Rusty Nail

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “I found out what he was doing to her and was only hours from getting her out myself. Y’all found her faster than I could,” he paused. “Been watching you ever since. Took leave from my job when they told me that the budget for this investigation had been depleted and wasn’t being replenished, to drop the investigation.”

  “So now what?” I asked. “You’re a vigilante?”

  “You could say that,” he said. “I’m on medical leave for a gunshot injury that’s being persnickety.” He grinned devilishly. “I have a feeling it’s about to heal up nicely within the next couple of weeks. I’ll be back on the job within the next month.”

  “Goddammit,” I growled. “This is so fucked up. I’m still not sure what the fuck I did to warrant him going out of his way to fuck with me.”

  “He goes to a lot of trouble to make sure the guys he has working for him won’t leave. Blackmail, finding exactly what it takes to keep them where he wants to be, and he’s got them for good until he no longer needs them,” he grinned. “And you single-handedly took down two out of three of them and with them went the entire Southern half of his merchandise acquisition operation.

  I crossed my arms.

  “That was his own fucking fault.”

  Raphael grinned, but that grin quickly disappeared moments later.

  “He was just playing with you,” he said. “He’s been too busy trying to get his operation back up and running. You were a toy for him to play with, but one he definitely planned on taking care of at some point. However, after what you did to him today, as well as what you did to the man we found in the river—luckily alive—it means he’ll be pulling you off the back burner.”

  He stood up and stared at me, giving me the full effect of his eyes.

  “And I’m here to make sure you have every fucking tool in my arsenal to make sure this fucker pays.” His eyes went to the dog at my feet. “Why isn’t Marky Mark with my sister?”

  I raised an eyebrow at him.

  “You.”

  “Me?”

  I nodded in confirmation. “You.”

  He sighed.

  “He’s fully trained,” Raphael said. “Trained him myself.”

  I nodded again. “I figured that. He’s fucking phenomenal.”

  Raphael grinned. “I know that.”

  “Wait,” Alison asked. “There are so many misunderstandings here. Raven told me you kept giving the dog looks as if you knew the dog’s potential.”

  “I did know his potential,” I said. “It’s not hard to understand what he does when I walk into the room and see him clock me the moment I step foot inside. He moves with her, too. She moves left, he moves left with her, positioning himself so that he’s between her and any potential harm.”

  Alison’s eyes widened.

  “That’s so cool,” she looked down at the dog. “He looks so normal.”

  Raphael snorted and whistled.

  The dog looked up at him but didn’t move from my feet.

  Although Raphael raised him and trained him, he wasn’t his dog anymore. He was Raven’s. Raven had his loyalty and his heart, and by extension through her, so did I. He had more of a connection to me than he did to Raphael anymore.

  I grinned and gave a raised eyebrow to the surprised look on Raphael’s face.

  “I like that,” he said, knowing instantly what was going on.

  “I do too,” I agreed.

  “So, where is she?” Griffin asked. “My wife is asking for cheesecake. Fucking pregnancy hormones are practically ripping my money from my wallet as fast as it gets there.”

  “You need to give her time to straighten her head out. She’ll come back when she cools down,” Raphael offered his two cents. “I know exactly where she is. She’s safe.”

  “Uhh, I hate to say this, but I don’t agree with him,” Alison said. “I agreed that she needed to leave, but I didn’t agree that you shouldn’t follow. She deserves to be chased. She needs someone to go after her, no matter how many times she leaves. She’s never had someone do that for her before.”

  Pain flashed across Raphael’s face—there and gone within a few milliseconds.

  I decided to ignore him.

  I had things to do, and he wasn’t one of them.

  Heading to my desk, I pocketed my phone, keys, and wallet.

  “Griffin, will you get one of the boys to watch over my kid while I’m gone? And someone watch Mark?” I asked. “I should be back by midafternoon tomorrow.”

  Griffin nodded, saluting me half-assed before picking up his phone and making a call, I assumed to the cops that were in the district where Nathan was with his grandmother.

  I started across the room but stopped.

  Before I left to find my wayward woman, I needed to address something first, which was why I stopped in front of Peek.

  “We’re going to have a talk about this,” I hissed.

  Peek nodded in understanding.

  “It was me…” Peek held his hand up and stopped Alison’s apology.

  “You came between one of our members and his woman, Alison. I know you meant well, but this isn’t the time to defend yourself,” Peek said, his Irish brogue thick and brooking no room for argument.

  Alison’s lips tightened. “Fine.”

  With that, I left, heading straight to my bike, stopping only for a few minutes to give Core a call to make sure I knew where she was headed.

  I was right. The woman was too sentimental.

  Chapter 17

  Tis the season for warmer weather. Please be sure to dress for the body you have, not for the body you want.

  - Public service announcement to men and women everywhere.

  Raven

  I felt the covers slide down to my ass, and my eyes flew open.

  Before I could move a muscle, though, I was pinned down with a hard body on top of me.

  Before I could struggle, my hands were pinned up above my head, and my mouth was covered with a large hand.

  The way the room was situated in the parking lot, added on to the fact that I closed the blackout curtains before I’d gone to bed, meant I couldn’t see a damn thing.

  I could smell, though.

  I could feel.

  And I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that the man on my back was Wolf.

  He didn’t say a word as I felt him move against me.

  His hard cock was pressed against the seam of my legs, hard and insistent.

  I started to thrash so I could get away from him, but he only tightened everything.

  His thighs that were holding mine captive. His hand that was keeping the words from spewing from my mouth. His other hand that was holding mine in an unyielding grip above my head.

  I couldn’t move a damn thing except for the lower half of my legs, and they were doing no good because the only thing that could reach him was the tips of my toes, and that was only hurting me and not him when I connected with his flesh.

  “Go ahead and struggle,” he growled against the back of my neck. “I’m so fucking tired of your bullshit.”

  I struggled harder, hating the anger that was in his voice, all of it directed at me.

  That wasn’t the way it was supposed to go! I was supposed to be mad at him!

  He was the asshole that chose to play dumb instead of just telling me the truth.

  “Get off!” I screamed into his hands, bucking my hips.

  He chuckled against my neck, then his tongue darted out and licked the line at the base of my neck that he could reach without actually moving his body.

  I started to shiver.

  In anger and arousal.

  The two emotions were powerful by themselves, but together…well, let me just tell you…it was fucking explosive!

  The moment Wolf parted my legs with his knees, so fucking rough and intent on what he was doing, my body went electric.

  He pressed the head of his hot and hard cock
up against my opening, and I melted.

  I should’ve fought.

  Should’ve screamed and hoped the neighbors heard me.

  But I didn’t.

  I pushed my hips up, and he grunted with approval.

  His hand came off my mouth, and latched onto my hip.

  His other hand still held both of mine in place, though, giving me that sense of being taken.

  And he did take me.

  Hard. Rough. Fast.

  “Fuck!” I yelled, my pussy throbbing around his thick cock.

  He didn’t slow in his ministrations. He took me so roughly that it was nearly brutal, and I couldn’t stop the cries coming from me.

  He read the situation, though, and his hand left my hip to circle around the front.

  His skillful fingers went to my clit, so sensitive and distended, causing me to close my eyes in relief.

  He didn’t slow his thrusts. Didn’t try to hide his strength from me.

  His balls slapped against my clit with every push of his hips.

  Our skin was slapping together, the sound filling the hotel room, only adding to the erotic show that was already happening between my legs.

  He grunted and suddenly let go of my hands, sitting up straight so he could get the angle he wanted.

  “Lift your leg up,” he pushed the back of one thigh, and I lifted it, hoping that was what he wanted.

  “Plant your foot on the bed up by your hand,” he instructed me, moving my foot for me.

  The move had him going even deeper, and a low groan escaped my lips.

  “Oh, fuck,” I gasped. “Oh, my God.”

  He chuckled and shoved forward, stretching not just the limits of my flexibility, but the limits of my pussy.

  He filled me so deeply that I could feel the coarseness of his pubic hairs rubbing deliciously against my backside.

  “God.”

  My vocabulary was severely lacking, but I couldn’t find the ability to speak clearly with the way he was filling me up.

  The way his hard chest was pressed against my back.

  The way his large hands held me so tightly, almost as if he never wanted to let me go.

  Then he started to come.

  The feel of his hot come filling me up so fully had elation coursing through my body.

  The orgasm that was building waned, but I didn’t worry that he’d leave me hanging.

  The moment every last drop was out of his cock and pooling inside of me, he pulled out and rolled me to my back, his still hard cock coming down to grind into my pussy.

  “Yes,” he breathed. “That’s it.”

  With it being so dark, the only thing I could do was close my eyes and visualize what he looked like above me.

  His hair was likely falling into his eyes, and his beard was likely unkempt at this early an hour.

  His muscles were probably straining the confines of his skin as he held himself aloft over the length of my body.

  And his dick was probably red and angry just like his attitude.

  “Fucking come,” he ordered, his mouth slamming down on mine.

  I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pushing my nipples into the coarse hair dusted in a light spattering over his chest.

  I refused to come, though.

  Not yet.

  Not without him going with me.

  “I’ll make you come,” he said, sliding his hard cock back inside of me.

  I closed my eyes as my body arched off the bed.

  He laughed against my mouth.

  My pussy clenched.

  And the next twenty minutes were a lesson in humility—for me and not him.

  His strength was mind-boggling. He didn’t come unless he wanted to. He also refused to let me come unless he wanted me to.

  Even when I’d given up and tried to.

  The moment he sensed me close, he’d pull out, or stop, or change his rhythm.

  By the time he was ready to come again, I was a big puddle of goo.

  Begging and crying for release.

  Begging for him to give me what I needed.

  “Please,” I cried, real tears starting to course down my cheeks.

  “Fuck me,” he growled, pumping into me hard and fast.

  He gave me what I’d been searching for, pinching my clit with his finger and his thumb, finally allowing me to implode.

  Wolf followed directly behind me, grunting as his abs flexed.

  I gasped and pulled away from him, my anger returning in full force.

  Wolf’s come hit my thigh, and he growled and pulled me back roughly before slamming back inside of me, holding me still after he finished inside of me entirely.

  “Pig,” I mumbled into the pillows.

  “Shithead,” he mumbled, pulling back.

  His cock left me in a wet rush, and I rolled and sat up in bed, uncaring that I was leaking everywhere.

  “What are you doing here?” I yelled at him, staring in the direction I thought he was sitting.

  The light turned on behind me, and I felt heat rush to my head as I realized he was nowhere near where I thought he was.

  His eyes held amusement as I adjusted to the new light.

  “What are you doing here?” I repeated myself, anger making my voice wobble.

  The anger fell flat on Wolf, his eyes too focused on my breasts. Obviously, my voice wasn’t the only thing wobbling.

  I hastily grabbed the pillow that I’d recently been screaming into and slapped it across the front of my naked body.

  “And why am I naked?” I all but yelled.

  Wolf’s amused eyes came up to mine.

  “You looked hot?” he tried.

  I bared my teeth at him and made my way to my knees, the wetness between my legs making me uncomfortable.

  Growling under my breath, I used the pillow to try to shield my body, but being the curvy woman I was, it didn’t hide much—if anything—at all.

  I used it anyway, though, and walked straight to the bathroom and slammed the door.

  Wolf caught it before I could lock it, though, and I chose to give him that boon, instead focusing on turning the shower on scalding hot and stepping inside.

  The shriek that passed through my lips didn’t do anything to control my anger, either.

  I hated showing weakness when I was mad.

  Which in turn caused me to start crying.

  Sobs tore out of my throat, partially because of the anger I felt, but also because of the relief that was pouring through my body.

  He’d come for me.

  I’d, literally, only been in the hotel for three hours, meaning he came to look for me way before I hoped he would.

  “You’re crying,” he said smartly.

  A laugh burst free of my lungs.

  “Yeah,” I sniffled, leaning my head back until I could douse my hair. “I’m crying.”

  “The file. It’s not mine. Griffin had it done. And I have a lot of things to tell you. But whatever’s going on in your head, whatever you misconstrued to be true, isn’t. You should’ve talked to me before you left again.”

  I pursed my lips and turned.

  “You’re telling me you didn’t buy Marky Mark for me?” I asked. “I priced those dogs! Those run upwards to tens of thousands of dollars. If you bought him for me, I’m paying you back!”

  “If you’re paying me back, why’d you leave him?” he asked.

  “I left him because I wasn’t thinking straight,” I admitted.

  It was true. I’d regretted leaving him almost from the moment I left. I contemplated turning around multiple times during my trip, and had nearly done it about half of those times.

  The only thing that truly stopped me from making that U turn, though, was losing the will to leave again.

  I was so upset, so freakin’ hurt that I needed time to think. I couldn’t think surrounded by Wolf. The man was overwhelming.

&nbs
p; Like earlier. Had I been in the right frame of mind when he woke me up, I would’ve resisted him.

  I would’ve told him no.

  I wouldn’t have melted for his body.

  Then I laughed humorlessly.

  I would never stand a chance against the power of Wolf.

  And not his strength.

  The sheer force of will that surrounded the man was outstanding. He was like the sun, pulling everything into his gravitational field without even trying.

  “You’re lying,” I said tiredly as I reached for the bottle of complimentary shampoo the hotel so conveniently left in the shower.

  “I don’t lie,” Wolf stated matter of factly. “I tell it how it is. I don’t sugar coat things, even for you. Like telling you that you were stupid to leave. You had no money. You had no protection. You had no clue how far this man that’s fucking with our lives is willing to go, and that’s even after you saw that some man tried to beat the shit out of me with my son in my arms not even two nights ago.”

  So, he was angry.

  Really, really angry.

  That I could tell right off the bat.

  He hid it so well, though, that sometimes it was hard to tell until Wolf’s anger was staring you straight in the face.

  And let me tell you something, an angry Wolf was a scary Wolf.

  His eyes seemed to glow as they stared at me.

  He clearly wasn’t happy with me.

  Well that made two of us, because I was none too pleased with him as well.

  “You and me are from the same town,” I said. “There’s no way in hell that you don’t know about me, something that didn’t occur to me until I was leaving this afternoon. I was the town slut. There’s no way in hell you didn’t hear about me.”