"I can't reach the zipper," Ella said quietly. Then she mentally slapped her forehead. I can't reach the zipper? How seductive.
Zach's lips quirked up on one side.
"Need help, Mrs. Harper?"
That would never get old. Maybe she was old-fashioned, but she loved sharing this man's name.
Still nervous, Ella just nodded. Zach placed his hands on her shoulders and gently turned her towards the mirror. He peered over her shoulder at their reflection.
With slow precision, he tugged on the zipper and pulled it down to the top of her butt. His hands went inside the dress and around to her waist. He caressed the skin, back and forth, back and forth.
Ella closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder. Zach slipped the dress off one shoulder, his hands caressing her each place he touched. He pulled on the other shoulder of the dress, and it fell to her waist.
Ella opened her eyes and took in the sight of them. She was bared to the waist, and Zach watched her with hunger in his eyes.
Foregoing the gentleness, Zach spun her around and kissed her. Heat flooded her veins as she kissed him back. She tasted his desire, his passion, his need. It mirrored those same emotions that were bubbling up inside her, waiting to explode.
Zach broke the kiss and scooped her up in his arms. She yelped and wrapped her arms around his neck, breaking into giggles.
"I could listen to you laugh like that every day for the rest of my life."
"Well, good thing, since that's the plan, mister."
"I figured since I didn't have a threshold to carry you over, I'd carry you to our bed."
"Sounds like a fine idea to me."
He bent his head and kissed her gently on the lips.
"I love you, Ella Harper."
"I love you, too."
Zach laid her on the bed, carefully removing the dress she'd worn when she'd pledged her undying love to this man. Her protector. Her savior.
His hands skimmed over her body with an eagerness she understood. Zach wasn't taking from her; he was giving. Giving her pleasure. Giving himself.
"Stop me if I hurt you," he said, his care for her almost her undoing.
"You'd never hurt me, Zach."
At those words, Zach showed Ella how much he loved her, not only with his words, but also with his body. Afterwards, as they lay in each other's arms, Ella reflected on the journey she'd taken to get here. She couldn't say that she'd do it all over again. Never would she want to experience the terrors of the last few years of her life. But she had to believe that, even if things had been different, she would have found her way to Zach.
Somehow.
Some way.
They were meant to be.
* * * *
Sully looked at the pictures of The General that were lying on his desk. Zach had worked around the clock for the last two weeks trying to find enough evidence to put the bastard away for good. So far, they hadn't found anything that was incriminating enough to do the trick.
Sully had sent the information about Tobias to the FBI. Zach had worked his magic with the information on Ella, showing that she had been a victim in all the charges against her. He had spoken with the FBI director and told him about what had happened. The director had agreed that Ella wouldn't be charged for any of the crimes. The last of the files had been sent over that morning, and Sully hoped that the information would help the FBI put an end to some of the heinous crimes.
He also hoped that they'd be able to rescue some of the women and children from the hands of traffickers. The FBI director had assured him that he'd give him a call if rescue efforts were needed. Castle Investigations could go places and do things that the government couldn't.
Zach and Ella's wedding that evening had been the perfect distraction for everyone. They'd been on pins and needles for two weeks, and the celebration had given them all a little fun. Sully had slipped away once the dancing had begun. Isabel had given him the evil eye. He knew what she'd wanted.
Maggie. The pink-haired, pint-sized pixie that haunted his dreams. Having her under his roof was killing him. He'd avoided pushing her up against the wall and kissing her senseless more times than he could count, and he was losing his self-control.
That's what Isabel didn’t understand. He couldn't just dance with Maggie. Once he touched her, he wouldn't be able to stop. He thought about the way she'd looked tonight in her frilly, rainbow-colored dress. It was as if she were walking on a cloud, the way the effervescent material floated around her. She looked like a damn fairy.
She looked good enough to eat.
With a groan, Sully put his feet up on his desk and closed his eyes. He couldn't touch her in real life, but that didn't mean he couldn't dream about her.
In his mind, he imagined himself putting his arm around her waist and inhaling the bubblegum scent of her hair. He imagined dancing with her, swaying to the music and feeling her body pressed tightly against his. He imagined pressing a kiss to her lips, and her eager response inviting him in.
A throat clearing interrupted his thoughts, and he sprang up out of his chair so quickly that the damn thing tipped over. He met the wide, bright, blue-eyed gaze of the woman he'd just been imagining himself kissing. He crossed his arms to give himself the intimidating stance that always sent his subordinates scampering, in order to try to cover up having been caught daydreaming in his office.
Maggie giggled.
Sully growled. "What do you want?"
"Well, hello to you, too. Tired?" she asked, as she sauntered in and took the chair across from his desk. She pulled her legs up underneath her, and Sully noticed that she wasn't wearing any shoes. He also noticed her hot pink toenail polish. She was going to kill him.
"Yeah, it's been a hell of a year."
"A year, huh? Not just the night?"
He grunted.
"I was hoping…" Her voice trailed off.
"What?" he asked, more gruffly than he'd intended to, but it didn't seem to faze her.
"Well, I was hoping I'd get to dance with you tonight," she said shyly, her gaze drifting down to her hands as they picked at some imaginary thing on her skirt.
"What? Why?"
Sully couldn't believe his ears. She wanted to dance. With him? Why? There was nothing soft or cuddly about him. He never said the right things in front of her. When he'd visited her at the diner, it had been easy. But since he'd given her an administrative position here at the office, things had been tense. He knew it was his fault—his inability to be smooth or subtle. So he'd just tried to avoid her the best he could and say as little as possible.
"Why? Come on, Sully. You and I both know that we've been dancing around each other for months. I, for one, am tired of it. If we're going to dance, I want to be in your arms to do it."
Her gaze held his, heat and desire sparking in her eyes.
Sully stood there, his arms still crossed and his mouth hanging open. He couldn't believe his ears. She wanted him. Desired him. Fear threatened to overwhelm him. The fear that if he got close to her, The General would find a way to hurt her to get to him. He couldn't risk that.
He opened his mouth to tell her that he was bad for her, that he had nothing to offer her, when she stood and walked around his desk.
She lifted her hands to his collar, straightening it, then slid them down to his chest. Finally, she stood on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his.
For a moment, Sully didn't move. He didn't kiss her back or do anything but stand there, stunned. Maggie went to pull back, and Sully finally acted. His arms went around her, and he pulled her up against him. She was a tiny thing, so petite and small, and he lifted her off her feet, wrapping his arms around her waist and holding her to him. His mouth crashed down on hers, and he kissed her with all the pent-up feelings he'd been holding at bay for months.
Maggie, bless her heart, kissed him back, matching his passion and heat. Sully sat her down on top of his desk, brushing aside the papers that had been there. He sat do
wn in the chair as he continued to kiss her. She wrapped her legs around him and pulled him closer.
Sully tugged at the pins in her hair, sitting back to watch as it fell around her shoulders in soft pink waves. Shoving his hands in her hair, he kissed her again, marveling at the taste of her.
She was everything he’d imagined, and more.
A loud bang sounded, and the sound of the garage door banging open startled Sully away from Maggie. Maggie looked at him with a dazed look of confusion.
Sully rushed around his desk to the hallway, where men all in black, with rifles in hand, were running down the hall. Sully put his hands up and yelled out, "What the hell is going on here?"
The men parted, and a man with dark brown hair, graying at the temples, walked down the hall toward him.
FBI Director Mitchell Chase.
"What's going on, Mitch?" Sully asked, lowering his hands.
Mitch sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, Sully. I've got a warrant to confiscate your files and computers."
"What the hell? Who would give such an order? I haven't done anything to warrant this," Sully said, his voice rising in anger. This had The General's fingerprints all over it.
"You're being investigated for treason," Mitch said somberly.
"No way in hell. Mitch, you know me."
"I know, man. It's out of my hands. This is coming from the top. The very top." Mitch paused, his expression grim. "The president of the United States."
Book Five
Chapter 1
"My contact at the FBI says we're in the clear," Sullivan Castle announced to his security team as they sat assembled around the table.
"It's about time," his sister, Isabel Castle Hunt, agreed. "He didn’t get any of the information on himself, did he?"
"No." Sully knew that she was talking about Charles Kingston, otherwise known as The General—their benefactor for most of their lives, and the one responsible for most of the cases they’d worked on up to now. Not anymore.
After finding out that The General had set them up, used them to get rid of those in his circle he no longer found useful, and been ultimately responsible for the kidnapping and attempted murders of several of the wives of his team members, they'd officially cut ties.
This FBI investigation had been The General's attempt to secure what little evidence they had against him. The crimes were egregious, encompassing everything from human trafficking to drug- and gun-running. The General had built an empire of thugs.
It was time to take him out for good.
"I'd already moved the information on The General to another server off site. Can never be too careful," Zach Harper, the team’s computer hacker and tech guru extraordinaire, answered.
"Cate, any news on new referrals from old clients?"
Cate Sanchez, former AP reporter and now researcher for Castle Investigations—and Gabriel Sanchez's wife, cleared her throat. Sully instantly knew that whatever she was about to say was not good news.
"Actually, no. I mean, no new referrals. It seems our friend Mr. Kingston has spread some nasty rumors about Castle Investigations. It's going to take some time to sort those out."
Sully sighed, dragging his hand over his face. He'd worked hard for this business, and, in the last couple of years, most of their cases had come from word of mouth. When you guarded billionaires and politicians and kept them safe, or rescued their daughters from crazy idiots demanding ransom payments, you made friends in high places. Referrals had been their bread and butter. Now, his reputation and the reputation of his agency were under fire.
The General would pay.
"You're working on sorting through them?"
"Yes, sir. The allegations are unfounded. It will just take some time to trace the rumors back to their origins and get some signed statements verifying that they aren't true."
"Good. Keep working on that. Ethan, any news on the Senator Roberts protection detail?"
"All good. No issues so far. I have some of our leading contractors on the case since none of us are able to be out there."
The General had launched an all-out war on the members of Sully’s team. No one was safe. Even though the guys had all married off and moved away from the compound, they were all back under one roof now that they’d realized who was behind the trouble they'd encountered over the last few months. They'd spent Thanksgiving and Christmas hunkered down in the warehouse. Zach had been busy creating a fortress to keep them all safe. But now that the FBI had officially cleared them of treason, Sully knew it was just a matter of time before The General made his next move.
"Gabriel? Lucas? Anything I need to know about on your end?"
"Nope. Pretty slow at the moment, boss," Lucas Falco, former pararescue for the Air Force, said. Gabriel just shook his head. He wasn't exactly a man of many words.
"All right, then. You're dismissed. Remember, no one leaves the warehouse alone. Make sure you're armed at all times. Stay safe."
Sully was the first to leave the conference room and walked into his office to see that it was already occupied by the pink-haired fairy that was messing with his mind. She was typing furiously on the laptop he'd given her.
Maggie Thomas had come to work for him when her house had been firebombed by The General several months ago. He'd been after the thumb drive that Ella "Quita" Flores—now Ella Harper, since she'd married Zachary Harper—had stolen from her ex-boyfriend and captor, Bruno Lopez.
Maggie looked up when Sully walked in. He'd been avoiding her since Zach and Ella's wedding. Since she'd kissed him like her life depended on it. The night the FBI had interrupted. He tried to act nonchalant.
Sully lifted an eyebrow. "Comfortable?"
Maggie shrugged. "Since you've decided to avoid me, I figured that camping out in your office was the best solution." Maggie's strong Southern accent did strange things to his stomach, making him feel like ants were crawling around his insides.
"What do you want?" he asked gruffly. He hated that she did this to him—knocked him completely out of his comfort zone, and made him unable to speak or think clearly. It was like being in high school all over again, except that he was certain he’d been much cooler in high school.
She looked a little embarrassed and fidgeted with her hands. Good to know that he wasn't the only person flustered.
"I kind of need a paycheck," she said and looked apologetic about it.
Crap. She hadn't been paid? She'd been working there for like two months, and no one had bothered to remind him to get a paycheck to her.
"Geez, Maggie. Why are you just now coming to me about this? You've been working here for more than two months!"
She shrugged again, self-conscious. "I knew you were consumed with the FBI thing, and then all the extra expenses for the security measures for the building, plus I know your caseload has been smaller since The General came into the picture. I just didn't want to add to your burden. I didn't know if you had, you know, the resources. I don't have to be paid for all my time—after all, you've given me a place to live and three meals a day, but I do have some expenses—"
"Stop. Good Lord, woman. No one can get a word in edgewise when you start talking."
She rolled her eyes at him, and he tried not to find it adorable. But everything about her was adorable, from her pink hair and her pink Chucks, to her pin-up curves and her bright, brilliant blue eyes. She was a freaking cherub. An angel sent to earth to torment him.
Because as much as he'd thought about that kiss two months ago, it could never happen again.
"I have money to pay you. I just forgot. No one reminded me to add you to the payroll. I'll give you a check now for the first two months of pay, and add you to our direct deposit program for your next paycheck. Will that work?"
She nodded. "That's fine. But really, you don't have to pay me everything. I mean, I don't even know what my wages are here. I just imagined they'd be close to what I was making at the diner, so I didn't really ask, but I don't need that much right now, espe
cially since my landlord let me out of my lease when they found out how long it was going to take to rebuild my house, and then—"
Sully lifted his hand to cease her babbling. Maggie was a confident woman. She didn't take crap from anyone, but he had learned that when she was nervous or unsure, she could talk a mile a minute. Better to stop her now.
He pulled out his checkbook and did a few calculations before writing out her check. Maggie had been doing admin work around the office, stuff he usually did but always fell behind on. In fact, that was the reason he hadn't paid her. She'd been taking care of all these things, and so it hadn't crossed his mind.
Sully tore the check out of the book and handed it to her. She glanced down quickly, and her eyes bulged out.
"I think you made a mistake," she said and tried to hand the check back to him.
"Where?" he asked, eyeing the check to make sure he'd signed it and filled it out correctly.
"The amount!" she squeaked.
Sully sat back in his chair and crossed one leg over the other. "The amount is exactly what you deserve. You've been handling all of the administrative tasks around here, managing everyone's schedules, taking all of our calls, and keeping the place well stocked. I know we never talked salary, but from what I've researched in the past, that should be the going rate for an office administrator in a high clearance job. Is that acceptable to you? I can probably offer a ten percent increase—"
"No! I mean, no, it's great. I just wasn’t expecting so much," she said, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment.
"Ah, I see."
"I mean, I'm living here, eating your food—"
"As is everyone else on the team."
"Yes, but everyone else is pitching in for food. I've tried to contribute, but no one will let me—"
"No reason for you to. You're just one mouth. We're already buying groceries for everyone else. One more person isn't a big deal."
"Well, the least I can do is contribute something."
"Fine. If it makes you feel better, feel free to talk to Izz about the groceries. I think it's her and Ethan's turn this week. She'll let you know how much to contribute."
Castle Investigations Box Set Page 99
