Ripped (27 page)

We were at the elevator, but he walked past it and opened up a door.

Steps ascended up out of the building.

“Seriously?” I said. “Can’t we take the elevator?”

“No, I locked it down,” he said. “And once we get up these steps, they’re going too.”

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“I’ll show you. Come with me.” He climbed up the first level of steps.

I followed him.

At that level, he opened a metal box on the wall and typed into a keypad.

Abruptly, the stairs below us began to fold into themselves, flattening, like bleachers in a gymnasium.

“No one gets in after we leave,” he said.

I felt a little nervous, knowing that there was no way back down. What if we fell? Dizziness overtook me, and I grabbed Cade’s arm.

He put an arm around my shoulders. “Hey,” he whispered, “I… I think we should stick together.”

“Of course,” I said. “Was there a question of that?”

“I just…” He looked up at the unfolded stairs above us. “I thought maybe it would be better for you if you were away from me. Because I’m not good for you.”

“Cade—”

“But I don’t want to let you go.” He squeezed me tighter. “So, I’m sorry if you want to get away from me—”

“You know I don’t.” I touched his face.

He grabbed my fingers and kissed them. “I still think maybe you should.”

“No,” I said. And my heart started to surge, because maybe I had been worrying about nothing. He wanted to be close to me, and maybe this wouldn’t be over after he took care of Ice. Maybe he felt it too, felt like something was growing between us that was bigger than all of the danger we were in.

But he let go of me. “It’s just until I can fix this situation with Ice, anyway. I’ll make sure that it’s safe for you to go back home.”

And it was hard to breathe. I felt cold and alone. I wanted to reach for him. I shoved my hands in my pockets instead. “Right,” I said softly.

He started back up the steps. “Anyway, about where we’re going. I didn’t know what we were going to do, but then I remembered Sable, and it was because of what Gallo said to me.”

“Gallo?”

He looked over his shoulder. “Rafael Gallo. The man that you shot?”

I grimaced. Maybe I did feel a little twinge of something when I thought about that. But I shoved it aside. Dwelling on it would be stupid. I’d saved Cade. That was the important thing. “I didn’t know his name,” I said.

“Oh, well, sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine.” I pushed past him on the steps. “I did wonder about that. He was talking about someone named Sable, threatening her. Who is she?” Cade must care about her an awful lot if Gallo could threaten him that way with her.

“She’s an old colleague,” said Cade. “She used to work here, but then she got into a bit of a mess with the Gallo family. A hit went wrong, and she didn’t get the guy she was going after. Instead, he lived, and he identified her, and he started going after her.”

“A female hitman?” I said. No, that didn’t sound right. “A hitwoman?”

Cade laughed. “Yeah, there aren’t a lot of women in this business, but she’s pretty good at what she does. Anyway, she needed to go and lie low for a bit. She’s in a very secure location, so despite what Gallo said, they don’t know where she is. We go there, we’ll be safe too.”

“Oh,” I said. “Well, okay. Are you sure?”

“Positive,” he said, flashing me his lopsided grin. “Would I ever steer you wrong, love?”

* * *

Cade

Sable was in a safe house that I’d set up years ago. I had about five or six of them, scattered around the country. I didn’t like to have to use them, but sometimes they were an inevitability. We were in D.C., and the safe house was not close. It was in Florida, and not in the bloated shorelines which were full of people, but the interior, which was a no-man’s land of marshes and heat and the occasional orange farm.

We could have driven straight through if I’d taken a direct route, but I wanted to do my best to lose anyone who might be following us.

That meant going a meandering way out of the town, following the Beltway towards Baltimore, splitting off on auxiliary routes of various interstates here and there, and getting as turned around as we could, hopefully shaking off any tails we might have.

To be sure, once we got deep into Virginia, we switched cars. I had cars stashed in various places in the country as well.

I agonized over switching the cars. Ice didn’t know the location of the Florida safe house, but he did know the location of the car in Virginia. He knew about one in New York state, one in Kentucky, and one in Texas as well. The one in Virginia was closest to D.C. I worried that maybe, just maybe he was watching it.

But I hadn’t seen any real indication that we were being followed, and I was fairly sure that I’d have some hint of it if Ice were after us.

Anyway, I thought switching cars was a good tactic, so we did it.

We picked up the new car, left the old one there, and continued our trek southward.

Doing all of that meant it simply took too long to make the trip all in one day, so we stopped at a motel on the way. Not a chain, but an old family-owned place along a road, with faded yellow curtains and a sign that proclaimed they had
Sh wtime
.

We ate a dinner from a nearby drive-through and had snacks from a machine next to the motel office. We curled up on the bed together and munched on chips while watching TV on the crappy old television set in the room.

And it was nice.

I liked being with her like that.

We crawled under the covers for the last bit of a movie, and when it was over, we turned in each other’s arms, like it was as natural as breathing, and we kissed.

We did it right there on the bed vanilla style. Missionary position, her legs spread for me, her hips grinding against mine, both of us sighing like steam engines.

I liked that too.

It seemed so easy and normal and nice. As I drifted to sleep, her naked skin against mine, I thought about having her next to me every night, just like this.

Her breath was easy and soft, as she slipped off.

I stroked her hair, trailed my hand over her back.

She threw her leg over me, shifting in her sleep.

I felt wetness between her thighs and realized it was because my semen was sliding out of her.

Which kind of turned me on for a second, and my cock twitched a little bit. I thought of her just overflowing with my come, and I had to admit I kind of liked the thought of that.

And then… my hand slowly inched its way over her body to settle on her stomach.

She had a tiny little bit of softness there, the hint of a belly, and I liked it.

I thought of her huge and pregnant, her belly extended. I thought of stroking her, feeling movement inside her.

I gulped.

We needed to fucking talk about this. I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me, but I couldn’t believe that I just kept coming inside her like it wasn’t taking a big risk. I shouldn’t be taking advantage of her like this.

I didn’t even know if she wanted—

God, how could she want it? We had nothing together. We barely knew each other. And she might find me exciting now, because I was different than what she’d had before. But she wouldn’t want me around all the time. She definitely wouldn’t want to play house with me.

I moved my hand from her stomach.

Yeah, on second thought, maybe I wouldn’t say anything about it. Because once we had it out, really cleared the air and faced the music like adults, we’d realize that there was no way any of this could work. And then, well, we probably wouldn’t even want to touch each other anymore.

Right now, it was the promise of something forbidden that made it so enticing to be with her, my naked penis inside her body, nothing between us, our flesh fusing…

That was hot.

I wanted that again and again and again before I had to give her up.

I wasn’t going to say or do a thing that would ruin my chances of having it.

And the future…

Hell. I’d drive her to the damned clinic myself, if that was what she wanted. Which… of course, she’d want that. Of course, she would.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Shell

Sable Clarke shook my hand. She had a firm grip. She was a tall, slim woman. She had short hair, and she was quite striking. There was an air of confidence and power about her. I could see that she was tough. And yet, she still seemed utterly feminine. I hadn’t realized that I was hoping Sable was sort of, um, butch.

“When you called last night,” said Sable to Cade as she released my hand, “I couldn’t believe I was going to get to see you again. It’s been ages. Come here, you.” She opened her arms.

Cade hugged her, grinning.

Okay, it was official. I was jealous. Ever since I’d seen how upset Cade got when Gallo threatened Sable, I had felt a wee bit insecure, even if I hadn’t admitted it to myself.

They hugged a long time, and when they released, Cade was still grinning his head off. He looked her up and down, obviously really delighted to see her. “You look great. You holding up all right out here?”

Out here was middle of nowhere in Florida. I felt like we were in the center of the tropical rain forest or something. It was only April, and yet it was hot and humid. The air was stagnant, and I’d already been bitten by about eight mosquitoes.

Sable was grinning at Cade too. She had cocked her head to one side, and she was staring into his eyes. “Yeah… it’s a little boring, but it’s better than being dead.” She gestured behind her at the door to the house. “Come on in out of the heat, huh?”

The house was nothing special. It looked like one of those pre-fab things that they bring in on big trucks. It was long and rectangular with gray vinyl siding. There was a screened-in porch hanging off the back.

We all stepped inside the living room—two leather couches and nothing on the walls—and the chill of the air conditioning was heavenly.

Sable was still watching Cade.

Cade was looking at me.

My heart swelled. That went a long way to help with the jealousy.

“What should we do with our bags?” said Cade, turning back to her.

“Oh, let me show you to your rooms,” said Sable, heading out of the living room.

Rooms? Plural?

I glared at Cade. Actually, I glared at the back of his head, because he was already following Sable out of the living room. Had he not communicated to her that Cade and I were sharing a bed? Because, if he hadn’t, then I was started to get jealous again.

She opened a door on her right. “So, I thought this would be good for…” She looked at me. “Sorry, what’s your name again? Shelly?”

“Shell,” I said. “Just Shell.” I peered over her shoulder into the room, which was tiny, containing a single bed with a garish yellow comforter on top.

“Sable Clarke,” said Cade, shaking his head, grinning again. “It’s so fucking good to see you again.”

She looked back at him, and her adoration was obvious.

Holy hell, Sable was totally into him.

Augh, I had never been so jealous in my entire life.

“Thing is,” Cade said, surveying the room, “Shell and I can probably stay in one room.”

Sable flinched. She looked at me, her brow furrowing. “Oh,” she said in a soft voice.

Damn. I wasn’t jealous anymore, but I felt like hell. I saw how it was now. Sable was head over heels for him, and he didn’t even know it. I eyed him, and I wondered if he and I weren’t on the very same track. Maybe he had a pattern. Maybe he used women and moved on. I really didn’t know.

I swallowed. “I can stay here.” I took my bag off my shoulder and set it on the bed.

Cade gave me a funny look.

Sable didn’t look any happier. “Your room has a single bed too,” she informed Cade. “The only full-size bed is in my room.” She didn’t have to add that there was no way she was giving it up so that the two of us could fuck in it. I understood.

“This is fine,” I said, patting the ugly comforter.

Cade didn’t say anything. He turned and walked out of the room and went down the hall. He opened a door.

“That’s mine,” called Sable.

He turned and opened another door across the hall.

“That’s the bathroom,” said Sable, heading after him. She opened the next door down. “This is you.”

“Fine,” said Cade, throwing his bag on the floor. He wasn’t grinning anymore.

Neither was Sable.

* * *

Shell

But later on, after Sable heated up frozen pizzas for dinner, and we all drank a few beers, they both seemed to loosen up. They dominated the conversation, sharing memories from their life together.