“I know what I want, but it’s up to you,” Jasmia told her as she caressed Ace’s hair.
Ace studied her for a long moment and Jasmia thought she was going to tell her they couldn’t be together. “My world is dangerous at times, so if I tell you to do something, you need to do it. People will try to use you against me or try to hurt you to get at me.”
“I understand.” She knew she was leaving normal and entering rocky springs, but she was willing to follow her heart wherever it took her as it was toward Ace.
“Make damn sure you do, little girl.” Ace urged Jasmia closer with the hand in her hair. Their lips met and Jasmia sighed softly as she sank into her as their tongues tangled.
Chapter Eighteen
Cattail pulled into the garage of a single-story ranch and cut the engine. She climbed out saying, “I’ll make sure the property is secure. Blade is already on site.”
“Wait,” Ace told her and climbed out of the back. “Mia, go inside. You should be able to find my bedroom.” She took her hand and helped her out.
She didn’t linger in the garage, deciding if this relationship was going to work, she’d have to trust Ace and Ace would have to teach her how to defend herself. She couldn’t keep her helpless as her family had done. The notion that girls had to be ladies was outdated especially given what she might have to face.
Jasmia did find her bedroom easily by the lavender scent of her. She glanced around the spacious room taking in the dark shades of blue married with red and gold. The single picture on the wall was familiar to her as was the woman in it.
The shot was of the sunset in Maine nine months ago. She’d awoken the next morning to find Ace gone. Her chest tightened and heat unfurled in her belly to suffuse her entire being. The chill that had come over her that morning had never faded until this moment.
Ace hadn’t just left her without looking back. She’d brought the memory of them back making Jasmia was the first thing she saw in the morning and the last thing at night. That seven days had meant as much to Ace as they had to her. No wonder she’d smelled different when she’d returned.
Jasmia headed to the bathroom and the lights came on as she entered. She felt a little grimy and dirty from the smoke and the tumble to the ground. She needed to wash that incident off her skin before crawling into bed.
She crossed the marble floor to the big shower and pulled the glass door open to turn on the water. The caddy affixed to the smooth wall held a multitude of items including a small vibrator.
Her lips pulled into a line and she wondered if Ace used that on herself or Devin. Maybe she’d been thinking of her, craving her when she’d used it.
“Maybe,” she murmured and smiled and undressed as the water heated. She found clean towels in a basket next to the double sink vanity and grabbed a thick red cloth before climbing into the shower.
She stood beneath the spray luxuriating in the heat as it pelted her body before the soft scent of lavender and musk beneath grime and smoke infiltrated the room. Jasmia’s heart stopped and she went motionless wondering if Ace would join her.
Then the door whispered open behind her and cool kissed her skin before warm lips brushed along her shoulder. A stinging nip followed drawing her eyes closed on a moan.
Ace’s hands glided up her sides to her stomach as she cupped her breasts, squeezing them before pinching the rosy tips, forcing a hiss of pleasure from Jasmia.
“Ace,” she murmured huskily. “Your touch is a brand on my skin.”
“You’re a brand on my soul,” she whispered in Jasmia’s ear. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since we met.”
“That’s why you walked out on me earlier?” Jasmia pouted as she turned to look up at her lover.
“What was there to say? You were obviously pissed. Besides, you might have thrown the plate at me too.”
She giggled. “I felt like doing just that,” she admitted as she caressed Ace’s hips and rose on tip-toe to kiss her lightly.
Ace’s lips parted and her tongue swept in to brush against Ace’s before tangling with it. Her back came up against the cool tiles as water rained down over them. Ace angled her head to deepen the kiss and Jasmia stroked her hands up to Ace’s back to rake her with her nails.
Ace purred and Jasmia drew one hand between them to cup Ace’s breasts. She squeezed and kneaded the firm globes before breaking the kiss to flick her tongue over the dark bitter chocolate peak. She sucked it into her hot mouth and Ace groaned roughly as she thrust a hand into her hair.
Jasmia lifted her head to nip at the fleshy curve of Ace’s breast before turning her attention to the other. She drew her tongue around the areola and licked at the taut peak before sucking it.
Ace tipped her head back purring loudly. “Ah, Goddess Freya.” She tightened her hold on Jasmia’s hair.
The prickle of her scalp was an erotic sensation and her cat purred in her mind as she kissed a path from nipple to stomach. She placed kisses on the flat surface of dark honey before licking down to the plump lips of Ace’s pussy. The scent of lavender greeted her and she parted the folds with two fingers before licking up the slit.
Ace’s hips jerked. “Ah, baby.”
Jasmia flicked the swollen bud of her clitoris with her tongue licking around it, over it and drawing her tongue down to dip in the well of heated syrup. She thrust her tongue into Ace’s pussy, tasting her and moaning in approval.
“Shit, baby!” Ace ground against her lips, holding her head in place firmly.
She flicked her tongue in and out fast as she used the thumb of one hand to work Ace’s clit.
Ace growled. “Fuck. Fuck!” Ace pulled her up and pushed her back against the slick cool tiles. She pushed Jasmia’s arms up over her head as their lips met as their fingers knotted together.
Jasmia moaned, her own pussy soaked, clit pulsing. She rubbed against Ace loving the feel of her heat and softness.
“Ace,” she cried as her blood boiled inside her.
Ace released her hands to lift her and Jasmia closed her legs around Ace’s waist. Ace bent her knees to thrust up against her, clit to clit and Jasmia screamed. The pleasure snaked through her, curling around her.
“Bast, you’re strong, baby.”
“It’s the cat energy. The tiger is alive inside me, eager to fuck you too.” She ground hard against her, and Jasmia cried out as she raked her nails down Ace’s back.
Ace rotated her hips sending a tendril of heat through her and Jasmia gasped. Ace fucked her slow and steady increasing the pressure on her clit until her juices had her slick. The moisture ran down her thighs to be rinsed away by the heat of the water.
Her head rolled against the tile as bliss enfolded her. “Ace, Ace!”
Ace ground against her one last time body shuttering hard. “Damn,” she cried and set Jasmia on her feet.
Ace stroked her hand down Jasmia’s body. She pushed two fingers into her tight channel and pressed her thumb to the cleft and fucked her fast and hard. The pleasure was intense as it tore through her. She came hard, back bowed and body shuddering as her breaths came out in shallow pants.
****
Ten minutes later, Jasmia exited the bathroom freshly washed with her hair partially dry. She felt as if she were buzzed from the sex and the raw emotion flowing through her blood charging it like electricity.
“What were you thinking when you took this picture?” She pointed to the picture of herself in Maine. “Did you know you’d keep it?” She felt a smile bubbling in her blood and it lit her soul, but it wasn’t her smile, her happiness.
“I wanted a memento of our time of our time together.” Ace stepped out of the bathroom behind her.
“Just a memento or did you want to immortalize me as your forever love?” she teased. She felt even higher, lighter.
Ace wrapped her arms around Jasmia. “I wouldn’t have called it love,” she said as she pulled her close.
“Then, what would you have called it?” sh
e demanded with a grin as she looked up into dark eyes rich with emotion that took her breath away.
“Do I have to name it?” Ace asked and kissed her jaw before trailing kisses to Jasmia’s neck. She bit her as she tickled her and Jasmia giggled.
Jasmia laughed as she tried to escape and Ace tossed her onto the bed where Ace straddled her as she tickled her sides. Jasmia tried to dislodge her but to no avail as she writhed in humor.
“Ace,” she cried. “I’m gonna piss my pants.”
Ace laughed too and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “I can’t have you messing up the bed.”
Jasmia moaned and rolled onto her side. “My family is not going to be happy about us,” she said and the humor faded from her, but she still felt a lively energy inside her.
Ace fell onto the bed next to her, her expression thoughtful. “Your brother is the agent trying to find proof I killed the State’s Attorney.”
Jasmia went still. She had known this would come up. This being Ace’s life, her job. She hadn’t really thought of how she’d handle it, but trust was integral to every relationship.
So when her brother came at her, what would she do? How would she react if he showed her hard proof that Ace had killed that man and his friend?
“Did you?” she asked. This was a fork in their road and she had to make a decision now or it could destroy more than her own life later.
Ace’s brows flicked up as she studied her. She climbed from the bed a moment later. “I have some work to do in my office. Don’t wait up.”
“Maybe because you’re still a threat to her and to us,” she said. “You can’t have divided loyalties from here on out. It’s us or them.”
Cattail’s words came back to haunt her again and this time they hit her hard in the solar plexus. She had to choose. Her brother was a cop, her lover was a killer. Her heart beat faster because of Ace, she hungered for her, for life.
Her brother’s truth would get him his prey, maybe, but it would leave her without her heart.
Right or wrong? Which would she choose?
Chapter Nineteen
The next morning Ace lifted her head from the pillow on the couch in her study. She blew out a frustrated breath and rubbed her neck before getting to her feet. The couch hadn’t been too uncomfortable, but she’d rather been in bed curled around Mia.
Mia was still a danger to her though. Truth be told, words weren’t proof, and Terrance would still have to find a weapon to go with that video. Instinct told her to open up just a little, just enough to give Mia enough room to damn them both.
She would kill her. She hadn’t lied about that. Mia’s love may be the purest thing she’d ever known, but her life was linked to others’ lives. She’d made a promise to keep them safe and she wouldn’t break it even if she had to kill her mate.
“And her entire damn family,” she muttered as she stomped from the room. Mia wasn’t in bed when she entered the bedroom. The room smelled of the shampoo and body wash they used in the shower yet held the combined scent of them.
Their scents were mingling, the closer they got. Soon there would only be that new scent that was them.
She brushed her teeth and washed her face before dressing in jeans and a button down. Ace tucked it in and clinched a belt around her waist. Mia’s scent drifted in, and she stepped out of the walk-in closet where she was dressing.
“I need clothes,” Jasmia said coolly.
“Cattail took care of it last night,” she said as she grabbed a pair of boots and went to drop onto the chair to pull them on over socks.
“I didn’t see a bag anywhere.”
“Check the closet,” Ace told her. She watched Jasmia stride past her and her chest tightened at the stiffness of her body. She was hurting and Ace hated it.
How was she supposed to build a relationship with her if she didn’t trust her?
“Thanks.”
Ace pushed out a harsh sigh praying Jasmia didn’t betray her. “He was running drugs, Mia. He also had a few people working for him that specialized in hits. It’s not my particular specialty anymore. I killed for money for the first time when I was eighteen. People say it’s hard and once you take a life you’re never the same.”
“How did it change you? Why did you do it?”
“The guy was skimming from his boss. The boss was a small-time drug cartel leader. I knew him from when his girlfriend took me in for the money. She was one of the few people that didn’t hit me, try to rape me, or starve me.” She shrugged as she recalled the beautiful young woman who’d cared for her and taught her Spanish. Lucia had learned what her man was and had stood by him until the bitter end.
“You got a taste for blood and went back for more?”
“More or less,” she admitted with a faint smile. “I liked the money, so I did some work for him as a hitter. He didn’t like the gangland drive-bys you hear about on the news. He liked to have his enemies taken care of quietly. That meant taking out the entire family from the youngest to the oldest at times.”
“You killed children.”
“No one under seven. They weren’t old enough to understand or nurse any kind of grudge, but yeah, I wiped out two whole families for him that year.” She sighed and leaned back in the chair. “Killing kids didn’t set to good with me and it still doesn’t, but I understood the principle behind it, respected it.”
“You still do that?”
She saw the horror in Jasmia’s eyes and shrugged. “I haven’t in a long time,” Ace said softly. “It did fuck with my head, but I got over it. It’s the only thing I’ve ever done that I’ve thought was wrong though, so I try not to do it whenever possible.”
“So you meant it when you said you’d kill my family?”
“The left behind tend to want justice or vengeance. I don’t have time to deal with that, but the truth is, the work I do now requires it. A drug dealer’s heirs aren’t always forgiving or glad to be free.” Ace got to her feet. “Sabrina suggested you finish your pieces from home.”
“You didn’t tell her you weren’t going to finish the interview?”
“I think you have enough to start the story. The files are in the den with a secured laptop. You can get to work anytime. Cattail will be here with you all day,” Ace told her. “She’ll provide a secured line for you to call anyone you’d like as well.”
“My brother will be worried,” she said with a nod. “He won’t know what happened to me even if Seymour did manage to make it out.”
“Then, you should call him. And yes I did kill the State’s Attorney and his friend. I also killed the woman with them. I’ll see you later, Mia.”
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I need to check something out,” Ace told her.
“Is it something to do with what La—Agent Crandall said?”
She nodded and closed the distance between them. “I want to see what I can find out. Maybe there’s a link between Grande and The Hatter.” She kissed Jasmia on the forehead. Ace rubbed her back and pulled in closer. “I wish I’d slept with you last night.”
“Me too,” she murmured. “The bed was cold, but you can make it up to me.”
“How?”
“Come home in one piece.”
Ace gave her faint smile. “Do I have a reason to?”
“That I’m falling in love with you should be enough,” Jasmia replied.
“In that case, I’ll be careful,” she said softly and her chest tightened with emotion. “I’m already in love with you, Mia. You were right last night. You stole my heart in Maine.”
****
It was forty-five minutes later, dressed and in the den that Jasmia called her brother. The morning news was playing on the flat-screen mounted on the wall, and she’d watched transfixed as Seymour told them he hadn’t been able to get to her after the break-in.
His face was bruised and his arm held close to his body as if he’d sprained it. “Hello?” Terrence answered dully.
; “Hey, big brother,” she said softly.
“Jassi, is that you?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she told him quickly.
“Where are you?” Terrance demanded. “Who took you? Seymour said it was Ace and her criminal pals. They broke in and killed the guards.”
Breathless, her hand went to her mouth and dizziness made her sway slightly.
“It was Five by Five,” she said. “The guy specifically said The Hatter sends his regards.”
“Are you sure? Seymour doesn’t have any reason to lie.” Her brother sounded confused.
Ace had said she didn’t see him. Maybe jealousy or something else had made her lie.
Had she attacked him?
No that guy she was fighting hadn’t been faking anything. He’d been trying to kill Ace and he’d been going to kill her.
“Maybe he did lie,” she said carefully. “They said they didn’t see him and if he was there he was dead.”
“Listen to me, Jassi,” Terrance said evenly. “Where are you?”
“I—” She broke off. He’d come here, and he’d probably have people bug the house and tap the phone lines too. “I’m safe here.”
“No you aren’t. Mojo is an agency of killers. They’re manufacturing information on Grande. The SD card she gave you was filled with lies in an attempt to turn the FBI’s eye toward Grande and away from them.”
She had wondered about that. Ace had been so quick to turn the card over, but why encrypt it? None of this made sense.
“I don’t understand,” she said with a frown. “Ace—she didn’t want me to look at the information.”
“That’s why,” Terrance told her. “You have to get away from her. They’re planning something, probably to take over the Cell’s territory. The Cell sold drugs.”
“I know,” she said softly. “I’ve heard of them.” She’d seen the carnage they’d left in their wake on TV. “The agent mentioned drugs,” she said. “She was working for Grande. Maybe you’re the one that’s wrong. She called me, and said she wanted to tell me what Grande was really up to with the shelter.”
“She was a traitor, then. He isn’t linked to any cartel.”
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