Daniel (11 page)

They were going out the drive in the ambulance
as they watched three dark sedans pull into the parking garage. Doyle watched
the nine men go into the elevator they’d just come out of and laughed when the
thing wouldn’t close. He’d bought them about twenty minutes, because now they’d
have to walk up the stairs to the seventh floor and not ride. And once there
they’d spend a bit more time chasing her around the hospital as one department
after another told them where they thought the girl had gone. He figured they
had about two hours if they were lucky.

“They going to hurt anyone when they
figure it out?” Doyle shook his head at her question. “Why are you so sure?”

“Because as of late last night there were
more Feds in that hospital than staff. They know what’s going down and who the
second is. They’ll only slow him down to give us time. As soon as the allotted
time is up, they’ll nail them all and hopefully someone sings before too much
longer.”

“Sings what?” Daniel asked as he held
onto Reilly. The girl didn’t seem to mind too much, but she still wasn’t
comfortable with him. Doyle hoped they’d work it out.

“Everything. Agent Patrick Snodgrass, my
boss when I asked to come back in just for this case, has been giving someone
information for a few months. It wasn’t until he let a little tidbit slip about
six weeks ago that I figured out one of the people making it so he could afford
those fancy cars and vacations was Carver. I just needed to connect the dots so
everyone could see, too.”

“So you knew this guy was dirty when you
came to work for me.” Doyle nodded at Daniel’s question. “Were you going to
tell us about it before he killed someone in my family?”

“Your family was never in danger. Reilly
here wasn’t even his target until about six months ago. That’s why I don’t think
it’s the kid he’s after. I’m not even sure he knows about him. There has to be
something else.”

Doyle waited, but nothing was coming. He
had time, not a lot but a little time, for her to tell him. He was hoping she’d
come forth with it if there was anything. He didn’t come right out and ask her because
he liked her and knew that if he accused her of something she’d clam up tight. He
looked around when they pulled into the Harlequin compound. Holy shit, this
woman was prepared, more so than he’d thought.

Chapter
11

He had to tell her. Benny had the
backpack all ready to give her when she came in the door. He just didn’t expect
to see Daniel and the other men come in with her. He kicked the pack under the
couch and went to give her a hug. Over the last few days he’d come to enjoy her
hugs and couldn’t understand why he’d shied away from them before.

“I’ve been so worried. Curtis and his
wife brought me over about two hours ago, it seems, and he said you’d be right
along. I made us some dinner.” He flushed. He sounded like some worrywart, and
he wasn’t really. “I guess we can get some more chicken out of the freezer.”

“I won’t be staying, but thanks. Kylie
and I have to get home, she’s not feeling well, and this far into her pregnancy
is scary.” Curtis ruffled his hair. “You’re a good kid. I hope we get to see
you for Thanksgiving this year.”

Kylie kissed his forehead, and he
flushed again.
Man, the women around here sure liked to suck face
, he
thought. He wanted to ask to feel the baby again but was afraid to. But Kylie
suddenly made a funny noise in the back of her throat and grabbed his hand.

“Wow.” The way her belly rolled against
his hand made him think it had to hurt her, but she had the weirdest look on
her face, like she thought it was a Christmas present or something. She held
his hand there, and he wondered what it would be like to have a little brother
or sister, and stiffened his shoulders. He had no mom, really, and he didn’t
think he’d ever want anything to do with who he thought was his sperm donor. He
pulled his hand back slowly, and she smiled down at him.

After they left, Doyle and Daniel walked
around the house for a bit, and he and Reilly finished up dinner. He was as
ready as he’d ever be and started talking.

“I have that backpack in the living room,
and I think I know why the man who calls you is trying to get it back. Mom gave
it to me the day she got beat up and killed, and she told me it was my
insurance. I didn’t know what she meant, but I kept it safe like she said.”

Reilly laid down her knife and sat in
the chair. “Do you know what’s in it?” He nodded. “Is it something bad,
something that might get you into trouble if someone other than that man knew
you had it?”

He wasn’t sure. But he knew that lying
to her would be worse than if he told her nothing. “I think so, but I don’t
know. There is…do you want it?”

She didn’t answer, and when the men came
back in the house she looked at him again and shook her head a little. He
nodded just as much, and hoped that he understood her that he wasn’t to talk
about it with them there. He helped her with dinner as everyone talked about
nothing much of anything. After dinner, she asked him if he wanted her to walk with
him. He nodded.

“I don’t know what to say right now. Would
you mind if I talked to Daniel about it?” He shook his head as she sat down on
his bed. “Benny, I don’t want anything to happen to you. I love you very much. I
was afraid when you first came to me. I had no idea what I was doing. But we
haven’t done so bad, have we?”

“No. I know I’ve never said it to you,
but I love you, too. And Reilly, you have given me a lot, too. My mom…she
wasn’t really very…she was….” He wiped at the tears that both embarrassed him
and made him a little angry. “She wasn’t always there, and when she was, she
was doped up.”

“I know. I know.”

She held him for a little while. He was
nearly asleep when he heard her sniffle. She’d been crying. Instead of talking
to her or saying the wrong thing, he squeezed her. She returned his tight grip,
and he pulled away.

“I won’t let him hurt you, too. I
promise you, he won’t hurt you like he did my mom.” She nodded at him and
looked away.

“I thought we should…you know, run, but
I don’t know. If we do, there might not be the same kind of…Daniel and the
others, they’ve been very nice and supportive. Even….”

He waited, but when she didn’t finish he
did. “Even though you’ve been a pain in the ass to them?”

“Funny.” She tickled him. “I meant to
say even though it’s not their fight. But I don’t…maybe it’s better we stay and
take a stand. Fight for us instead of running. We would have to run a long time
if we started that now.”

Benny rolled to his side when she kissed
him again and left. He loved her very much and really didn’t want anything to
happen to her. And he really liked Daniel and his brothers. They were big and
strong and they ruffled his hair. He grinned. He didn’t act like he liked that
but he did. And besides, their friend Willow said he could have a puppy of his
own when her dog had her litter. Life wasn’t so bad now, he figured.

~~~

Daniel was standing in the hall when
O’Reilly came out of the bedroom nearest him. He wasn’t sure what to make of
the expression she had on her face, but he went to her to hold her. She stepped
back, and he stopped.

“I need to talk to you when Doyle
leaves. Is that all right?” She looked down the hall and then pointed to the
room across from the one she’d come out of. “You can stay in here. There’s a
bath and plenty of towels if you need them.”

Ignoring her reference to where she thought
he was sleeping, he spoke. There was no way he wasn’t going to be in her bed
tonight. “Doyle said he’d bunk on the couch. You have cable and a big screen. I
think he said something about some soccer games. Why don’t we go to your room
and we can talk.”

She looked indecisive. He wasn’t going
to force her, but he did want her. When she nodded and turned to go down the
hall, he followed her. He hadn’t even realized there was a door down this far.

“I sleep in the basement. I have my own entrance
and I can come and go when I need to be out in the shop without waking Benny. He
knows that if he needs me he can come out there or simply use the intercom. He’s
a really good kid. I don’t want anything to happen to…I’m babbling.”

The room that the short set of stairs
led them to was massive. He could see that she’d done some extensive work on
this end of the yard and house. The entire back end of her room opened up to a
back patio that looked like it held a hot tub as well as a pool not far from
where they stood. He walked over to the door and opened it. She rushed toward
him and slid open a small panel and punched in a code.

“I don’t want the police to come here
again. The last time was a while ago, but they do test it every month.” She
slid the panel back. “You can go out and in now until the door closes. It’ll
alarm again once the door crosses the frame. It’s automatically charged then.”

She was so close, and before she could
step back, he pulled her gently into his body. She stiffened slightly, then
leaned into him. Daniel lifted her chin up so that her mouth was where he could
enjoy it.

He was careful of her back and his side
where he’d been shot. The area was aching right now, but there wasn’t any way
he was going to stop. When she moved her arms up to his shoulders, he put his
hand on her hip and pulled her tight. He tasted her sigh when he rocked into
her.

“I should tell you about…Benny and I
talked…. Daniel, you should listen to me.” He wanted to make her forget
everything but him.

He lifted his hand from her hip and
cupped her breast. Her nipple pebbled under his thumb. When he shifted her so
that he could pull her over his thigh, she tightened around his leg.

Making love to her was going to be a
challenge. He couldn’t roll her to her back like he wanted to do to bury
himself into her heat, and he didn’t think he could lift her up and take her
standing. Backing them to where he’d remembered the bed was, he nearly fell
against it when his legs touched it.

Pulling back, he lifted her shirt over
her head. Daniel never stopped looking at her, waiting for any sign that she
wasn’t ready for what he wanted. When she crossed her arms over her chest, he
pulled them down and put them at her sides.

“Don’t. Not with me. I want to look at
you.” Her bra wasn’t one of those sexy little ones women he knew wore, but a
white one that said
I’m for use, not to seduce
. He moved the straps down
her shoulders as he continued. “Do you know how much I’ve wanted to do this? Every
time I’ve been close enough to touch you. And the day you sicced your dogs on
me? I nearly took you on the hood of my car.”

“Dogs? I don’t…the watch dogs. They
aren’t mine. I’d been babysitting them. They’re mostly stupid and only know
‘kill’ and ‘heel.’ And they run at everything that runs from them. The owner came
and got them that afternoon.” He leaned into her cleavage and reached behind
her to unsnap her bra. “Daniel, please listen to me.”

“What is it, baby? If you want me to
stop….” He licked along the curve of her breast before taking her bra off. “If
you want me to stop…I can’t remember what I’m supposed to say with something
this deliciously sexy right here for the taking.”

“I’m not any good at sex.” He cocked a
brow at her statement. Before he could speak, she rushed on. “I’m a lousy lay,
and I’ve never really understood the whole purpose for it. Sex, I mean. I don’t
understand the big deal or why grown adults would go out of their way to…. It’s
time consuming, and it’s sort of a disappointment.”

“Really,” he said, and she nodded. “Who
told you that you were a lousy lay? An old boyfriend maybe? An ex-lover? Or did
you come to this ridiculous conclusion all on your own?”

“He said that I was not worth it. And he
wasn’t the only one…well, I guess he was. After word got around that I was so
terrible at it, it was hard to get a date after that. Not that I wanted to.
Once was enough for me.” She looked up at him when he growled. “I’m not telling
you this so you’ll feel sorry for me. I’ve heard other women talk about how
good Alden is in bed. I should have known better than to—”

He turned her around and pushed her down
on the bed. She stared up at him as he paced in front of her. “Alden who? And
the reason I ask is because I’m going to hunt him down and cut his dick off and
shove it up his ass for him.” Her giggle startled him. “You should know that
laughing at a man when his woman’s virtue is at stake is a no-no.”

“His last name is Warren, and I’m hardly
a virgin. I’ve just never…enjoyed sex, not that I didn’t have it. And Alden
meant well…well, no he didn’t. He was mean and he blabbed it all over campus.” She
crossed her arms over her naked breasts and distracted him for a second. But he
laughed when she continued. “Of course, I didn’t tell anyone I thought his
wiener was tiny and pencil-like.”

Suddenly everything fell into place. He
was in love with this woman. Terror poured over him. For only a split second,
then everything he’d ever wanted was right there. Daniel moved to the bed again
and asked her to move up it.

“I want you. More than I’ve ever wanted
a woman before, but I don’t want to hurt either of us. You’ll have to do most
of the work, I’m afraid, until I can take you properly.” She swallowed twice,
and his cock jerked in his pants as he watched her breasts move. He crawled up
the bed to settle between her feet. “I want to taste you first. Can you lay on
your back, or do you need another position to not hurt?”

He reached up to her jeans and unsnapped
them. While he waited for her answer, he moved them slowly down her hips. He
kissed a path down her body with his mouth, kissing and nipping at her flesh. She
was warm and tasted like home to him.

“I can…I can stay this way for a little
bit. I’ve…Christ.” He laved his tongue in her belly button before he sat up and
pulled her jeans all the way off. She was soaking wet, her panties were wet at
the place he wanted to be worse than anything.

“You don’t look like you’re going to be
a lousy lay. As wet as you are, it looks to me like I can slide into you deep
and pound you hard without hurting you.” He slid his fingers up her right thigh,
then over her mound lightly, then down the other thigh. She undulated up off
the bed. “Has anyone drank from you, O’Reilly? Suckled from your pussy until
you came?”

Her hoarse
no
had him move closer
to her and rub his cheek over her heat. She tangled her fingers into his hair
as he traced his finger over the elastic of her panties. When he moved under them
and pushed his fingers into her, she cried out and he decided that he’d had
enough teasing. He wanted her now.

Exquisite. He gathered as much of her
juices on his tongue and pressed his finger into her. She was riding his mouth,
moaning loudly and tightening her thighs around his head. Christ, he wanted to
make her come, and when he ripped her panties off and opened her with his
fingers, he took her clit into his mouth and nipped.

Her scream tore from her as she came. Copious
amounts of her hot cream poured from her body, and he drank and lapped at as
much as he could. While she was still writhing under him, he sat up and nearly
went back to her pussy when she whimpered.

“Easy, baby. I need to undress.” His
pants and boxers came off as one, and he practically tore his shirt off. “I’m
going to fuck you, love. I don’t want to hurt you so—”

“Now. Please now. I need you right now.”
He could hear her need, see it on her face and her body. He nearly ripped the
condom wrapper in two when he tore it with his teeth. Getting it on his cock
was painful and oh so worth it to be buried deep inside of her. Moving back
between her thighs, he held his cock at her entrance. When she rocked up and
took the head of his cock inside of her, she came again. Daniel entered her
hard.