40. Chapter 40
TIERNEY
My arm stretched out, swiping across the bed, reaching for Ahren, but only finding cold, empty sheets. It took a beat longer than it should have for my sleep-addled brain to register he wasn't here.
Neither of us were emotional creatures, but he had been treating me so well, I allowed myself to hope for more.
He had kept every promise he made me last night, making me feel things I didn't have the words to describe.
Wringing every drop of pleasure from my body, to the point of me begging—telling him I couldn't come any more—and him proving me wrong as he coaxed one final orgasm from my overstimulated body.
It was a level of pure bliss I honestly never thought I'd experience—at least not in this lifetime. But my cold, dead, frozen heart had begun to thaw—had begun longing for tiny moments like waking up in his arms .
I swallowed down the disappointment. Ahren struggled with emotions too, and it wasn't right to demand soft and fluffy—that's just not the man he was.
A sliver of moonlight fell across the bed, providing the only light in the darkened room. In the low light, I could barely make out the shape of my phone on the nightstand. He must have cleaned it and brought it up for me. There was no way he would bring something covered in grime into his bedroom.
I squinted away from the bright light of the screen. "It's only three AM." I grumbled to the empty room.
A few more minutes waffling back and forth, and I dragged my exhausted ass from the bed, slipping one of Ahren's tees over my head, and wandered downstairs in search of him.
I wondered if something happened, or if he had gotten up to check on Larissa. Instead, I found him in the kitchen. Every weapon we had taken with us yesterday was spread across the table, most of them already cleaned.
Leaning in, I pressed my lips to his. "Couldn't sleep?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Sorry. Too much on my mind. I kept tossing and turning. I didn't want to wake you."
"Understandable." I said, dropping in the chair opposite him. "Hell, I guess if you had slept like a baby, that would have been weird."
He laid the knife he was cleaning on the table and took my hand. "I really wanted to spend the night holding you. I hope you know that."
I shrugged it off, tossing him a half smile. But his words soothed the ache from waking up alone.
He dropped back against his chair. "This isn't over. There's something we're missing."
I nodded, still half asleep, but if he needed to talk this out, I could be that for him .
"So, what do we know?"
He jutted his chin toward the refrigerator. Scraps of paper were stuck on the front, bearing his neat handwriting. In the corner, the notes we had received, along with the photos of Larissa.
I stood and walked over, my head tilting to the side to read some sideways notes. "Connor's boyfriend." "Losar" "Jax's map" "Camera range" I'd forgotten most of these details and here he was, trying to piece them together into a strategy. Or maybe he was just desperately grasping at straws.
He stood, raising his arms over his head, stretching his stiff muscles out, and busied himself with the tea while I examined the clues we had.
I was so wrapped up in studying the clues; I didn't notice him until he pressed the mug of hot tea into my hands.
"Thank you." I murmured, breathing in the heady aroma.
He nodded, taking a sip of his own tea.
"Find anything?"
"Yes and no," I said, looking up apologetically.
His brow arched, but he stayed silent, waiting for my explanation.
"The broker. The grove. You." My head shook from side to side as I tried to work out my thoughts. "This person set all this in motion. It started with you. She knows you're a hitter—me, too. How?"
"I'm not exactly low key about it, Kitten." he smirked.
"Yeah, well, maybe from now on, you should be." I threw back playfully.
I sipped my tea slowly as I stared at his makeshift evidence board.
"Our world isn't well known. Even if they figured out that you—have a second job, let's say. How would they know to contact the broker?"
"Fuck. I see your point. "
He ripped a piece of paper from a small pad on the counter, writing "broker" before sticking it to the fridge with the other clues we had yet to make sense of.
"The answer has to be here," he muttered, his eyes raking over the clues as if heavier scrutiny would coerce them into spilling their secrets. In the end, the scraps of paper remained silent.
"I'd say it's time to pay a visit to Larissa's new beau. See what he knows." I shrugged.
He nodded, loosing a long breath through barely parted lips. "We need to take another look at the house where we found Larissa. Remember the last thing Jax said? The kidnapping bitch had to be close to the camera to broadcast."
My eyes flew wide, realization slamming into me.
"The bitch was in the house," he growled. "She was close enough for me to cut her heart out and I let her get away."
"This isn't on you. Larissa was our priority."
"Tell that to Jax. Or are you planning to comfort yourself with that information when the next bullet comes for you?"
"Not. Fucking. Needed." I growled back, folding my arms across my chest.
I stepped up to him, toe to toe. There was no way in hell I was backing down from this. He went from being cold and rational to emotional in the blink of an eye. Honestly, it gave me whiplash.
"Ahren," I said in the softest tone I could find given the moment. "You are not responsible—for any of this."
He turned away, but I cupped his face, bringing it back to mine. "Let's finish this—together."
His jaw tightened to the point I was afraid it might crack, but he nodded .
"I owe her pain." his eyes softened as my hand ghosted over my stomach where my wounds had been. "But I promise you first and last strike, if it will make it feel any better."
The corner of his lips curled up in that sexy half smile I'd come to love, and he nodded.
I bumped my shoulder against his arm. "Don't get used to it, though. It's not fair for you to have all the fun."
That finally earned me a genuine smile. While that sexy smirk gave me an obscene ache in the deepest parts of me, it was his smile that seemed to crack something open in my heart.
His arms dropped to his sides, his rigid posture relaxing.
"I promise to leave plenty of murder and mayhem for you, Kitten." His lips pressed against mine, catching me off guard.
I nearly spilled my tea as my lips eagerly responded, moving against his with more tenderness than I expected after such a tense moment.
"So, what's first?" I asked, my mind still flustered from his kiss.
"Mmmm." he groaned softly.
Pulling back quickly, he schooled his features. "I think we need to go to that house. I can put a bullet in the boyfriend any time."