Rogue dove in.
Literally.
His dick found its way into the wet slick heat of her body, and he began fucking.
Like a madman.
Cordelia held on as he hit that spot that sent her over the edge and into the spiral of gorgeous colors.
Only, he wasn’t done.
NOT.
EVEN.
CLOSE.
He rode her, and rode her hard, burying himself to the base in her body over and over again.
She begged.
She pleaded.
She prayed no one would hear them.
Rogue instead stared down at her, trapping Cordelia beneath him.
“I have never wanted anyone more,” he muttered, and it was the truth.
This woman made him crazy.
“Promise me you’ll only be with me,” he said, holding her hands above her head as his lower body pinned her with his erection.
He was throbbing.
He was wild.
Rogue was a man on the edge.
“Be mine,” he said, as he refused to move until she conceded to him.
“Rogue!”
He kissed her driving any argument from her mind. He plundered, taking whatever he wanted from HIS Kitty. There could be no other answer for him. She had to be his.
Rogue knew he’d die without her.
When he released her mouth, he waited for her to say something.
“I meant it. You’re mine. I’ll fight to the death for you, Cordy. I love you.”
Her heart skipped.
“I’m yours. I promise.”
That vow healed her. She no longer felt like she had to wander alone through life. She had someone to care about her. Cordelia knew that family mattered, and for so long, she had none. Now she could have these people, and him.
God!
She got to have him.
Slowly sliding into her, he found the perfect rhythm. He let the calm overtake them both, and with her staring into his eyes, he brought them both pleasure.
“Cordy,” he whispered, resting his forehead on hers as their bodies did that age-old dance.
They both let go, allowing the pleasure to overtake them. There were goosebumps, the hitch in their breath, and the peace.
As they slowly climbed to the peak, she offered the words back to him too.
For both of them.
“I love you,” she whispered.
It ended the ride for him.
Her words took him off the edge, and he hoped she followed. As he recovered, she wrapped her arms around him, and they cuddled.
“You make me happy,” he whispered. “So very happy. I’m finally alive.”
She held him.
Yes, she was happy too.
Cordelia had found love.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Morning
Four Twenty-Five
Chartres Street
As she was pulling on her boots and getting ready to head to her boss’s home to do her update and begin her vacation, she could see him getting out of the shower.
It was hard to believe that Rogue was in love with her. Less than a week ago, she was waking in her bed, grabbing a coffee, and heading to work.
ALONE.
Now, in a matter of a few days, she’d found a great man, who at first, she thought was a killer, and now, she was in love with him.
As he came out in his boxer briefs, she whistled.
It made him laugh.
“Uh, you’re going to wear me out,” he teased.
If it were up to her, yes, yes, she would. This morning, she found him awake, hard, and watching her.
So, she jumped him.
“Well, think of it as cardio.”
He was more than fine with that.
“Do you want me to drive you there?” he asked. “Are you sure you’re up to my mother and Peony?”
She snorted.
“Last week I handled a killer and his helper. I think I can wrangle a little girl and your mother. I’ll get them donuts.”
He grinned.
“I have private security doubled up on them. I called them to tell them you were coming. I told them you’d be the one with the hickey on your neck.”
“Hot damn. A souvenir of this morning’s performance. I guess everyone will know you’re a wild man.”
He pulled on his dress pants and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“You bring it out in me,” he said, as he helped her to her feet.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. My boss, Alessandro, lives on the other side of N’awlins in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, he is sick of people after he deals with detectives all day.”
He laughed.
“I’d deal with you and never complain.”
“Promises, promises. Before I go get your mom and Peony, I’ll swing by my place to get a few things. I’m assuming you’re crashing here.”
“I am.”
“Well?”
“Well what?” he asked.
“Well, can I stay? You’re bad at this.”
“Oh, didn’t I make it crystal clear, Cordy? You’re mine. I like you sleeping beside me.”
She was giddy.
When he kissed her, she practically melted.
“Good. I like clear. I’ll be back,” she said, heading out. At the door, she blew him a kiss.
He watched her leave, and he finished dressing. When he got downstairs, the team was on the couch, and they were getting ready to go over the footage from the previous night.
“Your girlfriend just left,” Zayn stated.
He grinned like an idiot.
“Now I know how you guys feel,” he said, dropping onto the couch beside Sarah. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Life is good.”
They were happy for him, but they needed to get down to business while Storm was in the right frame of mind to scan the video.
Storm looked like hell, and it was clear she, and Gamble, didn’t get any sleep last night.
“Are you sure you can do this?” Dakota asked.
“I just want to get it over with.”
Well, then it was time.
Sending the video footage to the big screen—the footage that Gamble got from the glasses he’d worn the night before, they all began watching.
It started as they were driving there.
“Uh, why are you staring at her breasts?” Rogue asked as the camera panned down.
“She asked if I thought the dress worked with the roles we were going to play,” he said innocently. “You know…we were prepping for the job.”
He glared at the man.
“Breathe,” Sarah whispered, finding it funny. “You were checking out my breasts.”
He looked horrified.
“God! I know. I nearly went blind. It’s like learning your sister has girl parts.”
She punched him.
“Children, can we focus on something other than breasts?” Dakota asked as the video continued.
They all laughed.
“I need some water,” Storm said, getting up.
“I’ll get it for you,” Gamble offered, seeing her getting edgy. The whole thing was making her nervous. He could tell.
“I need a minute to compose myself.”
Everyone understood. When she was gone, Dakota glanced over.
“Is she okay?” he asked.
“She will be.”
Well, they hoped so.
They went back to the footage. It was when they were just inside the door of the club. It had their full attention.
When Gamble turned his head inside the private gambling room, panning the crowd, Zayn sat forward.
“STOP!”
Dakota did.
“What?”
“Go back, and move slowly,” he stated.
The man did just that. Gamble’s panning went from fast to barely happening.
“There.”
He stopped it.
“Enlarge it for
me, please.”
He did that for Zayn.
“That’s Virgil Livingston.”
They all looked at him like he was crazy.
“Who is that?” he asked.
“He owned the bar before Charlotte, but after the one owner who was gunned down outside. Everyone who has owned Purgatory has gone down in a blaze of glory. There was the gunned down owner, Virgil in a fiery crash, and then Charlotte. It’s a jinx.”
They all looked at Sarah.
“Hey! I’m good. My dad is good.”
Dakota hoped so.
More importantly…
“Why is he alive and gambling?” he asked. “Are you sure that’s really him?” Dakota asked.
“YES!”
Storm walked in with a bottle of water, and as soon as she saw the man, she gasped and dropped it. She got wobblily, and Gamble was at her side and catching her before she could fall.
He dropped to his knees and patted her cheek.
“Hey, honey! Come on! What’s wrong?” he asked, as she was out cold.
“Stella, get your kit.”
The woman rushed away.
As they all surrounded her, her eyes fluttered open, she began crying.
“That’s Carter Foley.”
Dakota was confused.
“HIM?”
She nodded.
“Sarah, run Virgil Livingston. I need everything you can find.”
She hopped the couch as Stella raced back into the room with her medical kit.
She checked her pulse.
“I’m sorry. He always wore a mask, or I was drugged, but I think I saw him once. He was blurry, like that footage. He has a distinct nose and lips.”
That was good enough for them.
“Gamble, take her upstairs. Stella will go with you. She’s shaky. We’ve got this.”
He scooped her up into his arms and carried her up the stairs.
They joined Sarah on the couch.
“What are you finding?” he asked.
“Nothing. He doesn’t exist.”
“WHAT?” Dakota asked. “Zayn, are you sure that’s his name? How could he not exist? Charlotte existed. I doubt he needed that much privacy.”
“Dak, I’m good with names and faces. You know…being a killer and all. That’s him. He’s older. He is the same man. We’re talking Hispanic and white, tall. Trust me.”
They had no choice.
“Nothing still?”
She shook her head.
“Run that picture through the facial recognition software. That might give us something. Virgil had to have another name.”
Sarah did her thing, and it began running.
It took seconds.
Literally.
“We have someone,” she said, pulling it up to the screen. The man’s face lit up the screen.
“He works for the city as a cop?” Dakota asked.
“Well, it makes sense,” Zayn stated. “Charlotte had the one’s name in her book, and Rosemary stated she had the cops on the payroll. Look at Phil King. He was a cop. Why only one?”
He had a point.
“Name.”
She typed.
“Alessandro Anderson.”
Rogue stared at her.
“WHAT?”
“I said…”
He stopped her.
“That’s Cordelia’s boss. She just told me she was going to see her boss this morning for an update. He wanted to talk to her at his place.”
That was NOT good.
“Are you sure it’s him?” Rogue asked.
They pulled up the NOPD website and clicked on the homicide division.
“It’s him,” Sarah stated, as Rogue pulled out his phone to call her. “Think about it. We cut off one of Rosemary’s drug suppliers, but who better to get more drugs than a cop? He would have access to street drugs.”
“But Carter Foley is loaded.”
“Selling drugs,” she stated. “I’d bet on it.”
“She’s not answering her phone!” Rogue asked. “We have to get to her!”
He raced out the door, and they grabbed their gear and hustled after him.
Rogue was going to lose it.
And his girl.
* * * H U N T E R * * *
Alessandro Anderson’s
Home
It took her a while to get there. It was in the middle of the swamps, and it was a really nice place. Someone was doing well as a captain.
As she parked her car and headed onto the porch he met her at the door. He was in pajama bottoms and holding coffee.
“Not working today?” she asked.
“I had a late night last night, Detective. Thank you for heading here. The FBI is breathing down my neck. I think they know you’re digging. Coffee?”
She was surprised.
Dakota didn’t say anything to her.
“Absolutely, sir,” she said since she’d missed her morning java in her haste to get out to his place. “I’ve tried to be quiet,” she stated, heading into his living room. It was tiled, it had nice furniture, and the man had pretty decent taste.
“What did you find?” he asked, as she followed him into his kitchen.
“Nothing,” she said, not really lying. She didn’t find anything. Now Dakota, Zayn, and Rogue…that was a different question.
“Are you sure? I really don’t need a sex trafficking shitfest in my city.”
“Sir, if I found anything, you’d be the first person I told. Really.”
Then, she felt off. As he poured her coffee, something didn’t sit right with her.
His words.
Cordelia was confused. She never told him there was a trafficking ring. Charlotte was killed at the airstrip, and unless the FBI told him…
As she was about to ask, her phone rang.
“Oh, I have to get this, sir,” she said.
As she reached for her phone, she felt the impact to the side of her head.
The world spun. It all went gray.
And Cordelia hit the ground, her phone sliding out of her reach. She tasted blood.
And saw black.
When she woke, she was confused. There was a draft, and she couldn’t move her arms or legs. Opening her eyes, she saw him standing above her.
Only, he was in leather pants, had a leather belt with a buckle in his hand, and she was tied to a bed.
Oh God.
It started to make sense.
“Hello, pet. We won’t be using your name from here on out. I’ve already called for my guys to come get us. I have another house picked out, and you’ll be staying with me.”
Her heart thundered.
“Let me go,” she said, struggling.
“I can’t do that. I’m just tying up a few loose ends. You’re one of them. Since you have a hot body, pet, why waste it? Have you ever been raped by ten men? No? You will be.”
Jesus!
She wanted to weep.
Cordelia began fighting to get free. He was the unknown man—Carter Foley. He was the asshole who bought and hid Storm St. Clair. He’d had her investigating not to find Charlotte Shaw’s killer, but to be his eyes and ears so he’d know what was going on.
On the DL—her ass.
Christ!
“See, my sexy little pet. A funny thing happened. Chesky Jensen screwed me over. He killed my already bought whore. I lost my new girl, and that makes me sad. I want to have fun after a long day at the office.”
She swallowed.
“Captain.”
“Master. Call me that, and maybe I’ll let you enjoy some of this.”
Oh, that was never happening.
She bucked her body, and he laughed.
“Oh, I’m going to love this. You see, Cordelia, my job is tricky. It’s also boring as fuck. I need some entertainment. I used to own Purgatory. Then the assholes who I didn’t like tried to kill me. Only, I knew. I headed them off.”
She whimpered as he touched her through her clothes.
“I had to die. I was Virgil back then. Now I’m Carter, but he’s going to die too. See, the FBI is up to something, and I need to know what.”
“I don’t know.”
He laughed.
“I know you’re lying, Cordelia. I saw you last night. You were at that gambling party. Nice wig, but I was inches from you. I smelled your perfume. I touched your body. I know my detective. I’m really good at admiring the human form.”
Shit!
The man who bumped into her.
Oh, Jesus!
“Let me go, and we can work on this. I don’t understand why you’re doing this. You are an amazing cop.”
“You’re a fool, Cordelia. Alessandro gets paid shit. Carter Foley skims drugs out of holding and sells them on the streets. Do you know I make what you make a year in a week? I make a clean million easy a year. It affords me luxury. I like having money. Then I can buy…women.”
She was definitely an idiot.
Why hadn’t she seen it sooner?
He’d given himself away days ago. In his office, he said, ‘I don’t need a Blackhawk riding my ass over some sex trafficking issue.’ Even back then, he had never known WHY Charlotte had died.
No one told him that.
Not her.
Not Boone.
“You were so close, pet,” he said, unzipping her jeans. “Yeah, you are trouble, pet. Nothing but trouble. With that Fed, I hid her for Rosemary, but I hear she's dead. I don’t have a supplier anymore to get my pets. I can’t trust Chesky since he’s useless, and that’s a problem. Now, I have to find my own pussy,” he said, ripping her shirt open.
Buttons went flying.
“Don’t do it, Alessandro. Don’t.”
He laughed and pulled a knife from his pocket. He liked her spunk. Cops were tough—clearly. He’d find a way to enjoy her more than the last one. He knew her, and he knew how to break her.
“Come on, pet. You come from a slut. She sold her body to anyone. You get me. I’ll be the best fuck you’ll ever have, and if you please me…nah, why lie. Tomorrow, you’re going to be used by any dick I can find. I hope you’re on the pill. I made that mistake once before.”
She fought to pull away from him as he touched her breasts with the tip of that blade.
“Nice hickey. Who has been fucking you, pet? Well, that’s done. I made that cop suffer, and you…I’m going to break you, pet. I told you to work that case, and I figured you’d find nothing. You had to keep digging. You would have been safe. I don’t like blondes, but today…I’m going to like you a whole lot.”
Absolution: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book Two) Page 54
