by Wade, Maddie
Waggs had no doubt Bebe and Laverne could protect Wills and AJ as well as any man. Not as good as him maybe but that was his control freak tendencies kicking into overdrive.
“Looks like everyone is gone for the night.” Liam had applied for and got a job on the yard yesterday and started today so he was particularly grumpy. Working at a trucking yard was fucking exhausting and back breaking work.
“We should give it another half hour just to make sure.” Waggs wanted in there more than anyone, but caution held him back. If this was everything they thought it would be, there would be guards. Sure, enough ten minutes later, two guards walked into view doing a patrol around the yard.
“They’re carrying fucking assault rifles. That seems like overkill,” Liam grumbled.
“Not if they’re expecting trouble.” Decker responded. He was finally out of his suit and in dark tactical clothing. A mission was the only time he wore that kind of thing and everyone had pretty much got used to it, but after their conversation after the Costasis interrogation, Waggs wondered if there was more to it than just a style choice.
The building where the three of them lay on the roof watching was far enough away that anyone looking from down below wouldn’t see them, especially at night.
“Guards are going back to the security room now they’ve done a pass through. My estimate is that they’ll do a sweep maximum of every half hour.”
“Let’s go.” Waggs was on his feet and heading for the stairs.
They’d already planned the where and why and everyone knew their role. Waggs jogged across the back of the yard with Decker covering his six. Liam was going to check the containers that were loaded and ready to go. It was nearing the end of the month and they expected over the next few days to find some increased movement at the yard overnight which was why they were moving now, when they’d rather have waited.
When Waggs reached the cabin, he took out his lock pick and quickly opened the door. Decker slipped in behind as the two men used pen lights to work. They needed to find anything they could to link Ralph or his father to the trafficking or any other evidence of a crime.
Ignoring the file cabinets that were accessed by general staff, they targeted the managers’ offices and any locked drawers or safes. Moving quickly, they tried to make sure nothing was disturbed which made this job longer than he wanted but they didn’t want to give anyone the heads up more than necessary that they had been here.
Finding a locked drawer in Jerry Edwards office, Waggs swiftly worked it open. He found some receipts for hotels and a safe deposit box and dismissed them. The receipts were more than likely an affair, and the safe deposit box would take too long to access. Working his hand around the back he smiled when he found what he was looking for.
A slip of paper with a code written on it—it had to be the safe.
“Deck, I got the code for the safe. You find anything?”
Deck moved over from the filing cabinets, shaking his head. “Don’t think so but I took some pictures of anything remotely interesting just in case.”
“Can you get into his computer while I check the safe?”
Decker eyed the desk top computer. “I’ll try.”
“Three minutes, guys. We have movement out here.”
Waggs shifted to the safe and quickly opened it using the code, mentally rolling his eyes at the mastermind for leaving it there in the first place. Opening it slowly, he saw a couple of piles of cash, a handgun, and a file. Passing over the cash and gun, he went for the file. Something was important enough to protect in there and he wanted to know what it was.
Taking out a pile of photographs, he locked his jaw and curbed his violent reaction when he saw an image of his Commanding Officer from the Green Berets in a compromising position with a girl that looked barely legal, and certainly not complicit in the sex act she was performing. He flicked through and his heart stuttered to a stop.
“Motherfucker.”
Rage almost blinded as he looked down at the image. He felt Decker step up next to him but couldn’t speak, such was his fury. An image of the same Commanding Officer, Nick Green, talking to the men who had watched and smirked just before Aaron was blown up. The next image was just as bad, showing Nick handing something over to one of the men. He’d never forget their faces as long as he lived.
Decker took the images and snapped pictures on his phone of every one of them before he slid them back in the file and put it back in the safe. He then sent the pictures to Waggs. “Time to go. I think we have enough for now.”
Waggs snapped out of the red fog and checked to make sure nobody would suspect they’d been there before he and Decker went back out the door.
“Hold. We have a vehicle coming in through the back gate.”
The trucking yard was accessed by two gates, although the security tower was at the front. Waggs looked at Decker. “We should check it out.”
Decker grinned. “Read my mind.”
“Pyro, meet us at the west corner.”
“Roger.”
A minute later, Liam jogged up to them and the three men watched as a single unit truck drove into the back of yard and pulled up to a warehouse. The security guards from the front opened the double doors and the truck pulled inside. Waggs caught sight of the driver and snapped pictures of all the men before the door was closed.
“We need to get closer and see what’s inside.” Liam had come alive now, his grumpy attitude gone, and he was mission focused.
“What about that?”
Waggs followed where Deck was pointing and saw a skylight on the top of the metal structure that now housed the truck. Waggs weighed it up as both men looked to him. “It’s risky but doable.”
“If you and Liam cover the guards, I can get up the side by the ladder.”
“I can do better than that. I can cause a diversion,” Liam said.
“Do it.”
Liam grabbed some flash bangs out of his kit bag on his back which he carried most places as the demolition and bomb expert it was his speciality. Waggs and Decker waited, eyes on the building until they heard the flashbangs go off at the gate. They waited a beat and then saw the two security guards running.
As soon as they did, Waggs and Decker moved, ducking low as they ran across the exposed space avoiding the cameras. Waggs covered Decker as he expertly climbed the ladder and disappeared onto the roof and out of sight. The night was lit by a full moon, which wasn’t the best circumstances, but they were making it work.
Waggs was trying not to think about the images of his former Commanding Officer and the fact the evidence showed he was involved in Aaron’s death in some way. He needed to find out if he was in country, and if he was, he and his former CO would be having a conversation. First, he needed to figure out what his brother had known that had got him killed.
“The truck is empty.”
Waggs felt disappointment in one way but relief in another. He wouldn’t wish that life on any woman. Decker moved back down the steps as Liam got back to them.
“Let’s get out of here.”
The three men slid back into the night as if they’d never been there and hiked the mile back to the truck. Waggs checked in on Willow and AJ, relieved to hear they were okay and safe. He had to tell her about Aaron but had no idea how she’d take it. Losing someone you loved to an accident was bad enough but to know someone had done this on purpose was an even more bitter pill to swallow.
Decker was driving and glanced at Liam. “Did you let off a flashbang?”
“Yeah, and a rough graffiti message so they’d think it was kids.” Liam wasn’t a slouch and a flashbang alone would raise questions, the graffiti would keep them lax and unaware.
“What did you find?”
Waggs felt his shoulders tense as he tried to say the words out loud that would change everything. “Pictures of my Commanding Officer Nick Green in a compromising situation with a drugged out minor.”
“Fucking pervert,” Liam spat.<
br />
“Yeah, that’s not all.” He handed Liam his phone so he could see the images himself.
“What am I looking at, Waggs?”
“Those are the men who were there the day my brother was killed. They smirked at me just before the kid blew the bomb.” They all knew how it looked, and nine times out of ten if it looked like shit it was.
“Jesus! What are you thinking, man?”
“Aaron was a good man. He wouldn’t have been involved in this.”
Liam shook his head as he handed the phone back to him over the front console. “I know that. I meant do you think Aaron was on to them?”
Waggs rested his elbow on the car window frame and propped his chin with his hand, his mind going a thousand miles a second. “Yes, I do, and it got him killed.”
Chapter 16
Willow was dozing when she heard Aiden come in the bedroom. He was quiet but the air in the room changed when he was around, it became charged with electricity. Aiden Wagner was a man who could dominate a room just by walking into it. Rolling, she smiled up at him in the darkness as she saw his shadow moving about getting undressed. Normally, she’d have the curtains cracked just a fraction so she could see the moon but with the threat to her and AJ, she’d pulled them tightly closed.
The sheet lifted and he scooted in and lifted his arm as she moved into his hold. Her body relaxing for the first time since he’d left earlier that night. The feel of his warm hard body eased her and turned her on at the same time. “How did it go?”
Willow could feel the tension rolling off him and wondered if that meant there’d been a problem. Aiden rolled them so she was on her back and he was stretched over her, his forearms bracketing her head, his erection pressed against her clit.
“Later.” His voice was like silk over gravel, smooth but with the undertone of something dangerous, something heated. His head dipped and he kissed her deeply, his tongue sliding over hers, dominating and passionate, mimicking the movements his hips were making as they rocked slowly against her wet pussy.
His boxers the only barrier between them since she’d gone to bed with just his t-shirt and nothing else on her body. His kiss became hotter, more consuming as his hands began to travel over her, pushing the cotton over her head as she pushed at his boxer briefs he wore until she shoved them off his legs with her feet.
Wanting to touch him, Willow slid her hand around the thick length of his cock and stroked him, revelling in the hiss that came from his lips as he threw his head back. It was powerful to think she could make this strong, brave man vulnerable to her touch.
“Harder, Wills, stroke me harder.”
Emboldened by his demand, she did as he asked, arching her back when he stroked his fingers over the skin of her pussy. He used the evidence of her desire to circle her clit, slowly, firmly, until she was desperate for release.
Suddenly he pulled back and she lost purchase on his cock as he kissed his way over her body, down her stomach, and his mouth landed where she needed him. Her hand in his hair flexed and tightened as he swiped the flat of his tongue through her folds and then used that wicked tongue on the swollen bundle of nerves at her centre. In seconds she could feel the orgasm flickering through her like a flame waiting to ignite into an inferno.
“Hurry up, Willow. I fucking need to be inside you.”
His demand was sexy and made her moan as she rode his face. Aiden speared two fingers inside her roughly, rubbing the secret place inside her that was like a detonator. Her back arched and Aiden quickly clamped a hand over her mouth as she cried out and came hard, her vision going brilliant white as the sensations rocked her body and she bit down on his hand.
As she came down, the palm covering her mouth slid away and Aiden stood to grab a condom.
Willow grabbed his hand. “Do we have to?”
She could see the confusion on his face before he understood what she was asking and moved to the side of the bed. His cock bobbed up to his waist, tempting her to taste him. “Are you sure, Wills?”
Willow nodded. “I’m on the pill and I haven’t been with anyone but you since…” She let the words trail off.
“I’m clean, too.”
Willow came up on her knees, grasping Aiden’s cock in her hand as she licked the mushroom head and tasted the salty evidence of his desire. Wrapping her lips around him, she bobbed her head and felt him jerk before he stilled, trying to hang on to his composure, but she didn’t want that. Willow wanted him as mindless and desperate as she was for him. Bobbing her head, she took as much of him as she could, using her hand to stroke the root where she couldn’t reach.
Her mouth hollowed and she hummed her approval as she felt his hand land gently on her head guiding her and moving her hair aside so he could watch her take him. Her eyes rose to meet his and the carnal heat in those hooded blue orbs made her clit pulse and she thought she could come from that alone.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Wills.”
His praise spurred her on as she felt his rock-hard cock twitch in her mouth. He was close and she wanted him like this, raw, beautiful, wild. Sharply, he withdrew from her mouth and she moaned at the loss until she felt his mouth on her, kissing her with passion as his hands tightened in her hair, guiding her head how he needed her and how she needed him.
“On your knees, beautiful.”
Willow complied, feeling his hand on her shoulder as he pushed her down. The feel of his muscular thighs at the back of her legs as he lined his cock up with her entrance made her breath come fast, her expectation already at a fever pitch.
His hand stroked over the curve of her ass and she arched into his touch.
“You’re so responsive.”
“Hurry up, Aiden.”
His warm chuckle made her insides melt. She loved this man so much it was hard to put into a cohesive thought sometimes.
The feel of him pushing into her slowly, stopping and pulling out before pushing in more, was exquisite and her hands gripped the sheets. She could feel every inch of him at this angle, so much deeper as his cock stroked her g-spot over and over.
He ran a hand up her spine and gripped her hair turning her head gently. “Look at me.”
Willow did, watching as he fucked her slowly, the look on his face giving her as much pleasure as his body. When he added his finger, stroking her clit, she knew she was going to come again but kept her eyes on him, watching his face tighten as she came hard, her climax washing over her in waves, then splintering like glass as she panted into the pillow, losing his eyes.
Aiden began to increase his speed, moving faster, harder, gripping her hips until she knew he’d leave bruises and wanting the evidence of their lovemaking on her skin. His body jerked and then she felt the heat of his climax inside her, and it caused a minor climax to ripple through her body.
Aiden slumped across her back and she welcomed the weight of him as he kissed the bumps of her spine and caressed her gently, cupping her breast and causing her muscles to clench around his softening cock.
“I need to clean up.”
He withdrew from her body and she sank to the bed, boneless and satiated, not caring that she was naked and exposed. The light from the tiny en-suite in her room showcased his stunning body as he sauntered back to her with a cloth, and easing her legs open, cleaned her up.
It was such a sweet thing to do, and so Aiden. “I love you.”
He looked up at her and smiled a panty melting smile that had her wanting him again when she’d barely recovered from the first time. “I love you more.”
Willow sat up on her elbows. “No, that’s not true. I don’t want you thinking that. I love you, Aiden. So much that it scares me sometimes. If I lost you, I don’t know I could survive it.”
Aiden threw the cloth to the floor and gathered her into his arms as he pulled the sheet over them. “It was a phrase, Wills.”
“I know, but I don’t want you to have any doubt what you mean to me.”
“You mean you
don’t want me thinking I’m just a replacement for Aaron because he can’t be here?”
“Exactly, because that isn’t the case. I love you for you.”
“I know that, Willow. I’m not jealous of Aaron. God, I loved him too.”
“Your mom knows about us.”
She felt his arms tighten around her then relax. “She told you that?”
“Yeah. She said she was glad we found each other and wants us to be happy. She says she always knew there were feelings between us and that I have excellent taste in men.”
Aiden chuckled against her and it made her heart stutter. There would never be a time when this man didn’t make her body and heart jump when he walked in a room.
“Well, she’s not wrong there.”
“It felt good to get her approval. It wouldn’t have stopped my feelings for you if they didn’t, but Amy and Ben have been such a support to me with AJ.”
His fingers stroked her arm. “I should’ve been there.”
“No. It wasn’t our time then and you’ve built such a great life in Hereford.”
“I found something out tonight and I didn’t want to tell you, but I know I have to.”
Willow felt her heart stall in its beat and her tummy clench at his words. “What is it?”
“It’s about Aaron.”
Willow leaned up, leaving her hand over his heart, and feeling the beats accelerate under her hand. His face was a mask of pain and regret, and she hated for him to carry it alone. He’d carried far too much, and this was enough. “Tell me.”
Aiden pulled her back down into his embrace. “I found pictures of our Green Beret Commanding Officer in Jerry Edwards’ safe. It shows him engaging in sex acts with a minor, or at least she sure looked like a minor to me.”
“And?” Willow knew there was more, that was upsetting but not enough to have put that look on his face.
“There were also pictures of Green with the men who were there the day Aaron was killed.”
Willow drew in a breath as she processed his words. He’d told her a bit about that day and seeing men at the edge of the village smirking before it happened. “Green was involved, which means this wasn’t a random bombing, it was targeted at Aaron. But why?”
