This whole exchange with Sal seemed like it was straight out from a mob movie except the other player wasn’t a wise guy.
It was Lt. Desmond. Stella’s watch commander. Her thoughts were paralyzed, not able to process what was happening.
“What does he want?” Sal asked.
“He’s got a question for you.”
“Why can’t he just call me?”
“Look, Sal. I don’t like talking through this door. Are you gonna open it or not? Are you hiding somethin’?”
“Now what would I hide?” Sal said at the same time unlocking and opening the door.
Stella was keeping out of sight in the kitchen. She had so many questions for Desmond and wanted to get in his face and ask him point blank why he framed her, because there was no question he was involved. She was the scapegoat.
“Where’s your visitor?” Desmond asked.
“Fuck!” Jake yelled through comms. “I’m heading in.”
Game over. She leaned against the wall, closing her eyes. Maybe this was meant to be because she sure as hell wasn’t running away. She’d felt compelled to confront Desmond ever since the news last night.
Exhaling an effusive breath, she pivoted from around the wall of the kitchen, her hand itching to reach for the gun behind her back.
“Hello, Lieutenant,” she said.
Desmond’s eyes widened in surprise, gaping at her over Sal’s shoulder while the bartender split a glance between them, confusion written all over his face. “You two know each other?”
“Sal, you fuckhead,” Desmond snarled. “Don’t you know who she is?” Her lieutenant drew his weapon and Stella had no choice but to draw hers.
“What the fuck? Both of you, put those guns down!” Sal shouted.
“She’s that cop,” the other man said. “Where are the guns, Stella?”
“Why did you frame me?” she asked.
“Frame you? You killed Gould.”
“He was going to shoot me.”
“His partner wasn’t Wheeler, was it?” her watch commander asked.
When Stella didn’t answer, Desmond sneered, “He’s some undercover agent, isn’t he? That’s why he was able to rope you in on this scheme.”
“This scheme?” she said incredulously. “You make it sound like we’re the bad people here.”
“You’re working for the fucking feds? Who? ATF? FBI? And we thought it was Sal here.”
“Is that why Schneider wants to see me?” Sal croaked. “He thinks I work for the feds?”
“That’s what we’re trying to find out. So what’s it gonna be, Officer Hunt? You’re looking for Schneider? You come with me.”
“Goddammit!” Jake rasped harshly in her ear. “Don’t you dare leave with him.”
Stella wished to hell she could tell Jake to stand down.
“How do I know you’re not gonna kill me once I lower my gun?” she challenged.
Desmond grabbed Sal and hooked an arm around his neck and held the gun to his temple at the same time taking a step into the house.
“What the hell, Desmond?” Sal yelled, gripping the arm around his neck. “You just gonna shoot me?”
“No, old man.” He gave Sal a shake. “But you and the pretty officer here are going to follow me to my car. No funny business, you hear.” Desmond looked at her. “Be a good girl. Drop your gun and kick it over here, or Sal gets it early.”
Stella complied without hesitation.
“Now turn around slowly.”
Again, she obeyed, but hoped he didn’t—
“I knew it. Take that one out of your boot too.”
More adrenaline shot through her system, her hand shaking when she bent to retrieve the weapon strapped to her boot. Breathe, Stella she heard Jake’s voice in her head, and she calmed her rising anxiety as she straightened her posture, her secondary gun dangling in her hand as she faced Schneider again. She may have lost her backup weapon, but she still had Jake.
She caught a flash at the open door and gunfire ripped through the house.
Desmond screamed. His Glock clattered to the floor as he held up a bloody arm. Sal staggered back, clutching his ears and turning pale.
“Leroux?” Sal blinked at the figure that darkened the door. “I knew you were a damned fed! You son of a bitch!”
To Stella’s ears, the last statement was said in relieved affection, but she was too busy getting to her former watch commander—former because if Desmond didn’t go down for this, she was quitting. She picked up the first weapon she surrendered as Jake commandeered the L-T’s Glock.
“Are you all right?” Jake growled, hauling her briefly to his side as if to make sure she was real, keeping his Sig trained on Desmond who was on his knees, cursing at them.
“Yes.”
“I’ll have you all thrown into jail for this!” Desmond railed. “You assaulted a police officer.”
“And you held another at gunpoint,” Jake shot back as he patted down the lieutenant, confiscated his backup firearm as well and pushed him to the floor in a prone position.
Sal dug his fingers into his scalp. “You guys set me up. Fuck! Fuck! Do you know what you just did?”
“Saved your life?” Stella snapped. “Why does Schneider think you’re working for the feds?”
The older man’s shoulders slumped. “I’m leaving town. Ramos hasn’t contacted me in a while. I can’t keep this up anymore.”
“Ramos?” Desmond derided. “You’re the snitch after all? Schneider was right?”
Ramos was the ATF agent-in-charge of the Virginia Beach area.
“And you betrayed your badge,” Stella said. “I looked up to you, L—” she shook her head. “You don’t deserve the title.”
“And you’re nothing but a bright-eyed rook. You learn to pick your wars. You can’t win against the gangs.”
“We need to go,” Jake interrupted as he used Desmond’s own handcuffs on him, her L-T yelling again when the metal bit into his bleeding arm. There was so much blood, Stella couldn’t discern the extent of his injury.
“Wait,” Sal said. “I’m not gonna let all my information go to waste.” The older man hurried from the room and Jake jerked his head at Stella to follow him in case he escaped.
She found him lifting a floorboard and extracting a box. From its depths, he collected two jump drives. “These are recordings of Schneider’s conversations at Last Call.”
“You’ve seen Desmond around?”
“Once or twice. I know Schneider called him The Rat behind his back,” Sal said with a brief smile.
“That he is,” Stella muttered.
When they returned to the room, she gestured for Jake to hand over Desmond’s weapon and turned to Sal. “You know how to shoot?” she asked the bartender.
“Yeah,” Sal replied.
She handed over Desmond’s Glock. “Locked and loaded, just point it at wise-guy here. Shoot if he moves.”
“Fuck you, Stella!” Spittle flew from the lieutenant’s mouth.
“We’ll see who gets fucked,” she countered.
“Stella …” Jake muttered. “We need to go. Most likely someone has already called the cops.”
Ignoring him, she slid out her phone. “I’m calling this in anyway, then we’ll disappear.”
14
“Sure you’re all right?” Jake asked gruffly as he let them back into Castle Rock.
Stella shot him a glare. “That’s the tenth time you’ve asked me. And I’ve told you I was fine just as many times.” She walked ahead of him and ascended the steps. “Need to wash Desmond’s blood off me.”
“Gotcha.” He blew out a breath. “Had to do it, you know.”
She paused at the landing and he nearly barreled right over her when she turned. His arms shot forward and gripped her shoulders to keep her from bouncing off him. “What? Shoot his arm off?”
He took that last step up, still keeping his hold on her and backed her up a couple of steps. “If you did as you were
told and escaped out the back, this could’ve turned out differently.”
She brushed off his hands and stared up at him, eyes narrowed. “How differently?”
“We could have followed them,” he said grimly. “Then we could have found Schneider.”
“Or we could have let it play out.” At his continued silence, she said, “I was expecting you to let me go along. And then follow us. That’s the whole point of going undercover, right? Getting close to our mark?” She gave a brief laugh without humor.
“You think I’d let anyone lay a hand on you?”
“I’m not made out of glass, Jake.”
“You honestly thought,” he gritted. “That I’d let you get in that vehicle with that motherfucker.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t know me at all.”
“Well, you suck!” she snapped and pivoted away from him and marched toward her room. Jake followed closely behind her, so far from finished with this conversation.
“Suck at what?” he said harshly. “Say it. Suck at doing my job?” When her mouth clamped shut, he continued. “Well, guess what, Stella. You join everyone else in thinking I’m a failure at this.”
“That’s not what I mean,” she retorted and stomped her foot.
He was breathing heavily. He was as confused as she was. If it was any other Guardian, he wouldn’t have stepped in and would have done as Stella suggested. Followed the trail, found Schneider and by extension, the chemical weapons that were in his possession. Did Stella think he belittled her ability to defend herself? That wasn’t the case at all. He wanted to protect her. Was that so wrong? Emotions he had no business feeling for her was messing with this op. There were chemical weapons out there, he needed to extract his heart out of his head.
His heart?
Shit.
Fuck.
Shit.
“Jake?” Stella gave him the side-eye as if unsure how to deal with him, as though he was a wounded wild animal.
He didn’t know how to deal with that either.
“Clean up. I’m sending what we have to Tex and Viktor for analysis. We can regroup later,” he said, turning from her and getting as far away from her as possible.
Stella ran a comb through her hair, detangling the wet strands, wincing as it snagged in a few places. The dye was still washing off and it turned the water ash gray. A smile touched her lips as she remembered Jake helping her color her hair. He did the back of her head and followed her instructions to separate the hair into sections, but good lord his hands were heavy, resembling bear paws trying to swipe at her head. In the end, they shared a laugh, because her hair was sticking out in all directions and he had the gall to take her picture.
Crap, they did the process in Jake’s bedroom and she left the blow dryer there. She contemplated sleeping with wet hair, but she couldn’t sleep and leave their conversation where it ended anyway. She sounded like an ungrateful bitch, but she was still smarting at Desmond’s betrayal, that he was dirty, that he could’ve been the only person who could’ve given Schneider something of hers to plant at the dock worker’s killing. More than that though, the incident only exposed their insecurities—she not being good enough to be a cop, and Jake not good enough to do undercover work, but her reaction was not for the reasons he assumed.
Pull up those big girl panties, woman, and apologize. She carefully opened the door, peeked down the hallway and listened. No sound came from the kitchen or the living room, but she headed there anyway.
Jake was nowhere to be seen.
She pivoted on her foot, stared down the hallway and blew out a deep exhalation. She’d have to knock on his door. She wouldn’t be getting any peace of mind until she cleared the air between them. Pulling back her shoulders, she marched to the end of the corridor for Jake’s bedroom. At his door, she took another fortifying breath before rapping on it with purpose.
And waited.
The silence in the apartment was deafening and she debated to knock again. Maybe he was asleep. Yes, maybe he was resting. She turned to retreat and then heard a creak of the bed.
She stilled herself and waited some more, even when her limbs were itching to run back to her bedroom.
Jake opened the door. He was shirtless, and for a moment her brain scrambled as her eyes focused on the expanse of muscular chest until they slowly lifted to his guarded face.
“I think I left the blow—”
She squeaked as he hauled her into the room, his lips locking on hers and she moaned into his mouth. His tongue dueled desperately with her own. She pressed unabashedly into his hardness and the wetness between her legs pulsed with damp heat in answer to that growl deep within his chest. Pushed up against a wall, a hand clutched her breast and a thumb flicked her nipple through her bra. Before she knew it, her shirt was off, the cup of her bra was yanked down and his mouth fastened on her boob, flicking the tip with his tongue.
The licking heat on her skin turned into an inferno, and her fingers weaved frantically through his hair, not knowing whether to keep him on that spot or push him further down.
“Jake,” she whispered. “Jake, I want more … more of you.”
His growl was more beast than man. He sank to his knees, gripping the band of her sweatpants, peeling them away, testing her responses to his touch.
When he kissed the center of her mound, her back arched. “More.”
As he pulled her sleep pants further, he pressed his mouth to the skin between the juncture of her thighs, his tongue lightly caressing. “Jake, stop teasing.”
“Want to savor you,” he mumbled. “You feel so good.”
“Well, what are you waiting for—” She gasped as he yanked down her pants and panties and nuzzled the center of her core with his nose. “Ahh … stop teasing.” He sat back on his haunches and glanced up. She shivered at the hunger in his eyes, like he was going to eat her alive, holding her entranced as he tossed the last of her clothing on the floor.
“Once I fuck you, you’re mine.”
Her brows pinched together.
“Scratch that,” he recanted roughly. “You’re already mine.”
Without further warning he dove into her pussy and devoured her, tongue sweeping up and down her slit, sucking and laving as if he was starved for her taste. He angled his head one side and then the other, all the while giving her the greatest tongue fucking of her life. She pulsed and exploded, a breathless cry escaped her lips as she throbbed with urgency, going weak in her legs until all that was keeping her upright was him. He put one leg over his shoulder and fed deeper, and the pulses came in waves, crashing into her, never ending and so addictive, she never wanted it to end.
“Jake, oh my god, Jake ...” she babbled intelligibly.
He rose to his feet and kissed her again. Breath-stealing, toe-curling, cataclysm-inducing kisses. She tasted herself on his tongue and a primal feeling came over her.
He tore his lips from hers, yanking her wet hair back, he snarled, “I can’t get enough of you!”
Confused, she muttered. “This is a problem?”
A feral smile lit his face, eyes that gleamed with a fierce light and without warning he snatched her body from the wall and tossed her on the bed.
She bounced once before he landed on her. He pinned her to the mattress as her limbs cradled his hips.
“You are perfect,” he muttered, raking his fingers through her hair before wrapping it around his fingers. A pained look crossed his face. “I fuck hard, Stella. I’ll try to control myself, but I’m … fuuuck …” He shifted his position as if words couldn’t explain his agony and her eyes widened at the enormous erection that pressed against her core. His forehead dropped to hers. “I just want you too much,” he said apologetically. “I’ll … I’ll try to go slow.”
She wrapped her legs around his torso, her ankles crossing behind his ass.
“Stella,” he groaned, his eyes squeezing shut as if she’d just inflicted Chinese water torture.
; “Don’t underestimate my small size, I’ve got hips for loving,” she murmured.
His eyes opened and blazed with a heat that set her skin on fire. The head of his cock circled at her entrance, teasing as it spread her slickness. Then he jerked himself away with a curse and she saw the full extent of his shaft.
“Please tell me I’m getting some of that,” she deadpanned as he stalked toward the plastic bag and picked up a condom packet.
“You are,” he growled as he ripped it with his teeth. “Nearly forgot to wrap up. That never happens.” He quickly suited up, his gaze never leaving her face.
“Well, lucky me, but yes we don’t want to waste all those condoms—” she didn’t finish her sentence, because her leg was dragged to the edge of the bed and he fell on her again. This time, he didn’t say anything but notched his cock at her entrance.
“Uhmm …” Stella was feeling the stretch.
“Tell me if I’m hurting you.”
“You won’t, just … do it slow …” she breathed in anticipation. “I’m so … so wet for you.”
“Don’t say that …” he groaned. “I’m losing my mind enough as it is.” He pushed deeper. She was feeling very full, but she desperately wanted more.
She wanted every glorious inch of him.
She was greedy like that.
“Jake,” she gasped. “Don’t stop going in … yes … oh God… so good…” Her whole body bloomed with sweat as flames licked and this man fitting his cock inside her was doing a damned fine job of stoking it. “How much further before you can pump?”
A pained chuckle died at his throat. “Dammit, Stella. I’m gonna explode before I’m fully inside you.”
“That would be a shame, but … would you hurry up a bit.” She wiggled her hips.
“Dammit, woman.” With a strangled groan he surged forward and oxygen left her lungs.
Sensing this, he looked up. His face was tortured, and he was probably in more agony than she was. “Fuck, you’re so fucking tight.”
Stella laughed softly. “Or maybe you’re too fucking big.”
“Sorry.” He shook his head. “I’m gonna move now.”
“Please.”
Protecting Stella (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) Page 11
