“I just want to protect you,” he said, his eyes still closed. “The thought of something happening to you . . .”
“I’m fine.”
He opened his eyes. “I haven’t just fallen for you, Kat. I’ve fallen in love with you. I know you’re strong enough not to need me . . .”
“That’s not true,” she protested, putting her hand on his cheek. “Just because I did this alone doesn’t mean I don’t need you in my life. As I was leaving, all I could think about was getting back to you.” She took a deep breath. “Getting back to the man I love.”
He pushed the seat belt release buttons for both of their seats and yanked her body toward his. “Promise me you’ll never put yourself in danger like that again.”
She caressed his face and the feel of her hand was heaven. “I promise.”
He raked his gaze over her face one last time, needing the visual confirmation that she was here and safe.
And his.
Then he closed his eyes and crushed his mouth to hers. She returned the kiss with urgency, her tongue parrying with his. He ran his hands over every part of her he could reach, but it wasn’t enough. He could never get enough of her.
She let out a low moan and he groaned in response, tempted to take her right there on the side of the road. Part of his brain started calculating how long it would take to get to Tony’s apartment if they hit all green lights.
When she reached down and felt his hardness through his jeans, he nearly lost it. Panting, he pushed her away.
“Christ,” he said. “If we keep going, both of us are going to get arrested for indecent exposure.”
Her lips were parted and desire was in her eyes. She buckled her seat belt with a resounding click. “Then drive. Quickly.”
* * *
The apartment door wasn’t even fully shut and Kat was tugging at Marco’s jeans as he pulled at the buttons on her shirt.
“Too many clothes,” he muttered.
Kat laughed against his mouth. “It’ll be summer soon enough and then I’ll be wearing next to nothing.”
“I prefer you in nothing at all,” Marco replied.
“Then let me oblige you.” Kat pushed him away gently, then walked backward into the living room, crooking her finger at him.
He followed, the heat in his gaze making her feel more desired than ever.
Making her feel bold.
She pointed to the sofa and he sat. The she slowly finished undoing the buttons on her shirt.
Marco groaned but he didn’t take his eyes off her, nor did he get up. “You’re killing me.”
Kat’s response was a coy smile as she let her blouse fall to the floor. Next she undid the hook on her pants and eased the zipper down ever so slowly, wriggling her hips as the pants slid down her legs. She stepped out of them, then kicked them aside along with her shoes.
“Take off your shirt,” Kat told Marco. “Then your pants.”
He did as she instructed and Kat took a moment to marvel at his physique—all hard lines, taut tanned skin covering sinewy muscles. Staring at him warmed her all over, and not simply because she desired him but because she knew he’d use his strength to protect her.
Kat hooked a finger under her panties, pushing them down to join the other clothes on the floor. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before reaching around for the clasp of her bra.
Marco had already seen the scars on her breasts, but she was still shy about them—they were a cruel reminder of the worst time in her life. Yet Marco had told her they were a sign of her strength.
She made the decision once and for all to let go of the past and not let it affect her present and her future. Because her future was right in front of her, and he thought she was beautiful.
She removed her bra. Totally nude, she walked toward Marco. Leaning down to kiss him, she stripped him of the last layer of clothing separating them and then she straddled him.
He cupped her face in his hands. “You’re everything to me.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck as her mouth devoured his, tasting and claiming Marco as her own.
At a deliciously slow pace, she lowered herself onto him, accepted him inside her inch by inch until he filled her. He gripped her hips but didn’t hurry her—he seemed to understand she needed to take control.
She rode him as he gripped her ass, his lips and tongue stroking the sensitive skin behind her ear. Rays of pleasure shot through her as she closed in on release, but though the muscles in her core quaked, she held off, wanting to extend the ecstasy as long as possible.
Her fingers dug into his back and he pulled her close against him. As she shattered, she tilted her head back and cried out. He bucked his hips one last time and joined her.
Aftershocks hit her hard and she panted, her body still wrapped around his. He healed me. She hadn’t realized how broken she still was until Marco had come into her life.
He nuzzled her neck, a content sigh escaping his lips, and Kat amended her thought.
We healed each other.
* * *
The address Roy gave them turned out to be a strip of abandoned office space. The building and the surrounding area seemed just as deserted as when they’d checked it out earlier this morning. Kat couldn’t decide if that worked in their favor. There would be no witnesses, but that wasn’t always a good thing.
She just wanted this over and done with.
There were so many things that could go wrong. What if X didn’t show? What if Roy didn’t show? What if Roy did show but he wasn’t satisfied? All she had was his word that he’d leave her alone if she handed over X or the money. Was his word worth anything?
It had better be. Knox had said there was an honor code of sorts and he seemed nearly certain Roy would be true to his word, but Kat didn’t trust him. Why should she? He was a criminal.
If this didn’t work, she’d have no choice but to go to the police, which could potentially make things much, much worse. Roy—like X—was rumored to have cops on his payroll. But she was running out of options. She hadn’t gone to the cops about Leo and she’d always wondered if that had been a mistake.
She glanced over at Marco, who was scanning the building and surrounding areas with military precision.
She had so much more to lose now than when she was in Florida.
He’d agreed to stay hidden, but he was armed and she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to take someone out if they posed a threat to her. If it came down to that, he wouldn’t have to decide about whether or not to return to the army because his military career would be over. His life would be over. She couldn’t stand the thought of him doing time because of her. For that reason, she wished he could have been convinced to stay out of it. But truthfully, she was glad he was here.
She was also armed, her gun tucked into a cross-body purse. She’d already shot two men in her lifetime. Hopefully today wouldn’t add a third to that list.
“It’s clear,” Marco said. He parked the car in a prominent spot right in front of the door. They’d debated on hiding the car, but in the end they’d decided it was better to have it close by in case they needed to get away quickly. Besides that, everyone was expecting them. They did not have the element of surprise on their side.
Roy was the only one who had that where X was concerned. He’d better show. Otherwise she was screwed.
They got out of the car and Kat opened the back door to retrieve the package from the backseat. They’d stopped by her apartment this morning and she’d sorted through some of Gram’s things, which had been tough. When she’d packed them up she’d been in such a daze she barely remembered what was there.
The item that drew her attention was a little carved figurine of a dog. Gram had kept it in her nightstand drawer and the wood was smooth and slick from years of handling. It looked like a high school shop project or something, and Kat was betting that it was. Instinctively she knew X had made this for his mother back when he was still a teen or younger,
in much more innocent days. Though, based on what she knew about him, she doubted he’d ever been truly innocent.
Anyway, she’d put it in a box and wrapped it in white butcher paper, tying a blue ribbon around it as a final touch—Gram’s favorite color. X might not even ever open the thing, but she’d made the effort just the same.
But this place . . . it wasn’t where a normal person would schedule a meeting. She would certainly be suspicious if someone asked her to meet them here, but then again, she wasn’t a career criminal. Hopefully it would seem normal to X.
They were nearly an hour early, wanting to make sure Marco could find a place to hide. They walked up to the strip and Kat read the worn numbers on the doors.
“It’s that one,” she said, pointing to a unit that had brown paper covering the windows. “Suite one-oh-seven.”
“I’ll go in first and check it out,” Marco said.
Kat nodded, putting her hand on her bag that safely contained her gun. Marco disappeared inside and Kat scanned the parking lot, hoping Roy and X didn’t have the similar idea of coming early. But there weren’t even any cars on the road. The area was deserted.
It was kind of sad, actually. The south side of the city was crumbling before their eyes, but the city council did not to try to revitalize it. Perhaps if they did, crime wouldn’t be such a problem.
The seconds ticked by and Kat grew anxious. Where was Marco? She suddenly knew how he must have felt waiting outside the bar for her last night.
Marco opened the door so Kat could enter. “It’s empty.”
Inside there were rusty desks and torn office chairs covered in dust. On the walls were various maps of both the city and tropical destinations like the Florida Keys and Cancún. This appeared to have once been a real estate office doubling as a travel agency. She picked up a stray business card from the floor.
Roy & Paulson Agency. We find your habitat!
She showed it to Marco. “This must be Roy’s connection to the city.”
Marco squinted at the card. “That actually sounds familiar. I think they were in business when I was a kid. They had an annoying commercial with a jingle.”
“Maybe his parents’ company.”
“Probably.”
Marco picked up a chair that had been upended, wiping the dirt off it. He gestured to Kat to sit.
She shook her head. “I can’t sit right now. I’m too keyed up.”
He pulled her against his chest, kissing her forehead. “Everything will work out okay.”
She wished she had his confidence. Coming here like this was a gamble. Now that they were only minutes away from everything going down, she was having second thoughts about not calling the police.
No, she’d made the right decision. The cops didn’t have the manpower to protect everyone close to her and she knew how men like these worked—they had endless resources to relentlessly pursue what they wanted.
“You should probably get in position,” she said reluctantly. Though she’d needed to go to X by herself yesterday, she’d feel much better today if Marco was by her side. But that wasn’t possible. X might recognize him and she wasn’t taking that chance.
Roy’s man, on the other hand, had specifically mentioned she could bring him. That was another reason he should stay out of sight. That couldn’t have been a benign request.
Nothing about this situation was benign.
She wondered if Roy himself would show. So far, she’d had no direct contact with him, only his men.
“You’re strong.” Marco put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “You can do this and don’t forget I’ll have eyes on you the entire time.”
She nodded, her hands starting to shake.
With one last desperate kiss, Marco was gone.
And she was alone.
Chapter 25
Kat didn’t have to wait long, although the five minutes since Marco disappeared felt like an eternity.
The door rattled and her heart jumped into her throat. A hand wrapped around the metal, followed by the tip of a gun. She shoved her hand into her purse, wrapping her fingers around the hilt of hers.
Who would it be—X or Roy’s men? Roy’s men were supposed to arrive first, but like she said, their word didn’t mean much.
X appeared and she let out a sigh of relief. Out of the two parties, she was more concerned he would be the one who didn’t show. But damn, he was early.
She was grateful to see he was wearing an eye patch today so she wouldn’t have to stomach looking at his mutilated eye socket. Other than that, he looked the same as yesterday—same sunken-in cheeks, same yellowness in his eye. The man had to be having liver problems.
His expression was menacing.
After looking out into the parking lot one last time, he closed the door behind him. He scanned the room, then shoved his gun in his pants, obviously satisfied she was alone.
“What the hell is this place?”
She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “Neutral territory.” She kicked the business card under the desk, hoping there were no more laying about. Shit. So stupid!
“Where is it?” X’s gaze traveled to the box she’d set on the desk. He stalked over and grabbed it.
Shit, shit, shit! Roy wasn’t due to arrive for another twenty minutes. She’d have to stall him.
“Do you have any questions about your mother?” she asked.
He sneered at her and she crossed her arms, forcing herself to give him a fierce look when she really wanted to hightail it out of there. “Let me be clear,” she snarled. “I still don’t give a shit about you. But I cared about Gram and she’d want me to do this. So here I am.”
He let out a shaky breath. “How was she? At the end?” His voice wavered, breaking the tough guy façade. Here in front of her was a man mourning the death of his mother.
She decided to tell him the truth—whatever he wanted to know about his mother. Gram would have wanted that.
And it served the double purpose of keeping him here.
“The Alzheimer’s was bad at the end,” she said gently. “She had more bad days than good days. She wasn’t unhappy. Just stuck in the past.”
“Did she . . . did she talk about me?”
Kat hesitated. They’d had an unspoken rule that they didn’t talk about him, at least when Gram was having one of her better days. She certainly talked about him when she was having a bad day.
“She did when she was reminiscing,” Kat finally said. “She seemed to remember your younger days fondly.”
What she left unsaid was that Gram had also seemed to realize what a piece of shit her son had turned into.
Watching X’s reaction to her words was so odd. It was obvious he’d loved his mother and wanted to know more. It was like his hard exterior had been stripped away, leaving in its place a broken little boy.
X had certainly fallen. Though she’d never met him before, she’d known of him since before she learned her connection to him. He’d been at the top of the food chain, with minions to do his dirty work, similar to Roy.
Now he was alone—a sad, broken, sick man. But he’d brought that on himself. He wasn’t dragging her down with him.
* * *
Marco watched Kat and X, listening to the conversation between them from where he’d hidden himself in an upstairs storage area.
X was fucking pathetic.
He could tell from Kat’s softened features that she felt sorry for him. He just hoped she didn’t change her mind about handing him over to Roy. He didn’t think she would, but family—no matter what kind—had a weird way of messing people up sometimes.
The door rattled and Marco held his breath.
This is it.
The man who’d been at Ryan’s apartment came in first, followed by two other men. All three had guns drawn.
X whirled around. “What the fuck?”
Another man entered wearing a dark three-piece suit. He caught Marco’s attention because he was sma
ll—maybe a few inches over five feet with a birdlike physique. His hair was silver and his eyes were piercing blue. Even though he was small in stature, his presence commanded the respect of the men who were at least a head taller than him.
This must be Roy.
He was not what Marco was expecting.
Before anyone could speak, X backhanded Kat, and she crashed into the wall.
“Bitch! You set me up!”
Marco didn’t think—he just reacted. He sprung out of his hiding place, taking the top few stairs in record speed. Then he threw his legs over the handrail and jumped, landing a few feet from X. He lunged at him, his fist making contact with X’s face before X could put up a defense.
Behind him, Roy sighed. “Would someone please restrain Mr. Adamo?”
Two men descended on Marco, pulling him away from X, but not before he got another hit in.
The third man—the one from Ryan’s apartment—spoke. “Stop fighting. Don’t be a hero.”
Marco glanced over at him and the sight stopped his struggles. The man’s gun was pointed at Kat, who still sat on the ground with a hand on her cheek.
She looked defiantly up at X, like she hadn’t even noticed the gun pointed at her head. “You brought this on yourself.”
One of the men waved his gun, gesturing for Marco to move aside.
Fuck. This was going worse than he ever could have imagined. In less than a minute, Kat had been hit and had a gun pointed at her.
Marco raised his hands to show his compliance, but they shook with anger. His years in the army had taught him that sometimes patience was the best battle strategy—no sense rushing in until the right opportunity presented itself—but he was having a hard time holding himself back and not rushing over to Kat.
He felt so goddamn helpless.
But there was nothing he could have done differently, not without endangering Kat. He was a sharpshooter, but he couldn’t have taken out five men before one of them had gotten to her.
They’d lost the upper hand before they’d even had it.
Trust In Me: A Fight for Me Novel Page 21
