“No, you shouldn’t have. You know, those women are just trying to survive. They’re not all saints or anything, but they all have their reasons for stripping.”
He nodded and stopped washing my hand, his eyes locking on mine. “I realized that when Chief came to Reed Security and talked with my boss and me. There was a trafficking ring being run in the area. Chief was trying to help take them down.”
I jerked back in surprise. “Wait, there were women being taken? For sex trafficking?”
“Yeah.”
Something niggled in the back of my brain, but my brain was still sluggish from everything that had happened recently. I closed my eyes, trying to remember why that sounded familiar.
“That’s what he meant,” I said to myself when it finally dawned on me. “There was this guy at the poker game. He had really evil eyes and he was very…anyway, he pulled me into his lap and said something about me being a good example of the merchandise. I kind of figured that it was something along those lines, but hearing it confirmed is just disgusting.”
Sniper was quiet, not saying or looking at me as he moved on to my other hand. I watched him, waiting for some reaction, but it was like he didn’t want to look at me. “What is it?”
He didn’t answer. He just kept rinsing the washcloth, pouring on more soap, and continued washing me. I wanted to ask him again, but I figured that he would either tell me when he was ready or I would pry it out of him later. He cleaned my foot up and inspected the cut on the bottom.
“It looks pretty good. Rocco did a good job cleaning it up.”
“I would hope so. He’s your medic.”
He gave me a wry look and patted my foot. I pulled it back and slid my other foot over to him. After cleaning that foot, he rinsed the washcloth again and worked on my legs and then up my stomach. The rag slid over my skin, the soap bubbling up in a thick lather. I watched as his eyes heated as he moved up to my breasts and gently cleaned my nipples. The roughness of the rag against them had me moaning slightly under my breath. I did my best to keep him from hearing it, but the way his eyes darkened told me that I hadn’t hidden it as well as I had hoped.
He stood and moved behind me, putting his legs on either side of my body. It was a tight fit, but he managed, snuggling his hard cock against my ass. He massaged the cloth into my neck and into my shoulders as he cleaned me. As he wiped the rag down my arms, he leaned in and kissed my neck. I tilted my head, allowing him better access. The rag was still running up and down my arm, but I wasn’t sure at this point if he was even paying attention to what he was doing.
He switched arms and ran his tongue along the back of my neck, sending shivers down my spine. His tongue swiped at my ear, licking the inside of the shell and trailing behind my ear and back down the side of my neck. All I could do was feel. Every touch from him was like fire licking at my skin. His hands slid around to my breasts, slowly letting his fingers trail down the sides and underneath. He was teasing me, torturing me until my hands were gripping onto his legs and I was pushing back against him.
My body clenched when his hand slipped between my legs and he washed my most intimate area. Soon the cloth disappeared and his fingers were all that were on me, rubbing and then pushing inside me. His magnetic touch erased all thoughts of the disgusting men that had touched me there before. This was passionate, whereas the others had just seen me as a warm and wet fuck hole. Someone to use and easily discard.
In all honesty, I hadn’t been with anyone since Matt. I had my daughter and until Sniper came along, no one else had even made me think about sex. I was instantly attracted to Sniper, but that was something I would never tell him.
He moved suddenly, his cock brushing against my back as he stood. He pulled me up from underneath my arms and spun me around, slamming his lips against mine. It hurt and when I tasted blood, I whimpered from the pain, but then he was licking and sucking away the pain and blood. It wasn’t my lack of energy that had my knees wobbling. He pushed me back slightly, his arm waving around behind my back as he shut the water off. Then I was up and wrapped around his body as he carried me into the bedroom. I fisted his hair as I pulled him in closer to me. All I could think about was how he made me feel, and hell, I wanted to feel something other than despair over my missing daughter.
When he laid me down on the bed and slid between my legs, something more intimate, more electric flowed through our joined bodies. It was like we were finally coming together as more than just what we could provide each other. This was the connection I had been craving for years, for someone to hold and dream of the possibilities of more.
There were no barriers between us this time. I had a birth control shot and he finally trusted me at least a little. He didn’t look away from my eyes once as he continued to pump inside me. Even when he lowered himself so our bodies were gliding against each other and he kissed me like I was the most precious thing in the world, his eyes were still laser focused on mine. When I shattered, he followed, pulling me to my side with his cock still resting inside me. I felt him soften and slowly slip out of me.
His fingers lightly traced my arm and his soft kisses to my forehead made me feel cherished. But then he tensed, almost like he had caught himself doing something he shouldn’t have. I had to remind myself that we didn’t really know each other. Everything we knew about each other was based on sex and lies. We probably should have cleared some of that up before jumping back into bed together.
I pushed up on my elbow and smiled at him to lighten the mood. “I’m Morgan James.”
He stared at me in confusion and then grinned back. “Chance Hendrix. Nice to meet you.”
I laughed lightly. “Chance is so much better than Sniper.”
“No one really calls me that anymore. Just Chief. And I like Morgan a lot better than Shyla.”
I grimaced at the name. “I never liked it either. That’s why I chose it. I didn’t want a name I liked to be associated with my profession.”
His eyes sobered and his fingers pushed my wet hair back from my face. “My boss is looking into your daughter’s disappearance. We’ll do everything we can to find her.”
“I was beginning to think that I would never find her,” I said quietly, trying my best not to cry. I was tired of crying. If I let myself feel too much or think too much, I slipped into a depression that took days to pull myself out of.
“We will find her,” Chance promised. “We will get your little girl back.”
“Where do we even start though?”
“We’ll go to Reed Security. Becky, our IT specialist, has been going over your daughter’s case. She can look for anything that might have been happening around that time, anything suspicious. Cap will be going over the details to see if there’s anything the police missed.”
“Who’s Cap?”
“He’s my boss.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you all want to help me? You don’t even know me.”
“We became involved the minute Chief came to us about the trafficking ring.”
“But those are two separate issues. I was only there because I was looking for my daughter and someone pointed me in that direction.”
“And you don’t think that’s a little suspicious? That the same men that could know about your daughter or have some insight into the men that took her are also involved with abducting women?”
“I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way. I mean, I knew it was a possibility that something similar had happened to her, but I hadn’t considered that they could be the same people.”
“We’ll find out more later today. For now, you need to eat and drink more water. I’ll go get you a tray.”
He slid from the bed and I sat up also. I didn’t want someone waiting on me hand and foot.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I can go and-”
“No, you’re not. You were extremely dehydrated and you need to take some time to rest until you have more energy. And
you’re not going to have more energy if you start walking around the house before you’ve even eaten.”
“So, I’m just supposed to sit here?” I asked incredulously.
“Yeah, it’s called relaxing.”
“But I-”
“No,” he said, holding up his hand. “If I catch you even trying to sneak around the house, I’ll chain your ass to the bed.”
I glared at him, but he just winked at me like he wanted me to try it. He didn’t really seem like the kinky kind, but I supposed everyone had fantasies. He bent down and kissed me and then he was gone. I sank back down into the bed and closed my eyes. I might as well do as he said and relax.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sniper
“HOW’S SHE DOING?” Gabe asked as I walked into the kitchen.
“Better. I need to get her some food.”
“You haven’t fed her yet?” he asked incredulously. “Rocco went up there hours ago. She’s gotta be starving.”
“I had to help her shower.”
“For three hours?”
“She was dirty,” I said, trying to make it sound believable.
“He was fucking her,” Jackson said as he walked into the room eating an apple. “I went upstairs to get some shuteye and I heard moans and all kinds of shit coming from the room. I’m gonna need noise cancelling headphones so I can sleep at night.”
“She’s that loud, huh?” Gabe grinned.
“No,” Jackson shook his head. “It wasn’t her. It was him. I wouldn’t have minded hearing her, but damn, I don’t want to hear the shit that I heard coming from a dude. It felt like I was participating or something.” He shivered in revulsion. He was being such a baby. It was just sex.
“What kind of stuff are we talking?” Gabe asked.
“Why? Should I make a video for you to watch?” I shot back.
He shrugged nonchalantly. “Put a bag over your face and I won’t have to think about it being you. I wouldn’t mind seeing your woman naked. If she’s got the body to be a stripper-”
I heard the word stripper and lost it. Without thinking, I slammed my fist into his face, partly to shut him up, but mostly because nobody called Morgan a stripper. “You fucking know that she isn’t actually a stripper.”
He massaged his jaw and glared at me. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Fuck, I was just pointing out that she had a good enough body to dance on the stage naked.”
I reared back and threw another punch. His head snapped back and he just barely stayed on his feet. “Fuck, man. What the hell? Can’t stand to hear the truth?”
“She’s not a fucking stripper. She was trying to get her kid back.”
“Yeah, by being a stripper.”
I slammed my fist twice into his ribs. He doubled over in pain, gasping for air as he cradled his now bruised ribs. If he kept talking, I was gonna hit him in the kidneys and he could piss blood for a week. “Fuck, if you don’t want me on your team, just say so.”
“I don’t want you on my team,” I deadpanned.
He wheezed through the pain, shaking his head. “Just be glad you didn’t see her strip more than once. You can’t even stand to hear me talk about her profession. Could you imagine seeing all those men stuffing bills down her thong?”
“That’s it.” I walked over to the counter and grabbed a knife from the butcher block and stalked back toward him. Jackson shook his head, eyes wide as he stood in front of me.
“Think about this, man. He’s your teammate and you…” He glanced over his shoulder at Gabe. “You don’t normally want to kill him.”
“He needs to learn when to shut the fuck up.”
“Who needs to learn to shut up?” Alec asked as he walked into the kitchen, eyeing the knife in my hand.
“Gabe’s running his mouth about Morgan posing as a stripper,” Jackson said carefully.
Alec stretched out his fingers and cracked his knuckles. “Cool, so, we’re like, teaching him a lesson on how to speak nicely about a stripper?”
“She’s not a fucking stripper,” I yelled.
“Well, technically-”
I threw the knife down, intending to go shut Alec up, but Jackson yelled, grimacing in pain.
“What the fuck! You just threw a fucking knife in my foot.”
I looked down and sure enough, the knife was protruding from the top of his boot.
“Oops. I did not mean to do that,” I said, holding my hands up in a placating gesture.
“I don’t give a fuck if you meant to or not, asshole.” He swung and I didn’t move. I had it coming after all. The force of his punch was more than I thought it would be and I flew backwards into Gabe.
“Fuck!” he yelled. “You just hit my ribs.”
Gabe shoved me back to Jackson and he shoved me away just enough that I slammed against the front of Alec.
“Let’s all just calm down,” Alec said, right as a fist was flying at my face. I ducked and Jackson nailed Alec right in the nose.
“You fucker! Why the fuck did you punch me?”
“I was meaning to punch him. He stabbed me in the fucking foot!” Jackson yelled at Alec.
“Then warn a guy next time. I would have fucking moved,” Alec yelled back.
“Oh yeah, that would have worked out real well,” Jackson said sarcastically. “Hey, Chance, I’m gonna punch you in the face. Watch out, Alec. Don’t put your face in front of my fist.”
“You don’t have to fucking say it. Wink at me or jerk your head.”
“Wink at you? You want me to fucking wink at you?”
“Yeah, I’d probably back away because I’d think you were hitting on me,” Alec snapped back.
“Fine,” Jackson shouted, then turned to me. “Hey, Chance,” and then he winked at me right before turning and slugging Alec in the face again.
“Son of a bitch! What the fuck! That’s twice you’ve hit me when you were supposed to hit him,” Alec pointed at me, holding his cheek with the other hand.
“What? I winked first. Didn’t you see it?”
Alec picked up the chair by the table so fast that no one saw it coming. Not even Craig, who had walked up behind him. The chair slammed into Craig’s head and then Jackson’s when Alec threw the chair at him. Craig momentarily stumbled, dazed from the hit to the head, but then ran forward, slamming into Alec like a freight train. I leapt out of the way, slamming into Gabe as Alec and Craig slid across the table.
Gabe shoved me off him and then Alec rolled off the table, landing on top of me when Craig gave him a hard shove. The breath whooshed out of my lungs and Alec’s knee dug into my back as he tried to scramble away from Craig. I struggled to my feet just as Gabe tackled me from behind at the same time Jackson ran at me. The force of Gabe’s attack made me slam heads with Jackson and then everything went fuzzy.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Morgan
I WAS STARVING and I couldn’t wait for Chance to get back up here. I was about to chew off my arm, so I decided to just head downstairs and get some food myself. I was a little wobbly on my feet, but a good meal would fix that. I slowly made my way down the stairs and heard yelling when I reached the kitchen. A woman was sitting on a bar stool by the island just a few steps from me. She was eating and watching something with a grin on her face. I followed the direction of her gaze and saw Chance yelling at one of the men.
Walking over to her, I tapped her on the shoulder. “Uh, what’s going on?”
The woman turned to me and I got a good look at her face. She had a slender face with high cheekbones and blue eyes. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a messy bun and the crows feet on the sides of her eyes made me think she laughed a lot.
She stood up and I stepped back to look at her. She was tall and skinny, like really skinny. But she was muscular, so she didn’t seem like a waif. She pushed a stool over to me and pointed to it.
“I’m Florrie. You should sit down. The boys will be awhile.”
I took the seat she offered and looke
d over at the guys yelling at each other. “I’m Morgan. So, what’s going on?”
She popped some cheese in her mouth and then slid the tray over for me to take some. I gladly pulled off several slices and grabbed some crackers out of the packaging.
“It seems that Gabe insulted you, called you a stripper, which Chance took offense to. He punched him when he continued to clarify that you had actually been stripping. So, Chance kept punching him. At some point, Chance grabbed a knife.”
“Seriously? Was he going to use it?”
She shrugged. “I don’t think so, but it wouldn’t be the first time someone was stabbed by another teammate.”
“And you guys are all friends?” I said hesitantly.
“Yep,” she said cheerfully.
I looked back at the guys, trying to see what she did. “Is that a knife sticking out of that guy’s boot?”
“Yeah,” she snorted. “Chance ‘accidentally’ threw the knife into Jackson’s foot.”
“How do you accidentally throw a knife into someone’s foot?”
“Right? There are no accidents with these guys.”
I watched as one of the guys picked up a chair and hit the guy that came up behind him and then smashed it into Jackson.
“Okay, so what’s going on now? Who are we rooting for?”
She picked up another piece of cheese and held it between two fingers as she tilted her head, like she was thinking about how she wanted to answer. “Well, it’s hard to say. I don’t know that anyone’s actually on anyone’s side right now. They all just seem to be hitting each other.”
“Does this happen a lot?”
“Not really. Usually they’re checking out each others’ waxing jobs.”
I choked on my cheese, hitting my chest to help it down. Florrie shoved a bottle of water over to me and I quickly drank it down. “Like, they wax for the job or something?”
“No,” she said nonchalantly. “It’s usually to please a woman. Although Chris and Ice did it to Jules as a joke because he couldn’t remember anything.” I looked at her in confusion, but she just waved me off. “It’s a long story.”
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