His heart ached.
“Stella.”
She slid down in his sheets and breathed in the scent of him.
“I’ll be okay. I just need a nap.”
He didn’t believe her, but he had an idea.
If his girl wanted whirlwind, he would give it to her. He had the perfect plan.
It was genius.
And it was going to catch him a wife.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Purgatory
Sarah held her own.
It was a show he wouldn’t want to miss.
As the place got busy, so did his girl.
Who knew?
She was slinging drinks, and she’d pulled off her blazer and men were shoving tips in her tank top whenever she bent over.
Dakota wasn’t thrilled about that part—what man would be—but he was fascinated by everything else.
His girl was totally different when she wasn’t carrying a badge.
She slid beers down the bar, she high fived patrons, and she also rang the bell on the wall when some guy gave her a hundred-dollar tip.
That caused mayhem, and even Julius was having a good time. They began tossing beers, and she’d catch three at a time to pop the caps on the bar top using the palm of her hand.
The show was bringing more people into the bar.
People were staring.
He was…amazed.
As was Charlotte.
When Sarah poured a pyramid of shots and lit them on fire, the patrons went bat shit insane.
She knew how to work a room.
Dakota didn’t know she had this in her. In fact, there was a lot he didn’t know. Quiet, mild, meek Sarah Valley had clearly tended bar, and for a while.
When she saw Charlotte signal her, Julius helped her onto the bar top, and she took a bow.
Then, she leaped off into Dakota’s arms.
He hadn’t expected it, but one thing was for sure. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
“Well, how’d I do?” she asked when he put her down.
She began pulling money out of her shirt.
“They don’t even tip me, and I scare them,” Charlotte said. “How did you learn to do that?” she asked.
“My dad owns a bar in San Francisco. Okay, my dads are gay, and THEY own a bar. I grew up serving alcohol to a wild crowd. Wednesday night was leather night. I got quite the education—much to their horror.”
Charlotte laughed. “I dig her. You ever need a job, bunny, you got it.”
She called her that and all the men in the bar began chanting it. She curtseyed for them.
“Needless to say, I got your invite,” she said, handing him a paper.
Sarah counted her tips. “Here’s almost a grand for your help,” she said to Charlotte. “I’ll make up the rest when you have your day off. If you think I can handle it.”
“Wear fewer clothes and if you have tattoos, go with that. The men here…they are badasses, but there are two things they won’t ever do.”
“Uh, touch my girl because I’ll burn the place down with them in it?”
Charlotte laughed. “No. They don’t hurt the ladies. That’s why the guy you’re looking for won’t come here. He showed once, and I booted his ass out the door. These men respect women. In fact, they revere them.”
“What’s the second thing?” she asked.
Charlotte lowered her voice. “They will kill a cop, so if you tell them anything about your past, you won’t make it out alive.”
They looked at her.
“Please. You both have the stench all over you. I know a cop. Feds?”
“US Marshals—both of us.”
“Were,” Sarah said. “Now we’re just hunting some really bad guys for our family.”
That hit Dakota at his core.
They were his family.
Ragtag.
Motley.
But his.
Yeah, they mattered.
“You have a safe place here, Sarah and Dakota. Be careful on that boat, and play dirty, rich guy. That’s the only thing they’ll buy. Sarah, slut it up. You look too wholesome.”
She grinned. “I can do that.”
Julius whistled. “Yo! Momma! Get your ass back to work. You think you own this place?” he asked.
She winked. “Back to the show. Be safe out there. Bad times are brewing. I can feel it coming.”
Dakota put Sarah’s blazer back on her and was greeted with a chorus of boos.
Some of the guys even called him her father.
When they got outside, he wasn’t saying anything.
“Are you upset?”
“There’s a lot I don’t know about you, Sarah,” he said, leading her down the sidewalk.
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
He didn’t reply.
She stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
“Hey. Don’t block me out. You have this irritating habit of clamming up when you are pissed.”
“I’m not mad.”
She stared at him. “Prove it.”
He yanked her roughly into his body, locked his arm around her waist with one arm and grabbed her hair at the back of her neck. He forced her mouth to his in a scorching kiss.
People walked around them as Sarah couldn’t move. She was helpless and it turned her right on.
When he set her free, he put his lips to her ear. “Tomorrow, show me what you got. I’m not mad, bunny. I’m wild. My woman is incredibly hot.”
He grabbed her ass and then continued back down the sidewalk toward their ride.
Holy shit.
Dakota Rakin, Mr. Serious, may have just melted her brain. She couldn’t even string a sentence together.
Oh, tomorrow, she’d show him hot.
Scorching.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
The best thing about his hidey-hole was its location. He could slip out the back, and no one would even notice him. That was saying a lot, considering he was a giant.
As he walked down the street, he was thinking about what he had planned. If his Stella wanted whirlwind, he could give it to her. Only, he was going to take it to a whole other level.
When he got home, the fireworks were going to begin.
She deserved it.
What he’d figured out as she told him what was bothering her, was that he wanted her in his life more than anything. Right at that moment, he could be hunting Chesky Jensen, but he wasn’t.
He was with her.
That said it all.
Keeping his heart safe was more important than avenging the death of his sister.
That was his defining moment.
When he swore he’d never back off, Stella’s love had made him change her mind.
Now he was going to do what she asked—except, she was going to go forward—not backward.
She wanted a redo?
Oh, well, he had one thing better planned.
He was going take their courtship on one hell of a ride.
Then she’d see the truth.
They were made to be one.
And no one could stop that.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Chartres Street
When he was doing the searches, he found something that might just help them out. It appeared that Chesky had family—a brother. It was buried pretty deep. The brother changed his name and had taken his mother’s maiden name, but Rogue had found it.
This tablet was sweet.
He hoped that Sarah, when they were done and left, would leave it with him.
As a parting gift.
It would help in his business.
At least he’d found something. Now they had the name of a man who might know where they could find his brother. If not, they hoped he was ready to meet his maker.
Zayn wasn’t going to leave anyone standing for long.
So, he copied the address and the man’s name.
Rogue was about to call Dakota when he h
eard the kitchen door open in the back of the house.
Odin barked, but not for long.
So he figured it was them.
Heading in, Rogue was just in time to see Sarah trapped against a wall and Dakota pillaging.
Seriously raiding the sexy woman village.
He cleared his throat.
Dakota looked over. “Please tell me you haven’t picked THIS moment to feel like talking.”
He laughed. “Well, no, but I found Chesky’s brother—his genuine blood brother. You can carry on. I’ll go rough him up.”
“Question not rough up,” Dakota clarified.
“Were you just questioning her? I only ask because that looked like the verge of being roughed up.”
Sarah laughed.
“We’re going with you,” she said.
“We are?” Dakota asked, staring down his body at his erection. She knew it was there because she’d been fondling him through his jeans.
“Yep.”
She leaned into his ear. “Save it for tomorrow. No sex until then. You wanted slutty, well, I’m going to blow your mind.”
He swallowed.
“I had fun tonight,” Sarah said, as she ducked beneath his arm.
Rogue dropped his arm over her shoulder. “Do tell me all about it, bestie. I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
Dakota glared at him.
“I hate you!” Dakota said, knowing the man was trying to push his buttons.
Well, screw it.
Tomorrow night, he was getting slutty, undercover sex, and that would be a first. He wasn’t risking that.
For that, he’d let Rogue have his fun.
All three of them pulled off their shirts in the living room and grabbed their gear. Dakota helped Sarah Velcro into hers. Then she returned the favor.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to get you some of the good stuff,” Rogue said. “Your Kevlar is government grade—as in civil servant grade. I’ll get you government secret militia grade.”
Sarah gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, bestie!”
“SARAH!” Dakota warned.
“What? He wants to keep us alive.”
“Her,” Rogue said. “Him…ehhhh.”
She winked at him.
“I’m taking the plates out of your gear tonight,” Dakota threatened.
Rogue didn’t buy that at all.
“So what has you so jazzed tonight?” he asked as they began tucking guns into their body armor, belts, holsters, and anywhere else they thought they’d need it.
“Sarah was playing bartender at ‘Purgatory’. She had them eating out of her hand.”
Rogue glanced over. “Charlotte let you behind HER bar? That woman is territorial of all her shit.”
“Yeah, see. That’s the issue between you both. You and her…definitely would not work,” Sarah said.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
She was pointing out something he’d always tried to figure out.
“Rogue, you’re an alpha. You’re quiet, but you’ve got to be the boss when it comes to working. You let Dakota run this because it’s a little too legal for you. The second it goes to shit and back, you’re driving the bus.”
He didn’t speak.
“Charlotte, she’s big time alpha, even if she came across as a sweet girl when you started dating her. I could see it as I met her. She babies that bar like it’s the gate of her kingdom. You both would clash because you were too much alike. I bet you fought about everything.”
He nodded.
“Yeah, you need someone more like me. I’m not alpha. I let Dakota boss me around all the time. I like it. I’m a sick ticket.”
Dakota laughed. “At first, I thought I was going to get angry with the ‘like you’ part. You saved your ass, bunny.”
She snorted.
“Do I want to know?” Rogue asked.
She laughed. “That’s apparently my alter ego, and he likes it.”
“Hell, yes, he does,” Dakota stated.
Sarah continued, “You need someone who isn’t all alpha and bossy. That’s what tripped your relationship up. You come across as someone who’ll sit back and take orders, but I can tell that you’re not that man.”
“I’m not. Do you know you’re the first person that pegged me like that?”
“It’s the job. I read well. I also learned how to in the gay bar. I had to read the ones who were really gay, and the ones who were there to make my dads’ lives miserable. They ran illegal gambling.”
Rogue stared at her.
“The way to my heart is right in that sentence. If you ever get sick of him, I have a pony that you can ride right to the ticket office.”
“HEY NOW!”
He looked over. “What? It was a figure of gambling speech.”
She laughed. “Rogue Ravenscroft, you’ll find her. I’d bet money on it. Hey! I know!”
“Please say threesome. Please say…”
Dakota hit him hard.
“Jesus. I know who’ll be the top,” he teased.
“I’ll be working the bar one Saturday.”
“NO!”
She took his hand. “She won’t be there. I bartered our boat invites for a night off for her and that I’d keep Julius in line.”
“CHARLOTTE agreed to this?”
“Yes. Will you come? Maybe we can all go. You know…like a team. Happy hour. Yada-yada.”
It was hard to say no to Sarah. She was like everyone’s kid sister. It was all that blonde hair and big blue eyes.
Then it was the way the babe handled a lighter and her gun. It was pretty sexy.
“If she won’t be there, then I’ll go—for you.”
She gave him another kiss. “We’re like a family,” she stated. “We have the grumpy old dad,” she said, pointing at Dakota, “the troubled son, the son who gets into fights and punches holes in the walls, and the sexy younger mother who can sling beers. Oh, and the doctor who gives us that cream for a rash.”
Dakota laughed.
Rogue too.
“Bunny, let’s get moving.”
They headed for the door.
“Who are we visiting?” Sarah asked.
“His name is Sebastian Henson, and he might be able to tell us where we can find his brother—Chesky—before you have to hit that floating gambling ring.”
“Does that mean no slutty bunny?” she teased.
“God! I want to be a fly on that wall,” Rogue teased.
Dakota didn’t blame him.
He would too.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Zayn’s
Lair
They were getting worried as they sat outside the man’s home. They’d watched him go in, but he’d yet to come out. Being in the busy part of town, this was going to be an issue.
At least at the other place, they could sit in the park across from their location and hide in plain sight.
While the street was getting busy as the people started bustling around, they knew they were going to have to move soon.
“What’s the plan?” he asked.
“We have to pack up. They’re going to sit in there for a while. He’s holed up.”
“We can kick in the door.”
“Are you kidding me? One, it’s the middle of the city, and two, we don’t know what he has behind that door. For all we know he’s got a pack of German Shepherds and a firearm arsenal. No, we have to regroup. We can’t get to her.”
“Then what?” Chesky asked. “This is cutting into my evening plans. I usually gamble on the boat. I’m taking tonight off for you.”
“Well, you are getting paid.”
“Yeah, that’s true. You pay well. He’s offered up a shitload of money so far.”
“Yeah, and he has so much more. We are going to switch the focus. The group of people he’s hired are watching Stella. So, we’re going to make it harder. Let’s play a little game and see who is smart enough to play along.”
“Are pe
ople going to die?”
“Oh, yeah, and then it’ll get interesting.”
“Promise?” he asked. “I’m bored. When I’m bored….”
“I know. Just give me a couple more days. I’ll make you so damn rich, you’ll like being bored.”
Well, since it was put that way…
He’d take the risk.
Chapter Seventeen
Zayn’s private
Home
Monday
Evening
I t took most of the afternoon, but he managed to pull off what he’d planned. He’d set up the whole living area of his home to make sure that he gave Stella a distraction, and exactly what her heart needed to be free.
He got it.
She was scared.
Well, he was going to fix that. Zayn hoped this worked. He didn’t have a lot of experience with relationships, but he’d wooed a few women in his life. Of course, none of them were anything like his sweet Stella. They never went beyond a couple dates. They never felt like a perfect fit like she did.
Now he was going to show her how he felt. He sucked at communication, but maybe, this would be the way for her to see what lived in him.
He’d put his phone beside her bed, and set the alarm. It was about to go off. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be too upset. It took everything in him not wake her from the slumber.
She looked so sweet with her hand tucked under her chin, and her nose was red from crying.
Stella was his own personal angel, and she was struggling. Zayn knew it was because of the abduction. There was no way she wasn’t strong and tenacious. She’d fought hard to get through medical school, so she had that drive in her. He wanted to get her back to that point with some TLC.
He wanted to comfort her.
Protect her.
Love her with all he had.
When he heard the alarm going off, he waited for her to stop it. Then, he put ‘Operation Stella’ into play.
His fingers were crossed.
This was going to be huge.
Atonement: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book One) Page 25
