Instantly, people started screaming. Glass shattered against the floor. Waiters dipped back into the kitchen and bartenders hid under their bars. Pitbull glanced back to see Zero and Mozart were busy showing people to the exit.
“Ahh yes—the infamous CIRO.” Penrod teased.
Pitbull jerked around and met Anke’s gaze. “Anke, look at me.”
“Shut up!” Penrod barked.
Anke bowed her head.
“Butterfly! On me!” Pitbull barked.
“Am I talking to myself?” Penrod barked. “I’m the one with a hostage.”
“Is everyone clear?” Pitbull asked.
“Yeah,” Beast replied.
“Okay, Beast, you can stay, the rest of you leave,” Pitbull said.
“Pit…” Zero complained.
“Go. It’s all right.” Beast ordered.
Pitbull listened for the footsteps until they were gone then cleared his throat. “I know you wanted your army, Anke. But right now, a Pitbull and a Beast will have to do. Okay?”
She nodded as best she could and he smiled. “The thing about this whole situation, Penrod, is if Anke doesn’t walk out of this building, neither will you.”
“I don’t care,” Penrod said.
But Pitbull knew fear. He glanced down at Anke and she was relatively calm, something he had to reward her for later. But Penrod was silently shitting his pants. “Do you expect me to be afraid? Penrod, I did my job. Your friend’s life was lost because he was dumb as dirt. You were a cop. Even if you no longer wore a badge, your responsibility—”
“Don’t you dare lecture me about my responsibilities!”
“You’re right,” Pitbull said. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to let Anke walk out of here. Afterward, Beast is going to go outside and make sure Anke is all right. As for you and I—well, the two of us are going to have ourselves a little chat.”
Penrod backed up, dragging, Anke with him.
Pitbull lifted his right hand and pushed the object that had been all but hidden in his palm up to the tips of his fingers. He turned the grenade, ensuring Penrod could see it. “I really hate repeating myself.” He growled.
It was hard for Anke to remains till. She’d never heard Pitbull that angry before. The coldness in his voice sent waves of fear through her. She bit back a whimper threatening to leave her hips. People always told her not to show fear to wild animals. And besides, as long as she had her eyes on Pitbull, the beat of her heart, she was fine.
Then he held up a grenade and her whole world sank
“Pit?” Anke called.
“Shut up!” Penrod screamed, tightening his arm across her throat. “Why couldn’t you have just died like I wanted you to, huh? Shit, women are such fucking pests! They never do what they’re told!”
“Penrod!” Pitbull barked.
The man behind her jerked to. His rambling stopped and the gun against her head shook with his fright. It seemed Pitbull had put the fear of god in him—not enough to let him give up, but enough to make him focus.
How had she managed to get herself into this? All Anke had wanted to do was find her friend. She just wanted to make sure Claudia was okay. Now she was stuck as a pan in a deadly game of Revenge she never wanted to be a part of.
“Ms. Fischer and I are going to take a little walk,” Penrod said, inching to the side and pulling Anke with him.
“That’s funny,” Beast finally spoke. “He thinks he’s getting out of here.
“You do remember how CIRO works, right Penrod?” Pitbull asked.
“Where’s she?” Penrod asked, looking around.
Anke felt it the moment he sunk down behind her and she could feel his breath disgusting against her neck. “Who?” Anke asked.
“The sniper!” Penrod shrieked.
“Women are pests, right, Penrod?” Anke pushed. “They never do as they’re told so maybe Barbie is home sipping on a margarita while watching reality TV. Who knows?”
But Penrod remained hidden behind her. “I know she’s around here somewhere.”
“And the best part of this whole thing?” Beast growled softly from where he stood. “Is the only way you’ll know where she is, is when she sends a bullet through your skull.”
“You seem to know everything about me.” Pitbull tossed the grenade up and caught it. “You remember what I do for CIRO right?”
Anke closed her eyes, expecting a loud bang.
Nothing happened but the soft slap of Pitbull catching the device again.
“I’ll kill her!” Penrod called, tightening his grip around Anke’s neck. “I’ll kill her!”
Pitbull’s eyes darkened. “Let me refresh your memory. I’m the last person on this team you want to make angry.”
“Oh, here we go—is this the whole, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry speech? You’re no Hulk.”
A dark smile traced Pitbull’s lips, scaring Anke to her core.
“You’re right. When the Hulk breaks things, you can usually put them back together.” Pitbull’s voice was hard. “I don’t smash. I make things go boom!”
Pitbull tugged a silver part off the grenade and tossed it. Anke screamed and surged forward while bringing her elbow back—hard. It connected with her captor and though his yowled in pain, she didn’t care enough to look back to see where she hit him. All Anke knew was that suddenly, she was free. Swinging around, she kicked him as hard as she could in his shin then ran to Pitbull. If she was going to die, it would be in his arms.
But no loud bang came. Instead, Pitbull pushed his body before her own, and lifted a black gun toward a shaking Penrod who know held a grenade in his hand.
“Let’s try this again,” Pitbull said. “Put your hands where I can see them.”
“But the grenade!” Penrod shrieked, dropping it and covering his face.
Anke stuck her head around Pitbull’s body and looked at the grenade on the ground. She may not know much about the things but they only had seconds to go off. At least she was pretty sure that was how it worked.
“We’re going to try this one more time.” Pitbull snarled. “Let me see your hands.”
While sobbing, Penrod put his hands behind his head and slipped to his knees. He was muttering something to himself as Pitbull approached him. When he pulled a pair of cuffs from the back of his waist, he extended them to Anke.
“Would you do the pleasure, Butterfly?” He asked.
Anke giggled and accepted the handcuffs. Though she would rather be using them on Pitbull, she took great enjoyment in wrapping the cold steel around Penrod’s wrists.
17
Pitbull paced the interrogation room, waiting for them to escort Claudia in. She’d been transferred to a ward called Purgatory. It was where those with charges pending were held until they were either officially charged or released. Webber had suggested moving her there and had conveniently “lost” her paperwork. No papers bought CIRO some time to square Penrod away with a couple of his henchmen found lurking around the location.
He’d spent the night in Anke’s arms. She’d been jumpy all night. The only time she calmed was when he stormed her body. She focused on him then, on their pleasure, on whispering his name like a soft caress from the wind. Pitbull didn’t mind. Anything she wanted in those moments, in the next eternity, he’d give to her.
The sound of footsteps brought him back to reality and he turned to the door. A guard escorted a restrained Claudia in and placed her in the chair.
“You can remove the restraints,” Pitbull said.
“Sir…”
“Look at me,” Pitbull said. “Do I really look like I need her restrained?”
The guard didn’t look convinced but he undid Claudia’s handcuffs and left, closing the door behind him. Pitbull sat across from her. Claudia didn’t meet his eyes but he could tell she was crying.
“Slim…”
“You want me to go.” She sniffled. “Out of your life..”
Pitbull shook
his head. “What I want is for you to stop getting yourself into these kinds of messes—sure this one really had nothing to do with you. You were just a pawn in someone’s sick little game.”
“What?”
“Long story.” Pitbull exhaled. “I’ll explain it all later. But you’re worried about what I want. What I want is to have my big sister back. What I want—what I want is to be able to call you and talk to you about what’s going on in my life. To threaten your boyfriends into treating you right because they know I have guns and I have connections that can drop a missile on their cars from outer space. What I want—Claudia—what I’ve always wanted is you. But at some point, you became so caught up in your own hurt, refusing to reach out to anyone and letting the dark swallow you. I was reaching out to you, hoping you would grab my hand but you wouldn’t reach back.”
“I…” She stopped. “I just…”
“Do you hear what I’m saying, Slim? I can’t save you if you don’t want to save yourself.” Pitbull waited. “Look at me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Claudia…” Pitbull walked around the side of the desk and hunched down beside her. He pressed a tender palm to her cheek. “Look at me.”
Finally, she met his gaze, her eyes filled with tears. His heart broke then and he helplessly pulled her into his body. It seemed being tender to her caused the floodgates to burst open and she sobbed openly while clinging to the back of his shirt. Not knowing how else to help, he held onto her, glad to have his sister in his arms but saddened by the state of it all.
“We’re going to have to grow from this,” Pitbull said.
She nodded into his shoulder.
“Okay.” He set her back. “When I leave this room, the guards are going to come back. They’re going to give you your release papers and escort you to the doors. Anke and I will be waiting for you outside.”
She sniffled. “You and Anke…”
“Right now, we’re seeing each other,” Pitbull said. “I don’t know what we are beyond that because we haven’t had a chance to talk about it all yet. But don’t worry about all of us now. One step at a time.”
“All right.”
He touched her cheek again, offered her a small smile before kissing her forehead. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Okay.”
Epilogue
Anke sat around with everyone—the entire CIRO team as well as Miracle, and Claudia. Crash had officially gotten his badge as a member of the team to everyone’s excitement. Anya and Eden were busy playing a video game on Crash’s massive television while the adults talked.
It’d been three months since the entire ordeal and it seemed everyone was healing. Her and Pitbull still hadn’t had a real date and at the rate things were going, she wasn’t sure they would. But she had been happy with the after-events. Pitbull has cherished every moment he’d spent with her thus far—she knew he did.
But things hadn’t been silent. CIRO was finally given the go-ahead to begin training in order to being reinstated. The training hadn’t all in some building somewhere. CIRO had been covering for another team from time to time as well. They’d stepped up to fill the void while CIRO had been sidelined.
Though it terrified her, Anke had Miracle and the two of them were increasingly becoming friends. She learned from Miracle’s resilience and strength.
“When Pitbull goes on a call,” Miracle had told her. “Give him a kiss, hug him tightly and remind him he is not allowed to not come home again.”
Anke had chuckled, but each time when Pitbull was called out, she found herself doing precisely as Miracle had suggested.
Laughter erupted through the room before Pitbull took her hand and led her into a private space. It seemed like a playroom for the kids, but she couldn’t focus on. The seriousness in Pitbull’s eyes held her attention.
“What’s wrong?” Anke asked.
“Nothing is wrong—I just—I wanted to ask you out on a date.”
Anke smiled. “Really? Okay, go ahead.”
“Anke Fischer, would you go out on a date with me?”
“I don’t know, Daniel Hunt.” Anke rested her hands akimbo. “You play with grenades for a living. But, I could be persuaded.”
He smirked at her while pulling in close and hauling her into his large frame. “Really?” Pitbull kissed her neck, just beneath her right ear. “Let me see now.”
She giggled and tangled he arms around his back. “I’m waiting.” Anke whispered.
He kissed her deeply, sucking her tongue into his mouth and sending fire through her core. Her knees wobbled. Pitbull held her tighter against his chest and lifted his head.
“What do you say?” Pitbull asked. “You. Me. A quiet dinner at a nice restaurant?”
Anke shifted. “Well, I was thinking a dark movie where, if your hand just happens to go up my skirt…”
“Bad girl.” Pitbull tapped her butt. “How about this? I take you to dinner tomorrow then after I bring you home, you can do whatever you want to my body.”
Anke trembled. The thought of having control in his bed again was amazingly titillating to her. She lifted her eyes to his, hoping he saw the same fire in them as she saw in his. “Deal.”
The next night, Anke got dressed with Claudia’s help. When she looked in the mirror, her hair was pinned up with side swept bangs. Her make-up was minimal with a dusting of eye shadow, a little liner and lip gloss. She wasn’t huge on make up to begin with. The little black dress she wore was new, but it hugged her body beautifully. Claudia threw a red shawl about her shoulders and Anke smiled.
“Are you sure you’re good with this,” Anke asked. “With Pit and I.”
Claudia smiled. “Positive. No matter the relationship between my brother and I, I know he’s a good man. And you deserve a good man, Anke.”
“Thanks, Slim.” Anke giggled before hugging her friend. “It’s so good to have you back.”
Claudia smiled. “Go. Daniel should be waiting.”
“Okay, mother.” Anke teased. After gathering her clutch and sliding her feet into her heels, she hurried out the door. She stopped suddenly at the top of the stairs when Pitbull turned to face her. The suit he wore draped over his large body perfectly. He could pass for one of those suit models in the glossy magazine she and Claudia used to skim through at the supermarket.
“Wow,” Anke whispered. “You look—are you sure I deserve you, Daniel?”
He began moving toward me. “I could ask you the same thing. You, in that dress takes my breath away.”
She blushed. “Tonight, when we come home, I’ll take it off and see if your breath comes back.”
Pitbull laughed out loud before kissing her nose. “Careful, Anke. I could be falling in love with you.”
She tapped his bum, kissed his mouth then extricated herself from his arms. As she descended the stairs, she flung over her shoulders. “Could be? Well, stick around kid. I have an eternity to wear you down.”
Anke smirked.
Pitbull only laughed harder. “Trust me, my sweet. We don’t need that much time for me to love you…”
THE END
More books by Kendra Mei Chailyn
Beast - Special Forces Operation Alpha
Barbie - Special Forces Operation Alpha
Someone Like You (also in audio)
Kiss it Better
Until You
Rock Me Tonight
Find Kendra Mei online
Website – https://kadiantracey.wix.com/romancenorth
Twitter - @kendramechailyn
IG: @willwryteforfood
Author group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/meikins/
As you know, this book included at least one character from Susan Stoker’s books. To check out more, see below.
Delta Force Heroes Series
Rescuing Rayne (FREE!)
Rescuing Aimee
Rescuing Emily
Rescuing Harley
Marrying Emily
Rescuin
g Kassie
Rescuing Bryn
Rescuing Casey
Rescuing Sadie
Rescuing Wendy
Rescuing Mary (Oct 2018)
Rescuing Macie (April 2019)
Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Series
Justice for Mackenzie (FREE!)
Justice for Mickie
Justice for Corrie
Justice for Laine (novella)
Shelter for Elizabeth
Justice for Boone
Shelter for Adeline
Shelter for Sophie
Justice for Erin
Justice for Milena
Shelter for Blythe
Justice for Hope (Sept 2018)
Shelter for Quinn (TBA)
Shelter for Koren (TBA)
Shelter for Penelope (TBA)
SEAL of Protection Series
Protecting Caroline (FREE!)
Protecting Alabama
Protecting Fiona
Marrying Caroline (novella)
Protecting Summer
Protecting Cheyenne
Protecting Jessyka
Protecting Julie (novella)
Protecting Melody
Protecting the Future
Protecting Alabama’s Kids (novella)
Protecting Kiera (novella)
Protecting Dakota
New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Tennessee where she lives, but this all American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, Indiana and Texas. She’s married to a retired Army man who now gets to follow her around the country.
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