by Sybil Bartel
What a load of crap. “You can’t tell that.” The dog sat down at my feet.
“Hunter,” Dane called.
The dog looked over his shoulder at his master.
“Are you worried about Irina?” he asked.
Hunter barked once then looked back at me and his tail thumped.
The corner of Dane’s mouth tipped up.
My heart skipped a beat. “That doesn’t prove anything.” Dane was devastating when he smiled.
He leaned back on one elbow and shrugged. “Ask him another question.”
“He doesn’t know what I’m saying.” He was a dog. A dog that Dane had lovingly trained, and that stupidly only made me more attracted to him.
“He understands a lot more than you think.”
I didn’t know what dogs knew, but I was willing to play his game because every interaction with Dane was like discovering another piece of the mystery that was uniquely him. “Hunter, are you hungry?”
He barked once and his tail thumped against the floor twice.
If I liked hairy, shedding animals, I would’ve admitted he was cute. “Hunter, why are you following me?”
He nudged my hand, leaving a cold wet mark on the back of my fingers.
I wiped my hand on my shirt.
Dane laughed.
I scowled. “This isn’t funny.”
A smile on his face, Dane agreed. “No, it isn’t. He’s a damn traitor.”
Hunter made a sound in his throat similar to a person saying aw-aww with an inflection in the middle.
“That’s right,” Dane taunted the dog. “I called you a traitor. What are you going to do about it?”
Hunter barked once and trotted over to Dane. His tail wagging, he got right up in Dane’s face.
“Nope.” Dane shook his head. “You had your chance.”
Hunter nudged Dane’s hand then put a paw on his leg.
Dane didn’t give the beast an inch. “Nice try.”
Hunter jumped up on the bed and put both of his front paws on Dane’s chest.
“You’re going to have to do better than that.” You could clearly see the love he had for the animal.
Hunter cried and tucked his muzzle against Dane’s neck.
Dane didn’t budge. “I paid your vet bill when you ate my damn socks.”
One of Hunter’s paws moved to Dane’s shoulder.
“I also let you chase every rabbit on the property.”
Hunter’s giant tongue came out and licked the side of Dane’s face.
Dane chuckled. “Fine, I forgive you.” He lay back on the bed and the canine stood over him and lick-bathed every inch of his face.
It was the cutest, most disgusting thing I’d ever seen. “You need a shower now more than me.”
Dane sat up and dislodged the hundred-pound beast as if he weighed nothing. “Is that an invitation?” He lifted his T-shirt and wiped his face, exposing a strip of his rock-hard abs.
My heart leapt to my throat and swirls of awareness I never thought I’d feel again fluttered around in my stomach. “No.”
The corner of his mouth curved up again. “You hesitated.”
I channeled all the attitude I could muster. “You wish.” I walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
My heart pounding, I leaned on the counter. Two deep breaths later, I turned on the shower and stripped.
The hot spray hit my body hard, but I didn’t have nearly the amount of soreness I had last night. My thighs looked worse, black and purple and yellowing at the edges, but they didn’t hurt as I soaped myself.
I tentatively washed my breasts even though the pulsing ache in my nipples had disappeared. They were still red, but the hurt was thankfully gone. Washing my hair with Dane’s shampoo, smelling his scent all around me, it made desire pool between my legs.
Inhaling, I dragged a finger through my folds. Wet that had nothing to do with the shower coated my finger, and my core throbbed with need. Despite Viktor’s vibrators, I wasn’t sore. At all. I’d been conditioned. A single touch and I was achy with need.
Ignoring the pulsing between my legs, because I’d also been conditioned to deny myself, I got out of the shower. I towel-dried my hair and didn’t bother combing out the slight waves. I also didn’t bother with makeup. Half of me thought it made me less attractive to Dane not to be made up, but the other half had me hoping it didn’t.
I walked into the bedroom and my heart skipped a beat when I saw my suitcase. Knowing he’d gotten it for me when he’d retrieved Hunter made me feel both grateful for his consideration and sad that I wouldn’t being staying here. I dressed in another one of his T-shirts I found in a drawer, and my own leggings. Sucking in a deep breath, I walked toward the kitchen.
Sitting at the kitchen table in front of two plates of pancakes, Dane immediately looked up. His gaze locked on mine, he tossed his phone on the table and stood.
My heart started to race.
In three strides, he closed the distance between us, and without a word, he pulled me into his arms. The scent that was uniquely him filled my head and sank into my heart.
Encircling me in his strong embrace, he simply held me.
My thoughts in overdrive, my fears and hopes and dreams all mingled into a fast reel of all my moments with him. Seeing him walk into his house for the first time. Hearing his voice as he held me in the dark. His hands as he handled a gun. Stapling his wound. His retreat when I told him to stop. His gentle touch. His mouth on me. His fingers pushing his seed back inside my body. His face when he looked at me shackled. His determination when he’d kneeled in front of me. All of it swirled together and made this moment possible, but none of it felt like this, like rightness and hope.
I wanted the moment to last forever.
“That is a proper good morning, beautiful,” he murmured, kissing the top of my head.
At the sound of his voice rumbling from his chest, tears sprung. It was so quick and unexpected, I didn’t stand a chance of stifling it. A sob broke free and too many emotions mixed with overwhelming gratitude and tears dripped down my cheeks.
Horrified, I tried to pull away.
His arms tightened. “No, sweetheart, not this time. I’m not letting you go. It’s okay. You’re okay. You’re safe.”
My tears stained his shirt as I desperately tried to regain control.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you ever again.” His hand brushed over my hair. “I’ll never hurt you, sweetheart.”
Everything he did hurt. It hurt because he knew what I needed before I did. It hurt because I wanted him so much. It hurt because a man who loves his dog like he did would love children, and that’s all I kept seeing—him as a father. I didn’t see him as the man who’d killed Viktor with his bare hands, or shot Peter. I saw him as the man who’d saved me from myself, and that made me cry harder.
“It’s okay, love. Let it out.” He stroked my back. “I’m right here.”
Oh God. “I am not crying,” I sobbed.
“I know. And I didn’t freeze like a fucking pussy when you kicked me in the chest.”
I didn’t want to laugh. I didn’t even want to smile, but a hiccupped half cry, half laugh escaped.
He pulled back just enough to look down at me, and his lips turned up. “You think that’s funny?”
His attempt at a joke staunched the worst of the tears, and I sucked in a deep breath. “I didn’t aim for your stitches.”
“Lucky me.” His thumbs brushed at my tears and his expression turned serious. “You okay?”
No. But for the first time in five years, I started to feel like I would be. “Yeah.” The tears, his arms, they were more cathartic than any drug.
Hunter nudged my leg and cried. We both looked down at him.
“Pretty sure he thinks he’s keeping you.” Dane scratched behind his ears.
I swiped at my face and inhaled. “He’s just been deprived of female company for so long, he doesn’t know how to act.”<
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Rich and intoxicating, Dane laughed. “Probably. Come on, you need to eat.” He led us to the table, but before we could sit, a knock sounded at the front door.
My hand automatically went to my gun in my back waistband. I spared her a glance. “Wait for me in the bedroom.” Goddamn it, I needed to redo the security here. I hated not having a fucking visual on the hall or lobby.
Hunter’s hackles went up and he let out a low growl.
Irina looked nervously toward the door. “Who is it?”
“Probably Luna.” Except he would’ve called first. He knew better than to show up unannounced. “Get in the bedroom. There’s a 9mm in the nightstand.”
The little color she’d had in her cheeks when she’d come out of the shower disappeared. “Am I going to need it?”
Only if I was fucking dead, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. “No.”
The knock sounded again.
“Go.” I tipped my chin toward the bedroom. “I’ll handle this. Hunter, go with Irina.” I waited till she was secure. Then I went to the front door and glanced out the peephole.
Fucking hell. I opened the door. “What do you want, Jacek?”
A grin cut through his grim expression.
I realized my mistake. “Jagger,” I corrected.
“You’re losing your touch, Marek. You should’ve had it on the first try.”
“You never look serious.”
His hand rubbed his chin and he looked serious again. “I don’t?”
“You know you don’t. What do you want?”
He glanced around my place then his gaze landed on my kitchen table. “Breakfast for two? I never pegged you as the type.” He laughed. “Me personally? I like to—”
“Cut to the chase, Black.” I didn’t have time for his bullshit.
“I lost one of your girls last night,” he said casually.
Shit. “They aren’t my girls.”
“Well, she’s gone now, and incidentally, I heard one of the guards escaped ATF custody.”
Fuck me. “When?”
“I don’t know. You should ask your security expert friend that, or Neil. He seemed chummy with the ATF guy. Which is funny because I thought he was former military, not a Fed.” Jagger nodded toward the ocean. “You like my view?”
“It’s not your fucking view.” I grabbed my cell out of my pocket and scrolled to Luna’s number.
“It was my view before it was yours. Who do you think backed Christensen Construction when Neil bid on the old dump that was here before he tore it down and rebuilt?”
Christ. I’d made this asshole richer by buying this place?
“Smart investment going for the penthouse.” Jagger slapped my shoulder then dropped to my chair at the table. “Looks good. You made buttermilk pancakes?”
If he touched them, I’d consider shooting him. “Get to the point.”
Jagger laughed. “Don’t tell me you set a place at the table for your dog?”
“Fuck you.” I dialed Luna.
Luna picked up immediately. “I’m coming up. I just pulled into your garage.”
“Who else did you give my elevator code to?” I snapped.
“No one.” He sounded surprised. “Who’s there?”
“Black.”
“Which one?”
“Does it fucking matter?”
“Probably not.” A car door slammed shut. “Be up in a sec.” Luna hung up.
Jagger smiled. “In case you were wondering, I know the elevator code because I owned the building before Neil paid me off.”
Luna walked in without knocking. “You’ve got shit for security, Black.”
Jagger smirked. “I’ve got great security, where I need it.” He leaned back in my chair and put his hands behind his head.
“You needed it last night,” Luna quipped.
“Hey, I’m not in the business of keeping women against their will. I don’t have to. They want to leave, they leave.” Jagger shrugged. “But if they want to work, they know they won’t find a better gig anywhere.”
“You agreed to take them,” Luna countered. “Part of the deal was keeping them out of sight until shit settled down.”
“Yeah, about that. How were you going to keep it quiet about offing Fedorov then killing his bodyguards and taking his women?” Jagger glanced at me. “Coming in from the intracoastal on Christensen’s Cobalt wasn’t exactly stealth.” He looked back at Luna. “I thought you were supposed to be good at what you do.”
I only refrained from kicking him out because I needed information out of him. “We had no intention of not being seen.” Once we were inside.
Jagger smirked. “Like what? Bust down the front door and let them see you coming? My dick’s bigger than yours sort of thing?”
Luna’s hands went to his hips. “Which girl did you lose last night and when?”
“How should I know? It wasn’t like they told me their names.”
“Description,” I bit out.
“Blonde and hot.” Jagger glanced toward my closed bedroom door. “Kinda like Fedorov’s wife.”
Refraining from killing Jagger on the spot, I looked pointedly at Luna.
Luna clipped out a nod then addressed Jagger. “You taunt him again, you’re on your own. He’s out of patience and so am I. When did you notice she was missing?”
“Around ten last night. Before I opened the club, I stopped to check on them. I’d put them up in a couple apartments above the club, but they’d all migrated to one unit. Well, all except one. When I asked where number seven was, they just looked at me.”
“They don’t speak English.”
Jagger laughed. “Oh, they speak English, when they want to.”
Luna frowned. “They’re legal?”
Jagger smirked. “I didn’t say that.”
I was done with this conversation. “Tell us what you know or get the fuck out.”
“It’s not what I know. It’s what I don’t know,” Jagger countered.
“Which is?” Luna asked impatiently.
“Where the missing bodyguard is or how he got through my security.”
“Who says he got into your place?”
“One of the women told me last night. Well, more like this morning, anyway, irrelevant. Number five said the bodyguard came for number seven.”
Luna looked incredulous. “You fucking numbered them?”
Jagger shrugged. “I’m not like your cocky surfer friend, Talon. I couldn’t come up with seven nicknames on the spot.”
There was something more besides the security leak that he wasn’t telling us or he wouldn’t be here. “What’s the other problem?”
Jagger crossed his arms. “Fedorov’s deal was guns, not women, and those seven blondes? They’re not off the street. They were handpicked and someone paid a small fortune to get them here. I suppose it could’ve been Fedorov, but it also could’ve been someone else.”
I put it together before he finished speaking. “You don’t want that someone to come looking for them.”
Jagger nodded. “I don’t need that kind of attention at my club. I’m not equipped to handle it.”
Luna swore in Spanish. “I’ll take them. I’ll put them up at Luna and Associates until I can get them sent home, wherever the hell that is.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want them,” Jagger clarified. “I just don’t want anyone else coming after them. Or me for that matter.” He looked at me. “That’s where you come in.”
“No.” I didn’t fucking hesitate. “Not my specialty.”
“It’s exactly your specialty. You fix things. You coerce and use scare tactics and force when needed. I know what you’re capable of. Make the girls mine. That’s all I’m asking.”
“No.” No fucking way.
“I’ll double your normal fee,” Jagger offered. “Just find out where they came from and make sure I don’t have a problem.”
Luna looked between us.
“I said no.”
Irina stepped out of the bedroom with Hunter at her side. “You should do it.”
My gaze cut to hers. Then I took in every inch of her. “I’m not in procurement,” I ground out.
“They were already procured,” Luna interjected.
“They need a chance,” Irina said quietly.
I heard what she wasn’t saying. The women needed a chance like she’d been given a chance, but she was my priority now and the answer was still no. I rephrased. “I’m booked.” My focus was her now. Period.
Irina stepped up to my side and laced her fingers through mine. “I’m asking.” She squeezed my hand. “Will you please help them?”
I cataloged.
Blonde hair, blue eyes and the face of an angel.
Luna’s five o’clock shadow.
The muted colors of Jagger’s clothes.
Hunter’s defection as he stayed at Irina’s side.
The cold breakfast. The angle of the sunlight. The scent of sweat and woman on Jagger. The scent of gunpowder on Luna. My T-shirt covering her body. The concealed desperation behind Jagger’s request.
But none of it stood out like her hand in mine.
It was a victory I was unwilling to overlook.
I squeezed her hand back. “I’ll give it thirty-six hours.”
Relief washed across her face. “Thank—”
“On one condition,” I warned. “You stay with Luna in the secure apartments at Luna and Associates.” I glanced at Luna. “Double protection, twenty-four seven, extra perimeter and patrols.” Fedorov was dead, but I wasn’t taking any chances this time.
Luna nodded. “Copy.”
I looked at Jagger. “Triple the regular fee, Luna’s expenses, seven individual accounts funded at two-hundred K each, and you will never use my elevator again.” I didn’t need the fucking fee, and I could’ve set the women up with accounts myself, but his fucking comment about Hunter pissed me the hell off.
Jagger smiled for real. “You drive a hard bargain, but done.” He held his hand out.
I didn’t shake it. “If the women want out, they’re out.”
Jagger sobered and lowered his hand. “That was never an issue.”
“Then confirm it.”
He held his hands up in fake surrender. “They’re free to walk at any time and take their money. I’m assuming that’s who the seven accounts are for?”