  “I hear Vincente is back where he belongs,” Lucian commented, his tone casual, like it was nothing for him to have such detailed information that shouldn’t have been out there yet.

  “Yeah,” Gabriel muttered. “And you’re really well fucking informed.” He tried to process faster as he looked over his shoulder to see Eva watching him anxiously.

  “We will be there shortly. And before you ask why, I believe, if it comes down to it, you might appreciate someone else dealing with Stefano.” He went on before Gabriel could respond. “Enjoy what is left of your day, Gabriel.”

  When dead air sounded, he tucked his phone away and returned to the table. With an apologetic look, he interrupted the small talk that had sprung up and shared the new information—once again leaving the girls and Paynne clueless by speaking Russian.

  “Is this news we need to hear?” Paynne said while buttering a roll with enough gusto to tear the thing to shreds.

  “I’ll fill you in later,” Vincente offered when no one else did. He also looked to Jak and made a circle motion with his finger, telling him to do a sweep.

  As Gabriel’s wheels started turning, he sat with an arm resting across the back of Eva’s chair. He picked up
a lock of her hair that had fallen from its binding and played with it, wrapping it around his finger and letting it unravel.

  He did it again.

  Wrapped it…let it unravel.

  Wrapped it…let it unravel.

  Wrapped…unravel…

  “Okay.”

  His break into the silence had Eva jumping and blushing when she dropped her fork and it clattered loudly as it landed on her plate. He kissed her temple in apology while giving Maks a pointed look that told him to play along with what he was about to say.

  “Not that I think we’ll need it”—he knew for certain they would—“but I want you to find out what you can about access to Enum—”

  “Population is a little over ten thousand,” Maks interrupted, rattling off the information he already had at the ready. “Has an airport, but just barely, a miniscule police department, tiny hospital.” He looked up and went mother tongue. “And, like the gearhead wouldn’t say earlier, it’s a perfect area to go if you want a lot of privacy. Stefano could disappear into that forest with her and no one would see or hear a goddamn thing.”

  “Would you guys please stop doing that,” Eva complained tiredly. “It just makes me think you’re saying something worse than what you probably are. Speak English. Or French. Those I know. My Spanish is rusty, but at least I’ll get the gist.”

  Maks’s demeanor changed in that way it always did when interacting with a woman. “Sorry, sweetness. Habit. And I was only saying that I agree with your lover. We’re probably not going to need the information because we’ll take care of it from here.”

  As Eva blushed over Maks’s candid label, Gabriel released his breath slowly. He had only half an ear on the conversation because he was making plans. “The jet on standby?” he asked Alek.

  “Of course.”

  “Good. Then we’ll head home tonight. We’ll leave a crew to deal with Stefano and be in New York by morning.”

  Eva’s surprise over the announcement was apparent when her jaw dropped.

  Nika’s eyes widened like saucers.

  Paynne’s narrowed with suspicion.

  And everyone else’s didn’t.

  Because Gabriel’s boys knew better than to believe such shit. Like they’d run from a confrontation. Not fucking likely.

  Though there was some truth to what he’d said. Eva and Nika would be heading east, with their own personal guard of bikers to watch over them.

  While Gabriel and the boys remained behind to finish this once and for all.

  † † †

  As Gabriel closed him and Eva into the suite a short time later, he was curious as to what Eva had taken away from the meeting. Whatever it was, it had broken a barrier and turned her into a clingy distraction he could definitely get used to having around.

  A clasp and squeeze of his fingers as they’d left the meeting room. A distracted trapping of his hand between hers as she’d spoken to Nika in the lobby. Her fingertips drumming gently on his knuckles as they’d waited for the elevator. A full body press and her head on his shoulder once they were ascending. Her intertwining their fingers as they’d come down the corridor, keeping them locked together even when she’d hugged Nika before the edgy redhead had disappeared into the suite down the hall from theirs with her brother and Vincente.

  Now, she was waiting for him to close the door, and was ready when he turned. She kissed him a few times, just soft pecks on the mouth, flashed him a quick smile that didn’t reach her eyes, then wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. Her first sigh came when he slid his arms around her waist and pulled her in. The second, when he cupped the back of her head and tipped it to the side so he could nuzzle her neck.

  She silently drew back to study him, and who the fuck knew what she saw, but it took the steel out of her frame. Only then did she finally cut contact with him by stepping out of his arms.

  But she didn’t leave. She remained within touching distance, smiling up at him, glittering eyes and all.

  And, fuck him for not realizing it sooner, but that’s when he understood what she was doing.

  Leaning on him. Not for safety, but for peace of mind. And he’d eased her. By simply holding her, he’d given her comfort when he hadn’t even known that was what she was seeking.

  Strange how not that long ago, he’d have run at the first sign of a woman looking to him for anything other than a good fuck.

  With this one? His feet were cemented. “You good?”

  She nodded. “I’m good.”

  Goddamn right she was. She was solid as a rock. Continuously adapting every time the situation changed. She wasn’t falling apart. She was strengthening right before his eyes, and his attraction to her was following suit.

  Just in time for Vasily’s arrival, he thought, wincing as he led her into the main room.

  “Why is Nika so against going to New York for a few days?” he asked as he sat on the arm of the sofa and watched her adjust the throw pillows. She shifted them a few times.

  “Kevin. He doesn’t like her going to the grocery store, much less across the country.”

  Stepping back, she eyed them before going in again to fluff and turn them.

  “Will he hurt her?”

  As she stepped back, she bit her lip and shook her head. “He wouldn’t dare. Caleb would eat him alive. Okay. This isn’t helping.” She slapped the pillows into a scatter and turned on him. “I think we should have sex. Right now.”

  He grinned.

  She shook her hands out. “Distract me. I’m going to meet my father today, and I’m not ready.” She skipped over and grabbed his face between her hands. “The bedroom. Now.”

  The strain in her voice had him snagging her wrist and all but dragging her into the bedroom. Not because she was a gorgeous body he wanted to glut himself on or a spectacular face he wanted to watch come apart as he fucked her. But because his intelligent, compassionate, anxious woman needed to use sex with him as a distraction, and who was he to deny her.

  Too, Vasily was enroute. What if he ordered Gabriel out of the picture? Out of their lives? What if this was it?

  When he reached the bed, he turned so they were face-to-face. This couldn’t be it. This couldn’t be the end of them.

  She tilted her head as if she could sense the unexpected turmoil within him. “Are you okay? If you don’t want to—”

  “Are you fuckin’ crazy?” He began undressing her, bringing about a smile from her that was all crinkled eyes and anticipation.

  “Whew. I felt for a second there like I’d put my boss in an uncomfortable position.”

  He couldn’t lose her, he thought as he took her mouth in a soft kiss. “Fuck that. Put me in any position you want and I’ll still make you see fuckin’ stars.”

  She laughed as they finished undressing each other, their gazes lingering, lips clinging, hands caressing everywhere at once it seemed. With an arm behind her back, he laid her down, following to cover her as he sucked on her tongue. He pressed into her, needing the skin-on-skin, the heart-to-heart, the connection he felt with her that he’d never experienced with anyone else.

  “Can’t feel you enough,” he growled.

  She let out a relieved sound that was half moan and half laugh. “Right? I was just thinking the same.” She moved against him, her fingers tracing his neck and face and then burying themselves in his hair.

  His hips pressed into her again, his erection hitting right at the heart of her with a mind of its own. The effect? She cried out and spread wide, wrapping her long legs around him.

  “Need to get inside you.” He kissed his way down her silky throat and over to sink his teeth into the soft muscle between her neck and shoulder, grinding again.

  She thrust her hips up on a quiet wail he felt right down in his soul.

  He kept going down, palming one breast as he sucked the other into his mouth, using his tongue and teeth on her nipple. “Right in here.” He rubbed against her, the head of his cock sinking into the openi
ng of her pussy. “Where only I’ve ever been.” A purely masculine thrill lit him up when her hips circled against him, her fingernails scoring his back as she tried to pull him closer.

  “Now, please.” Her imploring look would have been flattering as hell if not for the fear lurking in her eyes.

  Gripping the base of his shaft, he held himself steady and slid home, sinking so slowly into her tightness. They both made their own sounds of oh-fuck-yeah as he began thrusting, but it still wasn’t enough. He gripped her arms and turned them, bringing her on top so that he had a clear, unimpeded view of what was happening. He needed the visual, and what a fucking sight it was.

  A powerful fascination consumed him as he watched this woman astride him, taking to the new position with only the slightest of pauses, but then riding him so fucking good it made his throat thicken. Her hands were scorching where they lay on his stomach, her nails sharp, stinging so good when her fingers flexed each time she seated herself to the hilt, taking him deep into her core. So hot and slippery and tight. His eyes narrowed. Every time she rose up, her sleek thigh muscles tensed, and the sight of his glistening cock, drenched from her, disappearing into her body…

  His mind spun as her firm breasts caught his eye next, those beaded nipples begging for attention. He gave it to them, loving the little mewls that reached his ears when he touched her there.

  Her movements became quicker, shorter, and then her inner muscles were clamping down, sucking his shaft deep, her back arching in a beautiful line, her soft unbroken groan of pure pleasure almost more than he could bear. The sound of her completion shot down his spine like an arrow, urging his hips into a rhythm she matched without a problem as she rode the waves of her orgasm.

  Barely aware of what he was doing, lost to the erotic haze clouding his brain, he spun them, needing her under him. Her legs widened, opening herself up for him as he drove into her. He looked down, torn between watching the act and watching her—dark head thrown back to expose the vulnerable curve of her throat, her lightly muscled arms thrown to the sides, her fingers grasping the blanket tightly, her flawless face tense as she was swept away again.