Wicked Ties (Steele Security Series) (21 page)

He noticed she wasn’t overly surprised to see him and kept moving
toward the bar as if there was nothing out of the ordinary.  The team had already made all their preparations to enter the house and search for Chaise.  Seeing her had confirmed their suspicions and made their Plan B go into effect.

That was exactly what Bull wanted.

When Rico put his hand on Chaise’s leg and kept moving his fingers up her thigh, Reaper and Shadow had to physically restrain Bull to keep him from going through the window.  After they convinced him to stick to the plan, they moved into position and Bull used the secure phone to call Rico’s number.

“You took someone tonight. 
She.  Belongs.  To.  Me.
  Let her go now and I will
think
about not taking everything in your life away from you,” Bull told Rico in a low, menacing voice. 

Rico’s response was to curse at him in Spanish and pace around the room.  When Rico told Bull to come and get him, Bull smiled as he said, “I was hoping you’d say that.  You just wait right there for me.”  Before Rico could answer, Bull disconnected and nodded to the other guys. 

This was the part of the job Bull loved the most.  The thrill of the covert operations, the excitement of one-upping the bad guys, and the success of a job well done were his rewards.  But this time, it was much more personal.  This time, his heart was involved and, even though that was foreign territory for Bull, he had to admit that he wanted Chaise for himself.

The storm that was building around them couldn’t begin to match the rage that Bull had inside him.  He moved into position to cover his assigned area of the house.  He still had eyes on Chaise and wouldn’t hesitate to take Rico out if he touched her again. Bull was sure he had effectively killed Rico’s libido with his phone call.

Rico was yelling into a two-way radio but no one was able to answer him.  The team had already made sure that all of Rico’s men were indisposed and unable to respond.  Bull watched as Rico’s apprehension rose to astronomical levels and chuckled to himself.  Rico had no idea what was coming to him.

Whispers from Bull’s earpiece told him that all the men were in position and ready to finish what they had started.  While Chaise had stalled Rico, the men from Steele Security had already infiltrated the house, disarmed the security system
, and made the appropriate adjustments to the house to carry out their plans. 

Bull’s muscles contracted and he prepared for a fight to the death when he saw Rico snatch Chaise up by her hair and drag her
toward the stairs.  He angrily whispered into his communication device, “He’s hurting Chaise.  It’s time to move
now
.”

Reaper gave the word and each man stealthily moved into the house.  Bull rushed in the same direction he saw Rico taking Chaise.  Slowing only to check around corners
, Bull took the steps two at a time to the top.  He heard Chaise’s screams and rushed to find her.

The intense pain and
stinging in Chaise’s scalp was sudden.  Before she realized what was happening, Rico had yanked her from her seat in a fit of anger and was pulling her up the stairs by her hair.  She tried to fight back but he only further twisted his hand, increasing the pressure and his grasp.

“He says you belong to
him
.  We’ll see who you belong to by the time I’m finished with you.”  The disdain dripped from his words as he spat them out at no one in particular.  He was mumbling, swearing under his breath, and spouting various obscenities as he ignored Chaise’s cries.

Once inside his bedroom, he tossed her on the bed while he paced back and forth across the floor.  As if he suddenly remembered she was there, he stopped and gave her an evil smile.  Chaise instinctively moved back as he advanced on her.  He crawled across the bed, grabbed her by the ankle and roughly pulled her
toward him.

Chaise screamed and kicked him repeatedly with her free leg.  With all the fear and adrenalin coursing through her veins, she didn’t feel any pain as she kicked him with her feet and punched him with her fists.  Blinded by rage and fueled by fear of what he planned to do to her, she didn’t even realize the moment when Rico went flying across the room.

“Chaise, baby, calm down for me,” Bull tried to soothe her.

Rico roared as he scrambled back to his feet.  He rushed
toward Bull and tried to tackle him.  Had Bull not been so close to the edge of insanity, he would’ve laughed at Rico’s pitiful attempt to assault him.  However, when Bull walked in the bedroom and saw Rico attacking Chaise, and how hard Chaise fought to keep him off of her, Bull saw red. 

Simply throwing Rico across the room didn’t quench his rage.  Bull clenched his fists and drew his right hand back.  The loud
thwack
of flesh pounding flesh echoed through the room.  Chaise seemed to come to her senses as she looked at Bull in amazement.

Rico fell to the ground as his eyes rolled back in his head.  Bull was tackled a second time but this time he welcomed it as he felt a soft, female body meld with his.  He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the side of her head.  He whispered soothing words into her ear, telling her he was there, she was safe
, and he would take her away.

When he pulled back and looked at her face, his lips formed a thin line and fire burned in his eyes when he saw the angry bruises on her cheek.  He attempted to keep his anger controlled so he didn’t appear to be upset with Chaise, but he had to know.  “Who. Hit. You?”

“Diego did this,” she said, pointing to her face.  “Rico shot him.”

Bull gently wiped the tears from her eyes and pulled her back to him.  She turned her face to the side, pressed her body against his and wrapped her arms around his waist.  Just as she hugged him tight, she caught movement from the corner of her eye. 

“Look out!” Chaise screamed.

Bull whirled around and pushed Chaise behind him, using his body as a shield to protect her.  Rico had his gun drawn and aimed at Bull.  An ugly sneer was plastered on Rico’s face as he said, “Not so tough now, are you?”

“I’m still as tough as I was when I knocked you on your ass a minute ago,” Bull retorted sarcastically.  

“Step aside, I want to make sure Chaise has a good view of your death,” Rico ordered.

Chaise was hidden behind Bull and stood as close to him as she possibly could.  She felt a bulge in the back of his waistband.  Bull’s arm still held Chaise safely behind him.  He felt as Chaise eased his shirt up and placed her hand on his gun.  The cold steel brushed against his skin as she quickly removed it and placed the butt of it in Bull’s hand.

“Whatever you want, man,” Bull responded casually.  He faked a step to the side, quickly raised his arm and fired two shots in rapid succession.  The bullets hit Rico once in the chest and once in the head.  His limp body once again hit the floor and there was no way he would get up this time.

Bull grabbed Chaise in his arms again and when he finally looked up, he saw his entire team in place.   Bull smirked at them, “Thanks for the help, guys.”

“You had it under control,” Rebel answered with a shit-eating grin.

“Yeah, you
needed
to handle this yourself, man,” Reaper replied. 

The thunder boomed and the lightning strikes crackled outside the window.  Bull couldn’t take his eyes off of
Chaise—even for the howling wind or horizontal rain beating against the windows. 

“We need to get you out of here,” Bull said as he pulled the cover off the bed and wrapped it around her.  The flimsy material of her nightgown would look like a second skin on her if she wore it in the rain.  Bull wasn’t about to share
that
view with any of his brothers.

“We need to get moving before the storm gets worse or we’ll be stuck on this island until it passes,” Shadow said.

Bull wrapped his arm around Chaise and led her out.  “I know we still have things to talk about, but I’m not letting you go.”

Chaise nodded but was so overwrought with mixed emotions she couldn’t respond coherently.  The main emotion she felt was an overwhelming joy of getting out of
the whole sordid affair alive.  She snuggled in close to Bull’s side and allowed him to lead her out the front door and toward the dock.

As they moved past the outer perimeter of the property, a bolt of lightning struck close to the house.  The popping and sizzling of electricity hung in the air for a few seconds before the house they had just left exploded into a huge fireball.  Within seconds, the entire place was engulfed in flames and smaller explosions fired in sequence.

Chaise gasped and jumped out of Bull’s embrace.  His hand was fast but not as fast as her eye.  He nonchalantly slipped a remote detonator into his pocket and gave her a feigned innocent look.

“Did you do that?” Chaise asked, pointing at the raging inferno behind them.

“I don’t understand the question,” Bull answered, telling Chaise all she needed to know.

They made it back to shore despite the choppy seas and whipping wind.  An uncomfortable silence settled between Chaise, Bull
, and Reaper as they stood on the dock, facing each other, not knowing exactly what to say or where to start.

Chaise broke the silence.  “I don’t know how I can ever thank you for everything.  You saved my life,” her voice cracked on the last word because everything that had happened suddenly caught up with her.  Tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her cheeks. 

She tried to quickly wipe them away but Bull pulled her into his embrace.  He wrapped his thick arms around her and nuzzled his face in her hair.  The bass timbre of his whispers made her weak in the knees and temporarily helped her forget where she was.

“I’ve got you, Chaise.  You’re mine and I’m never letting you go again.  I was a fucking idiot for not stopping you before.  Never again, baby,” Bull promised in a hushed tone.

Chaise stayed glued to Bull for what felt like an eternity.  She felt rather than saw that Noah was still standing beside them.  She reluctantly pulled away from Bull’s embrace but smiled up at him when he took her hand in his.  He honestly didn’t intend to let her get far from him.

Chaise turned to Noah and searched his eyes for a few moments before speaking.  “You came for me.  I don’t know what to say except ‘thank you,’ but that’s not enough.  I’m so very grateful and forever indebted to you.”

Noah’s emotions raged in his eyes and in his heart that was about to beat out of his chest.  His initial estrangement was from his overbearing, controlling, and domineering father, but he’d never considered the serious impacts his absence had on his siblings.  Looking at his sister, he saw the one person who had always idolized him, imitated him, and loved him with her whole heart.  The searing pain he felt in his chest was like someone had stabbed him with a hot knife.

She was
right—he had reneged on his duty as her brother.  He had left her behind.  Even though he thought it was best for her at the time, he had let her down.  She was thanking him for going to find her.  She was somewhat surprised that he didn’t leave her behind again. 

And he couldn’t blame her.

  Noah shook his head, took a deep breath, and stepped toward Chaise.  He opened his arms and held them out to the side, inviting her to hug him.  That same gesture was what he used to do when she was little and would run out of the house to meet him after school. 

The tears she had managed to hold back escaped as she flew into his arms.  He wrapped his arms around her and picked her up off the ground.  “I’m sorry, Chaise.  I’m so fucking sorry for leaving you behind,” Noah’s voice pled with her for forgiveness.

Chaise shook her head and through her tears responded, “I’ve missed you so much, Noah.  So much.  I’m just so happy to have you back.  I was afraid you wouldn’t want to see me.”

Noah crushed her to him as his heart broke from her words.  “I’ve missed you every day, baby sister.”

Bull watched them together, brother and sister reunited after so many years apart, and a nostalgic memory from long ago resurfaced.  He remembered wishing he’d had a brother or sister when he was young.  Then when he joined the Army and his best friends became his brothers, he felt the missing piece of his life had been found.

As
he watched them—the man he loved like a brother and the woman with whom he had fallen in love—he knew his life was complete.  There wasn’t one event that he could pinpoint that had given him that feeling. 

It was a culmination of all the nights Chaise spent in his house and in his arms.  It was the laughs they shared and the fun she brought into his life.  It was the possessive and protective part of him that only she summoned.  It was in the way she gave all of herself to
him—even when she tried to tell him the truth and he stopped her. 

Had he been honest with himself at that point, he really didn’t want to know the truth.  He was truly happy for the first time in a long time and he didn’t feel the need to know anything about her that he didn’t already know from just being with her.  He didn’t want anything to ruin the good thing he had with her.

Noah released Chaise from his hold as John joined them in the covered area of the docks.  John nodded at Chaise as he introduced himself as Bull’s father.  John’s voice held genuine warmth when he said, “I’m glad to see you all made it back safely.”  Then, he looked around and said, “Where’s Rico?  Did he get away?”

“Lightning struck twice in the same place.  Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” Bull said with a straight face and his Southern drawl securely in place.  “Whole damn place went up like kindling.  He didn’t make it out.”

John eyed him suspiciously for a moment but Bull kept his face neutral.  John cut his eyes to Chaise, but she quickly looked away and saw agents swarming around the warehouse.  She pointed toward the action and asked John, “What’s happening over there?” 

John turned and looked
toward the direction she pointed.  From his profile, Chaise could tell his thoughts were already on something else.  She had effectively changed the direction of the conversation and avoided any questions of what had occurred on the island.  She knew the questioning would come later regardless, but she needed a momentary reprieve. 

“After Colton left to find you, I talked to a few more of the girls.  They had some solid information I called in to my team to investigate.  We were able to gather enough hard evidence to start making arrests.  The girls are being taken to the hospital and their families are being notified,” John explained.

“What about Aura?  Ana’s twin sister?  I never found her!” Chaise exclaimed.

John chuckled lightly, “Aura is fine.  You really gave me a run for my money over her, Chaise.”

“What do you mean?” Reaper asked.

“Aura knew something had happened to her sister at
Viboro Distributing—that’s why she went to work there, but she got too close to the truth and they were about to take her.  So, I moved Aura and her mother to a safe house.  We erased their existence from the servers.  We had to work fast, because while we were busy trying to hide them, someone else was busy finding the other girls’ missing persons posters.”

Shadow and Rebel cleared their throats nervously, knowing that they had accessed confidential, secure servers illegally.  Neither of them would ever actually admit to it since their computers were secure and untraceable.  John tried to hide his knowing smile but failed miserably. 

Bull shot Chaise an apologetic look, knowing she had tried to convince him that she wasn’t lying about Aura but he didn’t believe her.  He leaned over to her ear and asked, “If I promise to never doubt you again, would that make up me for not believing you?”

“It’s a start,” she countered, “but I have more imaginative ways of making you pay.”

“That’s a deal!”  Bull’s smile lit up his face and Chaise was again reminded of how he made her heart flutter.  He suddenly turned serious as he asked, “Did they hurt you?  Do we need to go to the hospital?  I won’t leave you.”

Chaise stroked his cheek and jaw
line as her heart melted at his offer.  “No, nothing like that.  Diego hit me but that was about the extent of it.”  She moved in close to him again, comforted in the crook of his arm.  Her arms wrapped around his waist and she hugged him tightly.