Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 136247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 681(@200wpm)___ 545(@250wpm)___ 454(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136247 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 681(@200wpm)___ 545(@250wpm)___ 454(@300wpm)
I felt like something was always missing, right from the beginning, but had to follow orders.
“But you found the connection and arrested him, right?” she asks.
“Yes and no.” My gut churns at how it all went down. “We got enough on Pickett to lure him in for questioning. His lawyer covered his ass, so we didn’t get a smoking gun, but his girlfriend felt the walls closing in. She started talking behind his back, insisted there was someone else at the head of the dragon. Not Jake or his little brother. Someone far more powerful than him, and she agreed to tell us all, if we’d get her and her kid into protection.”
I sigh, turning my back, fully aware her eyes are boring right through me.
“Of course we agreed,” I continue. “Justin was transferring her to a safe house while I was still at the scene of a meth lab bust. They were ambushed.”
I clamp my jaw tight, recalling the scene, the gore, the twisted metal.
“Quinn?” she whispers softly, laying a hand on my shoulder.
“It looked like a scene out of Bonnie and fucking Clyde, the way that car got shot up. There wasn’t a foot or two of metal missing bullet holes.” I walk across the room, trying to get the image out of my head. “Justin wasn’t even supposed to be there. He was scheduled to fly out the night before. Go home. His wife was having their second son. He stayed because of me. Because we’d worked together for so long, we could read each other’s minds. He insisted I needed backup.”
“Oh my God—how? Don’t you guys get more men for this sort of situation?”
“Local police escort never showed up in time. It was Jake himself who sprung the trap, right in broad daylight in the city. He hadn’t cared one bit that it was his girlfriend. He mowed them down.”
“Jesus, I can’t imagine...” She’s all soft voice and comfort now, folding her arms around my waist tightly.
“Yeah. I arrested him a little while later after a shootout. The fuck knew he was cornered in an old grain mill, surrounded, and didn’t have the balls to off himself. We got him. The case was closed. A few months later, he was drowned in prison. Not too long later, Bat took over his brother’s machine and started making moves for revenge. Didn’t think much about it till I heard he’d taken over Jake’s operation and ended up getting himself arrested over a hit he organized against the men in prison who took out his brother.”
I end it there, just as her hands skim up my chest.
I’m sure there’s more behind it, infuriating details we haven’t hashed out, but I’m no longer on the official case.
By choice. I have to keep telling myself that.
I resigned after what happened to Justin, but looking at Tory, knowing she’s involved?
It makes me wish I hadn’t.
Then I might have that last key I’m missing. Information I desperately need.
“I’m sorry about your friend, your partner dying,” she whispers in my ear.
Fuck, I want to pull her close, but refrain.
“You believe me now? That’s why I suggested you return to Chicago, so you aren’t around when Bat comes knocking. When he comes to put me under.”
“You can’t let that happen!” She loops her arms around my neck, stepping in front of me, her eyes shimmering with fear. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
Like hell.
And the fact that she won’t be scares me pale.
I’ve never cared about anyone the way I do her, and when her lips touch mine, I can’t help devouring them.
It’s almost an instinct, like breathing, delving my tongue into her mouth, teasing her lips with languid thrusts bordering on hypnotic.
I can’t stop myself from throwing her over my shoulder a minute later, carrying her upstairs.
Looks like the inner wolf that wants to fuck wins this round.
Once she’s down on the bed, I lay beside her and stare.
Don’t know why.
To give myself one last chance to come to my senses?
Good fucking luck.
With the way she’s grinning up at me, brushing her legs against my waist, my cock is about to rip through my jeans.
If I’m not cursed the instant her tongue grazes mine, I am when she bites her lip, gazing up with so much longing I’d be a monster to deny her.
My dick screams to be freed, to sink deep inside her, to rut hard and empty this tension that’s making me fucking shake.
Without skipping a beat, she pulls her tank top over her head and throws it aside.
The sports bra goes next, nearly ripping off in my hand, exposing the tits she insists are too small.
Bullshit.
I’ve never seen, stroked, and sucked a more perfect pair in the known universe.
I place my hand behind her neck, fisting her cinnamon-red hair with its faded pink highlights.