Sweet Recovery (Ex Ops Series Book 4) (4 page)

Still halfway lost in the moment of my song, not caring about the giant douchebag in front of me, I raised my arms above my head, dislodging his hands, and started dancing as I sang the next line. “
But I guess I’m just a thing you think you can use and then toss without a warning.”

Bigfoot tipped his head back to the ceiling for a moment, as if he were praying for patience, and I just kept dancing with a big smile on my face.

“
Just take your shit and go
—HEY!”

My words were cut off and the breath was forced from my lungs as, all of a sudden, I found myself flying through the air to land upside down with a bony shoulder in my stomach and a muscled black T-shirt covered back in my face. I tried to open my mouth to yell for Dexter the schmexter yet ended up coughing due to lack of air.

“Man, shut her the fuck up before we’re caught. You need to move it out the back pronto. The guys she was with are only going to be distracted by the girls I sicced on them for a little while,” another guy’s voice suddenly demanded from behind me. I couldn’t see the owner of that voice due to the fact that I was hanging over Bigfoot’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

A hot hand smacked my ass hard. “Be quiet or I’m going to gag you, woman,” wannabe Lucas slash Bigfoot ordered.

Pfft
. Like I was going to listen to him!

To show him I would never give in to his demands, I did what any good kidnapping victim did … I sang at the top of my lungs.

“
Someone else can have you because I don’t need your touch…”

Lucas

With a struggling, badly singing Ginny thrown over my shoulder and puke on my boots, I quick stepped out of the back of the club, slamming the steel door open into the outer wall in my haste. I moved as fast as I could with my hands full of a squirming woman into the back parking lot reserved for employees. The Regulators MC who owned this club had allowed us to park back there since we had started our now finished undercover mission in Miami.

“
I remember all the times you screwed me.
”

I winced at Gin’s last strangled note on the word “me.” I was pretty sure she forgot a word at the end of the line. Like ‘over.’ There was no way that sad sack of a breakup song had screwing in it unless it was the bad kind.

“
You didn’t have to hurt me so!
”

“Holy shit, man. I had no clue a broad with such a gorgeous laugh could sound like a cat being strangled to death when she sings,” Chase offered as he walked quickly next to me.

I didn’t need to look over to know he was scanning the area for possible threats or even the men Ginny had been with. I hadn’t planned on needing anyone’s help to talk to my girl again, but so far, nothing had gone as I had hoped it would.

“
I’ll be strong enough not to need your love!
”

At the end of Gin’s off-pitched screech, I heard Chase mumble, “Sweet baby Jesus, I think I’m deaf in my left ear now.”

Yeah, well, he wasn’t the only one.

While the help getting out of the club unseen was appreciated, I didn’t need his smartass comments right now. I more than had my hands full with a drunk Ginny who, for whatever reason, was convinced I was Bigfoot in the flesh.

I gave her ass another hard slap. “Shut it or I really will gag you.”

“
But you left me with all these scars that I hate so much.”

We were coming up fast on the two black SUVs I had driven over with Commander Jaxon and our team for the party.

I took my right hand off her legs to pull the keys out of my pocket and hit the unlock button on the security fob. “Last warning, Gin. Quiet or I’m going to make you be quiet.”

Both of her little fists slammed down repeatedly onto my buttocks. “
You said that you would let me go …!
”

Chase stepped ahead of me to open the back door, and I tossed Ginny inside the SUV so that she landed safely on the seat without hurting herself. Smoothing my hands up her bare legs to pin them down to the seat, I leaned over until we were almost nose to nose. Her big blue eyes were flashing with anger, but they were still so glassy I was reminded again of just how drunk she was.

“If you don’t stop your screeching, I’m going to use whatever I can find to tie you down and shut you up until you’re sober enough to talk to me.”

Her jaw dropped open in surprise, as if she couldn’t believe I would threaten such a thing, and I guessed she should be surprised. The me she knew would have never said anything like that to her, but that was the old me. Now she was meeting the new me, the one who was taking his God-given shot of luck to fix what I had fucked up. And no one was going to keep me from doing that, not even Ginny herself.

She took so long to respond I thought she might have actually heeded my warning and decided to keep her trap shut. No such luck.

Pulling her knees back, she used both feet to kick me in the chest in an attempt to push me away. I dug my feet into the ground to hold my position and reached up to pin her hips down to the seat while using the weight of my body to immobilize her legs.

The sharp points of her heels jabbed me, sending a jolt of adrenaline through me. It was a stark reminder that this was real, she was real, and I also really needed her to shut the fuck up.

It took my brain a few seconds to comprehend that my hands had, in fact, slid underneath her dress and were resting on her satin-soft, panty-covered hips.

The move was done almost in coordination with her other choice of rebellion, another ear drum busting sung line.

“
You didn’t have to hurt me so—
”

Damn, I was really tired of that line.

The next few seconds happened so fast they were almost a blur. My patience took a hitchhike. I grabbed the only thing my hands were in contact with—Ginny’s panties—and ripped them right off.

As I moved the torn fabric to stuff in her still open and theatrically loud mouth, I could hear the rustle of Chase still behind me.

As soon as I had what I could now see was Gin’s red satin panties stuffed into her mouth, Chase’s T-shirt came into view as he stuck his arm around my body.

“Damn, Young, no need to shut her up with her own drawers; I was gonna give you my shirt.”

Grabbing the blue material, I yanked it out of his hands and bent over until I was lying on top of Ginny, grabbing her thrashing hands and fastening them together with my teammate’s T-shirt.

Pulling back, I growled at both of them, “As you can see, I had a better use for it.” Then I whipped off my own T-shirt.

Chase caught on to what I was up to and stepped in close enough to grab Ginny’s feet that were still kicking wildly at my chest and stomach. I was probably going to have a dozen little bruises from her stilettos.

While he held them still for me, I tied my T-shirt tight around her ankles then used the closest seatbelt to wrap around and strap down her lower legs before buckling the seat belt into its buckle.

Reaching over her, I did the same exact thing with both the middle seat and the farthest passenger seatbelt until my girl was totally strapped down and squealing mad.

She glared daggers at me with her unfocused eyes. The sight made my gut clench. This was not how I had imagined our reunion at all. Hopefully, after she’d had time to sleep off the alcohol, she would forgive me for my drastic measures.

A hand slapped me hard on my bare back. “You better get out of here, man. There’s no telling when those two idiots will realize she’s missing.”

He didn’t need to tell me twice.

I thanked Chase for his help, hopped into the front seat, and hightailed it out of there like the hounds of hell were nipping at my heels. Being this close to heaven again, I couldn’t take any chances that anyone, including the two guys in the club, might take that away from me.

As soon as I hit Miami traffic, I blended in, went on and off the highway, took more twists and turns than a maze had, and finally stopped at a hole in the wall motel on the edge of town. It was close to the highway in case I needed to make a quick getaway, but the area looked like it was inhabited by more long-haul truckers than actual residents.

Ginny had quieted ten minutes into our trip, and I had looked in the rearview mirror to find her passed out but breathing. The alcohol must have finally done her in. That made it easier for me to leave her passed out and still tied up in the back of the SUV while I went into the office and rented a room on a corner backside of the motel for the next few nights.

I didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing her, because the windows were tinted. Plus, I had locked it to make sure my angel was safe in this seedier section of town.

After only being gone for a few minutes while getting the teenaged girl to stop staring at my bare chest, I emerged out of the office with our motel key card in my pocket. Hopping back into the SUV and driving it around the back, I then parked it in front of our room in reverse in case we had to haul ass out of there for any reason.

It didn’t take long to get out, scope the area, go unlock our room’s door, and prop it open. Coming back to the vehicle, I unstrapped all three seatbelts, took another quick look around my surroundings to make sure no one was watching, and then gently picked Ginny up so that she was cradled in my arms against my chest.

Walking with her cuddled close to me, breathing in her scent, was the best thing I had felt in years. Maybe that was ten different sorts of fucked up, but I didn’t care.

As I laid her on the bed, I pulled the red satin panties out of her mouth and threw them on top of the dresser. Then I put a blanket over her body so she wouldn’t get chilled while she slept.

My mind wandered back to the night it had all gone wrong. The memories I had of slipping inside my angel, taking her innocence and savoring every inch of her skin were hazy. The thought made my dick go rock hard in my pants, but this time, my smaller head was going to have to listen to my bigger head if we were going to make this right.

After grabbing my bug-out bag out of the back of the SUV, I ducked back into our room and made sure the door shut quietly but firmly behind me. Then I threw the dead bolt and attached the door chain, and I checked on Gin to make sure she was still passed out.

Lying flat on her back with her arms over her head and the blanket covering her from the chest down, she was making this cute little snort snore every couple of breaths.

I walked to the end of the bed and lightly ran a finger from her heel to her toes, watching for her reaction.

Ginny had always been ticklish on her feet to the point she hated anyone touching them. So when she didn’t come flying at me like a screaming banshee for the indiscretion and only jerked and gave another snore, instead, I knew she was still well and truly out. That was good. It would give me a few minutes to hop in the shower, wash all the puke off my jeans and boots, and put on some clean clothes.

One thing I had learned in the military was how to shit, shower, and shave in under ten minutes. Since I didn’t need to shit or shave, I knew I would be in and out before my sleeping prize ever woke up.

I secured the room, making sure all the windows were shut and locked, propped one of the wooden chairs underneath the door handle to our motel room, and then headed for the bathroom, quietly shutting the door behind me, not wanting to take the chance of waking her up.

Cranking the hot water on as high as it would go, I stepped into the shower, still wearing my jeans, boxers and boots, letting the steaming hot water wash away the vomit that covered me from the knees down. It was a good thing I had an iron stomach, because my girl had covered me in enough upchuck to rival the scene from
The Exorcist
.

With the boots washed, I pulled them off and plopped them on the dry side of the tub. Then I carefully peeled my clothes off and hung them over the shower curtain. I gave the rest of my body a quick but thorough wash, and then I rinsed off and grabbed a towel, stepping out of the shower. I didn’t even bother to stop and dry off before I discreetly opened the door, wrapping the rough white cotton around my waist. I didn’t want to take the chance that Ginny could wake up and disappear on me if she was out of my eye sight for even a second.

Dripping wet, I sat in the other crappy wooden chair I had placed by the side of the bed. My heart was still racing as if I had been in the middle of a war zone, and my mind was going a million miles a minute. It almost seemed surreal to sit there and look at the woman who used to be the girl I had grown up with. She had drawn me in her pictures; loved me unconditionally, no matter how many times I had hurt her; had been part of my life for almost as long as I could remember.

She was also the young woman who had held my heart for years on end with no clue. The young woman who had kissed me so sweetly before I had made her cry. The young woman who had given me herself in every way a woman could, just for me to throw it back in her face the next morning.

Now she was still the woman I loved and had to make it right to, the woman who no longer seemed to wear my heart in the form of a golden locket around her delicate neck. That was nobody’s fault but my own.

The fresh stab of pain that realization sent through my chest was on me, too. I had earned that bit of heartbreak fair and square. Now I just needed to sit here, wait for her to sober and wake up, and then maybe … just maybe … I could finally tell her just how sorry I was for what I had done all those years before. Maybe I could explain that she meant more to me than my own life, which seemed pointless without her in it, confess that I had loved her for years and years, beg for her forgiveness over my many mistakes. And just maybe, I could kiss those sweet pink lips of hers again when it was all said and done.

Chapter

3

Ginny

The Next Morning…

Somebody pounded on a door or a wall somewhere, and I wanted them to stop it. My head hurt, it felt like my stomach was doing cartwheels, and I had this horrible taste in my mouth.

I tried to cover my ears with my hands, but when I went to move them, they didn’t cooperate. For some odd reason, they seemed to be stuck together. Now why would they be stuck together?