by M. S. Parker
Work. That’s what I needed to focus on. Get back to the entire reason I’d come here to begin with. Keeping my promise to Adare.
Even though we’d – I’d – been closed for two weeks, I did have a case to work on while I waited for others to come in.
I’d met Jenna on a case. She hired me to find the half-brothers and sisters her mother had given up or had taken from her. I’d gathered some information about them already, but between Adare’s hospitalization and death, and then my needing to go back to Indiana for my father’s new trial, things had been on hold. Now, it was time to pick them back up again.
Fortunately, my whiteboard was still against the far wall, turned around to prevent clients from seeing personal information, and everything I’d put on it before was still there.
I walked across the office and turned the board so I could refresh my memory. At the top was Jenna’s mother. I’d listed all of the aliases I’d been able to find, including what I knew of which name Jenna’s mother used for the different births, and the approximate years each child was born. I still had a lot of blanks to fill, and I intended to work my ass off to give Jenna a chance to know siblings who might end up being a part of her life.
I’d focus on the kids who were born after Helen Kingston’s arrest and induction into Witness Protection, mostly because that was the research I could do around here. In another one of those strange twists that I kept seeing, Helen had been sent from Florida to Cheyenne, Wyoming…where she ended up being far too close to Jenna. It was a fuck up of epic proportions on the part of the US Marshals. One that had almost gotten Jenna killed a few years ago.
But, there was one positive to her having been that close. If – no, when – I found her siblings, they’d be close enough for them to have a relationship if they wanted it. The older ones would be more difficult to locate, but if there was a way to find them, I’d do it.
I couldn’t change what Jenna had been through, but I could do this for her.
Three
Just to look at Jalen, I wouldn’t know how much money he had. Even when he was in a suit or tux rather than his customary casual shirt and jeans, he still looked like he didn’t quite fit in with the caviar crowd. Then I pulled up to his house, and it was obvious that there was more to him than a handsome face.
Maybe it was a good thing that Jalen had already met Clay. I didn’t have anyone else I considered family, which meant there was none of the usual anxiety when it came to doing the whole ‘meet the parents’ thing. I couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like if I had to figure out the best time to tell my parents I was dating a billionaire.
Dating.
Was that what Jalen and I were doing?
Our history was short and…odd. We met when he’d come to hire me for a case, and he’d argued with me when I’d gotten hurt working that same case. The argument had turned into a kiss which had turned into hot sex right there in the office. Things hadn’t gone smoothly from there, but after he’d been there for me during my father’s trial, we’d decided to see where things went between us.
We just hadn’t given it a name. Or a label. Which meant I was either walking toward the front door of my boyfriend’s house…or I’d dressed up for dinner and a booty call.
The biggest problem was, I didn’t know which of those options I wanted.
“Hey,” he said as he opened the door. He was smiling, but I could see hints of strain in his eyes, the way he fidgeted with the side of his pants.
“Hey.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek.
At least, I tried to kiss his cheek. What ended up happening was that he tried to do the same thing, and I ended up catching his chin while he kissed the tip of my nose. That awkwardness, combined with being nervous, made me burst out laughing. A second later, Jalen did the same, and just like that, the tension between us evaporated.
“This is weird, isn’t it?” he said as he led me into the kitchen. “I don’t mean in a bad way.”
“No, I get it,” I said. “We’ve sort of done things backward, and with all of the crazy shit that’s been going on, we haven’t had a chance to do anything normal like…well, like the dinner that smells absolutely amazing.”
“I hope it does.” He gave me that charming grin of his. “I slaved away in a hot kitchen all day.”
I laughed again. “I guess that means I should set the table then, since you worked so hard on the – what are we having again?”
“Stuffed-cheese pasta, Italian bread, and a fruit salad.” He went over to the oven and peeked inside. “And chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert.”
I breathed in deeply. “That all sounds amazing.” With a smile, I started looking through the cabinets for dishes.
A nice, normal date with my…boyfriend? Lover? Friend?
Well, whoever he was to me, I was certain of at least one thing. If the food tasted as great as it smelled, I would keep him around for just that.
This was…different.
We’d eaten dinner – and it had tasted as wonderful as it’d smelled – and then Jalen asked if I wanted to watch a movie. That was how I ended up on his couch, tucked up against his side, his arm around me, wondering what I should do now that Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks had found their happily ever after. I’d never done the whole dinner and movie thing with anyone except a group, and even then, it hadn’t been often. There’d been no expectations, no feelings to consider.
I was beginning to remember why I didn’t really do the whole dating thing.
Jalen shifted first. Not a lot, but enough to tell me that he was going to initiate whatever came next. Judging by the way things between us had gone from moment one, I would’ve been surprised if he suggested we end the night here.
He didn’t.
He hooked a finger under my chin, raising my head until we were looking right at each other. He’d dimmed the lights for the movie, but the lighting did little to hide the desire on his face. His thumb brushed across my bottom lip, sending a zing of electricity through those cells.
I stretched up to meet him as he lowered his head. The kiss started off gentle, lips leisurely moving together, a hint of tongue sliding across sensitive skin. As much as I knew he wanted me, there was none of the desperation that had characterized most of our previous encounters. Without the need to rush, we had the time to explore each other’s bodies, learn the subtler ways of turning each other on. I ran my hands over his broad shoulders and down his muscular arms. The man’s body was a work of art. I doubted I’d ever get tired of seeing him, touching him.
I’d never had this before, the freedom of being completely bared to a man’s eyes, his hands, not even with Clay. Jalen was the only man who’d ever seen me without a shirt. Well, sort of. After everything about my dad came out, I’d shown Clay my scar, but we hadn’t been sleeping together at that point, and it hadn’t been a part of anything sexual, so it was still different.
When Jalen lowered the side zipper to my dress, it was everything sexual. Without interrupting our kiss, I helped him remove my dress, leaving me in my favorite bra and panty set. Sexy, but not so much so that they weren’t functional.
His hands moved across my skin, fingers tracing my scar from where it ended at my spine around my right side. As his tongue breached my mouth, one hand pushed under my bra to palm my breast. His fingers brushed against the space between my breasts where my scar started before moving to my nipple. He touched the scar tissue like it was any other part of my skin, and it made something deep in my chest ache.
I moaned into his mouth as he teased my nipple into a hard point, and I was suddenly aware that my bra was gone. I didn’t think too long on it, preferring to focus on what he was doing with my breast. As he tugged on my nipple again, he rocked against me, his cock hard against my thigh. I dropped one hand between us, fondling him through his pants. His mouth broke away from mine as he hissed out a breath, squeezing his eyes closed.
“Damn, babe, you’re going to make me embarrass myself.
”
The thought of being able to make him lose control made me wet – something I filed away to try later – but that wasn’t what I wanted tonight. I wanted him inside me when he finally came. Still, I couldn’t stop myself from teasing him.
“I thought you had more control than that.”
His eyes darkened, and he grabbed me around my waist, turning us so that I was stretched out beneath him on the couch. He balanced on one arm as he moved the other between us. His gaze locked on mine, and I found myself barely able to breathe. He slid his fingers beneath the waistband of my panties, moving over the thin layer of pale curls to what was hidden beneath.
“Should we put your control to the test?” he asked as he slid a single finger between my folds. “Don’t come.”
I squirmed as he teased me, the tip of his finger gliding back and forth across my clit. He didn’t need to worry about me coming. His touch was too light, not offering the friction I needed if I was going to get off. Then his hand moved lower, his palm pressing down on my clit as his finger slid inside of me.
“Don’t come,” he warned again.
His hand moved back and forth, slowly at first, then faster. A second finger joined the first, and he pressed down harder, putting almost painful pressure on my clit, but I didn’t ask him to let up. I couldn’t have formed the words if I’d tried. I writhed under his touch, nails scrabbling against the couch as I tried to fight off my climax.
“I can’t,” I finally gasped. “I have to come. I have to. I can’t stop. Please.”
“Don’t,” he said, his voice firm. “Don’t come until I say you can.”
I arched my back, teeth sinking into my bottom lip as I tried to think of something, anything, that could keep me from tipping over the edge. Any thought I tried to focus on vanished before I could get ahold of it, the sensations rippling through my body too powerful for me to ignore. I was going to come, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Suddenly, his hand was gone, and I dropped back to the couch, staring up at him with wide, hazy eyes. Blood rushed in my ears, and my heart pounded against my ribs. My entire body was humming with electricity, overheated with no relief in sight.
“J,” I growled, grabbing at his shirt.
He gave me that obnoxiously cocky grin of his, pushing himself up to take off his shirt. He didn’t bother removing his pants, only undoing them enough that he could free his cock, and then he was settling between my legs again.
“You can come now,” he said.
I opened my mouth to say something snarky and possibly intelligent, but only a scream made it out as he buried himself inside me. My entire body seized up as I climaxed, and I could do nothing but ride it out as Jalen pounded into me, rolling one orgasm into another until everything started to go dark. I heard him groan my name, and then, nothing.
Four
Screaming. They were screaming. Why wasn’t anyone helping them? Someone needed to help them.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t get up. I couldn’t even feel my own body.
Then I could feel it, and I wished I couldn’t.
That’s when I realized that I was the one who was screaming.
Screaming about how much I hurt. Screaming for help. Screaming for someone to stop him.
Stop him.
He was going to kill her.
Stab her. Leave her bleeding.
No. He’d already done that. He’d killed her, and I’d seen her.
Wait, not her. Her.
I watched as he grabbed her hair when she tried to run. He yanked her back, and her feet slipped in all that blood. She started to scream, and his blade moved across her throat, opening flesh and spilling blood.
The heavy scent and taste of iron and copper flooded my nose, my mouth. It coated my tongue, and I gagged. A fresh wave of pain tore through me.
I screamed…
And jerked awake.
My hand went to my chest automatically, then to my side. I sat up and caught my breath as a burning pain shot down my spine and then the back of my leg.
“Fuck.” I forced myself to swing my legs over the side of the bed and stood, grimacing at the pain.
I raised my arms over my head, then twisted, bent, stretching out the tight muscles in my back and side. As I moved, the pain didn’t fade, but I knew it would take time. When my father had cut me from sternum to spine, he’d miraculously missed major organs, but my nerves and muscles hadn’t completely healed, at least not back to the way they were originally. Every couple months or so, I’d get a muscle spasm that would pinch a nerve, and this would happen.
Sometimes, it was almost like a memory of the pain I’d been in that day, a ghost. And it wasn’t the only ghost that hovered around my subconscious, as my nightmare had reminded me.
Not that I’d ever really forgotten.
My hand automatically went to my chest. Like Jenna, I wore some of my reminders on my skin.
I limped into the bathroom and turned on the light. I would have to take things slow today, at least until my muscles relaxed and my nerves calmed down. It was a good thing Jalen and I hadn’t made plans for tonight, because the way I was feeling right now, I doubted I could’ve handled another night like last night.
I smiled through the pain as I showered, letting the hot water ease my muscles. Sex with Jalen was like an athletic event. I’d been less sore after various FBI training exercises.
I needed to stop thinking about sex with Jalen, or I’d never get any work done. I picked up my bottle of shampoo. Then again, I did have some time now to think things over…
I was already feeling better by the time I got out of the shower. I dressed and headed to the kitchen to find a quick breakfast. Since it was down to only me, Burkart Investigations would be open only while I was there. I could be late without getting in trouble, but I could also possibly lose business if I didn’t open on time.
I’d just washed my breakfast dishes and left them in the rack to dry when it hit me that I should probably hire someone to answer the phone and take down appointments when I wasn’t there. It was either that, or whenever I was working a case that required me to actually leave the office, I’d have to lock up. Somehow, I didn’t think that would be the best way to run a business.
My phone rang as I reached for the door. “Hello?”
“Are you back in Colorado?”
I blinked at the familiar voice. “Jenna?”
“Don’t you look at your caller ID before you answer your phone?” I could hear the faint smile in her voice.
“Apparently not.”
There was a moment of silence before she continued, more business-like now, “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yes, I’m back in Colorado. I’m heading in to work right now, but once I get things settled, I’ll call you and tell you how things went with Jalen.”
“Just with Jalen?” she asked softly, and I could hear the compassion in her voice. “You don’t want to tell me about the trial?”
I chuckled. “You’re telling me that you weren’t following it all week online?”
“I was. Congratulations.”
I didn’t know many people who’d have that as their response to a friend helping put her father back in prison. “I’ll call you back in a little bit.”
“I wasn’t calling about Jalen.”
I scowled as I stepped outside, but it had more to do with the gust of cold wind that nearly ripped the doorknob out of my hand than it did with Jenna staying on the phone. “Something else then?”
“Come by the house. I have something to discuss with you.”
“I’ve been making a list of leads to follow on your case,” I said as I dug for my keys.
“That’s great, but I have a new case for you,” she said, her voice growing grim, a bit strained. “That group of assholes you got arrested a couple weeks ago. Well, it looks like someone’s taken over.”
I stopped. “Taken over?”
“Yeah. Want to
come by now?”
I didn’t even need to think about it. “I’m on my way.”
“Let me see if I understand this correctly,” I said as I put my now-empty cup down on the table. “Less than a month after the Feds made tons of arrests, nothing’s changed.”
Jenna shrugged. “That’s generally how these things go. Cut off one head, another one grows in its place.”
“I thought that was seven more, not one.”
She raised an eyebrow. “It’s not Hydra.”
I would’ve smiled at the comment, but I was too depressed over what she was telling me. “I can’t believe that it didn’t make any difference.”
She leaned forward, her gray eyes intense. “It made a huge difference. You kept six girls from the sort of torture and abuse that you don’t even want to think about.” Shadows flickered across her face. “The time it’s taken for someone else to get established here, you saved all of the kids they would’ve taken.”
I ran my hand over my hair. “Is this how it always goes? Close one group down, but they never actually go away?”
Jenna leaned back in her chair. Her gaze fell on her arm, and she ran her fingers over the scar there. “If you listen to the cops or the FBI, they’ll tell you that it’s about keeping focused on the big picture, staying true to the course, all that sort of shit. But I can’t look at it that way. I can’t look at the big picture, or I’ll go crazy.”
She looked up at me, but her fingers still kept tracing the scar she had once told me came from a suicide attempt when she was only eight-years-old. The haunted look on her face made my stomach twist.
“I have to look at each life saved. Each person who will never have to go through what I went through. Each person who is rescued from that hell and given a chance at a better life. I know there are all these organizations that talk about eradicating slavery, but I don’t know if that will ever be a possibility. I do know that I can save one person, two people, a group. And that’s enough to keep me sane and working.”
