by Zoe Forward
“Becca.” His fingers tangled tight in her hair, the pain erotic as it tingled through her scalp. One of his arms slid around her waist and then down. His palm cupped her butt as he ground her against the thick length of him.
Mini explosions flew through her. She whispered, “This feels pretty real.”
Keeping his mouth pressed to hers, he stripped her. Once free of all clothes, he released her to look. She could get lost in the complex emotion of his gaze forever.
Could they have forever? If they caught Symphis, maybe. Their chances of his or her capture weren’t high. That meant she’d be running again, this time for good.
Shedding useless thoughts, she pulled at Jake’s clothes until he relented and stripped. He leaned down and fastened his lips around one of her nipples, sucking the peak into his mouth.
She bucked against him. He released her, propped himself up and cupped her breasts. His pupils had widened, swallowing the blue of his eyes.
“You’re everything, Becca. Everything good.” His hands slid down her bare sides.
The touch went deep inside her, where a part of him would always be. No matter what. She brushed his hair away from his face. “So are you.”
His finger traced her. She gasped in a shocked breath as he began to rub over her clit. As he increased his pace, her hips arched into his touch. He dipped a finger inside her, exploring her depths while still rubbing her clit with his thumb.
“Does that feel good?” he asked.
Her head thrashed from side to side as her fingers dug deep into his shoulder blades. “Don’t stop.”
“Not until you come for me.”
“Oh God.”
His fingers moved away. Sound strangled in her throat, part denial and part begging.
“I love the way you respond,” he rasped. He caught her mouth to his as his fingers returned to her, adding the fullness of pressure. The muscles of her back contracted and arched. “But you left after fucking with my company, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t intend to come back.”
“Jake…please.”
He let go of her hands and moved away.
Was he punishing her by leaving her like this?
He excavated protection from his nightstand, which he quickly rolled on.
Moments later, she felt him between her legs as he pushed into her in that overpowering way, holding her tight. She lifted her head to meet his brief kiss but couldn’t focus on kissing, not with how he moved. His deep, slow strokes brought her up to the edge again, but then he changed. His strokes became harder, even deeper.
“Yes,” she exhaled. “No stopping.”
But he did. Her eyes flew open. He leaned down and kissed her, but differently this time, tender. His eyes clouded with emotion. The softness in his gaze prompted her to respond with her own tender kiss. She pulled back and ran her hand over his forehead and down the side of his face before curling her fingers in his hair. She arched, drawing him deep inside her.
He groaned.
She watched the changes in his expressions as he lost control and thrust hard. He kept the rhythm strong and deep until…he fingered her clit. Everything in her body tightened. Her mind flew apart. Moments later, he joined her, diving over that edge with her. He repeated her name over and over until he stopped shuddering and went quiet.
“Amazing,” she murmured, caressing his back and shoulders with a soft touch. “You’ve ruined me for other men.”
“Stay here tonight.” He rolled to his side, pulling her against him. He murmured drowsily, “I don’t want there to be other men.”
25
He’d fallen asleep instantly. No surprise given how exhausted he’d looked. Becca dozed but awoke with a jolt. How long had she been out? Bedside clock read…no. Three hours?
She should’ve left long ago.
In front of the wide windows that reflected the lights of a nonstop, still wet city, she found her backpack and 0versized coat, and dressed carefully. Her phone buzzed.
“Quan?”
“I’ve been trying to call you for hours, Becca. I said go to his place and get in a fight to draw him out as in outside, not…what I assume happened. Is this guy your kryptonite or something?”
“Or something. I can still try to draw him out, but he’s sleeping pretty heavy.”
“Lisi is downstairs in the lobby where she’s been since about twenty minutes after you and Jake went into his place.” Quan cleared his throat. “She got serious fast. The attendant is down, knocked out, maybe dead. I can’t tell. She took over all security cameras in the place, but I was able to sneak into the surveillance system to watch her. She might be a decent hacker, but not as good as me.”
“What about other people entering? Someone could get caught in the crossfire.” She didn’t want to do this, but Lisi was their best bet to find out more about Symphis. They’d followed her—actually, the phone—to New York. Quan told her this might be about tying up loose ends.
That said, she didn’t get it. Why put her through the bogus meet at Comic-Con if Lisi intended to kill her? Maybe “loose ends” to Symphis wasn’t her, but Noah and Jake.
“She put up a sign directing everyone to the side entrance. Something about construction. And pulled the shades. You’ve got to draw Jake downstairs, see why she’s so focused on him, and find out what she knows about Symphis. Don’t forget to turn on the recording app I put on your new phone.”
“You think she might…kill me? What about Jake?”
Quan’s sigh came through the phone loud and clear. Did it mean he was irritated or exasperated or impatient or something else? “Maybe this isn’t a good plan.”
“This is the closest anyone’s gotten. She might know who Symphis is. I’m doing it. Just be sure to show up in time. That means before one of us is dead.”
Becca swallowed over a lump in her throat as she hung up.
Time to wake up Jake.
She returned to the bedroom. Standing outside, she opened and shut the bedroom door loud enough to reverberate noise through the bedroom. Outside, she waited. And waited.
A peek inside showed he hadn’t budged. A small snore escaped him.
She went into the bathroom adjoining his bedroom, turned on the light and the fan, cursed as if it’d been an accident and shut them off. She froze outside the bathroom, waiting.
Jake rolled over.
Well, crap.
She needed something loud. A cup on his dresser held coins. All right. Bit dramatic, but she needed him up. She tossed them into the dresser, which sounded like a volley of gunfire, and fast walked toward the apartment door.
“What the hell?” She heard his footsteps in the bedroom. The light came on. “Becca?”
She’d almost made it to the front door by the time he came out, although she’d walked slower than if she’d been making a real escape. Hell, if this had been real, she could’ve played death metal on his stereo while screaming all the way to the front door and he’d still be asleep.
“Becca!” Jake shouted.
He reached her just before the elevator closed. The elevator reeked of a cheap deodorizer. The smell clung inside her nostrils, almost burning.
He held out his hand to trigger the doors to open again. “Where are you going? I thought we agreed you’d stay.”
“Oh, Jake. Me here puts you at risk.” She pushed the elevator down button again. God, he was something to look at. He’d managed to pull on his discarded jeans, and not an ounce of fat covered his bare, muscular torso. A shadow covered his jaw, and his eyes glowed in the artificial light. Her body hummed with renewed need for him.
“Stay. You don’t need to go. The way you’re looking at me says you want to stay. Why are you doing this?” He stepped inside and reached for her, those long fingers gently touching her shoulders to rotate her to face him. The door closed, and the elevator started down. “Don’t you want to stay with me?”
The raw pain in his eyes, the subtle insecurity, made her chest hurt.
<
br /> “I fucked it up, didn’t I?” He sighed and dropped his hands away from her. “I have a glitch or something that makes me unable to make relationships work. Probably for the best if you go, then. I’ll end up hurting you.”
She reached out to touch his arm. “There’s no bad glitch. This isn’t about you. It’s about shit timing. There’s nothing wrong with you. The fact you’re strong and could hurt someone doesn’t mean you will. I believe in my heart you’d never hurt me physically. Verbally, emotionally… Well, that’s different. In every relationship, someone gets their feelers bent from time to time. That’s to be expected. It’s the kind of crap people work through if the relationship is worth it.”
His head went back just enough to show shock. Tension rolled between them. Wild and deep…emotional with need. “Did you actually use the word feelers?”
She compressed her lips against a smile. “Dork alert, right?”
A smile turned at his lips upward.
Her eyes fixated on the digital floor numbers, anxiety growing as the numbers decreased.
The elevator dinged. Lobby.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, Jake. I’m sorry. I love you.” Her heart pounded as she stepped out of the elevator. She prayed whatever happened didn’t involve a bullet in her head or Jake’s.
“Oww.” Jake spun, coming face to face with Lisi, who must’ve been waiting beside the elevator doors. He rubbed his arm.
Lisi stepped away, tucked a syringe into her jacket pocket, and exchanged it for a gun with a suppressor.
Jake swayed and threw out a hand to catch his balance against the wall. His words came out slurred. “Whaaa wass tha?”
Lisi didn’t reply as she fired her gun. At Becca.
The force of the bullet hitting Becca’s stomach knocked her backward as if someone had whacked her with a baseball bat. Her head buzzed while her body tried to catalog the pressure in her stomach. She pressed her hand against her numb midsection, coming away with red on her hands.
“Becca…” Jake stumbled toward her but fell to his knees.
“Why? What are you doing?” Becca asked Lisi.
Her vacant, emotionless dark eyes settled on Becca. “Tomorrow’s headline news will be that a drunk Jake Allen shot his business partner’s sister in a lover’s spat. End of NJ Legacy.”
“Jake doesn’t drink.” It hurt to breathe. Pushing to a sit, vertigo spun her mind. Jake framed for murder would break him and Noah, and her entire family. She had to give the woman props that it was a decent plan to destroy them. “Are you? No. You can’t be Symphis. You’re a woman.”
Lisi froze above Becca. “Why the hell can’t anyone believe a woman could be behind the most masterful underground operation in the world? Because it’s video games and involves computer tech? Apparently, no female is good for anything in that realm other than for being a target. I would think you, of all people, would get this. God, I hate the misogynistic bullshit, and I’m surprised you don’t too.”
“You’re Symphis?”
Lisi jabbed her arm with a syringe. It burned. Her head became woozy right away. Why would she be drugging her, if she thought she’d just killed her?
“Of course, I am, you twit. Who else could erase you from the system? I don’t envy you dying with a stomach shot. Thought the drug might take the edge off. You probably have fifteen minutes. Too bad your lover boy over there is too out of his mind to help or even recognize you. He won’t remember shit, which is perfect for the courtroom. I’ll be in the back watching him get life for killing you.”
26
Jake came to as he was being transferred to a hospital bed. Pain filled his head. He dug deep and tried to expel the pain and the haze bogging down his brain.
“Becca?” he croaked as he was lifted. Sounds bombarded him—too many people breathing and moving around him.
“Hold on, Jake. You’re going to be okay,” said a young male voice. “You need to hold still because we have an IV line in your right arm. We’re giving you a medication to counteract what you were given.”
“Where? What?” He opened his eyes to see a white-tiled ceiling before the bright overhead light forced him to slam his eyelids closed.
He could barely move. He struggled. Had to get to Becca. He remembered the gun and her bleeding. Then nothing.
“You’re all right,” said a guy helping with his move. “Just hold on. We’ll get you some pain meds.”
“No.” Jake struggled to a sit in the hospital bed. “Where’s Becca?”
Something cold worked its way up his right arm, and he passed out.
He came out of darkness and sat straight up. His head pounded like someone had put it in a vice and was compressing his skull. He blew out a breath and tried to control the pain. Machinery beeped around him, and liquid dropped into an IV line next to him. He held up his hand, where a catheter had been placed.
“You’re up.” A thirty-something nurse pushed a button on the beeping machine next to him to turn off its noise. “You got drugged. Something pretty powerful that will leave you with a huge hangover, but the doctor says you’re going to be okay.”
“Where’s Becca?”
“There are some people waiting to see you. Perhaps one of them can fill you in. If you’re up to it, I’ll tell them to come in,” the nurse said as she exited.
“I need answers.”
Noah entered, along with Agent Reynolds.
“How you doing, man?” Noah asked.
Jake did a few slow blinks of his eyes to get Noah into focus. He winced when agony slammed through his temples. With his head between his massaging hands, he asked, “Becca?”
“She’s fine. Bruised and got drugged by the same thing you got, but okay,” Agent Reynolds said.
“I saw her get shot. Point blank into the stomach. She was bleeding…”
Noah put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Relax, she’s safe. She’s okay at least physically. After that stunt, though, I think she’s certifiably insane. She was wearing a Kevlar vest outfitted with blood packets—a set up to make it look real and get Lisi to talk.”
“Not real? Not shot?” He fell back against the bed, barely able to wrap his head around the revelation. Betrayal dark and anguished swallowed him.
“We got him. Well, her. Symphis is Lisi. She confessed. Becca got it recorded,” Reynolds said.
“You knew about all this, Noah? Her planning to fake death on the gamble she’d get shot in the chest?”
Noah shook his head. “Hell, no. I’d never have signed off on anything so stupid. What if Lisi shot her in the head? Or somewhere not protected? Quan helped her plan the whole thing, and everything out in California.”
“Quan? The guy Tori played with on that gaming team?”
“Yeah, him. NSA guy.” Noah rubbed the scruff on his jaw.
“Becca didn’t tell me. Should’ve…” He shivered and pulled the thin covers around him and over the sparse hospital gown.
Noah requested the nurse bring him another blanket. When it arrived, Noah draped it over him. Softly, he said, “I think she thought if she told you, you’d never have let her get off the elevator.”
He’d put his heart on the line, and she’d betrayed him by not trusting him with her life.
“Thank you for doing this,” Becca said as she followed Quan through a bland office building in Queens that housed a ton of cubicles. Despite the austere decor, the building buzzed with people wearing NSA badges on lanyards. Becca felt like she’d stepped onto a CSI set, even if the dingy, worn interior lacked color. “Have you seen her?”
“Not yet.” Quan paused their trek down a new hallway, one lacking in both cubicles and people. “I’m really sorry about the rush to get this done right now. I had to beg a friend to let you in because I knew this was important to you. They’re about to transfer her to Virginia.” He glanced to her abdomen. “You sure you’re okay enough to be out of the hospital?”
“They discharged me hours ago. I’m fine
.” Big lie. She’d checked herself out AMA. The world teetered every few steps like she’d stepped off a spinning merry-go-round, and her body felt like she’d been hit by a train.
Quan’s eyebrows rose. “Really? They kept Jake there, didn’t they? You both got injected by the same sedative. How come you’re better off than him?”
“Maybe my metabolism is better than his, or I got a different dose. I don’t know. I’m here. This is important.” She needed an explanation from Lisi. Her as Symphis didn’t feel right. Only by looking into her eyes when she asked could she gauge if the woman was lying. Her mind argued Lisi might be too accomplished as a liar for Becca to figure anything out. She wasn’t a trained interrogator.
“I might need you to help me read her,” she said to Quan.
“That’s why I’m here. I’m primarily parked at a desk, but from time to time they let me talk to detainees. Gotten to see more action recently since this case with illegal gaming has exploded.” Quan’s eyes glowed with excitement.
Becca’s mind spun. Maybe she should’ve stayed in the hospital. A sense of danger pressed in the closer they got to their endpoint.
“We’re almost there,” Can said. “You ready?”
Her breaths came shallow, and she tried to calm herself. “Sure.”
“You look like you’re about to hurl. Bathroom’s that way.” He pointed back down the hall.
She shook her head, although he wasn’t far from the truth. Her stomach rolled, but not from nausea. A sour taste filled her mouth, one she experienced every time right before she stepped into the Stadium.
“Maybe you should reconsider speaking with her. Why don’t you sit outside while I ask her some questions? You can watch through the glass. There’s no need for you to face her. We’ll find out what we can from her and confirm she’s been running the operation.” His lithe body blocked her view down the hallway.
“I’m good. I’m here, aren’t I?”
“I’m just worried about you.” His eyes crinkled as he smiled, but worry remained in the depths of his gaze. “All right, come on.” Quan led around another corner. He waved at a window of one-way glass, which showed Lisi with her hands cuffed to a table. An agent with an FBI badge nodded to Quan.
