by Wane, BJ
“What have you done?” she croaked past her parched throat.
Sanchez pushed away from the wall and stomped across the dirty, hay-strewn floor, each step matching the menace his eyes aimed at her. “This is all your fault. If you hadn’t gone snooping after seeing me with the kid, no one would be the wiser.”
Mia’s befuddled brain slowly kicked into gear, but with clarity came an increase in fear. “You’re his connection.”
“I knew you’d figure it out, so I tried taking off. Only the fucking Feds are everywhere and so is my picture now.” Reaching down, he hauled her to her feet and shook her. “I was just going to hold on to you until I got clear, but now it’s too late. Now, you’re my ticket out of here.”
“Where’s Clifton?” she croaked on a gasp as he released her to lean against the wall for much needed support.
Sanchez sneered. “Cowardly bastard snuck out of here last night after he saw me hauling your ass in here. I hope they fry him.”
She wasn’t sure if he meant the Feds or the drug lords and didn’t care. If the man who had been portraying himself as an upstanding, law-abiding citizen all these years was involved, he deserved to go down. And then everything seemed to shift into place as the final cobwebs drifted out of her head. Birmingham had approached her with his lucrative landscaping contract one short week after she’d hired Barry. God, how could she have been so pathetically ignorant all these weeks?
“Barry snuck the crates transporting the drugs off the flatbeds and into the delivery truck and then delivered them out here, didn’t he?”
“Give the woman a prize. Right under your nose, bitch, and you’d still be in the dark if it wasn’t for us running into you coming out of the bar.”
Mia didn’t know where her bravado popped up from, all she knew was that she was sick at heart and tired of being taken advantage of. Only, she realized it was her reluctance to be completely open and forthcoming with Nolan that kept him from learning about Sanchez before now. Honesty forced her to admit if she’d pointed him out at the bar the last time they were there, and mentioned seeing him with Barry, he might have put two and two together before this, definitely before she had. That wasn’t the only time I threw up a wall between us.
The chop-chop of an approaching helicopter caught both of their attention and a surge of hope rushed through her. Had she been able to stand here and confront Sanchez because deep down, she’d known Nolan would come for her? As the rumble of numerous vehicles pouring onto the surrounding grounds shook beneath her feet, she knew it bore thinking about. Later.
“Fuck! I should have had more time.”
Voices filtered through the thin walls and Sanchez’s face darkened even more as he nailed her with his frigid gaze. Reaching behind him, he pulled a gun from his waist, yanked Mia in front of him, put the pistol to her temple and dragged her out of the barn into the bright, early morning sun before halting in front of a semi-circle of flashing, federal and state law-enforcement vehicles.
Instant, blinding terror clouded Mia’s senses and hysteria threatened to overtake the relative calm she’d maintained until now. With her life flashing before her eyes, she realized how much Nolan meant to her, how she may have let Peter’s betrayal blind her to the truth of his involvement with putting her nursery under surveillance. His rough, demanding, arrogant voice broke through the panic consuming her as she struggled in Sanchez’s bruising hold. The same tone that would either make her grit her teeth in annoyance or send her pulse skyrocketing now soothed her raw, frayed nerves and calmness settled over her like a comforting embrace.
“Let her go, Sanchez.”
* * *
Nolan hunkered down behind the open door of his cruiser, aimed his rifle and held his breath. His heart still threatened to pound right out of his chest and a ball of terror still clogged his throat. He hadn’t learned of Mia’s knowledge of Sanchez until several hours after she’d mentioned it to Hank. After passing it on to Chuck, he couldn’t wait a second longer to return to the nursery, tie her to the bed and torment her into listening to him. He’d been in a state of rage and panic ever since he found her purse at the bottom of the stairs to her apartment and Mia nowhere around. If they hadn’t tracked down Clifton Birmingham preparing to fly out of the country from a small, private airport, they’d still be searching for her. The fucker started singing before Nolan had even whipped out his cuffs.
Nolan’s gut twisted into a painful ball when Sanchez stepped out of the dilapidated barn using Mia as a human shield. He could detect the terror reflected on her face, even from this distance. Her shorts and legs were dirty, her face streaked and flushed, and straw clung to her hair. He’d say disheveled and smudged was how he liked her best, but not in this case. Keeping a beaded eye and direct aim at the bastard’s forehead, he prepared to pull the trigger if Sanchez didn’t cooperate.
“Not gonna happen. Back off until I’m gone, then I’ll tell you where you can come pick her up,” Sanchez answered with a tighter press of the gun nozzle to Mia’s head, her wince turning Nolan’s vision red. She’d have a bruise there tomorrow, and for that alone, he could kill him.
The helicopter carrying even more backup landed and he started to bring the megaphone back up when a look came over Mia’s face that turned his blood to ice water in his veins. Normally that scowl stirred his lust, but not this time. Annoyance with her whole situation must’ve surpassed her fear because one second she was struggling against her captor and the next she went limp, sagging in his one-arm hold like a rag doll.
Surprised, Sanchez relaxed his grip as Nolan tensed and curled his finger over the trigger. The next second, Mia rammed her bent head up and back, smacking Sanchez in the nose and drawing a gush of blood. The gun wavered and Nolan pulled his trigger, putting a neat bullet hole in her captor’s forehead. As he toppled over backward from instant death, Nolan rushed forward to snatch Mia up in his trembling arms.
She clung to him, her body shaking, her ragged breathing fanning his neck, her quiet tears soaking his shirt. Love swamped him so hard his head swam. It had been Mia for ten years, ever since that day on the street and some indefinable emotion sparked between them that neither cared to analyze at the time.
“God damn it,” he breathed before declaring in a furious whisper, “I love you, Mia.”
Chapter 12
Mia leaned her head back against the headrest as Nolan drove her home from the precinct. After taking a quick shower in the station’s miniscule bathroom, she’d spent two hours talking to the Feds with her hand enfolded in Nolan’s tight grip. Without that lifeline, she doubted she could have held up against the mental exhaustion. She’d misjudged him, she knew and regretted that now. Somehow, she would find a way to make it up to him and return his declaration. Her well-laid plans to remain single and avoid heartache went out the window the first time he touched her and drove her to heights of ecstasy she’d never imagined, only she’d been too stubborn and blind to see it.
Right now, all she could think about was the ruins of her business awaiting her as she wondered how she would ever bounce back after this. Would people blame her even though the Feds had exonerated her? She shuddered to think they might, and despaired over where to go from here. It had taken her years to build up the nursery, to garner enough support and business until she needed to hire extra help. Now look at where one employee had left her.
“You’re being awfully quiet,” Nolan said with a quick glance her way. “Think about this instead of the last twenty-four hours. I want you to move in with me. We can go to my place now and you can rest while I pack up some of your belongings.”
She shook her head, a small laugh emerging from her tight throat. “You could try asking.”
“That doesn’t work with you. Telling, browbeating you first, and if that doesn’t work I can always strap you down and withhold your climaxes until you agree. In fact, I might prefer that method.”
Mia warmed from head to toe, the last of the terrifying coldnes
s that had invaded her body since the Feds arrived on her doorstep yesterday thawing under his hot look. She opened her mouth to tell him how she felt as he turned onto her property, but the jam-packed parking lot and multitude of people awaiting her rendered her speechless. A lump formed in her throat and wouldn’t budge as he pulled over and she noticed they weren’t just waiting but working to set her place to rights.
“What… what’s all this?” she stuttered, tears pooling in her eyes as she reached for the door handle with a hand that shook.
“You’re well liked, sweetheart.” Nolan came around and took her elbow when she stumbled on the first step toward the yard.
Her eyes flew up to his. “Did you arrange this?”
He shrugged. “Me, Bob, Dee, Trish and a few others. It didn’t take much, a few phone calls and word spread like wildfire. We should have you up and running again in no time.”
In a daze, Mia took in everyone willing to help her out with no questions asked. A soft cry spilled past her trembling lips when she spotted her boys among them, Cory flipping her one of his cocky grins before turning back to repotting a large aloe vera plant, and Casey sending her a thumbs up as he watered a flatbed of newly re-planted catmint flowers.
“Come over here a minute.” Nolan squeezed her hand and tugged her toward a long table where she recognized Mrs. MacGregor serving beverages. Remembering her dirty clothes, she balked at meeting his mother formally for the first time looking as she did, but should have known he wouldn’t let her hide. “Mom, this is Mia.”
“Oh, you poor dear.” Dashing around the table, the older woman enveloped Mia in her round arms and hugged her. “I was so relieved when Nolan let me know he found you and you were okay.”
“Thank you, Mrs. MacGregor.” Uncomfortable, she gently disengaged from the clinging, well-meaning woman and stepped back only to exchange his mother’s arms for Nolan’s.
“Do you need help here, Mom?”
“Oh, heavens no. I can handle pouring out drinks. Before I forget, Mia. I have to tell you how much I’ve loved the flowers and plants from your shop. I keep telling Nolan no more, but he doesn’t listen. They always brighten my day, and my house. I envy you your green thumb.”
“Thank you,” she responded before twisting and glaring at Nolan. “I didn’t know they were for you.”
Unperturbed, he shrugged and bent to whisper in her ear. “I told you to trust me.”
“Rub it in, why don’t you?” she muttered, red-faced.
“I intend to. Mom, I’ll check back with you shortly.”
“You two go on. Everyone will set this place to rights in no time.”
They started toward the greenhouse when Annie, Mia’s accountant, strolled up carrying a white flowered fern bush in her arms.
“Hey, Mia,” she greeted them. “Instead of putting this back up for sale, mind if I set it aside? It’d look great in a corner of my back yard.”
“No, go ahead, in fact, just take it, Annie, as a—” Her voice caught, her overwhelming gratitude forcing her to pause before she finished saying, “—thank you.”
“Nonsense, hon. I’m more than happy to buy it. I’ll set it by the checkout.”
She watched Annie walk away as if nothing had happened, her unquestioning support and friendship meaning so much, as did that of everyone else lending a hand. Nolan had joined a few men in unloading dirt from a pickup and as Mia turned to pitch in, she once more stumbled to an abrupt halt, this time at seeing Peter sliding out of his fancy BMW. Squaring her shoulders, she vowed not to let anything he said ruin this special day for her. It was more than time to put the past away.
Not believing the look of concern on his face when he reached her, she shook a finger at him. “Look, if you’ve come—”
He held up a hand, his face softening with what could only be called regret. “First, are you all right? When I heard…” He swallowed and looked away before facing her again. “I’m sorry for what you’ve been through, Mia, and for what I put you through. You of all people didn’t deserve that. I’ve accepted a job offer in Taos. Tami and I are moving there in a few weeks. If you’re interested, I’m willing to sell the house back to you at a price below market value.”
Good grief, will the day’s stunning surprises never end? Mia gave herself a mental headshake and met him halfway in his attempt to set aside their differences. “What’s done is done, Peter.” She glanced at Nolan and a wave of love punched her chest; not the small pop she used to feel for Peter, but a wallop that threatened to buckle her knees. Thinking of living with him, she shook her head. “Thanks, but I have a house to move into. Good luck in Taos.”
Nodding toward Nolan, Peter asked, “You’re happy, with him?”
Oh yeah, he made her happy. “I love him,” she returned, tickled by a flare of inner triumph. Look at that, I didn’t choke on the words.
“That’s good. Mind if I stick around, maybe help our sons with what they’re doing?”
“Knock yourself out.” She waved him their way and then turned her back on her past.
* * *
Nolan waited until Mia hugged Dee and Bob, the last to leave, before locking the shop and tossing the bag he’d packed for her in his cruiser. They were both wiped out, but every uprooted plant and upended planter had been put to rights and the volunteers fed when food arrived from the diner and the local deli sandwich shop. Now all that was left to do would be to set Mia straight on a few things.
“I thought we’d just crash here tonight,” she griped when he opened the passenger door and ushered her in his vehicle. “I’m exhausted, and you must be too.”
Sliding behind the wheel, he started the engine and pulled out. “I am, but I want my bed, and you in it.”
“Oh, okay.”
She may not have agreed so fast if she knew he intended a short scene before letting her rest. Wasting no time after ushering her inside his house, he led her down the hall, the crestfallen look on her face as he escorted her past his playroom and straight into the bedroom priceless. “How many times, sweetheart, have I asked you to trust me?” He sat on the bed and his hands went to the waist of her shorts, the chagrin filling her green eyes revealing she knew exactly what he was referring to.
“I’ve been meaning to apologize for accusing you of using me but haven’t had a chance.” A startled yelp burst from her as he shoved her shorts and panties down and hauled her over his lap, the first swat reddening her right cheek to a bright hue.
“That’s a nice start.” He smacked her left buttock and then the right again, enjoying the feel of her soft skin heating under his hand, hearing her cries and seeing her ass wiggle from the growing discomfort he was heaping upon her.
“But not enough.” A sob broke free as he peppered her backside with a volley of sharp slaps, her malleable globes shifting and clenching under his hand. “Not only did your distrust send you running from me, but kept me from learning more about the man who caused you such grief. That,” he blistered one sit-spot, “is not acceptable. But,” he hit the opposite tender area next, “that’s not what this is about.”
“It’s not?” Mia flipped her head up, her flushed face clouded with confusion and then consternation when he reached for the hairbrush he’d purposely left on the bedside table.
“No.” He didn’t elaborate until he delivered several blows using the wooden back, the loud smacks and her cries reverberating in the room. By the time he stopped, her buttocks were bright crimson, her slit a glistening enticement and her wracking sobs a sign of surrender. Flipping the brush around in his hand, he lightly scratched her tender, abused skin with the bristles, her entire body shuddering with her low moan. Tossing the brush aside, he turned her in his arms and held her close. “There, all done. You trusted me with your body, Mia, but not the part of you I want and need most.” He gazed into her tear-drenched eyes and placed his hand over her pounding heart.
Framing his face with her hands, she returned his solemn gaze and whispered the wor
ds he needed to hear, “God help me, I love both Master Nolan and Chief Nolan, with all my heart.”
“About fucking time,” he growled before covering her trembling mouth with his.
The End
BJ Wane
I live in the Midwest with my husband and our two dogs, a Poodle/Pyrenees mix and an Irish Water Spaniel. I love dogs, spending time with my daughter, babysitting her two dogs, reading and working puzzles. We have traveled extensively throughout the states, Canada and just once overseas, but I much prefer being a homebody. I worked for a while writing articles for a local magazine but soon found my interest in writing for myself peaking. My first book was strictly spanking erotica, but I slowly evolved to writing erotic romance with an emphasis on spanking. I love hearing from readers and can be reached here: [email protected].
Recent accolades include: 5 star, Top Pick review from The Romance Reviews for Blindsided, 5 star review from Long & Short Reviews for Hannah & The Dom Next Door, which was also voted Erotic Romance of the Month on LASR, and my most recent title, Her Master At Last, took two spots on top 100 lists in BDSM erotica and Romantic erotica in less than a week!
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Don’t miss these exciting titles by BJ Wane and Blushing Books!
Single Titles
Claiming Mia
Virginia Bluebloods Series
Blindsided, Book 1