“It’s for her safety,” he growls.
I show myself in the doorway, unable to keep out of view any longer. “Why are you worried about my safety?” I ask, making sure my voice is loud enough to carry the expanse of the wide room. “And who the fuck are you killing now?”
Cody’s eyes widen. He covers the mouthpiece of his phone. “What did you hear?” No pleasantries now.
I lie. “All of it.” My heart hammers because I think I know exactly why he’d be worried about my safety.
“I have to go,” Cody says into the phone. He hangs up before the other person has time to respond. Shirtless, wearing only a pair of blue checked pajama pants slung low on his hips, he walks toward me. I shake away the sex brain and put on my professional panties. He can’t woo me now. At least not easily.
I hold up my hand. “Don’t play games. Honesty. I need honesty, Cody.”
His worried gaze looks me up and down and finally settles on my eyes. “Being with me puts a target on you,” he explains.
I scoff. “You sure it isn’t the other way around?”
He takes a deep breath and shakes his head. We’re in uncharted territory. The place we don’t speak of. “People are angry with me so by default anything and anyone close to me is a target. You,” he says, waving his left hand in front of him at me, “might as well have neon lights attached to your head that flash the word Cody.” He looks away. “You’re safe here, with me.”
“So you don’t want me to leave here? I thought vacation houses lose their charm? You were angry, Cody,” I say, my lips pursed. “Also, I can guess who you want dead.” I did tell him I wanted to live here.
Cody sighs, defeated. “I want a lot of people dead. I’m angry when it comes to your safety. How could I not be? I lost you once, Lane. I know what it feels like. While I enjoy our time here, I know I can’t hold you hostage.” He smiles at his own cruel joke.
“Stop lying by omitting. I invented that shit. You can’t talk circles around me. And when it comes to losing people I’m the motherfucking queen at that. Or don’t you remember?” Cody grabs me by my shoulders. It’s meant to comfort me, but I feel the rage bubbling inside. Loss makes you feel things that aren’t rational. By remembering the loss, it’s forcing anger to the surface. “Are you keeping something from me? I’ll only ask once.” He knows I’m serious because he releases my shoulders and takes a step away from me. Cody knows I need space when I get spun up.
He runs a hand through his blond hair. “There is. I’m keeping something from you. It’s for your own safety. I won’t tell you.”
My jaw might as well be super glued to the floor. “What?”
“You asked if I’m keeping something from you. Yes, I am. There’s your honesty.” He shakes his finger at me when I open my mouth to speak. “There are worse places to be other than in the dark, Fast Lane. Trust me.”
I swallow and nod. Can I accept this? I have to. “You know I’ll figure it out eventually.”
“I’m counting on it,” he replies.
I take several deep breaths and watch him. He watches me, tapping one finger on his leg by his side. A nervous habit I’m sure he’s done all he can to break. “If I don’t?”
“It won’t matter if you don’t. Listen, I have a serious job to deal with when we get back. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to see you…for a while.”
My anger is dissipating. “You’re not an equal opportunist? Aren’t they all serious jobs?”
He laughs. “You could say this one is more important than most. I can’t send Horse or Van. Something I need to handle myself.” A pit forms in my stomach.
“Vadim.” I say his name like a curse word for pussies. Cody’s eyes flare.
“Lainey. Please,” he says. Blue pleading eyes meet my own.
I scream several curse words that aren’t of the pussy variety and Cody watches me without saying a word. I have a million questions to ask. Pacing the room, I try to think of the last time I heard of his whereabouts. The mere mention of his name and I can’t think clearly.
When I reach the end of the room I turn around. Cody’s on the opposite end, hands on his hips, waiting. “So this really is about me?” I say.
He shakes his head. “No. It’s about me.”
“Bullshit! How can you say that? I thought he was already six feet under.” That would have been too easy—too perfect to be true. I grab the ends of my robe ties self-consciously and pull it tighter, until the belt is cinching my skin. I squat down and put my head in my hands. My new bracelet slides from my forearm and tickles the side of my cheek. Fuck. I feel sick. Cody kneels in front of me.
A tear slides down my cheek when I look up at him. Cody brushes it away with his thumb. “You’re safe. He’ll never find you.” With us it’s never that simple.
I hold up my wrist to show him the bracelet I thought was a gift from him. Cody takes one of the diamonds in between his fingers and narrows his eyes at my piece of expensive jewelry. He pulls me against his warm chest and kisses my hair. I’m slacking. My A-game is officially F-game. The words on the notecard come to mind. Wear this so I’ll know…
“He already knows,” I whisper, ripping the motherfucking bracelet off.
****
We decided that staying in The Hamptons wasn’t the best idea anymore. A few calls and a light, albeit tense lunch and we were on our way to the airport. Molly deserves the world’s best assistant award. She wears many hats, but I’m sure finding information on how to dispose of and destroy a tracker placed in jewelry should garner her a pay raise. I told Cody so. He didn’t laugh. In fact, he hasn’t cracked a smile since I showed him the bracelet. I’m not nervous or scared anymore. That was a fleeting emotion caused by shock. I’m enlightened. The knowledge of Vadim’s presence in my life is something I can deal with. I can avoid him, be cautious, thoughtful, manipulative. I can be Lainey from my old, more sinister life. Everything will turn out fine in the end. Bad men don’t live very long in this world. Now, Cody took to this information a little more irrationally. Cold and distant are two words I’d use when I think about how he’s been looking at me.
We’re taking a private flight to Virginia Beach this time. I snap my fingers in front of his face. He’s sitting in a plush leather seat across from me. “Earth to killer. Earth to killer. You do realize everything will be okay? I can take care of myself. We’re finally together again. Nothing can stop us now.”
He looks from me back out the window next to him. Nothing but a small grin lets me know that he heard me. “Have you spoken to your mom recently?” he asks, tapping the side of his leg.
“Ew. Why are you asking about my mom right now? Did you hear what I said?”
He leans forward and grabs my hands in his. “I just think we should try to act like business as usual. You’re right. You can handle yourself. Vadim will be out of the picture and life can go on…more peacefully.” It works. Cody distracts me. First with a story Molly told him about Horse and then he pulls me onto his lap and kisses me senseless.
His hands are in my hair and his hard cock is nestled against my pussy. As I was hopeful to make myself a member of the mile high club, I wore a skirt and no panties. Something he’s currently figuring out.
“You always this naughty when you fly?” Cody asks. I remind him of the time we tried to have sex in the bathroom stall of a commercial airliner on our way to Paris, and he finally laughs. I had on impossibly tight jeans and that poor planning always haunts me. “I guess this needs to make up for that then,” he says. Distraction complete.
“Indeed,” I rasp.
“Sex won’t fix this fucking mess, Lainey,” he says.
I press my lips against his open mouth. He watches me warily through semi-closed eyes. I make a big show of sitting up and looking around the empty plane. We’re alone. I unbuckle his pants and pull out his hard cock. It’s warm in my hand and he flinches. Why are airplanes always so damn cold? Even private ones, for God’s sake.
&n
bsp; I let my hair hang down and brush his face. It always tickles him. “It’s only a mess if you don’t fix it. Wouldn’t you agree that we’re both highly adequate mess fixers?”
Cody sighs, finally relaxing underneath me. “Whatever you say. Anyone tell you how fucking beautiful you are? You’ve basically dulled my desire to kill and fly into a murderous rage and morphed me into a horny teenager boy. Skill, darling. You have some serious skill.”
He slides my skirt up over my hips and touches me between my legs gently. I guide his dick to my core and lower myself down until his head is inside me, coating him with my wetness. “Has anyone ever told you how unavoidably attractive you are?” I moan in his ear. Cody’s cell phone rings, vibrating the table next to his seat. Surprisingly, he ignores it, fumbling with one hand to send it to voicemail.
“No more talking,” he says, taking me by the hips and lifting me up. Leaning up, he lays me down on the seat where he just was and positions himself between my legs. I fall back, letting my arms rest beside my head. He kisses me on the chin then looks at me—really looks at me. I want to talk, but instead I pretend to zip my lips and lock the side and hand him the pretend air key. Mockingly he bites the key out of my fingers…and then sucks them before smiling. He enters me slowly, closing his eyes as he eases his thick girth in inch by inch.
“Yes,” I say, grabbing his face and guiding his lips to mine.
His kiss tastes sweet, and with the sensation of being filled and rubbed just the right way, I can say this is my favorite place in the world to be. With him. Always with him. Always surrounded by his love. “I love you, Lainey,” Cody whispers against my mouth as he thrusts his hips slowly.
I open my eyes and see his glassy, glacier blue eyes searching for something in mine. I’m not sure what. I’ve already given him everything—all of me. He has to sense that this is it for me. Dax won’t even have an opportunity to keep me around. I lost the woman Dax loves the second Cody came full throttle back into my life.
“I love you,” I counter. He presses his forehead against mine as he picks up his pace. The friction presses me just the right way, his dick sliding against me at the perfect angle. That paired with the fact that Cody Ridge is making utterly, unforgettable, movie worthy love to me makes me want to lose my mind right now.
“Come,” he orders, seeing my eyes go cross-eyed with desire. Pulling him deeper with my hands on his ass, I wrap my legs around him and I explode around him in shock waves of pure pleasure. I scream out. Not his name, and not anything recognized in the English language because this orgasm hits me hard. Tingles from the tip of my head to the tip of my toes relax me. Cody picks up the pace, driving his cock into my wet pussy furiously several more times before he pulls out, scoots up toward my face, and strokes it until his hot cum leaks into my waiting mouth. It tastes salty and creamy. The way he watches me as he comes makes me think this, what’s happening right now, is what his dreams are made of. He groans, closes his eyes while he finishes, and then watches me intently.
I swallow every last drop and then wrap my mouth around him and lick it clean.
His breathing is heavy and we’re both sticky with sweat and sex. “Way better than Paris would have been,” I say. I get goosebumps thinking about all of the times we’ve had sex. How much he turns me on. How little control I have over my body or my actions when his hands are on me and his dick is inside me.
“Way better,” he confirms.
“We’ll get through whatever comes our way. Forever. Please know that. Look at what we’ve already overcome.” I kiss his lips and then leaning up I kiss his neck.
“I hope so,” Cody replies. I can’t see his face, but it legitimately sounds like he’s hoping. Cody doesn’t hope, he makes things happen. Nothing will separate us again. Not if I can help it.
We clean up, and Cody excuses himself to another area of the plane to make a phone call. Taking my cell phone, I scroll through, searching for a number I haven’t used in a very long time. It’s a number that reminds me of my old life—something I never thought I’d revisit again. There are some secrets that women should always keep secret. Disgusting habits, how many sex partners they’ve had, and most importantly the fact that they’re skilled in espionage. Lainey Rostov, Russian surveillance spy, trained at gathering information about Navy SEALs and reporting back intelligence is coming out to play. It wasn’t easy moving to Virginia Beach with the goal of finding, dating, and then extracting information from a Navy SEAL. Actually it was quite a bit more difficult than that—I had to weave myself into the community, befriend SEAL girlfriends and wives, I had to blend in. You’d be surprised the amount of details men are willing to give out while drinking at a bar and better yet, in between the sheets. I’d fathom a guess that I’m a million times better at espionage than my male counterparts. I have more parts to use to my benefit. Does Cody know? Of course he knows. He called me out right at the get-go. I think that’s why I fell so hard for him. Intelligence looks divine on that man with such brawn. I glance over at him with his freshly fucked hair and mussed clothing and smile. He winks at me while he continues his phone conversation. He’s just as deranged as I was...am. A match made in fucked up heaven. What happens when a spy falls in love with her target? My fucking life. This is what happens. And Vadim wants to screw with me again. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. I wink back, lick my lips, and calculate just how dangerous this territory will be.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. No matter what the cost.
No one is taking him from me again.
Chapter Fourteen
Cody
The streets of Mexico are fucking horrible. No one obeys traffic laws, stop signs and red lights are optional, and speed limits don’t exist. I suggest hiring a driver or taking a Xanax if you have to drive here. I’m chasing some asshole that Van missed last night. He’s driving a white beat-up pickup truck down a busy street like a goddamned NASCAR driver on cocaine. He probably is on some kind of drug, but I doubt he’d make one lap in a racecar.
Dax is stalling with my fucking information. I’m sure it has something to do with Lainey’s persistence in breaking up with him. I’ve tried to stay away from her. She comes to me. Once in the middle of the night wearing nothing but a raincoat, another time she made it into my apartment in NYC before I got home. She was waiting for me naked, spread-eagle, in front of one of my computer screens. Like porn, except I actually fucked her and then ate her out and then made love to her slowly on the floor, and then fucked her bent over my kitchen counter. You see the dilemma. She isn’t giving Dax the time of day, and I’m basically biding my time until Dax realizes I can’t do anything about the way she feels. It makes me puff out my chest a little when I think about it. It also makes me crazy as fuck because I know he has information I need and he’s being a childish prick. How the hell can I help it? My mouth waters when I think of Lainey. I’m like a klepto. I need my fix to get through the day. Stealing her love is harder than stealing overpriced electronics. For Dax.
“Come on, motherfucker!” I yell at the dirty white truck in front of me. He runs the red light and I hit a damn pothole at the same time. It slows me down. The Jeep I’m driving was built for off-road, but I don’t think the manufacturers had Mexico in mind when they designed the shock system on this thing. I check my rearview mirror and see Horse struggling in his own vehicle and smile. I radio him and make a quick joke, but he doesn’t grin. He hits his steering wheel with one Horse sized fist. I tell him to be easy on the rentals and I hit the gas and slide a little to one side. The road is made out of some sort of orange clay that’s designed to help bad guys escape. The Federales appear on the left hand side, but you don’t stop when you see the Mexican Police. You go faster. They’re shadier than a palm tree in Florida. I don’t want to get into a gunfight in broad daylight with them. I have other things to worry about.
My tires skid around a corner and I see the white truck disappear down a small alleyway. Fuck. I give orders t
o the men behind me. Horse turns around to try to corner him on the opposite side and I keep on his tail. A bead of sweat rolls down my face. I crank up the A/C without taking my eyes off the road. The defensive driving courses the Navy forced me to participate in help me during times such as this. They were fun, but I never found them to be practical. Ironic.
A shrill sound ricochets the cab of the truck—my Bluetooth ringing. My satellite phone is only used for work, so Molly is the only person who has that number. Fumbling with the steering wheel, I hit the ‘accept’ button.
“What?” I roar.
Molly roars back, “She’s more persistent than a yeast infection. That’s what!”
I pause. Get to the point, Molly, I think. Sometimes women are impossible to deal with. With a man you get to the meat of the story in two seconds flat. I can appreciate feminine wiles and the fact they’re more detail-oriented, but Molly knows I’m busy right now. Yanking the wheel a sharp turn to the right, I head down the alley. One of my side mirrors scrapes on the dirty cement wall. It doesn’t make me mad because I’ll end up buying these damn vehicles anyways. It enrages me that I didn’t have the foresight to rent smaller trucks. Ones that fit down devil alleyways with room to spare. Several men jump back and press themselves against the dirty buildings as I speed after my target.
“I’m going to patch Lainey through. She won’t leave me alone.” I should be irritated with Molly for not following protocol, but the sadistic part of me wants to talk to Lainey no matter the circumstances. Will she be in a playful mood? A happy one? Will she be distraught because she’s dealing with Dax again? Anticipation of any kind is my favorite.
I hit a huge pothole filled with black water and it splashes the side of my truck, leaving a grimy film on my window. “Fine! I don’t need you to do your job anyways,” I growl, more irritated at the dirty window than with Molly.
Time and Space Page 11
