Resurrection, page 13
part #1 of Redemption Harbor Series
“Two dead bodies.”
“Who?” he asked as they followed Mercer into the huge ranch house. It was all wood, stone and a lot of natural light during the daytime.
“Don’t know. Savage went to our house to pick up some clothes for Mary Grace and two guys showed up. Both speaking Spanish—planning to kill us—both with gang tattoos he says link them to the Ramirez cartel.”
Well that made sense, considering what Lewis had told him. He figured he knew the answer, but… “Anyone call the cops?”
Mercer snorted as they stepped out onto the back lanai overlooking the Olympic-sized pool—which was lit up with multi-color lights. Strategically placed solar lights were situated all around the pool, built-in hot tub and the five-foot wrought iron and red brick fencing. Everyone was there except Leighton. “No. You told us to lie low, so we’re lying low. MG’s not too happy about not calling them, but…” He lifted a shoulder as everyone grew silent and turned to look at them.
“Why’s she standing?” Skye asked, giving Mercer an admonishing look. “She shouldn’t be on her feet.”
“Oh my God, you’re more ridiculous than my husband,” Mary Grace said, crossing the short distance and pulling Skye into another awkward hug. “I’m pregnant, not broken.”
“I think she’s right.” Mercer wrapped his arms around Mary Grace as if she were made of glass and led her to the oversized rectangle table the others had been standing by, likely discussing the apparent corpses that had to be somewhere nearby.
Mary Grace sat down, looking beyond exasperated even as she patted her husband’s hand.
“Everyone, this is Skye,” Colt said, wanting to get the introductions out of the way. Then they had stuff to discuss.
She nodded as everyone introduced themselves, then half-smiled at Savage. “Nice to see you again.”
Colt frowned, looking between the two of them. He knew they’d worked a job together, sort of, years before he’d met Skye. For reasons he understood completely, he was feeling raw and territorial about her. He shifted a step closer to Skye, not liking the little smirk that played across Savage’s face as he tracked Colt’s movements.
“You want to pee a circle around me?” she murmured low enough for only him to hear, clearly catching on to his mood.
Her words eased something inside him and he didn’t bother to fight his grin. “Maybe I will.” He cleared his throat. “So, the bodies—”
“Do you have pigs on this farm?” Skye asked.
Brooks nodded. “Yeah, why?”
Savage just snorted as Gage’s eyes widened, both of them clearly catching on to her meaning. Colt was surprised Brooks didn’t get her meaning.
She lifted a shoulder, looking uncomfortable. “What? Pigs will eat anything. If we want to dispose of the bodies, it’s the best way given our current situation.”
Colt cleared his throat as everyone stared at her for a moment.
“I like that idea,” Savage said as Mary Grace gasped.
Mary Grace shook her head. “We should call the police.”
“No, we shouldn’t.” Colt shook his head. “According to my contact, only two men were sent after you. We’ll just make them disappear. No paperwork for the locals, none for my guys, and no media shitstorm for you. For now we’re going to keep your reappearance quiet, but eventually it will come out. We’ll all shield you as much as possible, but adding two dead gang members found in your house? We can’t afford any extra spotlight right now. Not to mention Ramirez might change his mind if it hits the media that you took out his brother’s men.” David might not have sent them, but if the guy decided he needed to save face, who knew what he might do. No, it was better if these two thugs disappeared.
“It just feels wrong,” she said, a frown pulling at her lips.
“Well they would have killed you and Mercer with no compunction. I’ll make them disappear. No one else needs to be involved.” He loved his friends, but right now this wasn’t a democracy. He needed to deal with the threat after Skye, and two dead bodies would slow things down once local law enforcement got involved. And forget about the media. That type of unwanted attention was the last thing they needed. “We’ve got other stuff to deal with. First, I think these were the only two guys sent after you. Rafael Ramirez sent them before his brother killed him.”
Mary Grace’s eyes widened. “He’s dead?”
“Yep. Now on to Skye’s problem.” He pulled her close to him, thankful when she sank against him as if she belonged there. “I think we should all take a seat.”
It took twenty minutes for him to outline the problem of Mark Gianni.
“So how well do you know this Gianni guy?” Gage asked, the first to speak when Colt finished.
“He was my recruiter.” And now all his friends knew who he worked for. He was breaking a whole lot of rules by telling them, but he didn’t care. Skye’s well-being was the only thing that mattered. “My friend at one point. Or I thought he was.”
“Damn,” Savage muttered.
“And this bastard had pictures of all of us?” Gage asked, a calculating gleam in his bluish-gray eyes.
“Except for Savage and Leighton,” Colt confirmed. Because of the nature of their covert work, it had probably been impossible for him to get pictures of them. “Oh, and Brooks.” Which could be for a number of reasons. Maybe because Brooks would have been more likely to notice someone tailing him. Or maybe Gianni had thought that threatening four people was enough to scare Skye into doing what he wanted.
“You need to talk to your dad too,” Mercer added.
“I know.” Colt just wasn’t looking forward to seeing his father. They had…a complicated relationship. “I’ll go over in a bit. Skye will stay with you.”
“Um, Skye is right here and she’s going with you.” She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. Then she slid her flash drive over to Gage. “Colt says you’re a genius with computers. I’ve got skills, but Gianni is careful. I covertly searched for him, but with him thinking I was dead, I couldn’t afford to trigger any online traps he might have set up. So I don’t have much on him. His basics are here though. Should give you somewhere to start.”
Gage palmed the drive and gave that same sly grin as before. “I’m definitely going to find this guy.”
“Then what do we do?” Mary Grace asked.
Colt shot Skye a glance. She gave him a hard look in return. They’d talked about this before coming here. He wanted to go after Gianni, take him out. But she wanted to let the Agency take over now that she knew all of Colt’s friends and family were safe. He knew why too. She didn’t want him to get hurt, but Colt wasn’t concerned for himself. No, he knew how the Agency worked. If Gianni promised them something good enough, they could let him walk. Or give him a reduced sentence. Either way, the guy wouldn’t be dead. Which would put Skye in danger all over again.
No, Colt knew exactly how the Agency worked. In shades of gray. Which was normally fine with him. Sometimes the greater good truly did matter. But sometimes…letting a monster go free because he offered information on another monster didn’t balance out.
And even if it did, Colt wouldn’t risk the Agency screwing things up and Skye getting hurt. Nope. Not happening. There was pretty much no rule he wouldn’t break to keep her alive and safe.
“I just want to find him,” Colt finally said, turning back to his friends. “We’ll figure it out from there.”
Skye crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her seat. “No, you want to bait him.” He should have known she wouldn’t let this go.
He sighed. “It’s the best plan. He doesn’t know you’re alive, and if I reach out to him with news that you might be, I can lead him in the direction we want him to go. We just need Gage to figure out where he is first so we can get eyes on him, start watching him.”
“If he was your recruiter and you parted on good terms…it would make sense for you to reach out to him about something like this,” Savage said.
Skye’s expression darkened. “I don’t like it.”
“Yeah, well I didn’t like you faking your own death. So we’ll just agree to disagree.”
“Jackass,” she muttered.
Gage laughed lightly and stood. “I like her, Colt. And I’m going to start working my magic. I’m staying here for the time being too. We all are.”
“The blue bedroom upstairs is free if you guys want it. You’ll have your own bathroom too,” Brooks added.
Colt was glad everyone was staying here. The ranch was on almost a thousand acres and Brooks had top-of-the-line security so if anyone tried to infiltrate the land, they’d know about it—and could take the right measures to end any threat. “Thanks, brother.” He stood and pulled Gage into a hug, grateful for his friends and that he could call on them like this. Though Gage hadn’t said it, it was clear he’d taken off work for this.
“You know it. We’re going to get this guy, Skye.” Gage squeezed her shoulder in a friendly manner before heading inside the house.
Something in Colt’s chest tightened at the way his friends—his family—had accepted her and this situation so easily. Not that he was surprised. She’d literally faked her death because she hadn’t wanted them to get killed. Yeah, it had been for him, but she’d made a sacrifice for virtual strangers. Hard not to want to help someone like that.
“Why don’t you guys head inside, take a shower? I know you’ve been traveling all day,” Brooks said as he stood. “We’ve got all the details now, and with Gage working on finding Gianni there’s not a lot we can do. And if we are going to go after him, we’re going to need to be sharp.”
“What about the bodies?” Colt wanted to take care of that before anything else. Those guys needed to get disappeared fast.
“I can take care of it.” Savage stood, rolling his shoulders once.
Colt wanted to insist on helping, but when he looked at Skye and saw the fatigue playing across her features, he simply nodded. Brooks was right. They needed rest, then they could regroup. And he needed to call his boss back before the two-hour mark was up.
Then he needed to head out and visit his dad. Something he wasn’t looking forward to. “All right. Think you could whip us up some pizzas?” he asked Mercer.
His friend grinned. “Hell, yeah. Be back in the kitchen in an hour. I’ll feed everyone.”
“I’ll be gone a little longer,” Savage said. “You better save me some food.”
“I’ll make sure there’s food for you.” Taking Skye’s hand, Colt stood and pulled her close to him.
She didn’t resist, just leaned against him in a way that told him she trusted him. That knowledge eased most of the tension in his shoulders. They might be going up against a ruthless bastard, but if they worked as a team, he knew they’d win. They just had to.
Chapter 14
—You are my North Star.—
Even though Colt wanted to be in the shower with Skye, he waited until he heard the water running before calling his boss. Hernandez wasn’t going to like what he had to say, but he’d just have to deal with it.
“You on your way to DC?” the man asked, his way of answering.
“No, and I’m not coming back yet.”
“Colt—”
“I get that you’re pissed, but I brought you David Ramirez on a platter. His brother is dead, which is what everyone wanted. Now he’s got a healthy dose of fear for us. Which means he’ll potentially work with Lewis’s division. Also what everyone wanted. I did all that during my vacation. I heard a rumor about my friend being held captive by the cartel—which she was. I went to Mexico on my own dime without using company resources.” Yeah, technically there was a ban on US personnel traveling in certain regions, but that didn’t exactly apply to him. “Now I’m dealing with something that doesn’t require any backup. Yet. If and when it does, I’ll contact you. Until then, I’m taking the rest of my vacation or you can fire me.”
His boss was silent for so long that Colt checked the screen to see if they were still connected. It said a lot for how he felt at this point in his life that losing his job wasn’t the worst thing in the world. At one time, the thought of losing his status at the Agency, of not being able to do what he did, would have screwed up his entire world. Now, the only thing he was scared of losing was Skye.
“If you fuck up, I’m not coming after you. You’ll be on your own. Got it?”
“Yep.”
“Good. If I don’t hear from you before your vacation is up, be in my office at seven your first day back.”
“Will do.”
His boss disconnected and Colt set the phone on the nightstand as he collapsed onto the queen-sized guest bed. This place was huge, with more than enough rooms to accommodate everyone. Brooks’s father had handed the place over to him a few years ago and spent most of his time in Florida with his new wife—who was younger than Brooks. So no one would bother them at least.
Taking off his shoes and shirt, he fell back against the overstuffed pillows and rubbed a hand over his face. The thought of baiting his recruiter, the man who’d trained him, treated him like family… He knew Skye hadn’t lied about Gianni threatening his friends and family. But how had it come to this? How had the man who’d recruited him turned without him noticing? He was trained to look out for shit like this.
Apparently Colt had a blind spot.
At the sound of the bathroom door opening, he automatically swiveled toward it—and his breath caught in his throat.
Skye stood there, completely naked, her damp hair down around her shoulders. She’d washed the temporary color out and the contacts were gone, so this was all her.
The woman he’d fallen in love with faster than he’d ever thought possible. Hell, he’d never even had a chance. Not falling for her was an impossibility.
Hunger surged through him as he drank in the sight of all her bare skin, the sleek, lean lines of her toned body and perfect light brown nipples. Just like that, he was hard, his entire body reacting to her with an unparalleled intensity.
Whatever the future had in store for them, it could wait a little bit longer.
Chapter 15
—I’m yours. Now and always.—
Skye knew that she and Colt had things to do, and should get rest, but…she also knew they needed this more. Especially him.
The pressure of everything, of basically hunting down his recruiter, a man he’d once respected, was weighing on him. Even if he hadn’t said it, she knew him, could see it in his expression even though he tried to hide it.
“Get naked,” she murmured, striding toward him where he sat on the bed. This was happening right now because the truth was, she needed him inside her. Needed to feel bonded to him even more, especially after all those months apart. It had been as if she’d lost a part of herself. Before him she’d kept her life compartmentalized, all neat and tidy. Then he’d disrupted it.
His eyes went molten as he drank her in from head to toe. She’d missed that look, that visible hunger from him she felt all the way to her core.
She’d been too afraid to look into him too much while they’d been apart, to check up on him, for multiple reasons. If he’d moved on from her, found someone else in the last six months? It would have destroyed her. Especially since she couldn’t fathom moving on from him. No one compared.
He’d fully stripped by the time she reached the bed, every glorious inch of his hard body exposed. The lamp on the nightstand was on, casting a soft glow over his muscles and thick, full erection. Yes, please.
He let out a low growling sound as she crawled onto the bed and slid on top of him.
Looking down at him, she spread her hands over his chest, wanting to tell him so much, to express how much he meant to her. He was willing to go to such drastic lengths to help her and that meant everything to her. She couldn’t find the words to tell him, however. No, the words stuck in her throat. Because she’d never felt as if she deserved him. She wasn’t sweet or compassionate like Mary Grace, and the thought of kids or a family terrified her. Colt deserved something like that. Instead he’d gotten her. A woman who could accurately hit a target the size of a playing card at a thousand yards—consistently.
“What are you thinking right now?” He shifted, sitting up slightly so that his cock lay heavy between them as he cupped her cheek with his callused hand.
Damn it, she couldn’t find her voice. After crying in that motel it was as if something had broken free inside her. She didn’t like it, and she wanted to shove it right back where it had come from.
Leaning forward, she meant to kiss him softly, gently, but the second their lips touched, a raw hunger consumed her. Something wild sparked between them as she teased her tongue into his mouth. Damn it, she’d meant to be seductive, to take things slow and kiss every inch of his delicious body, working from his cock upward.
That wasn’t happening now.
Heat flooded her core as he gripped one of her hips hard and slid his fingers through her damp hair, holding her head tight. She loved the way he held on to her, as if afraid to let go.
She didn’t want to let go of him either. Once had been hard enough. Harder than losing her parents. Colt was in her blood, her soul. Even if she couldn’t always find the words she needed to express that.
Lifting up slightly, she rubbed her already slick folds along the length of his erection, shuddering as the head of his cock slid over her clit. She wanted him inside her, but she wanted to build anticipation just a little. Because heavy foreplay simply wasn’t happening now.
The energy humming through him was a live thing, his body practically vibrating beneath her. She moaned into his mouth as he ate at hers, rolling his hips against hers.
Digging her fingers into his shoulders, she clutched tight as she began moving over his erection, rubbing herself against him up and down, the friction against her clit sending pleasure pulsing through her.
He reached between their bodies and cupped her mound. When he slid two fingers inside her without warning, she arched against him, her breasts rubbing against his chest. It was too much and not enough. She needed all of him.
