Boomer nodded his agreement. “It’s a possibility, but there were other pictures from this property in the album. He picked the ones in front of the house for a reason.”
They spent the next twenty minutes searching above and below ground, and Kat made several calls to her aunt whenever they had questions. Frustrated, but unwilling to give up, Boomer jumped into the basement.
Devon walked over to where his teammate landed on two feet and held out his hand. “Let me see the photo again.”
“Here.” He gave his boss the picture and they examined it together. Young Ivan was standing at the corner of the house, where the front and chimney sides met. Nothing stood out, and Devon turned it over to the writing on the back.
“Fuck.” Boomer threw his hands up in irritation and spun around in a circle. “Ivan couldn’t fucking say ‘X’ marks the spot?”
The others mumbled in agreement as he stood facing what was left of the fireplace on the first floor. There had to be something they were missing. He tilted his head back and stared at the sky as if it held the answers. The morning sun was still over his right shoulder. Son of a bitch! He quickly checked the compass on his military watch and then stared up at the chimney again.
“Holy shit! I think I’ve got it.” Praying his epiphany was right, he scrambled up the stairs to the backyard and jogged around the foundation to the right.
“What?” Devon was on his heels with Marco not much further behind. “What is it?”
The three of them stopped and gazed at the partially damaged brickwork, but only Boomer understood what he was looking at. “This side of the house is facing northwest.” He took the photo back from Devon. “It says ‘NW dash X’. Northwest. And look at the upper left corner before the chimney narrows…there’s an ‘X’ on that brick. It’s like a crossword puzzle, I think. I remember Ivan doing them all the time…in ink! ‘17D dash 24A’ Seventeen down and twenty-four across.”
As Marco stepped up to the bricks and began counting down and across, Devon smacked Boomer on the back. “I’ll tell Ian not to bother with the crossword dictionary as your Christmas present.”
He snorted then yelled for Kat to join them. She was skirting the foundation when Marco pulled out his Leatherman knife. With her phone to her ear, she gaped at the trio clustered close to the brick wall. “Aunt Irina, I’ll call you back.” She disconnected the call. “What is it? Did you find something?”
“Nice code-breaking, Baby Boomer, the brick here is loose.” Marco slid the blade into the mortar cracks and wiggled it a few times. When the brick was out far enough, he used his fingers to pry it the rest of the way and stepped aside. “You solved it, you get to put your hand in there.”
The opening went further than the brick had and Boomer shivered as he thought about all of the creepy-crawlers which might be in the dark crevice—spiders were not one of his favorite things. Peering into the small space, he announced, “I think there’s something in there.” Reaching in, his hand found a small shelf inside and sitting on it was a long, round piece of plastic. He pulled the object out and glanced at the others. An old Pepsi bottle with a piece of paper rolled up and tucked inside was apparently their next clue. “Why do I suddenly get the urge to sing ‘Message In A Bottle’ by The Police?”
Kat took it from him and with a turn, unscrewed the cap. Using her pinkie she was able to slide the note out and then unrolled it. Ivan Maier’s handwriting appeared. “Is he kidding me? Really, dad? Another bunch of numbers? God, even in death the man can be infuriating! He’s lucky I still love him.”
Taking the paper back from her, Boomer handed it to Marco. “Looks like routing and account numbers. Think Egghead can find it?”
“Is whiskey wet?” he retorted, as he pulled his phone from his pocket and brought up the number he needed.
“Don’t tell him I asked, he’ll go on an hour long tangent.”
“Try a five-hour tangent. Egghead? Got a job for you.”
* * *
Twenty minutes later, they were all headed back to Charlotte with Devon driving the lead car. In Benny’s passenger seat, Kat stared out the window, still in a state of disbelief. Brody, whoever he was, had been able to trace the numbers to a bank and an account in the Cayman Islands without any trouble. From what he was able to figure out, Ivan Maier had opened the secret account three years before the hit was put out on him and his family. The initial deposit had been a mere one thousand dollars with no other activity until the day fifteen million dollars was transferred in from a bank in Switzerland. Since then, the money had just sat there collecting interest to a grand total of twenty-three million dollars and change.
It was obvious her father had planned his revenge ahead, in case he ever needed to go through with it. While he never touched a cent of the money, two years after he and Kat had settled into Portland, he’d contacted the bank and named her as a joint account holder. Kat was a millionaire on paper, but the money was tainted with the blood of her mother, brother, and anyone else those bastards had killed or hurt in the name of greed. And she wanted no part of it.
“Now what do we do? I mean, I don’t want to hand the money back over to criminals, but I’ll do it if it means I get my life back.”
“First things first. We’ll head back to the Sawyers’ and get the rest of the team on a conference call with our FBI contact. We’ll figure this out, I promise you, baby.” He brought her hand, which he’d been holding to his mouth, and kissed her knuckles. “I promise. Then you and I are going to get to know each other all over again.” Leering at her, he licked her fingers. “Over and over and over again.”
Kat groaned then giggled. “We have people trying to kidnap me, with probably no qualms about killing you and your team if you stand in their way. I have over twenty-three million dollars in ill-gotten gains in a bank in the Cayman Islands, and you’re thinking of sex.”
“Kitten, when it comes to you, I’m always thinking of sex.” Benny froze, then moaned and smacked the back of his head on the seat’s headrest. “Shit!”
“What’s wrong?”
“I forgot my dad’s birthday was yesterday. I never called him. Shit.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m sure he’ll understand. Weren’t they going to the Billy Joel special last night?”
“Yeah. We’re almost at the Sawyers’. I’ll call him when we get there.”
“Will you tell him happy birthday from me, too?”
Benny glanced at her before his eyes returned to the road “Of course, baby. But I’m sure he’d love to hear it directly from you. My folks have always loved you.” And she had always loved them. After returning to Sarasota Wednesday evening, Rick had told his wife about Kat’s miraculous return and she’d called Benny’s cell phone right after their pizza dinner in the motel. Kat and Eileen Michaelson had laughed and cried over the phone for about twenty minutes before promising to see each other as soon as possible.
Kat’s smile grew wider as he pulled into the long drive, waiting behind Devon for the electronic gate to open. They had reached their temporary home. “I’ve always loved them, too. I still remember the barbeques at your house when your dad’s team returned home from wherever they’d been. Those are some of my favorite memories from back then.”
Snorting, he put the car in park. “You were just hot for the guys on my dad’s team. So were my cousins, Jessica and Vicki.”
“Oh my God, I forgot all about them. How’re they doing?”
“Jess is in California working for some big-shot Hollywood producer and Vicki is married to a cop in New York and is a pediatric nurse.”
“Wow.” They climbed out of the car at the same time. “That’s great. I’m happy for them. Do you see them at all?”
He shrugged and pulled out his phone. “Not as much as we’d like. The last time we were all together was about a year and a half ago at Vicki’s wedding.”
Before making the call, Benny escorted Kat inside. While there was a fence surrounding the entire
property, she knew he felt better if she was out of sight. Following her up to their bedroom to pack up once more, he hit the speed-dial for his dad’s cell. “Hey, Pop. Happy belated birthday. Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to call you.”
* * *
Rick Michaelson’s deep voice came over the line. “No problem, son. How is everything going? You all right?”
Boomer filled him in on what had happened since they last spoke two days ago and assured him, despite Jake being injured, everything else seemed to be falling into place. Now they had to figure out what to do with the money and how to get the Russians’ target off Kat’s back for good.
“You need me?”
Sighing, he sat on the bed while Kat began to gather her things from the bathroom. “Not up here, Pop. We have one of Chase’s pilots heading up to Charlotte to bring us home. We’ll be having a team pow-wow in the morning if you want to take a ride up, but it’s up to you.”
“Margaret wants to take us out for breakfast for my birthday in the morning, so I’ll head up after we eat. Figure I’ll get to you around fourteen hundred. Sound good?”
“That’s cool. Tell Aunt Margaret I said hello. Ian is getting in touch with Keon, and Carter has been hitting up his contacts, so maybe we’ll have a plan by then.” Kat walked back into the room looking lost and confused over everything that had transpired. A thought occurred to Boomer. “Why don’t you bring mom with you, so she can see Kat? They can visit with Angie, Jenn, and Kristen.”
Her mouth turned upward and she nodded enthusiastically while his father agreed it was an excellent idea. He let Kat say a quick ‘happy birthday’ before she handed the phone back to him and began to fold her clothes into her duffel bag. After Rick said his goodbyes, Boomer hung up and hooked his finger into a belt loop on her jeans. Pulling her in between his legs, his eyes met hers. “You okay? You know I’m not going to let anything happen to you, right?”
This time when she nodded, it wasn’t in delight. Her gaze shifted to the side and he knew something was bothering her. “Kitten, listen to me.” He waited until she was looking at him again. “I know with everything going on, the last thing you want to hear from me is a bunch of D/s rules. But one thing I’m going to insist on from this point on is honesty. I need you to be honest and tell me what you’re thinking and feeling.”
“About what?”
He shrugged then pulled her closer. “About anything and everything. I want to know when and why you’re happy, sad, scared, excited…horny.” She giggled while he smirked and waggled his eyebrows at her. “There’s the smile I was looking for. But I mean it, baby, talk to me. Tell me what’s going on in your pretty little head.”
Biting her bottom lip, she pushed on his shoulders until he was laying down the bed with his feet still on the floor. She climbed on top of him and straddled his hips with her knees. Boomer sensed, despite their position, she needed to say something important and he rested his hands on her waist.
“I’m scared.”
The words came out on a whisper and he almost didn’t hear them. “About what, baby? I told you, the boys and me are not letting those bastards anywhere near you. I’d die first.”
Kat’s eyes widened and filled with tears. He could have kicked himself in the ass at that very moment.
“Shit, Kitten. That’s not what I meant. I mean, it is what I meant, but nothing is going to happen to me. I promise. Ian, Devon, and the rest of the team, we’re damn good at what we do. We’re not going to let anything happen to you.” He rubbed his knuckles up and down her sides. “I just got you back, and I’ll be damned if someone comes between us ever again.” Tell her, his mind yelled at him, tell her you love her! But he couldn’t. Not yet. She wasn’t ready for that yet. But soon. Soon she was going to know she belonged to him. And he belonged to her. She was the only woman who would ever hold his heart in the palms of her hands.
She was staring at her hands where they touched his chest. “I’m just scared someone else will get hurt because of me. Jake could have lost his eye.”
“And he could’ve been killed a thousand times over on one of our missions. He could be hit by a bus walking across a street tomorrow. It’s the way life is, baby, you should know it better than anyone. But we will protect you, and whether you agree with it or not, your life comes before the team’s. Everyone one of them will tell you that. It’s who we are and who we trained to be. And when this is all over, you and I…I want a future with you, Kat. The future I never thought I’d have.”
“I want that, too, but I can’t bear the thought of losing you. So if you get hurt,” she clenched her fists, taking his T-shirt with them, “I’m going to kick your ass, you hear me?”
“Damn, you’re fucking sexy as sin.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m serious, Benny.”
Before she realized what was happening, he sat up and pushed her down to the side so she was halfway across his lap and face first into the comforter. Lifting his palm, he let it slap down on her ass cheek. Not too hard, but enough to make it sting.
“Ouch! That hurt!” She reached back with her hands to cover her backside. Since this was new to her and they weren’t actually playing at the moment, he let her. But when she looked over her shoulder at him, he saw heat in her gaze and his cock stirred.
“It was supposed to hurt, Kitten. The next rule is…no rolling your eyes at your Dom. That and sarcasm are the fastest ways to get a spanking.” He helped her to stand. “And the only thing saving you from a proper spanking is we have to head to the airport soon, so finish packing while I grab my stuff.” He got to his feet as well, and patted her ass. “But real soon, my hand and your butt are going to get very well acquainted, and you’ll be begging me to let you cum. Trust me.”
Ignoring her gaping mouth, he began to gather his things, chuckling to himself. Oh yeah, teaching her was going to be fun.
Chapter 16
Kat was trying to concentrate on reading Leather & Lace, but was finding it very hard to not replace Master Xavier with Benny in her mind. Master X was paddling Rebecca for lying by omission. She hadn’t told him she’d been getting death threats, and he’d found out when someone tried to run her off the road. Kat imagined she was the book’s female lead, draped over a spanking bench, and tied down with her bare ass in the air. Master X/Benny was pausing after several strikes and caressing her red-hot cheeks. The fictional heat and pain were going straight to Kat’s pussy and making it throb. Oh, she knew Rebecca was crying and not enjoying her punishment, but Kat was remembering how the sting of Benny’s quick smacks had startled her both times. And then they had made her wet. Wet and wanting more.
She squirmed a little in her first-class style seat on the private jet taking them back to Tampa. They’d had some time to kill before the plane landed in Charlotte to retrieve them, so Devon had taken them to one of his favorite places for lunch. It was a sports bar, which she hadn’t minded, having grown up watching almost every sports game her brother and Benny had played in high school. In the fall, it’d been football, followed by hockey in the winter. Then springtime came and Alex had pitched while Benny played third base. Kat had always been on the sidelines, cheering and giggling with her girlfriends over how hot the guys all looked in their uniforms. But unlike some of her friends, Kat had paid attention to the games and learned enough to be able to hold her own when it came to men talking about sports.
Devon had introduced her to the main reason he’d pick that particular restaurant—the hamburgers. Kat almost ordered a house salad, but the men had all insisted she get a burger, telling her they were the best ones she would ever have in her life. When she gave in, Benny had smiled and squeezed her knee under the table. She knew he was worried about her weight loss, which was still noticeable, but she had to admit, it felt nice knowing he wanted to take care of her.
Devon and Marco had filled her in on some more funny stories about Benny while he’d rolled his eyes and tried to put a different spin on things. It’d been obv
ious he was very close to these men, respected them, and valued their friendship. A pang of loss hit her again and she wondered if Alex and Benny would’ve still been best friends if things had turned out differently for everyone. She liked to think so, and then wondered how the boyfriend/girlfriend thing would have worked out between her and Benny.
“What are you thinking so hard about, Kitten? You almost have steam coming out your ears.”
Benny sat beside her and took her hand in his. She shrugged then remembered what he’d said about honesty. “Just a bunch of what-ifs. I was wondering, if my father had never gotten mixed up with Volkov, how our lives would have turned out. Yours, mine, and Alex’s. Would you and I still have been together?”
His thumb rubbed the back of her hand in soothing circles. A sad smile appeared on his handsome face . “I want to say ‘yes’, but honestly I don’t know. I’d like to think so, but we’ve both changed so much in twelve years, it’s hard to tell. My parents’ marriage was in the minority when it comes to SEAL team members. Many of them don’t make it.” Kat turned in her seat to face him better and he lifted her legs so her calves crossed his lap. “Don’t get me wrong, there were times my mother wanted to throw him out on his ass. He’d come back from a mission, like most of the guys, and be in a deep funk for a while until his mind caught up to the fact that his body was back in the states. Sometimes, the things we’ve seen and done are hard to shake. And since SEALs aren’t allowed to discuss most of our missions outside of the team, it put a strain on my parents’ relationship. I’m just grateful they were able to stay together through the rough spots. My mother is a strong woman, stronger than most.” His smile changed and now lit up his handsome face. “And now that I think of it, so are you. So, yeah, I think we’d still be together.”
“I’d like to think that too. Do you think we’d have kids? As close as we used to be, there are so many things I don’t know about you now. I don’t even know if you’d want kids.”
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his lap. “Kids with you? Hell, yeah.” He nuzzled her neck. She was glad his teammates couldn’t see them from where they sat toward the back of the plane as he cupped her breast, squeezing and massaging it. “As many as we can have. Don’t think of me as a caveman…well, in some ways I can be…but the thought of you ‘barefoot and pregnant’ with my children is a big, fucking turn-on. And just think of all the fun we’d have trying.”
Waiting for Him Page 14