by Jane Henry
“You can tie the prostitution money to Diana’s company?” Diego breathed. “That simple?” El Jefe had been three steps ahead of them all this time. Was it possible she could have done something so stupid?
Slay shrugged, and his lips quirked. “That simple. Like Al Capone with the tax evasion. Or like Chalo Salazar getting sent down for insurance fraud instead of drug running or the billions of other illegal things he did. Diana probably had no idea how big she’d one day become when this first started. And then, once she had a large, successful company behind her, and a reputation as a successful businesswoman and philanthropist to back her up, she must have figured she was untouchable.”
“And she would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids,” Matteo said in his best Scooby-Doo villain voice, making Slay roll his eyes and shake his head. “Seriously, though, not one person in a thousand would have thought to look where you did, Diego.”
Diego shook off the praise and focused on the facts. “Have you passed all of this on to Darby?” he demanded. “When do we get a warrant? When can we move?”
Slay and Matteo exchanged a glance. “About that…”
“What?” Diego asked uneasily, looking between the two.
“Well, we could call Darby,” Matteo said. “We could ask him to obtain authorization from his AIC to apply for a warrant, and then wait for a warrant to come through, and then wait for them to assemble a team, even though apparently we’re low on their priority list and shit’s going down in a matter of hours.”
“Or? Please tell me there’s an or here…” Diego stared at Slay.
Slay smiled. “Or… we could call in a favor with a friend. Turns out Lucas has a friend who works with the Director of the FBI, way above Darby and his AIC. And if that weren’t enough, Allie’s dad is poker buddies with a guy who happens to be a bailiff at the Federal court, and knows a couple of judges…”
“So we can get a warrant? And authorization?” Diego asked.
Matt nodded. “Still no FBI backup, which means limited resources that make this a lot more dangerous. And when Darby and Berkley find out about this, I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a way to blacklist us with the FBI once and for all, but…” He hesitated. “Fuck it. Some things are just worth the risk. I know you know that.” He clapped Diego on the shoulder. “I trust you, Santiago. I want you to be point man for this op.”
Fuck, yeah, Diego knew all about taking risks. In fact, he’d been ready to fight Darby tooth and nail just to be allowed to be on the takedown team. Now it appeared he’d be leading it.
“So, you and me?” Diego said. “We can go in stealthily, and…”
Slay folded his hands over his chest and shook his head. “Shut up. You think I’d let you two do this alone? When I think of Camila and what could’ve happened to her if you hadn’t gotten her free… I want in on this. And I’ve called all the guys on my team for a meeting at headquarters in two hours. I know for a fact that they’re gonna want to be a part of this too.”
“All the guys?” Diego asked, honestly confused. “Why? Most of them haven’t met Camila, and they have no clue about El Jefe’s operation. If Darby and Berkley get their panties in a bunch, every guy who takes part tonight could be blacklisted from future FBI-connected ops. Why would they want to risk themselves for this?”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Slay said, shaking his head and watching Diego with those brown eyes that saw fucking everything. “I’ve told you a hundred times and you won’t believe me.”
Diego glanced at Matteo, who watched the exchange with a smirk on his lips. Matteo’s phone rang and he stepped away to answer it, but Slay’s eyes didn’t waver from Diego.
“Believe what?” Diego asked.
“Believe that I see who you are. That Nora sees you. That all the guys who work with us, and all the people you’ve met at The Club, they see you too. Blake and Elena and Dom and Heidi, all of them, all of us, see you. You’re not a criminal. You’re not a man with blood on his hands. You’re a good man who’s had to do some incredibly awful stuff.” He shook his head. “I mean, shit that’s gonna haunt your nightmares for the rest of your fucking life. But you did it so that the rest of us could sleep soundly in our beds, so that our kids can breathe a little more freely, so that our wives and partners can feel just a little bit safer and worry about us a little bit less when we go out to work. And by your instincts alone in this op, you found the one clue that could take down a crime boss and saved hundreds, maybe thousands, of lives. If you think you need a penance for something? If you think you need to balance the scales? Brother, they’re already balanced.”
Diego closed his eyes and sucked in a breath. It was impossible for him to articulate just what Slay’s words, Slay’s confidence, meant to him, but now wasn’t the time or the place for him to get sucked into that shit. “Jesus, enough.”
Slay, the fucker, laughed loud and long at Diego’s discomfort.
Diego rolled his eyes. “I’ve gotta find Nora and Camila. I left them hanging with Tony, Tess, Dom, and Heidi in the family waiting room outside the ER.”
“I checked on them before I came in,” Slay said. “I asked Tony if he needed me to hold his hand while they stitched him up, and Matt reminded him that if he was going to pass out, he should lean away from Tess.”
Diego laughed despite himself. Pair of smartasses. He went to move past Slay, but the other man stopped him with a hand on Diego’s shoulder. Slay’s mouth twisted up on one side. “I should’ve believed you from the start about this. Shoulda trusted your instincts.”
Something inside Diego’s chest loosened at that acknowledgement, but he shook his head and stepped forward to clap Slay on the shoulder. “You believed me where it counted, and you put Paul and Heidi on this. And if you’d kept Diana away from Centered, it might have tipped her hand.”
“Yep. But I could’ve made sure all of that happened while still letting you know that I trusted your gut. When I’m wrong, I say I’m wrong.”
“And when you’re an asshole, do you say you’re an asshole?” Matt asked, stepping back into the room. Slay raised an eyebrow at him, and Matt chuckled before sobering. “That was Lucas. It’s a go.”
Slay nodded. “I’m calling Allie’s dad.”
Diego’s gut clenched. Finally. Things had started to go right with this operation. Thoughts of Camila and all the girls who had come before her flashed through his mind, along with images of his brother Armando, his mother, Nora, Tomás. I’m going to end this tonight, he vowed. For all of you. For all of us.
When he stepped out of the waiting room, he saw Nora was already walking down the hall towards him. Her face brightened when she caught sight of him, but Diego frowned. “Babe, you shouldn’t be wandering around alone. Not now,” he warned. “It’s not safe.”
“I was looking for you. I wondered where you’d gone off to, and whether you’d learned anything more about…”
“Nora, I told you to stay with Tony and Dom,” he interrupted, folding his arms over his chest. “Remember?”
“Diego, it’s a hospital hallway,” she said, and he could hear the eye-roll in her voice. “I think I’m pretty safe, between the security cameras and the people walking around!”
He sucked in a breath. The relief he felt at the knowledge that this chapter of his career would be ending tonight once and for all, was tempered by the very real fear he felt about Nora’s safety—especially given that El Jefe planned to tie up all her loose ends in Boston and that Nora had shown again that she would not heed his warnings.
He would teach the woman to listen to him, one way or another.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he lied easily. He lowered his arms and wrapped one around her waist, then turned her back in the direction she’d come. “I mean, if something happened to you, someone would see, wouldn’t they?”
She nodded, relieved. “Exactly, I mean—”
Her last word ended with a squeak as Diego pul
led her into an unlocked maintenance closet he’d noticed earlier. Before she could take a breath or finish her sentence, he had spun her around so that her cheek was flush against the metal surface of the closed door, both of her hands trapped in one of his. He pressed the length of his chest against her back.
“You were saying?” he whispered in her ear.
“Daddy! What are you doing!” she demanded, struggling against the awkward position. “Let me go.”
“Let you go? Why? Nothing bad can happen to you when you’re walking down a hospital hallway, right?” One of his hands snaked into the waistband of her jeans, flicking the button open, while the other continued to pin her wrists. “And if you don’t know what I’m doing, mamita, you haven’t been paying attention.”
She abruptly stopped struggling, stopped moving altogether, and for one short moment, he listened to her breathing fast and excited. “You with me, Nora?” he asked, and she nodded.
He pressed her wrists to the door once, a reminder for her to leave them there, then released them. His hands now roamed her body—over the smooth, firm line of her abdomen, over her lush hips, and came to rest on her round ass.
“The past few days, things have been strained between us. I’m your Daddy,” he said, his voice gravelly and low as he kneaded her soft flesh. “And you have no idea how badly I wanted to remind you—to remind both of us—of that fact. We work better when we remember our roles.”
He gathered her hair in one hand and used it to tilt her head to the side, allowing him unfettered access to the sensitive skin below her ear, and then used that access to torture her mercilessly with his tongue and teeth. “Our relationship, the trust between us, they’re new and fragile, and I know I can’t force them. So even though I’ve seen you pulling away from me, struggling with the information I gave you, pushing all my buttons, I deliberately haven’t pushed you, haven’t punished you, haven’t spanked you. You needed time to remember why you trusted me in the first place, and I wanted you to have that. But when it mattered, baby? When push came to shove and you needed to make a decision that would protect you and Camila, you didn’t hesitate. You trusted your daddy instinctively, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Daddy,” she whispered.
He nodded against her neck. “You’ve made your decision. And now there’s no going back. From now on, when you disobey, there will be consequences.”
She caught her lip between her teeth and watched him over her shoulder through heavy-lidded eyes. Christ. The woman was aroused. He knew if he dipped his hands inside her panties right now, he’d find her wet and wanting.
He sucked in a deep breath and adjusted his rapidly swelling cock in his pants. First things first.
“Were you supposed to be walking in the hall?” he demanded, pulling her hips away from the door and positioning her so that she was tilted at an angle, supported by her hands. “When El Jefe is still out there, still gunning for us?”
“No,” she whispered, resigned.
He pulled her jeans and panties down her legs in one quick motion. “That’s right,” he agreed.
And then he brought his palm down on her ass with a crack so loud that it echoed in the small space. Nora let out a muffled whimper. “You stay quiet, baby,” he whispered in her ear. “Unless you want someone to come in here?”
She swallowed and shook her head, but when she glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyes were dilated and her cheeks flushed with unmistakable arousal. Fuck. So many things about this woman enflamed him, so many things he couldn’t wait to explore… once he knew for sure that she was safe.
Crack, crack, crack. Nora jumped with each blow, but stayed silent.
“What is my number one priority?” he demanded.
“M-me?” she guessed.
He brought his hand down once more. “There is no question about that, Nora. You are my first and only priority. Everything I do, every fucking thing from here on out, will be focused on keeping you safe and happy. But I can’t do that unless you take my warnings seriously and obey me. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Daddy,” she said softly.
He hated punishing her when she responded so sweetly, when her “Yes, Daddy” made his head swim with the need to pull her back against him and claim her fully. But he knew that if she didn’t learn to heed his warnings, he could lose her, and that was completely unacceptable.
Slap. He brought his hand down against her rapidly warming flesh over and over again, loving the way her skin grew rosy pink in the dim overhead light, thrilling at the knowledge that her body would wear his mark. Only ever his mark.
She had buried her face in her arm after the first few swats, likely to keep herself quiet, but he could tell from the hitch in her breathing that she was crying or on the verge. He ran his palms over her tender skin and put his nose against her neck. “You’re so brave, my good girl. Such a sweet, brave girl taking your punishment from me.”
She pulled her head up and turned her head until her eyes—wide, wet, and utterly wrecked—met his. “I’m sorry, Daddy,” she said, and he nodded.
“I know, baby. I know. And now Daddy’s going to make you feel better.”
He kissed her jaw lightly before dropping to his knees behind her and guiding her feet out of her shoes and jeans until her lower half was completely naked. He pressed his open mouth to the scalding hot skin of her ass as she braced herself against the door, sliding his tongue against the tender flesh. “Daddy made you ache and now Daddy will take the ache away.”
He pushed his hand against her lower back so that her pussy arched towards his mouth and she widened her legs eagerly. He stroked a finger through her folds. She trembled against him, and he felt an answering pulse in his cock. Then he dipped his head the final inch and licked her, suckling her tiny bud between his lips. She cried out softly, and he lost himself in the sweet, warm wonder of her.
It wasn’t long before she was bucking against him, riding his mouth. The sounds coming out of her throat were deep, uninhibited, and loud, and he could feel his erection straining against his jeans, growing more superbly painful and insistent with each of her cries. Some dim part of his brain reminded him that he should warn her to be quiet, but he’d become a creature of instinct. Let them hear. Let them know exactly who I am to her.
A moment later, he stood up and, for the first time, reached for the opening of his own jeans, pulling them down to his thighs. Then he slid himself into the slick warmth of her.
The air was filled with twin moans—hers and his, and his heart thumped hard at the ineffable sense of rightness that came over him. The sense of home.
Home was not his mother’s house, with its reminders of happier times. It wasn’t the crew where his brother Armando had died, or the job he’d taken on as penance. It wasn’t even the group of friends who Slay said saw him. Home was Nora. Home was being a daddy to his good girl.
He braced one of his hands on the door next to hers, while the other arched around her body to find her clit. “Do you feel that, baby?” he demanded, his voice absolutely ruined with lust and emotion. “That’s something that only you and I will ever have together.”
“It’s perfect,” she breathed, her voice high and filled with wonder.
“It’s us,” he said simply. And then he began to move inside her, harder and faster, until time spun out and he forgot everything but the beauty of Nora and the utter completeness they found together.
Of course, the sense of peace he’d found with Nora in that little closet hadn’t lasted forever. By the time they’d emerged and gone to find Tony and Tess, Nora blushing and stammering as she tried to explain their sudden disappearance, Diego’s mind had already turned towards the final chapter in the years-long saga of his life undercover, a chapter that would end tonight.
He’d brought Nora to Dom and Heidi’s house, where she’d be able to hang with her friends Tony, Tess, Hillie, Donnie, Grace, Elena, Blake, Paul, John, and several of the wives and partners of Slay’s cre
w members who were working the op with them.
“Only this family would throw a fucking party while your men work an op,” Blake had grumbled to Slay when they’d descended on the eldest Angelico’s large suburban home. In truth, Diego knew that Blake was glad they were together, and glad to do his part by keeping the families of the men taking part in the operation safe.
And thanks to their interlude in the supply closet, Diego knew that Nora would certainly do her part to stay safe, as well.
A smirk rose to his lips, but he bit it back. Mind on the job, so you can get back to your woman. Diego reminded himself as Matteo slowly drove their unmarked black van down the street towards the warehouse.
With a sigh, Diego pushed the button on the tiny device inside his ear. “Slay, gimme an update.”
“Thirteen units in place around the building,” Slay relayed, his voice loud and clear in Diego’s ear. Diego knew that in reality, Slay’s voice was nothing more than a whisper of sound, amplified by the advanced communications devices they wore. “Three men on the rooftops—two snipers and one working comms. Four of us in place at the front entrance, five at the rear entrance near the harbor, and Jones is hovering on a fire escape, prepared to breach. We’re ready to go once you’re in position.”
Diego nodded to himself, then realizing Slay couldn’t see him, he said aloud, “Good. And the men from Salazar’s crew?”
“All gathered inside,” Slay told him. “Eleven men total.” Eleven, not twelve. Diego thought of Tomás, the misguided, arrogant fucker, and his heart squeezed. “We have ears inside the warehouse, and we overheard a couple of them grumbling that Banyon had gotten a call from El Jefe this afternoon, and had sent out word to all of the other guys. They’re all speculating about why the number three guy had gotten the call, rather than you or Tomás.” Slay paused. “They’re speculating that you’re dead by El Jefe’s hand over the missing girl, and they’re wondering if tonight will be the night that El Jefe reveals himself.”
