14. Louise
Chapter 14
Louise
Draven’s choice of music leaves a lot to be desired, so I change the radio station from heavy rock to something a little more mellow. With a yawn, I shift my position. We’ve been sitting in my car waiting for Shala to appear for over two hours. My ass is numb, my legs are stiffer than a dead body in rigor mortis, and I need to pee, but I’ll have to hold it. I’ve hung on plenty of times before. Stakeouts are nothing new in my profession, and fortunately, I have a killer pelvic floor. Thank you, Pilates.
I slip off my shoes and toss them on the backseat before changing into a pair of sneakers. If we have cause to travel anywhere on foot, clip-clopping down the street in heels isn’t a good idea. I glance out of the corner of my eye at Draven, who hasn’t taken his eyes off the exit to the club since we got back to the car. His long legs barely fit in the passenger footwell, despite the seat being pushed all the way back. He must be uncomfortable, but he hasn’t made a single murmur in complaint.
Swamped with an unexpected gratefulness, I blurt, “Thank you.”
He casts me a brief glance. “For what?”
“For helping me. For being here.”
He returns his attention to the club. “You’re welcome.”
“Seriously, Draven. I mean it. After what happened between us all those years ago, I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d told me to fuck off.”
“I did if you recall, and I got kicked in the nuts in response.”
My lips twitch. “No, you got a knee to the balls for manhandling me.”
“I’ve manhandled you since then.”
And I’m hoping you manhandle me some more.
I clear my throat. “Yeah, well, thanks anyway.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We haven’t achieved anything so far, and you still don’t know what payment I’m going to demand once all this is over.”
My heart skips a beat. “I thought you’d forgotten.”
He favors me with a roving gaze, brief but powerful. “Not a chance, sweetcheeks. I always collect what’s due, one way or another.”
An excited tingling sweeps through me, and I fidget in my seat. I don’t get to reply because the side-entrance door opens, and Shala walks out, flanked by the two security guards Draven and I had engaged outside Shala’s office. A third man follows at the rear.
“Showtime,” Draven says, sitting up straighter and banging his head on the roof of her car. “Fuck’s sake. If we have to do any more stakeouts, we’re renting a bigger goddamn car.”
“Noted.” I train my eyes on Shala as he smooths a hand down the front of his expensive silk shirt—no doubt paid for by his sickening dealings—then slips into the back of a limousine. One guard climbs in beside him, with the other two going up front, and then the car glides away.
I start the engine, check my mirrors, then pull out, keeping my distance.
“Stay back,” Draven warns.
“I have followed people before, you know.”
“Chill out, mama.”
And the asshole is back in the room. I flex my jaw to halt the torrent of abuse I want to spill, wishing I hadn’t been so apologetic now. Maybe another knee to his balls might give him something else to think about other than taunting me.
While in the city, we remain under the camouflage of busy traffic, but as the limo pulls off the main highway, we have to hang much farther back to avoid detection.
“He’s heading to the docks,” Draven says.
I risk a sideways glance, then return my attention to the road ahead. “How do you know?”
“It’s the only plausible reason for heading this way. There’s nothing else out here.”
My chest constricts. The idea of Kiera being kept in cold, dark, damp conditions… alone, frightened. I gulp, and an unintentional gasp bursts from my throat.
“Hey.” Draven strokes my arm, his touch creating a burst of goosebumps. “We’re making progress. This is a big step.”
I nod but don’t trust myself to speak. I hate showing weakness at the best of times. In my profession it’s a serious handicap. Over the years, I’ve learned to put a lid on it, to restrict my emotions to the times I find myself alone.
Twenty minutes later, the limo turns off the road.
“Pull over,” Draven says. “We go on foot from here.”
“No, we’ll lose them.”
“We can’t risk following in the car. They’ll see the headlights. We’ve got no cover out here.” Grabbing the wheel, he steers the car to the side of the road, giving me no choice but to brake if I want to avoid crashing into the hedgerow.
“Christ’s sake, Draven.” I slam the heel of my palm against the steering wheel.
“I know what I’m doing. Now, stop whining, and get out of the fucking car.”
My head spins with the violent fluctuation from Jerk of the Month to Mr. Compassionate and back to being a jerk again.
Without waiting for me, he climbs out and sets off running. With a clenched jaw and matching fists, I race after him, only catching up because he slows his pace to allow me to bridge the gap. How magnanimous of him. By the time we reach the spot where Shala’s car had turned, the limo is nowhere in sight.
We jog down the road, staying within the shadows to avoid any possible security cameras. At the docks, row after row of warehouses stretch for at least a mile.
“Let’s split up,” I say, thinking of all the ground we have to cover. “I’ll take this row. You start on the next.”
Draven grips my hand, squeezing harder than he needs to. “No. We stick together.”
He strides off, hauling me beside him. To maintain pace with his long strides, I have to jog, and the exercise makes it difficult to talk.
“Stay close to the walls,” Draven murmurs before releasing my hand. “Remain behind me.”
We begin a systematic search. My heart thuds so hard, so fast, it’s almost painful. Reaching into my pocket, I rummage around for my trusty flick blade, wishing I had my gun. Being on vacation means I’m not here in an official capacity, and I don’t have a private firearms license. I’ll be surprised if Draven isn’t packing, though.
We reach the end of the current row, where Draven peers around the corner, then slams his arm across my chest, launching me into the side of the building we’ve been creeping along. Every ounce of breath shoots from my lungs, and I hiss, rubbing my sternum.
“Jesus.”
Draven clamps a hand over my mouth. “We’ve got company,” he whispers, urging me back the way we came. On the balls of my feet to minimize noise, I dart in the opposite direction, dodging in between two buildings. Draven follows me, only just managing to squeeze his huge body into the narrow gap. I hold my breath, waiting.
Voices drift along on the breeze, getting closer, their accents local. Two men. No, make that three. One of them laughs at something another says, the sound easily traveling in the quiet of the night.
Draven holds his forefinger to his lips. I nod, though my breathing is labored. I try to hold it, afraid they’ll hear me. The first man comes briefly into view, followed closely by the other two.
Don’t look right. Keep focusing straight ahead. Nothing to see here.
I get my wish. The men pass, their footsteps growing faint until I can no longer hear them.
I purse my lips, controlling the flow of air from my lungs. “Close call,” I whisper. “Our guys?”
“No. Probably just workers on a late shift.”
Draven inches his way out of the gap and peers to his right to make sure the men have definitely gone. He glances over his shoulder, gives me a curt nod, then resumes the lead on our systematic search. Another thirty minutes pass with no sign of Shala’s car. We’ve covered a good proportion of the plot but still have maybe a third to go. It’s then that I see it. The black limo parked up between two warehouses.
“There.” I point, relief whooshing from my lungs. “But which one?”
“No way of knowing,” he murmurs.
“Fuck. Well, we can’t break cover until we know for sure.”
I tuck myself into a gap between two warehouses opposite where Shala’s limo is parked. They should give us cover of darkness but allow his car and both buildings to remain in sight. Draven slides in beside me. There’s a little more room here than our previous hiding place, but not much.
I shiver, more from anxiety than a chill. If there’s even a one percent chance that Kiera’s inside either of those warehouses, to have her so close yet still so far away is worse than torture. The big sister in me wants to storm in there, slit the throats of anyone who gets in my way, and rescue Kiera from their revolting clutches. As a police detective, I know that patience is the name of the game, and the option most likely to have a positive outcome. It doesn’t make the waiting any easier, though.
“C’mere.” Draven wraps his burly arms around me.
Once again, his unexpected kindness takes me by surprise, but I almost push him away. I’m tired of the constant head-fuckery of his wild mood swings, yet his solid body and the heat pouring off him has me snuggling closer. Tucking my hands inside his leather jacket, I run my hands up his back. He shifts, the muscles rippling with the movement. He rests his chin on top of my head, and an involuntary sigh falls from my lips.
He chuckles, the sound rumbling through his chest. “Hold that thought, Lola. It’s coming, and so are you.”
Knots coil in my stomach, and a raft of butterflies flap their wings against my insides. He’s made it perfectly clear what his plans are when this is all over. And I want to… God do I want to, but I can’t shake the niggle that Draven still holds a deep-seated grudge against me, and I wouldn’t put it past him to use sex as a weapon—a way of dishing out the punishment he still believes I deserve.
He shuffles his feet, mashing our lower halves together, and his rigid erection presses against my stomach. Bending his knees, he circles his hips, making direct contact with my clit. He only does it once, but it’s enough to send a jolt of electricity zinging right through me.
I moan quietly and press my thighs together, trying to stave off the instinct to tilt my pelvis and rub up against him to get the release I so desperately need.
Draven has no such restraint. He grips my hips and grinds his erection into me, almost lazily, hitting the target every single time. I close my eyes, my head lolling back, relishing wave after wave of pleasure, the likes of which I haven’t experienced in so long.
In forever, actually.
I’m close. So close.
Kiera!
What the hell are you doing?
I snap open my eyes and wriggle out of his grasp, enraged with him, and with myself for succumbing so easily to his touch. My gaze shoots to the warehouses, then to Shala’s car, but there’s no movement. Relief swamps me. If we’d missed our chance because of?—
“Do you ever let yourself go, Lola?”
“Yes,” I hiss, resenting the insinuation. “But not when we’re supposed to be on a stakeout with my sister’s life on the line.”
“I may be a man, but I can multitask. I had it under control. You closed your eyes, but I had mine wide open.”
“Is that what that was about? A way of proving you can do more than one thing at a time?”
Draven comes up behind me, his breath warm on the back of my neck. He slips his arms around my waist, resting his chin on the top of my head, but I don’t have the mental strength to push him away. Dammit, I don’t want to push him away.
“I bet you come fast,” he murmurs. “Should make for a fun night when I finally get you into my bed.”
I clench my jaw. “Confident, much.”
“What’s your record, Lola?” he asks, ignoring my sarcastic response.
I remain still, my focus straight ahead. “What are you talking about?”
“Orgasms in a night? What’s your record, because whatever it is, I’m gonna smash it.”
I force a swallow, and my palms slick with sweat despite the chill in the night air. “Stop, Draven.”
He nibbles my earlobe, forcing me to draw in a ragged, juddering breath.
“You won’t say that when I’ve got you naked beneath me.”
“You don’t even like me. You’ve made that very clear.”
“I don’t need to like you to fuck you.”
I spin around, my insides twisting with a longing I don’t understand. Draven brings out dark desires I’ve never had before. The kind I wouldn’t have thought myself capable of.
“See, that’s where women and men are different. I do need to like you to fuck you, and I don’t. Like you, that is.”
He bends his head and catches my bottom lip between his teeth, his tongue sweeping along the inside. “Liar. If we were here under different circumstances, you’d fuck me right this second in this dirty alleyway. You’d let me slide my thick cock into your hot, soaking pussy, and bang you until you couldn’t see straight.” He breathes in through his nose. “I can smell your desire, Lola. I meant what I said. We get Kiera back and then you’re mine. I promise it’ll be a night you’ll never forget.”
He dots kisses along my jawline, pausing at my ear. “And for the record, I do like you, and you like me, so let’s stop lying to each other.” He gently cups my chin, tilting my head back so he can stare into my eyes, the intensity in his gaze making me weak at the knees. “Everything will be okay, Lola. Trust me.”
A ribbon of lust winds its way around my stomach, but I avert my gaze, unwilling to let him see the effect his words have on my mind and emotions—my body. His self-assured, cocky attitude might be a turn-off for some, but not for me. The things that annoy me the most about him are also the traits I find most attractive. I like our spats and get off on how roughly he handles me. Our verbal sparring turns me on in a way no other man has ever achieved. Yet the rare moments of tenderness are my undoing.
Before I can answer, the sound of a lock scraping reaches us, and I freeze, my eyes trained on the warehouse to the left. Shala appears, followed by two of his security team—the same guys we argued with in the club. There’s no sign of the third man who’d accompanied them here, though. One of the guys locks up, pockets the key, and gets in the driver’s side. Shala climbs into the back of his car with the second security guard, and it pulls away, disappearing around the corner.
“Game on,” Draven murmurs, making a move.
“Wait.” I grip his forearm. “Let’s call it in. We need backup.”
“Not yet. We don’t even know if the women are inside. Shala could be keeping anything in there: drugs, guns, stolen vehicles, even his mama’s birthday present. You wanna explain to the FBI why we called them unnecessarily?” Draven reaches into his jacket and pulls out a handgun. “Stay here. Let me have a scout around.”
“No,” I insist through gritted teeth. “You promised you’d do this my way. It’s my career on the line if this all goes wrong.”
His nostrils flare as he drives out a harsh sigh. “For fuck’s sake, all I’m gonna do is go around the far side of the warehouse and check things out. I’ll be back in five minutes. If the women are here, then we’ll call it in.”
Before I can counter, he breaks cover and darts around the side of the warehouse.
Goddammit!