He wanted her now, but he had wanted her since the moment they met. His attraction to her went beyond the physical, beyond the need to find his own release. And he didn’t even have to think about it before he breathed his desire into her ear. “I want you, Piper, and I have from the moment I saw you. But you’re more than just a gorgeous body. You have heart and you make me feel like someone important, like you care about what happens to me. I’ve never met someone like you before.”
His words melted what was left of her resolve and she found herself reaching out to pull up his t-shirt, exposing his muscled chest. She let her fingertips brush over the bare skin beneath as he kissed her, slow and tenderly.
“God, how I’ve fantasized about you,” he whispered, nipping at her lips. “All I could think about was how good it would feel to have my cock deep inside of you...”
Piper felt her body grow tense as electric sparks burned along her veins, up her arms, and straight to her core. He stood there, motionless, letting her quiver beneath his touch, as if she were nothing more than his to claim.
“And your lips...I longed to feel them wrapped around my cock, sucking it hard.”
She couldn’t bear the agonizing heat that tore through her body, and when his tongue surged between her lips, forcing its way into her mouth, she let out a cry that was muffled by his powerfully hot kiss.
Begging him not to stop, she abandoned all caution, allowing herself to get lost in the blinding pleasure of his touch.
The cell phone in Piper’s pocket buzzed, and it made her jump. She wanted to ignore it, but slowly, Jace reached in and took it out. “Who is Sterling?” he asked, his voice gruff.
Cursing at the timing, Piper ground out between clenched teeth, “She’s my sister. I don’t have to answer it.” But he held it out to her, and with an angry gasp, she took the phone from him and answered it. “What is it, Sterling?”
“Thank God you’re okay!” Her sister sounded both relieved and enraged. “Do you know how many times I’ve tried to call you since this story ran? Piper, you could at least make a phone call to the people you care about to let us know you’re okay.”
Confused and irate, Piper threw her hands up in the air before responding. “Would you tell me what this is all about? I’m confused.”
“Your apartment has been burglarized. Dad heard it on the police scanner so I drove over and sure enough, the landlord was there looking for you. And so were the police. And it only got worse when I called you several times and you didn’t answer for over an hour. What the hell is going on? Are you okay? Talk to me!”
Piper’s heart raced with fear. “I didn’t know...it had to have been in the last couple of hours. I left town earlier today.” She turned her wide eyes to Jace, not knowing what to do. “Do the police have any leads?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have any contacts there yet, so I’m counting on a friend of mine to get me the information from the police. And then there’s this Sergeant Alvarez that called me about a gunshot patient of yours, asking me if I knew where you were. Said he needed to talk to you. Piper, what the hell is going on?”
Piper felt her stomach churn, and she was sure she was going to be sick. Everything was crashing down around her, and she worried that her sister would get involved in this mess not knowing just how dangerous the situation was.
“I’m alright, Sterling. I need you to stay calm and let the sergeant know I haven’t been hurt but that I will call him, okay?”
“No, Piper, it’s not okay. Tell me what’s going on, or I’m going to trace your cell phone until I find you.” She wouldn’t have expected Sterling to get angry, but apparently she was livid. That was the last thing she needed.
Closing her eyes, she felt the onset of a migraine and rubbed her temples. “I have a friend...he’s in trouble. I’m doing what I can to help him, and we’re talking to the police to try to work things out, but we have to hide out until it’s safe. Sterling, I need you to keep this to yourself. There are people...dangerous men who are looking for us. I don’t want you to come find me because you might lead them to us, or you might get hurt yourself. Do you understand me?”
There was silence, and Piper found herself gripping the phone frantically. “Sterling?” Finally, she heard a sigh. “Are you telling me all of this is about some guy? Seriously, you don’t date for years, and then you latch onto some criminal who’s wanted by the cops?”
Grinding her teeth, Piper shook her head. “That’s not how it is at all, Sterling. The lowlifes are the ones looking to hurt him. Look, if you can stay out of this, I will find a way for you to break a huge story when it’s all over. But for now, I need you to lay low and help me out here.”
Sterling cursed, causing Piper to wince at the fury in her words. “Can you at least give me some idea as to what this is all about?”
“My friend is trying to take down a gun smuggling operation. Now I promise, I’ll be safe and I will keep in touch. Just don’t get involved in this.”
“I love you, Piper. I hope, for your sake, that this guy can protect you.”
Piper eyed Jace, who stood with his arms crossed, his eyes full of concern.
“Sterling, I’ll be fine.” She hung up and tossed the phone on the table, every ounce of energy she had suddenly drained as she dropped to the edge of the bed.
Jace took a step toward her, afraid she was going to black out. “I take it someone broke into your place?”
She nodded. “Apparently, not long after we left, they turned it upside down. It’s on the news. And your local cop friend who came looking for me at the hospital also called my sister, the reporter.”
Sitting next to her, Jace reached out and touched her face, tilting her head up so she would look at him. “I’m sorry about all this. If you want, I’ll drive you back to the police station right now and you can turn me in.”
Her eyes grew wide with a mixture of confusion and anger. “Why would I do a thing like that? I’m in this with you, Jace. I won’t abandon you now. I want to see this operation go down in flames and your president to go down right along with it. I’m here with you, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you make it happen.”
Jace reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering on her neck for a moment before he pulled her close. Piper arched in his arms as he kissed a slow, fiery path across her neck down to her cleavage, abandoning the soft exploration he had started with. His lips were like silk, hot and possessive. Every time he touched her, kissed her, she had burned for him and she came alive once again, her eyes blazing hot with passion and need.
Jace had never met a woman like Piper before, and he wasn’t sure he ever would again. That was why it was so important to make sure nothing happened to her. Even if it meant he wasn’t able to stop Alec. Even if he had to turn himself in to end it all in order to protect her and those she loved.
It was a swift decision made under the spell of a breathlessly sweet kiss, and it was one of the most selfless decisions he’d ever made.
“Piper,” he whispered her name, so intent, so pure that she forgot where she was for a moment, lost in the emotion.
“Yes?” her voice was a whisper lost in the explosion of the exquisite taste of his lips.
“I love you.”
And he did. Completely.
Chapter Thirteen
Paul Resner threw open the door to Diane Hargrove’s office and Jason Morris stormed through it, slamming a file down on her desk so hard that she nearly jumped out of her seat. “Jace Dawson is off the radar, and the damn nurse who kicked us all out of his room just had her apartment torn to shreds by a bunch of goons looking for him. The man tells me there’s a price on his head, that his own club is trying to kill him, and I hear nothing from you or your people? What kind of bullshit operation are you running here?”
To her credit, the woman’s eyes grew large, but she didn’t appear otherwise ruffled. “I’m sorry, Agent Morris, I didn’t realize we were coopera
ting on a case that was related to yours. Can you tell me again how Jace Dawson falls under your jurisdiction?”
Morris looked like he was ready to explode, and Resner was willing to bet his blood pressure was through the roof. The man really needed to seek help for his anger management issues. “Don’t play that game with me, Lieutenant. None of us here are rookies. I got a call earlier today from Dawson saying he had information on my case, so I’m busting my balls trying to get him immunity so I can stop these assholes from bringing any more weapons across our border. Meanwhile, you sit here and pretend not to know a damn thing. I have guys who tell me your sergeant’s been sniffing around the hospital, so I’m guessing you knew the woman was involved. Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”
This time, Lieutenant Hargrove looked taken aback. “I assure you, if Sergeant Alvarez was following up on some sort of lead at the hospital, I wasn’t aware of it. Perhaps he came across that lead earlier today and hasn’t had a chance to report in yet. I’ve been swamped with paperwork. In case you haven’t noticed, Agent Morris, Dallas isn’t exactly void of criminal activity, and I have a lot of cases on my desk. If the B&E was reported, it hasn’t come to me because that’s not my department, so I wouldn’t have been able to make that connection, either. However, since you have, I’m quite sure you don’t need my assistance to follow up.”
Morris dropped the side of his fist on the desk hard enough to shake it and Resner winced, knowing that wasn’t going to go over well with the lieutenant. “Where the hell is your sergeant? I want to talk to him.”
Hargrove stood, straightened her suit, and stared Morris down. “You will not take that tone in my office. I don’t know how you run your operation, but we’re doing the best that we can here. My sergeant will return when he’s ready. If he has your number and any information that might be of use to you, I will make sure he contacts you. Now leave my office before I have you thrown out.”
Morris was seething and didn’t move, but Resner wasn’t going to try the woman’s patience any further. With a nod, he tapped his partner on the shoulder and directed him out of the room, through the station, and into the parking lot. Once they were out of earshot, he jerked the man around to face him. “What the hell were you thinking? Are you trying to get us thrown out of this precinct?”
“They’re withholding information, Paul, and if that’s what’s going on, I’m taking them down for conspiracy right along with the damn dealers.” Resner could almost swear he saw steam coming out of the man’s ears.
“You’ve got to calm down and be reasonable, Jason. If you noticed, Hargrove was telling the truth about not knowing what Alvarez is up to. And just because he’s following a lead doesn’t mean he’s stepping on our toes or withholding information.” Pulling a slip of paper from his jacket pocket, he presented it to his partner reluctantly. “Tomas Alvarez has been trying to get into the FBI in Quantico. I think he’s trying to find the break in the case that gets us our top dog so that he has a little glory and gets his welcome letter. If you’d taken the time to investigate the people we’re working with instead of bulldogging them, you would have known that already.”
The muscles in Morris’s jaw twitched, but his breathing slowed a bit as he stared at the paper, which detailed Alvarez’s history. Looking back up at his partner, he asked, “So what do you suggest we do now? Sit around and twiddle our thumbs?”
Resner shrugged. “I think we wait to hear back on fingerprints on the B&E, then follow up on that lead to see if we can get a hit on someone involved in the smuggling ring. In the meantime, I can almost guarantee you we’ll hear something from Alvarez. He wants his promotion to federal agent. And if we’re really lucky, we’ll get the go-ahead to offer Dawson immunity and pull him back above ground for questioning.”
Morris grunted. “I hate waiting.”
“I do, too. But let’s make the best of it and get something to eat while we wait. I’m starving, and there seems to be no end to good food in this city.”
* * *
Tapping her fingers against the blue screen of her cell phone, Sterling debated calling Sergeant Alvarez. Taking a deep breath, she quickly punched in his number. She knew her sister was going to be furious, but Sterling was more concerned with Piper’s safety than her anger. This felt like the right thing to do.
He answered on the third ring. “Alvarez.”
“Detective, this is Sterling, Piper’s sister. I just spoke with her and well, she wasn’t even aware that her apartment had been broken into. She said she wasn’t there when it happened and has no idea who did it, but she did say she wanted me to stay out of danger.” Maybe that would be enough to get the detective to share a little information and back off all at the same time.
“I see.” His voice was low, gruff. “I’m glad she’s okay, but do you have any idea where she is? Or if she’s with Jace Dawson?”
Torn between protecting her sister from any kind of legal trouble and saving her from her own crazed behavior, Sterling hesitated. “I don’t know where she is, no. But I’m pretty sure she’s with the guy you’re talking about. She says there’s been a mistake and he hasn’t done anything wrong. But I’m really worried about her. She said there are men after him, and I’m a reporter. I’ve been hearing things from my sources, and I think this is a really dangerous place for her to be even if they’ve found somewhere to hide.”
“Well, that’s probably true. After all, they can’t hide forever.” She heard a heavy sigh. “Is there any way you could get your sister back on the phone so we could trace the call and track her down? I don’t want an innocent person like her caught up in a web of criminal activity, and I certainly wouldn’t want her caught in the crossfire and hurt.”
Sterling appreciated his concern, and she was more than willing to do whatever it took to make sure her sister wasn’t harmed.
“Yeah, I can do that. Should I meet you at the station?”
He gave her an address and told her to meet him there in half an hour. Grabbing her keys and cell phone, she rushed out the door.
* * *
Jason Morris glowered at his plate full of bleeding steak and baked potato, disgusted. This was his favorite meal, and yet, with the bad taste left in his mouth over this whole case and how badly it was going, he couldn’t even enjoy it. Meanwhile, his partner sat across from him, devouring the same and looking like he savored every bite. He didn’t know how Resner could be so calm when everything hinged on getting to this one guy who seemed to elude them no matter what they did.
When his phone rang, he yanked it from his pocket and punched the button to answer the call. “Agent Morris.”
Paul Resner raised an eyebrow at his partner while he chewed on one of the best rib eyes he’d ever had. The exchange was brief, but a little of the tension seemed to drain from his shoulders. When he hung up, his expression had changed and he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.
“We’re authorized to give Dawson immunity, but we need him on the inside to bring down the entire operation.”
“That might be difficult with him being in hiding because they’re hunting him down,” Resner sighed as he cut into the steak, but the bite never made it to his mouth as his phone rang. “Resner.” He didn’t recognize the number.
“Agent Paul Resner? This is Sergeant Tomas Alvarez. We met a few days ago in Parkland Hospital when we were both looking to question Jace Dawson.”
Paul sat up straighter, a sly smile crossing his lips. “Yes, Sergeant, I remember. What can I do for you?”
“Well, that depends. I have a pin on a location for Dawson as well as the nurse who cared for him in the hospital. I’d be perfectly willing to share that information so you can get your questions answered if you can help me out with something.”
Quid pro quo, Resner thought. “I see. What do you feel I might be able to help you with?”
There was a short pause. “You’re a federal agent, maybe with a different agency than where my interest lies, but fede
ral nonetheless. I just want some credit for the assistance I’ve given, something I can put in my portfolio that demonstrates my ambition and ability to track down even a vague lead.”
Resner had been sure the man was going to ask for a full recommendation or a guaranteed job, so he was impressed by how little the guy actually wanted in exchange for his help.
“You got it. So, tell me where we need to go to find our boy.”
* * *
“You do realize we still won’t know exactly where they are, even when we get there,” Sterling warned as Alvarez hung up the phone. “I mean, you said yourself you can only track within two miles. Do you know how large an area that really is?”
Alvarez smiled at her confidently. “That’s true. But we have a slight advantage.” At her confused gaze, he shrugged. “Well, you said your sister’s car was still at her place, which means they took another mode of transportation. I’m willing to bet they took his motorcycle, so all we have to do is look for his Harley and verify the license plate. It’s not that hard to spot that kind of bike.”
Sterling scoffed. “When was the last time you were anywhere near Hillsboro? I mean, it’s a not exactly a biker haven, but you’ll find plenty of Harleys around there.”
“We’re only looking at hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts. It’s a limited search. Besides, with the ATF right there next to us, we’ll have another set of eyes searching. It’ll go twice as fast.” He touched her arm with a reassuring pat. “You’re worrying too much. It’s not like we don’t have a few hours to find them. I’m sure they’re hunkered down for the night, so we probably have all night to find them anyway.”
Unsure that she’d done the right thing, Sterling shrugged. “I guess I’ll trust you on that.” Although at this point, she admitted to herself that she had no idea whether or not she could trust him at all. She almost regretted having called him back, especially now that he was involving federal agents. Sure, she wanted the big story and would have tracked those men down eventually, but she wanted her sister out of danger, wanted her somewhere safe. Hunting them down like this was not what she’d expected.
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