“Thanks, Drake, for bringing this over.”
“No problem. Sorry I wasn’t here sooner. There’s an insane amount of traffic on the roads now and I ran into a few accidents. Let me get it unhooked and I have some paper for you to sign,
bossman
.”
He chuckled and smacked him on the shoulder. “Get to it then.”
Drake was quick and efficient. The men walked inside and Tuck glanced around. A few things had been dislodged during the haul-over but it wasn’t bad. He took the clipboard from his friend, signed off that the delivery had been completed then returned it.
“How’s things with you, man?” Tuck asked.
Drake ripped off the copy Tuck could keep and shrugged. “Not bad. Staying busy for sure. Thinking about asking Lisa to marry me.”
He whistled low. “Really? You’ve been seeing each other for… How long now?”
“Three years. I look at it this way. We’re practically married now, why not give her the ring and my name?”
“Big step.”
“Not really, man. I love her. It’s that simple.”
Tuck grunted. “I suppose so. Just didn’t think I’d ever see the day when you were that candid about your feelings.”
Drake laughed. “Man, I’m not a college kid anymore, or a high-schooler where it’s not cool to talk about your feelings. I’m a man, not a boy. And men keep the woman they want. I’m secure enough in myself to tell her and others how I feel. I pity anyone who can’t. Life’s short enough—why not spend it with the one who makes you feel like there isn’t anything in this world that you can’t accomplish? That’s what Lisa is to me.” A shrug. “And I don’t mind admitting it. I should have married her a long time ago but I was still of the other mind. Now, I’ve changed and I want a family. With her.”
Tuck filed his words away for further dissection and smiled. “Congratulations, man.”
A flash of white amid the dark of his skin as Drake smiled. “Thanks. Now if I can just get her to agree to a small wedding. Like at the Justice of the Peace or something like that.”
“You’re totally on your own for that, man, but good luck. I hear women love that day and want to go all out.”
“She’s so different from all her sisters, so maybe I’ll be safe.”
Tuck laughed. “Good luck with that. What does she have, like, four sisters?”
“Yes, four.” Drake shook his head. “Okay, let me get out of here. Call if you need more workers man—have a feeling I’m gonna be needing some extra dough.”
“I’ll give you a call tonight and we’ll talk. I need more men.”
“Excellent.” He opened the door and stepped out. “Thanks, man.”
Tuck waved at him. “Don’t thank me, I know you’re a great worker. I’ll be in touch.”
The door closed and he sighed as he looked around. It didn’t take him long to straighten up then he sat in the back at his desk. He supposed he could call a temp agency and get a secretary while he was looking for someone permanent. Who knew, whoever made it out could turn out to be just who he needed. Pulling up the number he needed, he used his cell to make the call.
Tuck never got to see Ariel that night. After finishing up work, he called Drake and set up a time for him to stop by the following day. Then he went home and walked into his apartment at ten to nine.
“How was it?” Steve asked, muting the television.
“Exciting. How are you doing?”
“Hanging in there,” he said with a shrug. “There’s some leftover baked ziti in the fridge if you’d like some of that.”
“I will. Thanks.” He went to shower and came back out to find the place empty. Figuring Steve was in his room, Tuck dished himself up some food and heated it in the microwave.
Tired though he was, he still had a few other things to do. He made it to bed by midnight and groaned as his head hit the pillow. “Long days, short nights. It’s what happens when life is good and you have your own business.” He grinned in the dark and rolled over.
He hadn’t been wrong, the night was extremely short. Tuck ate some toast as he waited for his coffee mug to fill. Keys in hand, he skipped the elevator and jogged down to the first floor then out to his truck. A thrill rippled through him as he saw the magnet on the door that boasted his company name.
At the work site before anyone else, he finished hooking up the electricity to a generator and taking care of the phones as well. Some of the crew began drifting in and he spoke to each of them as they came in and punched the clock.
He was back in his office at seven when the front door opened. Double-checking his watch, he figured it would be the secretary the service had said would be there by this time. “I’ll be right there,” he called out.
He walked out a minute later and froze in his tracks. Standing there by the door, dressed in more clothing than he’d ever seen her, was—his luck was shit—Daisy. She glanced at him with a smile on her face that faded slightly when she recognised him.
He recovered before she did and walked towards her. “You’re the temp?”
She lifted her chin and nodded. “Yes. Is that going to be a problem for you?”
Probably. “Nope. Thank you for being prompt.” He sent up a whispered prayer, just in case anyone up there was listening, and got to work explaining what it was he wanted from her.
Chapter Thirteen
The vibration woke her. Ariel slowly cracked her eyes open to see the red digital readout of her clock. Barely after three. She didn’t want to move. Hell, she wasn’t sure if she could.
“Is that your phone or mine?” Tuck’s sleep-laden rumble came near her ear and she found she did have the energy to smile.
“I don’t know. Where’s yours?”
He flexed his hips against her. “Right here.”
“Smart ass. Not what I meant.” She pulled herself towards the side of the bed and fumbled for the light. “Damn,” she complained, squinting when she turned it on.
Tuck had come over and they’d had a marathon run of sex, stopping only to head out to an all-night diner and eat before coming back for more. Now all she wanted was more than an hour of sleep.
She reached for a phone and stared at it. His. Not vibrating. Double crap. That meant it was hers. Stretching out her fingers, she grabbed hers and dragged it to her ear.
“Hello?”
Tuck kissed his way down her back and despite her exhaustion, her body readily responded.
“Ariel? Did I wake you?”
“Yes, Slater. You did. It’s after three. Why wouldn’t you have woken me?”
Tuck’s fingers tightened upon her hip as he nipped her ass cheek. She squirmed.
“Better yet,” she continued. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I needed to get some files on a project you’re working on.”
Tuck settled between her legs and lifted her hips a bit before placing his mouth right over her pussy.
“Oh!” she said sharply.
“Oh?” Static exploded along the lines. “What’s going on?”
“Just ‘Oh’, Slater.” She tried to concentrate—an extremely difficult task. “Why didn’t you just access the mainframe and…and pull the files you needed?”
Words just weren’t coming easily to her. There wasn’t any way they would. Not with Tuck doing what he was to her. And with such skill. The way he feasted upon her pussy was driving her wild. He flipped himself and drew her hips down until she sat upon his face.
Shit! I can’t talk coherently with his head buried between my thighs like this. Talk? I can’t think.
She rocked against his thrusting tongue and bit back another moan.
“I’m not at the office.”
“Okay.” Her voice was breathless. “So what do you want from me?” Beneath her, Tuck’s answer vibrated her clit and she fought to keep the scream inside. He held her still, never relenting in his attack.
“I need you to tell…how it…their family.”
Tuck’s talented tongue brought her to an explosive orgasm. She trembled and tried to find her voice.
“You’re breaking up, Slater. Repeat that. Where are you?”
“…need it ASAP. Don’t have…time…”
She lost the call. “Slater? Slater!” Nothing. She’d truly lost it.
Ariel’s mind whirled with the possibilities of what was going on. Lifting herself from Tuck she moved his hand when he went to stop her. “Not now.”
He got the tone and sat up. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure.” She dialled a number, sleeplessness falling to the wayside. “Connie? Where are you?”
“Home. It’s, like, three in the morning. What do you need?”
“Slater called me needing some information. He said he wasn’t at the office and he needs it quick but I lost his signal and didn’t get all he said.”
“Damn fool. I think I know where he went.” She heard Connie getting up. “Can you meet me at the office?”
“On my way.” She ended the call. “Damn.”
“Ariel?”
“I don’t know, Tuck. Something’s up, though, and I have to go.” She stood and dressed in haste. Shoving her feet into her boots, she blew some wayward hair from her face. “Go back to sleep. One of us should get some rest.” She kissed him. “And, thanks.”
“Want me to come with you?” he asked, grabbing her sleeve.
“No. We got this.” She stepped clear from him and opened the small safe in her room, taking out her personal sidearm, her SIG. After shoving the holster in the back of her jeans, she added the pistol.
“You’re taking a gun?”
“Of course I am. Gotta go. Sleep well.” She blew him a kiss then dashed.
She sped all the way, praying the cops didn’t pull her over. After flashing her badge at the guard, she raced up to the fifth floor of the parking garage and parked. She ran to the door, engaging the lock over her shoulder.
She’d just sat behind her desk when Connie came through the door. The woman still didn’t seem rattled, although for once her eyes were slightly wide. “Anything?”
“He hasn’t called back.”
“Pull up the Mason–Henderson file.” She sat in a chair only to pop up again. “I told him to call the cops.”
Ariel frowned. “What are you talking about?” She brought up the file. “Cops? I’m lost.”
“After you finished the initial assessment on them, Slater was called to do a bit more. It was when you were gone dealing with the congressman’s son. Anyway, he discovered a bunch of illegal activities they were doing and got pissed. You know Slater.”
Yes, she did. Slater was a man with very strong beliefs and he acted on them, sometimes without any care for consequences. Like now. Ariel opened the file and refreshed her memory of the people. They’d seemed like a nice enough couple. Looks could be deceiving and in this case, apparently, they had been.
“I do.”
Connie paced. “Anyway. He found something out about them that set him off. He told me he wasn’t going to do anything. That he would leave it for the authorities. Damn him, he told me!”
Now, this was a side of Connie she’d not seen before. Copying down the addresses Slater’d highlighted of a few of their buildings, she powered down her computer and stared at Connie.
“We don’t know where he is yet, Connie.”
Connie shot her a look that told Ariel she knew how they both disagreed with her statement. After trying Slater one more time and failing to make contact, she swore. “Let’s get going.”
Connie headed to the door. “I have his GPS locked.” She swiped a bag Ariel hadn’t previously noticed from the floor. The women made their way in silence out to Ariel’s vehicle. Connie climbed in, bag at her feet, then held out the GPS and gave the address.
“Give me directions, I’m operating on short sleep here.” She cranked the engine and burned rubber as she left the parking garage.
Connie tried him as Ariel drove but it never got through. Her single word directions were offset by her readying the weapons she’d pulled from the bag.
“Half a mile out,” Connie said.
“Let’s hoof it.” It wasn’t that she worried about having her vehicle potentially shot up, she didn’t care about that. It was that Ariel didn’t want to alert anyone they were coming and give them a chance to prepare a counterattack.
“Agreed.”
The women slipped into the moonless night, fully armed, and began to move as swiftly and silently as they could. It wasn’t easy going, nor was it without dangers—poisonous creatures lived out here. None of it seemed to affect Connie, however, who flowed like water over everything.
“There.”
Connie’s voice came through easily in the earpiece she wore. Ariel slowed and checked the direction Connie pointed. Her world was green and as she scouted the area her body thrummed with excitement, pushing the final dregs of her exhaustion away and filling her with adrenaline.
The building sat low in the desert. She couldn’t see anyone on the perimeter but she knew someone was out there. It was the itch between her shoulder blades, the feeling in her gut. Something she would never doubt as long as she lived.
“I’ll go right, you take left.”
Ariel scouted around again. “Keep in contact. Where does it put him?”
“Hard to say. In the middle but it doesn’t show floors. I called in Johnson and the twins as well.”
What the heck did you get yourself into, Slater?
She felt better knowing a few others were coming to back them up.
There’d been very little to go on, but she’d dug into the family as well and that was this place. The final one Slater had highlighted. So whatever she would have found, he apparently already had. The address had the brother’s name on the lease and there were an awful lot of cars around for a location with zero light, not even a lamp in the lot to show people where their cars were.
“Let’s go rescue our boss from whatever mess he got into.”
“Yes, let’s, because once he’s safe, I’m going to kick his ass.” Connie crouched and faced her.
She chuckled lightly at the comment and fist-bumped once with Connie before they split up. Ariel readjusted her hold on the MP-5 Connie had handed her from the bag. Her SIG was in place along her back and she also had a Mark-1 knife in a sheath on the vest she wore.
* * * *
Tuck nodded at something Drake had said as he signed the papers he held. Handing it off, he beckoned Drake with him. The site was louder today than usual.
“What’s up?” Drake asked, dropping his previous thread of conversation.