The elevator doors opened in the basement. Eli swiveled to face me as I rushed across the room.
“Actually, Meredith, I’m—” Where was I? What excuse could I come up with? “I’m out of town with Brooke for a little girl time this weekend.”
Eli raised an eyebrow. I could practically see the wheels turning as he worked to put the pieces together from only one side of the discussion.
“I don’t think I can get back until my next shift. Would you be willing to take my things out of my locker and take them home with you? I can pick them up from you Monday.” Maybe.
“Aren’t you worried something might be missing?”
“If my change of clothes and the picture of Brooke are still there, nothing was taken.”
A pause. “The clothes are here. I don’t see a picture of Brooke.” The sound of jostling came through. “Security has already been here, but short of catching someone out of place on a camera, there’s not really much they can do,” she told me, voice full of sympathy.
And from what Eli had said, the chances of anyone catching Ross or his associate on a camera was slim. But why would they take Brooke’s picture?
My eyes met Eli’s. “No, that’s fine. I can meet with them when I get back.”
“Are you sure, dear?”
Meredith still sounded anxious. My heart ached that she’d been drawn into this, however peripherally, but there was simply nothing I could do about it right now. “I’m sure. Thank you so much for calling me. I’ll see you on Monday.”
I clicked off the call, gesturing toward the security feeds with my phone. “They were at the hospital, searching my locker.”
Eli immediately got to work. “Was there anything there for them to find?”
I wish there had been. Then this nightmare could end for both myself and Brooke. “No.”
Eli brought up a feed that looked like the parking garage I usually parked in. Was that camera new, or had it been there for a while? Had Remi been watching me at work as well as at home?
Eli cracked his knuckles. “Let’s see what we can find out then.”
Chapter Fourteen
Remi —
“Why the hell didn’t you call me?”
We’d been so fucking late. Late, doing stuff that had zero connection with the most important thing in my life right now, and while I’d been gone...
Fuck!
Eli stopped typing, glanced heavenward like he was praying for strength, then swiveled his chair to face me. “What were you gonna do that I couldn’t?”
That wasn’t the point. The point was that my woman had needed me. Or I’d needed her—to hold her, keep her from breaking apart, going insane. I hadn’t been here, damn it.
And I was taking it out on Eli. Shoving a hand through my hair, I took a lap around the room, desperate to walk off the emotion sending my pulse into heart attack territory.
“Leah did try to call, but you were in the high security area at the time. I told her not to worry about it.”
Hacr Technologies, the company my father had founded and passed on to us, his sons, worked with high-tech research that sometimes required heavy security. Hence the new team from JCL we’d just hired on. The tour today had taken us inside parts of the facility where cell phones weren’t allowed. I’d thought it would be okay, just a few minutes.
I’d been wrong.
“Fuck.”
Saying it aloud gave me much more relief than just thinking it. I walked back to Eli’s desk.
“Remi...” He ran a hand over his face. He’d been up almost forty-eight hours straight, working to find intel for us. The dark circles under his eyes shot arrows of guilt at my heart. “There was no threat, just a report. Nothing was stolen. It was a search-and-seize mission, only there was nothing to seize. No direct threat to Leah, okay?”
Not okay, but as Eli was kindly pointing out—instead of calling me a dipshit—there was nothing we could do about it. “Okay.” I took the chair next to his. “Did you pull anything from the cameras?”
When I’d first arrived with Leah, I’d given Eli access to the remote cameras I’d placed around the hospital while I’d been “watching” her. The answer was written on my brother’s face, no matter how much I didn’t want to accept it.
“No more than I found yesterday. Joe Southerland went in. I caught him on a couple of internal cameras, traced him to the area near the locker rooms. When he came back out, freeway, exit, vanish.” He twisted his chair back around. “Gimme something to work with, dipshits!”
Better they were the dipshits than me, I guessed.
This was getting us nowhere but exhausted. If Eli couldn’t find anything, it wasn’t there to find. We were going to have to change focus to tomorrow’s meet. Knowing it was time, I made an executive decision.
“Go to bed, bro.” I slapped his shoulder. “We’ll have any new intel waiting for us in the morning. There’s really nothing we can do beyond that.”
Eli hung his head; he didn’t want to accept that decree any more than I did, but we both knew it was true. Finally, after squaring his shoulders, he gave the mouse a couple of clicks, shoved his chair back, and turned away from the bank of screens. “I’ll get a notification if anything suspicious comes up. And”—a hand rose, forestalling the words ready to exit my mouth—“you’ll be the first to know if anything does.” He barged past me toward the elevator. “Dipshit.”
The curse pulled a reluctant laugh out of me as I joined him. The laugh died when the doors slid closed.
I cleared my throat. “Where is she?”
“Upstairs.” Eli stared at his shoes. “I’m sorry, Remi; I really am. I’d give anything to have some piece of information that let me tell her, ‘Right there, that’s where Brooke is.’ But I can’t.”
“Me too.” We were warriors, not miracle workers. It didn’t matter that Leah got it. We expected more from ourselves.
Eli exited on the first floor, and I continued to the third, needing to get this monkey suit off and into something I could relax in. Despite being homeless most of our childhood and Levi being the only boss I’d ever known, I enjoyed the structure and discipline at Hacr. The scientists there made field-changing discoveries; the security facilitated those changes. If I’d been someone else, if my parents hadn’t been murdered...
I walked down the hall, shrugging out of the jacket on the way. What I didn’t like about Hacr was the formality it required, at least for us. The Agozi family had an image to uphold, and that meant suits. Why I couldn’t just wear my fatigues like every other member of the security team, I didn’t know. And weapons. Even the thick layers of my formal clothing couldn’t make up for the fact that I was naked without my weapons. But no one at Hacr knew our background, knew we were as capable as their security officers—more, probably—to deal with threats.
Here at home? When I left my room in sweats and a T-shirt, I had more than one weapon on me.
My knock on Leah’s door got no answer. Pushing inside, I was met with a dark, silent room. No light filtered beneath the bathroom door, so no Leah there, probably. Only when my eyes adjusted enough could I see the slight mound beneath the cream-colored sheets on the bed. She didn’t stir as I approached.
“Leah?”
No response, only the slow rise and fall of her chest telling me exhaustion had gotten the better of her. I set my gun on the nightstand, climbed under the covers, and did what I’d hungered to do since I’d walked into the bat cave and heard about the call—I snuggled up behind her.
A ragged sigh escaped Leah when my arm settled across her belly, but she didn’t wake, not then and not when I pulled her into the curve of my body. The silence wrapped around us like a warm blanket, turning tense muscles liquid and soothing the runaway thoughts in my head. Warriors knew to sleep when given the slightest opportunity. I knew to be grateful for the slightest bit of peace, and I reveled in it now.
At least until Leah stirred in my arms. Seconds later her body went rigid.<
br />
“It’s all right, just me,” I murmured into her hair.
“Remi.”
My name, husky in her sleep-roughened voice. Blood surged to my cock without my permission. “Yeah.”
Leah tried to turn, to face me, but I tightened my arms. Just a few minutes longer. Or a lifetime. I wasn’t anywhere near ready to let go.
She stilled. Relaxed. Her body went boneless against mine in an age-old display of trust. Leah wasn’t submissive, not anywhere else, but here, now, she was surrendering her body to my demands. It was the kind of gift a man like me would never dream of receiving because we didn’t deserve it.
Leah gave it anyway, hardening my cock even more.
“They were searching my locker at work,” she finally said.
The traces of fear beneath the words made my fists tighten. I deliberately opened them, smoothed them over her skin in slow circles. “I know. Eli filled me in.”
“They’re going to keep looking”—the rise and fall of her chest got faster—“and they’re not gonna find anything. And tomorrow when we meet them, we won’t have what they’re demanding of us.” Leah’s breath hitched. “How am I going to keep her safe?”
I jostled her against me. “You don’t have to. We will.”
“I’m actually starting to believe that.”
I couldn’t stop myself—I threw a leg over hers, tucking her even closer. My cock rode the ridge of her spine, but she didn’t pull away.
“I’m starting to trust you with a lot of things, Jeremiah.” Leah’s words whispered between us in the dark, the sound of my name on her lips sending more heat to my groin. “Maybe I shouldn’t, but I am.”
“Is it so bad to trust me?” To love me?
My heart thumped in my throat as I waited for her reply.
“After Angelo...” She turned her head to stare up at the ceiling. “I never wanted to risk feeling anything for another man ever again. Brooke was all I needed.” She shrugged, dropped her head back to the pillow, hiding her face from me. “And then I met you.”
Maybe it was better that I couldn’t read her. That she couldn’t read me. As much as I’d craved this moment, wanted her to be the air I breathed, I had to warn her. “I’m not a good man, Leah.”
She scooted onto her back, then faced me. “That’s what I thought too. But you’re more good than either of us could see. You care about an innocent child being kidnapped. You care about me being safe.” Her hand appeared out of the darkness to trace the stubble roughening my cheeks. “I can see it; I know it’s there. But I’m afraid to trust it.”
She shouldn’t. I believed that, but I wasn’t going to remind her of it. Instead I turned until my lips brushed the center of her palm. “Why?”
Her eyes glittered in the dim light. “I trusted Angelo. I trusted Ross.” She shrugged. “I’m afraid that this, that all the good I’m seeing, will end up being another lie in the end.”
I was who I was. Everything I’d given her had been the truth, but she wouldn’t believe my words if I told her. Only actions.
“And when I touched you?” I brought my hand up this time, tilting her chin until she had no choice but to meet my eyes. “Was that a lie?”
A tear escaped Leah’s eye. “That might be the most truthful thing I’ve ever felt.” She leaned her body away. “But I shouldn’t be feeling this, not with Brooke—”
I tugged her back to me. “There’s no ‘shouldn’t’ here, Leah. Nothing wrong with surviving the night with me.”
“Is that what we’re doing?”
No. I’m loving you.
“Yes.” I took her mouth then, to stop me from saying something she couldn’t accept. To stop myself from spilling my soul. Tomorrow my brothers and I would be ready to find Brooke and bring her home. I’d do that for Leah, even if it led straight to letting go of them both.
But not tonight. Tonight was mine.
Chapter Fifteen
Remi —
Her mouth was salty from earlier tears, from crying when I hadn’t been here to hold her. She deserved so much more than crying alone in the dark. I was a poor substitute for the man she did deserve, but I’d take what the universe would give me.
Leah opened to me, let my tongue inside. Moaned around it. This woman that I’d dreamed about for so long was finally in my arms. I dug my fingers into her hair and tilted until the angle was just right for me to get deeper, to overpower her with the hunger pounding through my veins. With the need for moist walls gripping more than just my tongue.
Leah shifted from her back to her side to press closer. With my leg over her, my cock was forced right against the join of her thighs. Right where I wanted it to be. I rocked instinctively, my cock head hitting her clit every time—tap, tap, tap. She whimpered, squirmed against me, gripped my shirt with both fists and pulled to get me closer. To get off on nothing more than the press of my dick.
No way in hell.
I tore myself away. “Clothes. Off.”
I didn’t know if the command was for me or her. I didn’t care. I only knew I needed to be skin to skin with her, needed to feel her body beneath my hands, wrapping tight around my cock. In seconds my shirt and sweats were on the floor; then I went to work on Leah’s.
Grasping the hem of her shirt, I yanked it over her head. When her fingers went to the front clasp of her bra, I jerked them away. “Mine.” It was all I could get out. Forget fucking sentences—one-word demands seemed to be all I was capable of. Thank fuck my body would move without actual thought. I twisted the clasp between two fingers and peeled back the cups to reveal the prettiest breasts I’d ever seen. Plump, round, with thick nipples that already reached for me, telling me what she hungered for. Abandoning the bra, I leaned over and sucked one tight tip into my mouth.
“Remi!”
Holy shit. She tasted so good, like midnight with a hint of salt and the sweetest cream. I sucked over and over, frantic for more, for her to feed me everything she had. Grasping her around the ribs, I rolled us until Leah straddled my stomach, her breasts right in my face, all I could see—all I wanted to see. Nothing mattered but this.
I scraped my teeth along her nipple, then moved to the other side. Leah was chanting my name, rolling her hips to get the friction she needed against my stomach. Her breasts were sensitive, I discovered, sending her right to the edge just as fast as feasting on them had me. They filled my hands as I cupped them, holding them close, moving from one to the other with lips and teeth and tongue attacking until Leah gave a frantic cry and orgasmed above me.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away. So. Fucking. Beautiful.
She was still gasping for air when I rolled her to my side. “What—”
“I need to see you, all of you, Leah.” Every last inch. Her bra went first, then the jeans she’d fallen asleep in. Her panties were lace, surprising me. She was so practical, so fierce, that seeing the delicate fabric made me pause. Here was the tender heart of my warrior, the soft, vulnerable underbelly. I leaned down to kiss the faint marks along her belly from where she’d carried Brooke—the marks of a fighter—as I drew off the thin panties and exposed her fully to me for the first time.
The scent of her arousal filled my nose. “Fuck.” I moved lower, sucking in gulps of that scent, savoring the sign of her need. For me. “Fuck, Leah. You smell so fucking good.”
She squirmed. I didn’t know if it was need or embarrassment; it didn’t matter. Either way, I was getting between those legs. Leah didn’t protest as I crawled over her, as I made a place for myself in the vee of her body. My shoulders pushed at her inner thighs until they were split wide, allowing me in, exposing the most intimate parts of her body to my intent gaze.
This was Leah. My Leah. My warrior.
I licked straight up her center, opening her shyly closed lips to me. Leah screamed, the sound muffled like she was covering her mouth, holding herself back. Hiding her need from me.
I couldn’t allow her to hide.
Grabbing bot
h hands, I forced them down to her sides. A tug on her wrists pulled her even closer to me. “Let go, Leah. This is for you. Tonight is for you.” I dug my nose into the neatly trimmed curls atop her mound, rubbed her scent onto my skin like the animal I felt myself becoming. “No one can hear you. Let go.”
And then I feasted.
Cries filled my ears as I devoured every inch of her pussy. Labia, clit, the shadowed entrance to her body. I licked and sucked and tugged with my teeth. I blew warm air against her, watching her shiver, then speared her with my tongue and felt her walls contract around me. And all the while I stared up her body, past those perfect breasts to the unguarded face that showed me what she needed, what she hungered for. Leah, completely open. Completely mine.
I pushed deep, my nose nudging her clit. Cream coated my tongue as the pleasure took her over the edge.
I had to feel it. Pushing to my knees, I lined my cock up and thrust inside, straight to the hilt. I needed those contractions, needed to immerse myself in the pleasure I’d given her, feel her walls wrapping so tight around me as she lost herself.
Leah jerked against me. “Remi!”
My hands wrapped almost completely around her hips, big enough to hold her in place. “Relax.” The word came out more croak than anything, the need to thrust hammering at me. I wouldn’t give in, not yet. I needed this. “Just give it a minute.”
A strained chuckle left her lips. “Easier said than done when you’ve got a log shoved inside you.”
“This log waited as long as it could,” I told her, the words gravel-rough. “You feel so good, Leah. All tight and wet and...” A groan escaped me. I had to stop talking before I lost it completely. “Just breathe. For both of us.”
Her hands came up to rest on her lower belly, pressing lightly. Feeling me inside her. “So full,” she moaned.
My cock jerked hard, threatening to spill. I loved that she wasn’t inhibited, that everything she felt was right out there for me to see. I couldn’t get enough of staring down at her body, all that creamy skin, the hills and valleys, the open honesty of her beautiful eyes.
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