Braxton #2
I was hoping after making her come, she’d sleep through the night, but that wasn’t the case.
Twice she reached for me, and I was more than happy to take her mind off whatever thoughts were plaguing her.
She didn’t share her worries with me, but I made her come twice more, once with my tongue buried in her pussy as she squeezed her thighs around my head, and the other while I was buried deep inside her, staring into her lust-filled blue eyes.
Then I would bundle us under the covers once again, and Vanessa would close her eyes and drift back to sleep with my arms around her.
Getting out of bed, I head into the kitchen since that’s where I assume I’ll find Vanessa, but she isn’t in there.
Walking over to the slider, I see her sitting out back, bundled in a blanket since the morning air is still carrying a chill, with a cup of coffee in her hands.
Her gaze is distant as she stares out over the land behind the clubhouse.
I open the slider, and she jerks, so caught up in whatever is running through her mind she’s surprised anyone else is awake.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” I say, shutting the door behind me.
“Hi,” she shoots me a soft, tired smile. “I haven’t made breakfast yet, but there’s coffee.”
I walk over to her, take her cup from her hand, and set it on the table before I bend and slide an arm under her legs and one around her back, lifting her from the chair.
“Braxton!” she exclaims as I settle myself on the chair with her on my lap, wrapped in my arms.
“What is it?”
She chuckles and shakes her head. “I would have moved for you.”
“Yeah,” I bury my face in her hair. “But this worked just as well.” Leaning forward, I grab her mug and take a sip before placing it in her hands. “What were you thinking about?”
She lets out a tired sigh, and her gaze returns to the backyard. “My mom and Noel. Wondering where they’re waking up this morning.”
I kiss the side of her head and silently hold her. There’s nothing I can say to make this better for her. All I can do is be a steadying presence that’s here to give her whatever she needs.
My phone vibrates in my pocket. I shuffle our position a bit so I can reach in and grab it. When I pull it out, I see Ozzy’s name on the screen.
“Hey, Ozzy,” I answer, a little worried about what a phone call so early in the morning is going to bring.
“Nik has a lead. I’m coming to the clubhouse now. We’re going to his place in New York to meet up with his tech guy.”
“That’s fucking great news,” I say, and Vanessa looks at me with hope in her blue eyes.
“Don’t get excited yet. It’s a lead, not a sure thing,” my prez cautions.
“We’ll take anything at this point, Ozzy. See you in a few.”
I disconnect the call and look at Vanessa. “Nik’s tech guy has a lead. We’re going to meet here, then head to New York.”
“I’m coming with you.”
I narrow my eyes, unsure I want her anywhere near this. “Sweetheart…”
Vanessa shakes her head. “I’ll stay at Nik’s while you check out the lead, but I need to be there, Braxton.”
I exhale a breath and nod. “Alright. Let’s get ready so we can leave when everyone gets here.”
Vanessa hops off my lap, and for the first time in three days, there’s a hopeful energy in her I haven’t seen since before I left for the fake Michigan run.
It takes twenty minutes for everyone to show up at the clubhouse.
All the brothers are here except Barrett and Wyatt, who are going to stay back.
I don’t trust those Russian assholes not to try something if they somehow find out that all the brothers are in New York.
I don’t know how they would, but Ozzy and the rest of us are done taking any chances.
We’re covering all of our bases, just in case.
When we get to Nik’s place in New York, he introduces us to his tech guy, who, as it turns out, isn’t a guy at all.
Nik takes us to his office, where a woman sits behind his giant desk, her black-and-dark-purple hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun.
She’s chewing on some sort of candy straw as her fingers fly over the keyboards.
She stops her movements for a second, reads something, then starts typing again.
“Fallon, the Black Roses are here,” Nik says.
She doesn’t say anything for several moments. It’s as though she didn’t hear the man. It’s getting a little awkward, if I’m being honest, as Nik stares at her.
“Fallon,” he barks.
“Jesus, Nik, I heard you the first time,” she says, then looks up from one of the three laptops sitting on his desk.
“Acknowledgment would have been nice,” he grumbles.
Fallon rolls her dark-brown eyes. “Do you want niceties or results?”
“Both,” Nik replies.
“Well, too bad, so sad,” she replies with a shrug.
Nik chuckles, and the fact that he’s not only putting up with attitude from one of his employees but is laughing at her insolence is…strange to say the least.
“Care to share what you found?” Nik asks.
“Since you asked so nicely,” she says with a sarcastic smile, “I’d be happy to.
” She grabs some papers with notes scribbled on them.
“Damien Sokolov has been an absolute pain to nail down. Until I started tracing his mistresses’ financial records.
He had one a few years ago whose father owned some land about an hour from here.
Dad’s dead, but he left the property to his daughter, Selena.
I was tracking the phone numbers that Nik gave me for that dirtbag, Russ.
” She looks at Vanessa. “That stepbrother of yours is a real piece of work, by the way.” Vanessa nods and Fallon continues.
“Anyways, I got a ping. The phone wasn’t on for more than a few seconds, but it was enough to get a location.
And wouldn’t you know, it was at the property owned by one Selena Orishko. ”
“Are there any aerial photos of the property?” Jude asks. “Sawyer always gives us aerial shots.”
Fallon gives Jude a look that I would be very leery of being on the receiving end of. “You know what, biker boy? Let me tell you something about Sawyer—”
“Now’s not the time, Fallon,” Nik interjects before she can continue her tirade.
Fallon rips a piece of the rope candy off with her teeth and chomps on the piece a few times. “Yes, I do have aerial photos. There is an SUV parked at the property, but I haven’t caught any movement in or out.” She spears Jude with a flat look. “Happy?”
The man smiles. “Someday you’ll have to tell me why you hate him so much over a beer.”
“I prefer vodka,” is all she says before returning her gaze to her computer.
Nik picks up a picture of a large piece of property with a house surrounded by a thick forest and coordinates written in red, then hands it to me.
“This could be where Irina and Noel are being held. It’s the best we have right now.”
“We’ll take it,” I tell him. “I don’t want Vanessa out there with us. Can she stay here while we check out the house?”
“Of course,” Nik replies.
I turn to Vanessa. “You okay?”
“Yes. Please, bring my sister and mom home,” she says, her eyes pleading with me.
I bend and give her a quick kiss. “I will,” I assure her, then the rest of my brothers and I file out of the house and get in two SUVs we took here, hopefully to return with Vanessa’s family and some fucking answers finally.
Instead of pulling up to the house, we park on an access road that’s fairly close. Linc, Jude, and Ozzy hop out of one vehicle, and Knox, Cash, and I get out of the other.
“Plan?” Linc asks.
“We’re going to try to be as quiet as humanly possible.
Let’s get close enough and see if there’s any movement inside the house.
Stay low and ready to fire if you see any asshole pointing a gun.
We don’t want to alarm anyone inside the house in case Irina or Noel are in there,” I say.
“They need to come home safely. The rest of those fuckers can become worm food for all I care.”