Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two)

by Morgan Kelley

  They had to.

  “Let’s drop off the lush and then head out. We’ll see if Dakota wants to come. She’s Zayn’s issue.”

  “Hey! I am not a lush!” Stella stated, still smiling, and she wasn’t. She felt good, and in a bit, she’d feel even better.

  Rogue wasn’t listening.

  His heart hurt.

  While he wasn’t in love with Charlotte, he had been once upon a time. Now he saw that it was all lies. She played him. She stole his contacts, dug into his businesses, and never cared about him at all.

  His daughter was the proof.

  From here on out, he’d never trust a woman again.

  They were trouble.

  And that was something he didn’t want.

  Now.

  Never.

  They tried to follow the cab and the three people who came out of the building. The one was wobbly.

  Someone had gotten their drink on, and that had piqued their interest.

  Had they gone there to just drink?

  Maybe the informant was yanking their chain. Maybe it was just some underground booze hole where people went to get their liquor on. After all, quite a few people had just exited.

  Shit!

  They couldn’t lose them.

  Only, it wasn’t easy to get their car into the traffic as the tourists clogged up the streets of the French Quarter. In fact, it was a bitch.

  “You can’t lose him,” Detective Harding stated, getting irritated that they were about to be ditched in the mid-day mayhem of N’awlins.

  “I’m aware, cher, and since there’s only one steering wheel, how ‘bout you let me do my job and drive?”

  She shut up.

  “Sorry.”

  Boone was trying not to lose the threesome, but a horse and buggy were blocking the intersection as some tourist puked off the side of it.

  Ahhhhh, good ol’ N’awlins.

  “There they go!” she said, pointing as the cab rounded the corner far enough ahead that they could see it, but never hope to catch up.

  Taillights disappeared, and then it was gone.

  She punched the dash in irritation.

  “Hey! You break her, you buy her,” Boone stated. “This ride is signed out to me. I’d like to return her to the precinct in one piece.”

  She growled.

  “I can’t believe we lost him. Where would he go?” she asked, trying to outthink a stranger.

  Boone stared at her.

  How was he supposed to know? Just because they were both men didn’t make him a mind reader. They both had dicks—not one brain.

  “Uh, home?” he guessed. “Somewhere not near here. That house he came out of was around the block. Why would they take a cab this close?”

  He had a point.

  “You’re likely right. He came out with a drunk woman. He was practically carrying her. I’m going to bet he’s going home to get laid.”

  She was NOT happy.

  Their only lead—their only suspect—was in the wind.

  “Let’s head back to the office. I need to keep working on who owns that fancy house,” he said, trying to appease the anger that his partner was allowing to fester.

  “Here,” he said, pulling some beads from his pocket.

  “What’s that?”

  “You need to meditate.”

  She rolled her eyes, and the scowl was still on her face. That tact had failed, so Boone tried again.

  “You’re prettier when you smile.”

  Cordelia punched him and punched him hard.

  “Shit!”

  Yeah, exactly.

  That’s what all this was.

  A steaming pile of bullshit.

  And Detective Harding was going to get to the bottom of it—fast.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  When they got her back to the house, Stella was laughing up a storm. She was also dizzy, cursing, and out of control. There was no doubt in their minds that Zayn was going to beat them both into a bloody pulp.

  He had been antsy about her going out, to begin with, and now they brought her back two sheets into the wind.

  Shit!

  The big man was going to be pissed.

  As Rogue carried the inebriated Mrs. Thundercloud into the house, they were met by the man at the door.

  It looked like a dump and run was out of the question. They were caught red-handed.

  Zayn stared at his wife.

  “What happened?” he asked. “What’s wrong with my sweet Stella?”

  Even Dakota looked concerned when the woman laughed her ass off at the question.

  It wasn’t funny.

  That was alarming.

  Sarah took one for the team. She didn’t think Zayn would actually shoot her. Rogue…that might actually happen.

  “Uh, she met up with tequila. Someone can’t hold her liquor. We didn’t realize that until it was a little too late,” she offered.

  He stared at them.

  “How much did she drink?” Zayn asked, knowing that tequila was NO ONE’S friend. He’d been down that road a time or ten.

  “Four shots, but Julius was pouring heavy-handedly. They were really big shots,” Sarah stated. “I’m good, and Rogue is good, but Sarah…”

  “You two are the same size. How are you still fine?” Dakota asked out of curiosity.

  “Well, Dads, bar, sneaking booze. My liver isn’t exactly a virgin when it comes to tequila. There was this time in Mexico….”

  He covered her mouth.

  Fast.

  Zayn was a wild card.

  One didn’t poke the angry Native with a drunken wife. They’d taken her out sober, and brought her back…

  Shitfaced drunk.

  “Come on! I wanted to hear that,” Rogue said, as Zayn took Stella from him and carried her toward the stairs.

  “Later,” she mumbled from beneath his hand. “It was a good story too.”

  “Oh, I bet.”

  “It involved topless sunbathing,” she said, finally ditching his hand.

  “Over my dead body,” Dakota stated without a second of hesitation. “You will not be telling him that story—or anyone for that matter. Your tits are not a story to be told post happy hour.”

  “It’s five o’clock somewhere,” Rogue teased. Then he got the finger. “Spoilsport.”

  Yeah, well such was life.

  “What did you learn?” Dakota asked, knowing that they had to get something.

  Despite Stella being drunk, they didn’t appear disappointed. That told him a lot.

  Sarah grinned.

  “Charlotte had a secret place, and we have the key to it. Julius knows more than he’s telling, and we have to build a rapport with him if we want to know it.”

  “He wants intel and for us to go after Chesky,” Rogue stated. “That’s his end game. There’s no camaraderie among killers.”

  She wasn’t so sure.

  Look at them.

  “So, basically?” Dakota asked.

  “Blackmail,” Rogue offered. “We give him what he wants, or Taz, my father, is in the wind.”

  Great.

  That sucked.

  “Then I guess we need to do what we need to do,” Dakota offered. “We don’t have a choice. If that’s what it takes, I’m good with it. After all, Chesky is on our list.”

  “Our hit list?” Sarah teased.

  “Uh, just list. That’s all kinds of wrong,” he admitted. “We haven’t killed anyone in a couple of weeks. Let’s try to make that the rule, not the exception.”

  She snorted.

  “Got it.”

  “So, we follow the lead?” Rogue asked. “Asking for a friend, who didn’t play law in his last life.”

  Well, that looked like the angle they were going to have to take. They were going to chase a killer, to get justice for a bad guy, in order to save a city from going KABLOOEY around them.

  What the hell happened to their lives? Dakota really wanted to try to keep this
as legal as possible.

  Meaning?

  No senseless killing.

  “Okay, so Sarah and I are going to go dig into her hidey-hole. What about you?” Rogue asked.

  Oh, that was easy.

  He was going to monitor the inmates.

  His inmates.

  “I’ll come. I was going through the file as Zayn got his gear ready for tonight. He takes everything so damn seriously.”

  “It’s Zayn. He’s always serious,” Rogue stated. “That’s his personality.”

  “Serious and punchy,” Sarah stated, pointing at the wall where he’d left his calling card. It was a reminder not to anger the giant. He had big, beefy, meat-hooks for hands.

  Yeah, that was the truth.

  “Well, let’s go.”

  “Uh, Dak?”

  “What?”

  She told him about Julius’s parting words, and how they didn’t really have a choice when it came to solving Charlotte’s murder.

  She really needed him to understand that Julius wasn’t yanking their chains.

  “We really can’t pull punches on this, or I have to go back alone.”

  He laughed like a lunatic, and then walked over to the liquor cabinet, poured a shit ton of tequila into a glass and downed it in one shot.

  “Babe?”

  “Tell me that again in ten minutes. I want to numb my body and mind. I’ll process it later. Right now, baby steps. We are going to break and enter into the house of a woman running an illegal bar that deals in killers, thieves, and God only knows who else.”

  Rogue rolled his eyes.

  Well, when he put it that way…

  Of course, it was going to sound bad.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  Upstairs, he placed her on the bed like she was precious glass. As Zayn tried to pull away, she had her hands wrapped in his hair.

  “Where are you going?” she asked, grinning wickedly at her husband.

  “Uh, to get you some aspirin. You’re going to have a headache in about two hours.”

  Oh, she doubted that.

  It was all an act.

  She had had some tequila in her day, and this was more or less about getting Zayn alone. As of late, since his hidey-hole had been compromised, they hadn’t had any time alone. Staying at that house was awesome since she loved their new family, but she wanted her husband secluded.

  They were newlyweds.

  While Stella was buzzing, she was far from drunk. So, she watched him head away on his quest for meds.

  Only, that wasn’t what she needed to keep the headache away. Her husband was the only drug she required.

  To her, he was the sexiest man in the world. All that bulk, those big, firm arms that had so much power, and those lips.

  Yeah, she wanted him.

  Desperately.

  As he rustled around in the medicine cabinet, Stella pulled off all of her clothes and hid beside the door. When her husband came out, he headed toward their bed, but she wasn’t there.

  When Zayn turned, Stella was behind him.

  Naked.

  “Jesus,” he said, not out of fright, but the sight of a fully naked woman staring at him.

  It was the hottest thing ever.

  “Is there a reason your clothes are missing?” he asked. “Or does tequila really make people’s clothes come off?” Zayn inquired.

  Oh, Stella had an answer for him.

  She gave him a shove, and he fell backward onto the bed like a ton of bricks.

  “Uh, Stella, what are you…?”

  She jumped onto him and covered his mouth with hers to silence him.

  Well, that answered that question.

  Zayn moaned, as his wife used her mouth to drive him insane. In fact, he forgot everything that was around him and was only focused on her, the way she wiggled on top of his hips, and her breasts.

  He was a man.

  Zayn was easy.

  Since finding out that sex was probably the best thing in the world, and sex with Stella was only better, he was NOT going to stop her.

  Ever.

  He was lost in the mating of mouths as she pinned his hands above his head.

  Well, if that was what she wanted…

  As the kiss only got hotter, it was the click of the zip ties locking into place that had his attention. His wife had bound him to the headboard.

  “Jesus. What are you doing?” he asked, as his dick only got harder. He prayed what was going on in his head was the same scenario in hers.

  She grinned wickedly.

  “I’m going to have my way with you, sexy Native man. It seems you look hot in those cargo pants.”

  He swallowed.

  God!

  He was going to get lucky again today. This was definitely the best thing in his life.

  Wife.

  Sex.

  Marriage…

  Stella dug around in his pants pocket and pulled the knife out. When she flipped it open, he was watching her. It was dangerously close to parts of him he wanted to keep.

  She was drunk.

  He was bound.

  That knife was damn sharp.

  “Stella, maybe you shouldn’t be wielding that while under the influence,” he said, as she flicked off the button of his pants with a flick of her wrist.

  He held his breath.

  Christ.

  This could go one of two ways.

  He was going to be bleeding or cumming. Zayn prayed for the latter with all he had.

  “Maybe, but that makes it more fun.”

  “Uh, for who?” he asked.

  She giggled and then began cutting his pants from his body. The knife sliced through them like it was going through butter. Before he knew it, she was making his pants nothing but tatters. It looked like a wild animal had gotten to them.

  “I kill people with that knife, so…”

  She wasn’t listening.

  His pants were open, and he was there in his boxer briefs. They fit him snuggly, and he couldn’t hide that he was wildly turned on by what she was doing.

  BIG TIME.

  Stella grabbed them by the waistband.

  “I can stop.”

  “GOD! NO!”

  That was exactly what she thought, so she gave her husband what he wanted and needed.

  She sliced.

  His underwear was destroyed in seconds.

  Next, she was moving up his body and to his t-shirt. She loved the way it clung to his body, revealing nothing, but everything at the same time.

  He was big, bulky, and all hers.

  Tequila made her want to jump her man so many times they’d both be tired.

  So, she would.

  “Hello, naked mercenary. Want to play a sexy little game called take what I want?” she asked rhetorically.

  He swallowed.

  Zayn was hard.

  Stella was wiggling her bare ass on his rock-hard erection, and he was only human. After all, he’d only been having sex for a couple of weeks. He went from virgin to massive fornicator in days.

  It had been a wild, rough ride.

  Truthfully, it was damn impossible to concentrate on anything but her and his need.

  “Stella,” he muttered, as she cut up the shirt, then set him free from that too.

  He was bound, naked, and horny.

  Stella got up, flicked the knife closed, and then ran her fingers across his body. One of the things she liked the most was her husband was almost hairless.

  Natives were not a hairy bunch.

  Well, this Native wasn’t. She didn’t know what others looked like naked, and she didn’t think Zayn would want her to find out to do a comparison.

  Then again, she didn’t really want to either.

  His body enthralled her.

  The man didn’t have any hair on his chest, and very little anywhere else. He was sleek, smooth, and a powerful man.

  It made her wet.

  “If you were in the mood for sex,” he began, �
�we could have…”

  She shut him up by taking his erection in her mouth and blowing him.

  Zayn’s body bowed.

  It was Heaven.

  It was Hell.

  What he wanted was to sing her praises as she blew him like a drunken date.

  This was pretty awesome.

  His legs shook.

  “Stella, I’m going to cum if you don’t stop,” he begged as his eyes crossed.

  The joy of only being with one woman meant there was no comparisons. To him, she was the hottest lover in the world. She was his only lover.

  And she’d always be his only.

  In a world of killing, death, and ruin, he had that one pure thing that no one else could take away from him.

  Zayn Thundercloud had his wife.

  “Stella! Please,” he begged.

  She mumbled something and then ran her nails down his thighs.

  That did NOT help his situation out.

  He begged.

  Pleaded.

  Shook.

  Just as he was about to cum down her throat, she set him free. Zayn was breathing heavily.

  “Stella,” he growled, as she ran her hand down her breast, across her side, and to the wetness between her legs.

  “Want to taste me?” she whispered, moving closer.

  Did he?

  Fuck, yes!

  All he ever wanted to do was taste his sweet Stella. It was what all of his fantasies were made of in life. They’d only been married a couple of weeks, and he couldn’t get enough of her.

  He was hungry.

  Ravenous.

  Starving.

  “Please,” he begged, staring at her wet fingers.

  She grinned wickedly and then climbed up his body to straddle his face.

  It caught him off guard.

  “Stella,” he gasped, and then was handed his favorite part of her body on a silver platter.

  That was all it took.

  Zayn devoured her.

  His mouth moved over that swollen, delicate bud, and he made her shout his name. While he couldn’t move, he could enjoy his wife grinding her sexy body against his very eager mouth.

  He was never so hungry.

  She came.

  And came again.

  And finally, on the third explosion, she couldn’t take anymore. She finally collapsed onto the bed beside him.