When he was flat on his back Gina opened a dresser drawer and pulled out three scarves. His eyes widened but he didn’t say anything. Standing above him she let one of the scarves lightly trail around his erection. He jerked slightly, his eyes closing.
She picked up one of his hands and he reached for her with the other. She pointed at his hand. “Stop, or else.” He did. Seconds later both of his hands were tied. She straddled him, intentionally teasing him as she blindfolded him.
Leaning down, pressing her chest against his, her bottom against his erection, she whispered in his ear. “How’s it feel being helpless, Judge?”
He moaned. “Like I’m going to go crazy if you don’t touch me soon.”
Laughing softly, Gina moved off him. “Come back,” he said urgently.
“Soon,” she said as she moved towards the door. She pulled it open and smiled at Marco.
His brow inched up. “It is done?”
One side of her mouth inched up. “Of course.”
“Excellent.” Gina stepped back to allow him to enter. Once in the room he walked to the judge and tightened the knots on his wrists.
“Who’s there?” the judge said abruptly. “Gina?”
“Gina is here,” Marco said and watched the judge stiffen.
Even with the blindfold, his features showed fear. Though Marco had never met the judge, his French accent was an easy giveaway of his relationship to Arel.
“What in the hell?” the judge blurted out. He started to tug on the restraints.
“Calm down,” Gina told him. “It’s just a little game.”
The judge didn’t listen, bucking with panic.
“Enough!” Marco blurted and yanked a gun from his waistband. He pressed it to the judge’s temple and cocked it. “Be still or I will shoot.”
The judge froze.
“You are going to have a good time, Judge,” Marco assured him with absolute truth in his words. “You and Gina are going to play. I like to watch, it’s really quite simple. As long as you do as you are told, it will be painless.” He paused and let the words sink in. “Understood?”
Slowly the judge nodded.
“Good,” Marco said and set the gun on the end table. “Get a glass of water, and come here, Gina.”
Gina did as he instructed and then sashayed over to Marco, setting the glass on the table and pressing her body against his. “Can I warm up on you, baby?” she asked as her hand explored the ripples of muscle she loved along his shoulders.
“Non,” he said. “I’ll watch.” He pressed a strip of sweetness to her lips and she swallowed it. He gave her another. “More. Tonight is special.”
Marco handed her four strips. “Give them to him.”
She sashayed over to him and ripped off the blindfold. She wanted to see the panic in his eyes.
“Forget it,” The judge bit out through clenched teeth. “I’m not taking that.”
Marco picked up the gun and held it to his head again. “The drugs will make you feel good. The gun, I assure you, will not.”
The judge took the drugs.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Luke reached the stairs, his coat concealing a variety of weapons and the journal. He might have to get rid of most of them, but he was banking on keeping at least one. He headed through the entry gates and then down the stairs to the train terminal where there were nothing but concrete beams and benches.
Footsteps sounded behind him and he turned to find Hendrix coming down the stairs with a gun in his hand and with three other men following him. “Move to the concrete pole and put your hands on it.”
“You’re Dragonfly,” Luke said. “I should have known.”
“Should have, would have, could have,” he said. “But you didn’t and I can shoot you and get away with it, so I suggest you move.”
Luke pressed his hands to the concrete wall, and two men came to stand on either side of him. One searched him and handed off his four guns and two knives, before grabbing the journal.
The men backed away and Luke turned to watch Hendrix set the journal on fire and then throw it onto the tracks. “That was easy,” he said brushing his hands together. “I thought you Walker brothers were good?” He shrugged. “Guess not.”
“Was it the money that turned you, or were you always like this?” Luke asked.
“Money, power, more money. It makes the world go round.”
“The missing agent–”
“She got too close. Hell, she was sharper than you Walkers. She had to be dealt with. Just like you.”
“And my brothers?”
“Will never know I was involved.”
“Ouch,” a familiar voice said. “Don’t pull so hard.”
Luke’s blood ran cold at the sound of Julie’s voice. She appeared on the stairs, being pulled forward by another one of Hendrix’s men.
“Look what we have here,” Hendrix said as she was shoved toward him. “Nice taste, by the way,” he said looking her up and down and flicking a taunting glance at Luke. “Perhaps I can sample the goods before we do away with her.”
She didn’t react, as if she knew it would please him. Her eyes met Luke’s. “I figured out it was him, and I tried to warn you.”
“Better late to the party than never,” Hendrix said and winked. He walked towards her, stopped directly beside her. “You certainly will liven up this little party. How should we get started?”
“Touch her and you die,” Luke promised, his voice low, lethal. “You’re dead anyway, Hendrix.”
Hendrix gave an exaggerated laugh. “I hardly think you’re in a position to be making threats.” He looked at his watch. “The next train will be here in five minutes.” He called over his shoulder. “Pull the car to the exit.”
“Luke,” Julie said. “There’s something I should have told you and I didn’t.”
“Shut up!” Hendrix said, and cut a look to the man holding her. “Deal with her.”
The man slapped her. Julie yelped with the pain, and pressed her hand to her cheek.
Hendrix smirked at Luke. “Come and get me.” He pointed to a guard. “Tell Marco the journal was destroyed before we could get to it. Make it convincing.”
“All this so you don’t get in trouble with Arel over that damn journal,” Luke said. “You really are a sick man.”
Hendrix laughed. “I am what I am, and that’s smarter than you.”
The wind picked up as faint sounds of the approaching train humming through the tunnel. “Let’s go,” Hendrix said to the men, and moved towards the stairs.
One of the men holding guns on Luke motioned for him to move forward. Hendrix and two other men were already headed up the stairs. The odds just improved. That left Luke with his guard and Julie’s to dispose of. The trick was making sure Julie was safe.
The subway car was approaching. Luke’s guard shifted his eyes toward it, and gave Luke the opportunity. He grabbed the man, covered his gun hand with his own, and fired on the other guard. Before he ever hit the ground, Luke had turned, taken the gun fully from the man he still held and put a bullet in him, too.
Luke pointed the gun, surveying the area for anyone else. “Grab the other gun,” he ordered Julie, “and if in doubt, use it.”
The subway car came to a stop and Luke rotated around to point his weapon. Jesse came out, his gun raised, and fired at the stairs. A man rolled down the steps, his gun falling to the pavement.
“That’s close to even,” Luke said. “But you aren’t there yet.”
“Close is better than nothing,” Jesse said, joining Luke. “Where’s Hendrix? He disappeared on me.”
“He’s Dragonfly,” Julie said, “and how do we get out of here?”
“Everyone okay down there?” Royce shouted from above.
“All clear,” Luke shouted.
“Batman has arrived,” Blake said, appearing on the stairs, two guns in his hand. “Hendrix is dead. Three others in custody. Two others escaped.”
R
oyce followed Blake down the stairs. “How is it you lost your phone again?”
“We have the same phone, brother dearest. He grabbed mine. And in case you didn’t notice, that’s what warned us about Hendrix before it was too late.” Sirens screamed above ground. “The cavalry has arrived.”
Luke went over to Julie, who was staring at the dead bodies, the gun still in her hand. “You okay?” he asked, removing the gun from her hand.
She nodded, lifted her gaze to his. “I love you.”
“What?” he asked, shocked by the sudden confession.
“I love you and I should have told you before now, and I don’t want to risk ending up like them and you never knowing. I love you.”
He shoved the gun into his coat and wrapped his arms around her. “I love you, too.”
She blinked. “You do?”
“Yes. I do.”
Murphy rushed down the stairs. “Arel’s house is cleared out and we just got a call from a motel a few blocks away. The judge and Julie’s secretary were found dead.”
Blake scrubbed his jaw. “You really know how to mess up a romance novel moment, man.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Julie was exhausted by early morning when she, Luke, and his brothers returned to the Walker apartment. The questions had been many, the answers not as easily found as everyone wanted. The missing agent was most likely dead. Gina and the judge were dead. Arel had disappeared along with every known operation he’d been involved with that the task force had known about.
Julie looked around Luke’s kitchen, eying Luke’s brothers and Lauren, with an odd feeling of belonging she’d never before experienced. She sat on Luke’s lap, as Lauren did Royce’s. Blake, as usual, was eating, stuffing his third donut in his mouth. To watch them together made her experience a little part of something warm and wonderful that she had never known. To be with them helped make the night’s tragedy just a little more bearable.
“Have a donut,” Blake said to Julie pushing the box in her direction.
“I’m too tired to eat,” she said.
“I’m never too tired to eat,” Blake commented, and the room broke into laughter.
“Yes, we know,” Julie said smiling.
Blake finished off his donut and stood up. “Time for beddy-bye.”
“Us too,” Royce said and Lauren climbed off his lap.
“I know you’re tired,” Lauren said to Julie, “but tomorrow let’s talk about you leaving divorce behind and coming to work with my new firm.”
“Yes,” Julie said. “I’d like that.” She was ready to leave the past behind, ready to take some risks.
Goodbyes were said, and soon Julie was alone with Luke. She had no idea what had gotten into her, but now that she’d taken the step to confess her love for Luke, she was feeling daring all over again.
“Luke,” she said, caressing his cheek. “Will you marry me?”
Luke stared at her, a stunned look on his face before his lips curved into a smile. “You know you just stole my thunder, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Us macho Walker men like to go down on one knee and propose properly. And I’m supposed to have the ring first.”
“Oh, right,” she said, smiling at his response. “So, now what do we do?”
He set her on her feet and then back in the chair and went down on one knee. “Julie. Will you marry me?”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling like she was home for the first time in her life.
THE END
Bonus book
Not a direct Walker Brother book
Prologue
A shame to bruise such lovely skin.
Her body lay naked on the bed, her long, blond locks positioned just so around her creamy white shoulders. A bright red mark on her left shoulder caught his attention, frustrating him. He gently positioned a strand of her silky blond hair so it wouldn’t show. Wanting, needing her, to look perfect.
Stepping back, he surveyed his work. A slow smile turned up the corners of his mouth. Unable to resist, he moved again and ran his gloved finger down her ivory cheek. Pale and still, she was like a china doll displayed for his viewing.
Beautiful.
Calmness was settling inside him now. His job was done. The power his success yielded was surreal, yet so alive it delivered a boost of elation. She had been a real high, a challenge, where every step of the way had been a battle of wills. She’d offered no cries for mercy, no whimpering, as if she sensed the outcome before it happened. As if she knew he didn’t believe in mercy.
The fight had been invigorating, making him hotter and hotter with every twist and turn of her soft little body. Taking her had been so sweet, so perfect, he’d drawn it out. Slowly he had explored, touching her, moving inside her, soaking in the pure high of owning her.
But in the end, she hadn’t been as perfect as he had first expected. She’d been a disappointment. Because she had given up. Disgust coiled inside him, and he yanked his hand away from her face, remembering the low churn of anger when she had stilled beneath him. It had turned to rage, pushing him higher and higher, forcing him to squeeze the breath out of that delicate little neck.
The calm followed⎯so bittersweet in the aftermath.
He had hoped she would be different, but she wasn’t. For that he had made her punishment long and painful. Besides, she wasn’t the one he really wanted. The one that, one day very soon, he would have. Balling his fists at his sides, he clenched his teeth. It angered him the way she had left him, going to Washington as if he wasn’t important. He’d had no choice, no option, but to try to find a replacement.
Because she was his light, and without her, he was dark.
He let his eyes slowly close. Come to me, Lindsey.
Chapter One
Lindsey Paxton had to play nice with the very man who was screwing up her life.
The elevator doors opened on the twentieth floor, his floor, and she stepped out into the corridor. A long hallway greeted her, giving her the unnerving feeling that she was in an Alice in Wonderland clip. As she searched each of the heavy oak doors for the proper address, the hallway seemed to get thinner and smaller. Nervousness was very out of character for her, yet the wrenching in her gut refused to be ignored.
At the very end of the hall, she found his apartment number, and forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. She hadn’t realized how apprehensive she was about meeting Mark Reeves, her father’s ex-partner, until she was actually standing in front of his door.
Life as she knew it was going to be impacted by whether she could convince him to take control over her father’s law firm. She needed him to run the firm so she didn’t have to.
Mark had her in a compromising position, and she hated it. She could only pray he was willing to be reasonable. Lindsey reached for the doorbell and gave it a quick jab. Waiting for a response, the seconds seemed to go by like minutes. Feeling impatient, she punched the button again. Seconds ticked by, and still no answer. It would be just her luck to have traveled halfway across the country, and manage to show up at his door when he wasn’t home.
She needed him to be here.
Intent on knocking, wrist in position, the door flew open. To her distress, she stumbled forward, her hand reaching for support, and landing on a very hard, very masculine chest. She looked up in shock to find a man, one she presumed to be Mark Reeves, staring down at her. A devilish smile slid onto his full lips as his eyes rolled down to the placement of Lindsey’s hand. Embarrassment swept over her as she followed his gaze. Yanking her hand away, she took a step backwards as if she had been slapped.
“I, I’m sorry,” she heard herself stammer in a voice that didn’t resemble her own.
Mark leaned a shoulder against the door jamb and crossed one booted foot over the other before clasping his arms in front of his t-shirt-clad chest. The casualness of his attire did nothing to lessen his good looks. If anything it enhanced them. He loo
ked like a young James Dean, standing there, oh, so cocky, and masculine.
He was, in her book, a handsome, real life version of the Devil.
Had he not abandoned her father’s law firm, she would be back in Washington where she belonged. Instead, she was here, in Manhattan, desperate to find a way to get back home.
Mark gave her an assessing gaze. “Did you think holding the buzzer down would assure my attention?” His voice had a lazy quality, but it hinted at amusement. And his eyes were far too alert as they slipped down her body, and seemed to take in each and every detail.
She had carefully dressed in a fitted white, long-sleeved suit. One that was feminine, but not overly revealing. The skirt fell several inches above the knee. It hadn’t felt short when she put it on, but the way he looked at her made her reconsider. Her jacket had a zipper straight up the middle, which she left open just enough to be feminine. His eyes assessed the area as if she revealed more than she concealed.
She had the distinct impression he was trying to unnerve her, and she wasn’t about to let him think he’d succeeded. Despite the heavy weight of his stare, she managed a cool reply. “I didn’t hold the buzzer down. When you didn’t respond, I thought it was broken.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Did you ever consider I might not be home?”
“Actually, no.” She waved a hand his direction. “I see you are indeed at home.”
Looking at his light brown hair, a bit too long for the attorney he was, she assumed he was into nonconformity. “Normal” and “compliant” were not words that would be used to describe Mark Reeves.
His lips lifted in a slight smile. “You’re persistent, I’ll give you that. I wasn’t going to answer the door.”
“I don’t give up easily.” She took a breath. “Not when something is important. I really need to talk to you.”
Mark stood watching her for a long moment, seeming to contemplate every crevice of her face and body. She had to will herself not to fidget. She felt naked under his intense scrutiny. He was far more attractive than she had expected. Not that she hadn’t seen plenty of good-looking men. There was just something about Mark that really demanded her attention.
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