A girl who’s beyond sorry. “I, uh…”
“Was my baby girl waiting for me all day?”
Waiting to tell you the truth. “I just…”
“Tell me, what did you have on your mind when you put this on?”
Apologize. Damn it, woman, open your mouth. “You.”
His face moved closer to mine. “You’re damn right, I better have been on your mind.”
He moved the belt, flipping me around. My cheek pressed itself against the wall as he fisted my hair. He sniffed up my neck. He licked at the shell of my ear. I whimpered at his heat. At his command. At his touch. And as he tied my wrists together with his belt, my mind started screaming at me.
Tell him what you figured out. Tell him why you stayed all this time! Why you never fought him! Why you agreed so easily to all this!
“Brody,” I whispered.
But the crack of his hand against my ass cheek stunned me into silence.
“You don’t speak unless you have permission. Understood?”
I nodded slowly as he tightened the belt around my wrists.
“Good girl. Now, spread those legs for me and show me what you’re hiding.”
I shivered as his knees knocked my legs apart. He pressed my cheek against the wall as my pussy lips unfurled for him. His hand slid along their outline. My juices gathered against his fingertips. I sighed with need. I bucked softly against his touch. And as the sounds of him licking my juices from his skin hit my ears, my knees weakened.
“Brody, I—”
He spanked my other ass cheek. “Not. Until. You’re beckoned.”
I need to tell you how much you mean to me. How much your care has meant. Your protection. I have to tell you what I did. You need to help me, please.
“Such a sweet girl for me you are,” he murmured.
His nose trailed up the length of my neck.
“Such beauty,” he whispered.
He nibbled the lobe of my ear as my eyes rolled back.
“Such perfection,” he grunted.
He sank a finger into my pussy and I groaned.
“Such need,” he growled.
He slid another finger into my entrance and massaged my walls. I gasped, feeling his lips lingering against my skin. The heat of his breath stole my words away. The command of his hands forced my mind to fall blank. His thumb explored my folds. Smoothing up and down my slit. Driving me wild as electricity sizzled my body into numbness.
“Oh, Brody,” I moaned.
“That’s it,” he whispered.
“Brody. Fuck. I just—I—”
“What’s that, baby girl? What do you want?”
I whimpered. “I want to come for you. Please.”
“There’s a good girl.”
He pressed his thumb against my clit and I fell over the edge. My knees buckled and I felt myself plummeting. Until he wrapped his free arm around my waist. He held me against him, fucking me with his fingers. Filling me to the brim as his thumb traced my pulsing nub. And as I shook against him, tears rushed my eyes.
I want you to know how much you’ve meant to me since my father died.
He scooped me into his arms and pressed me back against the wall. He pulled out his fingers and brought them to my lips. Waiting for me to lick myself off his skin. My tongue darted out. I cleaned him up as quickly as I could. And as chuckles fell from his lips, his pants hit the floor.
Before his cock bounced against my ass cheeks.
“You don’t come until I tell you to. Understood?” he asked.
I nodded quickly as he grabbed his girth.
“You don’t come. You don’t make a sound. You don’t say my name until I say you can. Got it?”
I nodded again, not wanting to break my word.
“Good,” he growled.
He stuffed me full and my head fell back. I swallowed my sounds down, though. His hands fell to my hips and he hoisted me up, sliding me further up the wall. My hands splayed against the hard surface. His cock filled me as he snapped his hips against my own. I wrapped my legs back around him. Tried to hang onto him in any way I could. But his strength had me. I knew he had me.
I knew he’d never hurt me.
Not unless I wanted him to.
I gasped for air. It took all I had not to moan his name. Not to cry out for him. Not to beg him for more. Colors burst and sizzled in my vision. He fucked me into the wall as my tits pressed further into the surface. I clawed at it. Trying to grip onto anything I could while he fucked me senseless.
“Holy shit, I’ve needed this.”
“Needed you. All day.”
“Fucking hell, Abby. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Without your body.”
“Without this,” he growled.
His words heated my core. Tears rushed my eyes as my muscles spasmed. My pussy clamped against him. My body was ready to pop. That coil tightened, and I did all I could to stave it off.
To stave off the pleasure I wanted so desperately to feel.
“So good for me. Waiting. Working. Doing as I asked. Moan for me, Abby. Beg for me.”
“Holy shit, Brody. I can’t. I can’t anymore. Please. Please. I need more. I need to come. On you. Please. I want—I want to be—”
He fisted my hair. “You want to be what?”
He drove into me. Relentlessly. Skin slapping skin filled the corners of the room as our intermingled scent wrapped around my head. My jaw unhinged. My stomach fluttered. I couldn't hang on a second longer. I had to let go. I had to fall deep into the dark abyss that kept taunting me whenever he was around.
“I want to be someone that makes you happy. I’m sorry,” I gasped.
My eyes rolled back as a tear slipped down my cheek. My body unraveled, my orgasm crashing over me. I choked on his name. I grunted like a wild animal as my pussy massaged his cock. He rutted against me. Fucking me hard. Snapping his hips against my ass cheeks while my juices dripped down his balls.
“Brody,” I squeaked.
His hand pulled my head back. “I’ve got you, baby girl. Just keep coming for me.”
The sheer force of pleasure sent my world spiraling into darkness. I couldn't see anything as my vision tunneled. And soon, I stopped feeling anything. The last thing I felt was my cheek against the wall as my legs dangled helplessly off the floor.
Then, I came to in bed.
With the birds chirping at the morning sun.
“Bro—”
My raspy voice came with a cough that took my breath away. I groaned as I rolled over. It felt like I’d been run over by a fucking eighteen-wheeler. My hand fell over to where I figured he might be. But instead, I felt the soft sheets of the bed.
“Brody?” I asked raggedly.
I rolled over one more time. Finally reaching his pillow. And instead of finding him, I found a note with his handwriting on it. A note that forced me awake as I read the words, over and over. Trying to make sense of them.
Abby,
Join me for lunch at Daschel’s Club. 12:30. We can talk more then.
Brody
“Talk more then?” I asked hoarsely.
I sighed and fell face-first into his pillow. I drew in the scent of his cologne deeply before I rolled over onto my back. I gazed up at the ceiling. My body throbbed with a pain that made me smile. He wanted to talk over lunch. Brody. My Brody. Was summoning me for lunch. Out in the open. For the first time in three weeks.
He knows.
I sat up quickly in bed. If he knew, why hadn’t he killed me? Maybe that was a good sign. I tossed the sheets off my body and gazed down at my nightgown.
Wait, where the hell had my lingerie gotten off to?
Don’t get sidetracked. You have to start getting ready.
I shuffled my way into the bathroom and settled on a long, hot shower. I needed to loosen myself up. I needed to get ready for this lunch. I needed to be in the right mindset because I needed to come clean with Brody. I needed to tell
him the truth. What really happened with my kidnapping and why it came about in the first place. Because that was the only way I’d get even remotely what I wanted.
The one thing I hadn’t planned on was him. I hadn’t planned for anyone’s motives in Fiona’s part of this family to be so pure. And so carnal. Brody was terrifying, distracting, wonderful, isolating, strong, fierce and everything I could have ever wanted in a man. He had become my world in just three short weeks. He had become the pillar which I leaned myself. The person that I placed the whole of my protection within. He had become a vital part of my life. And if I wanted to keep things that way, he needed to hear the truth from me.
You’re going crazy.
Maybe so. Maybe I really was losing my mind. But I’d gone from always alone to never alone within the span of a few hours. And I liked not being alone. I liked being around Brody. I liked the idea that I could be his. If I really wanted this, though—if I really wanted a shot at some sort of a life with him and with this patchwork family of mine—I had to stop being so damn greedy and come clean.
That was the first step.
Get in the shower, you idiot. That’s the first step.
So, I hopped into the scalding hot stream and hoped it might wash away my sins. Wash away a past I didn’t want to go back to. I didn’t want to go back to Switzerland if it meant giving up Brody. If it meant going back to being alone again. I didn’t want to take the money and flee for my own life. Not if it meant leaving something as beautiful as my connection to Brody in the dust.
No. I wanted a shot with him. A real shot. A true shot.
Then, clean yourself up and get ready for a ride.
And I hoped to God on high I didn’t lose Brody over all this.
12
Brody
As I pulled into the parking lot of our warehouse, I wondered why Gael called me here. If Gael summoned, it was never good. But we had just seen one another for breakfast. Well, a brief one. Before I had to go out on my morning patrol. I parked my car and looked around, watching men come and go with packages. Boxes. Bags. Other accoutrements and deliveries that had to stay in place. Intact, despite the loss our family had suffered.
I didn’t like how any of this felt, though.
I stepped out of my car, though something told me to keep it running. I didn’t like that feeling, either. Something wasn’t right. Something had happened. And I was determined to figure out what.
“Gael!”
My voice boomed across the parking lot as I made my way for his office.
“Gael!”
He stuck his head out. “Will you keep your voice down, please? It’s peaceful around here.”
I walked up to him. “You have me here. What is it you have to say?”
“In my office. Come, come.”
I glared at him before I walked into his office. He closed the door behind us, and I didn't like the way he locked it, either. I licked my lips as he ushered for me to sit. I decided to stand, though. However, Gael took a seat at one of his many desks in one of his many offices throughout Chicago.
Then, he leaned back. “I have bad news.”
I nodded slowly. “I figured as much. What of?”
“I took a crew over to Maguires late last night.”
“Did things not go well?”
“Depends on which point of view that question is coming from.”
I furrowed my brow. “Spit it out, Gael.”
He sighed. “I’ve already spoke with Declan about this and he gave me the go-ahead to fill you in. That’s the only reason why I called this meeting.”
I rolled my eyes. “You give a man a throne.”
Gael shot up from his chair. “All he’s doing is trying to protect this family from assault. You’ve been assaulted, Brody. And you don’t even realize it.”
“Then, get to the point so we’re all on the same page.”
“You were right in your assumption. Patrick Maguire knew nothing of the kidnapping. But Liam was there. And he knew everything about it.”
“I told you that rat bastard did it.”
“What you failed to mention was that Abby helped him orchestrate it.”
I paused. “What?”
Gael sighed. “So, you didn’t know any of that?”
“Are you really suggesting that the little Maguire toad is trying to convince you that Abby set up her own abduction?”
“That’s exactly what he said. And he gave me some compelling evidence to search for.”
I snickered. “And what evidence might this be?”
“Remember that visit your bodyguard told you Liam paid to Abby?”
I paused. “Yes.”
“Apparently, he brought her the sack of money you dropped down that night to save her. And according to him, she kept it.”
“Lies,” I sneered.
Gael shrugged. “If that’s true, then she won’t have the money. And you’ll be fine with us searching her bank records to prove or deny what’s been told to us.”
“That woman didn’t orchestrate her kidnapping. That doesn’t make any sense!”
“It does if your theory with her wanting to get her hands on her money's right.”
“She’s not the perpetrator here. She’s a fucking victim, Gael.”
“I figured you wouldn't believe me. So, I recorded this. Take a look at it.”
Gael typed away on his laptop before turning it around for me to view. On the screen was Liam. tied to a chair. Wrists and ankles bound with blood dripping from his nose. I recognized the insignia bruised against his cheekbone. Gael’s ring, with the family crest on it.
“Play it,” I commanded.
And when my brother pressed the spacebar, the video came alive.
“I’m telling you the fucking truth!” Liam roared.
“See, I don’t think you are. I think you know why you kidnapped Abigail, and you won’t tell us because you’re chicken shit,” Gael hissed.
Another punch. Another smack. Another broken nose on video. Liam’s howls filled the office space as I stood there. On pins and needles. Waiting for the punchline of this bullshit.
“I’m telling you, she talked me through the whole plan at her father’s fucking reception. She’s a snake. As cold-hearted as her biological mother, from the stories I’ve heard of that woman. I took Abby her cut to the penthouse. She promised me a—”
Gael slapped the man across his face and he sputtered. With blood dripping down his chin.
“What the fuck was that for!?” Liam roared.
“For fun,” Gael said flatly.
Liam grimaced. “I took her a bag of money after taking my cut that she promised me. I left her with a burner phone for her to do some errands for me. I promised her we’d get all the money she was owed. Money she feels she was robbed of because Richard changed rules on her or some shit. I don’t know. She’s just looking for what’s rightfully hers, and I don’t fucking blame her!”
Another punch delivered straight to Liam’s gut. But his words rang hard in my ears.
He mentioned the burner phone.
“Turn it off,” I said.
Gael pressed the spacebar. “He mentioned the ph—”
I held up my hand. “I need to get back to the penthouse.”
“If any of this is true, you shouldn't go—”
I whipped around. “I’ve had this woman pinned beneath me every fucking night for weeks, Gael. She’s no threat. Not to me, at least.”
His eyes widened. “Well. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
I snickered. “Yeah, well. Curves will do that to a man.”
“Let me know if you need anything.”
“Don’t worry. If I need anything, it’ll be back-up when I hand-deliver Abby to Liam myself if any of this is true!”
Then, I stormed out of his office.
I ran for my car. I slammed into it and sped all the way back to the hotel. I couldn't get up to the damn penthouse quickly enough. But it didn’t shock
me when I found it empty. I looked at my watch. It was damn near noon. She had probably already left for our fucking lunch date.
“Shit,” I hissed.
I stormed into the room and started tearing it apart. I ripped open the dresser drawers and dumped them all onto the floor. I shuffled around her clothes in the closet and ran my hands along the upper shelving units. I pulled out every drawer in the bathroom. I dipped down and looked underneath all the sinks. Hell, I even checked my shit. Wondering if, maybe, she hid that bullshit in broad daylight.
“He’s full of shit. He has to be full of shit,” I murmured to myself.
Then, I flipped the mattress off the bed.
Underneath her side of the bed was a cell phone. And a fucking charger. I snatched it up and toggled the screen, cursing the fact that it was locked down. But this had to be the burner phone. Because it sure as hell wasn’t her personal phone. I knew what that looked like. I had it wiped for literally anything that could’ve been used to track her down.
Wait. Where are her suitcases?
I tossed the phone to the floor. I got down on my hands and knees and checked under the bed. I ripped every closet open in the damn penthouse. I searched under every bed. And it wasn’t until I made my way into the kitchen that I opened the pantry and found what I was looking for.
Her luggage.
Stuffed into the empty pantry.
The one room we never go into.
I ripped her luggage open and tipped it upright. I shook it out, watching as wads of twenties and fifties came spilling out. With every wad of cash that fell at my feet, I felt my heart sink. My stomach twisted into knots as anger, sadness, and confusion washed over me.
My baby girl. My sweet, beautiful, Abby.
She deceived me.
Then, it happened. The undeniable proof I couldn't dismiss. The black bag with the emblazoned family crest on it came tumbling from the suitcase. I stumbled backwards. I caught myself against the kitchen island. I stared at the money. At the black bag with the family crest stitched against it. At all of the evidence I needed to prove Gael—and Liam—right.
My Abby.
My heart physically shattered. It grew hard to breathe as I staggered out of the kitchen. I was furious. Broken. Betrayed. Irate. I wiped at the burning tears cresting my eyes. I girded my soul and hardened my heart toward the outside world. My face fell to stone as I headed out the double doors with my bodyguard yelling after me.
Brody: The Callaghan Mafia #2 Page 9
