Chapter 7
Seven Hours Later
My boots haven’t hit the porch when Mako’s ringtone stops me.
I step away from the door, keeping my voice low. "Give it to me."
"You awake enough for this?"
That’s not how Mako starts calls. The man leads with data. Facts first. Feelings never.
"Talk."
"I cracked the dark web link from her files. The one scrawled on the bottom of that document. It’s an auction site. Was an auction site. It’s been scrubbed, but I pulled cached pages before they disappeared."
The air changes around me. That prickling sensation at the base of my skull that’s kept me alive on four continents.
"What kind of auction?"
Mako doesn’t answer right away, but makes a rough sound. "They were auctioning people."
I close my eyes. Open them. Scan the dark tree line out of habit while my insides turn to concrete.
"Three confirmed matches to Jade’s so far," he says, his tone dark as I feel. "Two women reported missing out of Tennessee in the last eighteen months. One male, twenty-four, dropped off the radar in Texas. No body recovered on any of them."
My hand tightens on the porch railing until the wood groans.
"There’s more. The site doesn’t just list product. There’s an event section. Live events. The language is coded, but not well. They’re selling tickets to hunt people."
Cold slides through my mind, down my throat, and settles at the bottom of my stomach like a stone dropped into a frozen lake.
"How much traffic did this site get?"
"Enough to fund a small army. We’re talking seven figures per event based on the wallet addresses I traced. Crypto, but sloppy crypto. These guys are arrogant."
I pace three steps. Stop. Pace back.
"The link was on a document in her father’s files."
"Yeah." Mako lets that sit. "Which means her old man is either a customer, a supplier, or a middleman. None of those options are good for Jade."
The realization rewires everything.
"Mako, the assault wasn’t a warning to keep quiet. It was an assessment."
Silence. Then, "Explain."
"He hit her. Watched how she reacted. Whether she’d run, fight, or freeze. Then he followed us to see if she had protection or if she was alone."
"Jesus Christ." My spine locks, steel tight.
"She was being scouted. For the list."
Another pause. I hear computer keys clicking. Mako’s already running something.
"If that’s true, then whoever’s running the operation knows she’s in the wind. And they know she has the files."
"Which means they know she can connect the dots."
"Ryker, you need to move her. Assume it’s compromised within twenty-four hours."
"Copy."
"And Ryker? Don’t let her out of your sight. These people don’t leave loose ends. They auction them."
The call ends and I stand on the porch for thirty seconds, letting the operator take control. Sorting the information into compartments.
But underneath all of it, beneath the training and the discipline and the years of controlled violence, a violent monster cracks open.
A fury so deep it doesn’t have a name.
They were going to take her. Sell her. Hunt her.
Over my dead fucking body.
I practically tear the safe house door off of the hinges.
Camile jumps out of the way as I barrel into the hallway bathroom with my gear bag in my fists.
Shower.
Jade.
That order.
I’m not getting close to her reeking of stress sweat. Most of which my body leaked out because of what Mako just told me.
"She’s doing great," Camile calls through the bathroom door as I tear my clothes off.
Two minutes. That’s all I need.
The cold water hits my face, doing nothing to extinguish whatever the hell is burning under my skin.
Soap. Shampoo. Towel.
Barely drying off, I shove my legs into a pair of clean briefs and jeans from my duffel.
I brush my teeth with one hand while I shake out a clean Agile Security & Rescue T-shirt.
Is that a giggle outside the door?
Fucking insanity. Now I’m hearing things.
When I whip the door open the hallway is empty. But I hear her. Laughing softly, that throaty sound she only shared with me once.
I’m addicted. I’m terrified of how possessive and protective I am.
Prowling like a hungry lion, I move through the house. Single minded.
I find them in the living room with the lights low and mugs of cocoa on the coffee table.
Jade is curled in the corner of a couch with a plaid-wool blanket over her lap. Her hair’s down, flowing soft as a river of gold.
My heart nearly exits the top of my head when she looks up and locks eyes with me.
Man down.
"Ryker," she says softly.
Move.
Do something.
Instead, I rub my hand over my open mouth. "You good?" I finally succeed in asking.
Of course I knew she was good. I’ve had constant radio communications with the safe house tonight. But still...
"Much better now that you guys are back."
"Got here as fast as I could."
Christ. I can’t take it. She’s sitting there smiling at me and she has no idea what Mako just told me. What they planned for her.
"Mind if we speak alone?" I ask, lucky I remember how to form words with my blood moving like lava.
Allison’s eyes get really fucking wide. She pinches her lips together, hiding a grin, as she grabs Camile’s hand and drags her from the room.
Alone.
I thought Jade and I would go somewhere instead.
Not to the bedroom. NOT.
"That was fast," I choke out. "They ran like they saw a bomb."
She glances toward the kitchen then back at me, with a little lift of her shoulder. "You do look kind of...volatile."
"That’s because I am," I say, husky as fuck.
Jade throws the blanket off and pops up off of the couch. She walks up to me, cautiously almost. Until we’re toe-to-toe and I’m DYING to touch her.
She looks at my chest, exploring the logo on my shirt. Sliding her inspection higher to my throat, finally stopping at my mouth.
The sound of my willpower breaking can probably be heard in the next county. My hand snakes around her back, dragging her into me.
"You were still too far away," I half-growl.
Melting into my grip, she breathes against my chest, the warmth driving through my shirt and right into my blood.
Without thinking, I thread the calloused tips of my fingers into her hair, trying not to shake.
Be easy.
Slow.
Don’t take more from her.
"I’m glad you’re safe," she murmurs, her hands finding the belt loops on the side of my jeans and grabbing on.
The clench I’ve got on my abs makes me dizzy.
"Jade," I murmur in a thick voice.
She tips her face up. Half bruised. One hundred-percent trusting.
"If you don’t want me to kiss you," I warn, "you need to tell me now."
Her delicate tongue slips across her lower lip.
"And if I want you to?" she asks in an equally husky tone.
My neck tips back and I stare at the ceiling as I count to ten, all while I carefully slip my fingers through her hair. Because you’d have to drag me away to make me stop touching her.
"Christ," I rasp.
The tide inside me is rising and rising until I make a sound deep enough to shake the floor. I can’t take it any longer.
Fisting her hair I tilt her head back, letting myself see what I’ve been trying so hard to ignore.
Need. The dangerous kind.
More explosive than a shape charge.
"Please," she whispers lifting up on her toes and I fold her back over my arm, biting the corner of her jaw before drawing my lips across the unbruised side of her face, dragging her scent in with desperate inhales.
"You’re ruining my control," I rasp against her mouth, tugging her lower lip between mine. God damn, she’s sweet. So fucking tempting.
When she whimpers, it unleashes the beast in me.
I take what I’ve been dying for all night.
Flexing my fingers in her hair, I get my first taste of Jade. A big, greedy, deep exploration of new lands. My tongue is rough against hers, taking her trembling moan down my throat.
The way we twist and slide our tongues together is feral.
Dammit. Some part of me knew this would happen.
Ignored the warning bells.
"I’m crossing every line," I grind out between ragged breaths. "But I can’t keep my hands off you."
"I know," she replies and kisses me again. Gone is the shy, hesitant woman I pulled out of that store.
She’s pulling my hair, taking as much as I am. We’re one degree from biting each other as I draw her higher against my body, my cock turning into a battering ram against her stomach.
Too far, Ryker.
Only I can’t stop. Not when her arms are around my neck and she’s clinging to me like she can’t get close enough.
"Ouch!"
I freeze, my blood solidifying. Oh fuck. I come back to earth and realize I’m gripping her face. Hurting the bruised skin.
"God, baby," I choke out, my heart ripping down the middle. "I’m so sorry."
"It’s okay, you didn’t mean to."
She’s still trembling, breathing in little fast bursts. She searches my face, the uncertainty returning behind those pretty eyes. A tear slides down her cheek.
It’s worse than a knife between the ribs.
"Ah god, Jade. Tell me I didn’t hurt you."
Color still darkening her cheeks, she drops her eyes. "No. It’s okay. I mean it was a little painful, but it’s nothing."
When I catch that tear, she shivers under my touch and I wish I could rewind. Walk into the room again, start all over.
"So...um," she murmurs as she slips from my arms, pushing both hands into her hair. "Are you off duty for the night?"
I nod, barely able to move a muscle.
"Camile said we could all fix dinner together."
"Sure."
How long will it take me to bleed out?
She goes on, "I think that we figured out somewhere I can go since you’re working this case, and all of your people are busy. Truck has a cousin, some guy in the Army, who can hang out at a safe house with me. I could stay there, hide out, until I figure out some things."
Now I’m dead on the inside.
"You want to go there with him?" I ask, my tone hollow as a drum.
My mind screams for her to say no. But that’s not what happens.
"I think it makes sense." She twists her hands together, looking small, and so damned vulnerable. "It would be safer than being on my own."
Her own?!?
A thousand words ball up in my throat and not a single one of them comes out.
Staying with Truck’s ARMY-fucking-friend?
Are you kidding me. Fuck NO.
But then my focus zeroes in on that goddamned handprint on her perfect skin and I remember what she’s had taken from her.
Everything.
Safety. Comfort. Trust.
Her father’s abuse runs through her veins.
That bastard marked her skin, dragged her down another degree and I won’t do anything else to threaten her emotions.
Jade will be safe, but I will not take her freedom from her.
"When do you want to go?" I ask, hollowed out to the marrow, already calculating how I’ll keep her safe from afar.
Even as I say it, Mako’s voice echoes through my skull. These people don’t leave loose ends. They auction them.
I can’t tell her. Not yet. Not with that bruise on her face and the fear she’s barely holding back.
But there is no way in hell she’s leaving my sight.
"They said the Agile Security & Rescue private jet can take us any time."
I’m going to beat the living shit out of Truck.
That’s all there is to it. And that Army friend, he’s about to find out what an angry SEAL is capable of.
With my throat and chest now in a permanent clench, I take a step toward her.
Reality is sinking in, clawing me apart.
"I’m trying to be a good man here," I say as I stop in front of her, forcing myself to be very careful.
"But I am not strong enough to let you go stay with some other man without telling you I hate that idea with every fucking cell in my body."
All her nervous motions including the hand twisting and blinking halt. She stops wetting her lips—the mouth I just owned the fuck out of—and breathlessly looks at me.
Time suspends.
A storm roars inside my temples.
"You guys coming to dinner?" Allison calls from the kitchen as other voices carry on talking about something completely inconsequential compared to this.
Everything hinges on this moment.
We don’t go to the kitchen.
She touches her throat, running delicate fingers over her pulse as she shifts between her feet.
Then she moves toward me, stepping into my arms as I open them for her.
"I’m so glad you said that," she says with a trembling voice.
Fuck. Me. Sideways.
"So am I."