I shook my head. “About four months or so. I moved here not too long ago at all.”
“Then maybe she was already using this alley for whatever these phones are used for,” Lynn suggested. “You just moved here, and that’s why she doesn’t like you. She’s had to alter how she gets her phones. Or at least come up with reasons that she has to be in your alley.”
Now that he said that…
“That first day I met her, she tossed my ‘moving in’ present in the dumpster. Right where the phone was pulled out,” I admitted. “After picking a fight with me.”
“And she cut Trick up for startling her not too long ago, too,” Sin pointed out.
“And Tater startled her,” Trick said. “The question is, the phone that she got today? Was it the same one from the one she was getting the other day when she cut me open with that beer bottle? Or is it a new one?”
“And does she place a call on the phone?” Hunt asked. “Or does she listen to something that’s already on there? Does anyone have this kind of charging cable? This phone’s dead and I can’t look into it.”
“What if it has a lock?” Lynn asked.
Hunt made a derisive sound. “You hired me for a reason. I can get into anything, and I do mean anything, that I want to.”
“Like the Department of Defense?” I teased.
Hunt’s eyes came to me where I was now digging through my desk drawers. I had a box full of random cords that I saved just for these occasions.
“The Department of Defense, the US Treasury. Homeland Security. You name it, I’ve been in it.” Hunt grinned as I handed him the shortest cable on earth.
He made use of it, though, plugging it into first his laptop, then the phone.
The phone came on almost immediately, and he started typing away at his computer.
I looked over at Trick who was leaning, shirtless, against my office wall.
Then looked down at my own way-underdressed state.
Then smiled.
It was more than obvious what we were doing.
None of the men in the room missed it.
Nor did they comment on it.
Instead, they were all business.
“While you’re waiting for that to boot up,” Zach murmured softly. “What did you find out on Ignacia? I know that you’ve been looking into her.”
“She’s unemployed, thirty-five, single, no kids. She’s got a 455 credit score, doesn’t own her own home, rents cars, was on a date with Renault Kenney two nights ago. Was arrested seven times. Has a sealed juvenile record for assault with a deadly weapon. And she has a disgusting habit of getting animals from the shelter and returning them when they’re not to her liking,” Hunt rattled off.
There was a long moment of silence as everyone digested that. Then it was my turn to say, “She has a job with the city, I thought.”
“Nope,” Hunt disagreed. “She lost that job six months ago.”
“Then her ‘welcome committee’ bullshit was just that. Bullshit,” I supplied.
“Probably,” Sin agreed.
“I think that we need to go make a house call,” Lynn said just as a ping from the phone sounded with a notification.
“Ahh,” Hunt said as he slowly started to tap away at the screen.
He then moved to his laptop, did a few more things, then he was unlocking the phone with hilarious ease.
“That was so easy it’s scary,” I told him.
He shrugged. “Phones are easy to get into. Especially ones that are like this,” he informed me as he narrowed his eyes.
Then there was something playing on the phone, and everyone went silent.
“Pick up. Friday night. Three a.m.,” a familiar voice said.
“Gah,” I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. “That voice is so familiar. It’s like tickling at the edge of my memory.”
“What time is it?” Zach asked, reaching for his phone that was in his pocket.
I looked at the clock on the wall and said, “Quarter ‘til one” at the same time that Lynn looked at his expensive, fancy looking watch saying, “Fifteen until one.”
“That means that we have some time to find out where the spot is and meet them there.”
Then, just like that, they all disappeared.
All of them but Trick.
He waited until my office was empty before saying, “I’m gonna get dressed and go. Before I do, do you have a spare key?”
I blinked at him in surprise, then slowly nodded my head. “Go get it for me. I’m gonna go home and change, then go help.”
I did, but before I could get all the way out of the room, he hooked his arm around my belly and pulled me back into the front of his body.
“I’ll need that shirt back,” he rumbled.
It was then I realized the reason he was shirtless was due to the fact that I’d stolen his shirt.
I looked at him over my shoulder and grinned. “You can have it back when you can give me another one that smells like you.”
With that, I went to find him a key.
And hoped that he would come back tonight and sleep in my bed, waking me up just like he’d done this morning.
I guess I could get some work done today after all.
CHAPTER 19
I don’t care how old I am. If I walk by a toy at the store that says ‘try me,’ I’m pushing that button.
-Swayze to Trick
TRICK
Hours later, after narrowing the location of the pickup down to two possible spots, we all went home to gear up, change into something that was less noticeable in the dark, and to grab food before we returned to the locations.
I didn’t bother going to the bar.
I’d shut it down for the night, citing a beer shortage. Which was true since I’d missed this morning’s delivery since I’d been balls deep in Swayze at the time.
After letting myself in through her back door, I stepped over the pieces of a chair that she’d mentioned she couldn’t get together—something that I’d planned on doing that day but hadn’t gotten around to helping her with—and headed in the direction of her office.
When I didn’t find her there, I turned on my heels and headed upstairs.
Just as I breached the door to her bedroom, I heard the phone ring.
She was on her belly in the bed, her hair up in a crazy ass ponytail that was barely holding her hair out of her face, and she had a paperback book in one hand, and a glass of beer in the other.
I leaned against the doorjamb as I watched her press the speaker button on her phone and say, “This is Swayze Marrin.”
There was an unusually long pause before someone finally came on the line.
“Collect call from Foster County Jail,” a monotone voice said. “Do you accept charges?”
“Yes,” the woman at my side said, sitting up and reaching for a notepad that was on the bedside table, and a pen that was even farther than that next to it on the floor.
We’d been a bit exuberant earlier, and her place was a mess.
Hell, even the lampshade was off the lamp.
“This is Robert Kaft with the Folsom County Sheriff’s Department,” a deep, raspy voice said, making me frown. “I have a suspect here requesting legal counsel.”
Swayze took a deep, long sip of her beer before saying, “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Then she was hanging up, tossing her phone down onto the bed, and taking another sip of beer. Then she continued to read as if she didn’t have someone waiting at the jail for her.
I thought it was the sexiest thing that I’d ever seen.
“You gonna go there after you finish that beer?” I asked curiously.
She jolted, spilling beer on the t-shirt of mine that she was still wearing.
The move also caused the shirt that was covering her backside to ride up, revealing her ass and nothing else. She had forgotten her panties.
My eyes automatically zeroed in on her butt.
God, what a nice ass she had.
<
br /> She reached forward and placed her beer mug on the nightstand and then turned over onto her back and glared at me as she held the t-shirt away from her chest.
“I was going to finish my chapter.” She paused. “I’m at the end of the book, though. What I’d really like to do is finish the entire thing. But that would be mean on my end, so I thought the chapter would be a better decision.”
I grinned. “What about if we do something else for those couple of minutes you would be reading.”
“I don’t have that much time,” she teased.
“Not even five minutes?” I asked, prowling toward her.
She grinned and widened her thighs, showing me that she was very much naked underneath that t-shirt of mine.
I dropped my cell phone onto the bed beside her foot, then slowly moved my hands to the button of my jeans. Eyes on her, I unzipped, unbuttoned, and untucked.
Her eyes widened at the way my cock was already hard for her.
“Do you just stay like that?” she asked curiously. “Isn’t that an affliction?”
I grinned and leaned down, grabbing her good foot and yanking her toward me.
She came with a squeal of delight, and bonus points, her shirt rucked up underneath her armpits as I did it, causing her breasts to spill out for my viewing pleasure.
I growled and put a knee on the bed, then fisted my cock before dragging it through her folds.
It didn’t take much to coat my cock in her wetness. She was already ready for me, and likely had been for some time.
“You thinking about me?” I asked, notching the head of my cock at her entrance.
Her breath hitched.
“I’m reading a good book,” she groaned. “There’s another woman, a good friend, that the heroine finds out that the hero slept with while they were separated for years. The other woman never lets the heroine forget it, either. So the hero finds out because he hears them fighting about it. He’s ready to kick her ass to the curb and never allow her in his life in any capacity. But the heroine convinces the man to do everything to her that he’s ever wanted to do to her, and make the other woman hear every sordid detail of their coupling. So he does, and they do naughty, naughty things together.”
“So not about me at all,” I teased as I dropped down and pushed into her a little more.
Her breath hitched.
“Yeah,” she breathed. “Kind of. I was thinking about you and our separation. How sad I would’ve been if you’d moved on while I was on the inside and you were in my position.”
I studied her eyes as I pushed in all the way to the hilt.
“I would’ve never allowed you to make that decision that I made for you,” I said softly. “I’d have taken the blame in a heartbeat. You’d have never, not ever, seen the likes of a jail cell as long as I had breath in my body.”
Her eyes filled with sorrow. “I wish I could’ve done that for you.”
I’m glad that she couldn’t.
I was also glad that our roles hadn’t been reversed.
That the things that had happened had led me to where I was today.
Twelve years was worth it as long as it meant that my girl was happy and healthy and alive.
“I’m an awful person, baby,” I said, letting her see the sincerity in my eyes. “For twelve years, I’ve blamed you. But, honey, you did nothing wrong. You were the one unconscious on the floor. I was the one that lost control. I should’ve never, not ever, been in that position in the first place. I should’ve gotten him off of you and called the cops. I didn’t. I chose to beat him like that, and he deserved every single fuckin’ hit to the face. I should be apologizing to you for the way that I acted all these years. And the way that I told you to stay away when I first found out that you were close to me. Needless to say, I didn’t handle things anywhere near as well as I should have.”
She reached her hand up and fisted my hair, bringing her mouth closer to mine. “We’re here together now, though. And I want you more now than I ever did back then. Separation makes the heart grow fonder… and the need.”
I grinned and slowly started to move, my hips pulling back and snapping forward, causing her breasts to jolt against my chest.
“Sometimes when I look at you,” I said softly, “I think that I’m the luckiest man in the world that you even gave me the time of day.”
Her pussy rippled around me, causing my balls to start to draw up.
She was close.
Which meant I was close.
That was all it took for me.
I ran my lips down the length of her neck.
“What kind of naughty things did your book character do to your heroine?” I wondered. “What counts as naughty?”
She shivered. “Anal sex. Umm, cunnilingus. For hours. Uhhh…” I pushed in hard, causing her breath to hitch. “A few other things I can’t think of right now.”
I skimmed my nose upward to her ear, and my hand backward so that it cupped her ass, but also so that my fingers were perilously close to her back entrance.
“Is that something that you’re interested in?” I asked curiously. “Anal sex?”
She shivered. “I don’t know. I’ve never had it before.”
“That sounds like you’ve done a little exploration in it, though,” I found myself saying, my body lighting up like Christmas at the thought of her doing anything to herself like that.
“I’ve, uhhh…” She paused when my finger snuck even closer. “I’ve used a finger. There. I, it was a little awkward. My reach is kind of not there. And I was too scared to use anything else. But I, I liked it.”
The thought of her liking a finger there had my balls drawing up all the way, and my release exploding from my body in hard jets.
She cried out right along with me, her body tightening into one giant fist and screaming right along with it.
When we both came down from our high, we were spent, and it was now well past five minutes.
“You need to go,” I said, reluctantly standing up with her and walking her to the bathroom.
She groaned when I put her almost directly on the toilet.
“You’re bad,” she grumbled, gesturing to her walking boot that was by the bed. “Will you bring me that?”
When I got back, she was cleaned up and standing, and I bent down and got her foot into her boot for her.
She steadied herself on my shoulders and absently circled a mole on my skin with one finger as she waited.
When I stood up, she stared up into my eyes.
“How’d today go?”
I dropped a kiss onto her mouth and then sighed.
“We’re going back when it’s time,” I said as I let her go to dress. “We’ve narrowed it down to two locations for now. There’s a certain spot in the highway where a few of the women have broken down and had been seen walking. We’re hoping that that’s the spot, but we also have an alternate location at a gas station just down the road that we also think might be it. For now, we’ve left Sin and Bruno at those locations to scout. I had to come home to change out of these clothes. Apparently, you shouldn’t use light colored clothing to do illegal shit.”
She rolled her eyes as I reached for a gun that was in the back of my pants.
“I think that’s the least of your worries.” She eyed the gun. “Kind of like convicted felons shouldn’t be carrying weapons. Kind of illegal. But hey, you have great legal counsel. It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.”
I chuckled as I changed out of my clothes at the same time she was getting into hers.
When she was dressed, she pocketed her keys and her phone.
“You came over here with your clothes,” she mused. “I like that.”
“I like it, too,” I told her as I threw the barely used tee on the bed for her. “How long do you think this will take?”
She shrugged. “I have no earthly idea. I didn’t even ask for the name of the person. Possibly I’ll do that next time and weigh the pros a
nd cons of getting out of bed now that I have you.”
Laughing, I pulled a dark long-sleeved t-shirt into place.
“Did you find Ignacia?” she asked as she headed toward the door.
“Not yet,” I answered as I called her name. “Swayze?”
She turned with her hand on the knob. “Yeah?”
“Come give me a kiss before you leave.”
CHAPTER 20
Due to personal reasons, I’ll be drinking again this weekend.
-Text from Swayze to Trick
SWAYZE
I was high on all things happy as I made my way into the police station.
Nothing could ruin my high.
At least, I thought nothing could.
But then I got into the sheriff’s office and looked around.
Nobody was out in the main bull pen, or at the receptionist desk, and I groaned.
Wandering around in a police station wasn’t the best idea, but with nobody out here to tell me what to do, I was going to take my chances.
I went to the hallway where I knew that the interrogation rooms were as well as the jail cells and came to a halt when I saw four officers looking in through the one-way glass at the end.
“Think he’ll confess under oath this time?” I heard one of the officers ask.
“No,” another one of the officers disagreed. “If he’s smart, he’ll sit there and keep his trap shut like I told him to. The guy didn’t do it, even though he says he did it. The little bulldog lawyer will get him out of here faster than we can say her name.”
“She’s hot as fuck…” one of them replied just as I took my first step down the length of the hallway.
The loud click-bang of my walking boot hitting the tiled floor had them all turning at the sound.
“Hello.” I smiled.
The officer in the middle, the redhead with the beard, looked familiar, but I couldn’t place why.
The other three, an older Latino man, a very sexy black man that reminded me of that guy off of CSI, and a young cop that looked like he was so fresh out of the academy that he still had the price tags on his uniform.
My eyes went over all three of them, lingering the longest on the young guy who looked like he’d been caught red-handed.
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