Chapter 11
“What an amazing day,” Brooke sighed as she lay curled up in Blake’s arms, sleepy after her hot shower.
Blake had surprised her a couple of days earlier by telling Brooke the pair would be spending this afternoon on her dad’s cruiser yacht, where she expected Brooke to take a much-deserved break.
After some half-hearted pushing back, Brooke had found herself excited at the thought of a day on the water with her butch.
Today had been a perfect day—brilliant sunshine, a perfect temperature since it wasn’t too hot in Florida yet, and calm skies with little chop on the Gulf waters.
Astounded by Blake’s skill as she expertly handled the small yacht, Brooke listened in awe as Blake explained that she had learned everything she knew about seafaring from her dad, who was a master mariner.
“Master mariners,” Blake had told her, “can captain a commercial vessel of any size, of any type, operating anywhere in the world. My dad is amazing with any vessel under his command. Had I not started APS with those assholes I call my best friends,” she had cut her eyes sideways with a droll look at Brooke, who’d giggled, “I may have followed in his footsteps, if I didn’t become a video game designer.
As it is, I love being on the water any chance I get.
I’ve never seen the sense in having a boat of my own before this, though, but that may have to change in the future. ”
After dropping anchor and securing the boat, Blake had taken Brooke into the snug cabin, where the two of them had lost themselves in each other’s bodies, touching and tasting until their passion was sated.
Afterward, Blake had produced a picnic basket with cold roast chicken, succulent peaches, and a bottle of a delicious non-alcoholic sparkling Chardonnay her mother had thoughtfully packed for them.
“I don’t drink when I’m boating, tigress, especially when I’m captaining the ship, but I figured my Italian baby would appreciate some type of wine anyway.
This was the best compromise I could come up with.
” After tasting it, Brooke had pronounced it surprisingly yummy, enjoying her scrumptious lunch—then basked in the rays of the warm sun after Blake had carefully spread sunscreen on each of them and they went up on deck.
Blake explained to Brooke that, even though she had gold-streaked auburn hair and a skin tone that was fairly light, she actually tanned well, informing her femme that she didn’t usually burn as long as she took sensible precautions.
It had been a splendid afternoon. Brooke had seen what a kind, romantic soul Blake was under her snarky exterior, unable to wrap her head around how much Blake kept hidden from view.
She remembered Kelly mentioning how warm and tender Riley was when it was just the two of them, the dangerous leader the Armstrong twin was nowhere in sight when she was alone with her woman.
“Maybe they’re all like that,” she’d thought as she had relaxed against Blake under the brilliant blue sky.
“Maybe the romantics they are deep inside is something only their femmes ever get to see. Lucky us.”
With difficulty, Brooke had forced back the tears that had started to spring to her eyes, as sure as she could be that she was irrevocably in love with Blake Seibert.
“She is even more than I’ve guessed, although it’s never been a secret how remarkable she is.
And she’s mine. She’s mine, and I will be damned if anything in this world will ever separate us. ”
Now, as Brooke felt sleep fast approaching, she buried her face in Blake’s neck and whispered, “I love you. Thank you so much for such an incredibly special day.”
Blake kissed the end of her nose. “And I love you, baby. Thank you for making the day so perfect. You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to doing it again, too.
The twins keep a much larger cruiser yacht at Rowan and Kelly’s back dock—it’s thirty-five feet in length, whereas this one is only twenty-seven—and, while it would be fun to go out with some of the others, I loved having you all to myself today. ”
“Don’t they try to throw you overboard when you do, considering how much you deliberately aggravate them?” Brooke inquired sleepily.
Blake burst out laughing and held Brooke tighter. “Oh, they’ve thought about it on more than one occasion, I promise. So far, I’ve managed to dodge that bullet. That’s not to say it still won’t happen in the future, but I’ve been lucky up until now.”
With an even sleepier grin, Brooke kissed the side of Blake’s neck. “I can see it happening, too. Good night, honey. I think this girl is done and ready to drift off to dreamland. Thank you again for everything.”
“Good night, tigress. It’s back to work for us tomorrow, but we’ll do this again soon. As long as I spend time with you, I don’t really care where we are or what we’re doing. Just having you in my life has made all of my dreams come true.”
?ω?ω?ω?
“The graphic artist is out of the way for a while. I don’t think either she, Gene, or that idiot art student suspected a thing during the presentation.
While she’s working on her storyboards—or whatever the fuck they are—Thom can keep Wheeler occupied with bullshit requests to keep him out of our hair.
Shit is heating up on the dark web as far as product movement goes.
The fuck we need any kind of complications at the moment. ”
“Got it.”
“And keep your goddamn dick in your pants, brother. I know Brooke is good-looking as hell—and we’d probably all like the opportunity to drill her—but that pussy needs to stay out of reach while we’re executing.
When we’ve closed up shop and have hightailed it out of here, maybe you can fuck her before disappearing. ”
“Jesus Christ.”
“No harm, no foul, Jack, if he can corner her in a place where they won’t be seen.
He can hit that, then vanish. We are still not near that point, however.
In the meantime, keep your ears peeled in the Purgatory forum and let me know what you hear about the last shipment of goods we sent from our last hit.
I don’t want to get caught with my pants down or be tied to that shit on any level.
And fucking avoid The Shadow as much as possible.
Confine your conversations to a private room.
The fuck we need her or her underlings up our ass. ”
“Roger that.”
“So far, all indications are this will be our most successful haul ever. And I, for one, will be damned if anything will be allowed to fuck it up. I don’t care who we have to kill to pull this off…not with what’s at stake this time.”
?ω?ω?ω?
Staring at the computer screen in her home office, Drew Hollister, the counterintelligence team lead of Armstrong Protection Services—known as The Shadow on the dark web—thought about the surprising conversation she’d just had with a woman she had been observing on and off in Purgatory over the past year or so.
Sitting back, her arms folded over her chest in the glow of her monitor, the only light in the room, Drew assessed the situation, calculating where she should go from here.
Until now, the APS team lead had paid scant attention to Cyb3rmoon—the woman’s screen name—who had little to say and had always given every indication she was merely one of the hangers-on who was attracted to bad boys.
Noticing that she seemed to have her sights set on Robert Hoyt—Rob Kilgore—from Reflex, Drew kept one eye out, as she always did, but didn’t find the situation overall merited much interest. At the same time, Kilgore ignored Cyb3rmoon and instead prowled around the Purgatory dark web forum, talking to others seemingly at random before disappearing into private chats.
Although Drew didn’t make a lot of personal appearances on the dark web—leaving the bulk of any communication to her second, Dara Cochran—she occasionally made a circuit through the main Purgatory forum to ensure those who inhabited the space were aware that she was always watching.
While there were more than a few forums on the dark web, The Shadow absolutely ruled the Purgatory forum, with a reputation that struck terror in the hearts of anyone brave enough to hang out there.
Not long after Armstrong Protection Services had formed, when Drew was focusing on creating their counterintelligence processes with her crew, Dara had come to her regarding a situation with an acquaintance of hers that had intrigued her.
Running into him one day, Dara had listened while the man had vented about a thief who had stolen a considerable amount of money from him and his organization.
Unable to find this guy—and with going to the authorities not an option because his business wasn’t exactly legal—his only recourse had been for them to run the thief to ground themselves, then shake him down for the money.
Which would have been all well and good, except the motherfucker was in hiding and no one could seem to find him.
From all reports, he was still in the area, but Dara’s acquaintance and his organization kept coming up empty every time they pursued a lead on his possible whereabouts.
Curious, Dara had talked to Drew, who had in turn gone to Bryn, with the two of them deciding to look into the missing man a little further.
What they had found had pissed them off beyond belief.
On top of a shitload of sneaky, underhanded dealings they had discovered, the missing man was also two years in arrears of child support payments and routinely stole cash and possessions from friends and family—including his seventy-eight-year-old mother, who was on a fixed income.
Agreeing that there was nothing good or salvageable about the prick, Dara went back to her acquaintance on Drew’s behalf and told him she knew someone who could find and deliver the missing guy to them. For a price.
And thus, The Shadow was born.