Trust In Lust

by Rhylie Matthews

  Which could work here.

  “I’m listening.” He didn’t sound happy about it though.

  “Thank fuck.” Relieved he wasn’t going to argue me on this, I reached under the seat to grab my side arm and clipped it on my belt before looking over to him. “Remember the mall?”

  He winced painfully then glared. “I hated the mall.”

  “The mall was fun.” I rubbed my boot against my left ankle holster trying not to laugh. Not like I expected it to go anywhere, but the reassurance helped calm me.

  “You shot me in the ass with a tranq dart Vaughn. Twice,” he added deadpan.

  “Which is exactly what made it great!” His big ass went down so hard, I thought he’d broken the tile. I grinned at the memory while I got a few extra clips from the glove compartment and tucked them down my jeans into the elastic of my concealed carry shorts, and I was set.

  “You’re an ass.” Sutton opened his door and stepped easily to the ground before turning back to me.

  I shrugged. “Just doing my job, ‘Bossman’.”

  The scowl on his face as he shut the door had me laughing and managed to ease the rest of the tension over the unknown. We had a plan, and we’d cross that bridge when we got there.

  I patted myself down to make sure I had everything, then quietly opened my door. He was already there.

  “So the mall?”

  “Yup. He’s the mall and everything else stays as planned. Follow. Do not engage.”

  “Got it.” He nodded once then held his hand out to help me down from the truck grinning mischievously, his excitement from earlier having returned. “Ready?”

  “Still not funny.”

  “You’re right, it’s not,” he agreed, then leaned down into the open door and caught my gaze. “It’s hilarious, short stuff.”

  The prospect of hunting Hicks had him so riled up, he was damn near giddy with anticipation. With everything sorted now, I couldn’t begrudge him that, but the gigantic fucker could kiss my ass on this one. I put my palm against his smug face and pushed then jumped down.

  “I’m not short. I’m just not...” I looked up at him and motioned toward his body as he straightened back up, “whatever that is.” Five-foot nine wasn’t short, damn it. I turned and grabbed my binoculars off the floorboard where they had fallen and went to close the door.

  “Shit, my jacket.” I reached behind my seat and snagged it out of the back.

  “Are you ever going to tell me why you’re so attached to that thing,” he asked quietly, tone annoyed.

  “Not with that attitude.” I grinned over my shoulder at him while I shrugged it on over the vest and he just rolled his eyes. I swung the door closed and reached up, lifted the handle, and quietly latched it.

  I caught up with Sutton at the hood of the truck and he tapped on his ear twice letting me know they were back on. He caught Phillips up on what was going down as we ran across the parking lot headed for the trees that wrapped around to the back of the warehouse and the rock yard behind it. Once we reached the treeline, he led the way in, holding branches and helping me basically not die in the dark woods. Or at the very least trip and eat dirt. Because let’s face it—my night vision was shit and we’d gone far enough in before turning to work our way around that barely any moonlight made it this far down. It would happen.

  Sutton stepped over an enormous fallen tree, its trunk hitting him just above the knees as he straddled it. No, thank you. I could’ve hopped it but I was more of an ‘on not over’ kind of girl myself, so I hiked my left foot up as high as I could and grabbed his belt. Fingers fisted in his boxers, I pulled myself the rest of the way up. He grunted before looking back, then snorted when he saw me crouching behind him on top of it.

  I stood and balanced myself on his shoulder before peering over the other side of the tree. No snakes. No snakes. No snakes. I shined my flashlight down and flicked it back and forth before leaning even further out and trying to see under the other side.

  His shoulder started shaking.

  “Shut it,” I hissed and jumped several feet away, more worried about snakes while he unmounted Bessie and finished laughing at me. I hated snakes.

  He took my hand, and while rubbing small soothing circles on the back, led us the rest of the way through the thick underbrush until we reached the edge closest to the warehouse.

  We were close enough now, I didn’t have to purposely push out to check the warehouse and rock yard; he was within my normal scope. Which strengthened everything and I still had nothing.

  Sutton bumped my hip, and when I looked over, he was muting the coms again. He pointed toward the front of the building where the two garage doors stood and I leaned over in front of him so I could follow his line of sight.

  I spotted Hicks coming out of a single door set off to the side. He moved down the side towards the far corner of the warehouse and I lifted the binoculars to my eyes.

  He looked worse than he did in all the surveillance photos we had on him. Instead of his usual polished, sophisticated style, his hair stuck up in every direction and his face looked like he’d gone three rounds in a biker bar. And lost. His white button down was dirty, untucked, and wrinkled to hell with bloodstains on his shoulder and side. The slacks had rips in them and mud covered him from the knees down. He looked around the corner, shifted foot to foot, and then back over his shoulder as if debating with himself.

  “What’s he doing?” I asked quietly.

  “Being a pussy.”

  Lowering them, I looked up and grinned. “Seriously? I got that much on my own, genius.”

  He shrugged and kept watching him but asked, “Why’d you ask then?”

  “You’re the boss, remember? All enlightened and shit now. Figured you saw something I didn’t.”

  “Said the Sixer to the human.”

  “I hate that word.” I grumbled and sunk my elbow back into his stomach. His muscles tensed, but that was it. No satisfying oomph or grimace of pain whatsoever.

  He smirked under his binoculars but never took his eyes off Hicks; it was kind of sexy. Shaking my head, I looked around us and checked the area while he watched Hicks. I couldn’t let go of the thought of there being someone else here I couldn’t sense and now I was paranoid.

  “He’s moving, let's go.”

  I side stepped away letting him take the lead. He ducked under a branch and pulled his gun before darting out into the lot. The big guy moved fast. I pulled my own pistol out and ran behind him across the lot, staying low until we reached the warehouse. He stopped at the end of the building and looked around the corner. I tucked my side into his lower back and pressed mine against the building so I could watch the lot we had just crossed and see if anyone else came out the doors or from around the front.

  My sixes said we were good at the moment but my skin still crawled and I’d started to sweat. If I couldn’t sense him empathically, what did that mean for my other sixes? Would I not be able to tell if he targeted us? I tried to keep my breathing even as I waited but I didn’t fucking like this. There was a reason we worked the cases no one else could. Where the suspected person was more than just bad. And so much more than just a person. Sutton relied on me to keep his ass alive and out of situations that were more than we could handle. This was like Phillips trying to handle a bomb threat at a theme park on his own. The thought almost made me laugh. Almost. If it weren’t so fucking terrifying.

  The upper half of his back pressed against me as he leaned back from the corner and turned around. He leaned down and tilted my face up to meet his gaze. He frowned and worry sparked inside him.

  “Quit worrying,” he whispered.

  I snorted. Hypocrite.

  He smirked but his eyes softened. “There’s a reason I do the worrying here, woman. That’s my job. Now, unless you’re trying to get rid of me, knock that shit off before your body takes a shit and we really are fucked.”

  I laughed lightly at his crudeness and rolled my eyes. The way things
were going I didn’t see that happening anytime soon.

  He cupped my cheek and squatted down. “Focus on you, J. Quit worrying about everything else. I’ve got this. I’ve got us. You just let me know how we’re doin’ and don’t let anyone else shoot me in the ass. Worrying about you is enough, shithead,” he said and winked.

  I couldn’t help but smile then. He moved his hand to my neck and his thumb was soft as he rubbed it across the skin in front of my ear and searched my face.

  Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, closed my eyes, and centered myself. I let go of the worry, trusted in my sixes, and just felt. Just listened to what my body was telling me. Other than the tightness of my own anxiety and wariness in my chest, there were no other warning signs. No heavy feeling of dread in my stomach or any hint of threat’s icy fingers dancing up my spine.

  We were good to go.

  I opened my eyes, and he was still staring intensely at my face.

  “We good?”

  “As good as we’re going to get right now.”

  He nodded once before planting a kiss on my forehead and stood up.

  “For the record, I don’t like this.”

  “Got anything to back that up?”

  “Brain cells?”

  He snorted this time.

  “He’s had enough time. Let’s go, short stuff.”

  Huffing, I shook off the remaining unease and tried to ignore the pins and needles. When he turned and looked back around the corner, I pushed my hand up the back of his shirt and rested my palm against his skin just above his belt. The tightness of his vest kept it pressed against him without too much effort on my end while I pushed out further. Bobby and Phillips were the only signs of life nearby.

  I tapped on his lower back and he stepped around the building, low, each step slow and precise. His warmth seeped into my hand as we made our way across the side lot to the hills of rocks in the back. I watched our asses and trusted him to have the front; I couldn’t see around him, anyway.

  We reached the first of the bigger mounds and Sutton hugged it close to his left side, keeping his shooting hand free as we circled around it. Dawn was just breaking, painting the highest peaks of stones in hues of oranges and gold, casting shadows that spread across the ground to the next mound making the dark even darker. Rocks were creepy at night. Who knew?

  We made our way through the maze of mounds, gravel, stone, and other rocks I couldn’t identify as we passed, and kept to the shadows. He slowed and leaned forward, looking around a pile of driveway gravel then stepped back. He lifted his right leg behind him and touched the toe of his boot to the ground, heel up, so I slid my hand free from his vest. We’re running. He crouched, then took off, me right on his tail. Low and fast, we made our way across a small clearing into the back, piles of sand, dirt, and heavy equipment scattered everywhere. We stopped between a bulldozer and an excavator using them for cover. He looked right. I took left. All was clear and when I turned back around, he pointed to the ground and I frowned. He couldn’t be serious. There was no way in hell I was ‘staying’. I flipped him off and took a step forward. His palm landed on my forehead and he pushed me back, then jabbed a finger at the ground again and held up four fingers. Four minutes? I wanted to laugh, that wasn’t happening. I held up two and waved my gun at him, smiling. He had two minutes and if something happened, I’d shoot him myself.

  He drew in a deep breath and looked up at the sky. He could not like it all he wanted, but that was all I was willing to give. He lowered his head and pointed to the ground again. Yeah, yeah, I got it. I shooed him off and crept to the back of the piece of equipment. It’d only been ten minutes tops since we came in but the shadows were lighter now, making it easier to see. If there was anything to see that was. There wasn’t though; that itself was strange enough. There was always life. A dog wandering around here, a bird there, small animals scurrying about. There was none of that here. This was a dead zone. Only Sutton was a blip on my mental radar and he was so focused, there was barely anything coming off of him.

  I moved back to the front and waited. And waited. The seconds seemed to crawl by and when Sutton spiked with worry, every muscle in my body tightened. I looked at my watch; he had twenty seconds, so I peeked around the corner.

  He was walking back towards me, his face blank, eyes tight. It wasn’t a good sign, but I backed up and breathed a sigh of relief. He stopped in front of me and knelt down.

  His lips were a harsh slash across his mouth as he holstered his gun and I frowned trying to read him. Something had him upset, big time. His hand brushed my leg, and I glanced down as he dug my kit out of the pocket at my thigh.

  He looked at me sympathetically, eyes almost sad, as he opened it causing the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. Fuck. What was out there? I tried to look around him as he opened it and pulled out the orange auto-injector.

  Yup, definitely not going to like what was out there.

  I took the pen from him, popped the safety cap off and stuck it in my thigh until it clicked. He had my nerves all over the place just imagining what he could have seen I would need a balancer for. Only one way to find out I guess. I pulled it out of my leg and handed it back to him before looking over behind him again. Not too many things took me down these days besides a crowd of people and my heart rate kicked up as thoughts of snakes and a clusterfuck of spider webs danced through my mind. Two things guaranteed to make me lose my shit. Quick.

  A hand upside the back of my head knocked my head forward and out of my thoughts as well. He stood there looking down at me exasperatedly. I threw my hands in the air. What did he expect? He cocked a brow asking if I was ready.

  “Are you fucking serious right now?” I hissed. “Am I ready. Have you lost your mind? Don’t think I don’t remember the last time you pulled this shit. No! I’m not ready. Let’s just get this the fuck over with and I swear if there are spiders this time…” I let the sentence trail off as he laughed and turned around. I put my hand against his back again and he led the way.

  Chapter Four

  To a fucking hole in the ground.

  My stomach pitched and bile worked its way up my throat as he kneeled and looked into it. I laid a hand on his shoulder and peered over him down into the blackness. I’d take spiders over this any day. I shook my head. No. No, we weren’t going down there. Fuck that.

  I turned on my heel and walked off. He could watch the hole to hell while I called special teams. The end. I made it five steps before his hand wrapped around my arm and he pulled me back.

  His other hand clamped tightly around my neck as I caught my footing and held me in place as we both just stood there, staring. A tarp was carelessly flung off to the side, leaves and fresh dirt littered the surrounding ground; more evidence Hicks had gone this way. Why’d it have to be a hole in the ground? I’d learned to deal with the snakes. Even the spiders. But this? This was a hard no, and he knew it. Guess that explained the balancer.

  Rough fingers dug into the muscles of my neck, easing the tension while I tried to come to terms with what was happening here. The one person who could lead me to the very thing I wanted more than anything else was down that hole right now. Who knew where this led or how far it went? My stomach turned again at that thought. But if we waited for special teams, there was a chance he’d get away. I’d kick myself in the ass for the rest of my life if I let fear stop me from doing this. My sixes never reacted well with being scared, so I’d gotten a handle on the snake and spider issue fast. I still hated them though. Only one other thing bothered me, and to say I was bathophobic was an understatement; there was no getting control there, and it was a guaranteed trigger. But the shot worked and the tremors never came. My heart rate wasn’t even up.

  I chewed on my lip and looked up; he was already looking down, watching me. Strands of his shaggy black hair had escaped and hung into his eyes, almost hiding his drawn brows and the worry that creased the corners of his eyes as he waited for my decision.
His tanned nose and cheekbones caught the rays of morning light and stood out against the full dark scruffy beard that hid the rest of his face.

  He squeezed my neck encouragingly then waggled his eyebrows playfully, taunting me.

  “Ugh,” I sighed in defeat. We were going in the hole. Stupid fucking face.

  He let go, knowing he’d won, and knelt down again to take another look.

  A cool wispy sensation, like tendrils of fog around your legs in a morning meadow, wrapped itself around my lower spine as I looked down over his shoulder. I’d made the decision to go down there, and now my body was warning me it probably wasn’t the greatest idea. It was the first small sign of something going wrong. Which meant we were definitely on the right track.

  His hand landed on my calf and I jumped, startled out of my own thoughts and lost my balance. I creeped right the fuck out and him being able to spook me pissed me off.

  With one hand against my chest, I reached out and smacked him upside the head with the other. His head jerked forward, and he grunted just as his beanie slid slowly off his head and, as if in slow motion, fell right into the hole.

  Horror and outrage warred within him, and a low growl emanated as he jerked his head up. The glossy, now untamed, disaster stood on end in every direction and fell down across his face, almost covering his eyes. Eyes that promised retribution while the unflattering snarl that twisted his lips let me know just how pissed he was.

  “Oops?” I sputtered before I could get a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing and announcing our presence. There was a reason most teams refused to work with us; his temper being the biggest of them. I patted the rabid beast once on the head and got two good scratches in behind his ears before his arms windmilled and violently thrashed through the air, forcing me backwards and away so he could work.

  So touchy.