“How about a coffee to go?” I asked.
He nodded. “That would be great.”
I went into the kitchen and pulled down another travel mug, remembering the last time I was doing this. Brody had pressed in so close I could feel the hard contours of his body and his comforting heat. I didn’t think he could ever get close enough to me. The way he seemed to always disregard my personal space like there were no boundaries between us made my heart race. I smiled secretly to myself. I loved the way he made me feel, like I was the only woman he wanted in his arms.
“Taylor?” my father asked from behind me. I jumped, startled back into reality.
“Sorry,” I said, hurrying to pour the still-hot coffee from before. After securing the lid, I handed over the mug.
“You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Dad.” I sighed. “You know, I’m well into my twenties. I’m old enough to have a relationship with someone.”
“I know.” He sounded sad. “But you’ll always be my little girl.”
“I will. But maybe you could try to be nice to Brody? Maybe try not to scare him off?”
“Well, at least he would be able to protect you,” he muttered.
“Nothing is going to happen to me, Dad.” I assured him, feeling guilty for not telling him what happened today at the lake. I hated to make him worry any more than he already did. It seemed that ever since we lost Mom, all he did was worry that something would happen to me and he would be left all alone.
I gave him a one-armed hug and he wrapped his arms around me. “I love you, kid.”
“I love you too.”
“I’ll be home as soon as this latest mess is cleaned up,” he said, moving toward the door that led into the garage.
“I’ll be here.”
Even though Snake was in custody, I would probably stay here a few more days, if only to make my father feel better.
Once I was alone, I went into the kitchen and looked around in the cupboards to see if we had the makings for another pumpkin French toast bake. Brody ate the entire thing, and I thought it would be a good idea to have another one ready to go into the oven for tomorrow.
Holding the end of a long loaf of French bread with the hand in the sling and using the other to tear, I got busy throwing bite-sized pieces of bread into a large glass baking dish. My mind wandered to earlier and the time I spent in his arms. He definitely put every other lover I had to shame.
What happened at the bank was horrible, and being shot and scared I might die had been borderline traumatizing, but something good had come out of it.
Meeting Brody.
If I had to choose between being shot or never meeting him, I would take a bullet any day.
Did that mean I was in love?
I wasn’t as naïve as I thought I was, but I was definitely in lust. And I liked him… a lot. He made me laugh and he was surprisingly easy to be around. If our relationship progressed the way I thought it might, then love wasn’t too far off.
Once the egg and milk mixture was whisked together, I grasped the handle on the mixing bowl to pour it over the bread. When the bowl was in midair, the doorbell rang.
I glanced at the clock. It was after eight. Kind of late for someone to be visiting. It rang again, insistently, and I smiled.
It was probably Brody.
The thought of falling asleep in his arms tonight was so extremely enticing. I set down the bowl and went to the door, smiling.
After I threw the lock and cracked the door, an ominous feeling came over me. I moved to slam the door back in place, to call out before I opened it…
But I was too late.
The door was rammed from the other side so forcefully that I went flying backward and fell onto the floor, sliding across the tile and coming up against the bottom stair. I lay there stunned and reached up to feel the back of my head, which took the impact of the stair. It wasn’t bleeding, but it still hurt.
A man charged in the front door after me, leaping on top and grabbing my free arm. “Shouldn’t have opened the door, bitch.” He snarled.
I’d know his voice and face anywhere. He was supposed to be jail. Brody said Snake was arrested. Fear broke out over my skin like a rash, turning me clammy and shaky.
He laughed. “You underestimated me. I like when people do that.”
“I thought you were in jail.” I gasped as he yanked me up off the floor.
“I wanted you to think I was in jail.”
I glanced around, looking for something I could use as a weapon. Unfortunately, since we were standing in a foyer, my options were very limited.
But the front door was open. If I could get away, I could run outside and scream for help. “What do you want?” I asked him, looking away from the door so he wouldn’t gauge what I was thinking.
“That pig took away my money, my crew… He made me look like a fool! No one will ever follow me now,” he spat, dragging me farther into the house.
I tried to dig my heels into the floor. I needed to stay as close to the door as I could.
“So I decided to take something from him. And you seem to be just the thing to take away.” He laughed as he dragged me toward the kitchen, and frankly, it pissed me off.
I bent at the waist, leaning down to where he was holding me, and sank my teeth into his arm. I bit down so hard I tasted blood. He howled and pushed me away from him, slamming me face first into the wall.
From inside the kitchen, the landline was ringing. It was like a beacon in the dark. Without thought, I raced toward the sound, desperate to get help. Snake rushed after me as I skidded around the island just as the ringing phone cut off.
He lunged forward and I grabbed the closest thing within reach, the bowl of egg mixture. I threw it, the bowl and all, right at his face. It smacked into his chest, the mixture splattering all over him and then falling to the floor where the glass shattered.
He cursed and I grabbed the phone, skirting around his grabby hands and pressing the number for 9-1-1.
As he slid in the mess I created, I lunged around him, desperate to get to the open front door.
I almost made it.
He caught the hem of my shirt and yanked. My foot caught on some of the spilled eggs on the floor and I went flying, landing hard on my butt.
I gasped, the wind whooshing from my lungs, and my arm groaned from the impact of the fall. The phone flew out of my hand and skidded across the tile just as the operator picked up the line.
“Help!” I screamed. “Help me!”
Snake jumped on me. He looked like some kind of swamp monster with the orange-colored goop all over his face and dripping down the front of his shirt. A gun appeared in his hand, and I struggled anew, slapping at him with my free arm and kicking my legs.
He reached back and slapped me hard across the face. My cheek stung and my eyes watered from the assault. I blinked, desperately willing away the pain when he held the gun down, leveling right at my head.
“Any last words?” he said, giving me a psychotic grin.
Beneath my arm I felt the jagged edge of a piece of the shattered bowl. I wrapped my fingers around it and, with a battle cry, launched myself up and off the floor, swinging my arm around and catching him in the face.
He screamed and dropped the gun, slapping his hand over the cut, which was now oozing blood. I bucked him off and scrambled to get up, slipping a little in the mess but managing to make it to my feet.
At the same time, both of us saw the gun lying there between us. We dove at it, but he was faster, closing his hand around the barrel.
To hell with this.
I slammed the heel of my hand down on his head, knocking his forehead into the floor, and then took off running toward the front of the house.
“Taylor!” Brody bellowed, and just the sound of his voice from out in the yard was enough to make tears blur my vision.
“Brody!” I screamed, running toward the sound of his voice. “He has a gun!”<
br />
I heard some sounds behind me. I knew Snake would be taking aim in mere seconds, but I kept on running, moving as fast as my feet would let me.
Brody appeared in the doorway, his face wild with fear and his eyes like huge dark saucers. When he saw me, he burst into action, rushing into the house, reaching for me.
So close.
He was just so close.
The last thing I saw was him literally throwing himself into the air at me.
The last sound I heard was the explosion of a gun.
23
Brody
Pulling up to the house and seeing the light from the inside spill out across the front porch from the open door was scary.
Hearing her scream my name shaved about ten years off my life.
All I knew was that something bad was happening, she was covered in something wet and sticky, and the fear on her face was one of the realest things I’d ever seen.
When Snake appeared in the hallway behind her, brandishing a gun, my heart nearly stopped in my chest. I was still too far away. It seemed like the distance between us was miles.
Snake lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.
I leapt, launching myself off the floor and jumping at her.
On my way down, I wrapped my arms around her body and rolled, trying to take the impact of the fall. We hit the side of the wall and slid down. I rolled, pinning her beneath me and lifting my arm, which was also brandishing a gun.
I squeezed off two shots in rapid succession, and then the room fell into absolute silence.
Only after I saw Snake lying on the ground, twitching, did I lower my weapon. But even still, I didn’t trust him. I pushed off the floor and reached for Taylor, who was shaking uncontrollably. She was covered in something and it made me frantic.
“What happened?” I asked, running my hands all over her body, looking for bullet wounds. The shot Snake fired just moments before hit the wall just above us, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t shot her before I got here. “What the hell is all over you?”
“It’s eggs,” she said, a hysterical laugh bubbling up from her throat.
“Eggs?” I asked, glancing back at Snake, who was bleeding on the floor. He appeared to be unconscious, but I wouldn’t believe that until I walked over there and kicked him.
“I was making you French toast.” She laughed again, her body still shivering.
“Aww, Tay,” I said, pulling her against me. The minute her face hit my chest, she started to cry. Deep, heaving sobs that wracked her body and made the inside of my gut shrivel.
“There’s a big mess in the kitchen,” she wailed, like that was somehow worse than almost dying for the third time in three days.
“I’ll clean it up, baby,” I told her, stroking my hand down the back of her head.
Snake groaned and Taylor shrieked, plastering herself even closer to me.
I wish I could say I was the bigger man. I wish I could say I knocked him out with a punch to the side of the head.
It wasn’t good enough for me.
Instead, I shot him.
I made sure he was dead.
Taylor started to cry again, and I wrapped my arms around her and picked her up, sitting down on the steps and cradling her in my lap.
The first of several patrol cars pulled into the driveway, and I laid the gun down beside me. “It’s over now,” I told her, stroking her back. “He’s dead and the rest of his buddies are in jail.”
“What about you?” She sniffled.
“What about me?” I asked.
“How many others are going to come for you?”
It was something I couldn’t bring myself to lie about. “I don’t really know.”
She buried her face in my neck and the wetness of her tears against my skin made me feel sick. “I was so scared,” she whispered.
“Being attacked is scary.” I agreed.
She jerked up, her wide, green eyes tearful. “I wasn’t scared for me.”
I frowned and wiped away one lone, fat tear making a track down her cheek. “What were you scared of, then?”
“I was scared he was going to shoot you,” she said, her voice breaking on the last part as she started sobbing again.
All these tears were for me?
Cops started rushing inside, weapons drawn, all of them looking at me. “He’s there,” I said, motioning with my head as I tried to swallow back the emotion clogging my throat.
It’d been so long since someone worried about me.
“He’s dead,” I said, flat. “He tried to kill us.”
Police started milling around as Mac entered the house.
His eyes widened when he took in Taylor, who was still wiping tears from her face. “What the hell happened, West?”
“The real Snake showed up.”
“Any injuries?”
“Tay,” I said gently. “How bad are you hurt?”
“I’m not,” she replied, leaning her cheek against my shoulder.
“We’re good.” I glanced over at Snake’s unmoving body. “He’s not.”
Mac nodded and went over to give some orders to the guys standing over Snake.
“Taylor,” I said quietly, nudging her so she would look at me. Reluctantly, she pulled back and sat up. “This is really shitty timing. And I’m probably a big dick for doing this, but it’s something I have to say.”
“What?” Her eyes stayed dry and her limbs were no longer shaking.
“What happened here tonight… I can’t promise it won’t ever happen again.” I couldn’t help but run my palm over the side of her hair while I spoke. I was very aware that this might be the last time she let me hold her like this. “My career as an undercover cop is over, but I’m still a cop. If I stay here—if you still want me—there might always be that chance that someone will recognize me from my time in the organization. I can cover up that tattoo on my back, but the effects of it are permanent.”
“Brody,” she began, and I shook my head.
“Think about it, Tay. Think about what happened here tonight, what happened at the lake earlier today. Think about how scared you were. Being with me is a risk. I swear I will do everything humanly possible to protect you, and I really don’t think I’ll have any more problems with the organization, but I can’t guarantee it.”
I fell silent. I said everything I needed to say. I gave her an out and I would totally understand if she took it. Some things—some people—just weren’t worth the risk.
“You’re such an idiot.”
I blinked, not sure I heard her right. “Excuse me?”
She sighed. “I said you’re an idiot. A big, fat one.” She wiggled her butt so it was more solidly in my lap and glared. “If you think I would allow some stupid pack of criminals to make me walk away from the first man in my entire life that actually made feel something special, then you, sir, are an idiot.”
“A pack of criminals…” I echoed.
“You know you aren’t the only one with a tattoo,” she said, looking up at me through partially lowered lashes.
“You have a tattoo?” I asked, surprised. I had been over every inch of her body and I didn’t see any tattoo.
She nodded. “You can’t see it, but the effects of it are permanent.”
I shook my head, still wracking my brain, trying to think about where it might be.
“You’re the one who gave it to me,” she whispered, picking up my hand and laying it against her chest. “It’s right here,” she murmured. “Right here on my heart.”
“Tay,” I whispered. It sounded more like a prayer, maybe because it was.
“Some people are just worth the risk.”
A wall inside my chest, a wall I hadn’t even realized was there, crumbled to pieces. I kissed her as if we weren’t in the center of a crime scene full of people. It was the first kiss of the rest of my life.
Finally, I was home.
EPILOGUE
Taylor
It was the middl
e of the day, not quite lunchtime, but close. I parked just outside my townhouse and jumped out of the car, practically running up the walk toward the front door. The keys jangled as I riffled through them, looking for the one to unlock the door.
My hands were trembling with excitement and it was hard to think. I was still fumbling with the keys when the front door opened and a muscular, tattooed arm reached out and grabbed me, yanking me into the cool air-conditioned inside.
I giggled as the keys clattered onto the floor and the door slammed shut. Brody pounced, pushing me up against the back of the door and pinning me with his already rock-hard erection.
He was completely naked, and I squealed with satisfaction.
“You’re late,” he growled.
“Meeting.” I gasped as he ripped open my shirt and buttons went flying in all directions. His hands were rough as he yanked down the lacey black cups of my bra, completely exposing my breasts.
He didn’t say anything more as he dipped his head and drew one of the aching nipples into his mouth, sucking on it vigorously and making me cry out with pleasure. As he sucked, my arms wound their way around his back, and I dug my hands into the backs of his shoulders.
Brody rotated his hips and his straining cock poked at my abdomen, rocking against me… practically dry-humping against the wall. I reached between us and took his large member in my hand, squeezing around the head and making him shudder.
He ripped away his mouth and moved over to the next breast, where he began nipping at the sensitive flesh. The more I squeezed, the more he nipped.
I laughed a throaty laugh because he felt so incredibly good.
Finally, he lifted his head and moved upward, capturing my lips with his. I sighed into him as that completely intoxicating tongue of his swept deep inside my mouth. I purred when his hand went around behind me and slid down the zipper of my skirt.
I needed him so badly that I helped push away my skirt, discarding the panties right there beside the door with it. I’d learned a long time ago not to wear stockings. They ended up shredded in pieces on the floor.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and he lifted me. My legs wrapped around his hips and I pushed my already wet and ready center along his abs, the tight ridges of his muscles making my inner walls flex with need.
Tattoo Page 18
