Chapter 12
If I won the lottery, I’d still be the same asshole. Only , I’d get a pirate ship. I’d arm it to the tits. Hire crew. Drink before noon. Oh , and hunt down real pirates.
— Shayne to Quinn
QUINN
I was in a piss poor mood.
My calf ached.
Someone still wouldn’t return my call.
Oh , and now I had to run a fuckin’ raid on the house that she lived in.
Overall , life was fucking awesome right now.
“ What are you so glum about?” Elliette asked as she took up the seat next to me.
Elliette was a great girl. A great friend.
Honestly , I would call her one of my best friends.
But there were times when I didn’t want anything to do with her, because she never knew how to leave well-enough alone.
This was one of those times.
The only reason I was here was to be a designated driver for my brothers.
Even worse, I’d had to drive from thirty minutes away to do it.
Last month, when I’d moved into my new place over by Quaid and Quincy , I’d thought it would be great.
But then I realized rather quickly that all the driving I was about to have to do was going to fuckin’ suck. It especially sucked when I was having to come in during the middle of the night for shit that couldn’t wait until my regularly scheduled shifts.
Needless to say, this was the last place I wanted to be.
And listening to Elliette , who just so happened to be here on the night she knew I was going out with my brothers, pissed me off.
Again , Elliette was a great girl. But sometimes she couldn’t read the fuckin’ room.
Like right now.
I didn’t want to talk.
I didn’t want to be here.
Yet , she just kept pushing.
“ Why aren’t you drinking?” Elliette asked again.
I didn’t bother to answer.
Truthfully , I wasn’t planning on answering. I’d already told her twice that I was here for a reason.
Sure , I hadn’t told her that I was driving the drunks home. But she didn’t need to know my every life detail.
“ He’s our designated driver,” Garrett said as he dropped into the seat beside me. “ Water ?”
“ Water ,” I grumbled. “ I’m about four bottles short.”
I’d been thirsty for the last fuckin’ hour, but I hadn’t had a damn drop in my truck as I drove over here. And , unluckily for me, I’d hit traffic and had to sit on I -30 for thirty extra minutes.
“ You still trying to hit a gallon?” he asked.
“ I’m trying,” I answered him. “ But …”
I trailed off because my heart seized inside my chest at the sight of the beautiful, raven-haired woman walking into the bar.
I would know that hair anywhere.
“ Why are you trying to hit a gallon of water a day?” Elliette wondered.
I ignored her and stood up, making my way to the woman across the bar from me.
Shayne’s parents were Honduran and Italian .
Her long, black hair that hung down to her waist was a sleek curtain that covered nearly her entire back from view. But when she turned, and I got a look at the curves I loved so much, my heart started to pound.
She was here.
Her pale gray eyes lifted, and our gazes locked across the bar as I moved in her direction.
Though she didn’t smile, the relief on her face as she saw me moving toward her let me know that she cared. She cared a whole fuck of a lot.
She’d heard that I’d been hurt.
I mean, sure, she’d probably heard from my sister, who went out of her way to tell us both how stupid we were, that I was fine. But I knew, just as well as she did, that we wouldn’t have been okay until we saw for ourselves that the other was fine if the other had been hurt.
Her eyes narrowed when Elliette popped up beside me. “ Where are you going?”
I ignored her and kept walking, losing her with my long stride in the crowded bar.
People didn’t move for her like they did for me.
And Shayne had my brother at her side, paving the way.
My heart literally ached at the sight of her.
God , she did things to my heart that would never be fully healed unless she was mine again.
And even then, there was a possibility that the guilt of letting her go would continue to eat away at me until I died.
“ How’d you find me?” I asked the moment we were close enough.
She looked at me, then away from me at Elliette who popped up at my side, leaning into me.
I stepped away and Elliette stumbled.
“ Give us a minute, please,” I said to Gable and Elliette .
Gable , being one of my smart brothers, snorted and caught Elliette by the arm.
As he was leaving I heard him say, “ Why are you even here right now? You know that this is a guys’ night.”
Elliette’s reply was swift. “ She’s here.”
The way she said ‘she’ made my teeth clench.
I didn’t know what Elliette’s deal with Shayne was, but it was getting pretty fuckin’ old.
Apparently , Shayne felt the same way because she said, “ What’s her fuckin’ problem?”
She said it loud enough that Elliette turned.
Gable caught her arm and kept her moving.
I hooked my hand around Shayne’s waist and pulled her into me. “ How’d you find me?”
“ I went to your apartment.”
I winced. “ I moved. Actually , I sent you the address. Remember ?”
She frowned. “ I don’t remember getting a text about an address change.”
I pulled out my phone and went to our messages, starting to scroll up.
I winced when I saw the red dot beside it that said ‘undeliverable.’
“ Here it is,” I said. “ It didn’t send. Stupid reception at the station. We’re in the middle of fuckin’ Dallas , and we can’t get a fuckin’ signal to save our lives sometimes.”
“ The Angel Flight station doesn’t have very good signal either,” she admitted, her eyes staying on Elliette .
I clenched her waist and pulled her in tighter to me.
“ I’m okay,” I said softly, right against her ear.
She pressed against me, her shoulders sagging. “ Good .”
I liked that she cared.
She could act unaffected by me all she wanted, but she still loved me just as much as I loved her.
Which only made what was about to happen tomorrow all the worse.
I couldn’t very well tell her what was about to happen.
I also couldn’t not tell her something.
She’d never forgive me if I didn’t.
“ You want to go grab some dinner?” I asked. “ Then you can come out to my new place.”
She looked at her watch. “ Dinner sounds good, but I can’t come out to your place. That address you showed me is over forty minutes away, and I have to be on shift tomorrow by ten in the morning. It’s already nine.”
That was true.
We had guys’ night so late because all of the brothers were on different shift times. Garrett and Quincy were on an eleven to seven shift at the moment. I had the day off along with Auden . The rest of them were on shift from eight to four.
Needless to say, we either didn’t meet at all, or we met late.
“ What about your guys’ night?” she asked, eyeing my brothers who were now laughing and carrying on surrounding one of the bar’s pool tables.
“ We can go hang out for a bit, figure out who’s gonna be the DD if I’m not here,” I said as I tucked her hand in mine. Right where it belonged. “ Then we’ll head out.”
“ Okay ,” she said softly, not pulling her hand away from mine.
We came to a stop next to Garrett who was at the end of the table, lining up his shot.
“ Which one of you is still sober?” I asked the crowd.
“ I am,” Gable said. “ Don’t really feel like drinking all that much anyway.”
His eyes went to Shayne , then flitted away, letting me know that we were on the same page.
We didn’t want to do what we were about to do tomorrow.
Fuckin ’ A .
I had to warn her in some way.
Elliette , knowing what was happening tomorrow, who was also on the team to help serve the warrant, gave me a narrow-eyed look, as if she was half-expecting me to warn her of what was about to happen.
I narrowed my eyes at her, not liking the way she was acting.
If I wanted to fuckin’ tell her, I would.
She needed to back the fuck off.
“ Good ,” I said. “ I’m taking Shayne out to eat, then we’re going to her place.”
They all knew what would happen at her place.
Shayne knew what would happen at her place.
Elliette stiffened. “ Do you think that’s wise, Quinn ?”
I gritted my teeth and said, “ We’ll see y’all later, brothers.”
“ What was that about?” Shayne said as I guided her outside.
“ That’s fuckin’ Elliette , butting herself into my business like she has a right to be there,” I grumbled darkly.
“ Trouble in paradise with your best friend?” she asked as we walked to our usual haunt, the KFC that resided on the corner.
We’d pick up the food and walk back to her place, which used to be within walking distance of mine. We always went to mine, because the thought of being in her space always left me with a deep feeling of sadness. She didn’t know that was why I always suggested mine.
But when she was at my place, and the smell of her was left on my pillows and sheets, her half-filled Dr . Pepper bottles left on my counter… it allowed me to pretend that she was there. That I hadn’t lost her so completely.
I was already regretting the move…
I’d probably never have her smell on my sheets again.
I’d never be able to bury my head in a pillow and pretend that she’d be back any second.
She’d probably do everything in her power never to come over to my new place.
Fuck , I hated my life.
“ Quinn ?” Shayne nudged me, reminding me of where we were and what we were doing. But also the question she’d asked me before I’d gone into la-la land.
We ordered, and then I leaned my hip on the counter as I explained. “ Elliette has always been a bit of a pain in the ass. I mean, she’s very clingy. But she’s like that with everyone, so I don’t think I’m anything special. It’s just that she doesn’t know how to read the room. I wasn’t in a good mood, and she’s trying to remind me of responsibilities.”
“ Responsibilities that include you not hanging out with me, or having anything to do with me, since I’m a sister of a criminal,” she mused.
I gritted my teeth.
“ I know that I’m not very popular at the station,” she murmured. “ I’ve gone and bailed his ass out of jail one too many times, and everyone there hates me because I’m the woman who keeps giving him second chances. I deserve the hate. But I just…” she dropped her head to her chest. “ After Nonna died, and he still didn’t clean up his act… I’m done now, Quinn .”
My heart all but soared at her words.
She’d never been that absolute before.
She’d always been very wishy-washy when it came to her brother.
But the way she sounded right then, my heart was doing that weird palpitation/racing thing it liked to do when I thought maybe she’d give me a chance…
“ How done?” I asked.
“ Done enough that if you were to arrest him, I probably wouldn’t care.” She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at me.
“ Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.
“ Because you put your brother in Costas’s path and didn’t warn me to watch out for him. Do you realize what would have happened if Costas had found out?” she whisper hissed.
I crossed my arms over my chest and said, “ You know that I can’t warn you about stuff like that.”
“ Yeah , and if something had happened to him, and I could’ve prevented it, then I would never forgive you,” she claimed.
I sighed, allowing my head to fall back. “ I didn’t have a choice. It’s my job, Shayne . I can’t pick and choose which rules to follow. You , better than most, should know this.”
She looked away.
“ Order number 123!” a voice called from directly behind us.
I rolled my eyes, caught the bag up from the man, and looked into it to make sure we had everything.
We didn’t.
“ You’re missing her chicken wings,” I said matter-of-factly.
The man rolled his eyes, as if I’d just caused him great harm, and ambled off to get them.
“ Glad you checked,” Shayne muttered darkly.
I could tell she was glaring at the man.
If there was one woman on this planet who took her food seriously, it was Shayne .
I’d never seen a woman get so bent out of shape when it came to the things she ate.
God help us if the man had forgotten, and we’d gotten all the way to her place, and she couldn’t eat them.
“ Me , too,” I agreed as the man came back with the wings.
I counted them to make sure they were all there, then we headed out, back to her place.
We passed by mine, and then she was back to asking about my new place. “ Why did you move?”
I explained about the house I’d had built—one that was extremely close to what she’d told me she wanted when we were younger.
“ My brothers and I all bought parcels of land,” I explained. “ We liked the setup that Ande has with her husband and his family. Mom and Dad are even considering building in the same cul-de-sac.”
“ But they just built.” Shayne frowned.
“ True ,” I agreed. “ But they’re hoping that all these grandbabies will start happening now that Quincy and Quaid have found people.”
Quincy was less recent than Quaid , but there was definitely something going on that was serious between him and his girl, Ellodie .
“ Ahh ,” she laughed as she pulled out her keys and opened the door.
I fuckin’ hated her place.
Mostly because I couldn’t stand knowing that she was living with a gang banger and a drug dealer.
The only good thing I could say was that when Shayne was home, Costas mostly wasn’t.
We went straight to her room, bypassing everything.
I couldn’t say that I went to her place all that much. In fact, the last time I’d been here had been the day her Nonna had died.
But there was just something incredibly eerie about it.
Like without her Nonna here, the place wasn’t the same.
I wasn’t quite sure I should even be here, since there was a raid being run on her house the next day.
Fuck .
I really needed to warn her in some way.
But the moment we got into her room, the food was all but forgotten.
She turned, her foot caught on the rug, and then she was careening toward me.
I dropped the food almost out of instinct, caught her up in my arms, and pulled her into me.
She blinked in surprise, then we were kissing.
I’m not sure who moved first.
Her or me, it didn’t matter.
What did matter was the way she felt in my arms.
The way her mouth tasted like mine.
The way she was pressing into me deeply, urging me to take what was mine. What had been mine forever.
I knew, without a single doubt, that we both belonged to each other. Neither one of us had ever slept with anyone since we’d met.
I was hers, irrevocably and inconceivably.
Body , heart, and soul, I belonged to her.
I just needed her to admit it to herself…
Her hands went to the tails of my shirt, and then she was tugging it off of me, ripping it inside out and tossing it to the floor in her haste to get to me.
I followed suit with her shirt, then my pants went, dropping to the floor to pile around my boots.
Her stuffy pilot clothes all went sailing, and then she was naked and willing in my arms.
Our mouths collided once again, and I had to do a weird waddle to the bed to keep from falling face first into the ground, her underneath me.
Once there, I gently placed her on the bed.
I needed mobility when I took her, because it’d been too long.
It’d been two months, sixteen days, and one hour.
I knew because I’d been counting down the days until I could see her again.
“ You’re thinking too hard,” she accused when she pulled away. “ Stop it and get inside of me.”
I didn’t reach for the condoms.
I never did.
We had an understanding since we were young and dumb.
I would never, ever be inside of her gloved.
Her pussy was mine, and my cock was hers. There was already too much between us. We didn’t need that, too.
I lined my cock up with her entrance and eased inside, giving her time to adjust like I always did.
She mewled as she arched her back, her shoulders digging into the bed and her tits thrusting upward.
Like always, I dropped down to pull her pert nipples between my lips.
“ Fuck ,” she breathed. “ How do you do this to me?’
I didn’t know.
I wish I did, because maybe I could stop myself from trying so hard. Give her something to miss.
“ You were meant to be mine,” I said instead. “ You’ve always been mine. When something belongs to you, you learn everything about it, inside and out, to make sure you can bring them absolute pleasure. I’ve been mastering the art of you since you first let me inside you, Shayne Rodriguez .”
She shivered in pleasure, her hips circling, urging me on.
I moved inside her, building her higher and higher, helping her chase what she needed.
And the moment her pussy started to clench around my cock, drenching me with her pleasure, I let loose. I forced my cock inside of her, so deep she’d feel me for the next couple of days, and came.
Her outer thigh would have bruises tomorrow from my fingertips as they clenched onto her skin.
She didn’t care, though.
She was just as possessive as I was.
She liked when I left marks.
She liked when I made every other man know I was hers.
Maybe that’s what I needed to do.
Maybe I should just force her to be mine.
Maybe that was the key…
“ Our food is getting cold,” she breathed when we came down from the high of each other.
I curled a piece of her hair around her ear and said, “ Fuck the food.”
Hours later, as I got dressed, I contemplated what I should do.
I knew I couldn’t say anything.
But I could warn her.
And I could dress her.
Shayne was a heavy sleeper, so she didn’t notice me getting her dressed, or plugging her phone in.
She also didn’t notice me pulling her gun out of her side drawer and tucking it into my pants.
I didn’t want her to have it.
Since the warrant was a no-knock warrant, I didn’t want her to get startled and accidentally start shooting.
That would be a nightmare I didn’t want her to have to deal with.
But it also left her likely freaking out in the morning.
I scrubbed my hands in my hair, mussing the dirty blond locks with my fingers before I went ahead and put socks on her feet next.
Going to her closet, I pulled out a pair of tennis shoes that I’d be taking with me, because I knew she’d be coming to the station barefoot.
They’d pull her in, mostly because Costas was her brother, but they’d let her go immediately.
I would have her shoes waiting for her when she got out.
Then , since I’d made the decision last night that the playing nice thing wasn’t working for me anymore, I packed her a bag.
She wouldn’t be coming back here.
Not if I could help it, anyway.