Blackest Night

by Stephanie Hoffman McManus

  I’d bet money he’d known about the affair, but my chances of getting more information out of him were better if pretended to be on his side.

  I flagged down the bartender, “Can we get my buddy here a shot of Jameson?”

  “Sure, coming right up.”

  “I guess I should have known better,” Mike sighed dejectedly.

  I could play this game as well. “I know how it feels, man, but I thought you guys were solid, too.” I gave my head a shake like I couldn’t believe it either.

  “Shit, I guess I owe you an apology. I guess she fooled us both.” The fucker wasn’t sorry. Not for screwing my wife or marrying her afterward.

  “Drink up. You need it, man,” I told him once the bartender set the tumbler of whiskey in front of him.

  “So, you guys weren’t having problems?”

  “No, nothing more than the usual arguments about who was supposed to pick up the dry cleaning or stop off for milk on the way home from work. I thought we were good, but, now that I’ve been thinking about it, I was stupid not to see. She was working later, seemed distant, started locking her cell phone and putting a password on her laptop. Said it was because she didn’t want Eli playing on them, but he had his own tablet for games. He’d never tried to use hers. When I’d go out of town for work, I’d come home and found out she’d paid babysitters almost every night so she could go out. When I’d ask her about it, she’d say she just needed a time with the girls, but would never tell me who’d she’d been out with. All the usual signs, I suppose, but I trusted her.”

  I let him continue with his sob story, not buying most of it.

  “And business has been good? You guys weren’t having financial troubles? I’ve heard that’s one of the biggest stressors that can tear a marriage apart.”

  “No, not at all. If anything, business has been better than ever. We’ve seen our best year yet.”

  Funny, considering I’d had a look at his tax reports over the last few years and I knew that the business was struggling to stay out of the red. Yet, I’d also noticed over the last year or so that every time I was in their house picking up or dropping off Eli, there were new cars in the driveway, the fanciest gadgets around the house, new furniture. They’d even had an in-ground pool put in. I hadn’t looked too closely at where the money was coming from, just assuming business was as Mike said it was, booming, but now it wasn’t adding up.

  By the time I left him at the hotel, nearly three sheets to the wind, I was placing another call to Vik. “I want to take another look at his financials, and see if the guys can find any other accounts or dummy corps he may be funneling money through. The guy is stressed. And lied to my face about everything. If he’s got himself into trouble, I definitely want to know before anything else can blow back on my kid.”

  “On it, and we checked into the California thing. There’s no record of him going, or any indication of what he may have been up to there. No flight, no credit card charges. Nothing. If he was in California, he was flying under the radar. Or he was lying about it, but we can’t find any activity since last week in Houston until he booked the hotel room in Bellingham today. Must’ve been flying under an alias. We’ll check flight rosters and see what we can find out.”

  “Thanks. I want to know who and what he’s mixed up with.”

  “You know we will. I’ll be in touch.”

  I slammed my fist on the dash of my truck after we hung up. “Fuck!” I did not need this shit. I was half tempted to go back inside and beat Mike’s ass until he told me what I wanted to know. It took every ounce of control I possessed to start the truck and pull out of the parking lot. On the drive home, I rang Spence and caught him up to date. He offered to dive right in, but I let him know it wasn’t necessary. He had too much going on trying to get our offices here off the ground. Vik and the guys back in Texas could handle this. Now, if it came down to dealing out an ass beating to Mike, I’d enlist Spence’s help.

  “I’ll keep you posted as Vik feeds me info,” I told him.

  “You need me to switch you out on the Riley James rotation?”

  “No. It’s probably better if I keep focusing on work, but I was thinking we could assign one of the newbies to follow Lawrence around while he’s here. He said he was going to get in touch with the detective in Houston and head back to Texas, but I don’t trust the guy, and I don’t think he’ll leave without trying to see Eli again.”

  “You got it. It will be a good trial run for that new Marine I just brought on.” Most of our guys were either ex-military or ex-police. I told Spence where the new guy could find Mike. They’d be able to dig up a room number and find out if he had a rental car.

  “I’ll have Jones report any unusual movements straight to you.”

  By the time we ended the call, I was pulling into my neighborhood and feeling less murderous.

  The smell that greeted me when I stepped inside the house, helped exponentially to improve my mood as well.

  “Dad!” Eli came skidding to stop in front of me and grabbed my hand. “Cassie’s cooking dinner. You can help me set the table.” He gave me no choice as he dragged me toward the kitchen, and the smell of spices. Cassie was at the stove stirring something that was simmering inside a pot.

  “Smells good, whatever it is,” I said.

  “It’s enchinadas!” Eli exclaimed. “I helped make them.”

  “Do you mean enchiladas?” I chuckled.

  “Yeah, that’s what I meant. With chicken, and sooooo much cheese, Dad,” he giggled.

  “Let me guess, you were in charge of the cheese?” I shook my head. The kid would put an entire pound in his mac and cheese if I allowed it.

  He nodded proudly. “The enchilamas were Cassie’s idea.”

  “Enchiladas, buddy.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I meant. I told her Mexican food was your favorite.” It was true. Growing up in Texas, there was no shortage of amazing Tex-Mex and authentic Mexican food.

  “The rice is almost done, and then we’ll pull the enchiladas out of the oven. Is the table set?” She quirked a knowing brow at Eli.

  “Oh yeah, come on Dad, we have to set the table.”

  I couldn’t remember the last time I sat down for a family style meal. With it being the two of us, Eli and I usually ate our meals at the breakfast counter. Seeing the way he took extra care to place the silverware and lay out napkins, I decided it might be nice to eat more meals this way. He was clearly loving it, and didn’t even complain when Cassie had him put his fork down midway to his mouth with the first bite of food, so that she could say grace.

  He just asked, “What’s a grace?” with his wrinkled brow. If anything, he seemed fascinated when she explained and then asked us to take hands and bow our heads.

  When we were done eating, he was the first to jump up and start taking our plates to the kitchen. I could hear him in there scraping and rinsing.

  “What did you do to him? It’s usually a fight for me to get him to take care of his own dishes.”

  She chuckled, and shrugged and we both sat there, at Eli’s insistence, as he cleared the table. Once he’d impressed us with his table service, he ushered us, full and contented, at least I was, into the living room for a movie. There was no protesting when I saw the hopeful look in his eye. Cassie was no help either; she was putty in his hands. It was only when I went to help him load a movie into the player, that I began to figure out what he was up to. With a sly grin he held up the case for The Princess Bride. “She told me it’s her favorite,” he whispered in my ear.

  Oh boy.

  I could see where this was going, and before I could slam on the brakes, he was snuggling up to her, urging me to take the seat on his other side.

  “One movie, kiddo, and then we’ve got to take Cassie home and get you into bed. It’s a school night,” I reminded him.

  Twenty minutes into the movie he was snoring in Cassie’s lap.

  “I’ll just order a ride after the movie, so you
don’t have to wake him,” she said softly, absentmindedly running her hand through his hair.

  I felt bad since I’d promised her a ride, but it was later than I’d planned since Eli had suckered us both into this. I wondered if she had any idea what he was trying to achieve. What would she say to it? Hell, at this point I didn’t know if I wanted to ground him or thank him. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with Cassie either.

  “You don’t have to stay,” I told her, letting her off the hook since Eli was out anyway. “You can take off whenever.”

  “You want me to go?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said you don’t have to stay.” But if she did, it’d be because she wanted to, and then maybe I’d be able to figure out what the hell I wanted.

  “Oh, okay.” And now it was awkward, because I could tell she wasn’t sure what to do. She thought I’d been trying to get rid of her. I wasn’t.

  “You can stay and finish the movie if you’d like. I planned to watch the rest of it either way.” It was one of my favorites as well and it had been years since I’d seen it. I couldn’t even remember the last movie I watched that didn’t involve animated characters or talking animals.

  “Okay. I think I’ll stay. This is my favorite movie, after all,” she bit back a little grin, drawing my attention to her mouth. I found myself wanting to bite the same lip.

  I reached for the remote and hit pause. “Let me just get him into bed.”

  I roused him long enough to do a sleepy brush job on his teeth so that at least my conscience would be clear at his next dentist visit, and then dumped him in his bed. He was already snoring softly again when I pulled the covers up around him. He was out. And Cassie was downstairs waiting for me.

  Cassie—who got under my skin like not even my ex-wife had managed in the years we were together. I’d never met anyone so infuriating, who could annoy the hell out of me and make me want her all in the same breath. Only, if I was being honest, annoyed wasn’t what I’d been feeling lately.

  I knew Eli wasn’t going to wake again until morning, and I’d made my decision before I even hit the stairs.

  Twelve

  Cassie

  There was something in Nikolai’s eyes that spelled trouble when he came back from putting Eli to bed. He didn’t speak as he returned to his seat beside me and started the movie up again, but there was a warning in those eyes each time he looked over at me. I couldn’t concentrate on the movie. It was like he was sending out telepathic waves and I was tuned in to them. Maybe I was crazy, but I didn’t think so. The entire energy of the room had changed. He was closer without Eli between us. Close enough for me to feel his body heat. Close enough for me to smell whatever combination of masculine products created his unique scent every time I inhaled. If I closed my eyes, I was sure I’d be back in the tangle of sheets in his hotel room, wrapped around his body. Or up against the wall in this house. For the rest of my life, I was sure that slightly spicy and lightly citrus scent would take me back there.

  A little shiver ran through me, because even if my mind didn’t want to go there, my body was near desperate to relive those sensations.

  A rough finger traced the length of my arm from wrist to elbow. “Cold?”

  I followed his eyes to a patch of goosebumps that had risen on my flesh.

  I shook my head and then tucked my arms around my middle and curled my feet up under my bottom. I tried to focus on the movie, for all the good it did me.

  “Do you still think about that night?”

  I turned my head to face him, wishing something in his face would tell me what he was thinking, but his expression was unreadable.

  “Which one?”

  “Either. Both. The hotel room and the night I made you come against that wall.” He turned his head to the aforementioned scene of the crime and my eyes followed. Once again, my mind wanted to conjure images and memories. I looked away and attempted to shove them back down.

  “Maybe,” I answered noncommittally.

  “I do. I can’t walk past that spot without remembering how responsive you were to my touch. The way you whimpered when I took control of your body and moaned when I whispered filthy things in your ear. The way your legs gave out as you came on my hand. And the look on your face.” He shook his head like he too was trying to clear images from his mind. “Every time I look at you, I want to see that expression on your face. I want to put it there again.”

  Oh, sweet mercy.

  Each thump thump of my heart sent a wave of adrenaline crashing through me, making every part of me come awake, down to the tips of my toes. I swallowed and my lips parted, my teeth scraping my bottom lip as I struggled for what to do or say in this situation that was quickly escalating.

  “I think about it,” I whispered. “But I also think about the way you made me feel after.” I ducked my eyes. “You confuse me,” I said after a few seconds of silence had passed without him saying anything. I dared meet his eyes again. “I can’t tell if this is all a game to you. If you’re still toying with me to be a jerk.”

  “No more games.” He reached for me and dragged me onto his lap. My hands landed on his shoulders and he gripped my wrists between his fingers, slowly, sliding his hands up and down my arms.

  “If you’re not playing with me, then what is this?” My voice came out shaky and sounded needy even to my own ears.

  His lips whispered across my skin, the stubble along his jaw scorching a path from my shoulder to my nape until his warm breath tickled my ear. “I didn’t say I wasn’t going to play with you, Cass, but this isn’t a game. This is about admitting what we both want and taking it.”

  His teeth nipped at the tender spot just below my ear and then he nibbled his way back to my shoulder. Shuddery breaths fluttered from my lips as desire pooled low in my belly and sent little shockwaves of pleasure trembling through me. “And what is it you want?” I forced out on a shaky breath.

  His hands gripped my hips and set me away from him, so he could look me in the eyes. “I thought that was obvious. You.”

  “Is this more of your hate-fuck bullshit, where you only want me because you’re a kinky, twisted motherfucker?”

  His fingers dug into my hips. “I already told you, I never hated you, pet. I think I’m even actually beginning to like you.” His lips curled into a grin.

  “You do?”

  “I do, but let’s not over analyze it right now. I just want to feel you all over me.” He tugged me in close again, rocking his hips upward and letting me feel him. My head fell back as his lips resumed their tortuous exploration of the skin along my shoulder and where my v-neck dipped low.

  I buried one hand in his hair and gripped what I could of his closely trimmed locks. He nipped a little harder at my flesh and I gasped and pulled his hair harder. A low chuckle rumbled from his chest and feathered across my over sensitized skin. “I think you like that I’m a kinky motherfucker, pet.”

  I couldn’t deny it.

  His hands, warm and rough, slipped beneath the fabric of my tee, and slid up along my ribcage. His hold on me was possessive and consuming. One hand slid around my back and up through the opening of my shirt where he grabbed a handful of hair at my nape and tugged my head back, further exposing the column of my neck to the scrape of his teeth.

  When his lips found my jaw, he released me, and I turned my head, bringing my mouth to his. He sealed his lips over mine in a scorching kiss. It wasn’t gentle or tender. It was almost violent the way he took my mouth. With every press of his lips, every sweep of his tongue and bite of his teeth, he was demanding I open more to him, surrender more to him. And I could feel myself giving in. There was something building, something inside of me that I’d been fighting, something a little bit terrifying. A craving. An ache. A need. To let go. No thinking, no doubting, no worrying. Just feeling. Letting him take everything that I was and in return, receiving everything that had to give.

  As if he understood the struggle inside of me, and knew how
close I was to the edge—the edge of what I wasn’t quite sure, I only knew I was close to tipping over it into something else—he caught both of my wrists and removed my hands from his body, raising them up. I knew what he wanted, and I held them there as he tugged the hem of my shirt up and pulled it over my head. Once it was free, he tossed it aside, and then dragged my arms down, forcing them behind my back where he transferred them to one hand. With his other, he cupped my jaw and turned my head to the side to face the large living room windows that lined the front of the house. His teeth clamped down on my earlobe and I hissed in a sharp breath. He gave it a tug before releasing it, and then his lips were pressed to my ear, issuing a low command, the deep, melodic tone wrapping around me, coaxing the surrender from my bones.

  “You’re going to keep your hands behind your back. If you move them, I’ll stop what I’m doing. And trust me, pet, you’re not going to want me to stop.”

  I tried to turn my head back to meet his eyes, but he held my chin firmly in place. “Unh, uh, uh, pet. I want you to stay, just. like. this.” And then he released my chin and hands at the same time and sat back. I remained still. Exactly as he’d positioned me. Arms behind my back, chest jutting out, covered by a scrap of pink material. Not my sexiest bra, but when I’d dressed this morning, I hadn’t known I’d be getting naked in front of him. I was thankful that the only light in the room came from the kitchen and the TV, leaving us bathed in a dim glow that hopefully hid the flush of my skin and the few extra curves that were evidence I hadn’t been putting up much of a fight against the temptation of sweets lately. I resisted the urge to look at him, to search out his eyes. I could feel them on me and I desperately wanted to see the look in them. But I didn’t. I kept my eyes focused out the window. The curtains were drawn back, and even though it was dark out, a street lamp cast shadows in front of the house.