“Thank you, Adam.” Tipping the water to her lips, he let her drink down a bit before pulling it away. “Easy now, not too fast or you’ll be ill.” He waited a moment more before letting her take another sip, then passed the bottle back to Adam.
“That should help you regain your wits. After all, we do need to have ourselves a bit of a chat before we decide anything. You left so unexpectedly after our last one that we really didn’t get all that far. I know, it was rude of me to take that call, but business is business. Sadly, not all my people are as diligent about their tasks as Adam here is.”
Her eyes flickered to the side and back. She was starting to look wary, even through the fog of the last of the drugs. Good, she should be.
Releasing her hair, he stepped away from her, turning to stand in front with hands on his hips. “Now then, Rhonda, if that’s even your name. Shall we begin?” he asked.
“Wh-where am I?” she stuttered. She didn’t appear able to focus, her head swaying back and forth slightly, her eyes narrowing to a squint or going wide as she stared in his general direction.
“Tut-tut, a minor inconsequential detail in the grand scheme of things. The where is nowhere near as interesting as the why of it all. The where doesn’t matter, not now. As we were interrupted the last time I think we shall start fresh, right from the top. Who do you work for?”
“You,” she whispered.
“I mean, my dear, who do you work for that you felt the need to infiltrate my business?”
She frowned, a look of confusion on her face. Obviously, the drugs were still messing with her system too much. “Give her some more water, Adam. I doubt we’ll get much out of her until she’s a little clearer.”
“Sorry about that, Mr. Moreau.” Waving off his apology—it really was unnecessary given the circumstances—Gabriel watched as Adam fed her more liquid. She was staring up at Adam in confusion, worry, and definitely some serious concern. Good, she needed to be wary of her situation. It was quite perilous, after all.
Since he had a bit of time, Gabriel took a nice slow walk around the interior of the building Adam had picked. It was a good location. Lots of egress points, two obvious doors, low lighting, concrete floors and not a neighbor in sight.
Stopping by the front door he got a nod from his bodyguard. All was quiet. To say that was an understatement, given where they were on the fringes of the city, would be putting it mildly. It was fucking dead out there except for the soft rustle of dried grasses in the breeze and the occasional bird or small animal disturbing the quiet.
“Mr. Moreau, I think she’s more alert.”
At Adam’s words, he smiled and turned. “Good, let’s get this show on the road. I do have plans later that I’d really hate to be tardy for.”
Returning to stand before her, Gabriel noticed her eyes did look more focused. He folded his hands at his back. “Now then, my dear, who the hell do you work for?”
“I don’t know, Mr. Moreau. She honestly seems confused by your question,” Adam spoke up.
“She does, doesn’t she?” Moreau muttered. Drawing a hand over his face, he stared down at the woman, not happy about the situation. If she didn’t know anything, then she was a liability. One that needed to be taken care of.
“Well, if she doesn’t have an answer, then she’s no use to me. I can’t have my associates feeling nervous about someone they think they might know from elsewhere. It’s very bad for business to have them so thrown off balance.” Shaking his head, he put a hand on his waist. “I’m afraid, my dear, that means that you need to die. Adam, would you happen to have a gun with you?”
“Of course, Mr. Moreau.” Adam drew a weapon out of his holster, flipped it around, and handed it over, butt first.
“Thank you,” Moreau said. He checked the chamber and then lifted the weapon, pointing it right at Rhonda’s head.
“It’s such a shame. She really is quite lovely in her own way. Goodbye, my dear.” He pulled the trigger.
Chapter Sixteen
“Is it me, or is this guy like a broken record?” Shawn’s voice filled Vincent’s ear.
Holding in the derisive snort, Vincent rolled his shoulders. Tapping out a Morse code message back on their communication gear, he listened to Shawn’s sigh.
“You got that right, buddy. He definitely is more than a little redundant. Is this what he was up to down there, I mean, before?”
He sent back a quick yes. At least according to Rhonda, that’s all Moreau had asked, repetitively ad nauseam. Shifting his weight slightly, he worked out a crick in his neck. He’d been in place for over three hours, and it was definitely weighing on him. Ro and Adam had arrived ten minutes after Vincent, and his team got into place. Moreau had shown up not long after Adam’s phone call, and things had been going on and on since then.
“Well, there’s nothing to report out front. Bruiser in the door is attentive and aware, but you knew that. The driver is slouched in the driver’s seat, looks like he’s sleeping under that hat, but I’m pretty sure he’s not. The second bodyguard is heading out for another loop of the building. Oh, and there’s a hawk eyeing up a gopher. I think it’s a gopher. Might just be a really big mouse. It’s really hard to say at this point. My money’s on the hawk, though.”
Tapping out another message to Shawn to remain focused he forced himself not to shift to relief a growing ache in his back.
Moreau’s voice had his focus centering fully on the man once more. He was in Ro’s face, his hand grabbing her hair, yanking her head around. “Who the hell do you work for?”
Shit, the guy was really starting to lose it. Come on, baby, we just need him to threaten your life. Get him to fucking say he’s going to kill you and this ends. Hopefully, before Moreau figured she’d recovered enough from the drugs and started to hit her. If he did that...
Fuck, Vincent knew he’d lose it if the guy hit her.
Ro was far from helpless, but it would take her long seconds, important seconds to break free of the faked restraints.
“I don’t know, Mr. Moreau. She honestly seems confused by your question,” Adam spoke up.
“She does, doesn’t she?” Moreau muttered. Drawing a hand over his face, he stared down at Ro. “Well, if she doesn’t have an answer, then she’s no use to me. I can’t have my associates feeling nervous about someone they think they might know from elsewhere. It’s very bad for business to have them so thrown off balance.” Shaking his head, he put a hand on his waist. “I’m afraid, my dear, that means that you need to die. Adam, would you happen to have a gun with you?”
“Of course, Mr. Moreau.” Adam drew a weapon out of his holster, flipped it around, and handed it over butt first.
“Thank you,” Moreau said. He checked the chamber and then lifted the weapon, pointing it right at Ro’s head.
Clicking on his throat piece for the communications system, Vincent gave the ready signal. He got clicks or a soft “ready” in return.
“It’s such a shame. She really is quite lovely in her own way. Goodbye, my dear.” He pulled the trigger.
Vincent signaled and everyone converged fast. Moreau stood there, stunned, as he realized the bullet had been a blank. Rhonda was up and out of the chair, punching him in the nose with her good arm. Adam caught the man, and threw him down, flipped him over and took the cuffs she offered to bind his wrists. “Gabriel Moreau, you’re under arrest,” she said, then read him his rights.
Securing the bodyguard with a pair of flex cuffs, Vincent left him on his belly. With a quick check outside, he saw the other bodyguard and the driver were both being secured and hauled into the building.
Good enough for him. Jogging over to Rhonda he scooped her up into his arms and hugged her to him. “You okay?” he asked. He pressed his nose to her neck and breathed her in.
Her arms wound around his shoulders and head. “Yeah, I’m good,” she told him. Not that she let go. If anything, she tightened her hold on him.
Shawn would handle call
ing the captain and arranging for Moreau and his men to be hauled off. Right then, right there, all he cared about was holding onto the woman he loved and never letting go.
Slowly he let her down to her feet. He didn’t let her go, then again neither did she let go of him. Pressing a kiss to her temple, Vincent rubbed his lips to her skin. He could still hear the click of the gun as Moreau had pulled the trigger. He’d known that Adam had switched out the bullets, but that hadn’t helped his heart as it seized.
“You two okay?” Shawn’s voice was right behind him.
“Yeah, we’re good,” he said. Keeping his arms around Rhonda, he turned enough so he could survey what was going on. “Everything kosher?”
Shawn nodded, his eyes moving to the four men kneeling by the open door. “The captain is on his way down with a few cops, and the paddy wagon to pick them up. We’re just getting everything organized so he can take it all with him. Since he’ll need the originals, we’re making copies, just in case.”
In case the mole was working for Moreau and could figure a way to fuck the case up and get the man loose. “How long you figure?” Vincent asked.
After a quick glance at his watch, Shawn shrugged. “Probably in the next ten, unless they have the pedal to the metal, then they might make it sooner. Anyway, just wanted to give you a heads up to wash some of that off, Ro. No need to let the captain see you looking pummeled.”
“Shit!” Jerking out of Vincent’s arms, she spun around. Adam was there with a couple of wet naps held out, an amused grin on his face, and a little mirror in his other hand. “Thank you.”
Rolling his eyes, Vincent looked at Shawn. “Think we have enough to hold him for good?”
“Between the drugs he accepted personally and paid for, plus pulling the trigger on Ro, yeah. Since we have him and Adam discussing the previous time too, that lends some weight to Rhonda’s already submitted statement. All in all, I’m betting that the DA is going to be able to bury the fucker under a supermax prison.”
“Good,” Vincent said. His relief was profound, not that he would relax until Moreau was permanently behind bars. Oh, he was sure the man had some damn fine lawyers that would be scrambling to get everything thrown out of court. Hopefully the C&M crew had done everything just right to keep that from happening.
Sirens in the distance announced the impending arrival of the cops. “All right, everyone,” Shawn called out. “All C&M personnel weapons down on the ground, hands up until we’re identified. No one fucking gets shot tonight.”
Laughing softly at that, Vincent did his part as the siren’s got closer. With a look toward Ro, he grinned. Adam dropped the bag of cash, the bounty, down next to Moreau’s prone body before kneeling and lacing his hands behind his head. The cash would be handed over to the police, and would be used to help build a stronger case against the man As the lights began to stripe the inside of the warehouse, Vincent laced his fingers and put his hands on his head as he knelt down.
Chapter Seventeen
Sometime around dawn, Rhonda and Vincent stumbled into his house, both of them absolutely dead on their feet. Rhonda quite willingly had followed on Vincent’s heels to his bedroom. Once there, they’d somehow managed to get out of their clothing, at least to a point, before collapsing on the bed. Tangling their limbs together, they’d passed out cold.
When morning dawned, Ro stretched slowly relieved that there wasn’t more than a couple minor twinges, her body warm and held tightly by a strong male arm. Smiling, she turned her head to look at Vincent. He was still out cold, his face relaxed as he slept.
He still looked dangerous, still looked edgy, still looked like the sweetest man alive. Damn, but she wanted to lick him up. Ro paused mid-thought. Maybe he’d let her. Smiling at that, she closed her eyes and listened to his breathing.
Deep, slow and very relaxed, he was truly still out. At least she thought he was. With a frown, she moved her head back a little to eye him up. He could be faking it. Why he would do that, she didn’t know. Unless he was waiting to see what she’d do.
It wasn’t the first time they’d slept together over the last few weeks. Of course, they hadn’t been naked those other times, and she hadn’t exactly been in a position to care if they were or weren’t. Now that she was mobile, for all intents and purposes, she could definitely appreciate the fact she had Vincent Bradley in bed, and so very naked.
Licking her lips she smiled, biting her bottom lip to hold back a chuckle. Oh the things she could do to him. The things she wanted to do to him, had wanted to do to him for so very long. Now, where to begin?
She shifted slightly, taking her time so as to not disturb him. A small frown flickered over his face before he settled back down. Light sleeper. Something she’d have to remember in the future. Chewing her lip, she narrowed her eyes.
Rhonda knew she’d have to be sneaky good if she wanted to get her hands on him. Or, better yet, her mouth.
All right, she could do this. She was only mildly hampered by the cast on her left hand. She had use of the fingers, but not the hand itself. She’d work around that issue. After all she did have one good hand and she could put weight on the other one.
So, how to go about this without waking him up too soon?
It took her a couple of minutes, but she soon was grinning. He was used to her wiggling around a little in her sleep. He’d commented that, in the first few days, he’d woken up every time she’d twitched. After that though, he’d gotten used to it, and while he registered it, he didn’t let it wake him.
With a plan in mind, she twitched a little, shifting a bit, and except for a small frown tugging on his brows, Vincent didn’t budge. Excellent! He apparently hadn’t been kidding.
Chuckling internally, Rhonda began to work her way down, slowly, watching his face the entire time. A few more flickers of frowns that she let smooth out before proceeding further.
Under the blankets, she came face to face, in a manner of speaking, with what she wanted. With a glance at his face, she slid her tongue over his cock. He frowned a little deeper, but didn’t wake up. Well, one part of him did, but not the rest of him.
A feeling of glee washed over her as she licked his cock again. It was hardening, straightening out, getting impressively larger. Then, because she wanted his full attention, she took his cock into her mouth and sucked hard.
It definitely got his full attention, and he woke with a foul curse on his lips that quickly turned to a groan.
Smiling around his cock, Rhonda rubbed the tip of her tongue under the head, her hand coming up to grip him, holding him steady. Up and down his cock she worked, taking him a little deeper each time. God, he tasted good, smelled so good. His natural musky male scent amplified under the blankets.
Her mouth popped off the end as she worked some saliva left behind down his length. “Good morning,” she said in a cheery tone.
He let out a growl, might have been words, might have been a warning.
Not really giving a damn what he had to say, she took him back into her mouth. Closing her eyes, she worked him, feeling him swell even more as he truly woke up.
One of his hands slid into her hair, gripping the strands in a tight, but surprisingly gentle hold. “Ro, whatever are you doing, woman?”
She didn’t bother to answer that, just opened her eyes to shoot him a look. If he couldn’t figure it out, then he really wasn’t all that awake.
With a deep, sleep-roughened chuckle, Vincent groaned. “I know what you’re doing. Maybe I should ask why instead?”
Flicking her tongue under the head, she slowly let him out of her mouth. Her hand kept working him though. “Because I had this sudden need to taste you.” Damn, her own voice sounded throaty, needy, sexy as hell.
“Not that I’m going to argue with you, but you should have woken me first.”
“Why?” she asked. Snorting, she licked at the drop of pre-cum on his cock. His shudder of reaction bolstered her greatly. It was a serious turn-on to know th
at she could affect him so easily. “I thought this would be so much better for a wake-up call.” With the chit-chat out of the way, she sucked him into her mouth again, hollowing out her cheeks as she moved her hand down to play with his balls.
The hand in her hair tightened a little, but he didn’t pull her away. “Fuck, yeah,” he bit out roughly. “Any time you feel like waking me up like this, feel free.”
Kinda where her thoughts had gone, but it was nice to know he was fully on board. Letting her eyes close, she set back to work, sucking, licking, even the occasional nibble as she tormented him. All the while she toyed with his balls, rolling them and gently squeezing them.
She knew she’d only have a limited amount of time to play. Vincent was nothing if not dominant. He’d let her play until he was on that edge. Then things would likely get pretty damn interesting.
So she set about finding where his edge was. Figuring out what he liked, what got him good and hot, and what would have him fighting for control. She didn’t watch him though. He was too good at controlling his emotions for her to judge by his face. No, with Vincent, she listened to the sounds he made, the tension in the hand holding her hair, and the muscles of his body.
When he started to tense up, she smiled. He was close, the tug on her hair clearly a hint he wanted her to let up. Not fucking happening, not until she took him over.
Sucking him in deeper, she relaxed her throat and began to swallow. His hand tightened even more.
“Ro, fucking hell,” he snapped out. “Ro, stop baby. Damn it all to hell. I’m going to come, fuck.” He let out a throaty moan as he tugged on her hair again.
Nope, not happening. Sliding him a hot look, she swallowed again and began to hum. The shock on his face was all the warning she got before his body arched up and semen spilled down her throat. He shouted out something garbled as his entire body shook from the release.
Only when he’d dropped into a heap, his chest rising and falling rapidly, did she let his cock slip from her mouth. With one last lick that sent a shudder rippling through him, she moved to lounge over his chest.
Dangerous Lines Page 9