Ace of Spades (Aces & Eights Book 3)

by Sandra Owens

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN “I’ll do it.” Nate had known she would, but he didn’t like it. He’d argued with Pauline when she’d suggested it. He also didn’t like the dread he saw in Taylor’s eyes. “Why don’t you think about it overnight before making a decision?” “No. I need to do this.” She came back to the sofa. “The sooner the better.” “I’ll set it up.” “Will you come with me?” “Of course.” There was no way he’d let her go through that alone. Surprising him, she stretched out her legs, resting her feet on this thigh. “Looking for a foot rub, tiger?” She smiled. “That would be nice.” The tension that had existed between them the past several days had eased in the last few minutes, but there was more they had to talk about. What he had to say would probably put them back on edge, and he almost let it go. He didn’t want to be at odds with her, but he owed it to her to tell her why they couldn’t be anything more than friends. “I missed that, you know.” “What’s that?” He stroked his thumb along the

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Nate covered Taylor’s mouth with his before she could ask any more questions. He was venturing into foreign territory with this woman, and it scared the living hell out of him. He never saw the same woman twice, or never had before Taylor. What was he supposed to do with this need to be with her? She took his breath away, and he didn’t know what to do with that either. She arched her body when he kissed his way down to her belly and then lower. Bewitched by everything about her, he stopped thinking. He loved the sounds she made, her sighs and moans and gasps. Yet, as he’d learned the first time they’d made love, she climaxed quietly, nothing more than an exhale of breath, and a shudder that traveled through her body like the wave of an ocean. “You’re so sexy when you come,” he said, crawling up her body. He grabbed a condom, ripping it open. She gave him a dreamy smile, her blue eyes soft and not quite focused. “But let’s see if I can make you scream.” His name. That w

  CHAPTER NINETEEN “I’m not crying.” Nate lifted her chin, peering at her red-rimmed eyes. “You were. Why?” He’d been ten minutes away from their field office when Alex had called, telling him that Taylor had freaked out over some flowers. At first, he’d thought his brother was pulling his chain. Taylor wasn’t a woman who would lose it over flowers. “What happened, Taylor?” he asked when she pulled her face away from his hand, taking a step back. Pink stained her cheeks, and knowing her, she was embarrassed. “Talk to me.” “I don’t know, okay? The flowers triggered a reaction, but I don’t know why.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Don’t you have someplace else to be besides the ladies’ room?” Yeah, he supposed he shouldn’t be in here, but he wasn’t leaving until he got to the bottom of why a vase of flowers had freaked her out. “You’re upset because they came from our killer?” That much he did know, since he’d read and taken a picture of the card that came with them before they were

  CHAPTER TWENTY Taylor hadn’t taken two steps inside Nate’s condo when he had her up against the wall, his body pressed hard on hers. “Is this what you want?” he said, staring down at her. “Yes, but I don’t want to think. About anything.” She brushed her thumb over his bottom lip. “Tonight, I’m at your mercy. I want it down and dirty, hot and hard.” “Mother of God, woman, you’re killing me.” His mouth took hers in a crushing kiss. It was impossible to think when he was devouring her as if she were the air he needed to breathe. A kiss so demanding that there wasn’t room in her mind for anything else but him and his mouth. He put his hand on her neck, splaying his fingers, holding her in place. His other hand drifted down to her hip, and he splayed his fingers there, too. All too soon, he stepped back, leaving her gasping for air. “Take off your jacket, Taylor.” She slipped it over her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor. His gaze went to her shoulder holster. “I never did get to see

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Taylor paused at the hospital-room door. Nate was braced against the wall, his eyes closed. Her mouth went dry. He was so beautiful that looking at him was sometimes painful because he would never belong to her. His eyes opened, his gaze landing on her. Awareness simmered through her blood as he focused on her. She could almost feel his fingers on her, his rough voice commanding her to come. Desire pulsed low in her stomach. She glanced over to see the cop watching her with appreciation in his eyes. “Let’s go,” Nate said, pushing away from the wall while giving the cop a hard stare. He put his hand on her lower back as they walked toward the elevator. She forced herself not to lean into the warmth of his palm. She was still unsettled by their conversation in the car and needed time to think. Although she hadn’t intended to start a conversation about exclusivity, it had been his comment that was playing havoc with her mind. I don’t bring women to my home hadn’t been a

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO The minute Taylor settled into a lounge chair, joining Lauren and Madison on the balcony, a black cat jumped onto her lap. “Well, hello. Who are you?” “That’s Hemingway,” Madison said. “He spends his day mostly sleeping in our bookstore window, then comes home with us at the end of the day.” “He alternates nights with us.” Lauren reached over to rub the cat behind his ears. “Tonight’s my night to have him.” Madison filled a glass with wine and handed it to Taylor. “It’s so weird. He actually knows his routine. If it’s his night with me, he follows me off the elevator when we reach the eighth floor. When it’s Lauren’s turn to have him, he waits for the door to open on the ninth floor.” “You’re a very smart kitty,” Taylor said, rubbing him behind the ears the way Lauren had, getting a loud purr from the cat. She’d love to have a cat, but couldn’t bear to leave an animal alone as much as she’d have to. Hemingway made three circles, then curled up on her lap. After the p

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE The address was a small ranch-style house in North Miami. Their backup team evacuated the residences on both sides of their target house and had secured the premises. “No one will blame you if you sit this one out,” Nate said quietly at her side. Taylor bit back her first retort. He wasn’t saying she wasn’t capable of being a part of this operation. “I’m good.” She’d had to fight to be in on the arrest, arguing that after what their perp had put her through, she had a right to be here. Nate had seemed to understand that, and after getting a nod from Rothmire, he’d agreed. And considering the whole team was here, she didn’t doubt they were all keeping an eye on her. “Then let’s do this.” Court and Alex were stationed at the back to make sure Tompkins didn’t try to run. She, Nate, and Rand approached the door. They split up, Rand on one side, her and Nate on the other. Nate fisted his hand and banged on the door. “FBI. Open up!” When there was no response, he banged

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Taylor stared into the monitor, right into Tompkins’s eyes. “I’ll always hate you for making me do this.” Smoke and mirrors. It had to work. She removed her gun from its holster, lifted it, met Nate’s steady gaze for a moment—seeing nothing but trust in them—then focused on the sliver of space he’d created between his right arm and his side. She pulled the trigger. He jerked as he slapped his hand to his chest. Red spread across his chest, splatters of red dotted his neck, and her knees almost gave out when he grunted, crumbling to the floor. It’s only ketchup. Just ketchup. With her gun still in her hand, she walked out of the room as Rand rushed in. She glanced back to see him kneeling next to Nate. “Christ, he’s dead,” Rand said. Even though she knew he wasn’t, hearing him say that about Nate made her want to vomit. In the hallway, she stopped in front of Alex. “Cameras out here?” she whispered. “No.” “Give me your knife,” she said, knowing the Gentry brothers al

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Nate took Taylor to her apartment. She’d fallen asleep within minutes of putting on her seatbelt. He was used to late hours, but three in the morning was way past her bedtime. She’d been magnificent tonight, but that hadn’t surprised him. She trained as hard as any of them and was as lethal. He figured his brain was warped for thinking that was pretty damn hot. They had some talking to do, but not tonight. She didn’t wake up when they arrived at her place. He grabbed her purse and ease
d out of the car. As he walked to her door, he took her keys out. After dropping the purse and keys on her kitchen counter, he returned to the car and scooped her into his arms. She mumbled something unintelligible, then snuggled her face into his neck. On reentering the apartment, he kicked the door closed. In her bedroom, he eased her onto the mattress, holding her up in a sitting position as he dropped to his knees in front of her. “Wake up, Taylor.” She blinked her eyes, then kept

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX “I warned you that if you stole one more beer, you’d regret it.” Nate stood toe-to-toe with Dirty Dan. Nate was ready to hurt someone, and Dirty Dan would do just fine. Dirty Dan smirked. “Like I never heard that from you before, but you’re all bark. I don’t think you have the balls to take me on.” He guzzled the rest of the stolen beer, then smacked his lips as he reached across the bar and refilled the mug. Rage filled Nate’s brain. He saw nothing but the asshole he was going to beat to a pulp. That’s right. Beat the shit out of him, boy, his father’s voice said in his head. Nate’s heart stopped, or at least it felt like it did. He wasn’t his fucking father. He stumbled back, and as he became aware of his surroundings again, he saw his brothers watching him, concern on their faces. Like a drunken man, he lurched away, heading for the office. “Knew you didn’t have the balls,” Dirty Dan called after him. Dirty Dan was wrong. He had the balls, he just chose not to use

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Once again, Nate sat in his car outside of the run-down house in Dunnellon. This was it, the day he’d get his answers. As he walked up to the door, he couldn’t decide if he hoped his mother was in that house or not. Before he could knock, the door opened, and Nate recognized Harmon Baker. The years hadn’t been kind to him. Dressed in stained overalls, a good twenty pounds underweight, and with a gray beard that looked like it needed a wash, the man Nate remembered being kind to them narrowed his eyes. “I wondered how long it’d take ya to come with yer questions,” he said in greeting as he came out onto the porch. “Expected ya years ago. Which Gentry brother are ya? Never could get ya boys straight in my head.” So Harmon remembered them. “I’m Nate, the oldest one.” He held out his hand to the old man. “The one got beat on the most,” Harmon said, shaking Nate’s hand. “Yer pa weren’t a good man.” Nate couldn’t argue with that. He eyed the door that had been left open

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Nate could breathe again. He’d never thought he would tell a woman he loved her, and when he finally had, her first word had been crap as coffee had dripped down her chin. About the time he’d decided to leave—to retreat and regroup—she’d started laughing and had insanely said that she couldn’t say the words back in a stained T-shirt. So instead of temporarily walking out—temporarily, because there was no way he was going to give up on her now that she owned his heart—he found himself laughing with her as she led him to her bedroom. “Oh, my flowers. I need them.” When she tried to return to the living room, he tugged on her hand. “Go on. I’ll get them.” He liked that she wanted them with her. At the florist shop, he’d considered roses again, but he’d done those already. And then he’d spied the wildflowers in a mason jar, and they’d seemed to be something she’d like. Halfway to her house, he’d had second thoughts, questioning his decision not to go with something fan

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE “It’s time for you boys to turn over Aces and Eights. With all that’s gone down with each of you, your faces are becoming too well known. You’ll still own the bar on paper, but no one will know that.” When Rothmire had mentioned a few weeks ago that he wanted to talk to them about something, Nate had assumed a new case was on the burner. He glanced at his brothers, seeing the same shock on their faces that he was sure was on his. Yet, as he let the idea sink in, he found that he had no desire to protest. A month ago, he would have fought tooth and nail against letting go of Aces & Eights. But that was before Taylor. And as his eyes shifted between his brothers’, he knew they were thinking the same thing. It would mean nights at home with their wives, or in his case, his girlfriend. Taylor had been living with him for two weeks now, and he’d never been happier. There wasn’t an inch of his condo that hadn’t been christened by the two of them. And now they were startin

  CHAPTER THIRTY “So you get to sleep with the boss,” Madison said, her amused eyes on Taylor. Taylor grinned. “Oh, yeah.” As the newly promoted special agent in charge of the Miami field office, Nate was now her boss. “And let me tell you, my boss is a very talented man.” She winked. God, was he ever! The man’s mouth—not to mention other parts of his body—was so, so very talented. Lauren laughed. “And so is his new intelligence analyst.” “Saying the same about his special agent in charge of investigations,” Madison said, a dreamy smile on her face. His brothers had been happy with their new assignments, Court as an intelligence analyst and Alex supervising their operations. Taylor thought it was a brilliant move on Nate’s part, but then she might be a bit prejudiced where her man was concerned. With Rothmire’s transfer to a troubled field office in the Midwest happening in three weeks, Nate had been offered his job. They’d talked late into the night about it. At first, he hadn’t been th

  EPILOGUE She’d found them! Kinsey Landon held her mother’s letter in her hand. She’d read it a hundred times or more in the past year, ever since learning she had brothers. Three of them, to be exact. “Alex, Court, and Nate,” she murmured, testing their names on her tongue for what was probably the hundredth time. It was strange that she knew about them, but they didn’t have a clue of her existence. The surprise was that they were the owners of a biker bar. That didn’t sound like men she’d want to know. But they were her brothers. Since finding them, she’d researched bikers, learning there were two kinds. The men and women—doctors, lawyers, businesspeople—who rode mostly on the weekends were one kind. Then there were the clubs, what the bikers referred to as the one-percenters. They were the outlaws of the motorcycle world, men who called their wives and girlfriends their “old ladies.” She snorted. Seriously? The Hell’s Angels came to mind, along with what little she’d heard of them—no

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Where to start? I’ve written enough acknowledgements that you’d think it would get easier. It doesn’t. With each book, there are more readers, friends, authors, and so on to thank. And with each book, I find myself more grateful for the support and encouragement given me. I keep expecting to wake up and discover that this wonderful journey I’m on is all a dream. I sure hope it’s not. First, I have an amazing family. Thank you, Jim, for your unwavering support and belief in me. Also, I really appreciate that you eat burnt dinners without complaint when I’m on deadline. Even better are all the dinners you cook for me. You will always be my hero. Love you! Since my first book was published in 2013, I’ve become friends with so many readers throughout the world, and I’m so in awe of that. I love our online chats about everything under the sun, but especially about books. I wish I could thank each one of you in person for loving my books. And to those who take the time to pos

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR Photo © 2015 Cat Ford-Coates Bestselling, award-winning author Sandra Owens lives in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Her family and friends often question her sanity but have ceased being surprised by what she might get up to next. She’s jumped out of a plane, flown in an aerobatic plane while the pilot performed death-defying stunts, gotten into laser-gun fights in Air Combat, and ridden a Harley motorcycle for years. She regrets nothing. Sandra is a Romance Writers of America Honor Roll member and a 2013 Golden Heart Finalist for her contemporary romance Crazy for Her. In addition to her contemporary romantic-suspense novels, she writes Regency stories. You can connect with Sandra through her website, www.sandra-owens.com, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SandraOwensAuthor.

  ALSO BY SANDRA OWENS

  Aces & Eights

  Jack of Hearts

  King of Clubs

  K2 Team Series

  Crazy for Her

  Someone Like Her

  Falling for Her

  Lost in Her
>
  Only Her

  Regencies

  The Duke’s Obsession

  The Training of a Marquess

  The Letter

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2018 by Sandra Owens

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781503948990

  ISBN-10: 1503948994

  Cover design by Letitia Hasser

  This book is dedicated to the best cheerleaders in the world, the Sandra’s Book Salon gang. Ladies, your friendship and support, along with the fun we have in our group, means the world to me. You haven’t been at all patient in waiting for Nate’s book, and I love that you’ve been dying to see Nate get his happily ever after. So here you go, my friends.

  Enjoy!

  CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN