Leaning over him, she took him deep, drawing the slow suction out. Rocking to the rhythm she set, Lucas realized he could just reach her and hooked the edge of her panties with his finger.
He couldn’t remember enjoying stripping a woman out of a piece of clothing as much as he loved tugging the soft material down Max’s legs as she went down on him. When the panties hit the floor, he smoothed a hand down her backside, continuing to watch his cock slide into her mouth.
She whimpered, leaning into the fingers he pushed against her slippery opening. The next time she sucked him deep, pulling at him with her tongue, he pumped his fingers inside her.
The soft sound she made vibrated along his cock, and both her mouth and her sex squeezed him, intensifying the pleasure coursing through him in knee-buckling waves.
Alternately teasing her clit and thrusting into her slick center, Lucas pumped his hips until release echoed inside him, spinning closer with every stroke of her tongue, every soft gasp from her lips.
But it wasn’t enough. He needed to possess her completely.
Dragging her toward him, he covered her mouth with his and rolled her beneath him. The pain in his side dulled his pleasure for only a second, and then he was taking her mouth fast and deep and forgetting everything but how good it felt with Max.
Everything about her excited him, tempted him, unraveled him.
Gripping her hips, he thrust inside her, pumping his hips over and over. She moaned against his neck, pleading with him not to stop—as if he could.
She felt so incredible, her arms pulling him tight, the slick walls of her sex greedily clenching around him. Again and again, he drove into her, the building tension so intense he almost didn’t want to come. He would happily spend the rest of day fucking her slow and hard and every variation in between, if it meant she was right here with him, riding the edge and holding onto him for every moment of it.
Thrust after thrust fired him closer to his own climax, and when he felt himself on the brink, he locked gazes with Max, hoping she saw in his eyes everything he felt. All the desire, the need and the love he felt swelling in his chest.
Her thighs squeezed around him, and she threw her head back, breaking away from his mouth as she came. One last thrust that seemed to go on and on hurtled him into blissful oblivion.
He groaned her name and buried his face in her neck as deep, radiating contentment tunneled through him.
Lucas tuned out whatever Max said and dragged the pillow over his head with one hand as he reached for her with the other.
He felt only emptiness next to him, and finally raised his head in time to be treated to a view of Max’s ass as she streaked out of the room.
“You’ve got ten minutes until Eli gets here,” she hollered out. “And no, you’re not getting into the shower with me.”
“You just had one.”
“It doesn’t count when I don’t have the opportunity to wash.”
A huge grin spread across his face as he thought of the shower they’d taken in the morning. After which, he’d dragged her back to bed, indulging every wicked thought that crossed his mind at the time.
The time for the deal with Blackwater was set for a few hours from now and with everything ready to go with the warehouse, he and Max had well and truly indulged in each other.
The only thing they hadn’t talked about was what came next once the entire Blackwater situation was behind them. He’d tried to broach the subject more than once but the woman got awfully creative when she was avoiding a particular topic.
He suspected it had something to do with the fact she was still wanted for murder. She’d confessed to spending months just thinking about her future one day at a time, so he got that it might take some time for her to think long-term again.
“Get up,” she yelled again from the bathroom, and he laughed.
If all went according to plan, twenty-four hours from now they’d have the case and Blackwater in custody. Even if the charges didn’t stick, Lucas knew more than a few players on the international black market, like the ones left in the lurch three months ago, wouldn’t risk Blackwater being offered a deal to name names.
Someone would take him out.
Eight minutes later they were waiting outside for Eli.
A black SUV with tinted windows rolled up, but instead of Eli stepping from the vehicle, Edward Blackwater emerged, his gun locked on Max.
“My father would like a word. With both of you,” he added as if he somehow anticipated Max would insist on going alone.
Taking a step closer to Max, Lucas scanned the street but found no sign of Eli. Shit.
Blackwater Junior inclined his head toward the back door of the SUV that opened from the inside.
The odds of walking away from the situation dropped dramatically the second they got into the vehicle, but he couldn’t risk Max being shot.
She preceded him into the SUV, hesitating for only a heartbeat when she spotted Snake already inside. When Lucas was seated next to her, Edward shut the door and the driver pulled away from the curb.
“Weapons, please. Slowly,” Edward advised.
Max unstrapped her ankle holster and handed her weapon over to Snake. Max’s expression betrayed nothing but casual indifference, and he admired how easily she could appear unruffled when they both knew Blackwater would kill her the moment she became of no use.
Lucas carefully reached in and withdrew his from his shoulder holster and handed it over.
Had the drug and arms dealer figured out no one had the weapon, that it was all a ruse? Or was finding Max merely a bonus and he had every intention of making the meeting in just a handful of hours. Maybe he did believe the deal was authentic and had no use for Max anymore, leaving Lucas to wonder if they were being taken to Blackwater, or to an execution point?
They left Manhattan behind, taking the Lincoln Tunnel to New Jersey. Were they being taken right to Blackwater’s home? Lucas’s suspicions were confirmed a while later, when the SUV left the main road and turned onto a private estate.
Before they got out of the car, Snake gave Max’s thigh a meaningful squeeze. Lucas didn’t need to react, and he probably wouldn’t have been as quick as Max, who didn’t give Snake the chance to block the vicious jab.
Cursing, Snake grabbed a handful of Max’s hair, jerking her out of the car.
Fury ripped through Lucas and he lunged across the seat, but Edward Blackwater already had his gun to Max’s head.
Fuck.
“You are both supposed to arrive alive, but that doesn’t mean I have a problem putting a bullet in either one of you.”
Max’s expression after Edward’s comment was the same as that night in the woods when Lucas had said something similar. Bring it on.
Snake cast another leering glance at Max, before taunting Lucas. “Maybe I’ll let you watch the two of us have some fun later.”
“Didn’t realize you wanted an audience when I shove your dick down your throat,” Max quipped.
Any other time Lucas would have grinned at her bravado, but not when it made Snake snarl at her like he was going to enjoy hurting her.
The bastard gave her a hard shove toward the mansion in front of them then glanced back at Lucas, as if daring him to do something about it.
As tempting as it was to tell the guy he’d be eating through a tube before he put his hands on her, Lucas kept his mouth shut. Blackwater’s crew didn’t need any more leverage.
“Let’s go.” Edward waved him out of the vehicle, and they headed up the brick path leading right to the front door.
Lucas noted five guards on this side of the house alone. Past intel had indicated only six for the entire property. Something clearly had Blackwater good and spooked.
Tonight’s deal, or something else entirely?
Snake led them into the house past pricey pieces of art and other window dressing that was probably supposed to depict Samuel Blackwater as some kind of patron of the arts.
They
were shown into an office at the back of the house as though they had an appointment. The man of the hour himself was waiting for them behind a large mahogany desk.
Samuel Blackwater turned from the window. His small, dark eyes were lost in his portly face and salt and pepper comb-over that might have been in style a decade or two ago. And that was if the jagged pink scar across his eye could be overlooked.
Too old school to consider a better plastic surgeon?
“Nice to see you again, Detective Walker.”
“Oh, the feeling is mutual.”
Snake pushed her into the closest chair, leaving Lucas to stand.
“I believe you have some property of mine.”
Max frowned. “Oh, was I supposed to hold on to that sliver of glass I cut you with as a keepsake? Sorry.”
A cold smile cracked Blackwater’s lips. “I don’t think I need to remind you how I punished the last woman who chose not to cooperate.”
“You married her?”
Damn, that one almost made Lucas crack a smile.
Blackwater on the other hand didn’t look impressed. He leaned across the desk. “My staff was scrubbing your friend’s blood and pieces of her off the floor for weeks.”
Max didn’t so much as flinch. “You must have a very attractive benefits package.”
Blackwater nodded, and Snake produced a knife, pressing it against her throat. “Let’s try this again. Do you have something that belongs to me? Yes or no? And I promise you will regret lying to me.”
“Screw you.”
With a barely perceptible nod from his father, Edward swiveled and shoved his gun against Lucas’s temple.
“No!” Her gaze snapped back to Blackwater’s. “You’re right. Let’s start over.”
It wasn’t the first time Lucas had found himself in a bad situation, but the uncertainty that came with Max sitting opposite him, a knife to her throat, made his gut ache until all he could think about was ripping Snake’s arm from his body.
Nodding for his son to lower his weapon, Blackwater crossed his arms. “Continue.”
“There was a case. The Russian had been carrying it around,” Max said.
“That’s right. It wasn’t recovered with his body.”
“He hid it.”
Blackwater frowned. “He told you where?”
She shook her head, her gaze touching briefly on Lucas. “I saw where he stashed it.”
Shit. She wasn’t seriously going to tell him?
“In the warehouse,” Blackwater guessed, and both Edward and Snake turned their full attention on her.
“In a floor grate in the north east corner of the building.”
After a jerk of Blackwater’s head, Edward spun around.
Max deliberately waited until he reached the doorway. “Of course it’s no longer there now.”
Blackwater came around the desk, and Lucas guessed his intention too late to prevent him from backhanding Max. Her head snapped to the side and blood trickled from her split lip. Only the feel of Edward’s gun digging into the base of his skull kept Lucas in place.
Ignoring him altogether, Blackwater kept his attention fixed on Max. “Where is it?”
She blew out a breath, wincing at the blade digging deep enough to draw blood. “I sold it. Sort of anyway. I think they screwed me on the currency exchange because I blew through the twenty grand in less than a month.”
Visibly sputtering, Blackwater’s face turned an ugly shade of red. “Twenty grand?” he echoed.
“I needed money to get out of town.”
Looking uncertain, Blackwater leaned down, placing a hand on each armrest and getting right in Max’s face. “Who did you sell it to?”
“Some European guy. Austrian maybe or Czechoslovakian.”
Just as quickly as Blackwater’s face had flushed, all the color drained away. Jesus, he actually believed her. And the story Max was spinning was apparently worrying him.
Knowing that didn’t mean a damn thing except Blackwater had no reason to keep them alive, Lucas stayed where he was.
“What about the flash drive?”
Flash drive? Lucas frowned, glancing at Max for any sign she knew what he was talking about.
“I don’t know anything about a flash drive,” she managed. “Maybe one of your high-paid janitors found it when they were scrubbing the floor.”
The nervous glint in Blackwater’s eyes retreated, and he nodded to Edward.
“On your knees.” Edward jammed the gun into Lucas’s skull. “Now.”
“No!” Max strained against the knife, causing more blood to slide down her throat. “Just wait. I don’t know anything about a flash drive.”
Forced to his knees, Lucas held Max’s gaze, willing her to keep it together. “We’re okay.”
“It belonged to your friend.” Blackwater cocked his head, waiting. “She stole some information from me and I want it back.”
Max shook her head, all traces of her earlier attitude slashed away, and the vulnerability on her face made Lucas’s chest ache worse than any gunshot wound. “Cara never said a word about any flash drive.”
“My son is going to count to five, Detective.”
“Damn it, no. I don’t know anything about a flash drive.”
“One.”
“Stop, please!”
“Two.”
“Don’t.” She tried again to pull away from Snake and cried out at the cut of the blade.
“Three.”
“No.” A tear escaped and tracked down her cheek. “Please, just wait. Cara never gave me anything. I never saw any flash drive. I swear it.”
Looking thoughtful, the drug and arms dealer studied Lucas. “And what about you, Mr. McAllister?”
“Do you really think you’d be sitting here all cozy in your office if there was evidence somewhere that could lock you away?”
“You make a good point.” Blackwater glanced at his watch, then out the window. “Unfortunately, my ride is here and I have another meeting I need to prepare for shortly, so we’ll have to continue with our little chat later.”
“You want them downstairs?” Snake asked, finally withdrawing the knife from Max’s throat.
Blackwater paused in the doorway. “For now. I’ll be in touch if that changes.” He disappeared out the door.
Snake motioned for Max to stand. “I guess you and I get to spend some quality time together.” He circled her, his smile somewhere between disturbing and homicidal, and Lucas couldn’t wait to smash the expression off his face.
“And if you’re a real good girl,” he continued, “I’ll let you play with my Albino friend.”
Max smiled sweetly. “You do know that having pet names for your penis is so junior high, right?”
This time Snake only sneered at her.
Edward grabbed the back of Lucas’s jacket. “Up.”
“Please wouldn’t hurt,” Lucas muttered, getting to his feet.
The half-anticipated elbow jab to Lucas’s spine hurt like a bitch, but he knew it meant the gun was no longer pointed at his head.
Pivoting, Lucas drove his own elbow into Edward’s lungs, then nailed him in the jaw with a punch that snapped the asshole’s face to the left. The gun hit the floor, and Edward dove for it.
Lucas beat him to it, twisting around, his finger on the trigger.
“Don’t be a hero,” Snake warned. He’d switched his blade for a gun—one he had against Max’s head.
No, he realized, the blade hadn’t been exchanged for the gun at all. Max had gotten it away from him and had pressed it to Snake’s thigh, right next to his femoral artery.
Lucas didn’t have time to make a decision before the large bay window shattered and he felt himself thrown backward by an explosion.
Chapter Fourteen
Max slowly opened her eyes. Her head felt like someone had shoved it into a speaker at a rock concert and then plunged it into the river immediately afterward. All around her there were pieces of glass and w
ood littering the floor, like something had barreled right through the office window.
What the hell had happened?
She lifted her head and saw Lucas dragging himself to his feet just as a groan came from somewhere behind her.
Awareness returned at the same moment one of her ears popped and unfiltered sound rushed in.
Rolling to her side, Max spotted the gun lying on the carpet between her and Snake. She scrambled for the weapon, her fingers closing around the grip a heartbeat before Snake’s. Glass scraped her palm and bit into her knees as she backed away from him, her breath hissing out.
Snake didn’t move. Not so brave when he wasn’t brandishing a machete, was he?
Lucas slid a hand under her elbow to help her up. “You okay?”
“More or less.” Her gaze swept the room, landing on an unconscious Edward Blackwater. “What the hell was that?”
“I don’t know.” Lucas crossed to the gaping hole in the wall where the window used to be.
Max looked past his shoulder to see a flaming hunk of metal that might have been Samuel Blackwater’s ride. “Do you think he was in it?”
“We can only hope.” Armed with Edward’s gun, he jumped through the window, onto the grass.
He held out a hand for Max, and she landed next to him. Three men swarmed what was left of the vehicle, and Lucas urged her in the opposite direction. One of the men hollered behind them, but they’d already reached the corner and sprinted across the landscaped backyard.
From the corner of her eye, Max spotted two other men running toward them. Two gunshots sounded almost the moment she noticed them, and one of the men dropped to the ground after taking a bullet from Lucas’s gun.
Seeing his buddy go down made the second guard hesitate, giving them time to get behind a small outer building that the groundskeeper likely used.
She flattened herself against the wall. “There.” She nodded toward the trees roughly twenty yards away.
A chunk of siding flew off the building sheltering them before Lucas returned fire.
“Go.”
Trusting him not to get himself shot again, she broke into a run. He was beside her in an instant, and they reached the woods, getting more cover between them and Blackwater’s guards.
Trust Me: The Lassiter Group, Book 1 Page 21
