Heated Manipulations

by Aiden Bates

  My breath caught in my chest—for non-medical reasons this time. He had a swollen nose swaddled in a cotton bandage, deep purple bruises peeking out in the bags beneath his eyes. Split lip with two stitches in it. A rumpled t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants on that suggested he’d been sleeping in the armchair next to the bed. And still, despite all that, he was still the most gorgeous thing I’d ever laid eyes on. He could’ve been pacing the floor of my hospital room in a goddamn potato sack and the sight of him still would’ve left my heart skipping a beat.

  “He was giving the investigation his all, Kaleb,” Nick was saying. “His all, and then some. And still, we barely know who to hold responsible. We’ve got a few solid leads, but still more questions than we do answers right now.”

  “No one ever said this was going to be easy,” Kaleb grunted. Neither of them seemed to have noticed that I was awake yet. “S’why I came. Shouldn’t have let you and Harper take these people on all on your lonesome. Was a misstep on my part from day one.”

  “You woulda just gotten in the way,” I croaked out, surprised at how heavy my tongue felt in my mouth. “With all your rules and regulations and shit.”

  Their heads both snapped in my direction. Kaleb cracked a smile, but Nick was a blur. He rushed to me, throwing his body across my chest and laying kiss after wet, warm kiss against my cheek.

  “Oof,” I groaned, feeling the crushing weight on my chest suddenly double. “Slow down there, sweetheart. I’m a wounded man, remember?”

  “The stitches!” Nick yelped, drawing away like I was a hot stove that he’d just laid hands on. He settled on the edge of the bed next to me, reaching up to smooth down my hair instead. “God, right—I’m so sorry.”

  “Nah, don’t mention it.” I chuckled—and finally, I felt a pain in my abdomen that even the hospital’s strongest narcotics couldn’t cover up. “Worth it.”

  “Hey, you little shit,” Kaleb said, coming up to the edge of the bed and looming over me. “Guess how many times your buddies in suits shot you.”

  I blinked, trying to recall how many times Leftie’s gun had gone off. “One?”

  “Three,” Kaleb corrected. “One pretty damn close to your spine, too. Lucky to be alive, you know.”

  “Don’t I know it.” I turned to Nick, smiling up at him like a dopey schmuck. “You sure I pulled through, though? You could be an angel, lookin’ like you do.”

  Nick laughed, rolling his eyes. “An angel with a broken nose and a split lip? Maybe if Heaven opened up a fight club, hon. But no—you’re alive. A fact which I’m particularly grateful for.”

  “Yeah?” I raised my eyebrows, wondering if I was too strung out for my dick to work just yet. “How grateful?”

  Kaleb groaned. “Down, boy. You can get on with that nonsense once you’ve healed up—and once I’m out of the room. In fact…” He grinned. “Reckon that’s just about all you’re going to be doing from here on out. Nick here says you saved his life.”

  “I’m an incredibly selfless bastard,” I agreed, nodding sagely. My eyes flashed wickedly to Nick again. “Blow me for it?”

  Nick erupted into another fit of laughter as I discovered that, despite all my stitches and IVs, Kaleb still found my ear to be a suitable target for a playful cuff.

  “Get a room, you horndog.”

  “I’ve got one,” I shot back at him. “Why don’t you get out of it?”

  Kaleb smirked. “Suppose I’ll have to here in a sec. Looks like your investigation is in my hands now, Target Practice.”

  I laughed at the sound of the nickname he’d given me back when we were still in our twenties. Christ—that had to have been about six bullet holes ago. But as my smile faded, the heaviness of our situation fell back over me.

  “This ain’t over, you know,” I warned Kaleb. “Whoever sent those boys to pop off Nick and I are going to be back. With more guns next time, if they’ve got two brain cells to rub together.”

  “The ones they’ve sent are in custody, if it makes you feel any better.”

  Nick and I shared an uncomfortable look.

  “About that,” I grunted. “We’ve got good evidence that your buddies here on the Fort Greene force are, ah…”

  “Compromised,” Nick supplied.

  “And you can bet your ass they’ve already alerted their friends in high places over what went down here,” I finished.

  Kaleb frowned. “Ansel Thomas?”

  I tilted my head to the side. “Might be. Chief Sorenson, almost definitely. Only idiot on the force whose innocence I’m fully prepared to buy is their Detective Bingley…and he’s, well, an idiot.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind, then. Suppose I already suspected about as much. Ernesto took the liberty of, ah…regaling me of the dipshit plan you concocted.”

  “It was a good plan,” I insisted, but Kaleb didn’t look sold.

  “How’d it work out for you?”

  I growled, closing my eyes again. Whether I wanted to or not, I supposed I had to give him that.

  “Either way. Police are involved. Don’t imagine those two suits our big bad enemies sent over will stay locked up for long.”

  “Which makes this a little more…personal for me.” Kaleb scoffed. “As if this wasn’t already personal enough.”

  Josh’s murder. Kaleb’s own people tied up in it. Personal was beginning to barely cut it—especially now that they’d targeted my Omega on top of it all.

  I smiled a little, glancing over at Nick as that turn of phrase rose to the forefront of my brain again. My Omega. He might’ve been battered, beaten and scared—plus pregnant with someone else’s baby to boot—but none of that mattered to me. When I’d thrown myself in front of that bullet, there’d only been love on my mind. If I’d died so Nick could live, nothing else mattered.

  “Ah, speaking of personal, Kaleb…” I glanced between my brother and Nick, cocking my head toward the door to imply that the former should make himself scarce for a moment.

  Understanding perfectly, Kaleb backed toward it, hands held up in surrender. “Right. Why don’t I leave you two alone for a moment then?”

  By the time Kaleb shut the door behind him, there were already tears in Nick’s eyes.

  “I thought you were dead, Harper,” he said softly, his lower lip trembling.

  “I know, sweetheart. I know.” I raised my thumb to his cheek, wiping away a tear that had broken free. “I’m sorry that it came to that. Told you I wasn’t going to make you cry again—and now that I’ve broken that promise twice—”

  “Oh, you idiot.” Nick pushed my hand away, dipping down to press a firm-but-careful kiss to my lips. His stitches were rough as his mouth moved slowly against mine. “I’m not crying because you hurt me. I’m crying because you saved my fucking life.”

  “Yeah, well…” I grimaced, closing my eyes and running my fingers through his hair. “It’s only going to get more dangerous from here on out, darlin’. If you want… Kaleb is here now. I can drop this thing. Get you somewhere safe. Don’t ever want to put you in that situation again.”

  “Harper, I…” Nick looked away. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

  “You’re not askin’. I’m tellin’. These people aren’t going to backpedal. They know what they’re dealing with now. It’s not going to be assault by cuddly puppies and mewing kittens next time. Next time they show up for us, it’s going to be heavy firepower. More men. More guns.”

  Nick closed his eyes, nodding. “I know. And I’m scared of that. But…dammit, Harper, I love you! I can’t ask you to step away from this. In fact, I don’t think it’s right for either of us to step away. Someone out there is hurting people. Causing all sorts of damage and chaos, sending out fucked-up birth control pills—” He placed his hand on his belly. “Forcing babies on Omegas who never expected to be pregnant. And they’re trying to cover it all up. Not caring who gets in their way. Even if it wasn’t for Josh being killed, it would still be the right thing, you know? We have to root
this out. We can’t let them win.”

  It was a nice speech. Good cadence. I could tell that he’d practiced it in his head before I’d come to. But there was just one thing…

  “Say that again.”

  Nick blinked, looking at me with confusion. “We can’t let them win?”

  “No. The other thing, nerd.”

  “What other thing? I…” Nick scrunched his face up in annoyance. “I just said like, twelve different things, Harper. You’re going to have to be more specific.”

  A little grin tugged at my lips. “The thing about you loving me. That bit. How’d that go again?”

  Nick rolled his eyes and sighed, unable to fight back a grin of his own. “I love you, idiot. You and your stupid, swaggering ways, and your big dumb plans, and your ridiculous heroics, and—”

  “Yeah,” I said, my grin widening as I pulled him down for another careful, passionate kiss. “I love you too. I love you too.”

  “So…we’re in this together still?” Nick asked, wiping the rest of his tears from his eyes.

  I nodded. “Together. To the end. But I’m going to do a hell of a lot better job of keeping you safe this time. Our baby, too.”

  “Our baby?” Nick raised an eyebrow, looking too stunned to even believe what I’d just said.

  I shrugged. “Why not? You said you didn’t know what Alpha had done the deed. Maybe I was in that club too that night. Maybe I was just so good, you only thought there were three of me.”

  “You were in Miami, Harper. Don’t be ridiculous.” Nick still seemed hesitant, but I didn’t miss the hopeful little glance that he gave me anyway. “The baby couldn’t possibly be yours. You know that.”

  “Stranger things have happened, sweetheart. Besides—what’s it matter? If any of this nonsense has taught us anything, it’s that the official story doesn’t necessarily need to be the real one.”

  Nick smiled gently, stroking my cheek. “Our baby, huh?”

  “Ours. And I’m going to protect you both while we get to the bottom of this case. Whatever it takes.”

  “Well…okay. But no more taking any more bullets for me, please? I think three is enough for one lifetime.”

  I chuckled—then winced. Whoever had put those stitches in my abs must’ve done a hell of a job, seeing as they were still holding up through all my guffawing, but that didn’t mean they still didn’t hurt like a bitch.

  “No promises,” I told Nick. “If I had to, I’d do it again, you know.”

  “Harper…”

  “I know, I know. I’ve got a family to stay alive for now, don’t I?”

  Nick smiled. “Suppose you do. And in between all the prenatal check-ups and the baby clothes shopping trips and the Lamaze classes…”

  “Lamaze, huh?” I nodded, imagining how much I’d enjoy that.

  “Between all that, we dig as deep as we can into this,” Nick said, looking serious as a bullet to the gut. “Track these bastards down. Carefully. But we’re not holding back, either.”

  “Mm. I love it when you talk dirty to me,” I said fondly, running my tongue across my lips.

  Nick only nodded, fire flickering bright blue in his gorgeous eyes. “Then we’re going to burn Carver Media to the ground—and everyone else they’ve got beneath their thumbs along with them.”

  31

  Nick

  A week and a day after Harper King took three bullets for me, the hospital dismissed him and he was finally allowed to come home.

  The house was abuzz when Harper and I staggered through the door, his arm around my shoulder and mine around his waist. Abuzz quite literally, in fact. Ernesto and Kaleb had gotten together with several of Ernesto’s men—ones he was certain he could trust this time—armed with lumber, saws, drills and nails.

  Over the week that Harper had been in the hospital, I’d started to get to know these men in Harper’s life. Ernesto’s ability to become father figure to anyone in a twenty-foot radius as long as they were under forty-five. Kaleb’s attention to detail—the kind of thing that must have made him a good police detective. There was a pot of pintos negros bubbling away on the stove, the scent of cumin, garlic and onion perfuming the air, and Ernesto’s favorite Latin music station on the radio—though I could see Kaleb eyeing it, country western on his mind.

  “Didn’t realize we were having a party,” Harper grunted, narrowing his eyes at all the chaos moving through my place. “Did Ernesto check his guest list this time?”

  “Checked it and then some,” I said, rubbing Harper’s back. “The KPS boys felt terrible about what happened with Michael, Harper. Don’t hold it against them.”

  “Or do,” Ernesto suggested, sweeping into the room to wrap Harper in a less-than-gentle hug. “And let us make it up to you. KPS has never had a security breech before. We’re not going to let it happen again. Here—let me show you.”

  Harper wasn’t yet convinced. “I dunno, Ernesto…your boys have a lot of construction projects going on in here right now—especially for a house I don’t even know we should still be in. Nick and I…” He shot a glance my way. “We’re not moving out of Fort Greene yet, but I’m still not sold on the idea of staying in a house that our enemies already have pinned on their maps.”

  “I agree,” Ernesto said with a chuckle.

  “You do?” Harper’s eyebrows shot up. “But then why—”

  “I, ah…might’ve twisted his arm a little on the matter, hon.” I gave Harper’s own bulging bicep an apologetic squeeze. “This is my place. Our place now. The place where we fell in love.”

  I fluttered my eyelashes at Harper charmingly and felt him melt against me.

  “Fine,” Harper relented. “Let’s see what you’ve done with the place then.”

  Ernesto gave us the grand tour, earning us apologetic looks from each of his men in turn. They really did feel terrible about Michael—even though I wished they’d drop it. From my brief chats with the KPS boys, I knew that Ernesto paid his men well and treated them even better. Enough to instill a lot of loyalty in his personal guard. He’d had no reason to believe one of them would get greedy and defect—and the anger that I felt steaming off of his men any time Michael’s name was so much as mentioned told me that none of the rest of them would make the same choice. That rat bastard, they’d taken to calling him. A fitting moniker, as far as I was concerned—especially since the Fort Greene PD had let him out on bail.

  “There are some advantages to being in a neighborhood like this, you know,” Ernesto pointed out as he guided us through the house. “Quiet streets. Peaceful people. And if anything does go down…” His grin turned smug. “State of the art security cameras from all angles. Motion sensors, bulletproof windows fitted with brute-force alarms. All hooked up to the KPS servers—and before you say anything,” he warned Harper, “I’ve done a full sweep of all my boys again. Revetted everyone. Adjusted security clearances. The works.”

  “I, ah…We appreciate it, Ernesto,” Harper said tentatively, glancing down at me with a tinge of nervousness. “But I can’t afford all this, and with the baby on the way, we can’t exactly ask Nick to pay out of pocket either.”

  Ernesto’s grin only grew. “Ah, but that’s the beauty of making amends, mi hijo. After that rat bastard threw a wrench in everything, KPS is more than happy to cover the upgrade. Besides—you’re family, and your troubles are now mine as well. Your enemies have touched my organization—something I won’t stand for. You and your brother have our full support going forward on your investigation…” Ernesto tossed me a soft, fond wink. “And you and your Omega have our full support with your little bundle of joy on the way.”

  “Thanks, Ernesto.” Harper unwound his arm from my neck to wrap Ernesto into another hug. “From me, and Nick, and Kaleb…and Josh, too.”

  “We’ll avenge him, cariño,” Ernesto promised, patting Harper on the back. “And everyone else this has affected as well.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Kaleb grunted, coming up behind us. “
But now I think it might be time to get Harper off his feet.”

  “Agreed,” I said, moving together with Kaleb to help Harper toward the bedroom.

  Kaleb left us once we’d put Harper to bed. Harper’s stitches would still need to be watched carefully, and he wouldn’t be at full force again until they’d healed. But as I curled up on the mattress next to him, for the first time in a long while I finally felt like we were making progress. With Kaleb’s help and Ernesto’s resources, this no longer felt like a losing battle anymore. For once, it was finally starting to feel like something we could actually win.

  Harper didn’t seem quite so sure, though. “Hate being hauled around like an invalid,” he grumbled, sinking down into the pillows with a scowl.

  “You’ll be back on your feet in no time,” I promised him. “I’m just glad to have you home now.”

  “Am I, then? Home?”

  I laughed, laying a kiss on his cheek. “This is your place as much as it is mine now, Harper. We’ve got a baby on the way, remember. They’re going to need their big, strong dad around once they’re finally ready to make their appearance.”

  “Mm. Fancy that. Me, a father.” Harper smiled a little. Despite my concerns that he’d only offered because he was too hopped up on pain meds to know any better, he seemed to brighten any time I reminded him that he was about to be a dad.

  “Best one I could have ever hoped for,” I told him, cuddling up against his chest.

  We lay there together for a while, matching each other’s breaths and enjoying the lull in excitement. But before I could get too comfortable, I heard a door slam. A commotion outside followed—and didn’t seem to quiet down.

  Harper’s hand twitched for his gun instinctively, but I smoothed it down beneath my own. It wasn’t there anyway—I’d stashed it safely in a locked drawer of my desk. Out of sight, but not out of mind.