Renegade (Trackers #2)

Chapter Sixteen

MIGUEL

If the truth be told, I didn’t know what to think. I couldn’t believe John Sutter, the man I’d known and served with for years, the man I’d buried, could be behind a plot to threaten me with violence, much less, a weapon of some kind. I didn’t want to tell Raven that I had my doubts at this point because I didn’t want to admit it to myself. But he was somehow connected with this case. I had seen him at the Sagebrush Cantina. I’d never ever believed he meant to harm me, though. He’d been as surprised to see me there as I’d been to see him. The man in the trees was most likely the same bastard who’d accosted us in the stairwell.

The worst thing about it was, Raven hadn’t believed me when I’d told him I didn’t think it was John holding the weapon. He obviously didn’t trust John, always using his last name, always careful about the way he spoke about him when we were talking about the situation. I trusted Raven with my life, and I knew he trusted me with his. That’s how lovers were supposed to behave. The trust between them was supposed to be the ultimate bond, at least that’s the role model my own parents had set. I wanted to punch something in frustration and if I hadn’t been dressed in this monkey suit, sitting in a car beside the man I loved, I would have.

We were home by nine-thirty, earlier than we’d planned. When we walked in, Dolly was seated on the sofa watching TV in the living room. Her hair was up in curlers, and she was dressed in a robe and slippers. She practically jumped off the couch the minute we came through the door, ties hanging loose, jackets over our arms. “Oh my! Please forgive me. I didn’t expect you to be home so soon.”

I smiled as Raven walked over to her. “It’s okay, Dolly. Have a seat. We left early. We’re gonna go get changed but stay up and watch as much TV as you’d like.”

“Raven,” she said, smiling at him. “You’re so good to me, but my show’s done now. I was gonna head off to bed.”

“Don’t hurry on our account,” I said, hoping she’d stay out here a little while longer. Ned’s former bedroom, where she’d be spending the night, was right beside ours and I really wanted to talk to Raven without worrying that our conversation could be heard through the wall.

She stood up and reached for the remote control, shutting off the flat screen TV. She smiled up at us. “You two really do make a beautiful couple,” she said before walking toward the hallway. “Have a nice night.”

“Thank you again, Dolly,” Raven said. He turned to me once she’d closed the door at the end of the hall, leaving us alone in the living room. “We should probably go to bed too.” His expression was wary. “Is there something else you wanted to talk about?”

I reached out and took his hand. “Yeah, there’s something I want to talk to you about. Will you sit here for a second? I don’t want to talk about it if there’s any chance she can hear us through the wall.”

Raven scrunched his brow but nodded, letting me lead him over to the sofa where I pulled him down next to me. “What is it, Miguel?” he asked. His eyes were so trusting.

I sighed, looking down at my lap. I ran a hand through my hair. Raven immediately caught it, stopping me and making me look directly at him.

“Miguel…you’re nervous. What is it?”

“I just don’t know anymore,” I said honestly. “I’m beginning to think that maybe it was John in the trees. Rosina Cassanova knew things about me. She called me Trigg for fuck’s sake. She knew that we’d been—” I stopped, looking away and taking a deep breath before looking back at him. “She knew you were my lover, and she knew something had gone on between John and I…not the actual details. It was almost like she assumed our connection was…deeper, that we were lovers. Although that doesn’t make sense with something else she said. There’s no way she could have known that unless John told her.”

Raven frowned. “She actually called you Trigg?”

I nodded. “That could have only come from John because unless she’d talked to another Marine, how would she know that?” But I shook my head, knowing we all wore our nicknames on cloth patches in the camp. Hell, it could have been a hundred other Marines, but my gut feeling was that it came from John. How else would she have had any details about what he and I did together? Still, she hadn’t known the extent of our physical relationship at all.

Raven looked like he was still processing what I said. “Why would Sutter do that…reveal anything about you to Cassanova at all?”

“Hell, Raven, I’ve been asking myself that for the last two hours. Maybe she’s a CIA asset who was given the information to get me to comply with whatever fucked up plans they have.”

“How? Why would that particular fact make you want to comply with their demands and turn over the ruby, assuming we get our hands on it to begin with?”

“I don’t know, Raven. Maybe she wanted me to think John was working with her.” I shook my head, still working it out. “I never believed that John would put me in this situation, but obviously, he has. She knew other things too.”

“Like what?”

Raven’s expression was so trusting, it made me feel like a total bastard. He wasn’t judging me for lying to him in the car earlier either. He was such a good man; I didn’t deserve him at all.

“She knew about the incident in the desert.” I swallowed hard, trying to talk past my guilt. “She said she knew we left John there, so I know she knows him, and somehow came into contact with him after the desert.”

Raven nodded. “Go on.”

“I don’t think she was telling the whole truth about her relationship with him. I think she was repeating lies that John told her…or someone connected to her…which confuses the shit out of me.”

“What lies?”

“She said she knew that I made a pass at John…and he rejected me.” I looked up at him. “Which he didn’t by the way.” I sighed. “She said she knew I made several passes at him trying to get him to become a gay.”

Raven’s lips twitched. “A gay?”

I quirked my lips. “That’s how she put it. I’m pretty sure the Italian accent isn’t a put on. English is not her first language. Anyway, if she thinks that he rejected me, it has to be because he was lying to her or whoever is working with her. We did have a relationship.” I concentrated on my feet. “The way I told you.”

He reached out and lifted my chin, making me look up. “So, maybe Sutter isn’t working with them of his own free will, Miguel. Maybe you were right all along, and they are holding something over his head to make him compliant.”

My heartbeat sped up. I’d thought about it before but hadn’t processed it. Images of torture flashed through my mind, but I wiped them away before they got too graphic. I’d seen what was left of men who’d been tortured. “Maybe.”

“Could they be holding someone in his family? A sibling or his parents?”

I thought about the possibility of that for a moment. “No. His only brother died when he was young, just like my older brother, Tomas. It was one of the things that helped form a close bond between us when we first met. His folks retired while we were still in the Corps but they both died before John was lost. That’s why the military gave me his flag at his funeral. There was no one else.”

“Could it be someone else then?” Raven asked. He cleared his throat looking awkward. “Is it possible he had another lover at the base?” When I frowned at him, he went on. “Or someone else? A friend? Someone the CIA might have known about, but you weren’t aware of? I’m only asking if it’s possible there was someone else close to Sutter…a relationship you were unaware of. Is it possible?”

I thought hard about it. Anything was possible. John was gregarious, always cracking jokes, the life of the party wherever we went in the camp. He was a natural born leader even though he was headstrong and stubborn, but everyone liked him. When he played pranks, they were fun, never mean-spirited. He made friends with the villagers and their children, helped out orphans where he could, just like we all did. He was full of love and optimism but was a warrior when the situation called for it. All that had been John Sutter back then, was what had made me fall in love with him.

“He had lots of friends in the camp, but no boyfriends, or girlfriends.” I stopped, thinking about it. I frowned at Raven. “John was bisexual, not gay. Maybe there had been a girlfriend that he hadn’t wanted to tell me about.”

“Another Marine?” Raven asked.

“Yeah, probably, but if she was, we would have known. It was a huge base filled with not only military personnel, but civilian doctors and nurses as well as military medical staff. But still, a female sniffing around John or vice versa, would have stuck out.”

“Why?” His gaze was so sincere…so hopeful that he was helping to jog some old memory of mine.

I smirked. “Because John was a catch and if he was fucking a woman on base, my guess is she would have made her interest known to everyone. Girls aren’t subtle when they want something. Guys…well, you already know with guys, relationships are more about sex than relationships.”

“Maybe she wasn’t a Marine. You said there were other branches of service there, right?”

“Army…some Navy intelligence guys.”

“Maybe it was one of them, or even the CIA.”

I frowned at him.

“Okay…okay, sorry. Just throwing stuff out there,” he said hurriedly.

I took his hand. “It’s a possibility he got involved with a woman, but I just don’t know. I can’t possibly say.” I sighed, tired as hell. My head was pounding just thinking about John and the redhead at the Getty. I couldn’t talk about it anymore. I just wanted to be with my Raven. I stood up, tugging him to his feet. “Come on to bed. I need to feel your skin next to mine.”

RAVEN

As we walked down the hall to our bedroom, I could feel Miguel’s confusion and sadness with the situation. Everything inside me wanted to make him forget all about tonight. I didn’t want him to have to think about the evil bitch at the Getty. More than that, I needed him to get out of his own head, stop thinking about what had happened. And no matter what happened at the museum, nothing could be resolved tonight. I couldn’t hide a smile as I heard the soft snores coming from the bedrooms on either side of the hallway, one from Nana’s and the other from the guest bedroom where Dolly slept.

The moment we walked into the bedroom, I felt better in my own environment. It smelled of green tea and lemongrass from my favorite candles, one sitting atop my dresser and the other in our attached master bathroom. Miguel followed me into the room, and I shut the door quietly, only to be spun around and pinned against the solid wood a moment later. Strong arms grabbed my wrists, lifting them up as high as they’d go in the suit I still wore, pinning them to the door above my head. Miguel’s mouth was on mine a second later.

I didn’t have time to breathe before he was kissing me deeply, pressing his body against mine as he let go with one hand and started yanking at my belt, loosening it. I returned Miguel’s kiss, keeping my hands above my head and opening my mouth, eagerly sliding my tongue inside his warm depths. There was an urgency in what he was doing, in how he was feeling. It was coming through with every sexy grunt he made as he fumbled with my belt. He somehow managed to open it one-handed and followed it with the slide of my zipper. I feared he’d rip the rented slacks for a moment, but he somehow undid the closures with a few not-so-gentle tugs. I don’t know what to expect next, but when he started pulling at my shirt to get his hand under it, I was with him all the way.

I couldn’t exactly help him undress me since my hands were trapped above my head, and that seemed to be fine with Miguel. Tonight, he was determined to be in charge. If I’d tried, I could have pulled free, but I didn’t want to, letting him hold both wrists in place one-handed. There was something in the determination in his body language and the way his mouth plied mine with an almost desperate passion, that made me want to surrender everything to him. Though we were nearly the same height, he had broader shoulders and was more heavily muscled than I was. Sometimes I simply loved giving myself over to his talented ministrations as he took me to the heights of pleasure. He was so very good at giving it, as he made his own desires known—without words—at times. Tonight, was one of those times.

I was all for allowing this passionate man to do whatever he wanted to me.

Miguel slipped his hand under my shirt, hiking it up as far as the buttons would allow before he found a nipple, clearly his destination, where he began twisting it between his fingers. I gasped into his mouth, trying to do my best to keep quiet when all I wanted to do was cry out with pleasure. As if knowing I was holding back, he rocked his groin against me, letting me feel the long, thick ridge of the dick trapped behind his zipper. He groaned into my mouth, sucking on my tongue, and sending shock waves rippling up and down the length of my spine. I could barely breathe by the time he finally tore his mouth from mine and turned me loose so I could lower my arms.

“I need you…right now, Raven,” he said. The gravel in his voice made the words almost unrecognizable. But he didn’t step back. Instead, he stared at me, eyes burning with lust, making me so weak in the knees I felt wobbly, even with my back against the sturdy door. He stared for only a second before looking down and reaching between us to rub over my own engorged cock through the thin fabric of my boxer briefs.

I expected him to drop to his knees, but instead, a moment later, he was flipping me to face the door. I barely had time to brace both palms on the wood before I found myself plastered up against the unforgiving surface as he yanked my pants down to my ankles taking my briefs along with them. He straightened behind me and pressed himself against my back, growling into my ear. “Stay right there.” His hot breath brushed over me, making me ache with lust.

“Anything you want,” I whispered quietly, chancing a look over my shoulder as I tried to get my heartrate to slow down, dragging in great gulps of air. Miguel was striding across the room, pulling off his coat and shirt before tossing them unceremoniously onto the floor. Yanking off his pants and socks, he opened the drawer and grabbed a bottle of lube. He strode back across the room stark naked in seconds as I heard the lube’s pop-top.

He reached out and grabbed my face, turning it just enough to kiss me passionately before whispering against my lips. The gravel in his voice sent tremors through my body.

“Don’t make a sound. If you make noise and wake anyone up, I’m going to gag you, Raven. I mean it.”

I nodded, kissing him again.

“Eyes front,” he commanded, sending a shiver running down my back. He didn’t waste any time getting himself slicked up behind me, as he kicked my feet apart. They only went so far, still trapped at the ankles in my slacks. I faced the door, leaning my forehead against the hard surface, bracing myself. Most of the time, Miguel was a gentle lover, taking the time to open me up when I bottomed, but not now. I’d barely had time to blow out a breath before he was penetrating me, working himself in one inch at a time. The sting was incredibly sharp at this angle, possibly because I was tenser standing up. I gasped against the door which made him stop and lean forward instantly.

“Are you okay?” he panted.

I felt his restraint poised to snap as he desperately struggled to control the urge to pound me into the door. Miraculously he was able to wait for my answer. The truth was, I loved it when Miguel got like this, and I wasn’t about to make him wait. I quickly nodded, which made him let out an animal-like snarl.

“Remember what I told you,” he whispered. “Keep quiet.”

I nodded in response, feeling his massive cock as he pressed deeper inside. With great effort, I forced myself to relax. Miguel was in the driver’s seat, and I was here to make sure he got what he needed from my body tonight. When his mood turned dark like it did at times like this, my nature was to be calm…soothe his beast. I gripped the door, feeling my nails dig into the layers of paint, knowing I’d leave marks, absently wanting them to be a sweet memory of this fucking, long after it was over…every time I saw them.

He pulled out and without warning, slammed back in, startling a quiet whimper out of me. A moment later he did it again and then again, as a quiet moan left my lips. The pain was starting to ease, but I let my body roll with it, wanting to feel every single bit of it, loving the way I was giving him pleasure. All that mattered was that I could satisfy Miguel’s need. I wanted him to take whatever he needed from me. He slid out and I heard him grunt as his forehead dropped against my back between my shoulder blades. I was still mostly clothed, with my coat and shirt between us. I could feel sweat breaking out all over my body, no doubt soaking through my clothing.

He gradually set up a pace, fucking me rhythmically against the door, trapping me so I couldn’t possibly move even if I’d wanted to. I most definitely didn’t. I let him use my body the way he needed to, loving every second. I was his but he was mine too. Right now, I knew I was giving him pleasure and even if I didn’t get off from the fucking, it would be okay with me.

My own cock was painfully hard, but I ignored it, knowing even the smallest attempt to take myself in hand, might mean Miguel losing focus on his own pleasure. That’s the last thing I wanted. He grunted, as he slammed back inside my ass particularly hard, dragging a stuttering moan out of me as I stood up on tiptoes. Seconds later, his big hand covered my mouth cutting off any further sounds as he grunted over and over behind me. He wasn’t being especially loud, but I prayed Dolly was a deep sleeper regardless. She’d been snoring before we’d come in here, but these walls weren’t particularly thick even though the house had been solidly built many decades ago.

“Raven—”

Miguel’s raspy gasp sent tremors through me. I grunted in his hand.

“Gonna…come…can’t—”

I nodded, frantically wanting to feel him spurting inside my body.

“Raven…I—”

He reached around, taking hold of my leaking cock, giving it short strokes as I felt his own dick swell inside me. I closed my eyes and focused on the sensations flooding my body, shuddering with pleasure as my climax approached. His strokes intensified and when he found the sweet spot deep inside, a wave of pleasure roared through me, and I could no longer hold back. Ecstasy flooded my entire body. When he slammed in hard one final time, he suddenly came to a stuttering halt behind me as he shuddered and began to come. I climaxed, shooting forcefully against the door in thick spurts. Pleasure swamped me, crashing through my body in fierce waves as he filled my insides with wet heat, emptying his balls deep inside me.

I shuddered in his arms as powerful shivers wrung out the last of my orgasm, making me feel wobbly. As he finally let go of my cock and pulled out slowly, I couldn’t help but whimper as he slid only partially flaccid from my ass and stepped back. I was sore and knew I’d be feeling this fucking for days. I panted hard against the door for a few seconds not trusting my body to move the way I wanted it to. When I finally tried, my knees suddenly went weak, and I nearly collapsed.

But then Miguel was there, wrapping strong arms around my chest to take my weight for a few seconds before finally turning me to face him. Come was sliding out of my ass, wetting my cheeks and the inside of my thighs as we panted together, his strong arms still holding me tightly against him. He looked at me sheepishly and I suddenly couldn’t keep the grin off my face.

“Feel better, baby?” I whispered, lifting my hands to cup his cheeks, listening to the sounds around me just in case we’d roused the women sleeping in the other rooms. When he nodded, the only thing I heard was the shattered breathing coming from the man in my arms.

“Raven,” he gasped.

I leaned in and kissed him deeply, wanting him to know I was okay. After a minute, I found my bearings again and dropped my hands. “Help me get undressed?” I’d soaked through my remaining clothes and my pants were still tangled around my ankles.

Seeing my predicament, he let out a low, almost imperceptible chuckle. He squatted, helping me out of my tangled slacks and then took my hand, tugging me toward the bed. I didn’t want to stain the pristine bedding, so I remained standing as he helped peel me out of my coat. I unbuttoned my soaked shirt and tossed it on the floor along with his own before glancing over at the door. Streaks of glistening come slid down the painted surface and a shudder went through me as I noticed the gouges my fingernails had made in the paint.

“Do you think we woke them up?” he asked quietly.

I turned to look at him and shook my head. “No, but if I don’t clean the door and Dolly wanders in here for any reason, there might be some questions I don’t want to answer.”

He chuckled as I grabbed some tissues and walked over to the door to clean up after myself on unsteady legs. By the time I’d finished and turned around, I noticed he’d picked up our clothes and draped them over a chair in the corner. “I hope they throw those into a laundry bag as soon as we return them,” he said.

I smiled at him, walking back over. “Those suits have seen a lot of action.”

He reached for me, pulling me up against his body for a deep kiss. We were both sweaty. Apparently, it took a lot of work to fuck against a door. When we finally broke apart, I took his hand and tugged him toward the bathroom.

“What’re you doing?”

“I’m not getting into our clean bed without a shower, and we both stink to high heaven.”

His answering chuckle made me smile.