by M. S. Parker
“Will you tell me where we’re going?” Clay’s voice was only a little louder than how he normally spoke. Not loud enough to sound fake, but enough to ensure that he would be heard.
“What’s wrong, honey? Don’t you trust me?”
We’d written out a script of what we’d say, and since the cartel didn’t actually know anything about us – and we’d be speaking English – we didn’t have to worry too much about sounding natural. That was good since I’d never called anyone ‘honey’ in my life, and it definitely wasn’t the sort of nickname I’d have given Clay.
“I just don’t understand why we had to meet out here. You’ve been gone all day, baby. I’d rather we ordered room service and stayed in bed.” He grabbed my arm, stopping us in front of the house.
“I told you I didn’t want to.” I put a little edge in my voice. “Especially since it’s not like we’re a couple or anything. Right, honey?”
I crooked my arm around his and pulled him closer to the gate in front of the cartel’s house. I could feel eyes on us, but I wasn’t sure if they were the right sets of eyes. Still, we had to keep going. The slightest bit of hesitation and we’d be made.
I’d always wanted to cover serious stories, and the threat of danger had never really made me think twice. This, however, was a whole other kind of danger, and I definitely didn’t like it.
“How about those rumors I heard that you’ve been seeing some guy while we’re waiting for our government to figure out how to get us out of this damn country?” Clay sounding belligerent would’ve been funny any other time. “You know I don’t share.”
“Don’t worry,” I said, using a sickening sweet voice. “What’s going on between me and Luis doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“Luis? What the fuck kind of name is that?”
“Hey! Take your fight somewhere else!” someone yelled from inside the house.
“We’re not fighting!” I yelled back, sticking with English. The longer I could draw this out, the better. “I want to talk to your leader!”
“What are you doing?” Clay said in a stage whisper.
I tightened my grip on his arm. “Quiet.”
“Who is asking for the leader?” The front door opened and a tall man with toffee-colored skin came out onto the porch. He carried a gun over his shoulder. I didn’t know what kind, but it was big, and that was enough for me.
“I am,” I said, silently congratulating myself on being able to speak without my voice shaking. “I know you were looking for three people. Me, my sister, and this guy. Luis told me the deal he made with you. I want to make another one.”
“Tess, what the hell?” Clay started to pull away but froze the moment the man on the porch raised his gun. “What’s going on?”
“I’m selling off the asshole who used me in return for enough money for me and Luis to get out of the country.”
“You bitch!”
“You would use him for money and not for your sister?”
“My sister and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms,” I said tightly. “I’ve barely talked to her in fifteen years.”
The leader came down the steps, and a few other men trickled out of the house to stand on the porch. “Then why did you help him?”
“For our mother,” I said. “She was worried about Brianne, and I gave in because she’s my mom.”
“What has changed?”
“I’m tired of my sister fucking up my life.”
He looked impressed, either by my language or my attitude, either of which I hoped meant he wouldn’t shoot me.
“How could you do this to me?!”
Clay was shouting now, drawing the attention from me to him. He began to curse at me in both English and Spanish, coming up with every insult he could think of, even ones that didn’t make much sense.
He’d expressed his extreme dislike of this part of the distraction, but we’d both agreed that saying all sorts of nasty things to me would create more chaos, and it would keep me from actually having to hand him over to the cartel. I’d told him that it wouldn’t bother me because I knew he’d never speak to me that way. Hell, I doubted he’d speak to anyone but the worst criminal like that.
I caught movement through the window and quickly looked away. I didn’t know if it was Brianne or not, but I didn’t want to do anything that could jeopardize her and Sylvia’s lives. I couldn’t imagine being angry enough at anyone I loved to actually want them dead, and no matter how complicated things were, I did love my sister.
“That is enough!” the leader shouted.
Clay stopped mid-word, and we both froze. Here was where things were going to get really tricky. We’d bought Brianne as much time as we could, and we could only hope it’d been enough. It was up to her to get her and Sylvia out and back to our meeting point a few blocks away. Clay and I getting away was a bit more complicated.
“Bring them both,” the leader said.
“You made a deal with Luis!” I took a step back as two of the men came toward us.
Clay shifted, putting himself between me and the men.
“And I will honor it,” the leader said. “You will enjoy my hospitality until your sister arrives. I will then let you go back to Luis, with payment.”
Shit.
Suddenly, a loud, piercing whistle cut through the air just before an explosion of sound and light burst from the house. Clay tucked me against his chest, shielding me from debris even as I tried to process what was happening. I caught a glimpse of men in the dirt, clinging to porch posts, guns scattered, and then Clay had my hand and was pulling me down the sidewalk.
We’d gone only a few feet when someone stepped out in front of us. Clay skidded to a stop, and I bumped into him as my momentum carried me forward. Luis stood less than a foot away, his expression haggard.
“Tess, where have you been?” He looked at Clay’s hand wrapped around mine, and his face darkened.
“I don’t have time for this,” I said, looking over my shoulder. “Clay and I have to go. I’d stay away from the cartel. They’re not too happy with me right now.”
“What did you do?” He grabbed my arm.
“You little–”
I shook my head at Clay, and his mouth snapped shut, the muscle in his jaw twitching as he tensed. I was going to give Luis one chance.
“Let me go.”
“I saved you,” he said, giving me a shake. “You owe me.”
It’d been a while since I’d taken self-defense, but this was one move I’d always remembered. I moved my arm in a tight circle, easily breaking Luis’s grasp, then struck with my uninjured fist.
Luis’s head snapped back, and he let out a howl of pain as he dropped to the ground. I didn’t wait around to see what damage I’d inflicted, or to warn him that as soon as Clay and I were at the rendezvous point, I was calling the cops. Luis wasn’t my problem, and contrary to what he might have thought, saving my life didn’t entitle him to rule it.
My life was mine, and mine alone.
Thirty-Three
Clay
We arrived at the rendezvous only a few seconds before Brianne and Sylvia, so I didn’t have a chance to tell Tess how much I’d loved watching her deck that asshole Luis. I’d wanted to do it myself, but I was glad I’d let her take care of it. She’d been right about how Brianne and I were treating her, and unless I wanted things between Tess and me to become as stilted and problematic as they were between the sisters, I needed to start changing.
“Everyone okay?” Brianne asked as she and Sylvia stopped running. She seemed to be helping Sylvia along a bit, but neither one of them appeared to be injured.
“We’re fine,” I said.
“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Tess ignored her sister’s question as she moved forward to hug Sylvia. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t stop him.”
“It’s not your fault,” Sylvia insisted. “I saw him hit you–”
“He hit you?!” Brianne sounded practically mu
rderous.
I saw red. “I’m going to kill him.” I turned to go back, but Tess grabbed my arm.
“He’ll get what he deserves,” she said as she pulled a phone from her pocket. “Does anyone know the number for the police department?”
As Sylvia rattled it off, I pulled Brianne aside, needing something to focus on so I didn’t go beat the shit out of Luis. “What the hell was that back there? You said you had what you needed, but that was a hell of a lot more than a couple guns.”
“I have some connections,” she said uneasily. “It’s no big deal.”
“I’m not stupid, Bri.” I lowered my voice. “You’re wearing a vest under your shirt, and it’s a top-of-the-line one if I ever saw one. You took at least two hits, and you clearly kept going, which doesn’t happen very often.”
“Leave it.”
“No.” I glanced at Tess, but she was still talking on the phone. “I didn’t hear a single gunshot, but I don’t think that’s because you didn’t use a gun. I think you had a silencer. Probably more than one. And that last thing? That was a flash-bang. How the hell did you get your hands on all of that stuff in a foreign country in that short amount of time?”
Brianne looked up at me, something sparking in her eyes as she faced off with me. “I’m only going to say this one more time. Back. The. Fuck. Off. This is none of your business.”
The challenge in her voice made me want to keep pushing, but she was right. It wasn’t any of my business. I might’ve been sent down here to find her, but this wasn’t an FBI investigation.
“The police are on their way,” Tess said. “I gave them Luis’s name and description so that even if he runs, they’ll go after him.”
“Are you okay to walk?” Brianne asked Sylvia. “There’s a car two streets over.”
“My house–” Sylvia began but Brianne was already shaking her head.
“Not tonight.” She gave the other woman a wan smile. “We need to make sure it’s safe before you go back there. We’re going to take you to the hospital and then to a hotel.”
“No hospital,” Sylvia said, holding out her hand in clear dismissal. “I’m okay. Nothing a good shower and a bed won’t cure. What about you?”
“I’m fine,” Bri said shortly. “Let’s go.”
“Why wouldn’t you be fine?” Tess asked as she followed Brianne. “What happened in there?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Brianne said. “I’m okay. Just some bumps and bruises.”
I nearly bit my tongue to keep back my suspicions. I didn’t like hiding my thoughts from Tess, but I wasn’t going to get between the sisters. I stayed behind the three women, letting Brianne take point. I didn’t know if she still had any of those weapons on her, and I had questions, things I thought she was lying about, but I trusted her to take care of her sister and Sylvia, which was the only thing we needed to worry about right now.
“Where are we going?” Sylvia asked. “If we’re not going back to my place, then where?”
“I made a couple reservations at a hotel on the other side of the city,” Brianne said. “We’re going to hunker down for the night, then meet for breakfast to figure out what we’re doing next.”
I’d assumed we’d get Sylvia to wherever she felt safe, and then we’d head back to the US, but now I was starting to wonder if Brianne would be coming with Tess and me…or if I’d be heading back alone.
Thirty-Four
Tess
I closed the bathroom door behind me and leaned back against it, closing my eyes as I let the silence surround me. The tiled walls kept out the other hotel noises, and the cool tranquility of the small room was exactly what I needed. I didn’t regret going today, but it definitely wasn’t something I was comfortable with.
Not the way Clay and Bri seemed to be.
Something had happened between them out there, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I suspected it had something to do with the way Clay and I had gotten away. I was no expert, but I’d seen enough movies and TV shows to take a guess about what had happened. How it had happened was another matter.
What was worse was that I felt like I should know more. That something I still hadn’t remembered from my missing two weeks would help shed light on all this.
Dammit!
I stripped off my clothes and turned on the shower. It would’ve been nice to take a bath, but we hadn’t gotten a room with that option. I’d just been grateful I hadn’t needed to argue with Brianne about Clay and I having a room of our own. She and Sylvia were sharing a room, though I doubted it was because they were rekindling their relationship. Even if they were, it wasn’t any of my business. I’d done what I’d set out to do. Find my sister. Everything else was up to her.
I put my hand under the spray, waiting until it was warm before I stepped into the shower. The plastic curtain brushed against my leg, cool and smooth, and I shivered. The motion seemed to set something off in me, and I began to shake. I moved under the water, reaching out to increase the heat until it was nearly too much for me to handle.
The door opened, but I stayed where I was, curling in on myself as I waited for the trembling to stop. Over the white noise of the water, I heard the whisper of the plastic rings sliding across the curtain rod, and then I felt him behind me.
He placed his hands on my shoulders, sliding them up and down my arms in a deliberate, unhurried rhythm. His cock was soft as it brushed against the small of my back, reassuring me that he wasn’t here to pressure me for sex. Still, warmth curled inside my belly.
“Clay…”
“Shh.” He kissed the top of my head. “It’s shock. Adrenaline.” He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back against his chest. “Relax and let it happen. I’ve got you.”
Even after everything we’d been through together, it wasn’t easy, but little by little, my muscles unclenched, and my body stopped shaking. Just as gradually, the tension between us shifted from comfort to the now-familiar energy that had been humming between us pretty much non-stop since that first hug in the airport. I’d lied to myself about it, tried to pretend it didn’t exist, that it didn’t mean anything, but I was tired of pretending, tired of thinking. If this was the last time he and I would be together, I wanted it without artifice, without brooding.
I turned in Clay’s embrace, reaching up to clasp my hands behind his neck. His wet hair slipped across my fingers, making me realize how much longer it was than it had been when we’d first arrived here last month. One more thing that had changed.
“Better?” he asked.
His voice was husky, his eyes dark, both telling me that he’d felt the atmosphere between us change. Not that I needed those two clues when the thick shaft pressing against my stomach was still growing.
I nodded. “Thank you.”
I looked away from his face and leaned forward to flick my tongue over one dusky, flat nipple. He caught his breath, his hands dropping down to palm my ass. Encouraged by his response, I used my teeth to worry at the sensitive flesh, using the flexing of his hands on my ass as a gauge of how much he liked what I was doing.
“We don’t have to do this,” Clay said, his voice strained.
I looked up at him with a partial smile. “I appreciate you trying to be chivalrous.” I sank down onto my knees, water slicking my hair flat to my head. “Should I return the favor and tell you that we don’t have to do this if you don’t want to?”
He cupped my chin in one hand, his thumb tracing the line of my bottom lip before pressing inside. I moved my tongue over the pad of his thumb, then sucked on it, my eyes locked on his.
“Fuck, Tess, that mouth of yours,” he groaned. “I need it on my cock. Need to see your lips wrapped around me.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
I should have wanted to savor it, draw it out until the feel and taste of him was a permanent part of me. What I wanted, instead, was to make him lose control the way he did to me.
I leaned forward and took as muc
h of his thick shaft as I could all at once. He cursed, palm slapping against wet tile. I locked my lips tight around him, his girth stretching my mouth almost uncomfortably. One hand moved to cup his balls, silk skin softer than anything I’d felt before. I was tempted to stoke the heat between my legs, but denying myself somehow made what I was doing…hotter.
“Tess, fuck,” he groaned. The hand not on the wall tangled in my curls. “Babe, your mouth…not gonna last long.”
Water streamed down my face and into my eyes, blurring my vision, but I didn’t want to look away. I wanted to see him come apart as much as I wanted to feel it. I needed it.
I stroked the underside of his cock with my tongue, then swept up to circle the head. The salty taste of pre-cum spread across my taste buds, and I was suddenly hungry for more. My hand tightened on his balls, earning a stream of curses surrounding my name, but he didn’t push me away. Instead, he used the hand on my head to move me closer.
I scraped my teeth across his sensitive skin, soothing with my tongue before sucking hard on the flesh in my mouth. His hips jerked, driving him almost too deep, but I repeated the combination two, three, four…
“Tess fuck babe yes almost fuck yes please yes Tess fuck…” The words poured out of him in a torrent, ending with a strangled groan as he came.
I swallowed each pulse of liquid, not releasing him until his cock was soft and shudders ran through his entire body. As he slipped from between my lips, he reached down and pulled me to my feet, bending down to give me a thorough, bruising kiss that warmed me straight down to my toes.
The glowing red numbers on the hotel clock said it was two thirteen in the morning when I woke up to use the bathroom. When I came back out, Clay was up and standing at the window. The pale moonlight played across his tanned skin, creating dancing shadows on the landscape of his body. I let my eyes travel from the nape of his neck, down his muscled back to the pair of dimples at the base of his spine. His buttocks flexed as he shifted his weight, and I followed the motion down his thighs and calves, moving my gaze back up only as he turned to face me.
