Harder (The Unit #3)

by Sarah Greyson

  “I’m making love to you.”

  “God, Tony. You feel so right, so fucking good inside me,” she whispered as she met his movements thrust for thrust. Their legs were interlocked. He had wrapped his arms around her. He moved inside her, expressing every ounce of love and feeling that he felt for her.

  “I love you,” she said with a pained voice, a voice on the verge of her climax. “I love you, Tony. I love you,” she repeated as she began her freefall into the depths of her orgasm.

  There were the words he had been dying to hear whispered from her lips. She loved him. Unshed tears filled his eyes. All the hope he had contained in his chest burst free. She loved him.

  He picked up his pace and started thrusting, moving his hips in an undulating fashion. She moaned against his neck. When he let her arms go, her hands immediately found his ass. She squeezed it as she sought to bring him closer. She held on as his pace quickened. She was moaning, and soon, he had her screaming. “Tony. Oh my God. Tony. I love you so fucking much. Fuck me, Tony. Fuck me harder. I want all of you. Give it to me.”

  He gave it to her. He unleashed the beast inside. He drove into her as hard as he could. Over and over again. With each thrust, his pelvis hit her clit. He had her screaming his name, and it was such a beautiful, sweet sound to his ears. He felt himself building toward climax. They climbed higher and higher together.

  With his name on her lips, he felt her pussy convulse around his cock. He let go. And in perfect, beautiful harmony, they came together. He grunted her name into her ear over and over again as he erupted into her beautiful body.

  Jules awoke slowly, blinking her eyes to the morning sun peeking through her blinds. At first, she was confused. She felt an arm around her coming from behind. Then she couldn’t help but smile. Tony. The thought of him and the remembrance of everything they did last night came rushing back to her. She pushed her ass into his pelvis and rubbed it against him as his hand gently brushed the hair from her neck. She felt his words whispered on her neck.

  “Good morning, beautiful. Please tell me. I have to know. Last night you said you love me,” he spoke. “Is it true? Or were they words spoken in the heat of passion?” He inhaled and held his breath. If she had said it out of passion, he would be crushed. It was taking her a long moment to respond. He felt his heart beating in his ears. She had to say she loved him.

  She flipped over to face him and placed a hand against his face, running her fingertips from his cheek down his neck and stopped, placing her hand directly over his heart. “I. Love. You. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I always have.”

  His eyes shone with love and light as he pulled her closer to his body. He had to feel all of her pressed against him, to reassure himself she was really here. To know she was really with him and didn’t want to be anyplace else.

  “I can’t tell you how happy hearing you say those words makes me. I have loved you forever. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t love you.”

  “What about when you were in the army? You didn’t even try to contact me.”

  “I know and I’m sorry.”

  “But why? I need to know why.”

  “I had to shut everything off to do my job. I didn’t feel. I operated. If I gave in to my feelings, I wouldn’t be able to. And it was important for me to do it. Can you possibly try to understand?”

  “I understand. I sort of had to shut my feelings off too. Because every time I didn’t, all I would think about was you. Our night together. How you left me. How you hurt me. You did hurt me. But after everything we’ve been through together recently, all of it, it allows me to forgive. And I do forgive you, Tony.”

  He exhaled the breath he’d been holding. She forgave him. He didn’t know if he deserved it, but he didn’t care. He would take her forgiveness and cherish it. He would never hurt her again. He would spend the rest of his life making up the years they spent apart.

  “Did you hear that?”

  Tony was already up and getting dressed.

  “It sounds like there is someone in the house.”

  “Stay here. I’ll go and check it out,” he said as he placed a sweet kiss to her lips.

  Tony got up and pulled on his pants before heading to his gear bag and retrieving his gun. He brought it up and began to clear the upstairs.

  “Joey, do you hear that? Someone is upstairs,” Frankie said, raising his gun, ready to fire.

  “We’ll have a better chance if we take her when she comes downstairs,” Antonio said as he went into the kitchen and hid behind the wall. “Take cover.”

  Joey, Antonio, and Frankie took positions to ambush her as soon as she walked downstairs.

  Tony walked downstairs, gun drawn at the ready. Seeing the front door had been pried open, his heart rate increased and his palms became sweaty. No one was going to harm his Jules. Maybe they were there for him… but only a few select people knew where he was.

  He went down the hall to check the bathroom. All clear. As he approached the living room again, he saw Jules at the bottom of the steps. He motioned for her to go back upstairs, but she stubbornly refused. She approached Tony quickly, and he immediately shielded her body with his. “Stay close,” he whispered as they made their way into the kitchen. Tony entered with Jules right behind him.

  Someone grabbed Jules from behind and pointed a gun to her head. The other two men pointed their guns at Tony, who was only three steps into the kitchen.

  “Put your gun down,” Frankie said as he tightened his grip on Jules. Tony whipped around, and what he saw made his heart stop.

  “What do you want?” Tony asked as he placed his gun on the kitchen floor.

  “We have what we came for. Now, if you don’t want her to get hurt, I suggest you stay here.” Joey and Antonio walked up to Tony and shoved him into a kitchen chair. “Get the rope, Joey,” Frankie ordered. Tony was paralyzed. For the second time he felt fear, seeing a gun pointed at her temple. He would kill these motherfuckers.

  Antonio and Joey secured Tony to the kitchen chair. Tony struggled as the rope tightened around his chest. Frankie grabbed Jules’s arm harder, surely leaving bruises. She gasped in pain as Frankie looked Tony squarely in the eyes, communicating the need for his cooperation in this matter. Tony immediately stopped struggling. Surely, they had no idea who he was. He would hunt them down and kill each one of them. Slowly.

  Joey picked up Tony’s gun from the floor and tucked it in the back of his pants. Frankie forcefully handed Jules over to Antonio. “The boss wants her alive, but if she gives us any trouble, we have permission to beat her.”

  At hearing that threat, Jules started to struggle, trying to escape.

  “Don’t! Cooperate. I will find you.”

  Jules looked at Tony and mouthed “I love you” just as Frankie injected her with a needle. She quickly went limp in his arms. Tony began struggling again. “You motherfuckers. I’m going to kill you.”

  “Shut up,” Frankie said, right before he hit Tony in the head with the butt of his gun.

  Tony’s world went black.

  Tony lifted his head. God, did it hurt. He hadn’t been knocked unconscious in a long time. But he hadn’t been able to fight them, not with a gun pointed at Jules. He loved her too much. Now what? His phone was upstairs on the dresser. His sidearm was gone, and he was tied to a chair. He struggled against the ropes, but apparently, the men who took Jules knew what they were doing. He was secure to the chair. He had no way to get hold of the Unit. He had no way to track down Jules. A tear of fear fell from his eye. He had to find her. He just got her back. They had a life to start together.

  He had to break the chair. Tilting back until it tipped, he forced it to the floor. Nothing. It didn’t break. He tried the ropes again, pulling up with all his might. If he got lucky, he could break the armrest off the chair. It didn’t work.

  As he struggled to slide his hand under the rope, it cut into his wrists, making him bleed, but he couldn’t feel anything. His only concern was
getting out of the chair. He pulled up against the chair with all his strength. The veins in his arms and neck bulged, as his muscles coiled. He felt power from the depth of his being. Determined. Blood dripped onto his pants, its warmth only making him more determined. With everything he had, he yanked and felt the armrest start to give.

  Just a little more. He relaxed, took a breath, and then inhaled and pulled up as hard as possible. It finally gave way. He worked the armrest out as much as he could, but a dowel was in his way. He could not break free of the armrest entirely. No matter, he now had use of his right hand. He quickly untied his left hand and his feet. With his limbs free, he could stand. He smashed the back of the chair against the wall, and as it finally broke apart, the ropes around his chest loosened. After freeing himself, he raced upstairs for his phone. He pressed one on his phone and it rang.

  “Michael, it’s me.”

  “Hey, buddy, what’s—”

  “Listen, they have her. Three men broke in and took Jules.”

  “What? How did that happen?”

  Tony hung his head. “I let them.”

  “How could you let that happen?” Michael said harshly.

  “They had a gun pointed to her head. I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Ah, man, I’m so sorry. Where are you?”

  “I’m at Jules’s. I need the team.”

  “You got us. I’ll gather everyone and get us legs up in under four hours. Stay put. Do not try to do this alone.”

  “I can’t just sit here. I have no idea who would want to take her, but they said their boss wanted her alive.”

  “Do what you do, brother. Break out your computer and get to it.”

  “I’m so lost, man. I don’t even know where to start. I turned my emotions off to do my job. I just turned them back on. She confessed she loved me last night.”

  “Listen, Tony, we’ll find her. We’ll get her back to you safe and sound. You know this. You know this is what we do. We won’t fail you.”

  “That’s not what I’m afraid of.”

  “Then what is it?” Michael asked. He was there when Emma was taken. And there again when the Ortiz Cartel had Lola. Truth be told, every one of them owed Tony their lives more than one time and so did their wives.

  “I’m afraid it’ll be too late.”

  “You can’t think that way. Do what you do. Get on your computer. We have to think. Who could possibly want her? It’s not the terrorists. Think, Tony. I’m going to gather the guys. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  Think. Who would want her? Why would they want her? Tony retrieved his laptop and did a Google search on Julia Bakas. There were many hits because of her work as a journalist.

  Tony painstakingly went through each article she published with an intensity he had never known. He was going to find her. He had to find her. He couldn’t lose her.

  He heard a loud pounding at the front door, and it brought him back to the present. He had been so zoned in on his search.

  As he pulled the door open, relief flooded him. His team was with him: Michael and Rob, the two members left of his Unit. Kevin was still a member of the Unit, but he worked for Homeland Security instead of staying with the private sector and working for Blackrain Security. Although Blackrain tried desperately to recruit him.

  Tony greeted Rob with a bro-hug. Then he hugged Michael.

  “Thank you for coming, Tyrrell,” Tony said as he hugged him too.

  “We got here as fast as we could. Gear bags are in the SUV. We’re ready for anything. What’ve you been able to find out?” Rob asked as he plopped down on Jules’s couch.

  “Well, the three attackers sounded Italian, and one slipped up by naming his partner, Joey.”

  “What’s that sound like to you?” Tyrrell asked. “What immediately comes to your mind when you hear of Italian guys, one called Joey, working together?”

  “Right. I’ll narrow my search. I ran a basic Google search on Jules’s name. I’ve been looking through all the articles she’s ever written.”

  “Have you found anything promising yet?” Michael asked cautiously.

  “Not yet. Why don’t you guys get yourselves something to drink while I narrow my search to just mob-related articles?”

  A few key strokes in the right search engine, and he was staring at an article recently written by Julia Bakas on the Barone Family. “Apparently, Jules recovered documents on Barone’s books and exposed his family to the authorities. Broke the story wide open and was single-handedly responsible for bringing down Dominic Barone, the head of the family.”

  “Sounds like we’ve got a starting place,” Tyrrell said before taking a sip of his water.

  “Yeah, but what if I’m wrong?” Tony wondered aloud, allowing his vulnerability to shine through his tough-guy exterior.

  “Find where they’re located. They have to be here in Washington D.C. Although they would have to have a big set of balls to operate under the nose of all the big names in law enforcement.”

  Tony ran a search of the Barone Family. He hacked into the FBI database, something he did often when there wasn’t time to go through the normal channels Tyrrell had access to.

  “I’m in,” Tony exclaimed, feeling the same rush each time he went where he wasn’t allowed.

  He searched for the Barone family and came up with a listing of multiple properties surrounding D.C.

  “Okay, guys, take a look at this. Where do you think we should start?” Tony asked as he wiped his palms on his jeans to remove the sweat. Hold on, Jules. We’re coming.

  The men gathered around the computer. They reasoned they wouldn’t take her someplace surrounded with a great deal of people. That left out their property in Richmond.

  “This says that the majority of their deals involve imports and exports of stolen goods,” Tony revealed to his team.

  “Which port is closest to D.C. that they operate out of? They could have her aboard a cargo ship. No one would hear her scream aboard a ship,” Rob stated.

  Tony’s stomach dropped and he became nauseous all at once. He couldn’t imagine Jules screaming.

  Blocking out the images of Jules in that vice with her fingernails being ripped off, he said, “I’ll be right back.” Tony stood and ran to the bathroom, covering his open mouth and clenching his stomach.

  The men looked at each other. “He’s really torn up over this. I’ve never seen him so weak,” Rob said.

  “A woman will do that to you. Remember when we found Lizzie? Remember when Lola was missing?” Michael reminded Rob.

  Michael got the look of death for reminding Rob of an all-too-recent past. He was trying to move forward, and he didn’t need any reminders of when he was weak.

  “I get it. I just hope we find her in time,” Rob exhaled, his face bearing a most serious façade.

  “Hey, Tony, you okay, man?” Michael asked, patting Tony on the shoulder. Tony winced as Michael unintentionally made contact with his injured shoulder. “Are you up for this?”

  “Fuck yeah! I’m going to kill those bastards,” Tony said as he moved his injured shoulder around, loosening it up.

  “We think the best place to start is a port in Norfolk, which is their main moneymaker in importing and exporting stolen and smuggled goods.”

  “Let’s get those fuckers,” Tony said, clenching his fists at his sides.

  All she could do was listen. There was a black cloth sack over her head. She heard the three men talking as she jostled about in the back of a van. She couldn’t say for sure it was a van, but she could feel the cold of the metal floor against her legs. And every time they turned a corner, she would hit her head on the metal door. She was helpless to keep herself steady with her arms tied behind her. There was no use struggling against the ropes that bound her; she knew when she was outdone. Fortunately, they hadn’t taped her mouth. “Where are we going? What do you want with me?” Jules demanded of the men.

  “Don’t worry your pretty little head, bellissima,
” Frankie said.

  “What will you do with me?” Jules asked impatiently. She didn’t like the unknown. She was the type of woman who solved problems, and this was a problem to be solved.

  “Ouch,” she said as her head slammed hard against the metal door again. She could feel the bumps in the highway as they sped along. She estimated that they had been gone around three hours. “At least tell me how much longer,” Jules spat with an air of intolerance.

  Frankie gave her this one. “Thirty minutes.”

  Where could they be going that was three and a half hours from D.C. traveling nothing but highway? Then she heard it. The loud horn of a ship pulling into port. Norfolk. Who did she know in Norfolk? Barone. It had to be about the story she did linking Barone to the ATG. Barone had found out that Jules escaped the ATG in Alahwadda. Now it was Barone’s turn to silence her. Could it be? Just when she thought she was safe. The horns got louder as they drew closer to the port.

  She felt the van make another turn, and then it stopped and whoever was driving turned off the engine. The door slid open and she was yanked out of the back. Using her hands, they guided her. She felt the kick of the air conditioner when she walked into the building. At least, she assumed it was a building. She heard someone yell from far away.

  Her hands grew sweatier. She tried struggling against her restraints, but it was no use. Her hands were losing feeling and her fingernail beds were throbbing. The man pushed her a long way, and then she felt the sun’s rays heating her head as she walked out in the open.

  Her foot hit something and she stumbled forward, but was immediately yanked up by the hair by whomever was steering her. “Stairs.” He continued, “Walk.”

  She couldn’t help but notice his thick Italian accent. Why hadn’t she noticed it before? She climbed the stairs, counting as she went. By the time she reached the top, she had counted to thirty-two. She could tell they were metal stairs by the way her shoes sounded against them.