Flirtation (13 page)

“Still cold?”

She loved how his voice changed when he was really turned on, how his accent thickened into a heavy drawl and his naturally smooth tone turned rough. “No, baby, I’m heating up quite nicely, thank you.”

It was the first time she’d used that kind of endearment with a man, and it thrilled her to her toes. She slid her hands down and stroked him, rubbing her thumb over the slick head of his cock and gloried in the shudder that racked him.

“Charlotte, I want your hands on me, your legs around me…”

He kissed his way down to her shoulder, then slid his hands forward, massaging her breasts as his tongue made a long, slow journey down her torso and nestled in between her legs. She used one hand to part herself for him, and another to steady herself as he plundered, bringing her to the edge too many times to count, but never letting her cross over the threshold. She was shaking when he stood, pressing up close and taking her mouth in a hot kiss all the hotter because of her taste on his lips.

“Wrap your legs around me, Charlotte.”

She stopped cold. She was standing up—what was he asking?

“Huh?” Okay, not the sexiest of replies, but she was truly confused.

“I want to lift you up and get inside you. I need you to wrap your legs around and hold on.”

“EJ,” she started sputtering, losing the mood. “I…I can’t. I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

She could feel the heat in her face that had nothing to do with the shower.

“I’m not exactly a waif, if you haven’t noticed. You can’t hold my weight for that long.”

Damn him—here she was feeling as embarrassed as she’d ever felt and he…laughed. She drew back in indignation, but he stepped forward with a gleam in his eye that told her he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“Charlotte, you are not heavy, you are perfect. Full and sensual and with curves that make men sweat just looking at you. Believe me, this won’t be a problem.”

“I don’t think…”

“Yes, good, don’t think.”

The next thing she knew he had backed her against the shower wall, and it was a good thing, she thought, that it was a sturdy wall, because he’d slipped his hands down to her hips and lifted her in one, deft movement. Reflexively, she reached around and held on with arms and legs, feeling him fill her at the very same moment.

Oh, my God. She was having sex, standing up, with a man holding her against a shower stall wall. She’d always been too afraid to fantasize about this particular position, thinking no guy would want to risk damaging his lumbar muscles, but now that she was doing it, and EJ seemed to be having no particular problems keeping her there, she relaxed.

“That’s it, darlin’, see how good this is?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

She experimented, not holding on so much for dear life with her arms, but loosening them to touch him, and following his sensual guidance so that he could move as he needed to, entering her so deeply and touching every part of her so completely that she cried out in surprise as her body wrenched in pleasure, bucking against him as she came.

“Charlotte…”

EJ couldn’t say more than her name as he gave in to his own explosion of pleasure, chanting her name, and sinking his fingers into her flesh as he pressed her into the wall, holding her up and pursuing his orgasm with such power that it triggered another lingering one for her.

When they were done, she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry, or just thank the heavens.

“EJ.”

His face was buried in her neck, his chest heaving, and he didn’t respond.

“Uh, EJ?”

“What, darlin’?”

“You can let me down now if you want. The water’s getting cold again.”

“So it is.” He stepped back, holding her as she loosened her legs and tested if her knees still worked. Thinking of how amazing she felt, watching his powerful body flex and bend as he turned to shut off the water, how his lean form and sculpted muscles moved, she found herself becoming choked up.

“Charlotte?” EJ pulled the plastic door back, and reached for a towel, looking back at her. “What’s wrong? Did something hurt? Damn, I’m sorry, I wanted that to be good for you….”

Then she laughed, because if he thought that wasn’t good for her, he had to be unconscious.

“EJ, I’m fine. I’m better than fine. It’s just that you…what we did…how we are….”

Oh, crap, she thought. She was going to burst into tears. She’d heard of that happening sometimes when the sex was powerful, but this didn’t have to do with orgasms—it was completely emotional.

“What? Darlin’, what?” He helped her out of the shower, wrapping a huge white towel around her, and drawing her into his arms.

“It’s just that, I know this sounds stupid but—”

“Just say it, Charlotte. Nothing sounds stupid. You can tell me anything, okay?”

He tipped her head back and she felt calmed, looking so deeply into his concerned eyes.

“You make me feel so…good. You look at me and I feel like my insides turn to melted butter, and what you did just now, I…I’ve never felt like that. Never had anyone make me feel so desired. So pretty, and well,” she laughed, hiccupping and making him smile though she felt silly saying it out loud, “so light.”

He drew her into a tight hug, chuckling softly. “Charlotte, you are all that and more. I can’t get enough of you.”

“Me, either. Of you, I mean.”

“Thank God, darlin’, because come what may, I don’t plan on leaving you anytime soon.”

T
HEY ATE COLD CHEESEBURGERS
and fries like it was the nectar of the gods, talked about nothing in particular, and then EJ faced the inevitable and filled her in on the plan. Charlotte snuggled up against him, wrapped in a sheet and nothing else, testing his concentration.

“Will you go with me? To this safe house?”

EJ wrapped his arms around her, holding her as close as physical space allowed.

“I have to be in on the raid—I want to see with my own eyes that he’s caught and unable to get at you. But you’ll be in the best of hands, completely under heavy guard. We think we have a decent idea of where Maloso is—Jennie made some contacts and has run some new maps.” He looked at his watch. “They are supposed to send copies over here soon.”

EJ inhaled the freshly washed scent of her hair, the well-loved muskiness of her naked body next to his, and swore on his own grave that he wouldn’t let anyone lay one finger on her, ever.

“I can’t bear the thought of you getting hurt, EJ. I can’t stand to even think of it.”

“Same back atcha. Which is why the best place for you is the safe house, until we have Maloso behind bars.”

She turned her face upwards to his, lifting her hand to his cheek.

“I mean it. I couldn’t stand it if you got hurt protecting me.”

“It’s my job, sweetheart. But I don’t plan on getting hurt. With any luck, we can put this to bed with a minimum of bloodshed.”

She burrowed against him. He said reassuringly, “We’re going to get through this, Charlotte. Things are going to be okay, and you have to believe that.”

“I do, EJ.”

She yawned, nestling against him, and feeling his heartbeat steady with his breathing as he fell asleep. She heard a strange noise, and perked up, realizing it was EJ’s laptop. Sliding softly out of bed, she walked to the machine, and watched the bar across the center measuring the progress of the files being sent—this had to be the maps from Jennie.

She turned, opening her mouth to wake him, and then changed her mind, staring at the computer until
it was finished. Her plan was not so much a plan as a spontaneous reaction, but this was her only chance to do things her way, and try to help her brother.

Reaching for the computer, she opened the downloaded files, and studied them closely—she didn’t know the area, but she wrote down the information, and held her breath, looking back toward where EJ was still sleeping soundly.

Slipping the clothes she’d laid out over her head, she then grabbed her purse. She had to get by the guard. She’d try to claim female problems or something similar, that she needed a trip to the drugstore. Men were typically so uncomfortable with those things, and with any luck Officer Thomas was no exception.

Opening the door, she peered outside and stopped short, gasping but unable to scream as a hand clamped hard over her mouth. Officer Thomas wasn’t a problem—and he wasn’t any help, either. He was unconscious…or dead. Shot, he slumped against the wall at a sick angle, blood covering one side of his chest, and Charlotte started to fight against her captor, biting and kicking to free herself and yell for EJ, who was just yards away, but then something hard hit her and everything became dark.

“T
HE HOUSE IS ABOUT
twenty miles outside of the city, in a wooded area next to the Dismal Swamp. He’s probably got her there. And maybe the brother, too,” Ian said.

“If he hurts her, I’ll kill him myself,” EJ swore.

“We’ll get her, EJ.”

Ian drove the point home as EJ sat at the desk, his mind sifting through every detail of the plan for the thousandth time.

“I never would have pinned Thomas as the leak,” Ian said.

“I wish they hadn’t killed him—I would have liked my shot at him.”

“You’ve got to get your head on straight, my friend. You won’t be any help to her like this. How the hell did she end up outside that room anyway?” Ian asked.

EJ shrugged, castigating himself endlessly for falling asleep. He hadn’t heard anything, but had awakened hours later to find the body in the hall and Charlotte gone. If anything happened to her, it would be his fault for letting his guard down.

“I would have heard if someone knocked. They had to have lured her outside somehow,” EJ said.

“Or she was trying to get out—maybe she is on the inside of this thing,” Ian said pointedly.

EJ looked at Ian in surprise, and nearly lost it. “That’s crossing the line, Ian. She’s not in on this. I’d bet my life on it.”

“Well, that’s pretty much exactly what you’re doing—and several other lives as well.”

“If she was trying to get out of that room, it was probably because she wanted to save that brother of hers again. I know she’s been upset that we haven’t been concentrating on that.”

“You think she was going to try to go after him herself?” Ian asked.

“Who the hell knows? It wouldn’t have been the first time.”

Ian slanted him a look. “This is going to be a tough situation, so stay cool.”

“Oh, I’m downright chilly.”

“I was thinking the opposite.” Ian pinned him with a look that saw to the heart of the matter. “You’re in love with her.”

“I don’t know if I would go that far. I care about her.”

Ian laughed, shaking his head. “I seem to recall, not so long ago, our positions were reversed, and you were making me face facts about Sage. We had a few tense moments back then, and that was mostly because I was being an ass. But I’ve been where you
are, bud. In a tense situation and not wanting to see the woman you…
care about
…in danger. It can push you into making bad decisions.”

EJ remembered all too well when their team had just been forming, and Ian and Sage were struggling through their own troubles. Ian had called in EJ and Sarah to help, then changed their well-orchestrated plan to take off on his own.

Ian’s rash decision to take on the situation alone, to spare Sage any more conflict, had ended up putting her in even more danger. Sage had been shot, though thankfully the wound hadn’t been fatal, but Ian hadn’t let himself off the hook for that for a long time. If ever.

EJ simply couldn’t let himself so much as think of anything happening to Charlotte. “I hear you loud and clear, Ian. I’ll stick to the plan. But if I find her hurt, or worse—” he could barely say the word, “—all bets are off.”

“EJ…”

EJ met and held his friend’s eyes, his voice raw. “She might be pregnant, Ian. She might be carrying my baby.”

Nothing he could have said would have shocked his friend more, and what should have been a happy moment between them just raised the sense of urgency.

“You know that?”

“No, it’s just a possibility. We, uh, got carried away. Once.”

“Unlike you, my friend, to get carried away. But I think maybe it’s about time.”

“You can get all misty-eyed on me later, Ian. Time’s short.”

Ian looked outside the glass window where Sarah stood dressed in black night-gear from head to toe with a group of S.W.A.T. guys and federal agents. Everyone wanted in on this job; Maloso would be a big prize, but Ian was more worried about EJ, and now, about Charlotte. Thinking of Sage at home, very pregnant with their daughters, stiffened his resolve to end this soon, and well.

“Then let’s go get her.”

C
HARLOTTE WISHED
for the one millionth time that she never stepped foot outside that hotel room, as she sat tied and bound to a chair in the middle of the garage of what seemed to be a standard issue development house. Nothing stood out that she could use to identify where she was, and she’d been unconscious until just a short while ago.

Her head hurt, her heart hurt, and when she moved her jaw, something very unpleasant popped and shot pain up to her eye. So she kept her mouth shut.

In the end, all she could really be grateful for was that if the men who had grabbed her in the hallway had stormed into their room, they could have killed EJ before taking her. It was her only serious comfort to know that hadn’t happened. And
she knew, in her heart, that EJ wouldn’t stop looking until he found her.

She hoped that was sooner than later.

There was the sound of a key in a door, and some men walked into the garage. They were well-dressed, casual but expensive, as if they were going out to play golf at an expensive resort. One man in particular watched her with sharp black eyes.

“So you are Charley, my little psychic.”

She met his stare. “You must be Lou, my little mob guy.”

The men laughed and Lou nodded. “You have guts, I’ll give you that.”

“Where’s my brother?”

“You mean the other lying son of a bitch who stole from me? Don’t worry, he’s still around. I wanted to have you two thieves in the same place, so I could watch you both die. Family is important, after all.”

Charlotte spit on the floor. “You are the son of a bitch, Lou. And you kill people, you steal from people, you sell drugs…”

“Whoa! I have never sold drugs. Ask my buddies here—Giacco, have I ever sold drugs?”

A big man by the door shook his head in all seriousness. “No way, Lou. Dirty things, drugs. Dirty money.”

Lou nodded. “That’s right. Technology, and working the stocks, that’s more my gig.”

Charlotte tipped her chin up. “You want to hurt
me, hurt my brother. All he did was take some money, and we could give it back. You don’t need to hurt us.”

Lou stared at her for a moment, and she was sure she could see that he was empty inside—there was nothing there but cold emptiness.

“You don’t tell me my business, lady. You screw me over, I screw you over harder. That’s how it goes. That’s
business
.”

She tried a different tack. “You don’t have to do it that way, Lou. You end up just hurting yourself more in the end.”

“Really? And how’s that?”

“You build up bad karma—it will catch up to you, you know,” she said.

“What goes around comes around is what you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

“Then I guess you could see me making things even with you and your brother as the same thing, right?”

“Good one, Lou.” Giacco nodded heavily.

“Shut up, Giacco. What the hell do you know?”

Lou turned back to Charlotte, giving her an evil smile.

“Anyway, you want to see your brother? Fine. We can arrange that.”

Charlotte didn’t say a word, but felt like she would burst from the chair, worried and elated all at the same
time that either they meant to take her wherever Ronny was—which could be a bad thing—or that the police were wrong and Ronny was not dead already, at all.

Three seconds later she breathed a gusty sigh of mixed horror and relief when two men dragged Ronny through the garage door, his face bruised almost beyond recognition, and he couldn’t step on one leg. His hands were bound, and they shoved him roughly to the floor at her feet, his face hitting the painted cement with a sickening thud.

“Oh, God. Ronny!”

Charlotte strained against her bonds, wanting to lift her brother from the floor, but she was tied too tightly. Ronny groaned, lifting his face up, and glared at Maloso.

“I told you, she had nothing to do with it. It was my game.”

“Yeah, and I was born yesterday.” Lou nodded to Giacco and the big man walked over, giving Ronny a solid kick in the ribs, and Charlotte screamed, begging them to stop.

Lou walked up to her, so close she could smell the overdose of aftershave he wore, and she almost gagged as he pinched her chin hard between his fingers and lifted her face to his.

“You worried, lady? You should be.”

She shook her face loose of his grasp, feeling desperate. “What do you want from us? Tell me, just don’t hurt him anymore!”

Lou made clucking sounds. “Oh, sorry. No go. You want to play in the big leagues, you play by our rules. But don’t worry—” he dragged a finger down the line of her chin “—I don’t plan on hitting your brother any more right now. Because I know that the best way to hurt him now, is to hurt you.”

He drew his hand back and Charlotte braced herself for the pain but it didn’t come. Someone was calling Lou’s name, staying the swing of his powerful arm.

“Boss, there’s a problem. You need to come in here.”

“This can’t wait? You see I’m busy here?”

“It’s the New Jersey deal. Things are going bad. They want you on the phone now.”

“Jesus, when it rains it pours! All right!”

He looked down in disgust at Charlotte and Ronny, and Charlotte let her breath go, grateful beyond words that the New Jersey deal was going bad.

“Looks like you two can have a little quality time together. But don’t worry, this won’t take long.”

The men all filed into the house, glaring at Charlotte and Ronny in turn, and then the door closed behind them and they were alone.

“I told you to get out of town, Charlotte—how’d they get to you?”

“Long story. Ronny, how could you do this? How could you have gotten involved in something like this? And dragged me into it as well!”

Through his bruises, he met her eyes, shocked at her temper. “I was doing it for us. I wanted to stash enough money away so that you wouldn’t have to work those stupid jobs anymore, and we could live right.”

“You’re trying to tell me you did this
for me?
”

“Well, sure.”

Anger beyond words gripped her, and she didn’t have the words to tell him what she thought of his plan, but if they lived through this, he was going to get an earful.

But then she saw something that made her love him all over again. He was wiggling his hands loose.

“Ronny, how…?”

“I’ve been messing with this tape all afternoon, finally stretched it out enough so I could still look like I was tied up, but loose enough to get free so I could make my move when I had the chance.”

“Ronny, I love you.”

He grinned, scooting behind her chair and pulling at her bindings until she was able to help and within a minute, was free herself. Hope blossomed, and she fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

“I thought you were dead.” Sobs choked her, and he hugged her back, but then pulled her up to her feet, closing his eyes with pain as he stood.

“I’m not yet, but we will be if we don’t get outta here…”

“Yes, right. But where will we go?” she asked.

“It’s pitch-black out—if we can get away from the house into the woods, make it to the edge of the swamp, I don’t know, maybe we can flag someone down for help in the morning,” he suggested.

“Anything is better than standing here. Let’s go.”

Miraculously, there was only one guy outside the house, and he stood a good distance away, closer to the front door. Luck was on their side again.

“This way.” Ronny had to lean on her, and it was slow progress to the edge of the woods, but once they were in the trees, he picked up a large stick from the ground to lean on, and they made better time.

Better time to where, exactly, she had no idea, but as far away as they could get from Lou was the best direction she could imagine. She’d heard about this area, and that there was a good deal of wildlife—including black bears and bobcats—but better to deal with the animals out here than the ones back at Maloso’s house, she thought.

“There have to be some other buildings around here, people—it’s a wildlife refuge, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but we have no idea where we are.”

Charlotte signaled him to stop for a moment, trying to think about the rough direction they’d taken from the road, and closed her eyes tight, trying to re-imagine the map she’d seen on EJ’s computer.

Her concentration was broken by the sound of yelling and a gunshot. Then there were more gunshots.

“They know we’re gone, c’mon!”

“No, wait.” She listened, and there was a strange sound, like firecrackers, something bursting, and then some more gunshots. “Why would there be so much shooting just because we’re gone? Who are they shooting at, each other?”

“I don’t really care who they’re shooting at, let’s just get the hell out of here.”

She turned to him, hardly able to see anything but the outline of his shoulders in the dark. The sliver of moon offered some light, but barely.

“No, don’t you see? It’s the police! They found me!”

“Why would the cops find you?”

“So much has happened, Ronny, I can’t explain it all now, but we have to head back toward the house. If we bear more to the right, we should come out at the road, and have enough distance to see—”

“No way. If it is the police, I’m certainly not walking back and letting them get me—I just got free from these guys! C’mon.”

He grabbed her arm but she pulled away, confused at his response, but adamant that they needed to go back. She had to make him listen.

“Ronny, I know them. I know one of them, one of the police. He’s…just trust me. He’ll help us. You don’t have to be afraid.”

Ronny was silent, staring at her in the darkess, and she heard him sigh in disgust. “Did you go and get yourself involved with a cop, little sister? Damn…”

“I’m your
big
sister, Ronny, and well, yeah. He’s
a good man. He’s been keeping me safe from the mess
you
got me into. They were investigating me because of you—they thought I was guilty of the thefts. How could you do that to me?”

“We’re back to that again? Do you really want to have this conversation here, right now? Are you crazy? I told you, I was trying to do a good thing,” he said sullenly.