Oh, Zayn was aware.
“I’ll go,” Stella offered, pulling her gun.
Both men dropped to the floor.
“You know, that’s getting old. I may accidentally shoot both of you if either of you do that again!”
Zayn laughed.
The funniest part was that neither he nor anyone in the house did it to tease her. They were genuinely worried about getting shot.
“Accidentally, huh?”
“Well, you might be on purpose.”
“How about me?” Sarah asked, walking into the room eating an apple. “Think I can handle it?” she asked.
She, too, was in her gear, and Dakota had never seen a more beautiful woman.
He was up and moved toward her.
“You’re coming?”
“Of course I am. I can’t let you go anywhere alone. You get stabbed.”
He kissed her, and she tasted tart.
His whole body sung in joy, especially when that rock of a ring glittered on her finger.
Yeah, his babe was back.
“Why the hell does Sarah get to go?” Stella asked. “She’s a girl!”
“She doesn’t have a pink gun with sparkles,” Zayn stated. “I told you that would bite you in the ass. Aren’t you sorry you didn’t listen?” he teased.
There was no freaking way his wife was going.
NOT EVER.
“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered.
“That’s three. We should be good,” he said, knowing that was bullshit.
“Four,” Sarah stated.
“Four?” Dakota asked. “Who is the number four? Is Rogue coming?”
“I am,” Gamble stated, from the door. He was in gear, and ready to go.
“Yeah, no,” Zayn stated. “I don’t trust you to have my back.”
“Are we going there again?” he asked.
“You betrayed Marines!”
“I was doing my job for the Marines! You don’t know the whole damn story!”
Sarah stood between them.
“We need his help,” she stated, putting her hand on Zayn’s chest. “We get you have a personal issue with him, but you have to let it go, Zayn. Gamble is needed, and he’s more than capable to do the job.”
He glared at him.
“He’ll fuck us over.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” he stated.
“Why not?” he countered.
He was done with this.
“Fine. I’m calling Blackhawk. He’ll pull me out. Since you have such hatred toward me, a person you don’t even know, I’ll walk away. I always had my team’s back. There’s a whole side of this you don’t know.”
Dakota knew they needed him.
“I’ll let him have my back,” he stated. “Sarah, you have Zayn’s, and Rogue is in huge amounts of shit over not showing.”
“He called me,” she stated.
She didn’t tell him what happened, but she did say one thing.
“What he did… it made you look like a saint on the woman front.”
“Oh, that bad?”
She nodded.
Dakota pointed at Zayn. “Can you live with Sarah having your back?”
“No.”
He sighed.
“What?” she stated.
“I prefer Bunny. She’s fucking nuts.”
That made her laugh.
“Well, that I can do.”
“Rogue had better be working on that gambling party tomorrow, or I’m going to kick his ass myself,” Dakota stated.
“I’m sure he is,” she reassured.
“Okay, then Gamble is in, and we’re going to head out. I want to get there HOURS before they do the drop, so we can make sure we have the place surrounded. We need to get Mercedes back. She’s been in their hands for far too long.”
Speaking of which…
“Can you check on Storm every so often?” Gamble asked Stella. “She’s reading now, but she doesn’t do well if left alone for a long period of time.”
She smiled.
“I will bring up some tea and check on her.”
“Thank you.”
“Okay, well, if that’s settled, let’s head out. Mercedes needs to be brought in.”
Yeah, at all costs.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Cordelia Harding’s
Small Home
For a couple of hours, she tried to work. She walked around New Orleans, thinking about the whole thing, and it was too much for her to handle.
Cordelia was so hurt.
And it was all her fault.
Her gut had told her to run. It had told her that anything to do with the man was going to be a disaster.
Still…
Yeah, she hadn’t listened, and now she was going to pay for it too.
Her eyes were red from crying, her gut was raw from that bile that rose up, stripping away her guts.
Now she was hiding.
Never, did she see this coming. Yeah, she expected any relationship she started with Rogue to be doomed from the start, but she never thought he’d cut her with his words. She expected Grace to hate her.
Not Rogue.
“Those kinds of people,” she whispered, over and over again, thinking about her whore mother and her criminal father. “Life blows.”
And it did.
Going to her freezer, she found a pint of chocolate ice cream, that she only ate in case of an emergency, and this was definitely that.
She grabbed it, and a jar of peanut butter, and headed for her couch.
To mope.
To mourn.
To get over a man she shouldn’t have any feelings for in the first place.
Tomorrow was a new day, and she was going to go back to work. Charlotte Shaw needed justice.
She was on her own.
And Cordy was fine with that.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
It took him HOURS to find her. At first, he headed to the police station, thinking that if she were going to run, it would be to a familiar place.
She hadn’t.
Then he started searching the internet to find her home.
Well, it was damn hard to find a cop’s home online. They were omitted, so every wackjob couldn’t track them down and harass them.
Like him.
Clearly, he was insane after what he’d done. Rogue was so worked up over having a shot with Cordelia, that he’d lost his mind, acted like a fool, and hurt her.
His mother was right.
He was a jackass.
Finally, after about three hours, fifty calls he avoided from Dakota, and one stop at the grocery store, he was able to locate her.
She lived in a tiny saltbox on a street that he’d never normally go down. It was lined with houses of people who were working class, trying to make it in life. It was a place where before her, he wouldn’t look twice at.
You couldn’t steal anything from them.
They weren’t rich.
It was also a row of homes that he envied. He wondered what it would be like to live in one, and to know that he fit in. He wouldn’t be a Ravenscroft, or rich. He wouldn’t be half-white, half-Native and fully fucked up.
In a way he envied her.
As he parked across the street, he saw the tidy lawn, likely mowed by her. He saw the planters with no flowers since it was still a little too brisk.
Rogue saw the pretty rose bushes, that he imagined she tended. Then he saw the real woman. She was simple but complex. She was tough, but she was soft.
She was sitting on her couch, watching TV.
Alone.
God!
He knew how that felt. He knew that emptiness, and it killed him that he’d been so horrible a human being that he’d used anger and his words as a weapon.
He hated that he put tears in her eyes, and proved that people like him were, indeed, assholes.
Money made him forget, and he’d never do that ever again for as long as he lived. If he couldn’t g
et her to forgive him, he’d never forget her.
He was in love, and now she was, once more, out of his reach.
In that moment, he didn’t want to take her to his home. He wanted to be invited into hers, and that boat had sailed.
Still, he had to try.
So, he turned off his engine, grabbed the bag of things he’d brought, and headed toward the door. When he knocked, he heard her coming to the wooden door that looked like it had been recently refinished.
He would bet she did it herself.
That enthralled him.
His detective wouldn’t need anyone to help her. She’d be capable, tough, and strong enough to figure it out for herself.
Yeah, and that captivated him.
And horrified him.
He’d broken her. He’d done something no one else managed to do, and he regretted it. If she forgave him, he’d give up being a thief. He’d change.
He’d beg.
As she opened the door, her surprise to see him turned to shock, and then anger.
“Go away,” she stated. “You’re slumming it with us people,” she threw back at him.
“Cordelia.”
She slammed the door.
He knocked again, and knocked, and knocked.
Finally, he drove her crazy enough to open the door.
“I said go away. You have NOTHING more to say to me, Mr. Ravenscroft. You said it all. You tore me a new one, and that’s all you get to do to me. You had your chance, and I’m done.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not accepted. Wasn’t that what you said? Forget me. I’m not good enough.”
She slammed the door again, and this time he heard the bolt, the chain, and he was pretty sure the click of her safety on her gun. Then the blinds were closed, and he was forced out.
Out of her cozy home.
Out of her gentle life.
Out in the cold.
Like always.
See, being rich had one downfall.
It desensitized you to people like it had with him toward Cordelia.
Well, this wasn’t done.
He walked off the porch and stared at the house. He could walk away, call it a lesson learned, or he could do what he knew was right. She was important to him. She was special.
He could see that when he looked at her.
Now, he had to prove it.
Going around the back of the house, he found a small deck with colorful plastic chairs, a grill, and pots that likely held more flowers.
Peeking inside, he knew this was risky. If he broke in, she could shoot him. She was a cop, and she’d have every right to do it. He, after all, broke her, and the law.
Only, he had to take a chance.
Now he’d beg.
Picking the lock, he got it open, and then entered her domain, silently popped the cover off her security system, and cut a wire. It was the base model, and if she forgave him, the first thing he was going to do was get her a new one.
To protect her.
Hell!
If she didn’t he’d still do it. Rogue didn’t want her to be in jeopardy, ever.
Inside, he looked around.
It was a mud room, where he could see she had a washer and dryer. On it was a basket of freshly folded clothes.
He didn’t know who washed his, and once more, he was jealous. There was so much he didn’t know how to do. He couldn’t fold a towel.
He wanted her in his life so someone would teach him how to do all of those things.
He wanted her.
Walking into the kitchen, it was spotless, neatly organized, and filled with feminine touches. If he had to pick a kitchen that looked like her, this wasn’t it.
It made him even more curious.
She was an enigma.
Beneath the tough, there was a girl who got pedicures with his mother but took her shooting first.
Cordelia was special. He could tell.
Placing the bag on the counter, he listened.
She was crying.
He could hear it.
A part of him died—the part that knew that until that moment at that burger place, he didn’t see all of her. He didn’t know what he really had in front of him. He’d callously taken a human soul and crushed with his own insecurities.
Well, it was time to get his ass handed to him.
Heading in, she looked up and was horrified.
“What are you doing in here?”
“I’m a common thief. If I can break into a museum, you didn’t really see this coming? Next, I was going to scale your house. I’ll replace your security tomorrow. It’s deactivated.”
“WHAT?”
“Again, I’m a thief.”
“Leave, please. I can’t do another round of this. Today has been so hard.”
He was surprised.
He expected anger—to be shot. He hadn’t expected this. She was still so broken, and Rogue wanted to be the one who fixed her. It stopped being about him, and it became about her. It became about the deep suffering she was going through, and how he put her there with his words.
“I just want to say a few things, and then I’ll go,” he stated. “I need to say them, not for your forgiveness, but so you’ll understand why I am who I am.”
“I’d rather not.”
“Then shoot me. That’s the only other option. I’m not leaving.”
She wiped her eyes, blew her nose, and stared at him. “Fine. Let me have it.”
He could see she was expecting to be hurt more.
“There’s one reason I’m drawn to you,” he began. “It’s because we are the same. You feel like you don’t fit in, and you struggle with that. Only, you’ve adjusted better. I haven’t. I was born a Ravenscroft, but I’ve never really been able to be one. My mother, she raised me to be better than you saw today, but when I saw her with you, I panicked.”
“Why? I wasn’t hurting her. I was just spending time with her. She’s lonely. You’re lucky to have her.”
He was aware.
He would be lucky to have Cordelia too.
“She’s all I’ve ever really had. I’m half-Native and a full asshole. I hide behind my name, knowing that I don’t really fit the rich people life. They look at me, and I’m a blight. I don’t look like you do, or like my mother. I don’t fit the mold.”
She listened.
“You aren’t THOSE people, Cordelia. I am. I’m the criminal. I’m the one who lurks in the shadows. I became a criminal for only one reason. It’s all I feel worthy of in life. While you came from nothing, you have so much more than I do.”
She stared at him.
“Yeah, student loans and a mortgage.”
“No, you have this. You made this yourself. Your touches are all over this house. I would rather live here any day than in my home. I would give it all up to know how to sand a door and make it live again. I would give all I had to know how to wash my own clothes. In my life, my mother guarded me, and it made me who I am. I’m a mess, but a mess with money. You came from a mess, but you have a strength that I will never understand.”
She let him continue.
“Can you cook?”
“Yes, because cereal sucks every night.”
“Can you fix something that’s broken?” he asked.
“Yes, because I don’t have the luxury of buying anything I want.”
“I wish I could be in this world. I lashed out because if I lose my mother, I am so alone. I have nothing left to hold me to this part of my life. The only reason I’m not in France trying to steal a painting out of the Louvre is my mother. The only reason I’m not on some wanted list is my mother. We have the same genes. My father, he’s part of this sex ring. He’s involved and a rapist. I’m worse than you could ever be. Your father stole, and your mother sold herself to survive, and then numbed the pain. My father is part of a ring that sells women as slaves. That’s my legacy. My mother is all I have to say otherwise.”
She felt t
hat ice breaking.
“Without her, I’m a half-breed piece of garbage with money. That’s it. I am cursed and lucky. I don’t have bills, but I don’t have a life. Without a connection to someone, I’m so lost. Today, when you came to that house, and I saw you, I thought one thing.”
“What?”
“That you’d save me. That finally, you saw past the money, the genes, and the darkness beneath the pricey clothes. You knew what I was, and it was okay.”
“I don’t judge you.”
“And I judged you.”
She was aware.
“When you showed up, I saw my salvation, and it scared me. My mother will die, and I’ll wander. With you, I thought maybe someone would finally teach me how to make dinner, or sand a door, or how to do my laundry. With you, I had hope, and then the only safety line snapped.”
“Why did you erupt?”
“The nanny called and said you took her away. That’s all I knew. In the time it took me to get there, a million irrational things popped into my head, and you became the enemy. It never occurred to me that you would save her too. Charlotte used me, and I irrationally thought that you were only nice to me today because you wanted something from me. Not me, but something.”
Tears filled his eyes.
“I don’t want anything from you,” she stated, understanding. “I don’t use people.”
He saw that now.
She was a better person than he’d ever be, and he was so sorry that he’d hurt her.
“I can understand you hating me. I humiliated you in front of complete strangers. I don’t blame you. I don’t dare ask for your forgiveness, but I do ask that you understand that I’m not a mean person who hates. I’ve been kicked around too.”
She saw that now.
“I don’t hate you.”
“You should. If I were you, I’d curse me out, and shoot me.”
“That’s a whole lot of paperwork and blood stains that I don’t need in my life.”
He didn’t laugh.
He couldn’t.
“Can I ask you something?” she inquired, needing to know the answer.
“Yes.”
“The other day, you came out of that house by the park with the two women.”
“Yes.”
“Who are they?”
“Stella is the one with dark black hair. She’s married to Zayn. He’s one of the men who is helping to find this sex ring founder and shut it down.”
Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two) Page 45
