by Casey Hagen
Those green eyes pinned him in place better than any crosshairs. “I just did,” she said quietly.
Water sloshed over the edge of the tub as they came together in a desperate collide.
The cold slid away, his warm body surrounding her, his mouth feasting on hers.
She’d been spinning in that gray abyss for so long that waking up took her breath away. She couldn’t regret the long road she took to get here. Not when it led to this man holding her, cherishing her, bringing her to life with every slide of his lips and tongue, the glide of his powerful hands, and the hungry growl that sounded low in his throat, vibrating into her mouth.
Desperate for skin, she reached for the hem of his shirt. Dragging it over his head, she found his hard chest with her mouth even as water poured from the cotton over his skin and on her face.
“Not here, Chloe.”
“Right here,” she countered, reaching for the snap of his jeans.
“You deserve—”
“I deserve to have this tub be something to me other than a source of pain and misery.” Her body ached, desperate to be touched. Her heart pounded with a fierce hunger as something she’d never experienced before lay just out of her reach, something that might have a chance at reaching the frozen core she’d buried deep under painful memories and a decade of disappointment.
She didn’t know what he saw when he looked at her, but whatever it was, he brushed her hands away from his jeans and took over.
Backing up to give him room, she watched him with rapt fascination. Her mouth fell open as he fought the wet denim over lean hips and hard, muscular thighs.
She roamed over him from head to toe, her eyes taking in everything, the course hair of his legs, his cock, thick and hard at the juncture of his thighs, scars along the skin of his chest, ribs, and lower abdomen.
“You were shot,” she said. It wasn’t a question. TV made them look mysterious, almost glamorous, like badges of honor for the brave. In real life, they sucked the air from her lungs as she started to realize just how precarious life could be and how lucky she was that he’d even made it to this point with her.
“A few times,” he said, tossing his jeans onto the bath mat. Sinking back into the water, he reached for her. “Another time, Chloe. Right now, we feel.”
She was. Oh, how she was. She felt every old wound deep in her heart.
Clutching his arms, she straddled him, her eyes drifting shut as his mouth floated over her collarbone. Every drag of his lips became more insistent, more frantic.
When he sucked her nipple into his mouth, rough, but so fucking perfect, her body threatened to dissolve into a puddle of lust, and she cried out, holding him to her.
God, she didn’t want this to end, but at the same time she craved what came next.
As if he could read her mind, he didn’t let go, but kept licking and sucking that taut nipple while guiding her hips over him, until the hard length of him pressed against her, seeking entrance.
He let go and tipped his face up to hers, his chin resting between her breasts. “I don’t deserve to be loved by you, Chloe, but I’m just enough of a selfish bastard to take it.”
She smiled and threaded her fingers through his wet hair. “I know what you’re doing, Lucas.” She kissed his forehead, letting her mouth linger the way he did with her. “You’re giving me an out, and I don’t want it. Do you hear me?” she murmured against his forehead.
He shivered, his arms tightening around her, locking her there with him even as he tried to push her away with his words.
She trailed kisses over his temple. “I’ll spend a lifetime proving it. You’ll spend the same lifetime trying to earn it.” She slid her thumb over his bottom lip, smiling when he nipped her. “We’ll find our way,” she promised, sinking onto him.
Each braced for the powerful collide, they held their breath in unison as she took him inch by inch.
Eyes locked, she held his face in her hands the same way he held hers. Two people who’d spent years witnessing the absolute worst in humanity, both desperate to witness something new and beautiful, refused to close their eyes to what they’d found, to what grew between them.
She rocked against him, taking her time, watching every twitch of his mouth, reveling in the way his breathing grew ragged with need. Even as their pace quickened, their movements less graceful and more frenzied, she never stopped looking inside him.
God, he’d buried those shadows deep in there, and for a quick flash, he opened completely, and she saw them curling like black smoke around the recesses in that mind of his.
You can’t have him; he’s mine.
Possessive and relentless, she rode him. So driven to claim what was hers from a haunted past, she hadn’t noticed just how close she’d come to release until it grabbed her right by the throat, the force of it rooting her right there to the spot as wave after wave washed over her, leaving her skin burning and her lungs heaving with the power of it.
Thighs shaking, her hands slipped from his face.
He thrust into her, and stars burst behind her eyes.
Clasping her hips, his fingers dug into her, bruising her, but she didn’t care. He slammed into her, every muscle and tendon locked and constricting.
Fuck easy. She didn’t need him to make it gentle like a fairy tale. She needed the fire, the inferno that had the power to both forge and destroy, knowing this time, no matter how hot the blaze, it couldn’t reduce them to ashes.
His hand locked around the back of her neck, pulling her onto him even as he buried himself deeper, and she cried out as a second release seared her from the inside out.
His gruff shout echoed through the room as he jerked against her.
A laugh bubbled from her throat, a laugh in the face of every force that had ever tried to destroy them.
They’d made it this far…and together, they couldn’t lose.
Chapter 8
Lucas studied Chloe over the steam rising from his coffee the next morning. There were marks all over her, red scuffs from his sharp stubble and nips along her skin.
Zane was going to shoot him.
And he was going to stand there and let the man, because Lucas deserved it.
“Stop it,” Chloe said, not glancing up, just continuing to whisk the eggs in the glass bowl she held.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“Fine, what was I thinking?” he asked, raising his cup.
“That you marked me, and you should be punished for that.”
He sucked in a breath when she nailed his thoughts perfectly, inhaling a hot blast of coffee that seared his throat on the way down. “Shit!”
“And that’s what you get for being a boob,” she said, setting the bowl down and laying the whisk in the sink.
“Come here,” he said, spinning on the stool and slapping the thigh of his freshly washed and thank fuck dry jeans. They didn’t bother him when he first climbed into her tub with her. They turned into some modern budget version of a fucking chastity belt when it came time to peel the wet denim off.
“You know,” she said, stepping up between his legs and wrapping her arms around his neck. “If you would just let me get breakfast done, we could be fully clothed when Zane gets here.”
“Honey, you should never be fully clothed again.” Soft, warm curves, creamy skin, and gently rounded breast.
All. His.
“Lucas, I’m a mother,” she reminded him.
“Not my mother,” he said, grazing his thumb over her taut nipple through the thin cotton of her shirt.
She laughed. “No, but if you’re looking for a woman who can be free like that, it’s not me.”
“Nice try, but I’m not going anywhere, Chloe,” he whispered over her kiss-swollen lips.
“Mmmm, good,” she murmured.
The doorbell buzzed, once, twice, three times.
“He’s early, and he’s annoying,” Lucas muttered.
The woman he’d found in the tub had disappeared one piece at a time every single time he’d made love to her throughout the night, leaving her sleepily rumpled and happy.
Now he had to open the damn door and ruin it.
Fucking brothers, man.
Except he was one…if you could really call him that. He hadn’t acted brotherly in a long time. All problems for another day.
“Morning,” he said, greeting the foul-tempered towering brother on the front stoop.
“You were here all night?” Zane asked by way of accusation.
“Yes.”
“With Chloe,” Zane bit out.
“Yes.”
Zane’s hands balled into tight white fists hanging at his sides. “I should kick your ass.”
“Also yes.”
“But I have a feeling what I have to tell you is going to do that for me,” Zane said, making his way inside. “That really takes all the pleasure out of it.”
The hairs on the back of Lucas’ neck prickled. “What’s up?”
“You haven’t seen the news then?”
“No, shit,” Lucas said, scraping his hand over the back of his head and reaching for his coffee. “You want to spit this shit out, Zane? You’re starting to piss me off.”
“Tex called. Actually, he, Wolf, Abe, and Benny are on their way. Your contact at the DEA…he’s dead.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Vic Conroy, right?”
Lucas nodded. “Yes.”
“His car exploded outside of his office in Arlington this morning with him in it.”
Lucas’ ass hit his chair. A boulder of dread held him there. “Why are your guys coming?”
“Tex found some shit. A series of payments that were checked in as seized assets on drug busts, later siphoned back out again. All for the same amounts of money. There’s a special agent hiding that cash, and it’s only a matter of time before Tex homes in on who. These seized assets started cropping in right about the time someone in the DEA started declassifying bits of your personal information. Your address, phone number, the way you look now, it’s all there for anyone to see who has access to the mainframe.”
“Is that it?” Lucas asked as a numbness pervaded his senses.
Zane gave him an incredulous look, his eyes wide. “It’s enough, don’t you think?”
“Yeah.” He shook his head and let out a long breath. “Yeah. We have to get Chloe out of here.”
“I won’t go,” she said from the doorway.
“If bodies are going to start piling up, yours won’t be one of them,” Lucas said, giving her a hard look, doing anything he could to convey the seriousness of this.
“I don’t want to be one of them either,” she said, sailing past him to pour herself another cup of coffee. “So, I’m going to stay alive. And so are you.”
“The plan for a family visit at New Hope has been postponed. The guys are coming in now to go over some of this shit. Tex is still working on tracking Sorelli’s funds, which isn’t easy since it’s all tied up in his criminal case. But he’s hoping he’ll have enough to figure out how many we’re dealing with on the outside and how to contain them.”
“If they can’t?” Chloe asked.
“As long as Sorelli has men on the outside who are willing to do his dirty work, you’re in danger,” Lucas answered before Zane could.
“And so are you,” she pointed out to him.
“They can have me if they leave you alone.”
“No,” she said, her voice firm, “they can’t.”
“Chloe—”
“No, damn you. They don’t get to take you from me. What do we have to do?” she said, aiming her question at her brother.
“Chloe, I have to agree with Lucas on this one. Think about Tyler and Brielle.”
“I am, and right now I’m beginning to think I’m the only one. I’m not going to hide and hope. I made a promise to them. They’re going to be gone for another ten days. I have ten days to make sure I can deliver on that promise. The sooner you two get it through your heads that I’m not going anywhere, the sooner we can get started.”
Leaving Zane there, Lucas crossed to Chloe. On tiptoe she barely came to his chin, but God, she was so much bigger and stronger than her height made her seem. Sliding his hands in her hair, he ran his thumb along her cheek, remembering the cut along her skin that had been there when Zane hauled her out during her rescue. “You’re so damned determined,” he murmured over her lips right before kissing her.
He poured everything into that kiss: his fear, frustration, love, and God help him, hope. So much hope. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too. Please, Lucas. Don’t stand in my way. I’m trying to be the mother my kids have always deserved. Please,” she begged, clutching at him, pulling him down to her and holding on.
He buried his face in the curve of her neck and nodded against her skin, his heart squeezing with fear and pain.
Going to war for the military, following orders, it was a straightforward business. Stay alive, keep your men alive, get in, get out.
Going to war to make a world where you might have the chance of forever with the one woman who understood you, who loved you anyway, and possessed and fearlessly wielded the strength to stand up to you, it was a goddamned walk on a tightrope between two skyscrapers, with high winds and no net.
“Check each location that money was seized,” Lucas said over his shoulder as he continued to hold Chloe. “I’m willing to bet there’s a pattern. Sorelli had safehouses all over the US. I saw things Sorelli isn’t aware of. Shit we couldn’t use to prosecute him, but might be useful now. I can probably connect the dots. If we have enough men, we can go in and end this shit once and for all.”
Chloe’s fingertips flexed into his skin, the only indication his words had any effect on her.
“All right,” Zane said with a heavy sigh. “Do me a favor and lay low here, okay? We’ve got guys watching the house. No one will get to you here. I’ll let you know when the guys get in town. We’ll wait until tonight to give them a tour at New Hope when there’s less staff and movement on-site. Then we’ll figure this out.”
“What about the residents? What if we draw the danger right to their door?” Chloe asked.
“Sorelli would need an army to take New Hope, and his ass is in jail. If we meet here, everyone on this street is at risk, and we have no way of protecting them,” Zane pointed out. “Sit tight and I’ll be in touch.”
Chloe ducked into her bedroom and called her mother’s cell from the phone Zane gave her.
“Chloe?” Her mother answered, that note of worry in her voice. The one Chloe had given her every reason to have.
“Hi, Mom.”
“What’s wrong?”
Chloe pinched the bridge of her nose. “Nothing. I just thought I would give the kids a quick call before I head out to dinner.”
“You caught us at just the right time then. We just got in from the pool and were going to get ready to go to dinner ourselves here in just a few minutes. Who would you like to talk to first?”
“Put Brielle on. She’s probably balking at getting out of her suit.”
“You’re right about that. She said she’s willing to put a pair of shorts over it. We were just negotiating.”
“You’re negotiating with a tiny terrorist, Mom.”
“Don’t I know it. Here she is.”
“Hi, Mommy,” Brielle said, her sweet little voice so full of life without a shred of the old fear that used to come out in her every word.
“Hi, baby. Are you having fun?”
“This place is so great. I met Goofy, Mickey, Pooh, and Belle so far.” Her daughter chattered on about a wide variety of characters, the rides she rode on, the food, and how Grandma and Grandpa buy her a bag of candy every afternoon in the park and let her snack on it all the way up until dinnertime.
She smiled and wondered if she’d ever hear her daughter’s voice again. She didn’t admit it to anyone else, but in the past few hours, the reality of the danger had begun to set in, and if everything didn’t go just right over the next few days, she could very well be leaving her children without a mother.
Was she being selfish? She’d made this stand that she absolutely would not let Lucas stand alone, but at what price? Was this really the only way to make her kids safe or was this the same old Chloe putting a man over her kids?
Doubts tumbled through her with no answers in sight. So, she focused on the sound of her daughter’s happy, angelic voice, knowing that she’d carry a little piece of their happiness with her over the next week and use it to motivate her to do what needed to be done to make her kids safe again.
“What are you doing there, Mommy? Are you lonely?”
“Oh, I’m working, reading, and keeping busy. I’m a little lonely, but that’s just because I love the sound of your voice, and it’s so quiet without you. But Mommy has a few things she’s working on. Kind of a surprise for you guys,” she said, her throat growing thick with tears she refused to shed. Her kids had seen and heard her cry too damn many times. No more.
“Really? Is it a puppy?”
“A puppy?”
“Well, I wished for one on my birthday. I made sure I never told and did all the things I was supposed to do, but no puppy. Do birthday wishes really come true, Mommy?”
“Yes, they do, baby. Sometimes it just takes a while. Be patient,” she said, knowing damn well that she would be running out and getting a puppy for her little girl the minute this thing was over. As for what she would do when Brielle turned sixteen and wished for a car, well, she’d cross that bridge when she got to it.
“Why don’t you go get changed for dinner and let me talk to you brother for a minute, okay?” Chloe suggested.
“Okay. I love you, Mommy. Forever and ever.”
“I love you too, baby.” She brushed at the tears that spilled over and took a deep breath.
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