Crave (Talon Security #1) (21 page)

“How about two?” he bargained.

“Okay, fine. Two.”

He pulled me into an unexpectedly scorching kiss, lifting me off the ground. “I’m so fucking thrilled we’re moving in together.”

I squealed as he spun us around. “Even if my boots and rompers come too?”

“Even if they come too.” He grinned, flashing the dimple that I loved.

After we’d finished sifting through my things, we headed over to Talon. The guys had been training hard preparing for an upcoming contract. Sid wouldn’t be joining them, but he trained with them as though he would be.

I hated the idea of him leaving, but I’d brought up more than once that I felt guilty that he had to stay behind because of me. One of the other guys could stay with me, I’d suggested. I could go stay with Travis again. Those options were always met with a curt head shake. “No one takes care of my girl but me.”

I’d stopped bringing it up after hearing the same answer more than once. And really, that was fine with me. I was in no hurry to be parted from him.

I sat in the training facility trying to not to blatantly stare at my man as he heaved a huge tire across the large space. His muscles rippled and his skin glistened with sweat as he moved with graceful intensity.

The other guys climbed rope or lifted weights but I barely noticed them, only having eyes for Sid. After a few hours where I actually managed to write a bit despite the distraction that was Sid, Sid and Theo wandered over, freshly showered. It was late and I was starving.

I turned my eyes up to my man. “We should probably pick up a few things from the store. I’ll make a list; any requests?”

“Bananas.” He nodded.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, Sid, you
always
want bananas, they’ll be on the list. Along with that gross protein powder you like and a gazillion eggs.”

The man ate like a caveman, but with the way he looked, I wasn’t complaining.

“You liked that last smoothie I made,” he replied, his arms crossed over his broad chest.

I wrinkled my nose. “Loved it.”

Theo threw back his head and let out a laugh loud enough to shake the windows. He slapped Sid on the back. “All right man, I’m outta here.”

“Later.” Sid nodded, giving a chin lift to Trent and Declan as they too headed toward the offices, ready to get home.

When we walked back into the office, Travis was the only one left, still bent over his desk intent on his task.

I worried about my brother. He worked too much and didn’t allow himself to have much fun, if any at all. He was going to go gray before his years if he didn’t let up a bit. “You almost done?” I asked him, trying not to sound like a nag.

He looked up as though surprised to see us standing there. He’d clearly been deeply absorbed in whatever he was doing. “Yeah, just about.”

Declan, Theo, and Trent were headed out on this next job. From what I’d overheard, it sounded like they were headed to Nigeria. Even though Travis wasn’t joining them, he prepared as though he was. He felt responsible for them and I knew it weighed on him.

“All right, boss, we’ll catch you tomorrow,” Sid said, offering a chin lift as he took my hand. “He’s all right, babe, let the man be,” he murmured in my ear when he caught my worried expression.

I bit my lip and nodded, following him out into the evening air.

“Oh, crap,” I groaned when we were fifteen minutes down the road. “I forgot my phone.”

Sid sighed with practiced exasperation. “I take it you need that?”

I gave him my best beseeching expression. “Yes.”

He shook his head with a chuckle as he cut the wheel. “Christ, baby, I swear if your head wasn’t attached, you’d forget that too.”

“I did once. It was really awkward.”

He burst out laughing, the sound loud and rich in the cab of the truck.

“Trixie should be okay for a little while longer.” I continued. I was still getting used to the idea that we were keeping her. Brad had called the week before and albeit reluctantly had agreed to my terms. I’d promised him he could visit her whenever he wanted.

When we pulled back up to Talon, I hopped down from the truck with as much grace as I could muster, which wasn’t a lot. “I’ll be right back.”

He nodded with an amused grin.

I gave him my best glare. “Hey buddy, it’s a big truck.”

He chuckled. “Baby, we both know the truck didn’t give you two left feet.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I laughed as he grinned back at me, his expression so warm it stopped me in my tracks. “You can tease me,” I murmured, as though this was some sort of epiphany.

For me it was.

He looked confused.

I blathered on, trying to explain myself. “I know it might sound stupid or trivial, but I never felt safe when someone teased me. You—you make me feel safe. Safe enough to open myself up to whatever you have to give because I know it comes from someone who loves me.”

His eyes burned with intensity as he reached over and hauled me back into the truck and into his lap. “Sweetheart.” He swallowed thickly, looking like he wanted to say more but couldn’t.

I ran my finger across his full lower lip, watching the path that my lips hungered to follow. “You were right about my parents. I hadn’t ever thought about it much before. They put us aside. They didn’t nurture us or pay much mind to us. I really wanted their attention, to feel loved by them. It scarred me, I guess. Made me close off to people the way I’d learned to do with them to avoid rejection. But you healed those scars, Sid. First by being a friend I could rely on, and then by being a man I could love and be loved by.”

His fingers tangled into my hair. “That last part—you should put that in a song.”

I shook my head. “No. That’s all for you.”

He pressed his forehead to mine, his breathing labored as his expression darkened with a heat that lit my inner fire. “Get your shit so I can take you home.”

I nodded eagerly, and with a quick kiss slid out of the truck just as ungracefully as last time. This time when he smiled at me, that glimmer of teasing in his eye—it meant so much more.

It meant everything.

When I stepped into the office, most of the lights were off. I was still riding high from my conversation with Sid, so the nagging sensation at the base of my neck that said something was off took longer to register. I told myself it was just because I wasn’t used to seeing it so dark, and soldiered through to the training area where I’d left my phone.

What I saw there stopped my heart cold as I gasped in shock.

Agent Richards had my brother on his knees with a gun to his head. Richards spun to face me, his eyes narrowed with rage. “Fuck.”

“Get out of here, Sam!” Travis barked, his hands clasped behind his head.

“Can’t have that.” Richards shook his head. “Come here,” he ordered.

I moved to him on shaking legs, kneeling in front of my big brother. “What’s going on?” I demanded.

“Agent Richards seems to have a taste for jewels,” Travis bit out with disgust.

“Now maybe you’ll tell me where it is,” Richards growled, gripping my hair and pointing his gun at my temple.

“You’re who Osip was waiting for,” I murmured, all the pieces clicking together.

He chuckled darkly. “Give the girl a prize.” He released me for a moment, pacing the space. “I told Ivanov I could get it for him if he took you. I figured it’d draw your brother and his team out—so I could search here. And maybe if I was lucky, those bastards would just kill each other off. But those assholes Trent and Marcus were here and this place was locked up too fucking tight.”

“But you were never going to give it to him anyway, were you?” I surmised. I figured keeping him talking was our best bet. Right now, it was really the only option.

Travis gave me a nearly indiscernible nod of approval.

He snorted. “No. I have a very interested buyer in the Mexican cartel.”

This guy was seriously cracked. The chances that we’d get out of this alive seemed horrifyingly slim.

He grabbed my hair again, his eyes narrowed on Travis. “Let’s try this again, McAllister. Where is my fucking diamond?”

I detected the slightest movement to my right but instinct had me keeping my gaze straight ahead. I knew I’d been in here long enough for Sid to get worried.

“I told you. I gave it to your superior two days ago,” Travis growled with impatience. “You think I’d lie about that shit when you have a gun pressed to my sister’s head?”

“I’m the agent on this case,” Richards barked, seemingly incensed Travis hadn’t gone through him directly.

“Yeah, well, obviously my instinct not to go through you wasn’t far off base,” Travis muttered as Sid crept along the far wall, his gun pointed at Richards’s back. “What the fuck are you thinking anyway, man? You’d have to be seriously fucked to think you can steal from the Russians to pay the cartel.” He shook his head, looking as baffled as I felt.

“Ivanov’s locked up,” Richards shot back.

“He has a long reach,” Travis replied resolutely. “It was a shit plan but fortunately not one that’ll happen, since I don’t have what you want.”

The silence stretched, growing thick with tension as the inevitable conclusion to Richards’s plan became clear. He wasn’t going to get what he came for. Something told me he wasn’t going to pick up and leave.

My heart hammered in my ears as my frightened gaze volleyed between the two men waiting for a conclusion I knew with a sinking feeling could mean the end of me or my brother.

Richards shrugged before his gaze turned toward me. “I hadn’t planned on you. I regret that,” he admitted, his eyes expressionless as he lifted his gun.

In a movement so swift I barely saw it, Travis’s hands shot out toward Richards, forcing his gun downward as a shot rang through the air with a deafening boom.

A burst of red appeared on Richards’s chest as he looked at me with wide-eyed shock. I realized I didn’t even know the man’s first name, and yet I was watching him die. He reached out to me as though I’d break his fall. I leaned back, watching with shock as he crumpled to the ground.

Travis kicked his gun away as the agent lay motionless on the ground. Sid raced toward us, gathering me up in his arms. “Christ, baby.” He panted with adrenaline and anguish. He pulled back when I didn’t respond, stooping low to look me in the eye. “Sam?” his voice was muffled through the ringing in my ears.

I looked back at him and through barely moving lips said the words that despite the terror still percolating in my veins would set us free.

“Now. Now it’s over.”

CHAPTER 23

I
n the chaotic aftermath that followed when law enforcement swarmed into Talon armed to the teeth, Sid didn’t leave my side. Even when the feds forced him into handcuffs—as a precaution, they said—he kneeled by my side with a growled, “I’m not leaving her.”

Theo and Declan had flanked us protectively, demanding repeatedly for the feds to check the Talon security footage. That’s all they needed to see to get the story straight, they’d lamented.

Finally, someone listened.

The moment he was released, Sid jumped to his feet, wrapping a muscular arm around me. Tension radiated from his body as he glared out at the chaos surrounding us.

Government-issued sedans and SUVs filled the Talon lot as suit-clad officials swarmed around us like angry bees.

“We’ll need your gun, Masters,” one of the agents ordered.

Sid glared at him. “Figured that. I left it on my desk,” he answered brusquely as his grip tightened around me. “We’ve been here an hour already. I want to know when I can take her home,” he demanded, his head cocked toward me. “My girl just had a fucking gun pointed at her head by one of
your
fucking agents. Not to mention the fact that you cuffed me. Wouldn’t have pissed me off much except it forced me to let go of her.” He seethed as he continued to glare at the man in silent challenge.

I’d never seen him so angry.

The agent swallowed hard against his wrath as Travis stalked over with a scowl on his face.

“Get your man under control, McAllister,” the agent tried to order my brother, though it came out more as a request.

Travis scoffed. “She’s his woman. She’s also my fucking sister.” He pointed a finger at me. The agent swallowed visibly again, an obvious tell that he was uncomfortable. Travis looked like he had a hell of a lot more to say, but another agent walked over.

“McAllister, Masters.” The man nodded toward Travis and Sid. He was older than the majority of the other agents, with gray hair cropped close to his head and a gaze that held years of experience. His dark eyes roved over me briefly before returning to Travis. He emanated a sense of authority and none of the nerves the agent we’d been speaking to betrayed. “Agent Peters is just doing his job. If you have a complaint, take it up with me.”

Travis’s expression hardened to stone. “A complaint?” he growled incredulously. “Yeah, Adams, I have a fucking complaint. I’ve been telling you for months that something wasn’t right with Richards. He was under
your
command. All my guys felt it—that he was off. You chose to ignore that and it nearly got my sister killed.”