The Beautiful Thief (The Stolen Hearts #2)

by Mallory Crowe

  Willa started to scream, but she was immediately grabbed by one of the guys. “No! They’ll come looking for me!”

  Forbes shrugged, not seeming to care. “Let them. They won’t find you.”

  They started to drag the poor thing away and Adam squeezed her shoulder. “Wait until they leave and take your shot.”

  Melody knew what he really meant. Wait until they took the girl away to kill her and then take the shot. Wait until backup was gone. Wait until she was dead.

  The girl kept fighting and suddenly Melody was hit with a flash of recognition. She’d seen this girl before. She’d been at Jadon Belli’s office. This was the girl who had seen her when she’d stolen the laptop. She could’ve ratted her out in a second, but instead had kept quiet.

  Damn it. As the decision was made for her, Melody brought the gun up and finally took her shot, except not at Forbes.

  She shot at the men holding the girl. Her aim, predictably, was off, but the loud shot was enough to spook the guys enough to release the girl, who immediately took off running.

  Adam cursed in her ear as he took the gun from her hand and fired off three quick shots. Both of the henchmen went down, but Forbes dove behind the couch. The blonde who had been sitting on Forbes’s lap before he dove for cover let out a series of loud screams.

  “Come on.” Adam pushed Melody toward the door. He kept the gun aimed at the window, covering her as she pulled the door open.

  As soon as she was out, she saw a bouncer approach. Even though her nerves came out again, she kept her cool and said, “Please help—they’re killing each other!”

  Once the bouncer was close enough, she put every inch of muscle she had into ramming her shoulder into him, slamming him against the wall.

  It wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it was enough to distract him as Adam came out of the room. The bouncer went to punch Melody, but Adam caught the hand and slammed the butt of the gun into his head and then slammed him into the wall once more. The guy slid slowly to the floor. As Melody stared at the scene, slack-jawed, Adam grabbed her arm and urged her on. “Keep going!”

  She jumped over the now unconscious bouncer and they ran together out of the mouth of the hallway and into the club. It was jarring to see that the music was still blaring and people were still dancing. All those shots and no one seemed to know....

  “Keep your head down,” he ordered as he slowed down their running. “They’ll look for people rushing out and jittery.”

  Even though they’d slowed down, they were still going quickly toward the far door. Melody knew that if they waited too long, there would be guys on every exit. Right now the club was probably trying to weigh the cost benefit of spooking all the club members by sending out the army of security or pretending nothing happened. But judging from how quickly Adam moved for the exit, he was betting that Forbes would get his way soon enough.

  “We’re going for the left corner.” Adam glanced over to Melody. “See it?”

  She nodded. There was a guy in front of it, but she had to assume Adam knew that. The bodies pushed them together and she stayed close to Adam so they wouldn’t get separated. She tried to keep her eyes ahead of them, but she couldn’t help scanning the room. There was a flurry of activity from where they’d come from. Men in suits, looking out over the dance floor.

  She pushed herself into Adam. Since they’d shot through the screen, the only person who knew there were two of them was the bouncer. Had he regained consciousness?

  They finally reached the exit and Adam started for the door when the bouncer moved to block them.

  Melody gave Adam room to work. When the bouncer started to reach into his jacket, Adam’s fist shot out, connecting with the man’s nose and sending him falling to his knees. Once again, Melody was shocked at how effective a single blow from Adam was.

  Adam went down with the bouncer and reached into his jacket, pulling out a few items before he motioned for Melody to get out the door.

  Melody ran out. Once she was on the street, she turned back and waited until Adam came out. He was tucking the gun into his waistband and tossed the cell phone he’d lifted off the bouncer across the street.

  Good. They didn’t need anything that could lead Forbes back to them. Across the street, she saw the flash of brown hair that belonged to the girl who’d thrown everything off course. Who was she?

  Melody took a step in her direction but Adam grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “We have to move,” he said.

  “But—”

  He kept on pulling her until they were around a corner and the girl was out of sight. Once they were around the corner, Adam switched from a fast walk to a jog, which was more of a slow run for her. Melody kept up with his pace. The only time she risked a glance behind them was when they reached the car, but it looked as if they’d made it out without a tail.

  Adam had the car started and sped out of the spot before Melody even had her door completely shut. Now that she was sitting down, she realized how fast her heart was beating and that she was gasping for air as though there wasn’t enough oxygen in the car. She focused on calming her breaths, and when she tried to brush her hair out of her face, she saw that her hands shook.

  She felt elated that they were alive, but it was hard to keep the sting of failure from creeping in. She’d had Forbes. He’d been right there in front of her and then everything had gone to shit. “Adam, I—”

  “Not now,” he snapped.

  She tightened her lips and looked out the window, trying to make sure there was no one following them. Of course Adam was angry. He had every right to be angry. He’d almost died because she’d changed the plan. They were supposedly partners, but she was the one who had decided to fuck them all over.

  But what was she supposed to do? Just let them kill that woman?

  Adam pulled into the parking garage across from the hotel and parked without saying a word to her. When he got out, he slammed the door shut behind him hard enough to make the entire car vibrate. Melody slunk out and tried to make herself as unnoticeable as possible as she followed him back to the room.

  After an awkward walk and elevator ride, they finally reached the room. “Get your stuff together,” said Adam as he went right to the bathroom. She risked a glance and saw him running water over his hands. He had blood on them.

  “Shit, are you okay?” She went into the bathroom as though she was going to help, only once she was there she realized there was no first-aid kit or anything she could grab, making her effectively useless.

  “It’s not my blood,” he said curtly as he scrubbed his hands down with soap.

  Sure enough, all of the rusty-colored stain washed right away. But he’d knocked out two giant guys. It made sense that there would be blood on his hands. He’d gone through all that and she hadn’t taken the shot. She winced and started to back out of the bathroom, but Adam suddenly turned all of his anger on her. “What the fuck, Mel?”

  She tightened her lips as she tried to sort through all the justifications she’d used in her own mind. “You saw the girl—”

  “So? You think I give a damn about someone who was stupid enough to think Forbes could do anything for them? They know we were there, Mel. Our faces are all over those cameras. If they weren’t coming for you before, they’re coming now.”

  “Adam, that girl was me!”

  He clenched his jaw. “What?”

  “She sought out someone dangerous and begged for help. That is exactly what I did with you. The only difference is that you weren’t a complete dick. I couldn’t just sit back and let her be murdered so I could get my revenge!”

  Adam shook his head and ran both his hands through the short blond hair. “I told you what I was going to do. I told you I’d get you your shot and he was right there.”

  Melody crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Adam. Do you want me to apologize because I didn’t let some innocent person die?”

  “Innocent
? You don’t know a damn thing about her. What do you want to bet that if your places were reversed, she’d just sit back and let you die?”

  “She saw me.”

  “What?”

  “When I took Belli’s laptop. She saw me while I was sneaking out of his office and she didn’t say anything. She could help us.”

  “Help us?” he asked incredulously. “Help us what? We had one goal. Kill Forbes. That was it and now thanks to her, we failed and Forbes is going to have some renewed motivation to make us dead. So how will she help us?”

  “Help us find Sterling. Forbes wasn’t the only one who killed my mother.”

  Adam was quiet for a second. She wasn’t sure whether he’d forgotten that there were more people included in her vendetta or whether he was just reminded that he was one of the three people she held responsible. It wasn’t just Forbes. It was him too. She’d been letting herself forget that, but for the first time it occurred to her that he might’ve let himself forget too.

  “We had a deal,” he finally said.

  “Fine. We’ll find Forbes again. If this really was a trap for us, he’s not exactly going to disappear any time soon, is he? Next time, random mystery women won’t get in our way. I promise.”

  “That wasn’t the deal.”

  She opened her mouth, but no words came out. She knew exactly what he was talking about. He was going to give her the golden opportunity to kill Forbes and in return....

  “Now I get you.”

  Adam was past the point of sympathy. He was past the point of empathy or understanding. God, all he could feel right now was unadulterated rage. He was angry at Forbes for ordering the death of someone else. He was angry at that stupid girl for getting in the way. He was angry at himself for not taking the gun out of Melody’s hand in time and taking care of Forbes himself.

  What had he expected? Melody to let some random person get a bullet in the head? Fuck no. She was too innocent for that. He didn’t care what kind of crime family she grew up in; he knew her better than that.

  And by the time he’d finally gotten the gun, Forbes had been the least of his worries. He’d had to keep the backup from shooting in their direction, and Forbes had taken cover long before Adam could line up a shot.

  Adam knew the deal he’d made with Melody was stupid. He knew he was a bastard for even thinking it up in the first place. And if she’d asked him three hours ago if he was really going to take her up on it, he probably would’ve said no way in hell.

  But right now, with this mixture of anger and adrenaline shooting through his veins, there was nothing that could stop him from closing the distance between them and crushing his mouth against hers.

  She gasped in surprise but didn’t fight him as he moved them both out of the bathroom. He’d planned on going to the bed, but instead he pushed her up against the wall across from the bathroom door.

  This allowed him to press every inch of himself against her hot body, and he had to resist the urge to groan in pleasure at the simple feel of her against him. Fuck, he remembered seeing her when he’d gotten back to his houseboat. So damn beautiful and mysterious and untouchable.

  But she wasn’t untouchable tonight. Tonight he was going to touch, taste, and feel every single inch of her. He started with hooking a hand under her thigh and lifting her leg to wrap around his hips, allowing his full and ready erection to rest right between her thighs where it wanted to be. But the panties would have to stay on for the moment or he might lose all sense of control he had.

  Control.... The idea was laughable. Except he couldn’t laugh. All he could do was keep on kissing Melody. She was kissing him back now, her body pushing against his, her warm core rubbing against his cock and making him want to lose his damn mind.

  And then her tongue tentatively brushed his lips and he couldn’t help but take a mile from the inch she offered. He bit at her lip before soothing the sting with his own tongue and kissing her as deeply as he could. The entire time, his hands ran up and down her body, trying to commit every dip and curve to memory. But the damn dress, which he’d spent half the night mentally worshiping, was now his greatest enemy.

  Abruptly, Adam pulled away and twisted Melody around to face the wall. She gasped in a breath, but he didn’t give her any time to get her bearings before he started to slowly pull the zipper down. Her pale skin was a stark contrast to the black material. He ran his hand over the freshly exposed skin before he peeled the edges over her shoulders and let it pool on the ground. She started to turn around, but he pushed at her shoulders, keeping her pinned against the wall. He wasn’t done appreciating her from this side yet.

  He pressed a kiss to her shoulder, on the outside of her bra strap, before he pushed it over her shoulder to reveal the extra centimeter of exposed skin. Then he kissed down her back, following the trail of her spine, lower and lower to the very dip at the small of her back.

  When he reached the flare of her hips, he turned her once more. It took barely any effort to get her to follow his commands, as though she was just waiting for his next move. Fuck, that made her hot. Everything about this woman was hot.

  He hooked his fingers in the lace of her black panties and pulled them down her legs, nipping at her thigh before they fell to the ground.

  She took a quick intake of breath as he lifted one of her legs and set it over his shoulder. “Adam,” she breathed.

  He had no idea what she wanted to say because he found the warm, wet folds between her legs and in one quick motion, he pushed two fingers inside and took her clit in his mouth.

  Melody tensed against him, and one of her hands came down and curled in his hair. At first he thought she was going to push him away, but she didn’t, and he started to let himself drive her crazy. He let her little moans and screams direct him as he drove her closer and closer to climax, when she finally let her head fall back and tensed around him.

  “Adam,” she breathed once more as her body seemed to relax and turn into jelly around him.

  He withdrew his fingers from her and placed a gentle kiss on her flat stomach as he stood up. “Yeah?”

  Once he was standing, she reached out and set a hand at the back of his neck. He wasn’t sure whether she was trying to pull him closer or whether she just needed help standing. Then the three little words made him lose his shit. “I need more,” she whispered.

  He lifted her against him and she wrapped her legs around his hips. She wore only her boots and bra while he still wore every damn thing. They needed to both be naked right now.

  He turned with her in his arms and carried her to the bed.

  Melody felt as though there wasn’t a single bone in her body. She wanted to focus on the feel of Adam’s strong arms holding her up, but in seconds he’d laid her out on the bed. Her limbs, still feeling like jelly, went limp as she spread out on the bed.

  Adam set his knee on the mattress and the dipping mattress motivated her to reach up. As he put a knee on each side of her, she worked at each of the buttons, possibly ripping two off. She wasn’t all that focused as she pushed the shirt over his shoulders. God, how many times had he been walking around her half naked? This was different. Now she could run her fingers over his chest and down the ridges of his stomach.

  “Mel....” His voice was low and gruff. Different than anything she’d ever heard come out of him, and she almost smiled at the thought of her doing that to him.

  It spurred her on and she pressed a quick kiss to his stomach as he tugged at his belt. When she unzipped his pants, his erection practically sprung free from its confinement.

  “Mel, I—”

  Before he could finish the sentence, she wrapped her fingers around his cock. He cursed and sucked in a breath before he pulled away. Before she had time to pout, he had kicked off his shoes and removed the rest of his pants, pulling a little foil packet out of the back pocket.

  Melody leaned back on her elbows and watched as he rolled the condom over his erection. It had been so long sin
ce she’d been with anyone, and she’d never been with someone so raw and masculine. There should be a picture of Adam next to the word “Male” in the dictionary.

  As soon as the condom was on, he stalked back to the bed and anticipation raced through her.

  “This isn’t right.” He reached for an ankle and parted her legs for him.

  She bit her lip as he climbed her body. “What’s not right?” she finally managed as he rested his erection at her entrance and leaned in closer.

  “You’re not naked.” He positioned himself right at her entrance.

  She suddenly remembered that her bra was still on, but then he was pushing forward and there were no thoughts in her mind. Just the fullness and the burning need for him to keep moving.

  Adam was still above her, every muscle tense. His head fell into the crook of her neck and she ran her hands up and down his back, silently encouraging him to go on. He pressed a soft kiss to her shoulder and then a sudden sharp bite as he finally started to move.

  Melody’s eyes drifted shut and her head fell back as she focused on the friction between them. She was still extra sensitive from the earlier orgasm, so every thrust felt like a fireworks show.

  She held onto the hard muscles of his back, and the heels of her boots pressed into his thighs as he went faster and faster. She was surrounded by his hot skin and cool sheets. The sounds of their heavy breathing mingled; then he grunted as every muscle went stiff, and that was the last straw to push her over the edge.

  For a few long moments, they stayed like that, with Melody wrapped around Adam. She didn’t say anything. Didn’t know what to say. This wasn’t supposed to happen. This shouldn’t have happened.

  Sure, she made that stupid deal with him, but this wasn’t about a debt owed. She hadn’t even thought about that at all while they were together. All she could think about was getting more of him any way she could get it, not that she owed him something.

  As for what he thought... well, that wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have any time soon.