But the memory of the twins putting their hands on her. Their mouths on her aching nipples. And the whole time Cole had held her in his strong, capable hands. Heat flooded her body, stained her cheeks and dropped down to her core at the erotic memory.
She’d bared herself to them all. And now they had the nerve to act like they were worried about her?
Fuck. That.
They hadn’t even filled her in on their plans to capture Luis other than dangling her as bait. What exactly did that mean?
Cole hadn’t said another word about Carrie. She hadn’t thought to ask. Guilt t-boned her. What if something happened to her best friend because Tomi had been too busy screwing her brains out to warn her? "Did you ever send someone to protect Carrie or was that a lie too?"
She caught Clint’s raised brow to his twin and then Carter’s answering frown.
“What?” She demanded.
A look in the rearview mirror – Cole still didn’t acknowledge their presence. Tomi wanted to scream, instead she dug her nails into her thighs and glared at the most vulnerable member of the Fury clan: Clint. “I’m guessing that was a lie too, then? When Cole vowed to find and protect her?”
Clint had the grace to flinch and avoid her gaze. “No, we sent a guy. Rico is the best guy for location and extraction.”
There was a giant ‘but’ that went unsaid at the end of that statement. “But?” She crossed her arms and pinned him with an accusing stare.
“Fuck that.” Clint hunched over the wheel and didn’t say another word.
Fear gripped her and Tomi leaned forward and grabbed the back of Carter’s seat. “What?”
It was Cole who answered. “Rico hasn’t checked in. We don’t know if he got to her first or not.”
The bile that had been treading water in her stomach erupted up her throat. Tomi made a mad grab for the door and slapped her hand over her mouth. Clint cursed and slammed on the breaks, swerving to the side of the road just in time for Tomi to launch from the vehicle and empty the meager contents of her stomach.
Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. Carrie. She should have found a way to warn her friend. Luis wouldn’t only sell her, he’d hurt her. He’d take pleasure in her pain. Tomi had seen his sadistic side at the auction, she couldn’t begin to think of the torture he’d do to Carrie in punishment to Tomi. She was supposed to go to the Frenchman – the fact that she hadn’t must have been huge. Big enough to put his own, personal murderer on her best friend.
Her stomach heaved again. She’d rid her body of all her food so all she could do was grab the tire and heave. The cold night air bit into her pores, freezing her bones. Carrie.
“Christ.” Suddenly, a pair of powerful, male hands were pulling back her hair and rubbing her back. She doubled over. An arm went around her waist and held her up. Tomi closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of Cole. A hard shudder took her over, knocked out her knees and she grabbed his forearm to keep from falling.
“Is she-“
“We don’t know,” he answered gruffly. “Rico should have checked in by now, but that doesn’t mean anything. They could have run into some trouble and had to go into hiding.”
There was that giant ‘but’ again. “Does that happen very often?”
“Sometimes,” he hedged. Cole turned slightly behind her, speaking over his shoulder. “Carter, toss me a water and napkin.”
A few seconds later, Cole propped her up against the side of the car and wiped off her face. Then he uncapped the bottle and held it to her lips. Too weak to move on her own, Tomi gratefully accepted his assistance.
“Okay?” He gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and leaned down, dipping his chin to look at her with a concerned gaze.
“Yeah,” she said breathlessly. “I think so.”
Tears rushed to her eyes immediately contradicting her words. Cole brushed a tender thumb across her cheek. “She’ll be alright, baby. Rico is one of our best. He’ll move heaven and hell to get the job done.”
“But Luis’s guy was already with her.”
“What do you mean?” He asked gently.
Tomi sucked in a breath, fighting the rising sob. “At the auction, he taunted me with pictures of her hanging out with one of his men. He was pretending to like Carrie just to stay close. He said it was insurance to make sure I did what he wanted.”
Cole stiffened, his dark gaze locking onto her. “What did he want?”
“For me to kill the Frenchman.”
30
The night air imploded on him. Luis had been planning to use her all along to kill the Frenchman. So, when Cole bought her, he really had fucked Luis’s plans. No matter if Luis was a mid-level employee on El Oscuro’s deck, the fucker worked with the cartel, which equaled serious bloodshed.
Cole grabbed Tomi’s hips, lifted her and carefully placed her in the backseat. Then he ran around to his door and climbed in, slapping Clint’s seat. “Go.”
Clint floored it and they accelerated onto the highway. “Carter, call Rico. Luis has a man on Carrie.”
“Cole?” Tomi’s lip trembled and she looked ready to fall apart right there in the back seat.
His protective instincts rose and he didn’t question them, he hooked her waist and pulled her into his lap, shoving her head down to his shoulder. “It’s okay, baby girl. We’ll find her.”
Carter slammed his phone down. “No answer.”
“Shit.” Clint sped up. “What’s going on?”
Cole stroked Tomi’s hair, trying to sooth her panic. She shook so hard her breaths trembled. Fuck. His every instinct was to shield her in his arms, order Clint to turn this vehicle around and get them as far away from the mission as possible. “Clint, we need to –“
“No can do, bro. We got a tail.” Clint shifted his head to the rearview with intent, both hands on the wheel. “Government.”
“Freaking Stahl couldn’t stay the hell away, could he?” Carter shoved his head against the back of his seat.
“Clint, we need to lose them. Luis was using Carrie against Tomi. He’d ordered her to kill the Frenchman.”
“The hell you say?” Clint looked back at them.
Cole met his brother’s pissed off stare head-on. No matter how much Cole longed to keep Tomi all to himself, he knew his brother’s cared for her. “No way the attack at the warehouse wasn’t Luis trying to get his ace in the hole into the Frenchman’s circle. We totally screwed his plans. He’ll be gunning for Tomi. Not just because she knows about his human trafficking, but because she knows about his plans to double-cross his friends.”
Carter tapped Clint on the shoulder. “We’ve got another one.”
Cole glanced back in time to see a second SUV appear behind them. “Shit.” Out here, on the highway with no buildings or trees to hide in, there would be no losing this tail. “Stahl’s playing us close. He must know something we don’t.”
A tingle of unease climbed up his neck. They’d made a plan – an agreement – Stahl was supposed to be getting his team set up at the hideout on a secondary perimeter. Cole’s team would be forming the inner perimeter. He would escort the bait. Tomi.
His arms tightened instinctively around her and he buried his face in her hair, inhaling her sweet, singsong scent. Tomi might hate his lie, but he loved her more.
“Or he does what FBI agent’s do,” Carter said quietly.
“He’s working for Luis.” Cole squeezed Tomi. “He’s been working for him the whole time. That’s why the case got dismissed. That’s why he refused to help his old partner. He fucking played all of us like a damn puppet master.”
“Cole, you’re hurting me,” Tomi’s muffled voice penetrated the fog of growing rage and he loosened his arms enough to let her up for air.
“Sorry,” he said.
“Can you speak in whole thoughts? I don’t understand what’s happening.” Tomi tried to pull away but he didn’t let her. She could have hurt feelings all she wanted, but he’d be damned if he let her off his la
p.
“Sit still,” he commanded. Tomi stiffened a second and then settled. He cupped her head, pushing her back against his chest. He needed to feel as much of her as he could.
“You don’t need-“
Cole cut her off mid-sentence. “To what? Touch you? Hold you to reassure me your safe? Hell yes I do. I need to feel you in my arms, Tomi. I need to protect you and love you. You can hate me all you want, but I don’t care. I love you.”
Tomi sucked in a breath, her nails digging into his shoulder at the same time. He could practically feel her pulse racing against him. He affected her. She didn’t want him to, but he did. “Cole, I don’t know.”
“I do, Tomi. Yes, I lied to you about the mission, but it was to protect you. I swear to God it was because I thought you’d be safe from Stahl and everyone else.” Cole spun her in his arms, shifted her legs to straddle him and planted his hands on her hips.
Her blue eyes blazed and her hands went immediately to his shoulders, holding on to him. “You made me completely trust you, but the whole thing was a lie. How can you expect me to believe you now?”
She wasn’t angry or pissed –she looked honest and hurt. She humbled him to his core. How could he have ever thought he could remain distant or cold to her? She was his breath, his life, his sun. He’d lived so long in the darkness, he’d been scorched by her light, and he wanted more. He craved more.
Cole dipped his head to hers, his own voice shaky. “Because I’ve loved you since you were a kid. I never left you. I finally found you again, baby girl, and the thought of living without you scares me more than any gun to my head. It’s always been you Tomi. I need you.”
“Please believe him. I had to babysit him an entire year after you broke up with him, and believe me, it wasn’t pretty.” Clint purposefully sped up, testing their tail while he tested Cole’s patience.
Cole sent out a warning growl to his brother. “She doesn’t need to know about that.”
He wanted Tomi to trust him because she knew she could, not because his brother convinced her.
Her hands cupped his cheeks, the night speeding by outside. “Is that true?”
Cole covered her hands with his. “Of course, it is. Did you think I could ever forget you?”
Tears welled and then crested in her eyes. His heart twisted. “Don’t cry, baby. I can’t take it when you cry.”
She sniffled and rubbed her cheek against his open palm like a kitten looking for comfort. “You made me.”
Cole pulled back, looking down at her sweet upturned face. “I love you.”
She drew in a brittle breath, but didn’t look away. “I know.”
“You do?”
She nodded.
His heart raced. “Does that mean…?”
She bit her lip and he bit his cheek to keep quiet. Damn, she tore up his insides. He couldn’t dare hope she’d understand, not now.
“Why is she crying?” Carter said in an unusually caustic tone. “You’re the one who cried for damn near a year straight. She had no idea the hell you put us through with your moping and bitching. I swear I was ready to turn him over to the terrorists just to get him to shut up.”
Cole glared at his brother. “Asshole.”
Carter blew him a kiss. “Love you too, bro.”
Tomi’s soft satiny hands turned his face back to hers. “Is he telling the truth?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Your letter flipped my world upside down, baby girl. I was head over heels for you. I never expected that.”
“I know. I was so scared. I didn’t know what else to do,” she said.
He took her hand in his. “You don’t have to explain again. I know why you ran. I just don’t want you to run again because I don’t think I can recover from you leaving again.”
Tomi’s heart lurched and everything inside her stilled. She saw so much raw emotion on his face and it shook her to her core. “I don’t know if I can.”
Cole’s hands slid up her arms, holding onto her. His jaw set. His lips firm. Every nuance of him screamed confidence. “You can because you love me too.”
“That’s why I’m scared.” She dropped her chin and focused on her hands lying at the juncture where her legs were crossed over his. Cole’s commander’s wife hadn’t been vindictive or lying at that funeral, she’d been bluntly honest. Tomi had seen it in her premature wrinkles and permanently turned down lips. Being in love with a man like Cole meant being afraid every day that he wouldn’t come home. Losing her father had been the hardest thing she’d ever had to do, but losing Cole would destroy her. This small amount of time she’d had him back had been some of the most joyful in her life. He brought back the sun and the intense heat, a made her feel warm again. Loved.
“Baby,” Cole gently lifted her chin with his knuckle. “Why?”
Those damn tears were still there, swimming and lurking and spilling over the edges of her eyes. What was it about this man that always made her defenses crumble? “I don’t think I could survive if something happened to you. And you put your life at risk every day. Just thinking about waiting by the phone for the call or watching the news looking for you – it terrifies me.”
Cole groaned, closed his eyes and leaned his head back so the veins popped out on his thick muscular neck. There wasn’t a single inch of wasted flesh on this man. He was utter masculine perfection.
“Nothing’s going to happen, baby. I’m out of the SEALs now, all of us are.”
Her heart stilled. “Out? Wasn’t this one of your missions?” She gestured to the rest of them helplessly.
His lips curled. “No. Me and my brothers have been out for almost a year. We started our own security firm.”
“And that’s better?”
He nodded without hesitation. “Of course, it is. We choose our missions. We call the shots.”
“You still risk your life.” Tomi lifted her chin from his finger, a tiny bit of anger creeping in.
Cole’s smile faded, but not a trace of doubt replaced it. “It’s what I do,” he said quietly, “It’s who I am. It’s who I’ll always be. I’ll never have a desk job, baby.”
A splash of ice hit her body. She knew that, she’d known it since he’d stepped in and protected her from a middle school bully when she was just a kid. Cole always had the heart of a hero. “I know.”
He grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “Don’t you dare look at me like that. You’re not giving up, this isn’t some foregone conclusion. I’m not a damn novice either. Do you have so little faith in my abilities?”
“Yeah, he’s killed a lot of assholes. Beat up quite a few, too,” Clint said.
Tomi turned to glare over her shoulder. “And you think that’s a good thing?”
Clint met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “You want him to be a pussy when someone’s pointing a gun at his head?”
Tomi felt the blood drain from her head. Of course, Cole had guns put to his head. He’d probably been through much worse than she would ever know about. She didn’t want to know. Panic gripped her, sucked the air from her lungs. This is why she couldn’t do this.
Cole forcibly turned her around. His voice was gruff, dark even, “What my dumbass brother is trying to say is that I’m good at my job. So good the military offered to double my reenlistment bonus if I would say. And those two jackasses up front aren’t that bad, either.”
“But all it takes is one mistake, one innocent slip up.” Like her dad not locking the door. What if Cole went into uncharted territory, thinking he knew who was waiting only to be ambushed?
Cole’s fingers squeezed her shoulders, not painful but with force. “I don’t make mistakes. Listen to me, nothing’s going to happen to me or my brothers.”
She hadn’t even considered the possibility of the twins being injured. It would devastate Cole. They might poke and prod each other, but their family bond was so thickly intertwined that if any strand was pulled loose the entire thing would fall apart.
“Oh no you do
n’t,” Cole said, “stop letting fear rule you. We were all in the SEALs for over ten years, baby. That’s a long time. None of us died. None of us were ever even mortally injured, private security is 10% the speed of the SEALs. I promise, you have to believe me.”
“I’m trying,” she answered honestly, “I want to believe you –“
“I hate to interrupt the love fest going on back there, but we’re closing in on our destination. We need to alert the team, make a plan,” Carter said from the front seat.
“Tomi, tell me you love me.” Cole’s soft command caught her off guard. Her breath hitched.
“I love you,” she said in a trembly voice.
Cole blew out a long sigh, his hands remained clamped on her. “I can work with that. As long as I know you love me.” Before she could speak, his mouth captured hers in a searing kiss that robbed her of her senses and left her tumbling mindlessly into the pleasure he offered so willingly.
It was Cole who finally broke the kiss. His lips butterflied over her nose and cheeks, she reveled in his gentle caress.
“I can’t think with you in my lap,” he admitted with a rueful grin.
Her heart warmed so much she thought it might melt inside her chest. “Are you saying I’m a distraction to the mighty Cole Fury?”
Cole’s arms dropped to her waist and he yanked her against his chest, every inch of packed muscle pressing into her sensitive skin. “You drive me crazy, baby.”
“Not fair, she drove us crazy too,” Clint said in a petulant voice.
Tomi chuckled and wrapped her arms around Cole, nuzzling his neck.
Cole growled, the action sending deep vibrations through her entire body. “She’s mine.”
“You say this like we don’t know,” Carter said from behind her.
A rush of euphoria hit her and she nipped his neck, savoring his sweet gasp. “There’s only one thing wrong with that statement.”
Cole gripped her hips, jamming his hard length against her, the fabric of their pants doing nothing to shield his arousal. “And what’s that?”
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