by Amber Bardan
Avner.
I rolled my head. “Fine. Tell them I’m finishing up and coming out.”
Damned persistent bastards.
I packed up and shut down, taking my sweet time about it, then left the building.
* * *
Avner was not happy. I knew he was not happy the moment his sharp gaze pinned me by the gates. I knew he was not happy when I followed him silently to the car. I knew he wasn’t happy when we traveled in silence, and when he let us inside. When he turned his head and watched Rohan disappear to the guest room since he’d obviously decided I was staying here tonight.
When he tugged off his tie, and gave me one final weary look before going to his own room. I loitered in the doorway, my heart a relentless throb.
“You’re mad at me.” He stood in the doorway to his wardrobe, barefoot but still fully dressed. “Is it because I left while you were trying to tell me something?”
“No, I’m not mad with you.” I fingered the chain at my neck. Just generally freaking devastated at life and unable to explain it.
His gaze flicked to his coin. The special gift he’d given me. The gift that’s sentiment made my news so much harder to stomach.
He strode closer, and shut the bedroom door behind me.
Then my back was pressed up against it.
“I waited and you did not come.” His body ground against me, hard and unforgiving, making me see white. Making everything between my legs fire up.
“I waited, and waited.” His head lowered right by my ear. His breath blew hot. His words lit up my skin. “And thought about everything I’d do to you, for keeping me caught like this on your hook.”
Hooked.
He was hooked on me. Good. Because he’d snared me through my middle. I was never getting free of him. My head lulled, neck exposed—and I felt his gaze shift there, to my exposed throat, to my fluttering pulse.
“I won’t be ignored again.” His voice went low, soft, but his body pressed into every hungry part of me. My eyes shut, and his lips descended my neck. Heat exploded through me. I grabbed him. He sucked my skin deep into his mouth.
My skin tugged. I hadn’t received a hickey since I was a teenager. Shivers rippled into my core. His suction was biting and hot. So damned hot. I panted, holding on to his shoulders with all I had.
His hands clasped my sides—a little too hard. Like his mouth on my neck, a little too rough, sending my mind skating to when he’d been a little desperate and mean with me before. When he’d taken all I had, including my ass.
My pussy flooded with deep consuming need.
He tugged at my waistband. The button snapped open and my fly slid down. His hand slid into my pants.
I moaned. He pushed his finger inside me, penetrating so deep I rose onto my toes. My insides tightened in pleasure. He held me there like that. His bent knuckles wet and pressed to my folds.
His mouth released me, and every breath against the tender patch of skin I knew he’d bruised flared with lightning-bright sensitivity. “I want to hear it again.”
I didn’t need to think, the words were ready on my lips. “I love you, Avner.”
“My good, dirty girl.” He shoved another finger in with the other, and held his face to my cheek. “I love you too.”
I gave a low-pitched cry, at his words not his actions, then I couldn’t think all. He pried my slightly too-tight work slacks down my thighs, and spun me around. My hands hit the door as I caught myself. He pulled back my hip, his cock making one slick swipe over my cunt before he claimed me.
The soft cotton of the pants he still wore brushed my ass. He thrust ruthlessly. My insides contracted, my arousal silky between us. He took my throat in his big hand and hauled me backward. I leaned against him. My thighs trapped. I was stuck. Couldn’t move, or wrench away, only soften for him to have me.
He reached in front of me, touching my swollen clit. “I love your wet cunt.” His fingers were firm but cautious on my throat, as he arched me to his whispering mouth. “I love your clever mind.” My abdomen coiled in sweet, desperate anticipation. All my attention homed in on my pussy full of his cock, and my clit drowning in the pleasure of his touch. Yet his words rung in my head, loud and blissful, and that was what I’d hold on to forever.
“I love your loyal heart.”
His cock moved, slow, tormenting.
I tried to grasp him, to hold on, but he was like liquid behind me. His hips pulling away as I reached for them.
He spun us around and pressed me face forward onto the bed. My pants departed my body, then his heat returned, suffocating and satisfying at once.
He fucked me then as though he loved and hated me. With deep punishing thrusts that I couldn’t see coming. He took my body as though he could put his mark in my blood, and in my bones, and in my flesh. I clawed at the covers and screamed a violent release that sent lights popping in my vision. He stiffened, his cock filling me to bursting, and spurted warmth that seeped in my core.
I was marked there, as my skin had been, in my flesh.
And in my blood.
And in my bones.
Avner
Once again I was pulled away while she slept. Everything in me rebelled at the idea. No matter what she said, she’d been avoiding me.
The unbelievable intimacy we’d shared had been fractured by something she refused to tell me.
I watched her in the dark, fingers clenched around my father’s coin.
This was my fault. Guilt struck a blow to my middle. I’d been so caught up in plans, I’d missed there was more happening here than I’d suspected.
But tonight there was something that must be done that couldn’t be delayed.
Soon, she’d have my full attention, and there’d be no holding anything back from me.
I slipped from the room, and made my way outside to the van idling in front of the house. Marcus slid open the back door, then settled into sitting against the wall with a wince.
“Sure you’re up to this?”
Marcus reached into the bag beside him. The click of his handgun cartridge slotting into place rang through the back of the van. “It’d take more than a nick to keep me from this moment.”
Fuck. I blew out a long breath. Adrenaline raced. We’d planned this over four days. Studied the blueprints of the building. Tracked everyone who went in and out.
We were ready, yet my stomach wanted to empty on the van floor.
We’d taken bigger operations in this. Just never in Australia.
And never with the stakes so high.
He tossed me a knife. I caught it, and slid it from the sheath, and tested the edge of my blade on my thumb.
My blood thrummed, louder and louder.
The van reached our destination. Marcus nodded to me. We filed out. I stared at the building we’d parked behind. My vision hazed red. Emilio picked the lock on the rear entrance. I slid the knife from the holster and gripped it in my fist.
Working with Emilio had its perks and pitfalls. I never did get to use my knife. The blade had never been so hungry.
He cleared the path silently, and weaponless.
Marcus took care of the patrons. They’d get to walk out of here tonight, but they’d never make the mistake of returning to a place like this.
I strode into each room and scanned the faces inside. This wasn’t how we liked to do this. Money solved most problems. This place was proof money will buy anything, and raises fewer questions than a trail of bodies.
That is what we usually did—bought the things we wanted.
But every now and then there was someone, somewhere, who wouldn’t sell.
Then we’d be forced to take.
I plowed through a locked door, and faced the room of women. They sat hands folded in lap
s, heads all bowed, on antique furnishings. The chemical linger of fresh paint pierced my breaths.
I tucked my knife back into the holster, and scanned the faces. There wasn’t a person in this room who was here by choice, and that one ugly little fact formed the most part of this clientele’s fascination.
A real, expensive, cruel taboo—slavery.
Brown hair fell across a tiny, pale face.
My heart stopped. How many times had I stood this close to someone and thought they might be the one?
I crept forward, cautiously, not daring to breathe, then crouched down. “Rebecca?”
Her body remained still, but hair quivered over her face. I reached out and pushed back that hair, and all my muscles seized. My knees hit the ground.
Emilio walked up beside me, then crouched. He said nothing.
He didn’t need to.
His torch flashed across her eyes.
My mind remembered other vacant eyes that stared that way. “Is she...”
“I think she’s only drugged,” Emilio said.
Relief coursed thick and hot. All I could think of was my mother staring and staring and staring.
“Let’s get her to the center.” The staff were all prepped for arrivals. Every girl here would have a place, but I’d be delivering this one myself.
“Becky?” I whispered again. “I’m here, it’s Avner.”
Her eyes moved a fraction, just the smallest bit, and it was the last I could take. I hauled her against me, just for that briefest moment. Then, I had to let her go, because if I held on another second I’d have cried like a boy. I put my sweater on her, and carried her from the room out to the van.
I felt every jolt of the road like the prick of a pin, even though they didn’t seem to disturb her.
We arrived at the center.
The door opened. Nurses reached for my sister. I gripped her tighter.
A hand clamped on my shoulder. “Why don’t you stay with her just for tonight?”
I shook my head, and released Rebecca into waiting hands. The van door closed again. I shut my eyes for a moment, understanding what Marcus must have felt the other day when he’d been stabbed.
“Avner, how can you expect to focus. Surly, the rest can wait another day?”
I pulled myself together, and leaned against the van wall. “How many of Narek’s men did we kill tonight?”
Marcus went silent for a moment. “Five, I believe.”
“So he’s going to be looking for answers, and I want to be fucking sure we get all ours first.” The plan had been to offer Narek technologies, and work our way up to buying the girls our intel confirmed he was selling. Truth was, as much as Narek had been on our radar, this discovery had only been made because of how closely we’d been watching Narek’s thug, Arman. The lucky coincidence that he’d been the one to turn up and deliver the paperwork approvals we’d purchased off Narek meant we now had a tracker in his jacket and on his vehicle.
He’d led us right to them. Because of Emma.
And it was because of her that I couldn’t waste another second.
Chapter Thirty
Emma
Rohan turned in to the street of the Waldolf Enterprises building. Lights flashed in the distance. I squinted. Was that a fire truck?
He slowed down. My pulse skipped. Police diverted traffic.
I turned off the radio, and Rohan lowered the window.
An officer bent to the window.
I leaned past Rohan. “Hi.”
“You’ll need to detour.”
“I can’t, I’m going to the Waldolf building. Is everything okay there?”
He hesitated. “There’s been a fire.”
I sucked in a breath. “But I work there.”
“Then I suggest you contact your employer.” He glanced behind me. “Move along, please.”
I blinked. Rohan veered right through the traffic cones, to the detour.
“Would you prefer to return to your apartment or Avner’s house?”
I took deep breaths that made my head spin.
My lab.
All the work we’d done. The strides I’d made last night.
It could all be destroyed. “Pull over.”
“But we’re on a bridge.”
I looked out the window. I hadn’t even noticed us go up. “The emergency lane. Please, I need a minute.”
Rohan glanced at me. “Okay.”
The car pulled into the emergency lane. I jerked off my seatbelt.
A truck zoomed past. My tiny Barina rocked with the momentum.
“You should remain in the vehicle.”
I got out and strode to the railing and gripped the edge. I couldn’t catch a breath. Oh god, it could all be destroyed.
My stomach heaved. I gagged over the edge.
I’d been happy. For the first time, really actually happy.
“You are not well. I’m calling Mr. Malfacini.” Rohan took out his cell phone.
Avner. Fuck. My heart gave an arrhythmic flip. He hadn’t come home this morning and I couldn’t have him know about this right this second. Had to get my head together.
I wiped my mouth and lunged, plucking the phone from his unsuspecting hand and hurtling it over the railing.
He froze, hand still in position next to his ear. “You should not have done that.”
I pulled in a breath and straightened. The potential for a life I’d only dreamed about stretched out before me and there was no fucking way I’d give up on it yet.
“No, Rohan. I’m not pissing about, and asking permission to do what I have to do.” I started back to the car, but this time went to the driver’s seat.
Rohan squeezed himself into the passenger seat. “Where are you going? I have strict instructions on safe destinations.”
A touch of vertigo had me feeling like I was tilting a little sideways, but I brushed it aside. “Cool your damned jets, I know the drill—work, Avner’s and my place.” I pulled out onto the bridge, heading not home but to the city center. “I’m going to Waldolf headquarters. I’d say that qualifies as work.”
* * *
“He’s still in meetings.” Jasmine didn’t even look at me this time.
I stared at the top of her head. “This is urgent.”
“Take a seat, or I’m afraid you’ll no longer be allowed to wait.” She tapped at her computer.
I sighed sharply through my nose. Fine. Bloody fine. I’d sit here another three hours. I’d sit here all damned day. All damned night. Whatever it took. Dean would see me.
My cell phone beeped again.
I tugged it out and glanced at the screen.
Come here. I know what’s happened.
I shut my eyes. So he knew about the fire. I couldn’t have kept it from him, it’d probably made the news. But what could I say if I saw him now?
* * *
No, I had to speak to Dean. Find out how salvageable my situation was. I typed a reply.
Have to sort a few things out. Don’t worry, Rohan is with me. Sorry about his phone. Talk later. xoxo
Jasmine collected her bag and turned off the computer. “It’s time to go, Miss Neeson.”
I leaped up. “What? I’ve been waiting all day.”
How’d he even get past me?
She strode toward the doors. “And I hope you can appreciate that Mr. Waldolf has had a very busy and trying day.”
Appreciate? I’d show them both a healthy dose of my appreciation.
“He said he could see you at his residence, if it can’t wait until tomorrow.” She handed me a note.
I took the paper, and scanned his address. “Thanks.”
Rohan waited by the doors.
A sigh filled me. Nope, this couldn’t wait, and I had a feeling Rohan was about to be difficult.
“Home?”
I looked at Rohan. By home he meant Avner’s, and that little joy made the anxiety that much more bittersweet. “There’s one more place I need to go.”
“Where?” He squinted.
“Dean Waldolf’s house.”
He took a breath and expelled it. “I must speak to Mr. Malfacini.”
My teeth gnashed. And we know what that answer would be. “Fine, take my phone and call him, and I’ll go to the bathroom before they close up here and I pee myself.”
He took my phone, and dialed Avner.
I strode the few feet to the corner where the ladies’ room sign indicated. Rohan’s voice rumbled behind me as I rounded the corner, but I strode right past it to the fire exit and took the stairs down.
Chapter Thirty-One
Emma
The cab rolled up to the gated property in the wealthiest part of town. Security guards stood at the entrance. I wound down the back passenger window, and handed a guard my Waldolf security pass.
“I’m Emma Neeson, from work. I’m here for an appointment with Dean.”
The security guard peered into the car. “You’re cleared, Miss Neeson, please come through.”
The cab driver let me out at the front steps.
I took three deep breaths, an extra heart pill, and tightened my hickey-concealing scarf before ringing the bell.
A woman led me through the house into a sitting room.
I glanced around. The lounges were mahogany, the furniture antique and the walls luxuriously wallpapered.
“You don’t give up, do you?” Dean Waldolf stood in the doorway, looking unnaturally sharp and together for this time of the day straight after work. You’d never guess this man had just had his largest facility burn to the ground.
“No.” I stood. “I really don’t.”
I couldn’t afford to.
“Come through then.” He led me to his office.
His office was antithetic to Avner’s modern one. Old world, open fireplace, wingback couches and a giant, ornate desk. The creamy scent of cigars lingered in the air.
