by Cole, Aja
“And it’s not a hunch?” Will asks. “You’ve got proof that Victoria Lightwell was behind Shadi’s death, is involved in drug running, and is selling secrets she shouldn’t even know about?”
I hesitate and they both groan. “Fuck, Elias.”
“You know I wouldn’t ask for your help on this if it was just a pile of bullshit.”
Hayes opens the door, coming in and rubbing tired eyes. “They on board?”
I look back at two of the guys I trust with my life and who I’m trusting with other people’s lives too by bringing them in on this. “I don’t know yet.”
“I’m in.” August gives a long-suffering sigh, rubbing a hand over his dark, bald head. “You can’t ever do things the easy way, Elias.”
“I expect to be compensated for my time in the form of imported chocolates.” Will rolls his eyes, crossing his large arms. “If we go down, I guess we all go down together.”
“Did you have a busted lip when I left you last night?” Hayes frowns, and I touch the tender skin gingerly, shaking my head.
“No, this happened after.”
“Naja?” he questions, and my eyes fly to Will, because he knows of her. His green eyes widen and he stands up, shaking his head vehemently.
“Oh hell no! That’s who you stole Lightwell from? You really have lost it.”
“Who’s Naja?” August raises an eyebrow. “That who busted your lip? You let a woman get the drop on you like that?”
“She’s not just any woman,” Will scoffs, “You didn’t see the look in her eyes when we had our weapons on her. I mean, not a single ounce of fear. She was so cold I got chills.”
I can’t help it, I start laughing.
“I told you he’s whacked,” Will mumbles.
“Will is right; she’s not just any woman. Yeah, she did this, but we have an understanding.”
“You do what she says and she won’t kill you?” Hayes questions, skepticism in his expression.
“We’ll be working with her team on this. We can talk about the details later, but for now, we won’t be talking about this in the office anymore. It’ll be off-book. No notes, no trail, nobody but us.”
“This feels like the start of a bad movie.” August stands. “Can’t wait to meet this girl.”
They pass me the folders and I put them in my bag, locking it inside the safe in my bottom cabinet. I’ll take them home with me when I leave, I don’t want them even locked up here.
This could go bad, and if it does, then we’re all on the line.
“We’ll meet soon, I’ll let you know where.”
August and Will leave, Will still grumbling, but I know he won’t let me down. Hayes drops into an empty chair, crossing his arms and shaking his head.
“You’re playing with fire, Elias.”
I know I am, but damn does the heat feel good.
7
Naja
“He had the nerve,” I punch the bag, my movements automatic, driven by annoyance and a healthy dose of sexual frustration, “to go all guy on me with some bullshit about your submission.” I twist my face when I repeat the words, and I can see Bali smirking behind the heavy bag.
I throw quick, snapping punches at it, listening to the quick smacks. That’s how you know if you’re hitting a bag correctly; there should be smacks instead of dull thuds.
When I first started boxing, I was shit at it. I kept pushing with my shoulders, which was bad because, when it comes to fights, that keeps you off-balance. You don’t want to lean into the bag and use it to hold you up, you need to keep your own center or you’re going to have a bad time.
As soon as I make contact with the bag, I throw my next punch, imagining that Elias’s face is there instead of the red leather.
“But you wanted to do it, didn’t you?” Bali asks, short hair swinging as she holds the bag steady.
“That’s not the point,” I growl, aiming high on the bag, then low. Bali moves back as I move around the bag, finishing up my workout.
She scoffs and tosses me a small towel and my water bottle, dropping down to sit on the smooth concrete floor.
“So, what is the point, then? You can pretend you don’t want that man whatever way he’ll take you, or you can get your shit pounded and stop almost knocking my head off when we spar.”
“Maybe I just don’t like your head.” I throw my towel at her face and she laughs.
“Company’s here.” Kane bounds down the steel stairs that lead up to the lofted sleeping areas. It’s a large, spacious floor plan, used to be an industrial warehouse.
We’re temporarily camped out at an acquaintance’s place. He’s in special ops and currently in deep cover. This place is more security-enforced than anywhere else we could hope to set up in on such short notice.
“You expecting someone?” I wipe my mouth on my bare shoulder after a bit of water escapes my bottle, feeling sweat dripping down into my sports bra. I could use a shower or three.
“Your FBI buddy,” he calls back, putting a code into the keypad that’ll let our guests inside.
I throw a disgruntled glance at Bali, but she just shrugs.
“Hey, I’ve never even met the man. Wasn’t me.”
“I invited him; be nice.” Trevor comes out from the direction of the kitchen, screwing the cap on a blender bottle.
“What the hell would you do that for?”
“I don’t know what the two of you have going on, but you don’t let it interfere with the goal. You know better than that.” He spears me with a stern look and I roll my eyes, cursing him under my breath.
“Whatever.”
He’s right, but I don’t have to tell him that. Even if he wasn’t, he’d act like he was. He’s annoying that way.
I unstrap my gloves and pick up my towel, turning away and intending to go grab a shower and conveniently get busy with something else.
“Naja.”
Blowing out a heavy breath, I turn on my heel and survey the dark-haired menace standing in the middle of the entryway.
“Elias.”
There are three guys with him. Two of them, I recognize from last year. They were the ones who kept watch on my little sister. The new black guy, I don’t recognize him.
“I see your lip is healing well.” I smirk, but instead of any type of anger or annoyance, he just grins.
“It is. It’s a little tender though. Why don’t you come kiss it better?”
I hear Bali’s strangled laugh and I shoot her a glare. She just shrugs, looking way too amused. Moving forward, she sticks out her hand, introducing herself.
“Bali. So you stole our senator?”
He nods, faux regret on his face. “I did.”
“I’d punch you in the face for pulling that shit, but I wouldn’t want to jeopardize your chances with Naja any more,” she says sweetly.
Now it’s my turn to laugh.
Bali is a military brat, born in France to Hispanic-American parents who were both stationed there. She’s blunt, fearless, and an amazing shot.
I trust her with my life, and the lives of the people I care about.
She greets Will and Hayes, and I find out that guy number three is August.
“You trust all of them?” Kane asks, and Elias sobers.
“More than I trust myself sometimes.”
“Good. I’m not willing to put my team through any more than we’ve already been through with this.”
Questions in his eyes, Elias looks at me but I drop my gaze. As far as I’m concerned, the past is only need to know.
“Got it.”
“So—,”
“First things first; where’s Lightwell?” I interrupt Trev, and he quiets.
“Safe.”
“I don’t need safe; I need accessible. To me.”
“We’ll get there. After everyone shares what they know, and we’re all on the same page about what to do going forward.”
“I don’t care what little team you command at the bureau,
but you don’t have any jurisdiction here.”
“If you want to get technical…”
“I don’t,” I snap.
“So much tension in the air,” someone murmurs. I don’t know who because I’m too focused on the smug light in Elias’s eyes. I wish I’d done more than bust his lip with my forehead right about now.
“I hate to interrupt this lover’s quarrel, but every day that passes, the more chance that someone’s going to realize that Lightwell didn’t take a little vacation.” Trev says.
Sneering, I stalk away. I don’t even want to look at his face any longer.
“Hey, where you going?” Trev calls.
“Shower! Start without me.”
Maybe standing under the hot spray will soothe my frazzled nerves. I hate Elias’s stupid face and I hate his stupid body and I hate thinking about what his stupid hands felt like at my waist, my breasts, my throat.
Stupidest decision of the year award goes to me, obviously.
Stripping out of my sports bra and shorts, I toe off my sneakers and put my hair into a loose topknot. It grows like a weed, I swear.
I remember Nova used to say she wanted my hair instead of hers when I would wash it for her and French braid it. Hers tends to be on the curlier side, while I got a slightly looser wave pattern. The good thing about it is I can do whatever I want to it, and it stays pretty resilient. It’s helped when I’ve needed to change my look quickly.
I miss my sister.
I missed her before, but seeing her, hugging her—it’s made it even worse. I need to get to the bottom of this so I can get home to my family.
Blinking away the annoying moisture in my eyes, I turn on the shower and relax against the wall, closing my eyes.
Having Lightwell puts us one step closer to finding out who she’s working with. It’s not an opportunity we can afford to waste. Usually, she’s a lot better at making sure she’s not vulnerable.
That charity gala only happens once a year, and last year, we had other shit going on. It’s the only time she ditches her full security detail, aside from when she goes on vacation. We can’t wait another year, and we can’t let it get back to anyone that we have her now.
The shower is frameless, with frosted, opaque glass, and I see the dark outline though I don’t know who it is.
I have a guess. No one else his size would be so bold to interrupt my quiet time without an emergency.
“How long are you going to lurk?”
“I’m not lurking. I just thought we could talk, just the two of us.”
“We did talk. I didn’t like what you had to say.”
“Then you weren’t listening hard enough.”
Against my will, I laugh silently because I should’ve expected such an answer from him.
The door to the shower starts to open and my heart is pounding. I don’t know if I hear the rush of the hot water or the rush of my blood.
Elias stands there, still clothed, scanning his eyes down my naked body.
“I forgive you for busting my lip.”
“I didn’t apologize.”
“It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean it.”
“You’re letting all the hot steam out; could you close the door, please?” I turn around and grab the shower gel, intent on ignoring him. I feel exposed, but I’ll be damned if I let him see that and try to cover my body.
Last time, it was dark. This time, it’s not, and I have a few scars that aren’t the prettiest things in the world. I’m proud of how I got them, but no one has seen me this way since Cameron, and I’m not immune to insecurity.
The door closes and I exhale, lathering up the shower pouf, grateful for the short reprieve from the way I feel around that man.
It doesn’t last long.
Elias steps inside the shower, crowding me, and I stare up at him, clutching the shower pouf in front of my chest. It’s my only line of defense now.
“When I said close the door, I thought the and leave me alone was implied.”
“Must’ve gone over my head.” He takes the sponge from me, and I let him because obviously a shower is a dangerous place to get into a tugging war. That’s the reason I’ve gone silent, because the shower is a safety hazard.
It’s not because I’m watching the water start to slide over his skin or because his cock is pressing against my stomach, thick and at full attention.
“We don’t have time for this.”
“Time for what? Me to wash you?” He starts to soap up my breasts, gliding the sponge around them and then over my shoulders and down my arms methodically.
“Because that’s the only thing on your mind,” I breathe.
“It’s what I’m doing, isn’t it?” he challenges, cocky eyebrow raising. He washes the front of my body and then he steps closer to me, making me lose my breath for good this time as he wraps his arms around me in the guise of reaching around me to wash my back.
What he really does is press me against a hard, muscular chest and powerful thighs. I keep my gaze firmly at the top of his chest, shuddering when he moves lower, making sure to cover every inch of my body with soap.
When he’s finished with that certain brand of torture, he drops the sponge and replaces it with his hands, skimming them up my body as he stands at full height.
The worst thing is that he’s completely silent. He looks right through me with his intense brown eyes, a flush on his face from the heat rising between us that has nothing to do with water temperature.
He switches our places and nudges me towards the smooth spray, his hands gliding after the water. Pulling my wet body back against his, he skims his palm over my clit and I fight a shiver, my lids drifting closed.
He parts my labia with his fingers, rubbing lightly and making me lean against his body. I’ve thought of this so much more than I want to admit over the long weeks. Waking up sweating, body overheated at the smallest memory of his lips brushing over my skin.
He presses kisses up the line of my neck, playing with my sensitive clit lightly but doing no more than that.
“I think you’re all clean now.”
Faster than I can register what he said, I feel cool air as he steps out of the shower and closes the door behind him, leaving me pissed and even more hot and bothered than I was before.
Bastard.
8
Elias
If anyone wonders what went on upstairs, they don’t say anything. I don’t plan on giving them any answers, either.
I intend on driving Naja crazy until she admits what she needs, though. I don’t have a problem playing dirty when it comes to what I want.
I want her, but not while she pretends she’s unaffected. She can meet me in the middle, or we don’t meet at all.
For now, we’ve got strategy to talk.
I cross my arms and survey the pictures laid out on the table, catching the tail end of the conversation.
“This guy, this is who we really want.” Kane taps surveillance images of a man wearing a dark ball cap. “Nathan Lewis. He’s the biggest supplier of illegal weapons internationally, but he covers his tracks. You haven’t been able to make anything stick to him in years, right?” Kane looks at August for confirmation.
“No, he’s squeaky clean. Pisses everyone off because no one can ever hold him.”
“Well, that was before you had us,” Bali says, unwrapping a sucker and popping it into her mouth.
“We can’t do anything illegal; it has to hold up.”
“Is you meeting us like this legal? Kidnapping a senator?” Naja brushes past me, taking a seat at the large, rustic style table.
“It’s a little off-book, but we didn’t kidnap the senator. We rescued her from a potential kidnapping,” Hayes answers, blank look on his face. “That’s the story we’ll stick to, of course. She’s being sequestered for her safety and nothing more.”
“And how are you going to explain letting us interrogate her?”
“Interrogate?” August questions,
sitting up straighter. “There won’t be any interrogation. Anything you need to know, we can talk to her about it, but if she sees you, you jeopardize our entire story.”
“Now wa—”
“That’s bull—”
Naja’s team starts with various objections, but she cuts a hand through the air, steady eyes on me.
“That works for us. After all, we want justice too. Right, guys?” She leans her arms on the table, looking at her people. There’s a tense silence where I wonder if Kane is going to force us out, but he shakes his head, relaxing.
“Whatever. We’ll make it work, I guess.”
“Bali? Trev?”
They give noncommittal shrugs and answers, but they don’t look happy about it. As long as they’re on board, that’s all that matters. It’s risky for all of us, but we have to look like we’re still in an official capacity. I put a bare bones report in, citing security risks at revealing too much information so soon.
My director will call me in about it soon, but it gives us a few more days.
“We need to know what her connection is to Lewis. We need to know who she’s getting her information from, and what price she’s selling it for. We need to know everything. That’s the only way we’re going to connect all the pieces to take her, Lewis, and their whole network down.”
“What’s your stake in this?” Will questions, and I watch them, because I want to know, too. Obviously, it’s something that happened in the past and has to do with their team as a whole.
Immediately, it’s like they all shut down. I’ve never seen guards raise so fast in my life.
“We don’t like traitors. Simple as that.” Bali’s playfulness has disappeared, and there’s a hard glint in her green eyes. They’re all tense and they’re all hiding something, that much is clear.
I can wait them out.
“Uh-huh,” August grunts.
“So, you get our answers from Lightwell, then we’ll decide who we go after next, based on what she says. Tell her you need to know what she’s involved in because you intercepted a threat to her safety, and she’s got a mole on her team. All she needs is that doubt about who she trusts, and to feel like you’ve saved her somehow. Victoria believes people are expendable, and if you give her a reason to get rid of someone and you tell her that you’ll handle it, she won’t give it a second thought.” Naja seems to have a good handle on the senator.