Sinful (The Sin Duet Book 3)

by M. Malone

  A familiar flutter tickled at the back of my spine. One I was aware of and knew well, intimately. It was a feeling that had been missing over the last day and a half or so, despite tidbits of my monster trying to wake and take over again. I could feel the edges of my vision graying.

  No. No. No. Not now.

  We needed information. We didn’t need this guy dead. I needed Gemma.

  You are not a killer. It’s not in your blood. You are in control.

  The sound of the doctor’s voice repeated over and over and over in my skull until the tingling stopped, cooled, and control was once again mine. But while I wrestled with control, I became more aware of my surroundings. Both Rafe and Oskar had their hands on their weapons. I tried to ignore the hurt of that. It was for their own safety. If I’d lost control again, they would have to put me down, as they should.

  But I was in control again. Being in control meant I got to help save Gemma, which was all I wanted. “So why don’t you tell us what we need to know?”

  Aiden tried one last, gallant attempt at telling us to go and self-fornicate, but then I wrapped him in a headlock and started to slowly squeeze the air from him. Just when Aiden’s face went bright pink, I eased up on his trachea. Aiden dragged in several breaths and then I applied pressure again. One, two, three, release. Let him breathe. One, two, three. On and on it went for a good thirty seconds, and finally Aiden let go.

  “Okay, okay. Just stop. Just stop. I was called and informed they had cargo and they needed to ship it overnight, immediately. I put them on a chartered flight. They left here at eleven last night and then arrived early in the morning in London. I would have said they’d taken it to main headquarters, but there is a smaller facility. West London actually. Chiswick. It’s so posh out there that most people assume that the warehouses there are for shops. No one would ever think to look twice. If there was a facility good for hiding an unexpected shipment, that would be the one.”

  I leaned very close, my voice all ice and death. “See, was that so hard?” And then I proceeded to apply enough pressure to his trachea that Aiden went lights-out.

  And as Aiden collapsed in my arms, I didn’t even have an urge to kill him. We had what we wanted. Killing him wasn’t even on the table anymore.

  My, how far you’ve come.

  13

  Matthias

  “Everybody knows the plan. Get in, get out, no unnecessary bodies. We’re not supposed to be here.”

  Noah was on comms and I easily drowned him out. I loved Noah, but honestly, did he really think I was going to let these fuckers get away with taking Gemma? If anyone got in my way, they were going down. That was just the end of that.

  On my left, I was flanked by Oskar, and on my right, by Rafe. We all had points of entry on the warehouse. On the other side, on the far corners, were Ryan and Dylan. Ian was on the east side with two of his men.

  In and out, and we’d have her in no time. Planning was pretty basic. With the points of entry we had, we would converge in the center, find the best access points, get Gemma, and get out. Thanks to my hacking abilities, we’d been able to study the blueprints of the building, so we knew the general direction of where to look.

  “Okay ladies, time to go. Alpha team, move out.”

  I tapped my comm unit. “Alpha team moving out.”

  I listened as Noah gave instructions for each of the teams to move forward. At that point, we were to go silent on comms unless urgent, each team with their own instructions. Thanks to a little bug I planted in the security systems of the warehouse, the side door opened with no problems.

  Oskar shook his head. “Remind me never to piss you off. I have a feeling I’d be light some euros if you ever got near my bank account.”

  I just rolled my eyes as I worked the panel and got the door open. After I tucked the panel inside a compartment in my vest, I palmed both my guns and got ready for action.

  We took the long, dark hallway and veered left. Rafe went right. I had a feeling that they had given me a babysitter. Further down, the hallway branched, and off Oskar went.

  I avoided the cameras, heading down the hall and to the right. Then I went to the series of doorways. They were more like cells really. I tried the doors; none of them gave. Peeking inside, I could see that most of the rooms were just storage or labs. No people. No heat signatures. When I came to the door at the end of the hall, there were heat signatures. And I prayed that I’d hit the jackpot.

  I took out my panel one more time and begged the decryption program to run faster. “Please, please, please. Please let her be okay.”

  When the green lights flashed, I nodded in satisfaction and tucked it back inside my vest. Guns at the ready, I let myself in.

  As I crept in, someone behind me screeched like a banshee and jumped me. It took me less than a second to realize the person trying to go for my guns was no trained killer.

  Small, slight, and feminine.

  I subdued her easily and had her on the ground, on her back, while I gently cradled her head to push her down. And then I went to the chair. But the person on the chair stood and raised the chair up above her head, ready to wield it like a weapon.

  “Gemma, it’s me, Matthias.”

  She hesitated. “What?”

  “It’s me, love. Love, I came for you.”

  For what seemed like a long stretch of several seconds, she held the chair over her head, and then I could see her start to shake.

  “Hush now. Hush.” I re-holstered one of my weapons and reached out for her, gently stroking a thumb over her cheek. “See? It’s me. You can put the chair down.”

  She closed her eyes briefly before lowering the chair. Then she threw herself at me.

  “Hey. Hey, you’re okay. I’ve got you now.” It was only when she sobbed into my neck that I let some of the emotions start to take over. I wanted to hold her, nuzzle into her scent, and relish the thought that I had her. But I knew that I had to get her out and get her to safety.

  “Come on, love, we have to go.” I took one of my weapons from my ankle holster and handed it to her. “If anybody moves in a way you don’t like, point this and shoot. Let’s go.”

  She shook her head. “Wait, I have to find Sabine.”

  My gaze swung back to the woman who was still lying on the floor, rubbing her sternum where I’d hit her. “That’s Sabine?”

  Gemma nodded. “Yeah, we were lying in wait for one of the guards.”

  Was it bad that I was really excited that she wasn’t just waiting for me to come and save her? That was hot.

  “I love you. You know that.”

  She grinned. “I love you too.”

  “Let’s go. Come on, Sabine. We have to move quickly, yeah?”

  “I don’t know if I can keep up.” Sabine’s voice was breathy.

  Gemma was having none of it though. “You’ll make it. Come on, I’ve got you.” She wound Sabine’s arm around her shoulder and blinked wide dark eyes at me. “Let’s go. I’ll carry her all the way if I have to. But we’re not leaving her. Not this time.”

  That hit me right in the little bit of conscience I had left, so I nodded. Then we were on the move, me in the front while the girls followed behind. Quickly, I tapped my watch three times to send the signal that I had them and was moving out. I didn’t speak. It was unlikely that anyone was listening in on our channel, but why take the risk?

  Silently, I led them through the dim hallways, always going first around every corner, using palm mirrors. Sabine managed to keep up with Gemma’s help; she was tough. Gemma wasn’t screwing around either. She had her gun constantly at the ready even though it had to be difficult for her to move while holding Sabine’s weight. But she did it. I silently counted how many hallways we’d have to go. I’d made four turns. We were down to two. And then I heard the first splintering of concrete above my head.

  “Bollocks. We have company.” None of my guns had silencers on them, but clearly, someone didn’t want to make a loud noi
se and ruckus.

  I was on comms in a second. “Shots fired. I could use some backup. South entrance. Two turns.” After I gave the relative position, I fired two shots into the hallway. Gemma fired as well. I palmed another gun and handed it over to her.

  I looked at Sabine and said, “Are you okay? Can you manage this? Can you fire a gun?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’ve never fired a gun.”

  Another set of shots rang out. This time, one whizzing by my ear so close it felt like kiss of fire along my face. “Move.” We ran while shooting, returning fire, ducking behind and inside doorways for cover. Gemma ran out of ammo first. I handed her a clip, which she efficiently released and inserted, and then she fired again. No questions, no qualms.

  When we were home, I was definitely going to have her play out the Black Widow fantasy. The woman was just plain sexy.

  I fired another exploratory shot down the hallway. “Let’s move.”

  “I can run on my own. Let’s go,” Sabine muttered and tossed Gemma’s arm off of her shoulder. “Go. Come on, let’s move.”

  I ran ahead, as now we had company from both sides. Gemma had our back. Sabine was trying to stay in the doorway as we laid down cover fire. When we ran and made our turn to the hallway, I was first. We had a lot of company.

  I tapped my comm unit again. “Mates, where the fuck are you?”

  Rafe’s voice muttered in my ear, “We have company here too. On our way.”

  On the line came Dylan’s voice. “We have the vehicle. Going to your location.”

  Thank fuck.

  “All right. Round the corner, out the door. Run like hell. Dylan’s waiting for you. Don’t look back.” As we ran, the next thing I heard was a fall along with a crack! Crack!

  Behind me, Gemma turned. “No, Sabine!” She immediately halted her steps and tried to go back, but I dragged her with me.

  “No. No going back. Move.”

  She fought me. “I have to go back for her. I can’t leave her.”

  “I’m sorry, love.” I didn’t have time for arguing. I bent and scooped Gemma up and tossed her over my shoulder. Once I had her where she couldn’t run back, I fired a gun to the left, hitting my target, who went down with a soft thud fifty feet from the door. To the right, I hit another target. This one groaned and tried to feebly raise his gun. I fired again, and then he was down for good.

  Over my shoulder, Gemma pleaded, “Put me down, you asshole. I have to go back.”

  Oh, she was going to be mad at me. But I didn’t care. All I had to do was get her to safety. Once I was out the door, the bright sunlight temporarily blinded me. Right outside the door, Rafe and Oskar were waiting for us. I handed Gemma off, fully intending to go back for Sabine, but there was too much fire. Rafe shook his head at me.

  “No go.”

  “Fuck. Bugger. Bollocks.” We had enemy fire on all sides. And all of us had to fire as we ran for the van. Oskar was nicked in the shoulder but kept on moving as if he hadn’t even been touched.

  Once we were in the van, we did a quick count off to make sure we had all our people, and then Dylan peeled out of there.

  For five minutes, we drove like the devil was chasing us out of the warehouse area and then into Chiswick proper. We made lefts, and then gut-tossing rights over the small, pinched side streets into the garage.

  Dylan swung the car into an empty spot in the lower level. We all spilled out, heading to our respective cars. When Gemma didn’t move right away, I took her hand and she snatched it back. She climbed out of the van on her own accord.

  “You bastard.”

  “Gemma, we can do this later. As soon as you get to the hotel, we’ll come up with another plan. We’ll go back for her. But I couldn’t—”

  She slapped me hard across the face. The stinging crack across my cheek made all the worse because she knew how to throw a hit. I didn’t react.

  After all, you deserve it, don’t you?

  She was right. You left her friend to die. Just like all those years ago.

  “Gems—”

  She hit me again. This time her punch was wild as she threw her whole body into it. I merely deflected and then she was sobbing and staggering back. I went for her, but then Rafe stepped between us. “No. Let her go. She’ll ride with us.”

  “What the fuck? I need to talk to her.” Oskar got between us and then Ryan and Dylan. I stepped back. “You really think after everything that I could hurt her?”

  Oskar shrugged. “Well, when you go all stabby, you know…”

  Dylan shook his head. “Dude, too soon.”

  Oskar just shrugged. “You say that like I’m the one who stabbed someone.”

  I ignored them, and my gaze met Gemma’s. “I wouldn’t hurt you.”

  She shoved through the guys and met my gaze with a lifted chin. “I’m not afraid of him, you assholes. I’m pissed. And frankly, I can’t be around any of you right now.”

  As we all climbed in our respective cars, I had no choice but to watch her walk away.

  14

  Gemma

  I heard the door to the bedroom open sometime after I’d taken a shower and thrown on an oversized T-shirt. Noah had put us all up in a massive townhouse in Mayfair. Was this one of the Blake Security safe houses?

  At first, Matthias didn’t say anything, but I could feel his presence in the doorway. It was as if my whole body went into hyperalert mode. Right down to the cellular level, everything woke the hell up.

  He said nothing at first. Just unstrapped all his personal weapons and started putting them away into the gun safe along the wall, near the bookshelves. Just like the penthouse, there was the armory with all the extra-fancy weapons, extra ammo and more guns than the guys probably knew what to do with. But each of the rooms was also equipped with a safe.

  I knew I owed him an apology. I’d wanted to say it as soon as I’d gone crazy on him, but it had hurt too much. I loved him. He needed to know that.

  While his back was still turned, I approached him warily. “I shouldn’t have hit you. I’m sorry.”

  I could see his broad shoulders move up and down as if he was inhaling deep, then exhaling. His voice was soft when he spoke. “I couldn’t let you go after her, Gems. I—I wouldn’t have survived if something had happened to you. You are my directive. I only care if you live or die. That’s it. I need you to understand that I will protect you first and foremost, and I won’t be sorry about that.”

  I swallowed hard. “I understand. I just—I made her a promise and seeing her go down then not being allowed to do anything… I just felt like I was failing her. I’m afraid of what they might be doing to her.”

  “I’m sorry. But I can’t allow you to be in danger, not even to save an old friend. No one will ever take priority over you. Right or wrong, it’s just never happening.”

  “Matthias…” The first sob tore out of my throat. “You’re right. I know you’re right. It was tactically a better move. I reacted emotionally.”

  He finally turned around, but I couldn’t read his expression. His gorgeous face was a mask. “You can’t do that. I’m unstable as fuck. This is what scares me.”

  What? No. I shook my head. “I’m not afraid of you. You would never hurt me. Not again. That wasn’t you before.”

  His lips set in a tight line. “Tell that to Noah.”

  I tipped my chin up and met his gaze. “I’m different.”

  His jaw clenched. “Doesn’t matter if you are. You are taking a risk with me.”

  He was not doing this. I wasn't going to let him crawl back into his shell. “I’m not afraid of you. I believe in you enough for the both of us. I was angry, and I shouldn’t have lashed out, because it was an asshole thing to do to the person you love, not because I need to be afraid of you. I’m not letting you push me away.”

  In the next second, he closed the distance between us and bracketed me against the wall with his hands. "Why can’t you just do the thing that’s safer for you?" H
is eyes darkened, and he growled. “But I can’t let you go. Even if I know it’s better for you. Don't ever scare me like that again.”

  Before I knew it, before I could even respond or mentally prepare, his lips were crushing mine.

  Holy shit. Matthias tasted so good. He wasn’t as practiced as some guys, but he was pure raw passion and singed my nerve endings with every stroke of his tongue.

  After the initial crush of his lips, he softened, gentled. He teased, probed, waited for me to respond, waited for me to allow him in… or push him away. As if there was any chance that was happening.

  He had a subtle way of flooding my senses. It was mere seconds before I was melting, leaning into him, wanting more, craving more.

  Before I knew it, my hands were sliding up to his pecs, and I was clutching on to his T-shirt. Under the soft cotton, he was all hard muscle and carved stone. When my nails dug in a little, he growled low and shoved one hand into my hair, gripping and angling my head just how he wanted as he took long licks into my mouth, leaving no corner unexplored.

  His body pressed into mine, forcing me to arch my back if I didn't want it pressed into the wall. Of course, that motion made my breasts press against him more. My nipples were tight, my skin too hot. And Jesus Christ, I could feel the thick length of him throbbing against my belly as if begging to come home. As if letting me know we were just getting started.

  With another muffled groan, he lifted me, forcing my legs to wrap around his hips so that his steel-like erection pressed against my center. Pressing into that spot I desperately needed the most.

  It was like he was reaching deep inside me, stroking every single pleasure center simultaneously.

  He made little teasing licks and would act as if he was withdrawing. And then I'd whimper, or instinctively follow the source of my pleasure, and he would give a harsh chuckle, before delving in for more.