Gray Wolf Security: Back Home

by Glenna Sinclair

  “My mom left and now you’re going to leave. Why does everyone leave?”

  She brushed past me and charged from the room.

  Great. I’d left everyone so incredibly happy tonight.

  I suddenly felt like I was suffocating. I needed to get out of there, needed to go find somewhere safe, someone I could talk to. But the only person I trusted enough to do that with was hundreds of miles away. Kirkland would understand. He would tell me the truth no matter how much it might hurt. He would make me see what needed to be done.

  But Kirkland was in Wyoming.

  I headed out anyway and ended up at a doorstep I never imagined I’d darken. But he didn’t seem terribly surprised to see me.

  More proof that Mike Spencer was good at reading people.

  Chapter 12

  Shaw

  I almost called down to the housekeeping office a dozen times to tell Malik not to come up tonight. I was pretty sure there was no danger, that Alison hadn’t actually given away our location to her soon-to-be ex. But I couldn’t be sure of that and if she had, I needed to remain vigilant. Letting a man into this suite paid for by my employer and getting distracted was probably not a good idea when I was trying so hard not to screw up my first case.

  But each time I thought about Malik, I couldn’t make myself do it. I wanted to see him.

  What were the chances that this would be the night Case Michaels decided to come for his errant wife?

  He was right on time even though I’d been anxiously awaiting his arrival for more than an hour when he finally knocked on the door. Dressed impeccably as always, he stood in the doorway in a dark suit with a dark shirt, his olive skin made lighter by his choice of wardrobe. And so handsome…I wanted to just stand there and stare at him. But, then, there was the little fact that I was standing there in nothing but a smile.

  “Shaw,” he groaned, pushing me backward as he glanced over his shoulder, checking to be sure he was the only man casting a glance on me this night. And then he was in the room, kicking the door closed with his heel, his hands sliding from my arms to my bare midriff, his mouth claiming mine before I could release the giggle that had lodged in my throat.

  We both tore at his clothes as he continued to push me back, eventually slamming my thighs against the back of the couch. He grabbed my wrists as I attempted to slip my hands inside his slacks, twisting me around so that I was bent slightly over the couch. And then he was shifting my ankles apart, forcing me to open my legs for him.

  “Just like that?” I demanded, the words coming out a little more breathlessly than I’d intended. “I don’t even get a little foreplay?”

  “You open the door like that and you expect consideration?” He was leaning against me now, his mouth so close to my ear that his breath tickled the hairs growing close to it. “You’re lucky I didn’t pull you out into the hall and fuck you there!”

  He was inside of me an instant later, his thrust rough and determined. I cried out, even as I was pressing my hips back against him, welcoming him as the suddenness of it sent a shiver of pain up my spine. I hadn’t thought anything could be better than last night, but I’d been wrong.

  He thrust roughly against me over and again, one hand holding my wrists tight against the small of my back, the other kneading my breast like it was raw bread dough. I leaned my head back and tried to steal a kiss, but he turned his head, refusing me even that simple bit of intimacy. But it didn’t matter. The pleasure that burned through my body at his every movement was more than enough for the moment.

  I could feel him coming to the edge. I moved my hips, meeting his thrusts with some of my own. But then he slowed his movements, his hand sliding down between my legs to touch that button that had the power to send me soaring. I cried out, his knowledge of the female anatomy almost too much. He knew exactly where to touch me, how to touch me. He knew after only one night what would drive me over the edge and he was determined to send me there now.

  “Go with it, baby,” he whispered against my ear.

  I didn’t need instruction. I was already there, my fingernails digging into my palms as the waves of orgasm washed over the length of me. He stopped moving altogether as he watched me absorb the pleasure he’d brought me. Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, he released me, removing his hands from my body so that he could lift me and carry me into the bedroom. Like the night before, I watched in something of a stupor as he undressed beside the bed and then climbed up to join me, his beautiful body displayed just for me. I reached for him, wanting him close again, wanting him in ways that shouldn’t have been possible after such an amazing display of perfection. But I knew there was more to come, better to come, and I wanted it more than I could ever express.

  He hooked my knees over his shoulders and held onto the headboard as he slipped inside of me again, his eyes glued to mine as he moved slowly, rocking and rolling his hips, touching places deep inside of me that had the power to drive me out of my mind. My eyes moved over him, loving the way his muscles moved under his flawless skin, loving the way his body seemed to fit perfectly against mine. He could have been the subject of a marble statue, a work of art that only a higher power could have created.

  And then those waves began to crest again and I lost it, lost all ability to pay attention to what was happening around me. All I could think about was the friction building deep inside of me, the pleasure that was about to send me over the edge again. I dug my nails into him this time, forcing a scream from his lips as he reached his peak, too. It was more intense than before, a pleasure like I’d never felt.

  Who was this man that he had the power to make me feel so damn good? Who was he to get under my skin so easily, to do things to me that I’d never allow any other man to do? Who was he to teach me secrets about my own body that I’d never known?

  I didn’t know. But a part of me was hoping to find out.

  ***

  “What branch of the military?”

  “Hmm?”

  I was dozing off, my body driven beyond exhaustion by two nights of such intense intimacy. But he was wide awake, his body pressed against my back, his fingers dancing slowly in circles over my belly.

  “You said you were in the military. What branch was it again?”

  “The Marines.”

  “Did you go overseas?”

  “Six months in a foreign country is a requirement of service.”

  “Where did you go?”

  I groaned, rolling over onto my back so that I could glare at him for disrupting my sleep. “Why are you suddenly so curious?”

  “I want to know more about you. Don’t you want to get to know me?”

  “Maybe tomorrow.”

  He chuckled softly as he leaned down to kiss the center of my forehead. “Just answer a couple of questions and I’ll let you go to sleep.”

  I sighed heavily so that he could see how displeased I was. “Alright.”

  “What foreign country did you go to?”

  “Afghanistan. And Iraq for a short time.”

  “Wow. Like, where the war on terror is still going on?”

  “Yeah.”

  His eyebrows knit themselves together as he considered me. “Did you see action?”

  “Not much. My unit was assigned to this group of delegates who were trying to work out deals with the different little governments out there.” I reached up and brushed a piece of hair out of my eyes. “I don’t know if you know much about that region, but there are a lot of tribes and warlords who run their own little governments. They don’t often listen to the official government leaders, so our government has to negotiate with them when they want to build airstrips or move troops into their territory—that sort of thing. And we were assigned to protect the negotiators.”

  “Sounds interesting.”

  I rolled my eyes. “It was pretty much just babysitting. But we did run into a couple of interesting princes and warlords.”

  “You enjoyed your time in the mili
tary?”

  “I did. I would have stayed, but I pissed off the wrong commanding officer. He encouraged me to take an honorable discharge.”

  “What did you do?”

  I shrugged, not really interested in telling him how I’d sent the guy’s wife a photograph of the two of us together in an airport hotel room after he threatened to have me reassigned to a unit deploying to Japan. It was a game that should have ended in my favor, but he didn’t have the sense of humor I’d imagined when our relationship was less tense. It was either take an honorable discharge or face a court martial for refusing a direct order from a commanding officer. I could have used our affair against him, but the scandal would have ruined my career as deftly as it would his. There would have been no point to it.

  “You’re not curious about the kind of people I met over there?” I asked, hoping to distract him with a change of subject. “We were always following these dignitaries all over the place, meeting all these different people from all kinds of different walks of life. Not just Afghans and Iraqis, but people from all over the Middle East.” I smiled brightly at a particular memory. “There was this one prince who was quite charming. He was old enough to be my father, but he had this way about him that I found fascinating.” I tilted my head slightly. “You kind of remind me of him, actually.”

  “A prince from Afghanistan?”

  “Saudi Arabia, actually.”

  He laughed, but it seemed slightly forced. I guess he didn’t like being compared to Middle Eastern royalty, I supposed.

  He buried his face against my breast and breathed out, the heat of his breath making my nipple pucker a little. Then he looked at me, his eyes sparkling in the poor light.

  “We should probably get some sleep.”

  I nodded, my thoughts briefly moving to Alison. The pills she took would probably wear off in a few hours. I needed to be rested when she woke because she’d be feeling better. She’d likely want to head out to spend some more of her soon to be ex’s money.

  I rolled onto my back and snuggled against him once more.

  “Don’t leave before I wake up.”

  “Tomorrow’s Sunday. I have nowhere I need to be.”

  I smiled, allowing myself to momentarily imagine how nice it would be to laze around in bed with him all day. But, alas, there was this job I was here to do…

  Maybe Alison would sleep in.

  Chapter 13

  Malik

  I lay awake, bothered by something Shaw had said. I knew I was worrying over nothing, that what I was thinking was too much of a coincidence to be true. But what if it was? What if she’d actually—

  An alarm went off on Shaw’s phone. She’d only been asleep a little more than an hour, so I couldn’t imagine it was meant to wake her. I reached across her body to grab the phone, but her hand snaked out before I could get it.

  I expected her to silence the alarm and go right back to sleep. Instead, she sat up and turned the bedside lamp on, a frown marring her beautiful face as she studied whatever was on her phone.

  “Fuck!” she cried suddenly, jumping out of bed and snatching clothing out of an open suitcase sitting on a forgotten chair in one corner of the room. She nearly stumbled and fell as she yanked on a pair of jeans, the phone caught under her chin as she frantically looked around for something else.

  “What’s going on?”

  She seemed to ignore me, not acknowledging my question as she tugged a t-shirt over her head. There was a safe in the closet. She went there, tapping in a code she must have programmed when she first arrived. I was out of bed by then, tugging on my own clothing, thinking this woman was acting out a nightmare or something. And then she pulled a gun out of the safe.

  “What the hell?” If I wasn’t alarmed before, then I sure as hell was now.

  “Stay here,” she said as she checked the gun’s clip and headed toward the door.

  “Shaw, what the fuck is happening here?”

  I tried to grab her arm, but she easily dodged my touch. She was out the door before I could do or say anything else. Completely unnerved and confused out of my mind, I followed her. The door of the suite directly across from Shaw’s was open and we could hear men’s voices inside. She marched inside, her gun at her side as she paused, cautiously looking around the empty room. The wall suddenly exploded just above her head. She ducked, moving back so quickly that I didn’t have the chance to get out of the way. She rammed into my chest with the full force of her body.

  “Malik!”

  She gave me one hard push in the center of the chest, sending me reeling back into the hallway. Then she ran back inside the suite, kicking the doorstopper that had been holding the door open out of the way. I grabbed the door handle and tugged, but it had locked securely upon slamming.

  I could hear gunshots. Not the shots, themselves, but the sound of the bullets hitting close to the door. I heard a woman scream. I didn’t think it was Shaw, but I still felt sheer panic, not knowing what was happening.

  I tugged my cellphone out of my slacks, dialing 911 as more noises came from the room. Thuds and crashes, noises that were not normal in a hotel room. I glanced down the hall, expecting one of the other guests on this floor to come to their door, but no one did. Was I the only one hearing this?

  I should call hotel security. They were here on the premises and, even though they were pretty much just glorified police academy rejects, they carried universal keys to the rooms and stun guns. They could help Shaw with whatever was going on in there.

  But before I could disconnect from 911—who had failed to answer until now—and dial the front desk, the door to the room burst open. Moving on instinct, I pushed my body behind a privacy wall on the other side of the door as heavy footsteps proceeded down the hall toward the elevators. When I heard the elevator doors open and then close, I peeked around the edge of the wall. There was no one there.

  The door to suite 1003 was closed. I ran back into Shaw’s room—which had been jammed open by a shoe one of us must have kicked into the right spot quite by accident—and rushed to the bedroom where I’d seen the room keys on the dresser. There were two, one for this room and one for the other. I’d seen Shaw use a key for the other suite when I helped her bring Alison up after she’d gotten so drunk. I grabbed them both, unsure which was which. I tripped over the shoe as I headed out the door, slamming my shoulder into the other door as I fell.

  I shoved one key into the slot. Nothing. I shoved the other in and still nothing. In my rush, I’d pushed them into the slot backwards. I steadied myself and tried again. The little light turned green on the first try.

  The room looked as though a battle had taken place inside of it, which I suppose was exactly what had happened. Lamps were overturned, various articles of clothing were strewn around, and big chunks were missing from the plaster on three of the four walls. But all I saw was Shaw, out cold on the floor between the sitting room and the bedroom.

  I knelt beside her, my body moving on autopilot and feeling like I’d been dropped into a bad action film. My fingers hurriedly searched her wrist for some sign of life and I found that her pulse was strong, pounding away under my touch. I carefully turned her over, searching for wounds. There was blood, but I couldn’t be sure where it was coming from. I scooped her up into my arms, pausing to grab the gun that had been stuck under her body, and awkwardly carried her across the hall to her own room.

  What the fuck had I gotten myself into here?

  I hesitated, my housekeeper’s mind worrying about the blood getting on the thousands of dollars’ worth of furniture in this room. I finally took her into the bathroom, balancing her on the edge of the toilet. She fell over, her shoulder braced against the narrow wall. I frantically began checking her, searching for the source of the blood. When I finally found it, I wished I hadn’t.

  She’d been shot.

  I pulled my phone out again, determined to call 911 and actually receive a response this time. But she grabbed my phone, scaring
the holy terror out of me as her blood-tinged hand knocked the device to the floor.

  “You can’t,” she mumbled.

  “You’re bleeding, Shaw, you’ve been shot!”

  She touched her side, clearly weakened by the fight she’d just been in, but knowledgeable. As I watched, she searched her own body, sliding her fingers over the wound I’d found and then reaching behind her to check for an exit wound. She straightened a little with a wince, turning so that I could see the clear hole just above her hip, a slightly larger hole than the last.

  “It’s a through and through. Looks worse than it really is.”

  “Shaw—”

  “They took her. I have to go find her.”

  She struggled to her feet, nearly pitching forward. I grabbed her, slipping my arm around her waist to keep her from slamming her face into the counter. She let me hold her for a moment as she got her bearings, but then she pulled away, stumbling to the sink to run some water. As I watched, she cleaned the wounds and made a bandage out of some feminine products she had in her toiletry kit. Then she washed her hands and face, looking stronger once she was clean.

  I followed her into the bedroom, feeling like a damn puppy or something, watching her quickly change her clothes and toss a few things into a bag, including another clip and a box of ammunition from the safe. It looked almost as if she was prepared to wage a war all by herself.

  “I’m going with you.”

  She paused at the doorway of the bedroom, looking back at me with an intense weariness in her eyes. “You’re not involved in this, Malik. As far as anyone knows, you weren’t even here.”

  “But I was here and I’m not going to let you go after some…” I shook my head because I had no idea who she was going after. “I won’t let you leave here like that. You’re too weak to get far on your own. You shouldn’t even be going at all! You should be calling the cops, or-or-someone, I don’t know!”

  “No.”

  She turned and walked from the room, but her gait was unsteady and it was pretty clear she was not even going to make it across the lobby, let alone out into the city. I gathered the rest of my clothes and dressed quickly, meeting her at the elevator. The doors were just opening as I approached. She was leaning against them and the movement knocked her sideways. Once again, I wrapped my arm around her waist and helped her on, my assertions proven when she lay her head against my shoulder and dropped her bag.