12. Chapter 12
God, what the hell was I doing? It was definitely a distraction. A dangerous one. I shouldn’t have been fucking around with my old bully turned killer and savior, but I was touch starved. Okay, that wasn’t quite true. Sid and I had shared a connection so long ago, and that connection had just been set on fire.
A lot had to do with me missing being with a man. I didn’t realize how much so until he kissed me and pulled an orgasm out of me. Between grieving, working, and trying to raise a child alone, it had been three years since any man had touched me. My few attempts at dating failed when they learned I was a father, so I didn’t try all that hard.
When I headed into Sid’s bedroom while he showered, I told myself we could mess around and it was only for fun, just as Savannah suggested. Nothing serious would come of this, but after talking with him, I knew he wouldn’t make any of this easy. Sid had always been intense and imposing, which hadn’t changed even now that we were in our mid-forties.
Instead of messing around again, Sid pulled on a T-shirt and underwear before getting into bed. I stood there, unsure of what to do, until he held out his arm, so I slid into the bed next to him. He covered us up with the sheet and comforter and pulled me close.
“Just so you know, I’m not used to holding anyone in bed like this, but I like that you’re my first snuggle,” he said. “Also, if I snore, I apologize in advance.”
Despite my conflicting mind, I rolled onto my side, pressed my body against his, and rested my hand on his chest. I inhaled hints of amber as I settled in, smiling.
“Forgiven. I haven’t held anyone like this in years, either,” I admitted.
“Tell me about him.”
“Who? Matthew?”
“Who else? I bet he was a saint, unlike me.”
I huffed a quiet laugh and settled in. “He was. Matt was… beautiful, inside and out. He had a kind, gentle soul. He had strawberry-blond hair and was covered in delicious freckles. His eyes were hazel brown. Owen is his mirror image. Matt taught kindergarten, so he was made to raise kids. He was so patient, even when I had cases I worked on that didn’t bring me home until late into the night.”
“Where did you two meet?”
“Oh, it was nothing exciting. We met on a dating app, but we hit it off instantly. I’d been struggling to find someone who wasn’t a hookup, and I’d almost given up—until I met him.” I looked at Sid’s face, his eyes closed as he dragged delicate fingers across my back. “Why do you want to know, Sid? Your nature doesn’t seem like you’d be interested at all.”
“Don’t assume. I just want to see what I’m up against.”
I sat up and dropped my jaw. “This isn’t a game!”
His smile turned crooked. Sid sure had gotten cocky over the years. But then his smile dropped. “I’m just jealous. Not only because you had that, and I never did, but because he got to have you . Yet, I’m also glad you had someone who made you happy. I used to hate your happiness… was jealous of it. But that’s not me anymore.”
“I’ve got whiplash, Sid.”
He snorted a sleepy laugh. “You mean us?”
I nodded into his chest.
“I’m good at that. Yeah, it’s fast, even for me. I’m generally methodical and take my time. I have to, with what I do for a living. But seeing you again… I don’t want to waste a second. Who knows how long we have? Now, let’s get some sleep. We need it.”
My mind stirred, reluctant to wake up because I was having the best sex dream with Sid at the center of it. As my brain cleared, my eyes fluttered open to see it was still dark out, but it must have been close to dawn.
Then warm heat centered around my cock spread throughout my body. Soon, I noticed the slurping sounds. My cock was surrounded by warm wetness. The sudden pressure…
“Ungh…” I cried out.
I lifted my head to see Sid sucking the hell out of me. No wonder I was having a sex dream. I spread my legs, my underwear around my thighs, stretching and digging into my muscles as my fingers ran through his cropped hair. He had just enough length on the top that I could grab some strands and tug.
Sid took me all the way to the base, my tip hitting the back of his throat. “Fuck me…”
God, it’d been so long since a guy sucked me off. I forgot how good it felt to have a mouth wrapped around me.
He suddenly popped off, leaving me desperate for more. He couldn’t stop now!
“Sid…”
“Shh!”
I watched in horror as Sid got out of bed, my poor dick forgotten. But suddenly, I was on high alert when he pulled on jeans resting on his chair and tossed on his T-shirt. It was him pulling out his gun that had me racing to pull up my underwear, getting ready to fight.
“I have a loaded spare gun in the nightstand drawer on your side. Grab it,” he said as Sid opened his phone, the screen lighting his face in the darkened bedroom.
I pulled the gun out from the drawer and left the safety on, not yet putting a bullet into the chamber. I walked over to Sid’s side to see what he was looking at. On his screen was a live video of the outside perimeter.
“The notification on my phone triggered from the movement outside,” he whispered. “They found us entirely too fucking fast. Dammit! I thought we had more time.”
“How many?”
Sid scrolled through each camera around his property. “Four that the cameras can detect. Two in the front and two in the back. Let me switch to thermal.”
When he did, the screen turned dark blue, and you could see the orange and red body heat of the perpetrators. Some animals were scurrying about, but back along the tree line was another man hiding.
“Sharpshooter?” I asked.
Sid nodded. “He’s waiting to pluck us off when we come out.”
“So five?”
Sid nodded again. “I don’t see any others.”
The men inched closer and closer to the house, being careful and methodical, not rushing in. They wanted to take us by surprise, and they also didn’t know what to expect.
“If they’ve learned about me, they know they’ve already been seen,” he said.
“Is it your family?”
“I don’t think so. This isn’t their style. This sort of tactical maneuver is used to infiltrate a home or facility if we have to take out multiple targets. Not one or two people. Usually, only one of us handles that. Besides, they know me. They would be a lot more careful in their approach. ”
“If it’s not your family, what if they don’t know you?”
He looked at me. “You think you’ve been tracked?”
I nodded.
Sid scowled. “Dammit! That’s my fucking fault. I didn’t check your car. Stupid. Stupid. Of course, they didn’t just find you at your bank. They tracked you there. I should’ve known fucking better. Now that I think about it, they should’ve gotten here sooner, but after that car chase and knowing we can shoot back, they probably bided their time.”
“Spilled milk, Sid. Let’s focus on getting out of here.”
“You’re right. But this also means they don’t know who I am or what they’re up against. That gives us an advantage. Get dressed quickly and have your bag ready. I’m going to rush to the basement to grab a rifle to take out the sharpshooter while you handle the others at the front of the house.”
I didn’t stay to ask questions, running to my room and throwing on clothes and shoes as quickly as I could. I already had some clothes and toiletries in my bag, so I grabbed it along with my sidearm before rushing downstairs.
Not long after, Sid came upstairs from the basement, shoving goggles into my hand. “Night vision. They probably have the same advantage, but they don’t know that we do, too.”
I pulled them over my head and adjusted them to my eyes, casting the world in green light as I popped a bullet into the chamber of my gun.
“I’m going to crack the window open upstairs and take out the sniper, then I’ll start plucking the others off in the back.”
“Go. I’ll take care of them down here from the front. ”
It was hard to calm my heart since I wasn’t trained for this, making it hard to breathe, but I took a few deep breaths anyway as I slightly eased back a curtain in the dining room at the front of the house. Two men were inching their way toward the house with guns drawn. Sure enough, they, too, were wearing tactical goggles.
If I opened the window, they’d see and hear me, so I’d have to trust Sid to take out the sniper and the other two men before rushing out the front door and killing the two men in the front. I quickly entered the code to unlock the door, but I didn’t open it, waiting for Sid.
As soon as I heard the pop from his rifle, I burst open the door, found the guy closest to me, and took the shot straight to his head. I didn’t wait to see him drop before my gun aimed at the second one and fired. He shot at me at the same time, grazing my arm, but hitting nothing vital. The burn was excruciating, but I tried to ignore it. My first bullet hit his shoulder, so I fired off two more rounds, hitting him in the throat and chest, though he was probably wearing Kevlar .
My sights turned to the first guy to make sure he dropped, and I found him sprawled on the ground, unmoving.
I slowly stepped outside into the damp early morning, holding my arm as the sun slowly rose on the horizon, scanning the area in front of me to make sure we didn’t miss anyone and then double-checking that the second guy was down. When all was clear, I rushed toward the back of the house to discover two men dead on the ground.
By the time I removed my goggles with shaking hands as the adrenaline wore off, Sid came running outside, checking me up and down. “You okay? ”
“It’s just a graze.”
Sid literally growled as he tossed his gun to the ground and lifted the edge of my bloodied shirt sleeve. It wasn’t bleeding too badly, but it was burned, and it would scar.
“I’m fine,” I said. “See, just a graze. It matches the one on my side.”
He nodded, his jaw clenching. “Two grazes in as many days pisses me off.”
“Mentally, though… In all my years with the FBI, I’ve never killed anyone. Now, I’ve laid to waste a handful of men.”
Sid gripped my shoulder gently. “You do what you have to in order to survive. You managed not to kill those other men.”
“We don’t know that. The last car rolled and crashed,” I sighed. “Regardless, necessity doesn’t make it any easier, Sid. It was different when we were running for our lives. My only thought was keeping Owen alive. But this…”
Sid pulled me against him before smothering my worries in a kiss. “We can talk about this later. We need to get out of here. And I need to find that tracking device on your car and destroy it. I don’t want any other unwanted visitors coming here.”
“Why track me? They could’ve just killed me.”
“You were probably only being followed at first.”
“What about the bodies?” I asked.
“I’ll call my guy to send someone. Fuck, I’m going to owe him a kidney at this point.”
He quickly kissed me again. “Get your shit together and bring it to the garage. We’ll take my Bronco . I’ll look over your car with my scanner. No more unwanted visitors here.”
“What are you going to do for clothes? ”
“I keep an emergency bag and weapons in my cars. Go now. We’ll get your wound cleaned up as soon as we find a place to hole up in for a couple of days.”
I ran inside the house and up the stairs. My bag was ready to go, but I brushed my teeth quickly, changed my shirt, and headed back outside and straight to the garage.
“Did you find it?” I asked, seeing Sid on his back, underneath my car with a flashlight.
“Yep. Give me a second.”
He tossed a small object onto the ground by my feet, and I picked it up.
“I have a toolbox sitting on that wooden table in the far right corner,” he said, sliding out from underneath the car. “Grab a hammer and smash it, will you?”
I did as I was told, lifting the hammer and pulverizing the small device on the wooden table.
“Let’s go,” he said, dusting off his hands. “No time to waste.”
“It’s just that one?”
“Yep, that’s all I could find. I texted my friend to say I needed a cleanup on my property. When we return, hopefully, there won’t be any trace of them.”
We climbed into his truck and Sid took off before I was even buckled. “Ha! Who needs coffee in the morning? A good shootout is all you need to invigorate the soul and make you feel fucking alive!”
“You’ve got to be—”
Sid snorted a laugh. “I just wanted to see your reaction. The eye roll was an especially nice touch.”
“God, if they don’t kill me, your jokes will.”