She arched up as he unhooked the lace bra she wore, and when he tossed it aside, he nearly lost his damn mind.
“Fuck, Jemma,” he groaned and bent to pull a nipple into his mouth. She moaned and lifted her hips to press against him. He trailed his lips down her trim waist and slowly pulled the lace panties down.
She buried her hands in his hair when he leaned forward to taste her. He was desperate for every part of her, and as much as he wanted to go slow, they both needed the release. He stepped back and stepped out of the last scrap of clothing separating them.
She reached down and gripped him, as he covered her, and he stilled under her touch. Somehow her fingers managed to release small electrical charges throughout his body and made him feel as if he might burst into flames at any second. As soon as she released him, he aligned their bodies and looked down at her,
“Now.” She thrust up as he drove into her.
“Daaammmnnn.” He buried himself in her again and again at a furious pace. She met him thrust for thrust until her release shattered her. He took her mouth as his own built and broke free.
They lay tangled in each other until they each caught their breath.
Caid let out a laugh. “So when Lance said, ‘Make yourselves at home,’ I’m not sure this is what he meant.”
Jemma smiled. “He didn’t say we couldn’t.”
“True.” Caid sat up and pressed a gentle kiss to Jemma’s lips. “Shower?”
“I could use one.”
Jemma squealed as Caid lifted her into his arms and headed for the bathroom where he stepped under the now lukewarm water.
“I'm going back to work tomorrow.” Caid stroked his hand over Jemma’s hair as she laid next to him later that night.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Momentary panic had her heart thudding.
“I’ll be fine; you won’t ever be alone, Jemma. Lance is going to be here with you while I’m gone.”
“You trust him?”
Caid nodded. “I do.”
“Okay.”
“I need to be actively working this case. It’s the only way we’ll be able to put a stop to this.”
“I understand,” she responded quickly, trying to not let the tunnel vision close in. Both times she had been alone, her father’s men had found her. The thought of being alone again, even if she wasn’t truly alone, terrified her.
Caid rolled her onto her back and covered her body with his. “Jemma,” he said easily, and she looked into his eyes. “I promise you will be safe. Lance is a good cop, and on top of that, you are a strong, kickass woman who could easily toss a man twice her size out a window.”
Jemma let out a laugh. “Thanks, Caid.”
He grinned at her, and her heart skipped. “Anytime.” His lips touched hers gently at first, but then increased until the walls she had carefully built around herself began to crack under the pressure. He was tearing down every defense she had with a simple kiss, and she wasn’t sure she would survive.
“Good to see you, King,” Pax said from the doorway of her office.
“You too.” Caid’s body tensed, but when she turned, he followed her inside and shut the door.
“I trust everything is fine.” Her eyebrow raised, and Caid crossed his arms.
“All good. I’m going to be spending the day buried in Charmont’s old files.”
“You have other cases as well. This is the biggest,” she said, putting her hand up to keep him from arguing, “but you are a lead on a few other cases that need to be solved. Those victims need justice too, King.”
“Yeah, I got it.” She was right, he knew. Still, she was naïve if she didn’t realize the majority of his time was going to be dedicated to bringing Charmont down. A part of him wondered if she wasn’t trying to stall him on purpose. But as of now, nothing she’d done struck him as out of the ordinary. Except the thumb drive, but he had no solid proof she was lying about that either.
“I’m assigning Rogers and Omars to you. They will be assisting with your other cases, but I expect you to be somewhat hands on with them as well.”
“I will be; can I go?”
“Sure, I’ll send them your way once they’re briefed.”
Caid nodded and headed back into the hall. The sounds of the keyboards and phones around him was comforting, like he was returning home from a long and stressful vacation. Except his life was still on the line, and the woman he was falling for was being hunted by her father.
So, maybe a lot had changed. Or perhaps he had changed. He stepped into his office and was surprised and slightly irritated to see the woman sitting just inside.
“What the hell are you doing here, Soph?”
She pulled him in for a hug. “I called, and they said you were missing. What happened? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, but I thought I asked you to stay hidden for a while.”
“I snuck away. I had to know you were safe. Why the heck haven’t you called?” She slapped him gently on the arm and then eased her pregnant frame back down into the chair across from him.
“I was going to today; I’ve been working a big case.”
“The Runner, right? It’s all over the news that a daughter has surfaced.”
Caid’s jaw tightened. Who had leaked Jemma? “She has.”
“Are you working with her?”
Anyone else might have missed the clench of the jaw, or the subtle signs of lust, but not Soph. His sister knew him too damn well.
“Oh, come on, Caid, you can’t be serious?”
“What?”
She leaned toward him as far as she could. “Please tell me you aren’t sleeping with her!”
“What the--?” He started to lie, but he had been caught, and it was only his sister after all. If Pax had come in demanding answers, he would lie until he was blue in the face to keep that particular fact hidden. “We’re seeing each other.”
“When I told you that you needed to move on, a criminal’s daughter was not what I had in mind.”
“She’s not like him.”
“She’s his daughter, Caid. Of course she’s like him!”
His temper flared. “You don’t know her, Sophia.”
“I know that since you met her, you ‘ve disappeared twice, and put our entire family in danger. She’s not worth it.”
His jaw clenched. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. You need to go and get back to safety. Please don’t leave again.”
“So you can run off with your little criminal? No way I’m just going to look the other way while you ruin your life.”
“Jemma is not a criminal,” he growled.
“Wait, Jemma? The girl that was missing for over a month! She’s his daughter?”
“You need to go.” He stood and walked around his desk to pull the door open.
There were only two times in his life when he had seen a look of disappointment on his sister’s face. Once when he was twelve and got caught shoplifting a stack of baseball cards -- the one and only time he’d ever stolen anything, except that car -- and now. It still managed to make him feel like he was a complete and total failure, but he refused to give in this time. Jemma was not some criminal, and his sister had no right to judge her based solely on her parentage.
Sophia stood and looked him straight in the face “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“I do.”
She shook her head sadly and walked out of his office. Caid made his way back around the desk and plopped down in his chair. He lifted his office phone and dialed his brother-in-law’s mobile number.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s Caid.”
“Damn man, we’ve been worried about you. It’s uncle Caid, bud!” Caid smiled when he heard the young voice screaming “yay” through the phone.
“I’m calling to let you know that Sophia was just here.”
“I knew she wasn’t going out for donuts.”
“Keep an eye on her, okay? She’s prett
y pissed at me right now.”
“What did you do? Okay, new rule. If you make her mad, you keep her. She is so hormonal right now, I don’t know if she’s going to let me live through the birth of this child.”
Caid let out a short laugh. “I’m sure you’ll hear all about it when she gets back. Just send me an e-mail when she gets there, please?”
“No text?”
“Lost my cell,” he lied as he pulled it out of his desk drawer.
“All right, well, if you don’t hear from me, it’s because she’s killed me. Look for my body in the woods.”
“Thanks, man.” Caid laughed and disconnected the call.
Now, time to get to work, he thought as the two men Pax had put under him knocked at his door.
21
“Hey, sleeping beauty! There’s a bag of clothes on the couch. If they don’t fit, you can blame my partner,” Lance greeted Jemma from the kitchen. The scent of freshly brewed coffee along with what could only be described as culinary perfection filled her lungs.
“What are you making?” she asked as she grabbed a mug off the rack by the coffee pot.
“Pumpkin pie pancakes, brown sugar bacon, hash browns, and scrambled eggs.”
“It smells amazing.”
“Thanks. I don’t mean to brag, but my parents taught me how to whip up some amazing breakfast food. Besides, I’m trying to get into the holiday season since Thanksgiving is only a week away.”
“It is?”
He gaped at her. “You don’t know when Thanksgiving is?”
Jemma shook her head. “I haven’t celebrated it since my mom died.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
Jemma nodded in appreciation and took a sip of the black coffee. “That’s the stuff,” she said as she took a seat at the bar and watched Lance finish cooking and make two plates.
“Bon appetite!” he said with a smile and began eating. “So tell me about yourself,” he asked around a mouthful of pancake.
“Not much to tell. My mom was killed when I was a kid, my dad’s a psycho, and I think I might be dating a cop.” The confession fell from her lips, and she immediately shoveled a piece of syrupy pancake into her mouth to keep more from coming out.
“I think you are,” Lance said with a laugh. “King is pretty fond of you.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well, for one, he threatened to castrate me if anything were to happen to you.”
Her face paled. “He did not.”
“Well, not directly, but I imagine he would if it did.” He laughed, and Jemma found herself smiling.
“Now you know me, tell me about you.”
“Hmm, where to start? Well, I was given up for adoption when I was a newborn, although my biological mother did come visit me for the first nine years of my life. It wasn’t until right before my tenth birthday that she stopped showing up.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
He shrugged. “I was raised by amazing people who loved and cared for me. Not much more you can ask for than that.”
“Did you ever find out why she stopped coming? Your mom.”
He shook his head. “I looked into it then, and once again after I got my badge, but I never found anything on her. It was as if she completely disappeared.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet.
Jemma reached for a photograph as he handed it to her. Her face paled, her heartbeat quickened, her palms grew clammy as she stared down at the mother and son in the photograph.
There was no denying she recognized the woman staring back at her.
It was her mother.
“This is your mother?”
“Yep, the only picture I have of her.”
“When’s your birthday?”
“May fifteenth, why?”
Jemma stood so fast the bar stool clattered to the ground. She backed away from Lance as if he were a walking plague.
“What is it?”
“I was born May fifteenth. That’s my mother.” She pointed to the woman in the photo.
“I don’t think it’s funny to mess with me about this,” he warned, but Jemma held up her hand.
“I swear to you this is not a joke. My mother was killed two days before my tenth birthday. My father shot her in front of me.”
The color drained from Lance’s face. “It’s not possible. If what you’re saying is true, my biological father is--”
“Liam Charmont.” Jemma finished for him.
Lance stared at her as if she had a third eye. It wasn’t until his cell rang that he broke eye contact with her.
“Zarbey,” he said gruffly. “She’s right here.” He leaned forward and handed her his cell.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Jemma, it’s good to hear your voice.” Caid’s words barely registered.
“Yeah, I--”
“What is it?” His concern was evident, and it’s what caused her to snap back to reality.
“You should come back.”
“I’m on my way.” He hung up the phone, and Jemma and Lance continued to stare at each other.
“What the hell happened?” Caid demanded as he stormed in ready for a fight thirty minutes later. “I got here as fast as I could.”
“Show Caid the picture,” she said to Lance, and he held it out to Caid.
He took it, and after a moment of confusion asked, “what am I missing?”
“That’s my mom.” Jemma said.
Caid’s voice took on an accusatory tone. “Why do you have a picture of Jemma’s mom?”
“That’s his mom too,” Jemma answered.
“Wait a minute, that would mean -- ohhhh.” It clicked, and Caid couldn’t help the smile on his face.
“Why the fuck are you laughing?” Lance and Jemma both lashed out.
“How do you not think this coincidence is funny? You two have been related this whole time, which makes the jealousy I felt leaving you here alone together really fucking awkward.”
Lance started laughing next, and Jemma could do nothing but stare open-mouthed at the lunatics in front of her. “How do you think this is funny?”
“You have to admit; it is a rather strange turn of events.”
“Okay, but funny? No.”
“What, you liked being an only child?” Lance taunted.
“I hate the fact that I’m biologically related to a murderer, and it just so happens you are too, and that makes you want to laugh?”
Caid and Lance both stopped abruptly, and Lance took a step toward Jemma. “Just because a man has a part in making you does not mean he’s your father. The man who raised me kindly, offered me a safe and loving home to go to every day? He’s my father. The Runner is simply the sperm donor.”
She wasn’t sure what part of his statement did it, but a weight Jemma had been carrying along with the guilt over the things her father had done lifted. Lance was right, she wasn’t responsible for what Liam Charmont had done. She would still stop him, but now she wasn’t alone.
“So, who’s older?” Caid asked, breaking the silence and bringing a smile to Jemma’s face.
Lance was the one who responded, “We’re twins.”
“So, is it weird?”
“Is what weird?” Jemma asked as they ate dinner that night. Lance had gone out to meet with an informant who supposedly knew something about her father’s operation. She didn’t want to voice it, but she doubted very much that he knew anything. Liam was discreet, and those who knew anything about what he did or who he did it with were either loyal or too afraid to say anything.
“Finding out you have a brother. I’ve always had a sibling, so I’m curious how you’re feeling about it now.”
“It’s not as strange as I thought it would have been. I think I’m more angry than anything.”
“Angry?”
“My mother sent him away, which tells me that she knew how dangerous Liam was. So why not leave altogether? Why was Lance so important that she would
try to protect him, but not me?”
“You didn’t seem angry earlier.”
‘It’s not Lance’s fault. I know better than to be petty and jealous with him, but it makes me really friggin mad at my mom.”
Caid reached over and touched her hand gently. It amazed her how such little effort could do so much to put her mind at ease. The anger she was feeling toward her mother was battling against the guilt she carried because she felt mad. The contradiction was driving the rational part of her mind crazy.
“Jemma.”
Jemma looked up and realized she was crying.
“If I had to guess, I would say your mother sent Lance away and not you because she was trying to protect you both. If Liam had had a son to pass his business onto, Lance would have been next in line, which would have made him more important than you to Liam. She would have probably sent you both away if she thought she could get away with it. She made the best decision she could have in her mind.”
“Why not leave him altogether?”
“Because she probably loved him on some level. I know you don’t want to hear it, and Lord knows I don’t understand it, but your mother had to have loved him at some point and probably wanted to have that happy family she believed she could.”
“I don’t know that I can forgive her.”
“You have to, Jemma. Or you won’t ever forgive yourself for it.”
She closed her eyes and leaned against him when he put his arm around her shoulders. How was she supposed to forgive a woman who had spent years deceiving her? Would she have ever told her about her brother? Or would he have stayed her own private secret forever?
“Would beating the shit out of me make you feel better?”
Jemma laughed, and Caid kissed the top of her head. “I thought it might. Come on.” He stood, and Jemma slid off the bar stool after him. She followed him into the living room and helped him move the furniture back again.
She knew he was letting her win, so she worked harder, and when she started seeing the sweat beading on his brow, even her own exhaustion couldn’t keep the smile from blooming on her face.
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