by Kitty DuCane
“Hayden, I need more.”
Wasting no time, he lifted her and pinned her against the shower wall. She wrapped her legs around his hips.
“Hurry,” she said.
“I don't want to hurt you.”
“You're going to kill me if you don't get all of your wonderful cock inside me!”
He slowly entered her, but she used her legs to hug him to her, wiggled to take all of him.
“Please, Hayden. Fuck me hard and fast.” Her voice was ragged with need.
A growl erupted as he buried himself to his balls, grinding her against the tile. The slap of his flesh against hers echoed throughout the shower stall. When he kissed her, she caught his lower lip and bit him. Then she plunged her tongue into his mouth, mimicking his thrusts. Her body was on fire, threatening to incinerate her very soul, threatening to consume her entire being.
Both of them bucked and jumped as sweet ecstasy rolled through them, sending them to nirvana.
* * * * *
She lay beside him in the dark and listened to his breathing. Just hearing him comforted her.
She loved him.
From out of nowhere, that thought slammed into her. Victoria wanted to deny it, to admit that it was only mind-blowing sex, but she couldn't. Because it wasn't just the sex. She wanted to be with him all the time, and not just for sex. She wanted to go to another ballgame with him, out to eat, eat in; it didn't matter as long as she was with him.
She wanted to listen to him talk, know his thoughts. What did he like? She smiled. She knew he liked to eat, and a lot of it. At the ballgame the other day, he'd had two burgers and also finished off hers.
He liked beer and didn't mind telling the umps that they'd missed a call. He'd smiled that day, the one day when her mission wasn't stuck between them like a brick wall.
They'd ended the date back at his house, watching a crime show where they'd both rushed to point out something that was inaccurate. They had discussed the finer points of weapons and had challenged each other to a match at the local shooting range.
She'd never felt like she did that day. Sharing herself with someone was special.
And she wanted more.
Chapter Thirteen
The next morning, Hayden cooked and served her breakfast in bed. He said he had something to show her, and then she could leave. She had a dreadful feeling, but she went anyway.
Ten-or-more vehicles were parked inside the abandoned warehouse he took her to, and twenty-or-so men convened around Hayden's truck when he stopped and got out. She got out too, curiosity killing her. All the men were like Hayden: big, muscular, and seriously male. Too bad she didn't have some girlfriends at this party.
Hayden went to talk to the two she'd battled with the day before while the others crowded around her. She leaned on the truck, crossed her arms, and with cool eyes, looked every one of them in the eye. She didn't know why, but dread filled her soul.
One man walked up to her. His nostrils flared.
“He's marked you.”
“I don't even know what the hell that means,” she said. Damn. Out of all the men to approach her, she knew this one. She could only pray he didn't recognize or remember her. “And don't invade my personal space.”
Hayden stepped in between her and the man. “It means you're mine.” He poked the man in the chest and said, “Back off.”
The man laughed and stepped back to lean on another vehicle, but he kept watching her.
Hayden glanced around, then looked at her. “These men are my friends. Well, most of them.” He glanced at the man who had sniffed her. “They are here to make sure you don't kill Julio or Manuel.”
She cocked her brow. “That's a lot of manpower to protect one cartel leader and his sleazebag nephew.”
“They're not here to protect them. They are here to protect you from yourself and to keep you from doing something stupid to ruin the rest of your life.”
“The last time I checked, Hayden, I was in control of my life, and I can do what I want to.”
“Not anymore, sugar. You're mine, even if I have to protect you from yourself.”
“Fine,” she said. “It will make the game more challenging, don't you think?” She would not give up on her mission. She pushed all the wonderful thoughts she'd had last night out of her head. She owed her dad.
“You should lock her up,” said one man.
She rolled her eyes. “He could try.”
The man who had sniffed her spoke. “I know you.”
Fear briefly raced over her face before she got it under control. “Sorry. But I don't remember you.”
His nostrils flared again. “You're a liar.”
She forced a laugh and looked at Hayden. “I've been called that a lot lately.”
“You're Chastity,” the man said, but she knew him as Blade. And Blade was the best she'd ever seen with knives, hence his name.
“Who?” she managed to ask. She didn't dare look at Hayden. Her world was getting ready to crash 'n' burn.
Another man spoke. “That's right.” His code name was Rat, short for Rattler.
Two other men nodded. Shit, shit, and double shit.
“You'll have to refresh my memory. Where did we meet?”
“You know damn well where. At Red McLain's training camp,” said Blade.
“In fact,” said Rat. “You had black hair, not red.”
“I think you have me confused with…”
“Damn, sugar. You're Red McLain's daughter?” asked Hayden, the anger so apparent in his voice, she almost groaned.
Instead she glanced away as pain rolled through her. She should have known that Hayden would put it all together. If one played with fire long enough, one was bound to get burned.
“No,” was all she managed to say.
“Red McLain was the best DEA agent ever, and you're a definite chip off the old block,” Hayden said.
She fought the tears that threatened to give her away. Damn it all to hell. Not once had she ever run into anyone her dad had trained, and today, in front of Hayden, stood four of them.
She bit her lip, tasting blood. If Hayden knew, would it really change anything? Her mission would still be the same, but maybe he would let up on his insistence that she not follow through with it. Everyone here knew that Manuel had had the DEA team killed in Colombia.
“Okay, so I'm Red's daughter. Give it a rest.”
“But nobody knew he had a daughter. He never even spoke of you,” said Hayden.
“Dad didn't want anyone to know that I existed. I was his weakness, which meant I would be a target.” She gave Hayden a stern look. “Don't get the wrong idea. He loved me and spent many hours with me. But we kept our relationship a secret.” Tears clogged her throat. She'd never doubted her dad's love.
“So your revenge is about Red?” Hayden spoke, his voice gentle. She searched his face and found understanding. She nodded.
“Yes. It always has been. And I will not let you stop me, Hayden. You can call in the whole damn DEA department, but sooner or later, I'll get my revenge.” She felt ten times lighter as relief flooded her soul. It felt so good to no longer have any secrets between them.
“Revenge is such a nasty thing.”
“I lost the only thing I ever had, Hayden. Do you understand?” She glanced around at the group of men. “Do any of you understand?”
“It's eating you up inside,” Hayden said gently. He reached for her, but she put up her hand. She saw compassion in his face, and her heart constricted.
“Yes, and the only way to stop it is to make Manuel pay. You can't deny me that.” She held Hayden's gaze, daring him to take away her right to retribution.
Everyone was silent. “You have a mole in your department,” she finally said, breaking the silence. “That's what got my dad killed. You better hope I don't find out who the mole is too, because he's a dead man.”
“All that was investigated, and no one bubbled to the top,” said Hayden.
> “If you're talking money, there are much more effective motivations than money. Try fear.”
“Trust me. A lot of man-hours were put into that investigation. Everybody was clean.”
“Hayden. You don't even believe that yourself,” she said.
“Hayden had a vested interest in finding the mole,” said Blade.
“Which was?” she asked.
Pain shot across Hayden's face. “I was the only one who survived.”
She stared at Hayden as the blood drained from her brain, threatening to sink her into a black hole. One survivor, and it was Hayden?
Bile rose in her throat as denial, fear, and anger converged into one. She moved away from the truck and outside the circle of men. “Are you the mole? How did you survive, when no one else did? And don't tell me you're just a lucky son of a bitch.”
“Would you rather I had died, sugar?”
She didn't answer. She couldn't. If anyone should have lived, it should have been her dad.
Her lip quivered. “I saw the pictures, Hayden. It was a fucking bloody massacre. Where were you when the shit went down?”
“I was there, and I was wounded, to the point that all I could do was save myself.” Her eyes flared. “Yeah. I live with that every day. I survived, when no one else did. I saw my team die, and I couldn't do anything about it.”
She searched his face for some answers. Coward floated through her mind. Had he run and saved himself? Did he leave her dad at the mercy of Manuel's men?
“Let's go home, and I'll tell you all about it,” he said.
She was suffocating, literally dying on the inside. She fought to breathe, to make sense of the mess in her mind.
Hayden moved toward her, and she held up her hands. “I can't. Just stay away until I work all this out in my head.”
She fought the tears. Oh my God. What if I slept with my dad's murderer?
“I can explain exactly how I survived.”
She closed her eyes to focus. The physical pain in her chest was a knife slicing her heart. She pulled two pistols from her holsters and motioned for the men to stand aside and let her through. “I can't deal with it right now. Stay out of my way until I get Julio and Manuel. Then I'll deal with you, one way or the other.”
* * * * *
Her pain bombarded every man in the warehouse, but her pain hit Hayden the most.
“Don't come after me, Hayden. I'll find you when I'm ready.”
Some of the men tensed; some remained calm.
“You can't shoot us all,” said Blade.
“I have twenty-four bullets. There are only twenty of you. I'm pretty sure I can get at least nineteen of you, and trust me, getting shot hurts like a bitch. Oh, and I'll make sure you get the first bullet, Blade.”
Hayden stepped between her and the others. “Sugar. You can't leave. The sickness you had yesterday is going to happen to you again if you don't stay near me at least two or three more days.”
“Yeah. I don't know what that's all about, but I don't like it either.” She slowly backed toward the door that led to freedom.
“You and your team stay out of my way. I will hurt them, but I know they won't hurt me.” Then she disappeared.
“Aren't you going to go after her?” asked Blade.
“You should have already told her, man,” said Rat.
“Cut me some slack,” snapped Hayden. “I don't even know her first name, just her fucking code name. She'll be back in a couple of days, the hormones will see to that.” He looked around his circle of men. “In the meantime, don't let her kill anybody.”
“You should turn her,” someone said, and everybody agreed.
“I'm not turning her unless she wants to be turned. She's strong willed, and turning her into a werewolf without her consent would be another betrayal in her eyes, not to mention breaking pack laws.”
“Damn,” said Blade. “I hope I never find my mate. Looks like it's a lot of damn trouble.”
The other men grunted in agreement.
Hayden stared at Blade. Hayden had thought the same thing right before he met…whatever her name was. And now he couldn't imagine life without her.
“You won't have a choice. Your mate will bind you with unseen threads that you can't break, threads that will tie you in knots. You'll crave to touch her, and I don't mean sex. It's much more powerful than sex. You'll need to be near her, smell her, know that she's happy and safe. She's your other half, the half that completes you, and you don't even know that you're incomplete until you've met her.”
Chapter Fourteen
Victoria managed to get back to the shelter and into the shower before she broke down and cried, the pain so intense, it threatened to break her mind. Her body craved Hayden, but her mind said no, that he could be the reason her dad was dead, the reason that she was alone. There was no other explanation for Hayden to be alive unless it was planned that way.
And she'd thought that she loved him. Could she fall in love with the man responsible for her dad's death? Wouldn't her mind and body know?
She'd have to finish the job this afternoon, before her mind clouded with more what-ifs.
A mental challenge—that was Hayden.
Pleasure—that was definitely Hayden.
Sweet—that was Hayden too. After all, he'd let her walk each time.
The physical pain in her chest reminded her of how she'd felt when she found out her dad was dead. She never thought she'd actually love someone someday, but to find love and lose it in the same day was crushing.
She managed to change into her bag-lady clothes and headed out to find Manuel. It all ended today: the revenge, the hurt, the betrayal. She took the bus and got off a block from Manuel's headquarters. Then she staggered down the street until she was across from the building. The gentle rain meant that golf was a no go for today. A frontal assault was the plan. She was sure she could get close enough as a bag lady to kill Manuel and Julio. Then if Manuel's men happened to get her, so be it. It was a price she was willing to pay. Then if Hayden was the betrayer, she wouldn't have to know.
She wasn't sure she could kill Hayden. He clouded her judgment, wounded her emotions, and tormented her soul. That should piss her off, but it didn't. She only felt gut-wrenching sadness.
Her skin crawled with need again, and sweat popped out on her lip. She wiped it away and swallowed to keep the bile down. Damn you, Hayden, for doing this to me.
Manuel's security detail exited the building and surveyed the area. That was her cue. She staggered across the street about fifty feet up from the security detail. She stopped and picked up a piece of trash, inspected it, then flung it back down. She ambled on until she stopped in front of the security detail and picked her nose.
“Get out of here, you old hag.”
She wiped the booger on her chest. “Hows 'bout a couple dollars to buys me som'thin' to eat?”
“Move, hag, before you get hurt.” He shoved her, and she fell to the ground, but that was okay, she was buying time. She glanced at the lobby several times before she saw her mark. Her belly chose that precise moment to pitch, and she threw up on the wall. Well, at least her affliction was working for her and not against her.
She staggered to her feet and wiped her mouth on her sleeve as the security detail shoved her out of the way and formed a tight circle around the door. Leaning against the wall, she babbled and waited. The door opened, and Julio stepped out under an umbrella someone was holding. Where was Manuel? Why hadn't they come out together? She ambled over to the back of the limo and fell to the ground. She had to keep Julio from getting into the car.
Someone kicked her, and she slumped against the rear quarter panel. Then she rolled to all fours and pushed to get up, babbling like a lunatic the whole time. Someone grabbed her by the arm, and she caught sight of Manuel exiting the building. She gagged again and was shoved to the ground. She waited. When both were clear of the door, she pulled both pistols and aimed one at Julio and the other at Manuel. H
er dad had taught her how to shoot with both hands at different targets. Before she could squeeze the triggers, though, a sharp pain pierced her arm, and everything went black.
Chapter Fifteen
“Hayden. I have something of yours. Something very valuable.” The voice was cold and mocking and slid over Hayden like ice.
Manuel.
Hayden had a sinking feeling in his gut and so did his beast. “Oh yeah?”
“Yes, my friend. She's extremely beautiful. Long red hair all the way to her luscious ass.”
Hayden closed his eyes as he clenched his teeth. His gut was never wrong. “I don't know what you're planning to do with her, but it won't work. She's not DEA. Just let her go.”
“Oh, but my plan will work. You see, I've given this a lot of thought, and my plan is foolproof,” said Manuel. Manuel's condescending voice cut through Hayden like a dull knife.
“How do I know you actually have her?”
Hayden's phone beeped. “That's your proof. Check that, and I'll call you right back.” The line went dead.
Hayden opened the picture. She lay on her side, hands behind her back, tape over her mouth, eyes closed. Fear assaulted him again. His beast raged, raking claws through his soul. His gut tightened with a blinding need to kill.
Hayden's phone rang again. He answered. “How do I know that she's not already dead?”
Manuel paused. “You don't. But back to my brilliant plan.”
Hayden raked his hand down his face. “Cut the bullshit. What do you want?”
“An exchange, of course.”
“What and where?”
“Not too fast, Hayden.” Manuel laughed. “You need to understand all the rules first.”
“I'm listening,” Hayden answered as his beast pushed to escape and kill. The wolf mated for life, and he would die to protect his mate. And his wolf wanted to kill.
“Good boy. First of all, I have a mole in your department. If you so much as breathe this to anyone, I'll know. Do you know what the consequences will be?”
Hayden said nothing, his anger and fear choking him.