Swift (Kindred Book 4)

by Scarlett Finn

  Safe? Why he would break in to somewhere that was unsafe and then invite her inside was beyond her. But this was Tuck, so she suckered in a breath and twisted to follow him inside. The room was large, containing two double beds. Both had been shoved off to the corners and a folding table had been set up in the middle of them. A couch under the window was covered with a sheet, which she thought was odd.

  The table had a pile of papers in the middle and three laptops stacked beside them. That neatness wasn’t reflected in the rest of the room. Pizza boxes and beer bottles were interspersed with other food containers and paper coffee cups. What looked to be bullets were grouped in one corner, the sight of the ammunition made her eyes flare and she stepped forward.

  Tuck closed the door behind her and crouched, but she didn’t turn to see what he was doing. The features of the room, the crumpled beds and scattered clothes, intrigued her.

  “She’s tidier at the manor,” Tuck said, rushing past to scoop a bra from the floor. “Though I guess we’re not.”

  He grabbed up a tee shirt too and tossed both items of apparel onto the farthest bed. Keeping his momentum going, he went to the central table, but paused to pick up a slip of paper. He read it and exhaled a smile. Kadie edged closer to see what it said, but all she saw were senseless letters and numbers.

  “What does it say?” she asked, assuming it was code. He glanced at her then back at the paper.

  “That they’ve gone for breakfast and if I’m not back to read their note they’re launching a full assault extraction. Falc and Wren are on standby. They called Rigor too. They are serious.” He shook his head then crumpled their note.

  That his colleagues cared for him enough to have such little patience was a testament to the intensity of what they did and how dangerous Sikorski was. But it only made his agreement with Sikorski all the more tasteless.

  “What did he do?” she asked.

  Rounding the table, he pulled out a chair and she noticed a pillow and blanket on the floor between the table and one of the beds. Someone was sleeping on the floor. “Who?” Tuck asked, sitting down and reaching over to pull a laptop from the stack.

  “You said that Zara wanted retribution. What did Nicky do to her?”

  “Around here he’s called Sikorski or the Russian fucker,” he said, his brow snapping down as he turned on the machine he’d just opened. “And you won’t hear us using our names either.”

  “Why not?” she asked, putting her things on the table.

  “Habit,” he shrugged. “It protects us when we’re not in the manor.”

  “What manor?”

  “Kindred Manor,” he said, glancing up at her. But the batter of his fingers on the keyboard told her she didn’t have his full attention.

  There wasn’t really anywhere to sit except at this table and the long bullets were a little too close for her to be comfortable sitting with them. “Raven is dangerous,” she said, fixated on the ammunition.

  “Yep.”

  “He cares for Swallow,” she muttered.

  “Loves her,” he said, pausing with the tapping to read something, then he carried on. “God knows why, she talks too much.”

  “What’s to stop him from killing you when he finds out you’ve set her up?”

  Flicking his gaze to hers, he stopped typing, and she waited for him to explain the darkness in his glare. It didn’t fade. Curling his fingers over the lid of the laptop, he pushed it down. As soon as it clicked into place, he rose in one fluid motion and came to her.

  For a breath, he stood near enough that she could inhale him without their bodies coming into contact. When he seized her arms and hauled her up, she gasped.

  “Get one thing straight, Toots. The Kindred don’t set up their own. We take opportunities. Having a man on the inside with me gives me an advantage. Sikorski can think he’s getting her, but she’ll be mine, working with me.”

  “You didn’t ask her permission.”

  Sneering, he shook his head. “You don’t get it at all. We do what’s asked of us. We force each other into danger when it’s necessary. We do what the others ask of us. We don’t blink. We don’t ask questions. We agree and we act.”

  “Even when it’s insane? He’ll kill her… if she’s lucky.”

  Sikorski didn’t just kill people quick and painless. He got to the position he was in by building a ruthless reputation. Rumors told of torture, or prolonged rape and imprisonment. Anyone who crossed Sikorski would be delivered to the hands of hell before begging for death.

  “If she dies, I die. Raven dies… We can’t lose another man. We won’t survive it.”

  Another man. Grief. That was what drove him now. Taking her hands to his face, she searched for the truth behind his steel. “You lost someone… Before you came back to me.”

  His distraction, the trouble plaguing him that weighted his every move during their last reunion, had concerned her so much that she’d thought of it frequently. Something had changed him because his pain was obvious. But he didn’t share it. He kept her out. Locked himself up and pushed her away.

  “The chief. We lost the chief. He was the closest thing I had to a father and there wasn’t a damn thing we could do to save him.”

  Tuck’s loyalty ran deep and disappointing a man he’d respected so much must have torn him apart. “Oh, baby.”

  Running her hands up his neck, she pushed her fingers into his hair and pulled him down. Their kiss started slow, but the tenderness didn’t last. Shunting her around, he strode forward, forcing her to go backwards and then he was pushing her down onto one of the rumpled beds.

  The sheets smelled like him, but she couldn’t care less who had slept here when she wrapped her arms around the man who was finally letting her in. Her shoes fell from her feet and he bent her knees to close her legs around his hips.

  This was a communal room. They could be discovered by dangerous people who didn’t know her and might see her as a threat. But Tuck was here. On her. Above her. Kissing her with a ferocity that pushed her skull deep into the mattress.

  “Take this off,” he said, sitting astride her to fumble with the buttons on her dress. Opening the fabric, he exposed her breasts, pressing his thumbs to their tips, circling and squeezing until they were tight points.

  Bowing to suck on one peak, he came back to her mouth, letting his hands continue the stimulation of her chest. His hands were large and her breasts modest, his span exceeded her flesh, but that meant he could tease every part of the responsive flesh all at the same time. His typing skills gave him excellent dexterity. Practiced moves of opening and closing fingers, extending and curling, he pampered her with a range of sensations while accompanying his every nuance with the talent of his amorous tongue.

  “Tuck,” she whispered against him, and he drove his tongue into her mouth again. She wasn’t supposed to use his name, but his was the only name she’d used in bed for years. Saying the name of another man, even if it was the same man, felt wrong and dulled some of her arousal.

  He rose onto his knees again, lifting her torso to work her dress up over her head. Glancing around as he pulled off his own tee shirt and began to work on his jeans, she became aware that they were in someone else’s space.

  “Is it ok?” she said, spreading her own hands on his solid chest. “To do this here?”

  “I’d say so,” he said, pulling her legs open to shift himself between them.

  Taking his lack of reluctance as a positive sign, she relaxed because it suddenly hit her that there were no crazy mob bosses compelling her to be here, to be anywhere. She’d left her life to find Tucker Holt and here he was, between her thighs, massaging her intimate flesh with his familiar fingertips.

  “I’ve wanted this,” she said, opening her mouth for his when he kissed her again. “For so long, Tuck, I didn’t… I thought I lost you and—”

  Covering her cheeks with his hands, he kissed her eyes, the end of her nose, her lips, and then her forehead before he look
ed at her again. “You’ve got me now. You’ve got me back.”

  She’d tracked him down once, if she had to do it again, she would. Tuck had better resources and more experience, meaning if he wanted to leave her and disappear again, he could. Trusting him wasn’t straightforward. Like he’d said, if the Kindred lost another man, the band would be devastated. The loss of the chief he’d referred to had driven him to terminate their relationship and that was when he had the support of the Kindred to rely on. If that vanished, she didn’t know what kind of man he’d become.

  Stroking her hands over his body, she’d always loved his definition, the planes of his pecs and the strength of his arms urged her to touch, to test his resistance. She pinched and caressed, then licked and nipped at him when his mouth descended onto her neck.

  Last night had been incredible, but this was better. He’d come for her. Rescued her. And for this moment, in this second, she chose to ignore the fact that she’d have to go back to that horrible place. Dreaming of a reunion with Tuck had dominated most of her adult life. Even when they were together, she craved him because they were so often apart. This was like one of those times.

  Forcing her hands to stop their exploration of him, she trailed them down the line of hair beneath his belly button and found his jeans open. Taking control of the moment, she grabbed him with a sure fist and began to pump.

  “My dick doesn’t need help,” he grumbled, moistening her with his breath.

  “Sure it does,” she said, turning her face against him. “It’s not inside me yet. That’s slacking.”

  “Always in a hurry,” he said, and one of his fingers glided into her, making her hiss.

  It wasn’t his dick, but it wasn’t bad. Working her juices, getting her slick enough to accept him, wouldn’t take long if he kept finger-fucking her at this varying pace. When he had two fingers all the way inside her, he began to roll her clit with the heel of his hand, the flat surface pushing into the sensitive nub and all the tingling flesh around it.

  He didn’t normally make her beg, and she wasn’t capable because the way he kept moving his hand sped up her journey to near completion. “Want me to stop?” he asked, but the amusement in his voice said he already knew the answer.

  “Don’t you fucking dare.”

  “I love it when you swear,” he said, sinking his mouth onto hers to quiet her protests when his hand fell away from its task. Probably because she so rarely did lose composure enough to curse.

  She was there. Right on the cusp. So close. But her frustration was short-lived. The thick length of him didn’t linger. One second his head was at her opening and before she could breathe in, he was all the way inside her.

  This was safety. His body on top of hers, making love with her. The world locked outside their door. If she concentrated hard enough, she could erase the last nine months.

  Intent eyes hovered over hers, he wasn’t kissing her, just watching her. Getting faster, his thrusts hit deeper. Fury strengthened a glare on his face, his troubles weren’t far from his thoughts. Smoothing a hand over his shoulder, she pushed his hair back from his forehead. Getting to a new, secure place in their relationship would take time, but she couldn’t surrender and give up.

  “I love you,” she said. The words inspired his hips and he propelled in fast, the hard width of him giving no reprieve to her fiery core as it closed around him, tight as a vice that wanted to absorb his being into hers.

  Giving her all he could of himself, he pumped through her orgasm until his own crescendo filled her with the seed she needed to sate her. Warmth and contentment didn’t fade even after her heart began to slow and with sweat marring her skin, she felt alive for the first time in months.

  “I love you too,” he panted, and kissed her before settling down on the bed.

  “I have to take a shower,” she said, patting his chest and wishing that she could stay here all day, but she was focused on the door beyond the end of their bed now and preoccupied with the idea that it could open at any time.

  “I have work to do,” he said, but didn’t slacken his arms from her body. Content to be plastered to him, she didn’t push away. Didn’t separate them because she didn’t want this moment of joining to be over. “The bathroom is through the back. Swallow has all kinds of shit in there, you can help yourself.”

  Using another woman’s toiletries didn’t bother her, not after her experience at Sikorski’s house. Though until she knew more about Zara and her temperament, Kadie had also learned to be cautious around other women. Some were spiteful. Some were jealous. Some just wanted to fight.

  Zara had a close relationship with the Kindred, she was Kindred, Kadie was not. The only female member might like being just that and not want another woman on her turf. In their own way, the Kindred men belonged to Zara, who was a formidable woman in her own right. Kadie might not be able to face-off with such a force.

  Tuck trusted her. So Kadie would too. At least until she got the chance to size up the woman herself.

  TWENTY

  They did eventually force themselves to get out of bed and Tuck went back to the laptop he’d been on before while Kadie enjoyed a long shower. Without a time limit or concerns that she may have to share the water with others, Kadie embraced the freedom Tuck had granted her.

  He gave her a tee shirt to wear and tucked her into his bed, the one they’d had sex on, telling her to relax and get some rest. Though she still had to tell him about Howie, she could see that he was intent on his Kindred laptop, so she gave him the time to deal with that. After vowing to herself to tell him the truth at some point before the day was out, she must have drifted off to sleep in the sanctuary he provided.

  Regaining her consciousness came in time with a yawn and a stretch and when she opened her eyes, she expected to see Tuck working at his laptop, as he had been when she fell asleep. Instead, she saw a woman sitting in the same chair, except she wasn’t facing a laptop on the table, the chair was turned and she was staring right at Kadie’s sleeping form.

  Feeling exposed, she pulled the blanket up to her chin and tried to regain some equilibrium. Tuck wasn’t here, no one was. No one except her and the woman in the chair, who was frowning at her.

  “Who are you?” Kadie asked.

  The woman took a breath and folded her arms above her already crossed legs. “Strolling up to Nykiel Sikorski and throwing yourself at his mercy may be the most insane thing a person has ever done.”

  The raven-haired woman was calm, but there was a warmth about her that put Kadie at ease. Waking up to being watched was weird, but this woman didn’t come across as a maniac. “If you’re here to tell me that I have a crazy death wish, someone already beat you to it.”

  Tuck hadn’t hidden his displeasure at where she’d ended up.

  “I’m not here for that,” the stranger said.

  But she didn’t offer why she was sitting, watching, in the way that she was, or where Tuck had disappeared to. “If you want to point out that I’m naïve and inexperienced—”

  “Actually, I think you just proved you’ve got balls,” the woman said, and smiled as she leaned forward. “Your guy is livid and it could have gone the other way, your body could’ve washed up somewhere Jane Doe and he’d never have known. It was an insane risk to take.”

  Curiosity narrowed her eyes. “Then why do you sound so impressed?”

  “Because if it was Rave, I’d have done the same thing. If he’d cut me off and walked away, I wouldn’t have given up and made escape easy for him. I’d have taken whatever risk I had to, to get back to him.”

  At least Kadie had won one person’s respect in this, even if it wasn’t the person she was aiming for. “Thanks.”

  “If you’re going to be a member of the Kindred there are two things you need to know.”

  “The Kindred?” Kadie asked.

  This woman had to be Zara Bandini, Swallow, no other woman would be allowed into what was the Kindred’s safe house and she wouldn�
�t guess Tuck would leave her with someone he didn’t trust. The only woman he’d ever referred to was Zara. Her impression so far was good, Zara was direct, she wasn’t forthcoming about what was going on exactly, but she shared her thoughts without compunction.

  “One,” the woman carried on, “the men always have to believe they’re in charge. Whether they are or not. It takes a little bit of practice if you’re trying to manipulate a mission, but I can help you.”

  “What’s number two?” Kadie asked, still not sure if joining the Kindred was what Tuck had in mind for her or if it was something she definitely wanted. “The chances are you’re going to get yourself dead or you’ll lose someone close to you.”

  Tuck wouldn’t have told anyone where she was, whatever the status of their relationship, he wouldn’t put her in danger. This had to be Zara. “You’re still here.”

  “I am,” she said with a nod. Amusement wrapped her expression. “But I wasn’t so long ago. I lost my life for the Kindred. It’s a good thing we have a doctor on the team who pulled me back.”

  “You… you died?”

  “That’s not a big deal,” the woman said, rising to her feet and waving a dismissive hand. “What is a big deal is that you’re here, that you got this far. That’s impressive.”

  “Tuck doesn’t think so,” Kadie said, thinking of their last conversation. “He’s pissed that I got myself mixed up with Sikorski.”

  “He is and he left me here to talk some sense into you.”

  Yet, she’d just spoken about Kadie joining the Kindred. “Is that what you’re doing?”

  “I want you to know what you’re getting into. It’s not an easy life and sometimes we have to watch our men take risks that endanger their lives. All we can do is watch them go. Eventually, you’ll have to walk into danger too and Swift’s not going to want you to do it. He’s going to do everything in his power to talk you out of it and tie you up at home.”

  “Swift?”

  “It’s how you should refer to him when you’re off base. Just as I have to refer to Brodie, my man, as Raven. We only use aliases off-base.”