Chapter 27 #2
The relief that slid into her features was instant. She didn’t have a single doubt that I’d do exactly as I promised. She trusted and believed in me, and damn if that didn’t make me feel like a goddamn king.
“Thank you,” she whispered, leaning in for a kiss.
“Anything, baby. I’ll give you anything you want, always.”
“I have you. I have your love. I think I’m good for now.” Then she shot me a wicked wink that I felt straight in my dick.
With a growl, I flipped her to her back, using my knee to push her thighs apart. “Then let’s see about making you sleep better, yeah? Hopefully I can wear you out enough that you’ll sleep through the night.”
She smiled up at me, giving me that sweet giggle, and just like that, all was right in my world.
Dalton
Two weeks later
My chest was tight with frustration as I stared through the two-way mirror, looking at the piece of shit currently cuffed to a chair in one of the holding rooms in the back of Alpha Omega.
It had taken longer than I’d wanted to track down the son of a bitch who’d hurt my woman, and we’d had to resort to some . . . creative methods, but we finally got him.
And Sage was beside herself that she’d gotten in on the action, getting to wear a disguise to make her look more like Charlotte in the hopes of luring the asshole back to her old apartment.
It had worked, and the nutty woman even got to use her stun-gun on the bastard, nearly cooking him from the inside out, so she was riding a serious adrenaline high that I was sure she was currently working off with her husband, Xander, in the copy room at that very moment.
But as jazzed as she was, I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
My knuckles were busted open, but I barely felt the sting as I clenched and unclenched my fists.
I’d gotten a bit of relief, beating the shit out of the man. His face currently looked like ground beef, and he was clinging to consciousness by the tips of his fingers, but that relief was fleeting, given what he’d said.
“How you wanna play this, brother?”
I looked to Trent who’d just asked the question on behalf of all the men I worked with who were currently standing in the room, waiting for my decision.
When Charlotte had asked me to help find her sister, I hadn’t hesitated. I went into the office the very next morning, bright and early, to talk to Linc about using the firm’s resources to help with the search. He didn’t even blink. Locating Cheyanne Belmont became an all-hands-on-deck situation.
And what we found had chilled each and every one of us to the bone.
Cheyanne Belmont had become Cheyanne Knightly, the wife of a very prominent politician in Ohio.
She had also gone missing three years earlier, and her husband’s face had been splashed across every newspaper and media outlet in that area, pleading with anyone who had information to come forward.
As more time passed, the articles on her disappearance grew bleak, and there was speculation that she was no longer alive.
None of it made any damn sense.
Then there was the prick who’d broken into Charlotte’s apartment. After I had a little fun with him, he’d spilled everything.
I looked back into the holding room. “Anyone else curious why this fucker was paid a small fortune to hunt down the sister of a supposed dead woman?”
After stories of a crooked, small-town cop and the woman he almost killed started airing, it came to the attention of some very high-ranking officials in Ohio that Cheyanne Knightly had a sister no one knew about.
“Can think of a few reasons, and not a damn one of them is good,” Hunter grunted.
That was the same thing I was thinking and the same reason my gut was twisted into knots.
“We’ll find her,” Lincoln declared firmly. “And whatever the fuck is goin’ on, we’ll get her clear of it.”
I had to hope that happened sooner rather than later.
“Drop him at the police station,” I clipped, moving toward the door.
“I’m sure Micah will appreciate the special delivery.
Not that the fucker’ll spend much time in lock-up.
I’m sure once the powers that be who hired him find out we got him, they’ll pull whatever strings they have to in order to keep this prick silent. ”
“Sure you don’t want a few more minutes with him?” Trent asked. “I think he still has one or two teeth you haven’t knocked loose yet.
I hadn’t thought it possible, given the circumstances, but I actually felt my lips pull up in a smirk.
I hadn’t had a good fight since Charlotte and I made things official once and for all, and I hadn’t missed it one damn bit.
Things in my life were good—beyond good—and that beast I had just beneath the surface was in hibernation.
But I’d look at today as a bit of a bonus.
“Nah, I’m good. But feel free to take a turn if you want.”
My buddy gave me a two-finger salute. “Obliged.” Then the asshole smirked and added, “Enjoy dinner.”
And with that, I turned on my boots and headed for the exit.
I’d have given my left nut to avoid dinner at Ms. Weatherby’s house, but since Charlotte had moved in with me for good—mess and all—she’d started to worry about her elderly neighbor getting lonely, so now we had a standing dinner date with her once a week, just so my woman could make sure all was good.
Ms. Weatherby was a trip, and I didn’t mind spending time with the woman; I actually liked it. However, I worried for the state of my digestive system if we kept allowing her to cook.
But if it made Charlotte happy, who was I to refuse? I’d told her before, whatever she wanted, I’d give her.
I just needed to remember to buy Tums on the way home.