Dying Commitment (Lucky Thirteen) (14 page)

Then he slid up my body, brushed my hair from my face and met my eyes. I could see straight into his soul, so incredibly deep. He wasn’t hiding anything from me. He was laid bare before me. Then he said something that shattered me before he entered my body.

“I love you, Cadence.” His cock slid right in, its passage eased by the edge of sensual surrender he’d brought me to, and all of it together—his cock, his teasing, his words—all of it sent me into a spiral of ecstasy I couldn’t control. I dragged my nails down his back, trying desperately to get him deeper into my body as he pumped his hips.

I hooked my legs behind him, just above his ass so he could push deeper into me. Before I could come down from that climax, he was already stroking me toward another, his thumb pressed against my clit, making the slow lazy circles while his cock pushed deep inside me. Faster and faster, the spiral coil inside me wound tighter and tighter.

Dylan groaned and grabbed my hips, his moving between my legs more urgently than he had before. “Oh, fuck, Cadence… I need to—”

I loved the way he growled my name, grunted it through clenched teeth as he got closer to coming. That spiral coil inside me wound tighter, until finally, Dylan pinched my clit between two fingers and rolled it. The coil snapped, all the pent up energy and arousal exploding from my body. “Dylan!” The name slipped my lips like it belonged there, like it was the most natural thing for me to cry out during sex. It felt like it went on forever, especially when his hard body tensed over me and a loud groan of rapture left his lips as he came.

When it was over, Dylan collapsed next to me on his back. Both of us sat there panting for several long minutes in silence. Finally, he chuckled. “I win.”

I turned my head toward him. “What do you mean you win?”

“I told you I’d get you to scream my name.”

I snorted and smacked him in the stomach.

“Ow!”

“Jerk.”

I flipped to my side and propped my head up on my palm. “Dylan… did you mean what you said?”

“About loving you?” he asked, not looking at me. He stared up at the ceiling.

“Yeah.”

“I did. You know I’d never lie to you.”

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. Not from terror, which was what I’d expected to feel, but from happiness. I did love that he felt that way. I just wasn’t sure that I could feel that way, too.

“Um… this is kind of a bad time to bring it up… but… are you on birth control?” he asked.

I blinked, frowning and then realization slapped me in the face. He hadn’t used a condom. We hadn’t even considered it. Neither of us had even thought about it. We had just been a couple of horny teenagers going at it in a strange house. I swallowed. What was wrong with me? I was never that impulsive.

“Yes. I’m on birth control. We’ve had a lot of sex over the last year, Bambi. Obviously, I needed to be on something.” I sat up and grabbed his boxers, pulling them on, followed by my fallen shirt.

He sat up on his elbows. “What are you doing?”

“Just going to use the bathroom,” I told him, smiling.

I stepped quietly out of the room and headed over to the bathroom, which was between our bedroom and our host’s. And thank goodness for that. What if Charles had heard us? How mortifying. I shut the bathroom door and took care of business. Afterward, I sat down on the floor, and leaned back against the wall. Pulling my knees up to my chest, I wrapped my arms around my legs.

What had I done? I’d had meaningful sex with a guy I worked with. It wasn’t supposed to be meaningful. He wasn’t supposed to love me. It was just supposed to be a nice regular friends with benefits deal. And now… It wasn’t just sex anymore. There were emotions tied to us, between us. I couldn’t let this keep on. I couldn’t let that tie get stronger between us.

What was worse was I wanted to change. I wanted to be that girl that Dylan needed. I wanted it so bad it made my chest hurt. But in the end, I was damaged too much. I could never be someone’s girlfriend or a wife. I’d be forever looking behind me to see if he’d thrust a knife between my ribs or something. The thought of bringing children in the world gave me hives. Who had time for that?

I sat there in the bathroom floor for a long while, what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes. I thought about me. I thought about Dylan. I thought about Jack and why we were in a servant house outside of the Valonian palace. I thought about the sex I’d just had and how I really did love Dylan, but hadn’t told him so.

In the end, it was about protecting him, keeping him safe from being hurt, even if it was me from whom he had to be protected.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Dylan

I was almost passed out by the time Cadence returned. Sex with her was always amazing, always exhausting, but this time… it felt different. It felt like… more. I didn’t think either of us intended it that way. It had just happened. We were going to have a hard time going back to the way things were, if we even could.

She rustled in her bag and then came back over to the bed.

“Come here,” I told her, holding out an arm to envelope her back in.

She slipped into bed with me, and curled up at my side.

“You okay?” I asked when she didn’t say anything.

She nodded. “Yeah. Just thinking.” She smiled at me and I lifted my head to kiss her. Her lips were warm and full against mine. God, I loved the way she kissed. “I’m gonna get some sleep.”

Having real emotions was something new for Cadence. I could see that in the way she moved, and the way she curled next to me. Maybe it was arrogant of me to say so, maybe even delusional, but she wanted to love me, and there was something there that wasn’t letting her yet. I wasn’t sure what it was. I could sense it though. I wanted to knock it down, and tell her it was going to be all right.

The foundation of that wall she built was Jack Allen. Once we took him down, she’d be able to relax and move on. I was convinced of that.

I fell asleep thinking about ways to prove to Cadence that love was worth fighting for.

When I woke up the next morning, Cadence was gone and her place at my side was long cold. I blinked and tried to rub my eyes, surprised when one of my hands didn’t move. I groaned, and then forced myself to look at the bedpost where my arm was stuck.

She didn’t.

She couldn’t have.

But the shiny silver cuffs were proof enough. She’d done it a-fucking-gain. My lips tingled with the after effect of the sedative she’d slipped me. I growled and sat up quickly, regretting that as I wavered just sitting there. That shit she used was strong. And she’d been sneaky about it this time. I didn’t even feel it when she hit me with it.

“Goddamnit, Cady.”

I glanced around, looking for where she left the key, but didn’t see it anywhere. Surely she wasn’t going to leave me trussed up here like this, cuffed to the bed and naked. I yanked on the iron headboard, but the cuffs didn’t budge from it. These were the double lock kind too, which meant they were harder to pick.

The door opened and Charles came in. He seemed nonplussed as he walked in. He dangled a key on a chain. “The lady told me hand you this when you woke.” He gazed over me, his eyebrow raised in serious disapproval.

“What? You’ve never seen a guy handcuffed to a bed?”

“Perhaps I will leave it on the nightstand and you can retrieve it after I am not around to see it.”

“Goddamnit. When did she leave?”

“This morning. About four hours ago.” He started to leave, but turned around to add, “I’m not supposed to tell you this either, but your friend is headed somewhere dangerous.”

“No shit,” I grumbled.

“I might suggest checking out the south quarter of the city.” He cleared his throat. “I might have heard her talking to someone on the phone.”

“Why are you helping me?” I asked him. “You don’t even know me, and we boinked on your sheets last night.”

“Like I said, strip the sheets.” Charles’s nose wrinkled. “Listen, Eamon would not send someone to me he did not trust. He told me ahead of time that you were coming. He also said the girl was a flight risk.”

Fucking Murphy. How did he always know everything? He was like a mini-Master Chief, always knowing everyone’s business, and knowing when someone was slightly unstable, like Cadence.

But flight risk or not, I had to go after her. I had to keep her safe, even if it meant I had to keep her safe from herself.

~*~*~

Cadence

Atrix was one of the most modern restaurants in the north quarter of Ville Couronne. It got tourist attention, was in all the high society papers as The Place To Be. I even heard the food was amazing. I’d never eaten there, but I’d spent some time in the underbelly of that particular beast before my cover had been compromised and I’d been taken to Aruguay. Because it was also one of the prime locations to find the shadiest of criminal underworld. Valonia as a country was peace-loving, with a strong military and a rich culture and history. But no country was free of Giroux influence. In the case of Ville Couronne, that influence was centered around Atrix. And that made it my new favorite place.

My face was probably well known there, so it probably wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done, but I was out of options. I had to let Dylan go. He had done enough for me. He’d made me feel things that I thought were impossible after Jack crushed me. He’d made me human again. But now I needed to not be human, to be cold and ruthless.

I slipped around the back of the building. This was the loading dock. There were two doors and a loading door that probably was used for all kinds of illegal activity that the cops couldn’t prove. One was a well-used entrance and exit, probably going straight into the restaurant. The second one probably went to the back offices. Giroux wasn’t dumb enough to have an outside exit straight into his underground dungeon.

I checked out the building next to Atrix. World War II period, solid brick and mortar. Three stories. I could sit on top of the building and pick off Jack when he came out, but I wanted to see his face when he went down. Gunning him down on the street wouldn’t work. It was sloppy, and too many bystanders.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled. I pulled my gun out and whirled around just as I heard the click of a machine gun charging. I froze, my gun out, as two more weapons charged. I faced three of them, laser sights pointed directly at my chest.

“Gun down, sweet pea.”

This was why working alone had its disadvantages. If I’d had backup, I’d have bet he could have picked them off before they found me. But at least no one would get hurt because of me.

I had to wonder if bad guys had a dress code. All three of Jack’s guards had a very nice suit on, all with black shirts and a dark gray tie. Maybe that was to hide the blood when they shot people at close range. There was a fourth, standing next to Jack, his hands clasped in a relaxed fashion in front of his body.

“Gun down, now.” At Jack’s insistent tone, I met his dark eyes. There was no room for negotiation. If he really wanted me dead, it would have done it already. Which meant he needed me alive for something. Maybe my laptop, since he’d attacked me to get the decryption program. Maybe that would keep me safe long enough for me to get free. I flipped the safety, and slowly put my hands up. I set it down on the ground, and straightened up.

“Take your jacket and holster off.”

“If you wanted me to do a strip tease, all you had to do was ask, Jack.”

He almost cracked a smile on that stone facade. “Would you?”

“Fuck no, I wouldn’t. But asking is polite.”

“Do it, Cady. We don’t have time for games.”

“Right,” I said. Slowly, I shrugged off my jacket and dropped it to the ground. I took off my holster and let it fall as well.

“Hands on your head. Step back from them.” I did as he said, holding my hands clasped on my head. The large man next to him stepped forward and searched my jacket and holster. He stopped on the holster and pulled something small off it. He took it back to Jack.

Jack inspected it and chuckled. “A tracker, Cady? Really?”

A tracker? Oh, hell, that was how Dylan had caught up to me. Jack threw it on the ground and smashed it with his heel.

“No backup. That’s an amateur move, sweet pea.”

“What do you want, Jack?”

“We’re going to take you inside, through the front door. There’s a lot of innocent patrons in there right now. It’s the lunch hour. So I suggest you not call attention to yourself. I’d hate to have to clean the restaurant.”

The threat did what he’d intended. The shiver ran down my back.

“Now, you and I and Gene are going to go right through the front door, and you’re going to act like nothing is wrong. If not, we light up the restaurant, blame it on terrorists and collect the insurance payout. Then things won’t be so pleasant for you. Do we have an agreement?”

I swallowed hard, fear sliding up my throat and making me nauseous. Slowly, I nodded. “Fine.”

“Good.” He motioned to the guards, who all lowered their weapons. He stepped close to me, so close I could smell his aftershave. It was the same kind he’d used five years ago.

~*~*~

The Atrix was a pretty nice place for a den of evil. But most of its patrons weren’t aware of its criminal roots. I glanced to the right, directly into the camera that hung there, facing the door. If Jack was here, then it was likely that Alex Giroux was too. From everything I’d learned over the last two years or so, Jack didn’t do much without Alex’s approval. He was no more than a lapdog assassin.