Chapter 28
Axle AND Colt are on me as I cross the yard. Dogs on a bone.
“Do you know what that was about?” Axle asks, scowl locked on his face.
I unclench my jaw. Count to ten. “He probably got my public records. Easy enough.”
Axle snorts as he shoves the face-cover he just took off into his back pocket.
“Then why do you look like you swallowed a bomb, mate?”
Without thought, my hand presses to my knotted up abs. Feels like I swallowed something explosive too.
We close the distance to the house and as expected, Axle puts himself in front of me, blocking the entrance. “She was listening to that. You’re going to have to answer to us and her. Might as well do it now. Practice makes perfect, you know.”
A vibration simmers through me. This mother fucker likes to push buttons.
“My brother’s name is Brandt Stowe. Or it was. Who knows what it is now. He’s six years older—”
I search for the right words to finish. There are never any easy words when it comes to him.
Colt and Axle hold their stance on either side of me. Symbolically caging me in. Waiting.
The pressure rises inside my veins. I’m not sure if it’s them or Brandt.
“We don’t have a relationship. Haven’t for a long time.” I stare at the front door ready for this conversation to be done. “He likes to create trouble.”
“I’ve spent a career solving it.”
“What kind of trouble?” Colt asks.
“Big money. People who know people.” I roll my shoulder, trying to work out the knot that’s been sitting there since Trevor said the name. “He’s not a good man. Charismatic—the dangerous kind.”
That draws them a few inches closer.
“This Trevor bastard really knows him?”
“Claims to.” I hold up a hand before either of them can run with it. “Trevor’s cornered. He’s smart enough to know the best card he can play is one that rattles me. The play that shakes up the whole investigation.”
They both turn this over in their heads and share a glance.
Meanwhile this bitch headache is growing to the size of a wrecking ball. I press two fingers hard against my temple. “He rattled me, I’ll admit that.”
“Do I hear a but in that statement?” Colt asks as he props a foot on the front steps of the house.
“Rattling me doesn’t make it true, even if it gives Trevor what he wants—a distraction or an emotional time-bomb.”
None of us moves.
“We have to chase it,” Axle says.
“Correct.” The word comes out sounding like tumbled gravel. “Right now I need to check on Jade. Then we deal with this like we do any other leads.”
Neither of them argue and both step out of the way, but I can feel them watching as I go.
I hit the head, wash my hands. Splash my face. Look at myself in the mirror and try not to see Brandt reflected back.
We’re definitely brothers. If he had been younger we might have been called twins.
Christ. When was the last time I thought about him?
Giving myself a mental shake I go to Jade.
She’s in the armchair by the fireplace when I push open the study door. The scene could be considered serene. Relaxing with June’s head in her lap.
But the air says otherwise. And the dark tablet on the desk beside her, is the reminder she just faced her abuser.
When she looks up from June, her eyes say it all. She got hit by an emotional freight train.
My insides pretzel, a shard hangs in my throat as I close the door and cross the room.
Jade searches my face when I crouch in front of her chair so we’re eye level.
June’s tail thumps on the floor, but she doesn’t move.
“How are my girls?”
I give June a scratch behind the ears, and the tension eases around my temples, just enough for my vision to clear.
“I’m… exhausted.” Jade reaches for me, brushing her thumb along my jaw. “You are too.”
I don’t know what to say except, “I’m sorry for what he said.”
“That’s not your fault.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t be worried about the impact it had on you.”
She shrugs, but pain is radiating off of her.
“He’s a monster. You can’t be responsible for what people like him can do.”
My mind circles back to Brandt. I can take responsibility. And I will.
“That took a turn,” I say, forcing my tone neutral. “We didn’t get much intel out of him. I know that you were interested in that to see if you could put any pieces together.”
“Why did he say that about you having a brother?”
I try not to react, but can feel the tension around my mouth.
“To distract us. To make it emotional. Not that this wasn’t emotional already, but he wanted to throw me. Hell, the whole team.”
“Do you have a brother?” She asks as she smoothes the wrinkles at the corner of my eye.
“Yes, we’re not close. Brandt was six when I was born, so we didn’t grow up together.”
I reach for her, unable to keep my hands away any longer.
“You sure you’re okay after seeing him?”
“It was what it was. Sure it was upsetting. It was also freeing. He looked so… small.”
“Are you sure you want to watch the recordings?”
She nods quickly. “Yes, I want to do my part.”
After a pause, Jade strokes her fingers along my forearm, her gaze thoughtful. “Do you think Trevor’s telling the truth?”
“I think he knows something. Whether it’s the whole truth or a piece of it strung together to hit me where it hurts—” I shake my head. “I don’t know yet. I cut the feed because I needed to think, and because he was performing. He wasn’t going to give us anything else useful with an audience.”
Her fingers move slowly through June’s fur.
“What does it mean for the investigation?” she asks.
I shift, lowering down to one knee. “We’ll be chasing it down. Just like every other lead. It’s probably smart for me to step down due to conflict of interest.”
“Is that what you want?”
I flip my gaze up to meet hers. “No. Not at all. But I’ll do what’s honorable by the team.”
She leans in and wraps her arms around my neck. “I haven’t told you that I love you in a while.”
God. A tight sound claws through my vocal cords.
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
June grumbles, she’s getting squished. “Break,” I tell her. “Go on.”
She slips out from between us and spreads out on the carpet near our feet.
Once she’s out of the way, I pull Jade close, splitting her legs open, inserting myself right into the vee of her legs.
“What are you doing, big shot?”
“I’m getting you in my arms.”
“Oh,” she says, “I like that idea.”
When I get her against me, I release a long-held breath. “Yeah, that’s a million times better.”
“What about this?” Jade whispers, brushing her lips over mine.
“Essential,” I growl, and slant my mouth over hers. In one second flat we’re stroking our tongues together, hands roaming, breathing growing choppy.
Jade moans, wiggling back and forth, dragging her nipples over me, so I get my hand under her sweater ASAP.
God damn. She’s sweet.
Those tight, raspberry nipples are making my cock pulse like a drumbeat.
I growl into her mouth. “We need to stop.”
“Yes. We do.”
Only I can’t.
Everything about her makes it impossible to pull away. The way she drags me in tighter with her arms and squeezes me with those soft thighs. Especially the way she just opens right up to my kiss, turning pliant in my hands, taking my plundering tongue and matching it with delicate strokes.
I’m addicted. So fucking hooked.
When we’re out of air and about to go somewhere we should not go when I’ve got a team meeting, I drag my mouth away.
“Goodness,” she breathes, pushing her hair back. “That got hot fast.”
“I’m burning for you,” I steal one more kiss, letting the callouses on my palm drag over her nipple as I pull my hand free of her bra.
A little whimper slips from her open, kiss-wet mouth.
“Tonight,” I murmur, tracing my hand down, gripping her thigh, up high, close to the place it meets her pussy.
She blinks at me, and a slow smile spreads. “I’ll be counting the hours.”
A loud thump outside in the hallway makes me curse. June’s head is up, her ears twitching toward the door.
“It’s okay, girl. Just the boys getting ready for our meeting.” I turn to Jade, taking her hand in mine. “I’d like for you to come with me.”
“To the meeting?” her voice goes up.
“I want you read in on all the intel. We will be able to use your inside information about Trevor and your father.”
“Oh. Oh.” She leans forward slightly, eager, but looking confused. “I feel honored. I’m a little shocked. I didn’t expect that.”
Her reaction to being included crushes my heart in an iron fist. She’s never been included.
I smooth her hair back and kiss her forehead. “You’re important to me, Jade. I want you with me whenever you can be.”
The way she softens, cinches my throat up too.
“Okay. Thank you for treating me like a human.”
Fuck. I drag her into my arms for a hug that’s probably too tight.
When I let her go she’s grinning. “That’s got to be the most powerful hug in the world.”
“Come on. Before I decide not to share you with the team.”
The conference room goes quiet the moment we walk in.
“Jade’s sitting in.”
Nods. Murmured hellos. No pushback. I pull out a seat for Jade and scoot her in as June sticks by her side.
I don’t sit before I dive in. I put it out there with no cushion, no runway.
“Trevor dropped my brother’s name during the live session. Brandt Stowe is his name.”
I look at each of them. “He may have been stabbing in the dark. But he nailed some important details. He clocked my voice. Said same build. He referenced a neck tattoo. All of that’s accurate.”
Colt taps some notes into his laptop. Everyone else files the facts mentally.
“Brandt’s exactly the kind of person to be associated with something like this dark web gambling ring.”