by Hanna Peach
He’s not going to know what hit him.
I study the guns and pull out an unloaded Glock 22 then grab for a box of bullets.
He reaches for it. “Here, let me help you.”
I snatch the box away from his hand. “I know how to load a weapon.”
He holds up his hands in surrender. “By all means.”
I bring the gun and bullets over to the bench in the shooting booth and start loading the gun. “We’ll use the same gun and empty a full round, one at a time.”
Caden leans against the booth partition, watching me. He seems amused. He probably thinks I’m taking this little competition too seriously. Oh, shit just got serious all right.
I slam the magazine in with a loud click.
His grin widens. “Please, ladies first.”
Still being a gentleman. Still a lying sack of shit.
I hold the gun firmly in my hands and glare at him. Then I raise it towards the target. I aim and squeeze the trigger. The first bullet fires and hits the bullseye at the other end of the target. That’s right, Caden, I’m a perfect fucking shot.
“Not bad,” Caden admits.
I snort. “That’s one thing you’re about to learn about me. I never miss.”
As I take several steps away from him I swing the gun around to point at him.
He laughs. The fucker. “What are you doing?”
“You are going to answer my goddamn questions or I’m going to put a bullet in you.”
He hasn’t moved from his spot. He doesn’t look worried at all. “What is this about?”
“Are you or aren't you a cop?”
The slight widening of his eyes is the only reaction I get. He is very good at keeping his secrets. “You haven’t won the competition yet,” he says slowly.
“This gun pointed at your chest says I don’t fucking have to.”
“You won't shoot me.”
I narrow my eyes at him. I shift the weapon to the right and squeeze. The gun goes off with a bang. He flinches as the bullet grazes his arm, leaving a line of red showing through his dark shirt, and embeds in the far wall.
“The next one goes in your muthafucking shoulder, the one after that goes in your chest.”
“Okay, okay.” Caden raises his hands in surrender. For a moment he just stares at me with mournful eyes. “You’re right. I used to be a cop but not anymore.”
“Muthafucking liar!” I scream. I aim the gun right over his heart. “Why did you lie to me? Why?”
“How did you find out?”
“I’m the one asking the questions. Why did you lie?”
“I didn’t think you’d understand then. I wanted to tell you. I was going to.”
“Understand what?”
“This doesn’t change anything. Just because I don’t have a badge, I’m still going to keep you safe. You can still trust me.”
“Understand. What?”
“Do you remember the first thing I said to you?”
“What has that got to do with anything?”
“You’ll see, I promise. Just please answer me.”
I glare at him with suspicion and rack my memory of that night we met in Bound.
I’m left with him. He still hasn’t broken eye contact with me.
I hear a little voice in me begging me to be the first to look away. Play it cool. I snap out of my reverie and lean one elbow against the bar so that my other hip rolls out, something I know showcases my small waist.
“So I guess I owe you a thanks then, huh?” I tilt my head down so that my hair falls across one eye and look up at him. I give him my fake name just quiet enough so that he has to lean in to hear it. Now that he’s right where I want him, I hold out my hand and give him my slowest, sexiest smile – the one I reserve for when I want to impress, the one that never fails to have a man eating out of my palm.
He laughs.
The prick laughs at me.
I’m so shocked I just blink at him like an idiot, my hand still stuck out like a misplaced limb. What. The. Fuck.
Then he smiles at me as if I’ve just told him a joke. “Sorry, honey. I’m telling you now, I’d be bad for you. You don’t want to mess around with me. I just thought I’d do my moral duty and help out.”
He shakes his head. “That’s not the first thing I said to you.”
“My memory is perfectly fi−”
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I frown. Why do those words seem familiar?
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
The blood drains from my face and I feel lightheaded. “W-what did you just say?”
“It’s okay. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you… You don’t remember me.”
My mouth drops open as the memory flows through me.
The sound of gunfire sounds like it is moving away from me. I hear the sounds of boots running across the floor reverberating in my ear. I keep hearing voices yelling out, “Clear.”
When I peek up through my eyelashes there’s a man leaning over me. His face is obstructed by the heavy duty helmet that he wears, a large black helmet with thick goggles. I can barely hear him over the shouts and noise around us. I see the large white letters across his vest saying “Police”. He yells out to someone that I’m alive. He scoops an arm under my limp body. I try to stand to help him, but my legs don’t work.
“You’re okay,” he says as he bundles me into his arms. “I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Promise?” I whisper into his neck, tears squeezing through my eyelids.
“I promise. Just keep your eyes shut and hang on, okay?”
I nod and pull myself tighter into his neck. He stands and I feel us lift. He feels like he stands a thousand feet tall, holding me up and away from everything. Shouts and gunshots and death everywhere. Everywhere. But they’re starting to fade. But for the first time in a long time, wrapped in these strong arms of a stranger, I feel safe.
“You… you carried me out of that warehouse.”
He nods. “You were still a girl then but such a little fighter. I saw you attack Jacob just before we burst into the warehouse. Even when he had a gun in your face you didn’t break.” He steps forward and I step back.
“W-what kind of trick is this?”
“No trick. I was part of the team sent to retrieve you. Don’t you see, kitten? I’ve been on your side from the beginning. I’m still on your side. It doesn’t matter that I’m not officially a police officer anymore.”
I realize now why that sense of safety has always cloaked me whenever Caden is around. I realize why I felt like I could trust him even as I couldn’t trust any other man. Some part of me recognized him.
“What about the cop you attacked? I know about him. He was your teammate.”
“He was working for Jacob. He’s the reason your safehouse to courthouse route was compromised. I had no solid proof, but I just knew he was involved. I confronted him. We argued. He tried to shoot me but I got in first. I didn’t kill him, just disarmed him. I argued self-defense, but he claimed it was me who was working for Jacob. It was my word against his. There was an investigation, but it turned up nothing. I was cleared but… I couldn’t stay part of a system that let evil men go free.”
Something clicked into place. “This is why you went after the men who killed your family only three years ago. You left the force. You stopped playing by the law’s rules.”
He nods. “In some ways, what happened with you and your kidnapping and my teammate… freed me.”
“So this whole time you’ve been acting on some personal vendetta against Jacob. Don’t you think I’d understand wanting vengeance? Instead you thought it was better that I thought that this was your job?”
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” he says. “I thought you would be more cooperative if you thought
I was a cop. I was just trying to keep you safe.”
“You should have told me everything from the start.”
“Would you have come with me willingly?”
“Maybe. Yes. I don’t know.”
“Please lower the gun.”
“How can I still trust you after I’ve caught you in another lie?”
“Have I tried to hurt you while you’ve been here? Have I put you in any danger? Have I ever done anything apart from trying to keep you safe?”
“No.”
“So how can you ask me that?” Anger clouds his question. He steps forward so that the barrel rests on his chest. I remember the last time I had a gun to his chest. I couldn’t shoot then.
“I’m glad you found out,” he says. “I hated lying to you. But you have to know, everything I do, I do because I want to protect you, keep you safe. I do it because I think it’s best. You may disagree with me, and I’m sorry that you had to find out this way. But I won’t apologize for wanting to keep you safe.”
In some strange way I understand why he did what he did.
“I’m still angry at you.”
“That’s fine. I don’t expect you to forgive me straight away.”
I lower the gun and he steps forward to fill the space before me. He pulls the gun from my hands and places it aside on the bench. He leans in close and tangles his fingers in the hair around my neck. “You are my family. You are my only family. I will do whatever it takes to protect you. Yes, I’m going after Jacob for me, but I’m doing it for you, too.”
I pull back and study the line of blood on his arm. “I shot you.”
“Yeah, you did. Ruined my shirt.”
“I’m sorry. Does it hurt?”
He shrugs. “It’s just a graze.”
I study him. I picture him with a riot helmet on and goggles. It is him. I recognize the wide jaw and that golden skin. Why hadn’t I see it before? “I can’t believe you were the one who pulled me from the warehouse three years ago.”
He picks me up in his arms and I yelp in surprise. “As I recall, it went something like this.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and close my eyes. I breathe in the smell of wood smoke, and the feeling of safety is perfect. When I remember that terrible ordeal of being caught again by Jacob it doesn’t seem so bad. Because now Caden is in that memory. When I think of being kidnapped by Jacob I remember being rescued by Caden.
“You were so small, so light, such a skinny little thing,” he says. “But you were such a fighter. A survivor. I think I started to fall for you a little that day.”
My heart stutters with happiness.
He continues, “I told you that I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. You believed me then, so completely. So why can’t you believe me now?”
“I do. I trust that you won’t hurt me. I trust you’ll protect me. But I don’t trust you won’t lie to me.”
The intensity of his stare almost undoes me. “I will do anything to protect you. Anything. Including lie to you if I think that’s what it’ll take. I won’t apologize for that.”
“Is that why you won’t tell me why you have all those rules? You think you’re protecting me?”
He winces and looks away. The sadness that shines through his eyes is greater than I have seen from him before and suddenly I am terrified of the answer. Maybe I don’t want to know why he won’t let me touch him. “Please, kitten. The answer to that is… painful for me. Let me tell you in my own time.”
I stare at him for the longest time. I could push the issue but… I can see in his eyes the raw deep hurt. I know if I push it now and force him to tell me, he might not forgive me.
“You can put me down now. I must be getting heavy.”
He hums. “You have put some weight on over the years.” I jab him in the arm and he laughs. “Truthfully, you weigh next to nothing. I’d carry you to the other side of the world if I had to.”
“To the other side?”
“Well, at least to Africa.”
“I’ve always wanted to see Africa.”
“Maybe we could go see it one day. Together.” He nuzzles his nose in my hair. “Have I ever told you how sexy you look pointing a gun at me?”
“You want me to do it more often?”
“You should.”
“You’re strange,” I say, as he licks along my neck. That and the adrenaline coursing through my body sends a rush of wetness between my legs. I shiver. “But I like strange.” I lean in for a kiss. The familiar ache begins to build as his tongue explores my mouth and his arms crush me to him.
The kiss deepens. He staggers back. I know he’s aiming for the bench. I feel his jolt when he hits the table with his thighs. He is about to sit me on the table when I realize…
“Caden, the bullets!”
He looks down over my shoulder to the box of bullets he was about to sit me on. “Oh. Right.”
With one sweep of his hand, the box goes flying across the room in a shower of pinging metal.
I raise an eyebrow at him. “Was that really necessary?”
He grins. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”
I roll my eyes.
But I forget my annoyance when he puts his mouth on me again. He sits me down on the edge of the bench then moves around to stand between my legs. I wrap my legs around his waist. We both moan as the softness between my legs comes to rest on his growing hardness. My body is on fire. My legs are shaking around him. How is it possible that I want him more than I’ve ever wanted him?
He is my man. My savior. He has been protecting me longer than I have known. Ever since the first time we met three years ago and he carried me out of that warehouse in his arms.
He tears his mouth from me and I whimper. He smirks at my attempts to capture his mouth again. Smug bastard. I grab his face to force it closer but he grabs my wrists in his hands and pushes them behind me. He collects both my wrist in one of his hands and holds them there.
Normally I would just give in. But I’m done giving in. I struggle to get my hands free. His grin widens when he realizes I’m fighting back.
But he’s too strong. I can’t get loose of his hands.
In one swift move he pulls my shirt up over my breasts. The air rushes around my bare torso. “Caden,” I gasp.
This position makes my back arch and he eyes my breasts encased in my black lacy bra. With his free hand he frees one of my breasts even as I struggle. But when his mouth closes over my breast and his tongue swirls against my nipple I can’t help but give in to the wave of pleasure coaxing me to surrender. I let out a moan as he bites my nipple with his teeth.
“Good lord. I’m so sorry, sir.”
I’m snapped out of my reverie by Wylie’s voice at the door of the shooting room. Crap. I let out a squeak and try to pull my bra back up over my breast. This task is thoroughly impeded by the fact that I have Caden still attached to it. I shove his face away and cover myself.
Wylie starts to back out of the room, his eyes averted, bless him. “I heard a gunshot. I just wanted to make sure everything was alright.”
“No, it’s fine. We’re done here. Kitten, you done here?”
Without even waiting for me to reply he stands, picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. I let out a small cry. “What are you doing? Put me down, you Neanderthal.”
Caden doesn’t answer. He strides across the room towards the door. I can feel him chuckling the whole way.
He moves past Wylie, who has jumped out of his way. “Sorry about the mess. She knocked all those bullets to the floor.”
“Clearly.”
“Liar!” I cry out.
“I’ll tidy it up,” Wylie says. “Do you realize you’re bleeding, sir?”
“It’s fine. I’m fine.”
“Alright then. Good to see you… smiling again, sir.”
Color me mortified.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Caden
I kick open the door to my bedroom.
It’s dim in here, the fading sunlight filtering through the slit in the curtains, but I don’t turn on the light. She’s still hanging over my shoulder, my little ball of indignant kitten, yelling at me to put her down and hitting me. Little girl. If only she knew how much she was turning me on with her little hands curling into fists swatting at my ass and her voice threatening all sorts of things.
I pause to slam the door and I stride into the room. I can feel her wriggling to get a good look around. I stand at the foot of my bed and dump her on the mattress. She turns and hits me on my chest. “Brute.”
I grab her right arm. “It got you where I wanted you. It seems lately just asking isn’t cutting it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you’ve been a hell of a lot more argumentative with me lately.”
“Have not. Let go of me.” She lets out a little grunt of annoyance and hits me with her left hand as she struggles to free her other hand.
“You got claws now, have you?”
“Maybe I’m just sick of being nice to you. Deal with it.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it.” I pull her against me so that she can feel my erection through my pants. “Maybe I like it just a little too much.”
In the dark I can see her eyes widen. Perhaps she can hear the honey in my voice or perhaps she can see the wolfish way I size her up, because she seems to finally realize that all of this is turning me on and I want more of it. Yes, she understands. I nod slowly. “Do you remember the safe word?”
She gives me a small smirk. “Do you?” Suddenly I feel a sharp sting on my left cheek. She slapped me. Not too hard but it still stings. Why you little…
She uses my surprise to scoot away from me across the bed. She huddles by the pillows staring at me wide-eyed.
I chuckle as I brush my cheek with my fingers. “You are going to be so… so… sorry you did that.” I start to fold up the sleeves of my long-sleeved dress-shirt to the elbows. Her pretty little lips have parted and her breathing has become audible.
I launch myself across the mattress at her. She tries to scramble off the bed, but I catch her by the arm and fling her onto the mattress on her back. She lashes out with a closed fist, catching me on my lip. I let go of her as I taste blood. I lick it off my lip and grin as she rolls aside. My body rushes with adrenaline and raw hot lust.
