Swallow (Kindred Book 2)

by Scarlett Finn

  That was an impressive operation. “You unloaded everything? What does that mean?”

  One of his hands slunk down her body to squeeze her ass. “It means all the boxes and crates you saw there are empty.”

  She’d been terrified when Sutcliffe’s supplies came into focus. All those boxes and crates suggested that he’d planned for a massive mission. Knowing that the Kindred had cleared him out alleviated some of her fear. “Does that include Game Time?”

  With a single nod, he erased her remaining worries. “That includes Game Time.”

  They had to have been working all night, breaking into each crate, removing its contents and then staging the place to look like nothing had been touched. It was genius. “How did you and Swift do all of that—“

  “We had help,” Brodie said. “Remember I said we needed an army? Rigor and his men helped us clear the place. We let them have some of the lower level stuff, the rest Zave

  brought back with me in the chopper. In the end, it took three trips. The chopper was waiting for me with the final load after I left you with Saint.”

  “Which brings me back to my first question? What was that all about? How could you have a plan in place when you didn’t know what Grant was planning?”

  “I had an idea,” Brodie said. She brushed her cheek on his when he switched his focus to the window.

  She didn’t want him to withdraw now, so she kept caressing to soothe him. “Tell me.”

  “In the motel room, after your meeting with Ben. I said it didn’t make sense, right? Putting myself in Grant’s place, I wouldn’t trust you, not after you screwed him over in the Atlas warehouse.”

  Opening her mouth, she breathed in to argue, but there was no other way to put it. She wouldn’t blame Brodie or the Kindred for what had happened, or for losing Grant’s faith. As it turned out, he wasn’t the type of person she wanted to be allied with.

  Deflated, she changed the tone of her interruption. “Go on,” she said, letting the air out of her lungs.

  His lips tilted like he’d read and was amused by her thought process. “Swift and I talked about it that night, after we left the motel room to meet with Rigor. The guy was pissed after that poker game, but he’s smart enough to know a good deal when it finds him. He got arms and cash, and he’ll get a whole lot else if everything goes our way. Grant was gonna screw you over. There was no way he’d trust you. I’d have told you that when you decided to go back to work at CI, if you’d asked me. The way he let you back in was just too easy.”

  Back then she couldn’t ask him to so much as pass the salt because he was too distracted. Thinking again, she wondered if she’d been wrong to mollycoddle Brodie the way she had. If she’d forced him to listen, forced him to help, maybe he’d have found his way out of his funk sooner. “Swift and I spoke about it.”

  “Swift doesn’t have a brother, and Saint has always been that way, he holds grudges. Since we were kids, he couldn’t keep friends because as soon as he didn’t get his way he sulked. That’s probably why he held onto the argument we had about our folks when we were teenagers.”

  Grant wasn’t the only one to hold onto that, the brothers’ relationship was already in tatters and after that, neither of them had made any attempt to patch things up.

  “You could’ve just told me to walk away,” she said. “You didn’t have to sneak out of the motel room and make secret plans with Tuck.”

  “Saint would never have hurt you, look at what happened today, he thought he conned me into coming to that bunker to kill Sutcliffe because Saint wouldn’t get blood on his Italian loafers. He doesn’t have the stomach for it. That’s why he needs Sutcliffe’s army. If I thought he was gonna hurt you, I’d have yanked you. As it was, he needed to win, needed to defeat us and today he did.”

  She was still confused. “So you were just playing fair? You hurt him. I hurt him. So we let him hurt us back.”

  “He’s not looking at you anymore, is he? You got away clean, and he’s smug.”

  Grant wasn’t focusing on her, he was trying to ingratiate himself with the cult. If Brodie had ignored Grant’s claim that she’d betrayed him, he’d be even angrier and even more likely to focus his wrath on them.

  “You were protecting me?” she asked. “You let him think he won because as long as he thinks we’re not together, he’s satisfied.”

  “As far as we’re concerned, yes.”

  “You were protecting me?” she said and her love for him swelled.

  He didn’t even register that what he’d done was a big deal, but it was to her. He’d foregone battling egos with Grant to make sure she was safe. “It’s my primary mission, baby.”

  “Beau,” she murmured, but had no words for how humbled she was. It wasn’t every man who would let his opponent claim a win just to protect the sanctity of the heroine.

  Still, he was nonchalant. “Don’t worry,” Brodie said, rolling her onto her back again. “He’ll know by the end of this that we conned him again. We just need this window.”

  He began to descend to kiss her, but she stopped him. “For what?”

  “For the grand finale,” Brodie said. “Swift is still out there, he and Rigor’s men are causing hell at the compound. Scaring the shit out of people and shaking some trees. It should be enough to scare off the women and children.”

  Saving innocent people was a plus, but the non-innocent people would raise hell. “But the men will mobilize,” she said, not sure that she liked this plan because it put people she cared about in harm’s way.

  “With what? We have the majority of their arms… and with Sutcliffe gone…”

  “It will be mayhem,” she said and let him kiss her while she sorted through what these developments meant. The weapons were gone, but they probably didn’t know that until they showed up to retrieve them from the bunker. There was a chance that the men were so busy fighting amongst themselves that no one had taken charge yet. Grant didn’t have their confidence, he was just a random suit who had recently shown up, he hadn’t proven himself to anyone, didn’t have their faith.

  Ben would have told everyone her version of events, and now that everyone thought she’d fled for her life after witnessing Grant murder their leader, there would be fear and tension in the ranks. Brodie was good, he’d come through, he’d thought about how to play this beautifully and it was all the more impressive that he hadn’t come up with the full plan until they were in that motel room.

  Breaking their kiss, there was something she had to know. “What made you figure it out?”

  His glower almost made her smile. He wasn’t pleased that she’d interrupted their bonding. But he grumbled and answered her question. “Grant was obsessed with our relationship. Then he found out you went to Ben about Sutcliffe. You didn’t confide in him, you went to Ben. Art and I already knew Grant had the hots for you. It didn’t make sense that he would be happy for you to be chatting it up with Ben, a practical stranger, and yet he was thrilled to hear that you were talking to him. Why would he be happy about that? Why would Sutcliffe have a private meeting with you when the last time you three were in a private space he was shot at?

  “I don’t know how much Sutcliffe knew about Grant’s mistrust of you, but I’d bet he knew something, that’s the reason he let you live, just to see you destroyed… Which was why today Sutcliffe’s time was up. Grant wouldn’t have the balls to hurt you, but Sutcliffe would, and after he found out that we emptied his locker, he’d have used you to get to us.”

  Sutcliffe needed to be disposed of and Raven didn’t waste time with conversation. He had a job to do and he did it. If he hadn’t, Sutcliffe could have held her hostage until he got his supplies back. “It wouldn’t have worked,” she said. “I—“

  “It would have,” Brodie said with a nod and stroked her hair from her face. “I’m not a cop or a government official. I don’t have any ‘no negotiation with terrorists’ protocol to follow. I’d have done every single thing he told me to do.
I’d have killed. I would’ve fought in his damn war. Hell, I’d have set Game Time up myself, even if it meant killing millions. I’d have made Swift work for him, and Falc, and Wren. I’d have handed over all of our resources and let him put me on a leash.”

  She couldn’t imagine anyone as strong as Brodie bowing to the threats of another. Confusion made her frown, but he was still relaxed. “Why?” she exhaled. “He was a monster. You don’t believe in his cause. How can you be so sure that you would—“

  “Because I love you more than a thousand men love their wives,” he said and the confession made her heart stop. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you safe.”

  Even if it meant sacrificing himself and everything he stood for. Her lip wobbled, so she tucked it into her mouth and let her teeth clamp down on it. A tear slid from the corner of her eye and skidded down her temple to her ear. “You said it.”

  “Yeah,” he said in a murmur complementary of this intimate moment. But his tone quickly became its usual abrupt self. “I fucking said it… now are you gonna put out?”

  Spreading her arms, she wrapped them around him and forced his mouth onto her. He loved her, he’d said it, and she had no doubt that he meant it. Just as she was sinking into their kiss, relishing the taste and texture of his warm mouth as it responded to hers, he slid his clasping hands from her knees down to her ankles at his ass. Holding her ankles and with her shins resting on his forearms, he reared up, taking her body with him as he left the bed.

  “Where are we going?” she asked, squeezing her legs on either side of his ribs and keeping her hands on his shoulders for balance.

  He didn’t respond and carried her in this elevated place to the corner where he turned and sank down into his chair and lowered her onto his lap. Wearing a smile that split her face, she ran her hands over his hair.

  “You want to be my fantasy?” he asked with a snarl in his voice that made her body spasm around his.

  Coming in for a kiss, he grabbed her chin to push it aside so he could lick and suck on her neck. “I should put my stockings on,” she said.

  Watching her breasts move as breathing grew more difficult for her, his voice got deeper. “I got all I need right here.”

  Pulling her dress farther down her body, he took hold of each breast, giving each some tough love before he rammed a hand down between their bodies, beneath the coiled fabric of her dress, which was bunched around her hips. He pressed the pad of his middle finger to her clit.

  The pressure was enough to make her whimper and she wriggled against it, trying to tempt the digit inside, but he moved it away each time it got close. Removing his mouth from her neck, his hand then snaked around to the back of her neck, and while she worked herself against the finger he had under her dress, he pulled her forward to bury his face in her hair over her ear.

  “I know what you want, baby,” he mumbled into her locks. “What do I want?”

  “You want me to ride you, here in your chair,” she said and slowed the movement of her hips so she could rise up enough to unbuckle his jeans. His dick sprang out, making brief but potent contact with the juices he’d smeared through her folds and she stroked him with her fist, running her thumb up over the crest of his urgency to coat him with the pre-come seeping out of him.

  “Why do I want that?” he asked and curled his fingers to take a handful of her hair, enough that he could pull her back to make her look at him.

  “Because your plaything has to say thank you,” she said. “To show appreciation to my chief.”

  “Good answer,” he said. From the way the corner of his mouth twitched, she knew she’d amused him and that wasn’t the answer he’d been expecting. “Say pretty please, pretty baby.”

  “Pretty please,” she said, gasping in before he yanked her forward to shove his tongue into her mouth. He sucked on her tongue and squeezed her breast, brushing her tight, sensitized nipple with his rough thumb then pinching it between two fingertips to roll and tease it until the pounding in her belly almost made her climax.

  Holding onto his cock, she lowered herself, and without asking what she needed, he slid farther down in his chair until he was in the perfect position for their joining. With her knees on either side of him and her lower legs trapped between him and the arms of the chair, she descended farther and let the tip of him find its way into her passage. Brodie wasn’t interested in waiting. As she breathed through every second of the excruciating pleasure his dick gave her, he thrust up, slamming himself into her.

  Zara hadn’t been expecting him to do that, she thought she was driving, but that was probably his reminder that he was always in charge. Still with their mouths frozen in a kiss, she breathed through the sensation that made her body feel like it was about to split in two.

  “You don’t get to tease me,” he said. “I tell you to ride it, you damn well better do it right, baby. Show my cock you appreciate it or you won’t get a second chance to prove yourself.”

  His arms moved under hers until his forearms were supporting her weight and she began to move, slow, then as her legs adjusted to their lack of space and her knees found traction on the solid arms of the chair, she got faster. Brodie didn’t blink. He kept his dark, intense eyes fixated on hers. As her core got wetter, her bouncing increased.

  He didn’t crack a smile, didn’t offer words of encouragement, he just looked at her and there was something in the way he examined her that increased the potency of this joining.

  “Brodie,” she whispered between huffed pants. “Baby, I need to—“

  “No, you don’t,” he said. “Not yet. Work harder.”

  Her legs were tingling and weak, her body was sweating, and yet the searing pleasure that burned inside the space his cock occupied made her want to please him, she wanted him to have this same measure of mania.

  Brodie loved her, he’d given his all to protecting her, he’d murdered for her. With renewed energy, she pumped herself up and down on his dick, squeezing her muscles around him on every descent until his jaw worked in a clench and she knew she had him.

  “Oh, you fucking bitch,” he said, releasing the words on a pained exhale.

  He didn’t want to climax yet. He wanted to be in control and to give her permission when it was time to come. He’d done it before, and it drove her wild, which always gave him pleasure. But both of them were a little out of control tonight and he wasn’t as able to keep his horses reined.

  Snatching her neck, he pulled her forward and stuck his tongue into her mouth, making her stop. Orgasm beat through every bone and she clenched so tight around him that his seed exploded into her, but instead of the usual curses, he just kissed her deeper and didn’t stop until both had ridden the wave all the way to shore.

  He kissed and stroked her. “Pack your shit,” he said, tracing his fingertips down either side of her spine.

  Zara didn’t want to move and the ticklish itch that thrummed through her from his hands was an electricity that she wanted to savor for a while. “I’m tired, can we sleep here?”

  “No,” he said and got up, dumping her out of his lap and onto her feet.

  Her dress fell off her body and warmed her toes. The sudden change of position sent blood back into her lower limbs and they began to tingle. Brodie was already storming past her. He pulled a sports bag from the closet and opened drawers to stuff whatever he found inside into the bag.

  The odd action perplexed her. “Most of my things are at the manor,” she said, sitting back in the chair they’d just had sex in to bend over and rub her legs. “There should be enough there to—“

  “I called a realtor,” he said. “Your place is gonna be on the market next week.”

  Zara stopped rubbing, but didn’t sit up, she wasn’t sure how to react to the news that he’d taken control of her abode. If any other man had done it, she might have been offended, but Brodie was different from all other men and it was encouraging to have the reminder that he had returned to his former arrogant
self.

  As heavy-handed as the gesture was, it was so decisive and such a clear indication he wanted her at the manor full-time that she smiled and relaxed into the seat, pulling her knees up with her to tuck her feet over the front of it.

  “You called a realtor?” she asked. “I hope you didn’t do it from the manor. The Kindred have rules about calls to outsiders from there.”

  “Yeah, they do,” he said, slamming the drawer to turn and face her. “I told Wren to call. I don’t make phone calls like that.”

  Brodie didn’t make phone calls, other than that one to her. “I guess I’ll need to find a new place to live then.”

  He wasn’t in the mood for teasing. “It’s time for you to be where you belong.”

  As appreciative as she was that he was making his intentions clear, she had to be sure he knew what he was getting himself into. “You know now that Grant thinks he broke us up, and after what I said to him today… I won’t be going back to CI.”

  Brodie wasn’t discouraged. “I wouldn’t have you there anyway and we’ve got plans to see the world, baby… I’ll show you shit that will blow your mind.”

  She didn’t doubt that, he could blow her mind while they were sitting together in her bedroom and Brodie knew spots on the globe that few people had seen. The possibilities were endless. She had a first class tour guide to show her the world. Experiencing these beautiful places would be made more thrilling because she’d be sharing them with the man she loved.

  “Ok,” she said, touching the pendant that still hung between her breasts. “It will take me a few hours to pack up—“

  “Bring anything essential that’s left here,” he said. “Zave and I had to bring the last of Sutcliffe’s cache to the manor. You know that’s the safest place in the world. But we can’t leave Swift out there with Rigor and his men for long. We have to get back. Zave is waiting at the manor to give us a ride.”

  So it would be a matter of dumping her things and leaping onto the chopper to get back and help Swift. She was disappointed that there wasn’t more time. She’d been ‘on’ constantly for days and the exhaustion was taking its toll. But this wasn’t over yet and the situation wouldn’t pause for her to rest up and get her bearings again.