Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two)

by Morgan Kelley

  Oh, something was up.

  Then doubt began creeping in, screwing with her. It was that confusion that ALWAYS made her angry.

  Was Rogue Ravenscroft playing some kind of game, too, and behind her back? She couldn’t help but think that maybe he was in on this too.

  His words kept haunting her.

  ‘I don’t know who killed her.’

  She didn’t believe it then, and she wasn’t believing it now. A cop walked into the same house he’d left. Had the man gone behind her back and contacted her partner?

  Was there a conspiracy?

  Worse...

  Did he lie?

  Well, holy shit!

  That man was going to get his ass kicked if it was the last thing she did. He was going to explain why her partner, not her, had access to the house he’d been seen leaving the previous day.

  What the hell kind of fool did he think she was? He sat there, staring her in the eyes, and lying to her face.

  And she’d taken it easy on him.

  She fell for it!

  If her partner and his wife, who, AT ONE TIME, was a Fed, were going into a building that Rogue had come out of, then something was definitely going on.

  Yeah, and she knew what.

  She was being left in the dark because she didn’t have the FBI connection.

  BULLSHIT!

  She was going to get to the bottom of this. Since she didn’t see him arrive there, and she didn’t have the code to this building, she would go to the one place she did have an access code.

  He said to ring the bell.

  Well, she was going to ring HIS bell.

  Cordelia put her car into drive, pulled into the traffic, and headed toward the man’s freaking mansion.

  This was only the beginning.

  She was going to kick his ass.

  WHY?

  Oh, how about for lying to a cop?

  No.

  For staring into her eyes and lying to her.

  To Cordelia, that was unforgivable.

  Chapter Nine

  B oone was all kinds of excited to be working something on the DL for the FBI. It wasn’t that he didn’t love his job as a cop, but his wife missed work, and he wanted to watch her in action all over again. He couldn’t help himself.

  It turned him on. Smart women got his juices flowing, and Merry was the smartest woman he knew.

  Plus, it was one hell of a mystery.

  Yesterday, when he and his partner saw this house, they’d thought it had been tied to the whole killing. Now that he knew it was a safe place, it made his day to head there with his wife.

  They were about to work together on something.

  It made him smile.

  The spirits were alive, and they were guiding him on this journey. He was also happy because his wife was smiling. A happy wife was a happy life.

  It broke his heart that Merry missed being on the job. She knew that when he almost died, and her stalker almost got her, she had to walk away.

  Merry did it for him and their unborn child.

  Now he wanted to give her something back.

  Boone could see the misery in her eyes when she asked about his day on the job. It worried him that at some point, she’d get bored with being a wife and mother and leave him. Giving her this little adventure was the least he could do.

  This would be a nice reprieve from the motherhood thing.

  At the back door of the luxurious house, after walking down the elegant cobblestone path, they could hear people talking just inside the open patio doors.

  Well, it looked like it was time to get down to business, and they were going to do just that.

  Merry had a bounce in her step as she approached the door. Eagerly, she knocked and stepped back.

  A large Native man appeared.

  “Are you the scientist?” the man asked gruffly.

  “Yes, I’m Merry. Elizabeth sent me. She mentioned you needed some carbon removed from documents.”

  She held out her bag and he looked inside. There were beakers, bottles, and gloves.

  He grunted.

  “Okay, come in.”

  They followed the big man into the house, and they took it all in. The place was plush, and that wasn’t surprising. Callen liked giving Elizabeth all of the pretty things in life. The three of them had waded through enough death, destruction, and bodies that they deserved it.

  “Thank you,” she stated, walking in right behind him.

  “What will you need?” the big man asked. “You know, other than the things you brought.”

  “A table, a light, and some time. I can likely pull most, if not all, off of the papers. I won’t be able to repair anything burnt, but carbon spreads. It’s like lighting a match. That black gets everywhere when oxidation occurs.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “In here,” he stated, as they walked into the room. In that second, two things happened.

  Dakota stood and pulled his gun to point it at the man right behind Merry.

  “What the hell?” Zayn said spinning to see what unknown enemy was behind him.

  The two visitors raised their hands.

  And then Hell broke loose.

  * * * H U N T E R * * *

  Rogue Ravencroft’s

  Home

  To say Cordelia was pissed would be an understatement.

  As she drove to the man’s home, Cordelia became more and more angry with each passing mile. She was pissed that he’d lied to her, and she was enraged that she’d been excluded from that house.

  He’d lied to her!

  She hadn’t caught it.

  Why?

  HIM.

  The man distracted her with his ‘woe is me’ act, and she fell for it.

  Hook.

  Line.

  Sinker.

  Well, that was done. There was no way she’d be an idiot regarding him from this moment out.

  NO WAY!

  She was going to show him what happened when you obstructed a case with the local police. Could she arrest him?

  No.

  Could she drag him to the police station to make his life miserable as hell?

  Oh, yeah!

  That was the best plan yet. She was going to march in, drag his elegant ass to her car, make him sit there in silence, and then browbeat him in interrogation.

  He’d humiliated her and to her face.

  Yeah, that wasn’t going to fly.

  As she pulled up to the gate, she used the code she’d seen him enter. The entire time, she crossed her fingers and prayed that it wasn’t some code that changed on a daily basis.

  The element of surprise was going to be in her favor this time.

  Yeah.

  It was her turn to control the situation.

  As she punched in the last number, the big iron gate began opening, and she drove up the driveway.

  As soon as she reached the top and hopped out of her car, it was game on.

  Storming toward the house, she banged on the door and waited for him to answer.

  When he did…she was going to kick his ass.

  BIG TIME.

  Inside his home, Rogue was working out in his private gym and thinking about her. The whole night, all he could focus on was the woman who’d thrown him off step.

  His dreams were plagued with Cordelia Harding, her gardenia scented hair, and her badass attitude.

  She was prickly.

  Abrasive.

  The cop in her made him bristle, but the woman beneath heated his body with so many thoughts that were illegal in most of the States.

  Yeah, she made him horny as hell, and nothing seemed to satiate that.

  He’d tossed and turned all-night.

  He’d finally fell asleep at dawn to be awoken by Dakota and more damn issues. Still, she was on his mind.

  Only her.

  Not his thievery.

  Not his livelihood.

  HER.

  Yeah, it was a shitmess.

&nb
sp; In the end, he’d come up with one, and only one, conclusion.

  He wanted her.

  God!

  The universe was a joke. If there was a higher power, someone, who liked to torment humans, this was proof. He’d placed a woman in front of him that made him feel, but also made him angry.

  She was his antithesis.

  Cordelia was a cop.

  He was a criminal.

  She played in the lines.

  He lived outside them.

  What the bloody hell was he supposed to do now that she’d dogged him for a whole day, and all of his night? He was edgy, cranky, and trying to calm down.

  That was why he wasn’t at work.

  When he had finally crawled out of bed, he, immediately, looked outside to see if she was sitting in her car. He was going to apologize for whatever he did.

  Yeah, and the fact that the second she was gone, he had done his research.

  Her father was a criminal. In fact, he was currently locked up for thievery.

  Great.

  That was going to be an issue since that was EXACTLY what he did to make money.

  Then Rogue researched her mother.

  She had an arrest record a mile long and wasn’t going to win any parent awards. In fact, she was likely why Cordelia was tough, picked being a cop, and didn’t take any BS. Like Zayn, she’d been taking care of herself for a long time.

  It gave them a veneer of unapproachability.

  Until you got to know them.

  Cordelia was clearly the woman she was today because of her past. She’d made herself into the opposite of what she’d seen growing up.

  Her life…it had been hard.

  Rogue got why she’d run last night, and he didn’t blame her. To someone like her, what he was…it would be a mar on her life.

  That made him worry.

  No, it scared him stupid.

  He was her worst nightmare, and he knew it.

  Still, that she’d been a foster kid that no one wanted, kicked around, lost to the world, and still had the balls to fight her way out of it…

  That alone made him want to surround her with softness. He had a soft spot for the opposite sex. He’d watched his mother give up love because she fell for a horrible human being, got pregnant, and never dated again.

  He’d watched her heart break every Valentine's Day.

  Every birthday.

  Every holiday—as she waited for some sign from a man who didn’t deserve her love. It made Rogue want to take care of women who were damaged.

  Oh, and that was an issue.

  He was feeling an emotional attachment to a cop.

  A COP.

  Jesus Christ!

  He was screwed.

  As he angrily noticed she wasn’t outside that morning, he realized that he wouldn’t see her again. He realized that she would avoid him at all costs.

  He’d tasted her once, and now it was over.

  It made him want to rage around in some angry tirade.

  Not at her.

  No.

  At the universe.

  He’d played this game once. He’d given away his heart once, only to have it kicked around like it didn’t matter. Charlotte had been the ONLY woman he’d ever thought about spending forever with, but it crumbled.

  Ironically, the year with her was nothing to the one dinner date with Cordelia.

  In that hour, he’d felt…everything.

  And now she would never face him again.

  Hope sprung and was mowed down in one night. Rogue hated fate and the universe.

  Loathed it.

  Rogue didn’t know if he could find the strength to chase down a cop. He didn’t know if he could bring himself to do it. What he did know was the next time their paths crossed, IF they crossed, he wouldn’t let her slip away.

  He’d crawl.

  He’d beg.

  He’d…

  Yeah, it didn’t matter. It was never going to happen. So now he was standing in his gym, angry at himself, angry at the world, and angry at life.

  Never before had his temper been this frayed. Normally, he was pretty chill. As he worked out, punishing his body, he thought about her.

  Above him.

  Beneath him.

  Begging.

  Wanting.

  He thought about what he would lose in that too. He thought about his battered, betrayed heart, and he didn’t know if he could do it.

  She’d turned him inside out with one little kiss, imagine what she could do with the promise of love.

  He’d fall for it. Rogue knew himself.

  In his head, he was berating himself over what had happened last night.

  Why did she have to show up at his home?

  Why did he go outside to bring her in from the storm?

  He should have listened to Dakota. Rogue should have avoided the detective, and now it was far too late. He had woman on the brain, and it was devouring him alive. The next time he saw her, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself.

  He wanted her.

  Desperately.

  When you could buy the world, you always wanted that one thing just out of reach.

  Cordelia Harding was that lure, and he knew it.

  As he lifted the weights, making his body sing in pain, he heard the beep of his security on the monitor across the room. He knew from the tone what it was.

  Someone was opening his gate by entering the code.

  It wouldn’t be Joey.

  He’d given him the day off. Rogue was going to be at the base house with their team, working on tonight’s game plan. They were going to be dropping in on a little sex ring drop tonight.

  Oh, and he had to get the key to Purgatory for Sarah, and if he knew Dakota, likely take a few shots to his face too. It was going to be a fun, fun day in his shitty life.

  But that posed an important question. If Joey wasn’t coming in, and the people he loved were at the house in the French Quarter, who was accessing his gate?

  There were only a few people who knew the code.

  Sarah.

  Dakota.

  Zayn.

  His mother.

  He’d talked to Grace before, checking in on Peony after he’d gotten off of the phone with Dakota. Grace was at home and wouldn’t be leaving.

  He was confused and then worried. He thought back to what Dakota had said. New Orleans was turning against them.

  Could this be someone who bought access to his sanctuary?

  His heart thumped.

  As he headed toward the security monitor, he heard a pounding on his door. When he accessed the cameras, he saw her there.

  She was scowling.

  Jesus.

  She was back.

  God!

  He was going to have a party. Immediately, his dick got rock-hard at the prospect that the prickly cop was there.

  He was amused.

  Cordelia must have seen the code to his gate when he accessed it.

  Well, that was sneaky.

  He could appreciate that on some deep level. It looked like they had a lot more in common than he had thought. She played dirty.

  He liked that in a woman.

  Heading up from the gym on the lower level, he moved quickly to his door. He couldn’t believe she was there—delivered like a prize from the universe.

  Could he get this lucky?

  As he pulled it open, ready to welcome her and maybe offer up some coffee, she attacked.

  Well, verbally.

  “Who the bloody hell do you think you are?” she asked, shoving her finger into his tattooed chest.

  It caught him so off guard that he actually took a full step back, allowing her access into his home.

  She didn’t back up.

  In fact, Cordelia was inches from him, and they were standing toe-to-toe. Her face was right in front of his, and she looked…

  Beautiful.

  She was gorgeous when she was angry. The detective reminded him of a wild stor
m, and he fell for her even more.

  “Pardon, Detective?” he asked, finally able to speak.

  “You lied to me. You looked me right in the face and you lied your ass off. What the hell is your problem?”

  He didn’t know how to answer that.

  Yes, he lied.

  They did know who killed Charlotte. Only, if he shared that with her, she’d be in danger. While she was tough, she wasn’t New Orleans underground tough. They played by different rules, and she’d be a walking target.

  “I don’t know…”

  “You’re lying,” she stated, moving him back as she moved further into his home. Her finger repeatedly stabbed him in the chest as she laid into him.

  She was furious.

  Why?

  Because she trusted him.

  And liked him.

  A lot.

  “You distracted me with your whole act, and I fell for it. I actually left here believing you. Well, I have news for you, Mr. Ravenscroft. I am going to ride your ass hard for this. I’m going to be everywhere you are. I’m going to dig my very eager fingers into everything related to you. I will find out what’s going on. I will find out why you came out of that house on Chartres Street along with my partner entering it today.”

  Well, shit!

  She knew about their base.

  Only, he had no freaking clue what she was talking about when she talked about her partner going there.

  Something had gone down.

  “I’m going to find out what the hell is up there!”

  Shit!

  If that happened, Zayn was going to kill her.

  Rogue knew he needed to do something, anything, to save her life. While he and Dakota were chill, Zayn was ALWAYS the ‘shoot first and hide the body later’ kind of guy.

  “You need to stay out of my business,” he stated. “You need to stop digging around in it!”

  That infuriated her.

  Not ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘you’re right’. No, he went with bossing her around. Oh, no. She was the cop.

  He was the suspect.

  AGAIN.

  “Oh, I’m not going to do any such thing. You, sir, are about to really hate seeing me,” she said, giving him a push.

  Then she turned to walk away.

  That infuriated him.

  She was running again. Cordelia walked into his world a second time, stirred him up, and was bailing.