Forever Yours, Sir (Doms of Decadence)

by Laylah Roberts

  “She’s not ready.”

  “Will she ever be?”

  Nope, not really. Damn, he knew that wasn’t fair. She was here to do a job and he had to let her. Didn’t mean he couldn’t make sure that the jobs she went out on were mainly routine and as safe as he could make them.

  “Look, you can admit you made a mistake.”

  “And just let her go back on the streets?” No way. Not happening.

  “So we’ll help her find another job, one that suits her. That’s probably what we should have done in the first place.”

  He knew Gray was right. He didn’t have to give her a job, there were a number of ways he could have helped her that would have gotten her off the streets and appeased his conscience.

  So he had to admit there was another reason for why he’d offered her a job. Because he didn’t like the idea of not seeing her every day, of not knowing that she was safe, that she had everything she needed. He’d wanted her from the minute he saw her and that need only grew with every moment he spent with her.

  As soon as he'd realized how much he wanted her, he knew he had to back off. Keep things platonic, as much as his dick might complain. He didn’t want to risk her running again. So he'd been playing the part of her friend and it was killing him.

  “Look, I’ll sort it, okay?”

  Gray sighed. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ll work on her teamwork skills.”

  “And you’ll let her go out on jobs?”

  Hunter squelched his instinctive denial. “Yeah. Once she’s ready.”

  Gray nodded then stood up and left. Hunter sighed and left his office, heading down to Cady’s office. He stopped just outside.

  “Cady, we’re all going out for drinks, why don’t you come with us?” Jaron asked.

  “Thanks, but I’ve got plans.”

  “Yeah? Must be some hot guy since he seems to take up all your Friday nights,” Jaron replied.

  “Something like that,” Cady said with a laugh that sounded forced. Hunter frowned, nodding at Jaron as he left the room.

  He stepped inside. Cady looked up and smiled at him. “Hey, what’s going on?”

  “What plans have you got tonight?” he asked.

  She frowned. “I don’t think that’s any of your business.” She stood and grabbed her wallet and phone.

  “I didn’t know you knew anyone in Dallas. Who is he?”

  She blew out a frustrated breath. “What makes you think it’s a he?”

  “Don’t try to convince me you’re into women, I felt the way you responded to my kiss.” It probably wasn’t wise to remind her about that kiss but he was feeling predatory. Jealous.

  Shit, get yourself under control man.

  “It could just be a friend.”

  “Every Friday night? Who is he?”

  He didn’t have any right to ask, but it wasn’t going to stop him from demanding answers.

  “Nobody, all right? I made the plans up.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to go out for drinks.”

  He closed the door, stepping in front of it when she went to leave.

  “Are you happy here, Cady?”

  She shrugged. “It’s fine.”

  Now there was a glowing response. She was unhappy and he hadn’t realized. Fuck, he didn’t want that.

  “You don’t sound happy.”

  “Well, I kind of thought that by now I’d be doing more than sitting around on my ass and answering the phone. If you wanted a secretary you should have hired one.”

  “So you’d rather get out on jobs, is that what you’re saying?”

  She placed her hands on her hips, looking up at him with sparks in her eyes. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. You can’t keep me in this office forever, Hunter. I can understand why in the beginning, I’d have been a hindrance. But I’ve been training with Jaron and Tiny. I’m good, Hunter.”

  “You’re right.”

  She opened and closed her mouth, looking at him in confusion. “I am?”

  “Yes, you need to start somewhere. But before I send you out there I have to be sure that you know how to work as part of a team and so far I’m not seeing that. You have to open up and let people in. You’ve erected this barrier between you and everyone else and that’s not how a team works.”

  She narrowed her gaze. “It was just drinks. I’ll be fine when I’m out on a job.”

  “Will you? Are you certain?”

  “I’m here to do a job, that doesn’t mean I have to be everyone’s best buddy.”

  “No, you don’t. You don’t have to go for a drink with them or see them outside the job, but you do have to trust that they’ll have your back and they need to trust that you will have theirs.”

  “I will. I might not be the easiest person to get to know and I didn’t take this job to make friends, but I promise you that I will have their backs, no matter what. I worked with everyone fine when I was pretending to be Jacey, didn’t I?”

  He narrowed his gaze, staring at her. She meant every word, in fact she’d sounded almost passionate.

  “You’ll be just as careful with your own safety,” he stated.

  “Yes, of course.”

  Hmm, that hadn’t sounded as convincing as it should have. But he had no right to hold her back.

  Chapter Four

  “Last address on our list,” Josh said. “This guy isn’t going to be here. He’s probably in Mexico by now.”

  Cady climbed out of the truck, looking over at the run-down apartment building where one of their target’s girlfriends was supposed to be living.

  Leonard Doran was a weasel of a man who’d been stealing money for months from a charity. Cady hated scum like him. He’d managed to make off with nearly a million dollars before someone had spotted the discrepancies. He was the son of one of the board of trustees and no one had suspected him.

  Now it was up to them to track him down. The charity hadn’t wanted to go to the police and risk scaring off their other donors. She wasn’t sure how they were affording their fee, but that wasn’t her problem. Her problem was finding this asshole and hopefully getting some of the money back.

  She and Josh had been chasing down false leads all day. She could understand his frustration, the likelihood that this idiot was still in the city was pretty low. She followed Josh across the street, looking up and down the road. This area was by far the worst location they’d been in all day. A hooker glanced over at them, sizing up Josh briefly before falling back into an alleyway.

  Wise choice.

  Josh might have a slight build, but he carried an air of confidence. He wasn’t an easy target and she had no doubt it was his presence that kept the group of young thugs standing on the corner from approaching them.

  “We need to be in and out quick,” Cady muttered.

  Josh glanced over at her briefly then he turned to stare at the youths. “Maybe you should wait in the truck. You can sit in the driver’s seat with the doors locked.”

  She stopped and looked up at him in exasperation. “I’m not some delicate princess. I’m paid to do this job, same as you.”

  Hunter had finally relented and sent her out on a job. So far, everything had been routine and fairly boring, really. But one thing she’d figured out is that the men who worked at Black-Gray Investigations were all protect-the-woman kind of guys. She was meant to be their partner not someone to be coddled and watched over.

  “Yeah, except Hunter won’t kick your ass if I come back injured.”

  “Hunter isn’t going to blame you if I get hurt, why would he?”

  Josh gave her a disbelieving look. “Why indeed?”

  He started up the steps. She growled under her breath with exasperation. What the hell had Hunter been telling them? She’d made an effort to be part of the team, well, she’d put on a good pretense. But she was determined not to become too close to anyone.

  Although she kind of wondered if she wa

s kidding herself. These were good guys, Rusty would have liked them. The more time she spent with them, the more she liked them too.

  “We’re just getting used to have a woman on the team. It’s just going to take some time to get used to you.”

  “Well, I don’t need watching over and I don’t want to be treated differently. Just pretend that I’m Tiny.”

  Josh’s lips twitched. “That takes more imagination than I’ve got. You’re a lot chattier for one thing, and you definitely smell better.”

  Cady shook her head, falling silent as they climbed the stairs to the fourth floor. Screaming voices came from the apartment they were here to check out.

  Josh reached for his gun, pulling it out. Cady did the same. They cautiously approached the door which was open slightly.

  Perfect.

  A man’s voice yelled and then there was the sound of glass smashing. Josh gestured that he was going in. Cady nodded and braced to cover him. Josh slid through the door, Cady following him.

  They crept down the short hallway toward the noise. Had they been in a better neighborhood, she’d be worried about the cops turning up, but it was unlikely any of the neighbors would call the police.

  The yelling hid their presence nicely as she peered into the living room. The place was smashed up, furniture overturned, glass spread over the floor. But it was the two people in the room that held most of her attention. A naked, scrawny man was crouched behind a sofa. A tall, red-haired woman, with a thunderous look on her face, stood across the room. She picked up another vase and threw it toward the man as he raised his face above the back of the sofa.

  “Damn it, Sheryl!” he yelled. “Stop fucking throwing things at me!”

  “You’re a two-timing, rotten bastard,” she screeched. “How dare you cheat on me! I was slumming it with you, the only reason your little prick got anywhere near me is because I thought you had money. Instead you kept me on the side in this cheap, nasty apartment while you go around fucking other women.”

  “Sheryl, please, you’re the only one who ever meant anything. Why do you think I came here? I’ve finally hit payday, honey and I want to share it with you.”

  Sheryl snorted, clearly not impressed.

  “You’re fucking full of shit, Lenny! Where they hell would you get any money from?”

  “I took it, from that stupid charity I work for. We’re rich, baby. Come on, calm down and let me get dressed, then we can get out of here. I’ve really gotta leave town.”

  If he’d been smart, he’d have been long gone already.

  “You stole money from a charity? What kind of sick bastard are you?” She reached for something else to throw.

  Josh gave her a nudge, indicating that she should take Sheryl as the woman threw a small mirror that had been hanging on the wall. Glass smashed everywhere. Cady had a feeling she should have asked for hazard pay. Adrenaline pumped through her, filling her veins. This was it, they’d found the asshole. He was going down.

  She stepped forward, raising her gun. “Both of you, freeze!”

  Both occupants turned to them, looking shocked.

  She kept her gun on Sheryl, even as part of her cheered the other woman on. Leonard Doran was a weasel who deserved to be used as target practice.

  “Who are you two?” Leonard demanded from where he still crouched on the floor.

  “UPS,” Cady told him. “Who the hell do you think?”

  “We’ve been hired by that ‘stupid charity’ you stole from,” Josh answered. “Did you really think you were going to get away from stealing from kids, asshole? Get up and put your hands over your head.”

  “Just stay right where you are, ma’am,” Cady warned as Sheryl snarled at Leonard and took a step forward.

  “Just give me five minutes alone with him,” Sheryl said. “He’ll wish he’d never been born.”

  “Oh, I think he pretty much does already,” Cady said as Josh stepped toward Leonard. He put his gun in his holster before reaching for his cuffs. Leonard sprung forward, catching them all by surprise. Josh fell to the floor with the weasel on top of him.

  “Josh!” Cady yelled. Josh let out a grunt of pain before Leonard jumped to his feet and headed toward the open window.

  “He’s going out the fire escape!” Sheryl yelled.

  Cady fell to her knees beside Josh, horror filling her at the blood welling up from his chest.

  “Oh my God.” She started shaking, old memories assaulting her. Rusty with his chest covered in blood, bleeding to death right in front of her as she’d tried in vain to save him.

  “Cady, I’m fine! Cady! Snap out of it. It’s just a bit of glass. Get Hunter on the phone, get him here now. I’m going after that bastard.”

  Josh jumped to his feet and headed toward the window. Cady snapped back into the present.

  “Stay here,” he yelled as he moved back onto the fire escape.

  Like hell. No way was she letting another partner down. She opened her phone and called Hunter. It was a company phone and all of their phone numbers were entered into it.

  “Cady. What’s up?” Hunter replied.

  “We found Doran. Josh is in pursuit. Josh is injured, he was stabbed in the shoulder with some glass,” she said quickly as she raced down the fire escape. It creaked under her weight, but she figured if it taken Leonard and Josh’s weight it could take hers.

  “Where are you?”

  She quickly told him.

  “Okay, wait in the apartment. We’re twenty away.”

  She spotted Josh running around the corner of the building next door.

  “Cady, did you hear me?” Hunter snapped. “Stay there.”

  “Can’t. Josh is injured. I’ve got to back him up.” She hung up, knowing Hunter was going to be furious. But honestly, he expected her to wait?

  Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, they gave way beneath her. She fell to the ground with a thump, groaning loudly. Her ankle throbbed as she stood, but she pushed the pain away.

  Ignore it. Just keep going.

  She ran down the alley to where she’d seen Josh disappear. Pausing at the end of that alley she was hit with the choice of heading left or right. Damn it, this place was a maze. She grabbed her ringing phone, setting it to silent. Hunter.

  Then she spotted a splash of red on the ground. Blood.

  Cursing silently, she raced down the alley to her right.

  ***

  Hunter swore as he got Cady’s voicemail again. He was going to kill her. How dare she ignore a direct order and then refuse to answer his calls.

  “Can’t you go any faster?” he snapped at Jaron.

  Jaron glanced over at him tensely. “Going as fast as I can, Hunter.”

  Hunter drummed his fingers against his thigh. He hadn’t expected this. By all accounts Doran was a pencil-pushing geek. Hunter had expected him to be long gone and even if they had found him, he’d figured he’d go down easy.

  “We’re five minutes away,” Jaron said tensely.

  Hunter knew he was acting like an ass, but he couldn’t help it.

  He was fucking terrified.

  ***

  Cady came to a sudden stop, her heart skipping.

  Fuck!

  Josh had Leonard. That was the good part.

  The bad part was the gun aimed at Josh’s head. On the other end was a young kid, about nineteen.

  What the hell was the kid doing?

  Josh was straddling a naked Leonard who was face down on the ground. The kid had obviously snuck up and caught Josh by surprise.

  Luckily for Cady, the kid was half-turned away from her and all his attention was centered on Josh. She pulled out her gun and slowly crept up behind him.

  “Put your hands on your head than stand up real slow like,” the youth ordered.

  “How am I supposed to stand if my hands are behind my head?” Josh asked, a hint of frustration in his voice. “I’ll fall forward.”

  The youth was silent for a moment.