Then it was his turn to ask what had happened to me and why we had gone to the apartment. I told him everything: about the fraud, about Rastin, about the data on the flash drive, everything. In this as deep as me now, and his life as much at risk as my own, he needed to have all the facts in order to keep us both safe.
When I got to the part about Rastin destroying the flash drive and that he and Keith were working together looked startled and thought Nash would be very interested to know that bit of information.
I told him about the data on the laptop.
He said, “These guys are trying to cover all their tracks. I bet as soon as they can, they’ll leave town. Whoever Keith was skimming money from, they’ve got to be organized crime, and they’re a lot more dangerous than the FBI. If Rastin worked for them, and now he’s betrayed them to help Keith skim money, he’d better start running now.”
I thought about that, trying to get it clear in my head. “You’re saying that Brooks and Stillman has some accounts that they were using to do money laundering for some organized crime syndicate. Keith Brooks somehow arranged a scheme to change the data and skim small amounts of interest off, small amounts that would add up to a lot. That’s what I saw before he had a chance to cover it up.” I thought about it some more. “But he couldn’t have done that on his own. He doesn’t have the technical expertise. He had to have help.”
“Maybe Eckland? Would he have the skills? Maybe Rastin killed him because he knew too much, and they were getting ready to run?”
“No, Rastin didn’t kill Eckland.”
Matt looked surprised. “You’re sure? I just assumed he had.”
“He told me he didn’t, and he would have had no reason to lie.”
“Interesting. Nash will definitely want to know about that.”
We drove in silence for a while. But I still felt guilty about the way I had gone off on him the previous night. He hadn’t even seemed angry with me about sleeping on the couch. Or at least, he hadn’t yelled at me about it. “Matt, about what I said last night…” He waited for me to continue. “I didn’t mean it. You must know I didn’t mean it, or you wouldn’t still be here, I guess. Yesterday, at the office, Keith told me not to say anything during my police interview. He knew I suspected something. He said that worse things could happen to me than losing my job.” Matt started to look angry. I swallowed hard. “And even worse things could happen to you and to my grandmother. That’s when I decided to do what he said and not talk to anyone.”
“So, what? You were trying to get rid of me for my own good? Jesus Christ, all that drama last night, you were trying to get me to leave, to protect me?” He sounded mad, but I couldn’t tell if it was at me or at Keith.
Probably both.
“You really think I would give you up that easily? Damn it, if you had just told me about this, you would never have gone to work this morning, and Nash could have put a tail on Keith. We could have avoided all this crap that happened today.”
Yes, definitely both.
“I know. I know that. I wish I had never given that information to Nash. My first thought was to stay out of it all, and I should have done just that.” I cursed myself for ever listening to Nash.
“Well, it’s not like you had a choice. Nash and Swenson came to you. You didn’t contact them.”
I looked out the window, feeling angry and upset. Maybe I hadn’t made the best choices in hindsight, but I had done what I thought best at the time.
Matt took a deep breath in, held it for a moment, and then let it out in a long sigh. I could almost feel the tension leaving his body. I wondered if they taught him that at the dojo. I could probably benefit from learning how to do that.
He reached for my hand, and we entwined our fingers. The warmth of his hand relaxed me—apparently I didn’t really need to learn any deep breathing techniques as long as I had his magic touch.
“My grandmother, Matt… Do you think they will really go after her, now that they don’t have any way of contacting me? I mean, is there any point in threatening her if they don’t have a way to let me know of the threat?”
“They might watch her, in case you show up. But I think it’s much more likely they’ll be too busy trying to get out of town. They have to assume you’ll bring the laptop straight to the FBI, and there’s nothing they can do about it now. With no hope of getting to you or the data, there’s no point in hanging around. But of course we’ll ask Nash to keep an eye on her, just in case.”
Darkness had fallen and I had just dozed off when the car finally came to a stop. I had no idea where we were; it felt like we had been going around in circles for hours. Paying cash, Matt checked us in to the mom-and-pop motel on the outskirts of the little town.
I entered the small room, and looked around at the standard motel landscapes hanging on the nondescript beige walls. It seemed clean enough and, holiest of grails, a coffeepot sat on the dresser.
“Is this okay, babe?” Matt shut the door.
“Sure. I’ve stayed in worse. At least I’m not sleeping on the floor of some empty building, huddled together with a bunch of strangers for warmth while some old guy tries to grope me.” He looked dismayed, and I immediately regretted my big mouth. “I’m sorry. Forget I said that, okay? It doesn’t matter now. I wasn’t thinking.”
He sat down next to me on the bed and put his arms around me. “It’s just that when I think of you growing up like that, I get so frustrated. I want to go back and fix everything.” He leaned his head against mine and added, “But then I think of how you turned out, and I’m so amazed at your strength, at how you worked so hard to put yourself through school and make a normal life for yourself.” He kissed me, being gentle because of the cut and bruising on my lip. I thought I would melt with the words and the tenderness.
“Damn it.” I drew away from him before I could start to lose it again. “Don’t we have to call Nash?” I got up and started going through the bags, searching for the phone.
He looked amused, but he took the phone when I found it. He went through the steps to activate it and then pulled out a business card with Nash’s number. “Do you want to talk to him? I will, but I didn’t know if you wanted to talk to him first.”
“I suppose I should.” Feeling tired, I just wanted to change clothes and lie down, but I knew we had to fill Nash in first. And despite Matt’s reassurances, I was still concerned that Rastin or whoever was behind him would try to get at me through my grandmother.
“Okay. But don’t tell him where we are, okay? I’ll talk to him after you do.”
Matt entered the number and handed me the phone. Nash answered right away.
“Hey,” I said. “It’s Jamie.”
“Jamie! Are you okay? We’ve been looking everywhere.”
He put me on speakerphone so Swenson could hear. I told them what had happened when Keith took me from the office, and then I asked them to keep an eye on the nursing home. They seemed to agree with Matt, that my grandma was in no immediate danger, but promised to alert the home to watch for strangers and to ask the police to send a patrol by periodically.
I handed the phone over to Matt and sat on the bed listening to him talk about the fight in the garage. Apparently they already knew about it; a video camera had captured everything. That was enough to put out an APB on all three of them: Keith, Rastin, and John. It was all coming out into the open, and soon we could go home.
I stood up and stripped off my clothes. Catching Matt’s eye, I gestured toward the bathroom to let him know I was heading into the shower.
I paused when I heard Matt’s tone change. Not louder, just that little change I had learned meant he was going into stubborn mode. “No, Adam, we’re safe now, and we’re not telling anyone where we are, not even you. This is a prepaid phone, so don’t bother trying to trace it. I’ll give you the number. Just call us when you catch whoever it is in your department that was paid off. Then we’ll come in, and we’ll have the laptop with us.”
Matt had been amazing, but he had been trapped in a set of circumstances that had nothing to do with him, and I had difficulty believing he was really okay with the mess I had gotten him into. With the immediate danger over, he would realize that he had done his part; he had gotten me to a safe place. The FBI could certainly take over from here.
It made my stomach knot up again to even think about him not being here with me. But it seemed like I should at least give him the opportunity to lessen his involvement in the whole sorry situation.
He pushed aside the plastic curtain and stepped into the shower. He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his naked body against mine. “Everything okay? You’ve been in here awhile.”
“Yes, just finishing up.” I slipped from his arms and out of the shower.
After toweling off, I sat naked on the edge of the bed, my heart beating fast, in an agony of doubt about what I had to do next. I didn’t want to, but it seemed only fair to offer him a way out. And I wanted to be fair to him.
Finishing quickly, he walked out of the bathroom naked, toweling his hair. I stood from the bed and headed for the bags to look for our new sweatpants.
I said casually, “So it sounds like Nash has things pretty well under control. They just need to find the guy at the FBI who stole the evidence, and we’ll be able to go home, right?”
“Yes, it won’t be long.”
“When we get back, you probably don’t need to be involved in this anymore. You can just drop me off at my place and head on home.”
“What?” He sounded a little confused. I didn’t look at him.
“I know I’ve been a lot of trouble, and I certainly won’t blame you if you want to take a break from seeing me. In fact, I’m safe here now, thanks to you. I can just get Nash to come and get me if you don’t want to stay… It’s okay…”
Abruptly, I found myself pressed hard against the wall.
“Matt,” I gasped, stunned at the speed with which he had grabbed my arms and shoved me, his body tight against mine and his eyes narrowed by annoyance—not even anger, just annoyance—as they stared into mine from only inches away.
“Stop that,” he said irritably.
“What…what do you mean?” My voice shook. “I was only trying to…”
“Just stop it. Stop testing me, damn it.”
“What…” I stared at him in shock, my pulse suddenly hammering in my ears. “I don’t…”
His grip loosened, his hands moving to cup my face, fingers twisting lightly through my hair. He stared at me intently. I felt the pressure start to build behind my eyes and tried to turn my head away, but he wouldn’t let go.
“Stop it,” he repeated. I shook my head as my eyes burned with the unshed tears I had been struggling to hold back all day. What the hell was he talking about?
His voice turned gentle. “I want you. I wanted you yesterday, I want you now, and I’ll still want you tomorrow.”
The tears started slipping down my face as I felt something snap inside my chest, a blow like a dam breaking. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to turn away again, but his grip tightened.
He went on in that soft voice that was tearing me up inside. “I’m not like your parents. I’m not going to abandon you in some unfamiliar place when you become an inconvenience. I’m not going to send you away someday because I don’t want you anymore. So quit testing me to see if I still want you. I do.”
A groaning sob broke from my chest, and he finally let me go so I could cover my face with my hands. He wrapped his arms around me, pressing his naked, damp form against mine, and then moved a hand down under my thigh to lift me. I gripped his strong shoulders and wrapped my legs around his waist as he raised me up. Burying my face against his neck, I let out all the tension and the fear I had been carrying around inside me for weeks or maybe for longer, much longer than I had realized.
He carried me the few short steps to the bed, landing lightly on top of me, and then his mouth pressed hard against mine as his tongue probed deeply into my mouth. Between the sobbing and the kiss, I was gasping for air by the time he let my mouth go.
I could barely see him through my blurred vision, but I heard the faint tearing of a foil packet. I was still only semierect when he slipped lubed fingers into me briefly, and then pushed his way inside, taking me as quickly and as deeply as he could while his mouth devoured mine again. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, drawing him in tightly. I could feel the urgency of his need for connection, for closeness. It felt as if he was trying to crawl inside my skin, and I would have welcomed him in, if that were only possible. We rocked together as he thrust swiftly and deeply, withdrawing and then thrusting again with all the force he could muster. I was moaning, tears forgotten and head thrown back to expose my neck to his little bites and licks. My breath came faster, in rhythm with his, and we cried out together as a single fast, intense peak of burning pleasure took me out of my body and sent me crashing into an exhausted darkness.
Chapter Thirteen
I woke in the early morning hours lying on my side with the now familiar feeling of Matt pressed warmly against my back, spooning me. I smiled; his hand was creeping around my front to see how “awake” I was. That was becoming a familiar feeling too.
He pressed against my flesh, cupping me, and I instantly became very awake. He stroked me gently, and I pushed against him.
“Oh, good, you’re awake.” He spoke softly into my ear.
I turned over to my back. His hand never stopped fondling me. “Well, I am now,” I said, a bit testy about being woken so early. But I reached out and pulled him to me for a morning kiss. “You better make sure it’s worth it.”
“Hey, I’m always worth it, babe.”
I felt embarrassed about the way I had broken down the previous night and had a hard time meeting his eyes. But when I looked at him, I had to smile. The appearance of total absorption on his face as he examined my belly button, then made his way up my chest to give the little gold ring a close inspection, was almost comical. Obviously his mind was completely on other things, and he soon managed to distract me as well.
We moved slowly, no urgency this morning, our hands and mouths wandering leisurely, kissing, stroking, exploring. He started to slide down at the same time I did, but I stopped him. “I want to taste you,” I whispered breathlessly.
He murmured, “And I just want to eat you up. You always feel so good, taste so good, I can’t get enough.”
“On your back, then,” I said. “We’ll both get what we want.”
He stretched out on his back, and I knelt next to him, running my hands down that firm chest and that beautiful stomach. In the dim morning light he was laid out in front of me like a feast, and I wanted to devour every bit of him. I leaned over and licked his hot, sweet cock like a lollipop, working it with my tongue but not taking it into my mouth. He groaned and reached out to stroke my ass and then pull my hips around toward his face until I had to move a knee to the other side of his chest and stretch out on top of him. And then he had me in his mouth, and I sucked him into mine. The twin sensations of that big cock filling my mouth and the sheer pleasure of mine thrusting into his wet warmth felt incredible.
I wanted it to last forever, but his hips started to thrust more urgently into my mouth, and I could taste precum. I stroked his legs excitedly with my hands as I pushed my cock harder into his mouth. His hands gripped my ass then, pulling me in deep, and I didn’t know which end to concentrate on; I couldn’t seem to focus on both. Matt thrust up again, and I sucked him hard, working his head with my tongue. He thrust one more time, and my mouth filled with warm, salty fluid. My hips snapped deep into his throat as my whole body stiffene
d, and I came with an incredible surge of hot pleasure.
Panting, I turned my head to rest it on his thigh, and his cock slipped out of my mouth. I licked it gently, feeling him shudder with the sensitivity. He had turned his head to the side too as he tried to catch his breath, his arms wrapped around my hips and the small of my back. Eventually I slid off, and he reached down to pull me up next to him and hold me close. He stroked my hair, my neck, still breathing hard.
After a moment he gave me a long, deep kiss, tongues meeting and sliding together. I tasted myself in his mouth, I tasted him in my mouth, and I knew he tasted both of us as well. The mingling of fluids, the intimacy of it, made me shudder.
“Are you cold?” he asked, tugging the blanket up over us.
“No,” I whispered. “I…Matt, I…”
He waited, but when it became evident I wasn’t going to say anything else, he wrapped his warm arms around me and said in a low voice, “It’s okay, baby. I love you too.”
Oh, the ego of the man, I thought, even as I buried my face against his neck.
When I woke again a couple of hours later, I heard Matt in the shower. I got up and went straight for the coffeepot. The little packet of coffee wasn’t going to last me long, but it was a start. Matt was just out of luck.
While the coffee brewed, I looked in the mirror. My lip was swollen, and the inside had a little gash where that bastard Rastin had hit me. I hoped the police would find him soon, and I really hoped he would resist arrest when they did.
I smiled at my reflection. Funny how that bruising had hurt not at all during our early morning exercise.
After we had both showered and dressed said, “We need to get some real food. I don’t think I can eat any more junk food, and it’s about gone anyway. There’s a diner across the street.”
Friday Night Jamie Page 16
