He didn’t care.
He shut her up by kicking her legs apart and rubbing the head of his erection against the wetness.
She moaned.
“Please,” she begged.
“Please what?”
“Take me.”
“You took off your ring,” he said, fighting that anger with the only thing that could squash it.
Lust.
He was going to take what was his.
Sarah.
Was.
His.
“I’m sorry.”
“Say it with this,” he said, sliding his dick deep within her ass, giving her no warning.
She gasped.
Dakota shoved her back against the glass, pressing her naked body against it.
Could people see them?
He didn’t care.
He needed this.
With all he had, he began moving, and with each thrust into her body, she came up off her feet.
She begged.
Not for him to stop.
For more.
Dakota focused on the goosebumps that raced across her flesh.
“They can see you,” he whispered in her ear.
She came.
He wasn’t even touching her clit.
His sexy Sarah liked the wilder side, and so did he. Well, now that the cat was out of the bag…
He continued fucking her. That’s what it was. When his hand landed sharply on her ass, she gasped.
“You’ll never leave again!” he ordered, biting her on the shoulder.
She whimpered in lust.
“Say it!”
“I’ll never leave!”
He pressed his body against hers, so she could feel that feeling of never escaping. He yanked her ponytail to the side, and she shook.
Sarah liked it rough.
They could never go back.
He kept her head trapped, as his body destroyed hers. She was begging, and the wetness between her legs gave her away.
“If you leave me, Sarah, I will hunt you down, drag you back, and take you until you submit.”
She begged for more.
“GOD! YES!”
He continued his assault, refusing to set her free.
“He’s watching you down there,” he whispered, even though there was no one there. “They all are.”
She breathed heavier.
His body couldn’t last much longer. Seeing Sarah this wild, this turned on, and this crazed was making him insane.
“Dakota! Please! Make me cum!”
“I own you, Sarah!”
She whimpered, as he reached between her and the glass and found her clit. He tormented her slowly.
“God!”
“You’re mine, Sarah. See how your body needs mine?” he whispered, slowing down his strokes and fingers.
“Yes! God!”
Dakota couldn’t hold out much longer. He was making them both insane.
“Be mine,” he whispered. “My only.”
“YES!”
Dakota felt her shaking, and he knew the end was near. With a few quick strokes, he brought them to the edge.
As she came, his name on her lips, he poured into her body, leaving kisses down the long column of her throat.
As they fought the pleasure to stay upright, he didn’t set her free.
“That was…something.”
He didn’t disagree, but he didn’t let her go.
“Uh, the window is chilly.”
Dakota didn’t let her move.
“You took that ring off once, Sarah, and the next time, you won’t like the outcome. Don’t make me be that bastard.”
Her heart skipped.
“You can’t leave me. Ever.”
“Dakota.”
“I mean it. I will chase you down, drag you back, and we will be locked in a room until I can show you that you are mine.”
He knew how that sounded.
Dakota knew the crazy threat wouldn’t work, but he needed it. Deep down, for him to be okay, he needed to know she’d be his.
“I’m sorry. This is the man you fell in love with.”
She struggled to get free. When she did, he backed away from her, sure he’d scared her.
Hell!
He scared him.
“Sarah…”
She stared at him.
“I’m sorry.”
“For? You didn’t mean it?” she asked. “So you didn’t mean what you said?”
He was going to lose her.
“Yes, I meant it. That’s me. I’m possessive, dominant, and insane.”
She laughed.
“Deal.”
“What?” he asked, actually shocked.
“I don’t want just the sexy talk, Dakota. If that’s the man you are, be him. I want all of you. I won’t leave, and if for some reason I do, you have my permission to drag me back and lock me in a room until we are all sexed out.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“My Sarah.”
She went to him and hugged him.
“Forever, Dakota. Forever.”
He held her and thanked the powers that be.
He was going to be okay.
Why?
Sarah Valley.
She saved his soul.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Twenty Minutes
Later
When they came down, Rogue and Zayn both stood and began clapping like lunatics.
Dakota simply dropped his arm over Sarah’s shoulders and held her close. What went on between them had been huge. His insecurities were protected, and he believed she would stay.
That was all he wanted.
“We heard the desk,” Zayn said, grinning.
“Assclowns,” he muttered, taking a seat. Thank God they hadn’t been outside looking up.
They would have seen a lot more.
“Leave him alone,” she said, slapping both of them as she walked by.
“Sarah likes it rough,” Zayn teased, only to get her father’s attention in the now quiet bar.
“PARDON?”
“Rogue! Stop with your ventriloquism!”
He choked on his beer.
Sarah stared right into Dakota’s eyes.
“I do like it rough with him,” she admitted, shamelessly. “Sometimes a bad girl needs a spanking.”
Zayn choked on his beer too.
Dakota grinned.
And that was his Sarah—rescuing him.
“Let’s talk about tonight,” Dakota said, he enjoyed the looks on Rogue and Zayn’s face. Let them think what they wanted. He and Sarah were okay.
They were back.
“If you two are done,” he began. “We go in, we get Mercedes, and we take WHOEVER we can.”
“Full firepower?” Zayn asked, knowing he had to get the gear ready. The weapon room in the house didn’t have everything they needed. It had Fed gear.
It needed mercenary gear.
“Yeah. I don’t want to lose anyone. I want to do a full interrogation when we are done. Are we clear?” he asked.
“The cop is out of the house, right?” Rogue asked.
“Yeah, and Stella was supposed to keep them out of that basement.”
“We have to dump the body,” Sarah stated. “My DNA is all over him. I’m also in the system. If he turns up.”
“Well, he had better not turn up!” Preston stated.
“SHHHHHHHH!” Zayn stated. “Working here.”
He lowered his voice.
“I can help.”
“No, we need you here to listen. Once we hit Rosemary where it hurts, there will be chatter.”
He got it.
“Don’t worry about the body. I’ll do it after the operation,” Zayn stated. “I have a spot. We can’t call my friend who sells organs. He’s rotten by now, but he’ll use him for something. There’s a high going rate on nameless corpses for people who want to pretend they’ve died.”
“You are an intere
sting person,” Preston stated, “in a serial killer kind of way.”
He snorted.
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Like you’re the first man to call me Daddy,” he teased.
Zayn blanched.
“Jesus.”
Sarah laughed so hard.
“Focus,” Dakota stated, but it wasn’t easy. He wondered if he could get his sexy Sarah to call him Daddy.
In bed.
Maybe later.
“You guys do your thing, and I’ll make sure we have some tech devices, so we can scan before we get to the area. I don’t want to be caught off guard,” Rogue said. “And wear a knife home with me.”
He pointed at Dakota’s side.
“I need a partner,” he stated. “I don’t work well without one.”
“I’ll be your backup,” Rogue stated, “old man.”
Har-freaking-har.
Sarah realized they didn’t think she was going to join them. Well, she wouldn’t let him go in without her.
Dakota was a menace.
Before she could say anything, Rogue’s phone rang. He pulled it out and read the screen.
“Hold on. It’s Peony’s nanny. Something might have happened,” he said, worrying about his daughter.
They let him take it.
“Yes, Suzette? Is Peony okay?” he asked, as everyone watched him. He wouldn’t have taken it if it were anyone else, but this was his kid.
“She is fine, sir, but your mother is not here. She left a while ago.”
That caught him off guard.
He knew her schedule.
HELL!
He made it for her.
“What do you mean she’s not there?” he asked, still confused.
“She took Peony for breakfast this morning like you approved, and when she came back, there was a cop waiting for her.”
That alarmed him.
Immediately, he thought of all the illegal things he’d done that could get his mother in trouble.
SHIT!
That was bad.
“What was the cop’s name?” he asked, borrowing a pen from Sarah as he prepared to scribble it on the napkin.
“I don’t know, sir. She was tall, had blonde hair, and a blue car. She took her.”
HOLY FUCK.
“She took her?”
There had never been a sentence that terrified him more. Cordelia, the woman he thought understood, hadn’t.
She’d gone after Grace.
“The butler made them coffee, and then she got them into her car, and left. We had to watch the security footage of when she left. I looked at her schedule, and thought she was napping.”
It was official.
He was going to kill the detective. If Cordelia was harassing his mother, in her attempt to find Charlotte’s murderer, there would be another body.
HERS.
“Okay,” he said, hanging up.
Dakota opened his mouth, and he stopped him.
“Don’t!”
He closed it. Bad winds were blowing, and Rogue’s face said it all.
Immediately, he dialed another number. He had private security for his mother. She had a tail whenever she left the grounds.
It was his way of ensuring her safety.
“Mr. Ravenscroft, what can I do for you?” came the familiar voice.
“Where is my mother, Joaquin?”
“She’s having lunch right now. She’s sitting outside Jakes Burgers. Why?”
What the holy, bloody Christ was this?
She left the house, not telling anyone where she was, and she was eating burgers at some dive?
WHAT.
THE.
HELL?
“I’ll be right there to get her.”
He hung up without asking any more questions.
“If you’ll excuse me, I have a detective to murder,” he stated.
“Need help?” Zayn asked, handing him the keys to their ride. They could walk home.
“NO, I needed to sever this connection, and she just gave me the biggest way to do it. My fucking mother is off limits!”
“Uh, maybe you should…”
And then he was gone.
“Ask her calmly what was going on,” Sarah said, finishing her sentence after the fact.
“Well, any bets on how that’s going to go?” Zayn asked.
Dakota pulled out a fifty.
“Badly.”
They all joined in.
There was no doubt about that.
“I feel bad for the cop,” Zayn stated, and then he laughed. “NAH!”
“I hope he’s coming back,” Dakota stated. Two people on a mission…yeah. That wouldn’t work.
Instead of worrying about it, he did what a leader did.
They got down to work.
They had an innocent woman to save.
And a plan to hatch.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Four Twenty-Five
Chartres Street
Storm was feeling better. Her time there was helping her get back on her feet. All she could hope was that these people, whoever they really were, would let her stay until she was strong enough to leave.
She had no family and going out into the world…it would end her. She knew she was suffering from PTSD. She was having dreams, flashbacks, and she was skittish.
Going back to the FBI seemed so out of reach. Knowing that every single person she’d see there would know what happened to her—it was too much to take.
It was like her private life was dumped out for everyone to root through and judge.
Plus, the pity...
It made her sick to her stomach.
Here, at least, she was safe.
For now.
As she sat on the couch, Gamble came in and handed her a cup of tea. It was like he read her mind. She needed that comfort right about now.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Miss St. Clair,” he said, sitting near her. Over the last two days, she’d seemed to relax around him. The tension lines were no longer on her face. She seemed to be at peace—well, as much as someone who lived through that hell could possibly be.
“Storm,” she corrected. “My name is Storm. While he had me, he wouldn’t let me use my name. I was nothing to him, and I need to be someone.”
Gamble was a tough man. He’d seen some pretty atrocious things in his career, but he could only imagine what Storm was living.
He glanced over at her.
“Are you sure? I know you’re not fond of people, and especially men, but I’d love to use your name—if you’d do me that honor.”
She patted his leg without looking at him. There were few people she’d let this close, but he was tasked with protecting her. That was EXACTLY what she needed.
Protection.
“I’m good with you using it. You seem like the type that could keep a person safe.”
He laughed.
Protection wasn’t his true skill, but it paid the bills. His game was intelligence and secrets. He was good at finding them and selling them.
BUT to make her feel better, he went with it.
“I once had to babysit a royal prince. He liked tequila and hookers. Let me tell you…that was a rough night. He lost his pants, his money, and nearly his life. I lost all hope that this world was going to survive our evolution.”
She laughed.
“I’m glad you laughed,” he stated. “You have a pretty smile,” he admitted.
“Do I?” she asked. “He made me feel ugly. He made me feel like I was nothing.”
“Oh, Storm. He’s the one who was nothing. He wanted control, and to dominate you. Only, you beat him.”
He patted her hand on his leg.
“Thank you. I needed that.”
“I can see that. You’ll get better, Storm. One day, you’ll wake-up, and you’ll be able to do this alone.”
GOD.
She didn’t know if that was ever going to be poss
ible.
“How do you know that?” she asked. “How do you know I will?” she whispered, tears in her eyes.
He saw her struggling, and the male part of him wanted to protect. It was ingrained in his species, and he couldn’t help it.
Female.
Softer.
Gentler.
Needing more.
Storm was a beautiful woman. He wasn’t shocked they took her. She would be someone, who that sick fuck would prize. It was the hair, the full lips, and her eyes.
Her name fit.
They were stormy.
“Because what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger—isn’t that what they say?”
“It almost killed me,” she admitted. “There are moments I wish it did. It’s not like I have anyone to go home to. The FBI was my life, and now…I don’t think I can even go there. I hate them so damn much.”
He understood.
He hated quite a few things in his life too—just not this moment. Helping her made him feel…less worthless.
They all had their own demons. He was no different from her. Instead of focusing on him, he pushed on.
“But you didn’t die. You write the story from here on out, Storm. How you end it is up to you.”
He was right.
She needed someone to tell her that.
Her mind was made up.
“I can’t go back to the FBI. There’s no love lost there. They left me there for a year.”
“Can I be honest with you?” he asked, trying to help her through her anger. He knew hate.
God!
It lived in him.
Only, he didn’t want to see it make her into that soulless being—forced to wander without any chance of redemption.
“Yes, please.”
“I’ve worked under Ethan Blackhawk, stationed in Vegas, and he’s been trying to get you for a while. They didn’t forget about you. That’s not possible. When you are on a mission, you don’t leave anyone behind.”
She listened.
“You know this how?”
He rolled up his sleeve and there was the Marine crest on his forearm.
“I was a Marine, and I left them behind temporarily, but I always went back and saved who I could. Sometimes, it’s not on our time, but the universe’s time.”
She took that in.
Then shivered.
“Cold?” he asked, as she rubbed her arms with her hands. She didn’t have any meat on her bones, and the chill of the old house was tough.
Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two) Page 43
