by April Hunt
Bethany waited a beat before nodding. “We need you to break into the DCPD…and steal evidence.”
Shit. It wasn’t the Pentagon, but it was damn well close enough.
* * *
Cade’s head pounded, seconds away from exploding onto everyone standing around the Steele Ops command center, and he wasn’t the only one waiting for it to happen. All eyes were on him and had been since Grace practically sauntered into Iron Bars and casually asked for an audience with everyone.
She’d been too calm and rational for it to be anything good. And this definitely wasn’t good, or bad.
It was a clusterfuck that only he seemed to be able to recognize. “There’s no way I can be the only person to see all the horrible ways that this could go wrong.”
“If we stick to the plan, nothing will go wrong.” Grace stood in Steele Ops’s command center, her arms folded across her chest, and brought her FBI game face. She wasn’t backing down anytime soon. “We have to focus on our ultimate goal.”
“If your goal’s to get our asses arrested and hauled to jail, then what you’re suggesting will definitely do the trick. Shit, Grace, I was a cop. Do you know what they do to cops in the general population? Tell me that you didn’t agree to it.”
“Of course I agreed to it. We wanted our golden ticket onto the Order compound, and this is it.”
“A felony.”
Zoey cleared her throat, trying to be the peacekeeper. “Let’s take a breather and look at the big picture.”
Cade tossed his hands in the air. “Take a breather, Zo? Really? This isn’t something that can be solved with fucking yoga!”
“You’re right,” Grace snapped. “It can be solved by using our heads…and not the little one between your legs. If you would’ve listened instead of tuning me out the second I said ‘steal,’ you would’ve heard the rest of the plan.”
Knox, mysteriously quiet up to this moment, stood and paced the room. “Your plan to work with the local PD?”
Grace nodded. “Director Vance already contacted the police commissioner to set it up. Bethany gave me the case number and location of the evidence. It’s going to be a matter of bait-and-switch. Local PD will take the real surveillance used in the case and replace it with a duplicate. What we steal won’t be the real thing.”
“But whoever this case is against will still get off scot free,” Cade clarified.
“Temporarily, yes, but Vance verified that all we’re talking about here is a bar brawl. Someone got a little too free with his punches and destroyed a shit ton of property. The bar owner pressed charges for damages.”
Knox rubbed his whiskered jaw. “Seems like a big deal for something that’s usually settled out of court with the writing of a check. Who are they trying to protect?”
“Some New Dawn bigwig. And they expect to be looped in on the actual operation by video and audio feed, so we can’t take the dupe and just hand it over to them. We have to go through the motions of stealing it so that they can see the show.”
“Of course we do, because it wouldn’t be a complete three-ring circus until that was the case,” Cade muttered.
He was being an ass. He knew it. Judging by the room full of scowls aimed at him, everyone else did too. But he also knew Grace like he knew the back of his hand.
There was something she wasn’t saying.
He studied her carefully, noting the subtle upward tilt of her chin. Yep, definitely something.
“What aren’t you telling us?” Cade asked. “What are you so carefully trying to avoid spilling, princess?”
Her gaze snapped to him. “I’ve told you everything.”
“I don’t buy it.” He narrowed his eyes on her, digesting her words all over again. “Even if Bethany didn’t give you the name of this guy we’re about to free, Vance would’ve when she looked into the case file. Is it someone you know?”
Grace’s jaw clenched with quiet fury. If glares could drill through bodies, he’d be a human sieve. She knew exactly whom they were about to help, and she kept it quiet because he’d recognize the name too.
Cade didn’t know a whole lot of cult members, so that whittled down his list considerably. “Who is it?”
“Who it is doesn’t change the fact that this is what we need to do to get within sniffing distance of Sarah Brandt. If you don’t like it, I’ll more than happily tell Bethany that you’re not so cool with the New Dawn lifestyle after all, and go at it alone.”
Like fucking hell. No way was he letting her step back into this freak show without him as backup.
“Who are we about to help, Grace?” he asked again.
“Todd Winston.”
The blank faces from her cousins told Cade they didn’t know him from Adam. But Cade did.
His and Grace’s “Story Time with Rhett” would be forever engrained into his memory vault, and so would the name of the man who had no problems killing his own flesh and blood—and bringing a young girl along for the ride.
Chapter
Ten
Grace took challenges head-on. She didn’t balk, or hide, or skirt around issues, instead choosing to tackle them with single-minded focus and determination. Except when it came to this New Dawn case.
Survive suddenly became her new motto, and that had meant jumping into Cade’s shower the second they stepped through the door to his townhouse. Pushing her forehead against the cold tiles, Grace prayed for the hot water to wash her memories down the drain, but it didn’t work. Todd’s face still held on like a leech.
Seventeen years ago, he’d been so enraptured by Rossbach’s teachings. He’d been eager and entitled and so, so angry—a very deadly combination. There wasn’t a chance in hell he wasn’t a million times worse now.
Thinking of the countless other minds Rossbach and Todd had collectively poisoned, Grace shut off the water and toweled herself dry. She anchored the fluffy white towel across her body before coming to an abrupt stop outside the bathroom.
She blinked, unable to fully comprehend the scene in front of her, and blinked again.
Cade attempted to build a Jenga-like tower on the coffee table. It teetered precariously, and he cursed before making sure it stayed upright. It would’ve looked like the start of any regular game night…except for the fuzzy red handcuffs circling his wrists.
“Would you like me to leave you alone?”
“Shit.” Cade’s knee slammed into the table, knocking down half his tower.
Suppressing a laugh, she gripped her towel and padded barefoot to the empty box at his feet. On the front, a half-naked couple embraced passionately among swirls of glittery gold lettering. “Scandalous Desires…The Ultimate Intimacy Game for Couples.”
“This isn’t what it looks like.”
“It looks like you’re playing with that mystery game Zoey seemed to know something about.”
“Okay, so maybe it is what it looks like, but I wasn’t playing it.” He attempted to clean up the fallen blocks, his movements hindered by the cuffs.
“I’m a profiler, not a prosecutor, but…really? The evidence is a little damning.” Smirking, she picked up one of the fallen Jenga blocks and read the black inscription. “‘Share the position which gets you to orgasm faster. Draw pictures for further explanation.’”
“I’m going to kill Jaz for leaving this here.” Cade squirmed in his seat, tugging at the bracelets. “My skin itches from these damn things.”
Grace picked up another block. “‘Put on the fuzzy cuffs and wear them for the rest of the game.’” She couldn’t suppress her laughter. “Looks like you already have that step covered.”
“Seriously, Grace, is there a key in the box or something? I think I’m allergic to whatever the hell these things are covered in.” Cade twisted his wrists, and she noted the red skin beneath the cuffs.
She shook out the box. “Nope. Empty.”
Cade swore again, his curse earning him a chuckle from Grace as he grabbed the box and looked inside himself. “
How the hell can there not be a key?”
“You could always write to the manufacturer and complain.” Grace bit her lip and padded away toward the bedroom.
“Wait. You’re not going to help me get out of these damn things?” he called after her.
“Your curiosity got you into them, surely you can get yourself out.”
“If I could, I would’ve done it by now. And I wouldn’t be asking you for help.”
“They’re plastic, Cade. Beast out of them.”
“But then—”
“Then what?” She turned around before disappearing into the bedroom and leaned against the door, smiling coyly. “You can’t play with them again?”
He narrowed his eyes, getting off the couch. “You’re enjoying this?”
“Immensely, yes. It kind of reminds me of Johnny Franklin’s birthday party when you tried cheating your way into a Seven Minutes in Heaven session with Heather Tooley and got Wilma Hutchinson instead.”
Cade’s mouth opened and closed. “How did you know I tried stuffing the hat?”
Grace smirked. “My talents at reading people were on point even back then. The question really is how could I have not noticed.”
He stalked closer, each step that he took flipping Grace’s stomach. “That goes to show what you know.”
“Please. I saw you with all those extra pieces of paper.”
“Yeah, you probably did.” Cade stopped inches away. Heat poured off him in waves, but it was nothing compared to what was happening in his eyes.
Locked on her, they glittered with a faint trace of mischief and a whole lot of desire—blue-eyed molten lava. Grace had never been so aware of her lack of clothes until that very moment.
His gaze dropped to her mouth and back. “But it wasn’t Heather Tooley’s name I was stuffing in that damn hat.”
“Then whose was it?”
“Yours.”
Grace’s breath caught in her lungs. Even while she mentally asked herself if it was the truth, she knew it was. Of the many things Cade Wright was, one thing he wasn’t was a liar. Her body warmed from the small wave of hope his lusty gaze created, and she didn’t know what to do with it.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Grace’s soft demand didn’t hold any kind of conviction, even to her own ears. Cade hadn’t touched her and yet she tingled from her toes up, her towel chafing her hardening nipples.
“Look at you like what, Gracie? Like you’ve been it for me since the second you walked into my life? Why? So you can keep denying the truth? We’re good together. Always have been and always will be.”
He wasn’t wrong, and, God help her, she didn’t want to deny it either. Right then, her next breath wasn’t as important as kissing him. She leaned closer, sliding her hand into his hair.
Cade stopped her. “I told you before, I want—”
“Yes.”
“Yes what?” He scanned her face as if trying to read her mind. “Because I meant it when I said that I don’t want to be a next-morning regret.”
“I don’t want that either.” Grace swallowed the lump that formed in her throat as she struggled with her words. “But I can’t just jump into a relationship with you. I can’t act like the last nine years never happened.”
“I don’t want you to. Past mistakes are how we learn not to make them again in the future.” Cade slipped his joined hands over her head and trailed them down the center of her back. “We just need to be us and see where things go. If it leads to something more, great. If we find out that our issues are too much to deal with, then we part ways with no hard feelings. But I’m not going to lie, Gracie, I’m rooting for the first option.”
Grace dropped her forehead on his chest and focused on what he was saying and everything she’d be putting on the line if she agreed. If they failed, there was no number of cases she’d be able to distract herself with to put the pieces of her life back together.
But if it worked?
Zoey had been right when she’d said that her time with Cade had been one of her happiest, and Grace wanted to be happy. So. Damn. Bad. Her job with the Bureau had filled one gap in her life, but there would always be a hole only Cade could fill.
“Okay.” The word fell off her lips in a whisper as their gazes slowly met.
His eyes shone with a heavy need that was no doubt in her own. “Okay?”
“We’ll try, but I’m going to ask you one really huge favor.”
“Anything.”
“Kiss me. Right the hell now.”
Grace wasn’t sure who moved first. Their bodies clashed together, tongues dueling in a frenzied search for more. They tumbled backward, her ass hitting the wall.
Using the extra support, Grace rubbed her body against his, fueled by the rough growl that slid from his throat. “You have no idea how much I’ve wanted this.”
“Probably as bad as I did.”
“I don’t think that’s possible. Legs around me. Now.” Cade cupped her ass and pulled her closer.
She wrapped them around his waist, her towel pulling apart, revealing a scandalizing amount of skin.
Cade’s gaze dropped between her legs. “Fuck me, you’re gorgeous.”
“You’re not so bad yourself.” Grace ran her mouth over his jaw, stopping to nibble his ear. “Now imagine all the places you could touch if you didn’t have those pesky handcuffs on your wrists.”
“Hold on,” Cade growled.
“For what?”
“Beast mode.”
Behind her back, the cuffs snapped. Cade’s hands settled on her hips and instantly eased her body in a slow grind as he walked them to his bed.
Noting the broken links and the cuffs still on his wrists, she giggled. “I guess that’s one way to solve the problem.”
“That’s me. A problem solver. Watch me solve another one.” He tossed her onto the center of his bed, making her squeal, and tugged his shirt off.
The soft glow from the bedside lamp played over his broad chest. The man was gorgeous, and even if their arrangement turned out to have an expiration date, he was temporarily all hers—and she was going to enjoy every damn second of it.
Grace bit her bottom lip and scooted back, slowly working the knot on her towel. She timed her movements with his, pulling it apart as he shucked his pants and boxers down his legs. His erection bobbed in front of him, thick and hard, a drop of pre-come peeking out from the tip.
“See something you like, sweetheart?” He grinned.
“Do you really need to ask?” She urged him closer with a crook of a finger, but before he could cover her body, she took the length of him in her mouth.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “Holy shit.”
His hand bunched her hair, pulling it away from her face as he watched her lips move around him. The lust filling his eyes fueled her even more as she tightened her grip and quickened the stroke of her tongue. Cade trembled in her hand before pulling away with a low groan.
“What’s wrong? You didn’t like?” she teased.
“Definitely wasn’t the problem. I’ve spent months dreaming about coming inside that sweet body of yours, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to shoot off prematurely.” He leaned her back onto the bed as he fumbled in his bedside drawer, coming back up with a foil packet. He’d barely rolled the condom onto his cock when she rolled him over, changing their positions.
Cade didn’t complain as she straddled his hips, teasing them both as she rubbed his length through her slit three, four times before finally…slowly…sliding him effortlessly home.
They groaned in unison.
Grace braced her hands on his chest and, despite her need rushing through her, forced herself into a slow, even pace. Pleasure coiled low in her abdomen, tightening her body. “You feel fucking incredible.”
“Don’t stop. Take it, baby. Take what you need from me.” Cade’s hands clamped down on her hips as he thrust from below, sensing her brewing orgasm. The only sound heard in the room was the wet glid
e of their bodies and their staccato breathing.
Sliding one hand up her torso and around her breast, Cade pinched her nipple with just the right amount of pressure to send her over the edge.
Grace’s pleasure exploded. “Cade!”
“Grace. Fuck. Now.” Her muscles squeezed him into a mutual release.
Their movements went from timed to uncoordinated as they road wave after wave of pleasure. Eventually, hard thrusts turned gentle and Grace collapsed on top.
She sighed, breathless. “Now imagine what would’ve happened if we’d played that little game.”
Cade stroked a finger up her bare side. “We don’t need a Scandalous Desires game to get our motors revving. We take off pretty well all on our own.”
He was right. Grace just needed to be careful that she didn’t fall off at the first sharp turn.
Chapter
Eleven
Grace stepped into the Fifth Precinct, Cade close on her heels. The last time she’d stepped through these doors, it had been to take down a serial killer, and as horrible as it might seem, she half wished that were the case. Even though they’d planned this test of loyalty with the proper authorities, stealing evidence left a bad taste in her mouth.
She’d double-checked with Director Vance no less than six times that morning to make sure the original evidence had been duplicated and safely tucked away. There wasn’t a reason to worry—except if she and Cade got caught.
Vance knew about the operation as did as the DC police commissioner, but that was it.
The more people pulled into the loop, the bigger the chance that someone slipped, and they couldn’t chance it. Bethany and Thomas both listened and watched from the camera Grace wore on her lapel, and they needed to make everything look as authentic as possible because, unfortunately, they weren’t stupid.
Cade’s hand rested on the small of her back as he guided her through his old station.
He stopped and chatted with friends, one of whom was Zoey’s boss, Lieutenant Mason from CSI. As expected, it took them a good twenty minutes to make their way to the back of the building…and to the evidence locker.
