Duke, page 14
He nibbled on her earlobe before continuing a path of more kisses down her neck. She moaned and arched against him as his hands slid around her front and cupped her breasts. His hands moved down her middle and over her sides. He unzipped the back of her dress and let it pool to her feet on the floor. Running his hands down her arms, he laced his fingers with hers and rested his chin on her shoulder.
“I’ve never felt more complete than when I’m with you,” he said.
She turned, draping one arm over his shoulder and standing on her tiptoes. Her loving smile matched how he felt. “Me too.” She gently kissed his lips, slowly, loving, a way they’d never made love before. He wasn’t working for her best friend, they weren’t sneaking away to a closet at a party, or slipping into a bathroom during a movie, or creeping around the halls while Bowie had been sleeping. Tonight, it was only the two of them and their time was limitless.
Chapter Twenty-Four
SAGE OPENED HER eyes to find Duke still asleep beside her.
What time was it?
Duke never slept later than her.
She rolled off him and out of bed. Her feet padded into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. She filled up the pot and set it beside the coffee can. She didn’t see filters, so she dug through the cupboards, but came up empty-handed.
She riffled through her overnight bag and found shorts and a T-shirt. She stopped at the edge of the bed and looked down at Duke sprawled across the bed with only his middle covered with a sheet. Still sleeping. She smiled hoping this was a new beginning for him, less worry, less guilt, and more hours of sleep would be good for him.
But she needed coffee.
She crept down the short hallway wondering if the other rooms were occupied or if they were the only ones here.
Down the stairs, she found the door to the kitchen unlocked and slipped inside on a hunt for one lone coffee filter. She found a walk-in pantry full of paper supplies and read the outside of the boxes until she found coffee filters on the top shelf. She carried the small stool over and climbed up and dug one out. She left the ladder where she’d found it under the pantry light and slipped out of the room. Her back bumped into a person and she screamed, spinning around. She came face to face with their host from the night before. Buck smiled at her, but she was too distracted by the fact he was naked.
He took a step back but she didn’t dare let her eyes stray lower. “Can I help you with something sweetheart?”
She held up the coffee filter. “We didn’t have any in our room, but I’m good now.” She forced an awkward smile.
“Buck, put on your apron, you’ll scar the poor girl.” A piece of material hit his back and fell to his feet. When he bent over to pick it up, Sage moved her eyes anywhere but his behind, and landed on an older woman wearing nothing but a grey apron the same shade as her long wavy hair which fell way past her breasts.
Oh good lord, what had she walked into?
“I’m Buck’s wife, Skye.”
“Sage Ellis. I’m staying in a room and I needed a coffee filter.” She held up the coffee filter as if needing more evidence, when she wasn’t the one walking around naked.
“I’m sorry I interrupted—” ... whatever on earth she’d interrupted.
“Nonsense.” The woman waved her hand. “Stay for breakfast?”
DUKE WOKE UP ALONE. He jolted out of bed and found no signs of Sage. He pulled on his pants while hopping to the dark bathroom. She wasn’t there either.
Shit.
Her overnight bag still sat beside his and he pulled out a shirt before grabbing his shoes, but walked barefoot into the hallway.
Where the hell was she?
He couldn’t help the panic that flooded through him. Had she left? Left him? This was the first time she’d had the opportunity to run since the gas station. One phone call and she could already be in the city.
When had she left?
Shit!
The smell of simmering butter and bacon made him step into the kitchen. What time did Buck open? Did he serve breakfast? Maybe she’s come down for breakfast. What time was it?
The kitchen was empty, but he found Sage at a table in the dining area with Buck and his wife.
“Morning sleepy head.” Buck flipped over a coffee mug at the empty seat beside Sage and filled it with coffee. “Sit. Have something to eat.”
Duke slowly lowered himself to the chair beside Sage noticed the couple’s shoulders were bare and he assumed the apron they each wore was all that covered them. He recalled Hawk mentioning something about Buck dining naked in the morning. Until this morning, he hadn’t believed it.
“Pancakes?” Sage lifted a serving plate in front of him. Steam drifted off the pancakes, as he lifted a couple onto his plate. She was acting so casual and cool it made him wonder if she even noticed they were wearing no clothes. Then she smiled at him, and the way she lifted her lips, he knew she knew and was just as uncomfortable as he was.
“I’m sorry to read about your father and mother,” Skye said.
Duke watched Sage’s smile falter before she caught herself and said, “Thank you.” She gave no details of her relationship with Dean, but then again, most of the world knew about their rocky to non-existent relationship. There were lies and truth online, it was only a matter of digging through it.
That sparked an idea in Duke’s head. Sage needed to get online and read what people were saying, their theories about the death and shooting. Maybe she would notice a pattern, or something he’d missed.
“We were never here,” Duke repeated, but he knew Buck would’ve already filled her in on the need-to-know basis.
Skye nodded. “I understand. Oh, it looks like we’re out of syrup. Let me fill this up.” She stood.
“I’ll help you.” Buck stood too, and Duke made sure to pay attention to cutting his pancake into pieces with his fork.
When the kitchen door shut, he heard Sage giggle beside him and Duke laughed until she was laughing.
“Stop.” Sage squeezed his arm.
He leaned over and caught her next giggle with his mouth. “Good morning.”
She licked her lips. “Good morning.”
“Promise me you won’t leave me like that until you’re safe.”
“I promise. You were sleeping so soundly that I didn’t want to wake you.”
“That’s because you were by my side.”
“That was a good sleep.” She lifted a strawberry to his lips and he took a bite. “I can’t wait until we don’t have a bunk bed between us.”
“About that, I have an idea on maybe finding a lead.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, back at Susan’s house, Sage spent hours scrolling through tweets revolving around her father’s death until her eyes hurt. She could no longer blink away the pain.
She pushed the iPad away and rubbed her eyes.
“Anything?” Duke asked, leaning over her shoulder. His warm breath kissed her neck and it took all her strength not to turn around and kiss him. But they weren’t alone.
She shook her head. “No. But now that Ally’s identity had been broadcasted, there are all kinds of people coming forward claiming to be Dean’s kids. I’m talking pages. I wrote them down.” Sage lifted the book to Duke and he took a seat beside her at the kitchen table.
“Are you thinking there’s a connection?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I mean, I guess killing Dean, and then my mom and I would leave a possible sibling with his money.”
Duke flipped through the pages before he set the book down. “Have you seen Dean’s will? Do you know if he left you anything?”
“Knowing my dad, I’m sure he wouldn’t have cared enough to alter the will after my mom divorced him.”
“And what did the will say?”
“Everything is left to me.”
Duke propped the iPad up and pressed play on a video of the news replaying the drive-by from a business security camera. “Do you recognize anything?”
Sage groaned. “I’ve already watched this more than a dozen times.”
“That car belongs to one of Ronald Santos’s men,” Bowie said.
Sage hadn’t heard her come up behind them. She leaned between her and Duke’s shoulders while Stone sat across the table and crinkled a bag of tortilla chips, pulling out a handful.
Duke pressed pause. “Are you sure?” Even he couldn’t hide the worry in his tone.
“Yes. Rewind it,” Bowie said.
Duke slid his finger over the screen to restart the video.
Bowie reached over and pressed pause. “Look, that’s one of Ronald Santos’s symbols.” She tapped the screen and Duke zoomed in.
Sage prayed she was wrong because if Santos was after her father that meant he’d owed him money. No one owed Santos money. He was the largest drug supplier in the city. Untouchable with half the police force in his back pocket and the fear of God put into anyone who dealt with him. Sage had only heard the name from her time on the streets, and still knew not to mess with him.
“The police would know that,” Bowie said. “And if they didn’t mention it to you that means someone is working on the inside close to your case.” She walked around the table and started to massage Stone’s shoulders. “Why didn’t you recognize his emblem?” she asked Duke.
“Maybe Banks is their inside guy?” Sage suggested not wanting to give Duke a reason to think being with her was keeping him from protecting her. “He was trying awful hard to blame me, Linda, and Ally.”
“Possibly,” Duke turned back to Bowie. “What’s your theory? Why would Santos be after Dean?”
Bowie’s hands stilled. “Dean owed him money. Not thousands or tens of thousands. I’m talking hundreds of thousands.”
The amount winded Sage. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find air. She didn’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars saved up. She’d been generous when she offered Duke ten thousand to hire her another bodyguard. And that had been in expectation of the money Dean left her. If her no good father owed Santos, that meant he’d died broke. Money had never meant much to Sage, but her and her mother’s life meant the world.
“When Santos doesn’t get his money, he gets blood.” Bowie’s words blurred together inside Sage. “First Dean, then Celeste, which he’ll finish off before finding Sage.”
“Hundreds of thousands,” Sage whispered and then stood. “Excuse me.” She started toward the back door needing air, but knew if she went outside Duke would follow her. Needing her own space, she hurried down the hallway to the bathroom.
Her stomach heaved as she turned the lock. She lifted the toilet seat lid and spewed out Susan’s homemade wraps.
If Santos was involved, she was as good as dead. Her mother too. It was only a matter of time. He didn’t leave loose ends.
She sat on the toilet seat and rested her forehead on the sink’s cold edge. Staying here was only adding people to Santos’s list if he ever found out. Duke, Susan, Bowie, Stone and even Slate. And if she stayed, he would find out.
Sage dug toothpaste out of the drawer and squeezed some on her finger tip. She smeared the minty paste over her teeth and tongue before filling her palm with water and sipping it. She rinsed out her mouth when there was a knock on the door.
“I’ll be out in a minute.” Or an hour or two. Heck, maybe she would spend the night in here.
“Sage, open the door.” Duke’s voice rumbled through the wood.
Tears she hadn’t realized she was holding back, poured down her face. “No.”
“Sage?”
She reached across the small space and twisted the lock.
Duke took one step inside—there wasn’t much more room—and bent down in front of her. He took her hands in his.
“We will figure this out.”
She wiped her eyes. “I don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to just hand over. I’m as good as dead.”
He gripped the sides of her face. “We don’t even know that’s what happened.”
Sage nodded in his hands. “Yes, we do.”
“I have money.”
“You don’t just walk money up to Ronald Santos. Besides, I’m not taking your money. We need to tell the police.”
Duke shook his head. “We can’t. You heard what Bowie said, if they didn’t even mention Santos, that means there’s a dirty cop. We can’t risk it.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
“Keep digging until we know for sure.”
“If you keep digging, you’re endangering your life.”
“I don’t care.” He kissed her lips but Sage’s mouth didn’t correspond. How could she even think about kissing or sex when her life was on the line? Or maybe now was as good a time as ever to think about what felt good right now because next week she could be dead.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth harder against hers, clicking their teeth together and moulding their lips into one. Their magnetic bond was so strong, that even if she tried, she wouldn’t be able to pull away from him.
His arms clamped around her waist and lifted her from the seat, switching places and bringing her back down to straddle his lap. His fingertips crept underneath her clothes, conveying heat to every area of her skin he touched. His tongue ravished her neck, across her shoulders and back to her mouth. She never wanted to leave the confinement of these four walls.
“I CAN GET US INTO A fight.” Bowie jumped from her chair when they returned to the kitchen.
It took Duke a minute to realize what they were even talking about. Instead of being angry that he’d forgotten about Sage’s situation, he was glad he’d given her all of him in the bathroom. He was back now to focus on a plan.
“Hell no!” Stone stood too.
“Fight? What do you mean a fight?” Sage asked.
“I can get access to an elite underground fight where Santos places bets higher than whatever amount your father could have racked up.”
“I don’t have the money—” Duke cut Sage off by wrapping his hand around hers. He’d give her every last dollar Dean owed if it could save her life.
“Don’t worry about money,” Bowie said, truly showing her real colors. Unconditional love.
“I can get Sage into a fight and Santos will not miss her,” Bowie continued. “He doesn’t miss anyone. If it’s money he’s after, he’ll have someone approach her during the game for an invite, in which we’ll hand over the cash and be done with all of this.”
“The cash?” Sage choked out.
“If it’s blood, his guys will grab her after the match, but we’ll already have the heads up and not be stupid enough to get caught.”
“No.” Duke agreed with Stone. The risk was too high. An underground fight included no police, only shady men with orders to beat and kill.
“But I would have to go along,” Bowie said as if she hadn’t heard either man. “If Duke plans to go, attending with me won’t look odd since he’s been my bodyguard for the last decade. If I bring Sage as my guest, questions will not be asked.”
“Last month we were responsible for busting up the largest fighting ring in the city. How would you even find another fight?” Stone asked.
She bit her lower lip looking reluctant. There was no going back now, they all knew.
“They’ve been in touch,” she reluctantly said.
“Who’s been in touch?” Stone’s face went stone cold, reminding them of how he’d gotten his fighting nickname.
“An invite was extended for you to finish what you started,” Bowie said.
“And you’re just telling me this now?” Stone asked.
“It didn’t mean anything until now. Obviously, we weren’t going to fight, so why would I bring it up?”
Duke slid the iPad across the table. “We’re not using Sage as bait. There has to be another way. We could contact Santos and send him the money without meeting him.”
Bowie shook her head. “You don’t just send money to Santos. You make him request you. If he doesn’t request you, he doesn’t want the money.”
“I’ll do it,” Sage said.
“We still haven’t confirmed it’s Santos.” Walking back into an elite fighting match was the last thing Duke wanted to do—again.
Sage turned to face him, rubbing one of her arms with her other hand. “I’m not hiding for the rest of my life.”
He was beginning to enjoy hiding away with her. He could see himself living alone with her in the woods until the day he died.
“But you’ll risk dying?”
“To be free? Yes.” She turned to Bowie with a stubbornness he found attractive—when her life wasn’t in danger. “What do you need me to do?”
“HAVE YOU ALL LOST YOUR goddam minds?” Slate’s head hadn’t stopped shaking since the second the words “underground fight” had come out of Stone’s mouth. He’d never approved of Stone’s refusal to fight the legal game, but they’d buried that hatchet last month, only to drag it all up again. At this point, Duke had to agree with him.
Slate pointed his finger around the room. “You’re damn right you’ve all lost your minds.” His finger stopped at Stone. “You’ve been hit one too many times, son. You can’t tell a good idea from a goddam crazy one.”
“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around being invited to another Fight Club,” Hawk said, stretched out on the living room chair with one ankle resting on his knee and his arms propped behind the back of his head. He’d been silently watching the plan unfold since he’d arrived.
“We need backup,” Stone said. “You’ve been there and know the ins and outs, how to act, what to say, and what not to say.”
“I know I got the shit kicked out of me last time.” He touched his face where the bruises had now lost their color and looked healed. “And I can’t tell a damn woman about it because it’s top secret fight club.”
