Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 132031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132031 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 660(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
"Cash,” Joe said and started toward him. The confusion on the young agent’s face needed to be addressed, but not right now. He lifted a hand to Joe, stopping him from saying anything more. He’d explain when the time was right.
“This operation’s now under the control of the US Attorney General’s office. Under his authority, there’s no further communication with the local DEA office until I say so. Call Agent Fox. Get her over here. Tell her it’s time.”
He let the bedroom door fly shut behind him.
His heart hurt so damned badly.
Compartmentalize the pain. Think with a clear head.
It was hard to think at all with Dev handcuffed and sitting on the floor in the other room.
He scolded himself. You have to stop this. Dev was never going to be yours. You knew the consequences when you accepted this position. Pull it together. You have a job to do.
Cash continued to remove his shirt, folding it inside out.
If he were going to get through the next twenty-four hours, he was going to need all the help he could get.
Chapter 22
Dev’s blood boiled.
The rage consumed him and burned like acid through his veins.
What the fuck had he let happen?
How had Cash snuck so completely under his radar and made him fall hook, line, and sinker?
His stupid plan for the night was to walk into this apartment, carefully tell the man from his past that it was okay to be himself. He no longer had to hide or be afraid. Then he was going to ask that man for something more permanent. Whatever Cash needed, whatever rules he played by, Dev had decided to play by them too.
It had all been fairy tales and unicorns prancing around his head as he dreamed about his magnanimous idea to let Cash off the hook for his secrets, give him a safe space to be himself. He’d envisioned intimate meals, a clean house, and fantastic sexual quests in their future. He saw he and Keyes hanging out with their two normal guys, living a made-for-TV life. In the dream, Mae and Abi grew up well-adjusted and happy.
Less than thirty minutes ago, he’d been planting daisies in the front yard of his and Cash’s Southlake, Texas, home. Dev wanted to give Cash a beautiful life, making up for the cruelty and pain of his past. He’d been so lost in the concept of him and Cash and their coupling he hadn’t even fought Cash when he took him to the damn floor.
He’d thought it was their style of foreplay more than anything else.
He sure didn’t have Cash down as an undercover on his bingo card.
What a goddamn idiot.
His old man was right, he was nothing more than a giant fucking pussy. He’d tossed away his long-standing values and obligations to his brotherhood because someone in the world was finally fucking nice to him.
All under a fake pretense.
A strategic federal plot to take him down. Make him feel good and wanted… And it worked. His jaw clamped shut, letting that pain take over his soul. He hurt so bad.
“Motherfucker!” he seethed.
He had violently fought the restraints binding his wrists and his legs, heedless of drawing blood in order to get away.
A fucking gag in his mouth? Even he knew that shit was illegal.
If he could get any part of his body free, he vowed to kick every one of these motherfuckers’ asses.
Reasonable thought trickled around the edges of his rage. Instinct had him turning his head, looking at each agent inside this room, committing their images to memory. They’d regret this day, guaranteed. There were now five men in this small living room behind him.
A living room he fucking owned.
“Goddammit,” he roared, struggling to get free.
The one agent who he hadn’t sought was the same man who had deceived the hell out of him. That agent sat relaxed to the right of him as if he didn’t have a single care in the world. Stupid jerk.
As much as he tried to ignore Cash in his peripheral, he couldn’t. His heart pumped wildly. How the fuck could he have been so damn oblivious?
Dev stared down at the designs in the rug underneath his booted feet. His chest heaved in and out with every breath. He had to get control of himself.
How could that full of joy, scrawny kid be the same man sitting emotionlessly beside him?
Memories of taking that gorgeous ass over and over again refused to be squelched. How sick was he to still want that motherfucker?
He’d never gotten his fill. He craved Cash’s touch.
Now he’d never know that feeling again.
The bitterness inside his soul mocked him where he sat. He struggled to contain his emotions. The passion Cash stirred within him sheltered a part of him that absolutely refused to believe this was the end.
Stupid fucking feelings.