“Why?”
I only had one response. I pulled her against me and held tight. Reese put her hands on my stomach and tried to push me away. But I slid my arms around her and locked my arms until she stopped struggling.
It took a while. First, she let one hand drop. Then, the other. She turned so her shoulder was digging into my chest. I didn’t let go. Finally, reluctantly, she relaxed into me. After a very long minute, she gave up and put her arms around my waist.
It had been so long since I’d actually held her. She felt good. Smelled good. And it wasn’t just her. It was the way she pressed against me. Like we were supposed to be like that. She felt right.
Maybe we should have kept arguing. Yelled until we both felt better. But we didn’t need to. I didn’t think we needed to. It was as if when she finally let me hold her we just decided not to have that circular argument. Again.
“Should we go back?” Her face was buried in my neck so her voice was muffled.
“Probably. Where else would we go?”
“Well…”
“What?” I asked.
“I was gonna kidnap you and hide you somewhere until this shit was over with.”
She’d tried before so I knew she was serious. I probably shouldn’t have laughed. But I did.
“What?” she asked.
“How were you planning on doing that?” I let go of her. Only enough so I could lean back and look at her within the circle of my arms.
“Well…umm. I was going to take you to Joan’s boat. Go somewhere else. Then I’d come back and wait till it was safe for you to join us.”
“Really?” And I laughed again.
“What?”
I dropped my hands to her ass, squeezed a little. Then I felt her front pockets. Then I patted my own. “Neither of us have keys to the boat or any of the cars. And we don’t have money or anything.”
“So? I would have figured it out.” She looked a little pouty.
“Peanut butter, I’m not even wearing shoes.”
She started laughing. “Okay. Maybe I didn’t think it through.”
“Maybe.”
“I don’t think I like you.” She dropped her arms and stepped back. But then she took my hand.
“Liar,” I said.
“Maybe.” She smiled.
Damn, I loved that girl.
*
“Where’d you go?” Ryan asked when we got back. He was in the kitchen drinking a cup of coffee.
Reese smiled. Like really smiled at him. “We walked.” She squeezed my hand.
“Cool.” He glanced at our hands. Smiled big. “Breno wanted you to tell Joan she’s only kinda broke,” he said to me.
“Why?”
Ryan shrugged. “I dunno. Consistency?”
“All right. Where is he?” I asked.
“Breno?”
“Yeah.”
“I think he’s sleeping upstairs. Christopher is with Emma.”
“I’m hungry,” I said.
“Bro.” Ryan.
“I’m sure we can find something to eat.” Reese went to look in the fridge. We were still holding hands and I didn’t want to let go so I went too.
“Pizza.” Ryan.
“Yeah,” I said.
“There’s no pizza in here.” Reese closed the fridge.
“Order it.” Ryan.
“I don’t know if we should order pizza.” Reese was so smart.
“Oh, probably not.” Now I was sad.
“But we can go pick it up,” she said.
“Pick what up?” Christopher walked into the kitchen with Emma in tow.
“Pizza,” I said.
“Pizza!” Emma yelled.
“Oh, sh―uhhh, shoot. Sorry.”
“Way to go.” Christopher scowled at me.
“What was I supposed to do?” I asked.
“Spell it. D-u-m-b-a-s-s.”
“What? Bass?” I asked. Christopher gave me another death look. I repeated what he had said in my head. “Oh, got it.”
I didn’t know it then, but Christopher and Reese would take to spelling things in front of me. A useless code that gave them endless amusement. It always took me about five minutes to figure out what was going on.
“Pizza,” Emma said again.
“So I guess we are going to pick up pizza,” Reese said.
“Me and Reese can go get it,” I said. Maybe I was a little too eager.
Christopher gave me a sharp look. “Okay,” he said like it wasn’t okay.
“I’ll call it in,” Ryan said.
Joan had a file of menus by her phone. It was all very organized. We waited while Ryan found the menu for a pizza place. Christopher was giving us dirty looks the whole time. I didn’t get what he was so pissed about.
The entire time we were standing there, Reese was running her thumb slowly back and forth over my hand. It felt good. Like I wanted to crawl into a bed with her and not leave for a really long time. I also wanted to push her up against the fridge and kiss her until…just kiss her.
Maybe we could take the long route to pick up the pizza.
“Why are you all standing in the kitchen?” Breno asked from the doorway.
“Ryan’s ordering pizza. We’re going to pick it up,” Reese said.
“Did you talk to Joan yet?” Breno asked me.
“Oh, no. Not yet.”
“You should.”
“Now?” I may have sounded a little whiny.
“Why not?” he asked. Because I want to hold your daughter’s hand and then do dirty things to her. But I didn’t say that. “Go now. Ryan can go with Reese to pick up pizza. They will be back by the time you are finished.”
“Fine.” I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
I walked out of the kitchen. Reese walked with me. We weren’t letting go till we had to. Breno shot a look at our held hands and scrunched up his eyes a little. Not in a judging way. Not yet. More in a curious way.
We stopped at the foot of the stairs.
“Have fun getting pizza,” I said. I felt like we were saying good-bye. We weren’t.
“Don’t have fun talking to Joan.”
“I won’t.” I grinned.
“Okay.”
“Reese, you ready to go?” Ryan had crept up behind us.
“Yeah, I just…yeah.” Reese took a step back. Started to let go of my hand. I pulled her toward me and kissed her lightly on the lips.
“See you in a sec,” I said.
“Yeah.” She smiled.
*
When I opened the door to the bathroom, Joan scooted back against the wall. She couldn’t go far.
“What do you want now?” she asked.
“Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.” I leaned against the counter.
“Screw you.”
“What is wrong with you?”
“My head is bleeding and my ribs are broken.” Joan tried to kill me with a look.
“If they were broken you wouldn’t be able to sit there. They’re probably only cracked.”
“Thanks, I feel much better now.”
“Fuck you. I came here to play nice,” I said.
“No, you came here to kidnap my child and rip me off.”
“You ripped us off first.” She didn’t have a response to that. “Here’s the deal. Apparently, you’re good with money. Like, two point five mill in six months, good.”
“And?” She scowled at me.
“And we’re not monsters.”
“Sorry, what? My concussion must be disrupting my hearing.”
“Fuck this. Maybe we’ll just take Emma and leave you to rot, bitch.” I pushed off the counter and opened the door.
“You can’t do that!”
“Yes, we can.”
“No, please. Please, Cooper. I’m sorry.”
I closed the door and leaned against it. “Are you done with the snarky, bitchy shit?”
“Yes. Please, just let us go. I’ll give you all the money.”<
br />
“That’s what I wanted to talk about,” I said.
“What?”
“The money you made. And the houses. The car, the boat.”
“What about them?” she asked.
“We’re going to take fifteen million. You get to keep everything else.”
Her eyes got big. “Why? What’s the catch?”
“We call it even. You don’t try for revenge. You don’t follow us or come after us. ’Cause I really, really never want to see you again.”
“That’s it? Call it even?” she asked.
“Yeah, we’ll call the broken ribs payment.”
“Deal.”
“Awesome.”
“Will you unchain me now?”
“Yeah. And Breno will check out your head if you want.” I leaned down and unlocked the cuffs. As a gesture of trust, I unlocked and unwound the series of chains and padlocks Breno had woven around the toilet. No wonder Joan was bitchy. Breno had done some Boy Scout shit on that. The chains were so tight I was surprised she had even been able to sit up.
“Thank you.” It sounded forced, but at least Joan was faking pleasantries.
“No problem.” I heard the front door open. “Now come on. We’re havin’ a pizza party.” I held out my hand. She took it and slowly stood.
Chapter Ten
Dinner was just as awkward as breakfast. Joan was all stiff. Probably from being chained up for the last twenty-four hours. Also the broken ribs. Those might have contributed to her discomfort. But she pretended nothing was wrong. I didn’t know if that was out of pride or just to keep Emma calm.
Christopher kept shooting looks at me and Reese. But mostly at me. I guess he wasn’t too happy with us being together again. Breno started to ask a few questions, but every time he started, Christopher would look pointedly at Joan, and Breno would shut up. That was probably smart. We didn’t want to give her any more information about us.
Ryan was stoned. I was pretty sure of it. Reese must have let him smoke when they got the pizza. Breno had no idea Ryan was high. Christopher knew. I could tell by the dirty looks he was giving Ryan.
Maybe Christopher was just pissed off at everyone.
Reese didn’t seem very interested in pizza. She did seem very interested in the seam of my jeans. Or I figured that was what she was interested in because she kept running her fingertips up and down the inside of my thigh. Which made me also uninterested in pizza. Tease.
I abandoned my pizza so I could rest my hand on Reese’s thigh. She just kept talking to Ryan. As I trailed my hand higher, her breathing sped up. Good. I didn’t want to be in this state alone. I squeezed her cunt through her jeans for a brief moment. Then I started eating my pizza again. Reese glared at me. I smiled.
After we ate, Breno led Joan off to tape up her ribs. She insisted she was fine. But we could all see that she was lying, so eventually, she gave in.
“So, uhh, we’re going to go for a walk,” I said once Breno and Joan left the room.
“Yep.” Reese stood and took our plates to the counter. “We’ll be back soon.”
“Yeah, kinda soon.” Not too soon, I hoped.
“A walk?” Christopher asked.
“Yeah. We need to talk.” Reese came back to the table and set her hands on my shoulders.
“Right now?” Christopher wasn’t liking that idea.
Reese started digging her thumb into the base of my neck. It felt really fucking good.
“It’s important.” I had to fight to keep my voice even.
“Really important.” Reese.
“We don’t even need to walk. We can just go upstairs and talk,” I said.
Ryan shook his head and hid a smile.
“That’s fine, but Breno just set up our accounts. He and I need to go over them with Reese.” Christopher had no fucking clue what Reese and I needed to discuss. He was just that clueless. For someone so perceptive he could be really dense.
“Can we talk while you’re waiting?” I asked. I was really hoping for some marathon nakedness, but I’d settle for heavy making out.
“No, he and Joan will be done soon. Breno needs to get to sleep. He and Joan are leaving for the Caymans early tomorrow morning. So he needs to walk Reese and me through this first.”
This man was going to kill me. Okay, maybe not literally.
“Can you guys go over them with Ryan?” I asked, desperation bleeding into my tone.
“I think it’s best that we tell Reese. Honestly”—he shot an apologetic look at Ryan—“I think she is the only one of you who will retain it. And you guys need this information.”
We couldn’t really argue with that.
“It’s fine. It’ll be fast.” Reese squeezed the back of my neck one last time. It took everything in me not to moan out loud.
“This blows,” I whined.
“What blows?” Breno asked as he came back into the kitchen.
“Nothing. Where’s Joan?” I asked.
“I cuffed her to the headboard in the guest room upstairs,” he said.
“Kinky,” Ryan said.
Breno’s eyebrows drew together and he cocked his head to the side.
“Ryan,” Christopher said.
“What?” Ryan giggled.
“I think Joan is quite happy that she isn’t chained to a toilet.” Breno decided to forge ahead. “I put her in the guest room because there are better curtains in there. Her room has too many windows.”
“Neat.” Reese.
“Whatever.” Me.
“Dude.” Ryan.
“I’m telling you because that means we have fewer beds.” Breno looked at us expectantly.
Which gave me an awesome idea. “Maybe we should just take off then. Get a room for the night.” I was nonchalant as hell.
“No, you don’t need to do that,” Breno said. “I will take the couch. Besides, Joan and I leave very early tomorrow. Christopher may need help in the morning with Emma.”
“We don’t mind getting a room somewhere,” Reese said.
Ryan giggled again.
“Breno is right. You guys don’t need to leave,” Christopher said.
Damn.
“Fine,” I said. This sucked.
Christopher stood. “We should look at those accounts.”
“Yes, let’s,” Breno said.
Reese rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
“We will be fast.” Christopher and Breno left the room.
“Hurry,” I told Reese.
She smiled. “Yeah.” Then she leaned down and kissed my neck. There was tongue involved.
“You’re killing me,” I whispered.
“You’re killing me,” Ryan didn’t whisper. “Gross.”
Reese rolled her eyes and followed Christopher. I watched her walk away and started imagining all the things I was going to do with that perfect ass of hers.
“My God, Cooper. She’s my sister. Can you at least pretend you aren’t eye fuck—umm.” Ryan glanced at Emma wriggling in her high chair. “Can you not look at her like that?”
“Bro.” I tried to sound apologetic. I wasn’t.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “Gross.”
*
Christopher lied. It took them two hours to go over the convoluted string of accounts Breno had set up. By that time, I was ready to run a marathon or go ten rounds. Or fuck Reese. Running is lame.
Instead of that, we got stuck putting Emma to bed. Kids take work. Lots of it. There were stories to read and teeth to brush and bath time and pj’s to put on. Christopher was exhausted so he made us do it. We weren’t really sure about the rules of bathing a kid, but we figured that it wasn’t a Ryan job. So Reese and I got stuck on make-sure-the-kid-doesn’t-drown duty.
When we finally got her clothed and read to and asleep, Reese and I left Ryan playing cards by himself on the floor of Emma’s room. We crept out into the hall and Reese pulled the door shut halfway.
“Are we done?” I asked.
Reese didn’t
answer. Instead, she pressed me back against the wall and kissed me. I cupped her ass in my hands and pulled her against me. She groaned into my mouth. I slid one hand up under her shirt and stroked the smooth skin of her back. Reese fisted her hands in my shirt and held me still as she stuck her tongue in my mouth. I let her.
I had some reservations about making out in the hallway with a sleeping kid in one room, a hostage in another, and Christopher down the hall. But those reservations disappeared when Reese started unbuttoning my jeans. She slid inside and stroked me over my boxers.
“I need you bad,” I whispered.
“Mmm-hmm. Me too.” Then she went back to kissing me. And stroking me. Fuck. She was going to make me come without actually touching skin. Girl was magic. And sexy. I wanted her under me. I wanted her in me.
I did not want Christopher’s door to open.
Reese and I broke apart. She looked guilty. I probably did too. Reese tugged her shirt back into place and stood in front of me while I buttoned my jeans.
Christopher came out of the master bedroom. He looked at us and shook his head.
“Umm, we got Emma to sleep. Ryan is guarding her.” Reese nodded at the half-closed door.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Christopher said.
“Uhh, what?” I asked ingeniously.
Ryan stuck his head out of Emma’s room. “What’s going on?” He looked at me and Reese, then back at Christopher. “Oh, that. Get a room.” Then he went back into Emma’s room and closed the door.
“Look, congratulations. I’m glad you two worked it out.” Christopher crossed his arms over his chest. Then re-crossed them the other way. Then went back to the first way. “But you guys can’t make out two feet away from our sleeping hostages. One of them is a child.”
Like a champ I said, “We weren’t making out.”
Christopher gave me a bad look. “Don’t revert to being fifteen. You were an obnoxious fifteen-year-old. Just go downstairs or something. I’m trying to sleep.” He waved at the stairs.
Reese and I shuffled to the stairs.
“And…also, that’s creepy. I’m your stepfather. Ryan is in the next room. Breno is downstairs. Don’t you two have any restraint?”
Reese glared. I rolled my eyes.
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