Heat (Deceit and Desire Book 4)

by Cassie Wild

  He started to move beneath me, arching as I sank back down on him, meeting me thrust for thrust.

  I swallowed back another hungry moan, sucking harder on his finger. The need to be quiet seemed to make it more intense, and soon, I was gasping, already teetering on the edge.

  I shoved his hand away and bent over him, fusing our mouths together. His tongue licked into my mouth. I bit him, and he grasped my ass, squeezing tight. Close…so, so close…

  I broke the kiss and buried my face against his neck, starving for air. I buried a broken moan against his neck as the orgasm started, shattering through me. I felt it ripple, first in my pussy, then spreading out through my belly and chest, out to my arms and legs, until all of me was vibrating.

  Nicco moved faster, his breaths coming hard and heavy.

  I was still shaking under the impact of the climax when he rolled us, flipping me onto my back as he settled between my thighs. “Again,” he muttered as he palmed my face and arched me up for a kiss. “Do it again, Ravenna. Let me feel it.”

  I didn’t think I could. I was still floating on top from my current orgasm, slowly starting to drift down.

  But he rolled his hips, gave a little twist, nudging me right there – I bucked under him, opening my mouth. Only at the last second did I remember to swallow the scream as a second, more intense orgasm hit.

  My vision grayed out on me. My heart pounded so hard, it almost hurt.

  Then it ended, and Nicco collapsed next to me.

  “We’re going to kill each other,” I announced.

  He laughed weakly. “What a hell of a way to go.”

  Sixteen

  Nicco

  Getting Gabriel intrigued enough to talk to me wasn’t the problem.

  Not at all.

  No, the problem was getting him to Monterey.

  I ended up offering him a free meal to go along with our…talk. He’d asked me why I’d want to talk to him – and why he should care after I’d helped his bitch of a daughter stab him in the back.

  I’d replied back in the language he understood. I lied and told him Suria had offered me money.

  “She didn’t come through, of course,” I’d told him with a snarl in my tone. “Now, I’m thinking I should have just warned you what she was up to. I take her in, feed her for a couple of days, help her out and not only does she not pay me, she walked out with some of the money and valuable things I had laying around the house. You’re right about the bitch part.”

  Suria had been standing across the room as I talked to Gabriel on the phone. She’d rolled her eyes and flipped me off.

  Joelle had smothered a giggle behind one hand.

  I hated Gabriel for costing me so many years with my sisters.

  “Brooding about tonight?”

  I glanced up as Ravenna took the seat across from me. I’d brought her back home a couple of hours earlier. We’d spent the night at my mother’s and had eaten breakfast there, but Ravenna had needed to change and shower, so we’d come back here. I’d made a pitstop by my place to grab some clothes and toiletries. She’d asked, and I wasn’t saying no.

  I was already so addicted to her.

  An expectant look was on her face, and I frowned, then remembered she’d asked a question.

  “Brooding. Thinking everything through.” I shrugged and reached for the glass of tea I’d left sitting on the table.

  “You’re nervous.” She linked her hands together, her soft green eyes cutting into me, seeing right through me.

  “Yeah.” There was no point in lying about it.

  “Why?” Head angled to the side, she edged closer to the edge of the seat. “I mean…I’d be nervous too. I am nervous, but it’s not like you’re going to get fired from your job if your boss finds out you’re involved in this.” She gave me a strained smile. “You, though…you should be fine. Unless you think he might be dangerous?”

  “On his own?” I snorted. Getting to my feet, I paced over to the small breakfast bar that separated her kitchen from the living room. “I already thought about that and figured it wasn’t likely. But, yeah…I don’t exactly know him, so I talked to Suria. She said he’s too much of a coward to do anything on his own. And he’s not going to bring anybody with him tonight.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Instinct. He’s curious about what I want, but he isn’t sure he trusts me yet. He won’t want anybody from the clan to know he’s talking to me until he gets a better handle on things. He won’t risk that I might be an embarrassment.” I shot her a smile. “Image means a lot to the Romany. And he’s got more than his fair share of arrogance.”

  “Hopefully, that will be his downfall.”

  I’d recommended a restaurant on the outskirts of Monterey.

  When Gabriel hinted that he might be a little tight on funds, I casually commented that I’d be more than happy to float him some money for gas, even a bit extra if he wanted to stay the night at a hotel. “I’d come to LA,” I’d added, “but I’m too tied up with work right now to make the trip.

  Personally, I was surprised it had worked. I’d been ready to make the trip to him with the hope that, once we got the information we needed, Ravenna would be able to get a contact through one of her brothers to pass things on to.

  But he was coming.

  “He’s probably got it in his head he can set you up and con you for some money,” Suria said as Ravenna and I double-checked the set up she’d come up with for recording the conversation.

  I curled my lip, nodding. I’d already come to that conclusion. “If he starts leading in that direction, I’ll let him. For a while.” Ravenna passed the recorder back over to me, and I dropped it into my pocket. After one more look to make sure my sleeve covered the wireless mic, I took a deep breath, mentally bracing myself.

  “Remember,” Ravenna said. “We’ve got to get names and dates on record. People that we can go to, interview. Hard evidence.”

  I nodded. Reaching up, I traced my fingers down her jaw. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  It took almost an hour and several beers to get Gabriel Marks to loosen up and start talking.

  But once he did…

  “It’s that easy?” I feigned surprise as he leaned over the table, a smirking sort of smile on his face as he regarded me. “Just like that, and she turns over that kind of money…all because she thought she was cursed?”

  “You don’t understand how the human mind works, Nicco.” He wagged a finger at me as he leaned back in the chair. “We had her convinced she was cursed. Suria, bless her, she was the best there was. She could tell you things about that Murdock job that would make your eyes pop out.” His gaze sharpened, and he pulled back from the table, reaching for his nearly empty bottle of beer. “You seen her around? Suria? Since we talked, I mean?”

  “No.” I managed to give him a disgruntled expression. “I can believe she’s good at conning people. She sure as hell suckered me.”

  “She learned from the best.” Gabriel tapped his chest, but his smile didn’t last long. It faded almost immediately as a long, hard breath escaped him. “Then she turns around and betrays me. Little bitch.”

  A few strained, awkward moments passed before he slanted a look at me from under his lashes. “Did your mother ever tell you some of the jobs we did together?”

  I resisted the urge to grit my teeth. I didn’t want to hear about jobs my mother had done when they’d been together. I knew Mom had done things she wasn’t proud of when she lived with him, things that haunted her, but I also knew she’d left that life behind when she left him. But I couldn’t exactly tell him I didn’t want to know jack shit about that, now could I?

  Lifting a hand in a go-ahead gesture, I settled back in the chair with my scotch.

  And so, he talked, rambling on and on.

  It took him almost thirty more minutes to circle around to things that were more recent. I had this Murdock job, something he’d coaxed Suria into last year, but tha
t wasn’t enough.

  “You know, I think the best one was when I took some councilwoman here in Monterey for a ride. It was…shoot, maybe three years ago?” He squinted, looking at nothing as he tried to think. “Yeah, three years. I wonder if she’s still on the city council.”

  “What’s her name?” I asked casually.

  “Maude Brady.” His lips curled into a smug grin. “She was a looker, let me tell you.” His lid dropped in a lascivious wink, and he smacked his lips. “That was one hell of a ride, I must say.”

  “What exactly happened?”

  He chuckled, his gaze becoming unfocused. “No, son…I don’t kiss and tell.” But he straightened in the chair, casting a look around the room. “Although if I did…”

  “Isn’t she married to one of the lieutenants or captains with the police department?” I asked.

  I knew for a fact she was. She was actually running for a job with the state legislature, and her husband’s career featured heavily in her campaign.

  Gabriel gave me a lopsided shrug. “I didn’t ask for his resume. I was there for her, after all.”

  It turned out, the good councilwoman was somewhat superstitious. During her last campaign, she’d traveled to LA, for the anonymity most likely, and found herself a psychic. Apparently, Gabriel still ran a few scams on his own, and he’d been the one she talked to. They hit up enough of a rapport that she began to call on him regularly and he would make the trip to Monterey.

  “And you convinced her you had cursed her opponent,” I said as he came to a close in his story. “Unbelievable.”

  “No. It’s perfectly believable. People will buy anything you tell them…if you tell them the right way.” He winked at me. “Just think. If your mother hadn’t stolen you away from me, this could be your life, Nicco. Instead, you wear a boring old suit and sit behind a boring old desk.”

  Seventeen

  Ravenna

  We all sat around the kitchen table in my apartment, including my brother Carl. The recording Nicco had captured between him and his father came to an end. Without saying a single word, Carl reached out, hit rewind, and played it again.

  He did two more times before he finally shot a look my way and shook his head. “You just don’t know when to give up, do you, kid?”

  I gave him a wan smile and shrugged. “It’s not in my makeup.”

  He barked out a laugh, then leaned back in his chair.

  “I’ve got to talk to the DA,” he said abruptly. “We’ll probably end up talking to Councilwoman Brady.” His mouth twisted into a sneer. “I know her husband. This is going to be a pain in the ass. But if she thinks it’s to her benefit to press charges, she’ll do it. She looks out for number one, first and foremost. Always has.”

  “What next?” Nicco asked.

  He sat next to me, a silent, unwavering presence over the past few hours. It was edging up on midnight, and I knew the night was going to be a long one, but he looked bright-eyed and awake, ready to handle anything. I wished I knew how he did it.

  “Like I said…” Carl lifted a broad shoulder, “I have to talk to the DA. If she thinks this is enough to bring him in, then that’s what I’ll do.” He slid a look my way and cocked a brow. “You want to be there, kid?”

  My mouth went dry. “What?”

  “You were the driving force behind this. You want to be there?”

  I smoothed my hands down the sides of my pants and nodded. “Yes, I want to be there.”

  “Okay.” Carl pushed back from the table, pocketing the small, pocket-sized recording device. “I’m going to head out. I’m going to contact the DA and see what we can make happen tonight as far as a warrant goes. The fact that he’s not from Monterey and is likely to head back to LA might play in our favor here. Who knows?”

  Once he was gone, it was just Suria, Nicco, and me left sitting around the table. Joelle and Kian were in the living room, just a few yards away, and I knew they’d heard everything. A weighted silence stretched out between us, broken when Joelle cleared her throat.

  “What happens next?” she asked, her voice hesitant.

  I glanced around the room, but nobody seemed to be in any hurry to answer, so I cleared my throat and met her eyes. “We try to get a warrant. He’s confessed to defrauding people in both Los Angeles and here in Monterey. I imagine the DA here will reach out to the DA in LA. They’ll have to do some sort of investigation, but since he’s already admitted to it on record, that might speed things up. Who knows?” I lifted a hand in the air, trying to throttle down my own uncertainty.

  “How long will all of that take?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t have an answer for that.” The legal system was a lot of things, but it wasn’t expedient.

  The call came in just before five-thirty the next morning.

  Maybe sometimes it could be expedient.

  Carl sounded brisk and wide-awake as he said, “We’ve got a warrant. Get your uniform on and be at the hotel in forty-five. Not a second later.”

  “I…wait, you got a warrant already?”

  “Turns out the DA knows a judge who takes a pretty dim view on fraud. She was able to get him to see our side pretty easily. Now…get moving,” Carl said.

  I half-stumbled out of bed.

  Nicco was already awake behind me, his hand coming out to catch my arm before I could move away.

  “Was that your brother?” he asked.

  “Yes. They’ve got a warrant. I’ve got to get ready. He wants me at the hotel in forty-five minutes.”

  As I made my way into the bathroom, I saw the glare from his phone lighting up the room. I didn’t turn back to see what he was doing. I needed the toilet, a shower, and coffee. Not necessarily in that order.

  A few minutes later, I trudged out of the bathroom, face and hands washed, ready to start the coffee pot. Nicco was already standing in front of the machine though, and I could see that beloved little red dot beeping, signifying the life-altering substance known as coffee. “You’re my hero,” I said, shuffling closer.

  His grin flashed at me in the dark.

  I hovered by the machine until there was enough to nip off a cup, then, cradling it between my hands, I made my way back to the bathroom. Shower. Uniform. Coffee. Not necessarily in that order. I didn’t even wait for the coffee to cool off before I took the first, eye-opening sip. Placing the cup on the wide shelf inside the shower stall, I turned on the spray, sucking it up as it came out cold at first, then warmed slowly.

  I was wide awake when Nicco decided to join me. “You swiped the first cup, so I need the shower to get me good and awake,” he said, nodding at the coffee I sipped as the spray beat down on my back.

  I just grunted at him and put the cup down, lifting my face to the water as I reached for my shampoo. “You’re going to smell like a girl if you use my stuff,” I told him.

  “I’ll smell like you, and it’s going to leave me turned on. Every time I catch your scent, my dick will get hard,” he told me.

  My knees wobbled a little at his bluntness, and I deliberately kept my gaze from him so he didn’t see what his words did to me.

  After slicking conditioner through my hair, I reached for my sponge and shower gel, hurriedly going through the early morning ritual. “I guess you called your sisters,” I said.

  “I guess I did.” His eyes met mine through the misty air. “They deserve to know he’s going away where he can’t hurt them anymore, Ravenna.”

  I nodded, unable to argue with him.

  “They better hurry. Nobody is going to wait around for them.” I met his eyes. “I can’t make that happen.”

  The DA stood in front of me, along with my lieutenant and my brother Carl. There were two other uniforms, including my partner, Milo. The other guy was a man by the name of David Lippitt. His eyes were alert, and his hair was cut in a razor-sharp buzz. His skin was smooth and dark, and he had the sort of features that made it impossible to tell how old he was. He could have been a few years ol
der than me or Milo’s age. I had no idea.

  I did know that he was a cop that both my brother and Milo respected, so when he nodded at me, I nodded back and gave him a brief smile.

  I met the gaze of the district attorney and nodded at her. She’d introduced herself as Patricia Roth. I estimated her to be in her late forties, and she watched everything around her with a sort of sharp-edged impatience, like she wanted to wrap this up and move on to her next conquest.

  “I understand that you’re the one who pulled all of this together.” She tugged on the sleeves of her suit as she studied me.

  “Yes, ma’am. I had help, of course.”

  “I’m aware.” She cocked a brow. “I’m hoping they’ll be available to talk.”

  I looked uneasily at the car across the parking lot before glancing back at her. “I can’t make any promises there.”

  “I’m hoping they’ll be open to it,” she said, smoothing a hand down her jacket. “I’ve already spoken to colleagues in LA County who are willing to offer immunity in exchange for the testimony of Suria Marks if it helps shut him down. Apparently, people in Los Angeles have been looking to bring Gabriel Marks in for quite some time, but they’ve never had the opportunity.”

  My heart leaped a little, a nervous, anticipatory flip as she continued to watch me.

  “I suspect she’ll be less likely to consider the idea straight off the bat from me, so perhaps you could drop a bug in her ear,” Roth suggested.

  “I…um…yes, ma’am. I can do that.” My heart was banging along at double-time against my ribs now.

  “Very well. Let’s get this show on the road.” She turned over a piece of paper to Carl and nodded at him. “I’ll meet you back at the station.”

  We headed into the hotel. I lingered near the back as Carl showed the warrant to the desk clerk and got the room number for Gabriel Marks. He left one uniform in the lobby, and the rest of us headed upstairs.