To Catch a Thief

by Nana Malone

  And they wouldn't have been subtle about it either. So, no not them. My brain tried to focus on why my phone was buzzing while my body was this close to giving in to the allure of Rian pressed up against me smelling like jasmine, so sexy. But the caller was insistent. Finally I reached for it. "What?"

  Tessa's voice was strained. "Ollie?"

  I sat up immediately, dislodging Rian. "Tessa, what's wrong?"

  "Oh, Ollie, thank God. I've been calling and you weren't answering it kept going to voicemail, and I was worried."

  I was already reaching for the light and trying to remember where I’d put my pants. "Where are you? Are you hurt?"

  "Oh my gosh Ollie, Max, he took me to this place. And you were right."

  My blood ran cold. With little tiny particles of ice floating in my veins. "Max took you where?"

  "I don't know, somewhere near Brixton. But there were these men. And they looked like gangsters and thugs. Like the kids we grew up with just all grown up. And angry. Very angry."

  "Where are you now?"

  "I don't know, I… After the supposed meeting, I got on the Tube and just started moving around, but I couldn't get a signal to call you, so I got off."

  Jesus Christ. Where was someplace safe that we could meet? I knew Liam was in Dubai for business. He'd left at the beginning of the week, which meant his loft was empty.

  "All right, my mate, Liam. He has a flat that should be safe. I'll text you the address. Are you safe though? Are you hurt?”

  I could hear her sniffle on the other end of the line. "No. But the way the blokes were looking at me gave me a total creeper vibe. And when one of them asked Max if I was part of the deal, Max didn't answer him. Just said, ‘You know, let's wait and see what you guys come up with. And then we can talk about my sister.’ Like I was a thing to be bartered with. And it's only because of me that he even got the meeting. He kept saying that his sister went to ‘this posh school and we're going to get these rich investors to invest in this thing.’ And then he presented me like a lamb to the slaughter. I just… I knew then that you were right. Max is only out for himself. God, I'm sorry I didn’t listen. I need you."

  "I'm already on my way. Check your text messages. Get there and be safe."

  When I hung up with Tessa, Rian was already sitting up, looking for her clothes. "You don't have to come. Just stay here. It's safe here."

  "If you're going and Tessa needs you, I'm going too."

  "Oh God, the lads are going to have a fit."

  "Make the lads understand. Let them know that we'll be safe."

  Once we were dressed, it was just a matter of getting out of the house. It was simple enough, honestly, with only East and Nyla out in the living room, cuddled on the couch and watching something on TV. When they saw us, East raised a brow. "Where do you think you're going?"

  "Liam's flat. Something's wrong with my sister. I've got to keep her out of whatever’s happening. I can’t bring her here."

  Nyla, sat up. "What's going on?"

  "Family stuff. I just need to make sure she’s okay."

  She nodded. "Yeah, okay. Take a car though."

  I nodded. "Thanks."

  East scowled. "The rest of the lads are going to give me shit for this, so don't do anything stupid, yeah?"

  I nodded. "My sister's my only concern right now."

  "Go get her then."

  And from there, we were at Liam's flat in no time. It took us another ten minutes to find a bloody parking space though. Once we parked, we ran to his loft, using an entry code to unlock the door. On the way, I’d texted him to see if we could use his flat for a bit, and he’d said it wasn’t a problem but that if I was going to shag my girlfriend in his loft to have the decency to wash the sheets. He was such a twat.

  When we opened the door, I got a text from Tessa.

  Tessa: Is that you?

  Ollie: Yeah, it's me. Where are you?

  A woman waved from across the street and then jogged over. "I just waited in the off-license until I saw you park."

  I surveyed the area. Liam’s flat was posh and just on the edge of Westminster. But still, in the city anything could happen. "Right, yeah, come on in."

  Tessa stopped short when she saw Rian though. "Oh my God, I hope I've not interrupted something."

  Rian stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her. "Don't be silly. You were in trouble. As if Ollie wouldn't let me come."

  "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"

  Rian shook her head. "I won't hear another word about it. Come on let's get you inside so you guys can talk in peace."

  Once we were in the loft, Tessa whistled low. "Wow. Whose place is this?"

  "A mate, Liam's. He's out of town for a bit."

  "Oh, he has good taste."

  "Don't tell him that. He'll never shut up about it."

  Tessa surveyed her surroundings. "We've come a long way from where we started, huh, Ollie?"

  "Yeah you could say that."

  "Listen I just want to get on the train back to Uni, but I had to tell you that you were right about Max, and I just feel like an idiot. Because here I was fighting you this whole time while you knew exactly what was going to happen. When I stopped selling the idea to my friends, he got really mad. He told me I'd made him promises. I could just feel your warning coming back to haunt me, and I can’t believe I was so stupid.”

  Rian stepped forward then. "You're not stupid. You just followed your heart, that's all. It happens to the best of us. Sometimes it'll work out; sometimes it won't. But you have Ollie, and he loves you. So why don't you just tell us what happened, and maybe we can help."

  Rian really calmed Tessa down so she could tell us what was going on. Max had been pressuring her to bring her friends’ parents into this startup that he was trying to fund.

  Jesus. When Tessa stopped talking, she swiped at her nose with the back of her hand. "I'm so stupid. I can't believe I didn't see this. He turned up out of the blue and I just… I don't know, got excited."

  "I know.” I put my arm around her and squeezed gently. “I have been embarrassed by him enough times to know that wishing he’d change doesn't make it so."

  "I just want you to be careful, Ollie, okay? Because I saw a side of him that I've never seen before. A side that looked like he'd be happy to kill anyone who got in his way. When I told him I didn't like how some of the guys were looking at me today, he told me to suck it up and that he hadn't brought me along for companionship. When he saw it hurt my feelings, he apologized right away. But I think that’s because he wanted me to convince those blokes that we had money coming.”

  I ran my hands through my hair. “Fuck. I knew this smelled bad. I bloody knew it. He could have gotten you hurt.”

  “He's really wound up. I don't know what he's got planned. But maybe it's time to get the hell out of the city."

  "I'm not running from Max, Tessa. My only goal is to keep you two safe. Anything else is incidental. I've made some mistakes, but I will figure this out. I'll find a way to keep you both safe and out of his reach."

  Tessa nodded. "If you think you can."

  "I know I can."

  I argued with Tessa about staying with us at this loft, but she didn't want to. I called her a car service, even though it would be well over two hundred quid, because it was the safest route to get her back to the campus. When I safely tucked Tessa away into the waiting car, Rian was right there with me, holding my hand. As my sister pulled away, she said, "I got you. I’ve got you, Ollie. Let's go get some rest, and then we'll figure out the Max problem tomorrow."

  She said it so easily, as if it would be simple enough to just figure out the Max problem. At the same time, we were both exhausted, and I knew it would be a lot easier to think if we weren't completely knackered. So I sighed and said, “All right then. Take me upstairs.”

  Ollie

  I toyed with a piece of Rian’s hair on her cheek, and she smiled in her sleep. Without even trying, she had me complete
ly locked up.

  She made me feel alive.

  This will hurt.

  I ignored the warning.

  "Are you awake, Rian?"

  Her tongue peeked out and ran over her bottom lip, and immediately, my cock stirred. Dammit, I should be passed out cold. We’d made love three times already. Like we were both desperate to get in as much quality time as possible and make up for lost time.

  Her lashes fluttered and slowly she opened her eyes the dark depths seemingly boring right into my soul. "You can't tell me you're awake again."

  I chuckled low and held her tight. "Well, it's all your fault. I just—" What? What could I possibly say to her to that would cover how I felt? "You look beautiful." That wasn’t what I wanted to say, but nothing I could say would be enough. Trying to lighten the mood, I grinned. "I have some ideas of what I want to try next. How flexible are you again?"

  She laughed. "Not very."

  I shrugged. “No matter. We'll make it work."

  Giggling, she tried to scoot out of my arms. "I need to know what I'm agreeing to first."

  I just held her tighter. "Oh no, you don't. I'm not letting you go."

  "Total hardship." She sat up, and the sheet fell from her breasts. “We have to get up in an hour. What do you say we shower together?"

  Well fuck. I stared at her chest and tried for the life of me to remember what I'd been saying again.

  "Hello, Earth to Ollie?"

  I dragged my gaze up to her face, but couldn't help a couple of downward glances. I scooted closer and kissed her shoulder before nipping it. I knew her body well by now, and with a gentle slide of my fingers between her thighs, she laid back and arched up, her thighs splayed and ready to accommodate me. "Yeah?"

  She cleared her throat. "Did you hear me ask about the shower, or were you too busy staring at my boobs?”

  "Oh, right. Look, you're going to have to cover them if you don't want me to stare at them." Or lick them, or fuck them. My brain, ever helpful, offered up the imagery of my cock sliding between her oiled breasts. And just like that, I was rock-hard again.

  Her inner walls clamped around my fingers.

  I couldn't think with her doing that. "Rian, that's not fair." At this rate, it would take no time to make me come again.

  "Who said anything about fair?"

  Gently, I plucked her nipple, and she shivered. "I like that."

  "I know. Two can play at this game. Turn over, baby."

  When she complied, I slid my cock against her arse. Her breath hitched, and my cock slid between her cheeks again, this time grazing the pucker of her forbidden hole. But she didn't move away. Oh God, she was going to kill me.

  She rubbed her arse over me once more, and this time, the tip of my cock grazed her wet slit, and I groaned. When my cock nuzzled into her wet entrance, I shivered as she coated me with her juices. Fuck. I wanted to make her scream my name. With every slide of my cock over her entrance, she lifted her hips in invitation. "Please…"

  "I know what you want, and I'll give it to you, but you have to stop moving. Otherwise I'll come, and we'll have all kinds of problems.” She moved again and I cursed, the tip of my cock slipping inside. Fuck, so tight. So damn soft. With a little contraction, she pulled me inside to heaven, and I stroked deep. She pulsed around me, and I squeezed my eyes shut. I never wanted to leave. I wanted to press my whole body against her and fuck her slowly for hours.

  But we’d already reached a limit on my control.

  I fucked her slow. Pouring every bit of emotion into my strokes. Every deep grind of my hips silently telling her how I felt. Silently sharing that things were different for me.

  Rian bucked beneath me and I whispered in her ear, "I love being inside you… So tight… So slick… Never want to leave.” When I came again, I could feel the vibrations shooting up my cock.

  I held her tight as I nipped the nape of her neck. "Mine," I whispered before the darkness took over.

  Rian

  You need to tell him you’ve taken the pendant to the police.

  It was a constant argument with myself. I couldn't keep the secret from Ollie any longer since he’d told me he sent it to me.

  It was eating at me. I’d tried to tell him yesterday, but after my confession about what happened to me when I went home, he told me none of it mattered. But I knew it mattered. He didn't know what I was holding back.

  "Ollie?"

  He shifted in bed next to me, his massive frame rolling over and practically smothering me with his whole body. He wrapped his arm around my waist and tugged me down so that my ass was in a perfect little spooning position at his crotch.

  And he was… Oh, wow. Apparently, Ollie could always go.

  "Are you awake?"

  "Depends on what you need me to be awake for, love."

  "To talk."

  I could practically feel him holding his breath. "Okay, it seems like you've been trying to talk to me for a minute. What's wrong?"

  "I need to tell you something. And I'm afraid of what your response is going to be."

  He let out a long breath. "Considering my checkered past, I don't really think I'm in a position to judge you for anything."

  Yeah, that was because he didn't know what I’d been up to since I returned to London. "Ollie, I—"

  "Well, isn't this touching."

  We both reached for the weapons that Bridge had given us, but the man in the shadows of the corner of the room just tsked. "You lot really should check your weaponry before you go to bed." And sure enough, he was right. The guns were gone.

  Ollie rolled away from me. "Mate, it's me you've got the quarrel with. Not her. Let her go. I’ll do whatever you want. I found a way to pay Rome back, so if my idiot brother owes you money, I’ll find a way to pay you back too."

  The man’s chuckle had a hint of ice in it, low and harsh. It was familiar, too familiar. "Ollie?" I called from the bed. I didn't want to think it was possible, but the tightening in my gut told me that this was really happening, and I did not want to have this conversation when I was naked in bed. I wrapped the sheet around myself and tried to stand.

  Ollie gave me a harsh glare. "Sit down. I'll deal with this."

  "Oh no, let her stand. I want to see if her body's just as good as it was then."

  My stomach roiled and the bile threatened to rise. I'd never shown him my body. He'd called me a goddam prude because I wouldn't. But I'd always known then, hadn't I? Known something was off with him. I’d listened to my instincts, and he tore me down with his words because of it.

  When he stepped from the shadows, I held my breath even though I knew what to expect.

  "I must say, baby brother, bravo."

  Ollie staggered in surprise. "Fucking hell, Max."

  "Who did you think it was, Rome? I have to say that I am impressed that you were able to pay him. A million quid? I thought there was no way you'd be able to pull that off. But wow, you are resourceful. Really a shame we're not working together anymore."

  Ollie shook his head. "What are you doing here?"

  Max laughed, and it wasn't a pleasant sound. He was still in the shadows so I couldn't see his face too well, but that jaw… I would know that jaw anywhere.

  It was dusted with more stubble now. Not quite a full beard, and the jaw was sharper. Like a grown man. He turned to face me then. "Ah, there you are. Beautiful as always, you're not willing to show off what you’re working with?"

  I held the sheet tighter. "Max."

  "My darling girl. God, if only you weren't such a predictable slut."

  Ollie took a step forward. "Fuck you, Max. Leave her alone."

  But Max was not there to play. He raised his gun. "Take another step, brother, and I will kill you. You see, you already severed our brotherly connection some years back when you kissed the only girl I'd ever loved. So I could kill you now. But lucky for you, I'm inclined to let you walk because I'm not here for you. I'm here for her."

  "What do you want?" I ask
ed.

  "It's what you want, princess. You've been looking for me."

  Ollie turned his head toward me with his brows furrowed. "Huh?"

  I licked my lips. "Is this how you tell me you want to talk?"

  "Well, you were going to keep coming, weren't you? But then you were never the young ingénue we all wanted to protect, were you? You just gave off that aura. But now you are calculating, cunning. Too smart for your own good. Does he even know that you were looking for me and that's how you stumbled on him and his friends?"

  Ollie's voice sounded like whiskey poured into a cement mixer. "Is that fucking true?"

  I swallowed. "I, Ollie it's not like that."

  "What's it like then?"

  Max chuckled. "Now, now you two. I do not have time for a lover's spat. As fun as that would be. And honestly, it would be very enjoyable. But I have things I need to do. So how about my girlfriend and I get out of here. Because after all, once you're mine, you're always fucking mine."

  A shiver ran through me.

  Max turned his attention to Ollie again. "Rian and I are going to go on a little trip together. She is going to tell me why she's looking for me and exactly what she's told the fucking police."

  Ollie staggered back for the second time that night. "The fucking police?"

  "No, Ollie. I haven't told them anything about you or your friends. DI Jones only wants him."

  "The police?"

  "Ollie. It's not like that. Please, just let me explain. I didn't have a choice, and my back was up against the wall."

  "The fucking police."

  "Ollie." I reached for him, but he shook his head and crossed his arms. He didn't care how naked he was. He leaned against the bureau. "Wow. I knew that was no fucking coincidence."

  "It was a coincidence. She approached me about looking for Max. I told her no. But then the pendant arrived and I thought Max had sent it, so I called her. That’s it. She wanted me to spy on you and I refused."

  Max waved his gun. "Enough. I'm tired of you trying to explain. You see, little brother? Your girlfriend is a slut. She is shagging her boss, so he protects her. Why he let you stick around though, I don't know. But whatever. And well, she couldn't get enough of me as you can clearly tell since she's been looking for me."