by April Hunt
Sensing her hesitation, he gently coaxed her hand into position above her clit and then they played together, alternating between soft strokes and firm brushes. “Oh, God.”
Trey pulled out to his rim and slammed back…hard and deep. Again and again.
The clash of their bodies echoed through the room. Skin on skin. Moan after moan. Trey kept up the unrelenting pace until the heaviness of impending release coiled between her legs.
“Please tell me you’re there,” Trey panted.
“Almost.”
“Not fucking good enough. I want you to come with me.” With a low growl, he entwined their fingers and slid them through her dampness to the exact spot where his cock slid mercilessly into her body. “Eyes on me, baby. I want to see all of you when you let go.”
That was what she wanted and feared at the same time. Looking into his eyes was more intimacy than she thought she’d ever have with anyone. It pushed her past her comfort zone, straight into an emotional minefield. And he’d been doing that since their very first encounter.
Trey’s thumb brushed over her pulsing clit, his thrusts getting wilder. She lifted her hips and met each one. It wasn’t long before her muscles coiled through her body in preparation for a grand release.
Trey must have felt it too. He let out a low growl, steeling her lips for a searing kiss. And that was it. The fuse lit, fireworks scorching their way through every inch of her body as she flew apart in the most pleasurable way, and took Trey right along with her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Twenty-four hours of new experiences had turned Elle’s thirtieth birthday into the best by far—even including the time spent outside Dixie, giving statements to the local police. And yeah, there’d been times of discomfort, too, when Trey pushed her way too close—or over—her comfort zone.
But it hadn’t been as scary as she’d thought, and it had a lot to do with the man she was with. The more time they spent together, the more she found herself wanting to give in—to being with him—to trust him.
That realization made her a quieter than normal on the drive back to the cabin. She’d caught Trey looking at her a few times, but he’d just give her a grin and let her continue tracing the long lines of muscle cording his arm.
But the comfortable silence ended when they stepped into the cabin and the satellite phone rang. Trey dropped their bags and answered on speakerphone. “What’s up?”
“Boot up for a video call and then open the email attachment that was sent a few minutes ago.” Stone, sounding grimmer than usual, didn’t waste any time in pleasantries.
“Doing it now.” Trey hung up and loaded the video feed from headquarters onto the laptop. From the Room of Testosterone, Stone and Charlie’s faces filled up the laptop screen.
Charlie’s smile looked a little…forced. “How was the birthday? Caveman didn’t screw it up, did he?”
“It was great,” Elle said truthfully. “I couldn’t have asked for a better one.”
Trey pulled Elle onto his lap and shifted her sideways so they could both be part of the video call.
“So what gives, Stone?” Trey asked what they’d both been thinking. “Did you find out where this Dean Winters is holing up?”
“Did you pull up that email I told you about?” Stone asked, his face blank.
“Doing it now.” Trey clicked a few buttons.
“Play it.”
Trey brought up the link that had been copied from a D.C. area news source and shrank it so that they could still see Stone and Charlie on the other half of their screen. A podium was positioned in front a dark blue background, and news reporters hovered around. A press conference.
Elle had seen hundreds of them before, but this one gave her a bad feeling…especially when her father walked onto the platform. Trey tensed beneath her and linked his fingers through hers as they waited.
“Good morning,” her father’s voice echoed from the microphone as he looked into the nearest camera. “I’d like to thank you all for taking the time to come here this morning. I know as well as anyone that weekends are meant to be spent with family.”
Elle snorted humorlessly. “Right. He wouldn’t know family time if it bit him in the ass.”
“Anyone who has followed my career through the years knows that the only thing that rivals my passion for getting assault weapons out of the hands of our enemies,” Senator Monroe added, “is my family—my daughter. And now someone is using my love for her as a bargaining chip for their own nefarious plans.”
Cameras flashed and reporters called out questions, to which Elle’s father simply raised his hand and called for quiet.
“My daughter’s life has now been put in danger on three separate occasions, the last happening two weeks ago, while under the nose of her private security detail—and in the presence of children. This audacious and disgusting behavior is the exact reason why these people must be dealt with, and as New York’s senator and the country’s champion, I will bring these law-breakers to justice and show them that we will not be scared into compliance.”
Samuel Monroe stared stonily into the camera in front of him. “Stand in the way of my agenda, and I will bring an end to your tyranny. Threaten our families, and I will bring an end to you. Thank you.”
Elle’s father ignored the slew of questions being hurled in his direction and turned from the podium. He took a few steps and stumbled. Then in a frenzy, people poured onto the stage, and a handful of men whisked him away.
“What the hell happened?” Trey asked.
“We’re told he’s doing okay,” Charlie said the moment Trey hit pause. “They’re keeping him in a D.C. hospital for tests and observations, but they expect a heart attack.”
“My father’s healthy as a horse. There’s no way.” Elle hated to think it, but she didn’t believe that speech or anything around it held even a speck of honesty. And then there was the other little thing…the thing that formed a small sliver of ice in her chest and sent it through her veins. “And what did he mean by three separate occasions? With the last around children? There was the airport and the gala—no kids.”
“And then the sled-tacular,” Trey pointed out. “The activities were basically over, but Susie was with you on the hill when Winters made an approach.”
Elle nodded at Trey. “Right, but who told my father about that?” She focused on Stone and Charlie, and their less-than-amused faces. “That’s why you wanted us to watch the briefing, isn’t it? No one told my father that Winters made a third appearance at all, much less at an event where kids were present. The only way he could’ve known that is if…”
Elle felt like throwing up. She got off Trey’s lap and forced herself to concentrate on keeping down her breakfast.
Trey didn’t bother to temper his anger as he glared into the video-comm. “Are you fucking telling me that her father’s been behind this the entire fucking time?”
Stone ignored Trey’s string of curses and gently addressed Elle. “Do you think your father would—”
“Hire a mercenary group to abduct me and a separate security group to protect me?” This was low, even for her father, but she couldn’t deny the truth. She stopped pacing and met Stone’s stare through the screen. “If he thought it would increase his chance of being reelected, he would’ve auctioned off his mother to the highest bidder.”
“What would he have gained?” Charlie asked. “I mean, would he seriously put your life on the line like that?”
“People have been known to stage all sorts of things in the name of publicity,” Elle pointed out. “And you said yourself once that Black Dunes will do anything for a paycheck. They had three chances to kill me if that was their plan, yet they tried to take me instead.”
Trey didn’t look any less livid. “So he knew about the third attempt because—”
“Because he heard about it from the source,” Elle finished. “I’d like nothing more than to say that I’m not related to someone who would do somethin
g like this, but I can’t. Because he would.”
Everyone started talking at once. It took a minute for Elle to realize that Logan and a few other Alpha team members had popped up behind Stone and Charlie and started adding their thoughts to the melee. It got so loud, Elle couldn’t hear herself think.
Sticking her fingers in her mouth, she whistled. The shrill sound cut through the cabin and evidently through the video link, too. Everyone stopped.
“Bloody hell, that was impressive,” Charlie murmured from the feed.
“Do I have everyone’s attention now?” Elle asked. But she didn’t wait for an answer as she planted herself back in her seat and made sure all eyes were on her—including Trey’s. “I want to go see my father.”
Everyone started talking again, and their responses ran the gamut from calling her crazy to it being a genius idea. Trey leaned over the back of her chair, shaking his head. “Are you insane? You can’t go waltzing into his fucking hospital room.”
“Why the hell not?” she questioned. “We’ve already established that this entire fiasco was orchestrated by my father, and if I’m not in any real danger, I don’t see the big deal.”
“Because it’s just a hunch, not a concrete fact. We could take you out there and, if we’re wrong, practically hand-deliver you to the men who want to hurt you.”
“Which part of that statement do you want me to rip apart first? My father would absolutely manipulate my life to get something he wants—fact, not a hunch. He knew something he shouldn’t have—fact, not a hunch. Do you want me to keep going?”
“If she wants to face her father, I say we bloody well let her do it,” Charlie spoke up. “It’s not like we’re just going to toss her out in the wild and let her drive herself. Neither Black Dunes nor her father is aware that we know about their link, so we give them both what they expect and fly her in under the radar.”
“It’s an unnecessary risk,” Trey growled.
“Spoken like a man who’s had all the bloody family support he could tolerate growing up,” Charlie snapped a little harshly, even for the feisty Brit. “Not everyone is as lucky as you, Hanson. As long as we play it like it’s business as normal, she’ll be in no real danger. We take her in, let her confront the asshole, and then it’s done.”
“Then I can get back to my life.” When Trey looked like he was about to protest, she added, “I’m not letting people rule my life anymore. Not my father. Not James. And not you. I’m sorry, Trey, but I’m doing this—whether you like it or not.”
Judging by his scowl, it was a hard not. But it was decided. The team would show up at the cabin in the morning and they’d make plans to sneak her into D.C. Part of Elle felt relieved, while the other half hovered on the border of panic.
Getting her life back was what she’d wanted. She just wasn’t sure what—or who—she’d be able to have in it.
* * *
Trey flung open the bedroom door and was immediately accosted by the smell of coffee and sizzling bacon—and the sight of his teammates lounging in various spots throughout the cabin. He glanced at his watch and grimaced—barely seven in the damn morning and they’d already been invaded.
“Jesus. When the fuck did you all get up?” Trey bypassed Logan, who was sprawled on the bottom half of the couch, his booted feet propped up on the coffee table.
“Early,” Logan mumbled from beneath his beat-up cowboy hat. It was angled over his face instead of on his head. “And keep in mind that I’m used to getting up before the ass-crack of dawn, so if I think it’s early, it was a fucking inhumane kind of early.”
Stone, who sat at the kitchen table nursing a mug of coffee, acknowledged Trey with a faint head tilt. “He’s been bitching since we left. I think he’s concerned the lack of beauty sleep is going to mess with his pretty little face.”
Logan grumbled incoherently, making everyone chuckle. But Charlie, sitting next to Stone, flashed Trey a mischievous smirk and openly gawked at his naked torso. “Being squirreled away in a mountain retreat is no reason to let yourself go, Hanson. You couldn’t find the time to do at least a few sit-ups?”
“This body doesn’t need push-ups, baby.” He flexed his pecs, making her snort. “So what the hell are you all doing here so early?” He made his way to the coffee machine, which happened to be on the counter right next to where Elle stood in front of the stove. “When you answer, keep in mind that I haven’t had any caffeine.”
Elle struggled not to look his way, and he couldn’t say he blamed her. Part of his hope for waking up early had been for them to clear the air from the way they’d left things. He didn’t like her thinking he was out to control her like the other jackasses that had been in her life, but she also needed to accept that he wasn’t going to sit idly by and watch her put herself at risk, either. But now that everyone was here, any hope of a private conversation went out the fucking window.
He dropped a hand on her waist and stepped close, reaching around her for an empty mug. He grinned when a corresponding shiver trembled through her body.
“Maybe we’ve missed your sparkling personality,” Rafe answered with a mouthful of food. The cabin door buzzed open and Vince stepped into the cabin. “Vince may be a shining jewel, but he’s got nothing on you.”
“Fuck you, Ortega,” Vince jested without even missing a beat. “And I mean that in the most sparkling, shining fucking way possible.”
Trey almost missed his friends’ back-and-forth banter. He took a seat and sipped his coffee, realizing fully well that he hadn’t gotten a real answer. But he didn’t really need one. It was easier to bully him into agreement in person than long distance.
As soon as Trey had the thought, he cursed. Elle had been right yesterday. How they approached the situation should be her decision, and it wasn’t her problem if he found it a bitter pill to swallow. That issue was all his—at least according to his mother. And Penny. And Rachel. Fuck. Every woman in his life.
“What do you have planned?” Trey forced the question out.
“You know I don’t like leaving anything to chance,” Stone said. “So just in case we were all hallucinating the Senator’s little speech, I want a fall-back in place to get Elle out of the hospital.”
“I don’t think we were hallucinating anything.” Elle sat on Trey’s left, nursing her own mug of coffee. “I’m going to tell my father that his little game is over. Either he calls it off, or I go to the press and tell them about his acting debut. Well, it’s not a debut, really, since he’s been acting the part of doting father for years…but you know what I mean.”
Stone nodded toward Charlie. “Lay it on us, Sparks.”
Charlie already had her laptop running. Vince stalked over, poised to shift the screen more in his direction, when she shot him a volatile glare. “What the bloody hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I can’t see the screen,” Vince said simply.
“Then move your massive body to the other side of the table. If you even think about touching my baby again, I’ll change your name from Navy to Stumpy. Got it?”
Vince threw up his hands in mock surrender and received more than a little mocking from the guys when he moved two chairs down.
“As I was about to say,” Charlie resumed, bringing up the hospital schematics, “Black Dunes and Dean Winters are still running on the assumption that we’re in the dark about their little game. That means that we treat the op like an actual op and we go in low-key and heavy on the detail.”
“So what’s the back-up plan to get me out of the hospital—you know, if it’s needed?” asked Elle.
Charlie grinned. “You’re looking at her, love. I’ll already be inside your father’s room with one of the guys, when you arrive with your very own testosterone-afflicted entourage. If we’re wrong about him and he isn’t the checkbook behind Black Dunes, we make a switch and I come out as you. If Dunes is watching, our hope’s that they’ll make a play for Fake Elle but really get—”
“An Eng
lish pixie with a bad attitude,” Vince muttered under his breath. Everyone chuckled except for Charlie, who shot him a look that could freeze lava. He shrugged unapologetically. “What? Are you going to stand there and say that you don’t have an attitude, crumpet?”
Rafe hid a laugh behind a cough. “Hope you can still sleep with one eye open, man.”
Trey sensed more than heard Elle’s concern. He reached out automatically, rescuing her bottom lip from between her teeth. “What’s wrong, sweetness?”
“If Charlie and I have to make a switch, then that means she’s going to be the one in danger.” She looked to the female operative. “Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, if everything’s going to be well controlled, then I can—”
Charlie spoke up. “Are you kidding me? It’s about time I’m allowed into the thick of the action…even if it is as bait.”
“And it’s only going to happen if we’re wrong about your father,” Stone added, trying to put Elle at ease. “Which, I’m sorry to say, I don’t think we are.”
Trey didn’t think so either. But both avenues put Elle at risk of getting hurt—just in different ways.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The team separated into two SUVs. Much like the time they’d slipped Elle from her father’s gala, and just as she had back then, Elle had felt Trey’s eyes on her no less than two dozen times since they’d left the cabin.
Trey hadn’t kept it a secret that he didn’t agree with going to D.C. He wouldn’t be Trey if he had. But then he’d let it go and jumped on board with planning anyway. Hell would’ve experienced its first blizzard if James—or her father—had ever done something like that for her. It was all about what they wanted…what would put their mind at ease.
Stone drove into the parking garage beneath Memorial Hospital and brought the SUV to a stop next to the service entrance. “Everyone remember what they need to do?”
Four nods, including Elle’s, answered.
“Then let’s get to it. Watch your asses.”
