Brain (22 page)

I just looked at him through a dozen of my rapid heartbeats, unsure how to respond, and he added, “They know we’ve had sex, and wolves are used to hearing stuff humans don’t normally hear.”

“Just knowing some of them might be hearing this conversation is a little mortifying.”

He gave his cocky-assed grin and said “Well, then, we should probably stop having it and get to work.”

I rolled my eyes, but I knew I’d do my best to give him what he wanted. He was right — he didn’t ask for much. Plus, he’d done so much to help me through my fucked-up baggage. I could do this.

Maybe.

I leaned in, kissed him, and he groaned as I sat in his lap, straddling him.

He reclined back, his hands braced on the bed, and his voice was a rough growl as he said, “Take the shirt off for me, Buttercup.”

I complied, and then took the bra off as well, teasing a little before I let it fall. He let me see his wolf looking out of his eyes, and I held his gaze a few seconds before dropping my gaze. I didn’t need to play dominance games with his wolf. Brain respected me as a woman and a person, if I needed to lower my gaze for his wolf, I would.

He sat up, his arms around my back to support me without trapping me, and his tongue circled my nipple, teasing me. I knew he wouldn’t do much more than this, so I could relax and enjoy, and let the sensations travel from nipples to clit as I ground my hips in his lap.

His tongue trailed up to my neck, and he kissed and nibbled below my ear, along my jawline, and I sank into the kiss as his lips met mine again.

He pulled back a little, and I moaned at the loss, but he said, “Stand up, finish undressing, and then show me how you want it.”

My breath caught at the order, his voice low, deep. I stood and removed my shorts and panties all at once, and asked him, “Scoot back on the bed? Please?”

He did as I asked, but ordered, “Sit on me, then. Wanna see you move on me, watch you get off.” He propped up on his elbows, his hazel human eyes focused on me as if nothing else in the world mattered.

I’d been slowly getting used to him in my mouth. He hadn’t pushed, it’d been all me, forcing myself, but now I could tease the head of his cock in my mouth, swirl my tongue around a little, and enjoy myself. I relished the sounds he made as I tantalized him a little with the tip of my tongue, but then I straddled him, let him help aim, and I sat on him — taking him into me all at once, letting the shock of it hit us both, and I leaned down for a kiss before I sat up and rode him.

Several long, delicious minutes in, he ordered, “Lean back and lift up.”

I didn’t think twice about obeying — I reclined back as his legs came up on either side of me, and I placed my hands on top of his feet, groaning as he adjusted us so his cock pressed across my g-spot with every slide in and out.

He went slow, at first, but I knew he needed more, knew he was waiting for me to be ready, and I wished he didn’t have to be so careful with me. I mustered my courage and said, “Now it’s your turn to decide. What does your wolf need?”

I saw his wolf look out his eyes a few seconds, and then it was Brain again. He shook his head, and I immediately knew there was something he wasn’t telling me. I sat up, stopped moving. “Tell me.”

“He wants it doggie style, but we can wait, Buttercup. How about I stand up and you wrap your legs around my waist? You’ve only had one tiny orgasm, and I can smell your arousal, but let’s not push it, okay? I know you aren’t as relaxed as…”

I shook my head, climbed off him, and walked to one of the chairs. I propped my hands in the seat, spread my legs, and arched my back. “If this doesn’t work, flip me around and we’ll do the standing thing.”

It wasn’t exactly doggie style, but it was nothing like any of the positions the Russians had me in when they’d raped me.

I wasn’t sure I’d ever handle being fucked with my front against the wall, or bent over a table, but I hoped I could handle this.

All thoughts of the Russians flew out of my head when Brain’s tongue swiped my opening from behind, and I moaned as I arched my back even more, to give him better access. His fingers moved up my labia, enough to stimulate my clit a little from an inch away, but today it was too much. As always, he immediately knew and slid them back down and away so I only felt his tongue, his lips, and within moments I needed more.

“God, Brain, you’re going to drive me crazy with your tongue. I’m ready for you.” He didn’t let up with his tongue, though, and I growled at him as I arched my back even more.

When he finally stood and pressed his thick length into me, nothing existed except his hands on my waist, his cock spreading me open, and my
need
.

“Don’t you dare start out slow,” I warned as he sank into me, and thankfully, he gave me what we both wanted, and within a few moments I was screaming my way through an orgasm as he continued to pound me from behind.

As soon as the orgasm was over, he lifted me and carried me to bed, put me on my back, and went back into me as he ordered, “Wrap your legs around me.” His voice was rough, feral, wild, and I knew his wolf was close to the surface, but I wasn’t afraid.

I wrapped my arms and legs around him, and felt every damned inch of him as he went in and out, in and out, and I was lost in his eyes. He’d been right to change positions after I came, I needed to see his face, know who was in me, because I knew nothing bad could happen to me when I was in Brain’s arms.

Brain worked me to another screaming orgasm, and it wasn’t until later, when I rested quietly in his arms I remembered where we were, and that I’d intended to be quiet. I felt my face flame red as I said, “Oh,
fuck
.”

I could hear the cockiness in his voice as he said, “Yeah, my wolf’s pretty happy about that.” He kissed the top of my head. “You’re mine, Buttercup. All mine, but that means I’m yours, too. I’ll always choose you over them. Always.”

“I know you will,” I told him, and let it drop.

Brain

We had a day of downtime, which I spent monitoring communications as much as possible. I knew Ivankov was headed here, but I couldn’t get a handle on how many people he’d brought with him. He’d been told to leave her alone, so anyone he brought would be loyal specifically to him, and I couldn’t help but think he wouldn’t have many people willing to go against the orders of the Pakhan.

Bottom line, though, was I knew we’d have a fight on our hands, likely between the bank and the plane. We’d made arrangements to fly to Cozumel, take a ship to Cancun, and then fly to a small, private airport north of New Orleans on a different private, chartered jet.

I brainstormed with Ranger and Harmony, and then we brought the other three in for more suggestions and ideas.

I wanted to go home, forget all about this and just get on with our lives, but Harmony was set on following through, and I knew she needed to do it for personal reasons — the money was just the stimulus driving the op and pulling everyone together… not the true reason for it.

Harmony and I spent the morning in bed, with Bash and Ranger monitoring communications. I’d set everything up for them, all they had to do was listen.

And I needed the morning with her in my arms, because I had no idea what the day would bring.

* * * *

Harmony

We packed up the house and left — Gonzo and Bash on the scooters, the rest of us in the van. We took our luggage and equipment to the plane, got Brain set up so he could run everything from the plane, and then Ranger, Duke, and I drove to the mall to meet up with Gonzo and Bash, who’d turned the scooters in and bought two decent sized rolling suitcases.

We didn’t have to hide our route to the bank by much today. We made it so it would take them a few hours to trace it back, but we didn’t need to jump through a ton of hoops for that. It wouldn’t matter if they traced us back to the house and airport later tonight, as we’d be long gone by then. We turned the van in, and went somewhere else to rent three BMW’s, as Ranger wanted us in fast, easily maneuverable vehicles for our getaway.

I knew how hard it’d been for Brain to watch me leave, and I was sorry he couldn’t come, but I also knew we needed him on the cameras and in our ears. None of us had a cellphone, so there was no way for us to be tracked by anyone but Brain. I had a GPS chip implanted near my hip that would give away my location at specified, random times, but not constant, so Brain could find me if I was captured. However, if I was swept for electronics, it wouldn’t show up unless it happened to be during the three second burst it would give out four times a day.

Ranger drove Duke and I to the bank. Gonzo was a block away, and Bash was set up where we needed him. Brain had hacked into the bank’s security and had eyes on us.

I told him I loved him as I got out of the car. I hadn’t told him before, and maybe it was a shitty time for it, but I suddenly needed him to know how important he was to me.

His soft, “I love you too, Buttercup. Now do this and get your ass back into my arms,” reply made me smile. I knew the other guys had heard it, and I didn’t give a fuck.

Before we stepped up onto the curb, Duke stopped, looked at me a few seconds, and said, “I’m sorry I lost him, but I’m glad he has you. He deserves to be happy.”

“All right, everyone,” came Ranger’s voice in my earpiece. “Mind on the mission. Look around, be aware of your surroundings. Know the danger spots, keep an eye for where you’ll run if all hell breaks loose. Mushy stuff later.”

I nodded to Duke, and looked around casually as we stepped towards the door, both of us rolling a large empty suitcase behind us.

The bank manager was waiting for us, and he walked us into the vault, where money was stacked on a table. We’d asked for a specific number of twenty and one hundred dollar bills, carefully figured for the space we’d have in two large suitcases. I put a few thousand in my backpack, and then we proceeded to count the rest of the money as we put it into the suitcases.

I wanted to punch the bank manager on the way out, for ratting me out to the Russians, but I couldn’t let him know we knew without tipping them off. It was better if Ivankov thought he had the element of surprise.

We put the suitcases in the trunk, wedging them in because they barely fit. A little over three million dollars in mostly twenties takes up a lot of room, and getting it this way was a pain, but it would make laundering it
so
much easier, later.

For now, though, we needed to get back to the plane and off the island.

I was wearing a bullet proof vest under my clothes, and as we got into the passenger seat my feet went into the large Kevlar bag, and I slid to the floor as I lifted it up, so I was sitting backwards, my butt on the floor, my face on the seat, and was totally covered by the bag. I could lift my head a little and see the back of the seat in front of me, and could hear the guys talking, but I would be no help. They’d convinced me I was human and they were werewolves, and they could survive a firefight a whole lot better than me.

They also wore bullet proof vests, though. Just to be safe. It’s hard to kill them, but not impossible.

My first hint of trouble came a handful of seconds after we pulled out onto the main road. Someone rammed us, and I heard Ranger barking out orders. “Stay down, Harmony. Duke, keep your weapon down so no one sees it. Gonzo, need you to pull out so you’re between us and the Russians, and act as a buffer.”

Firearms possession could get someone a lengthy jail sentence down here, and firing one in the middle of a crowded street would be very bad. We hadn’t entered the country legally — we all knew the risks, both from the Russians and the Cayman authorities. And yet here they were, fighting on my behalf.

Not knowing where we were, and unable to see what was going on — it was maddening, but I sat quietly as the guys negotiated getting us and the bad guys outside of town.

I could tell we were close to the switch by their radio exchanges, and when Ranger finally pulled into the garage and the door closed behind us, I came up from the floorboard but stayed silent, listening to Brain and the others in my earpiece. Bash was wearing the same ball cap and shirt as Ranger, and he would come back into camera range in our place. We’d made the switch in a curve, so when the Russians got him back in their sights, they wouldn’t realize the change had occurred. Duke had ducked down a while back, so it wouldn’t look odd that he wasn’t in the backseat.

Bash had dyed his hair black last night, and he and Ranger both had about the same amount of scruff on their face. I hoped it’d work.

Ranger took the ball cap off, used a battery operated electric shaver to get rid of the scruff, and changed shirts. Bash and Duke had stolen an older SUV after Brain and I found someone who was out of town, so we knew they wouldn’t report it stolen anytime soon. Ranger got into the driver’s side and Duke and I stretched out in the back, with the two suitcases.

The cars had been rented under fake ID and heavy disguises. The owners of this house would come home to discover a slightly damaged rental BMW in their garage, and their normal car parked in their side yard, and nothing else missing. It would give them something to talk about at parties.

I had the name and address of the owner of the SUV we’d stolen. If it got trashed during our escape, I’d mail some cash to the guy.

It seemed everything was going great until we turned into the airport parking lot and Ranger told Brain, “I see one of Ivankov’s people sitting in a delivery van pretending to eat lunch. You okay in there, Brain?”

“Yeah, I’m good, and the priority is getting her off the island — Plan B is in effect. I won’t try to leave the plane until I get the all clear from you as you leave.”

“No!” I protested. “It’s just one guy. We can take him out and still leave with you!”

I heard Brain in my ear, the voice of reason. “Ranger saw the lookout, we don’t know how many people the asshole brought with him. Maybe they’re watching the hangars with an assumption it’s how you’ll get off the island, or maybe they know which plane we came in on and it’s surrounded and we just don’t know it. We’ve talked about this, you know you have to go with them.”

“No, I
don’t
know it. Not yet. There’s nothing to say the three of us can’t drive into the hangar, get on the plane, and fly away. The other two are going by boat no matter what.”

Gonzo and Bash would drive to a remote part of the island, run from their cars into the woods, and turn to wolf so they could easily outrun my enemies. I hated they were having to do the final leg of getting away, but had been assured they could run fifteen miles through the woods with no problem, make it to their stash of clothes,
change
to human and dress, and then walk the final quarter mile to the yacht we’d hired, and meet us in Cancun.

The yacht was stocked with food and clothes for all of us for five days, just in case, as Plan B put the rendezvous point in Jamaica, and then we’d all go to Cancun together. However, I wasn’t prepared to leave Brain behind.

“Brain, leave the plane and walk out to us. We can all make it to the boat, together.”

“It’s too risky.”

“I love you. Don’t make me leave this island without you.” Yeah, it wasn’t playing fair, but I didn’t give a fuck.

“Ranger?” he asked.

“You told me not to put her in danger more than I absolutely have to. We’re across the road and down the street right now. You coming out puts her at risk, but if you walk to us down the street and aren’t followed, I think we can minimize the threat. Might put
you
in more danger, though.”

Right, because if they didn’t know he belonged to us, they’d figure it out when he came to us.

“Go out the airport side of the hangar,” I told him, “walk to the post office, and we’ll be in the parking lot there. The guy’s in the hangar parking lot. Play your cards right and he likely won’t even realize you’ve left the building.”

“We’ll be in the shopping center across the road from the post office,” Ranger amended. “Otherwise, her plan should work.”

“Okay, ya’ll drive somewhere else while I get a good look at everyone in the vicinity. Then I’ll destroy the electronics so no one can get info off the hard drives or from the memory. I’ll let you know when I’m ready for you to come back.”

Forty minutes later, he told us he was disconnecting his equipment, meaning we’d be out of communication via the earpieces. Ranger pulled the burner phone from the glove compartment, removed it from the signal blocking sleeve, put the battery in, and turned it on. He handed it to me, and I called Brain’s burner.

He answered, and I said, “We’re about ten minutes away, we’ll head that direction and go ahead and park.”

“Kay. See you soon.”

We didn’t hear from him for thirty minutes, and I was getting antsy. I breathed easy when the phone finally rang, but my heart sank to the bottom of my abdomen when I heard Ivankov’s voice.

“Ah,
Ice
. Such a pleasure to hear your voice, again. I’ve waited such a long time for you.”

His thick accent made me want to puke, but I kept my voice steady and asked, “What do you want?”

“I have your man, here, and we’re all in the aeroplane together. I assume you have a pilot?”

I glanced at Ranger, deciding on my best plan of action. “The pilot should be along in the next hour or so. He isn’t with me at the moment.”

“So, you have your boyfriend with you now? I think I’d like the two of you to come onto the plane. I have a pilot who can fly us out of here.”

He thought Duke was my boyfriend, and Brain was a hired hand. That would keep Brain a little safer, at least. I analyzed my options, and talked to him a little to buy myself some time to come up with a plan. “You think I’m just going to walk right onto the plane?”

“You know what I can do to a human body. How long do you think this geek is going to last under my tender ministrations before he tells me where you live, and the names you use? You’ll have to start all over again, rebuild your life from scratch in a new city. It’s just me and one guard, plus a scraggly pilot. Surely you can take us? The big, bad,
Ice
?”

He said my name as if I’d been on his mind, annoying him, for years. Maybe I had.

“You’ll let Bob go if I come on board?”

“No, but I’ll offer him a job with my organization. Seems he has some skills I can use.”

“I’m nearly thirty minutes away.” We were five minutes away, but needed time to plan.

“I’m gonna let my guy punch him in the stomach every five minutes. You remember what that’s like?”

“We’ll drive as fast as the traffic lets us.”

I hung up and Ranger said, “You are
not
walking in there.”

I looked at Duke, who held my gaze a few seconds and turned to Ranger. “Brain’s my brother, I won’t leave him with the Russians. I’ll go in with Harmony, figure out why Brain hasn’t shifted and killed them all, fix the problem, and then the two of us can take them out together. Harmony has her own skills, and she’s still wearing the vest. You can come later and help, if we need it.”

Ranger shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

“You don’t have to like it,” I told him. “You just have to back us up. I’m not leaving Brain to them.”

As it turned out, we didn’t need long to plan, and fifteen minutes later Duke had put his face back to the one he used in the bank, and we walked into the airplane hangar together.

They had a man at the foot of the stairs on lookout, and he waved us in. I didn’t like having him outside, at my back, but nothing I could do about it, so I dealt with it.

They had Brain’s hands duct taped behind his back, his feet taped to the chair. They also had six guys, and the inside of the plane was pretty much trashed. He’d put up a good fight, but he had several deep slashes on his arms where they’d gotten him with a knife.

I glanced at him as if he didn’t really matter, and then focused on Ivankov. “I’m here. Now what.”