Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 258(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 258(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Last evening, I found Missy upstairs in the garden in the darkness, sitting and watching the stars. I stepped behind her, sitting down and pulling her back to my bare chest.
“What are you thinking?” I asked. “Be honest.”
“I wonder, if things go wrong, if I’ll ever see the stars again,” she admitted.
“We can stop this. Find another way,” I insisted.
“No. You need me to draw him out. He is so delusional, Marcus. When he finds out I’m alive, he’ll be certain that he has found what he’s been searching for.”
I tightened my grip on her.
“You have to let me do this. Otherwise, I have to hide the rest of my life. And I’ll resent that. I’ll resent you. You’ll start to hate me.” She lifted her head. “We won’t last.”
“I could never hate you, sweetheart.”
“You would if I were unhappy all the time. I can’t be hidden away, Marcus. I’m not that sort of girl. I have to be able to live.” She sighed. “You can keep chasing him, shutting down his kidnapping rings, but he’ll never stop. He’ll find other women, other countries, even. Unless you end him, you’ll never be done.” She wrapped her hands around mine. “You have to give me to him. It will distract him, and you can move. He doesn’t leave his estate, so you have to go to him, and I can help get you in.”
As much as I hated it, she was right about everything. The estate was a fortress. We had never seen anything like it. She was our Trojan horse. She would go in like a benevolent gift and open up hell once she was inside.
As long as everything went according to plan.
That was the one thing beyond our control. We had Plan A through to Plan Z, but there were still things that could go wrong.
And if they did, and she was put in more danger than she already was, I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope. If he destroyed her, even if I managed to kill him, my life would never be the same. I would never be able to forgive myself, even if she did.
“I’m strong,” she whispered, as if sensing my thoughts.
“I know you are.”
“Not physically,” she admitted. “That was what always kept me back. No matter how hard I worked, I was barely able to pass the physical part of the training. But mentally, I’m tough, Marcus. No matter what he does to me, I can handle it. You come and find me. I’ll come back to you.”
I turned her in my arms, yanking her tight to my chest, and covered her mouth with mine. I kissed her until we were both breathless. Almost panting in our desire and need for each other. I pulled the thin nightshirt she had on over her head, tossing it to the grass. She yanked at my sweats, freeing my aching cock. I lifted her so her legs straddled me, and I sank inside her, her heat surrounding me. We moved together, never separating, our skin flush and our mouths fused tight. She clutched my shoulders, her nails sinking into my skin, her low whimpers and moans music to my ears. I gripped her hips, tracing circles on her skin. I absorbed her taste, the feel of her in my arms. How she felt around my cock, how her body felt melded to mine. Her nipples were hard peaks on my skin, the skin on her back like silk under my fingers.
We moved and fucked, lost to each other, nothing else in the world mattering in that exact moment but her and me. Us.
Her head fell back and she stiffened, crying out my name into the night. I pulled her back to me, groaning out my release, grateful she’d had a shot two weeks ago and we no longer had to worry about birth control.
We sat in silence, our bodies wrapped around each other until she shivered in the cooling air. I stood and carried her back downstairs to our bed. We fell asleep wrapped up together, but neither of us rested well. We wouldn’t until this was behind us.
Julian brought me out of my musings.
“I’m calling Dan Jared today.”
My hand froze, my coffee cup partway to my mouth.
“Today?” I questioned. “Are we—is she ready?”
“Everything is set, Marcus. If much more time passes, it won’t make any sense.”
“And we’re sure it’s him?”
He nodded. “It took some digging, but Damien found an offshore account. He has a lot of money in there, and the dates line up. He’s been doing this for a while. There was a huge deposit the night he handed Missy to Zander’s men.”
“Bastard.”
“His record is spotless. Comes across as the nicest guy you’d want to meet. Well-liked by superiors and fellow officers. The last one you would suspect.”