23. Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter twenty-three
“G ood morning, sweetheart.” Nick’s deep voice rumbled over the line and shot right through Aria’s system, settling like a ball of heat between her legs.
“Mmm, you sound so good.” His deep, rough voice always electrified her body and made her a puddle of lust.
Nick chuckled. “I hope that means you were dreaming about me.”
“I am now. And I can almost feel your lips and tongue and hands all over me.”
Nick growled into the phone.
That set off another wave of heat, rushing through her veins. Aria grinned. Good. Now she wasn’t the only one thinking about his tongue bringing her to climax. “How are you?”
“Hard. Desperate. All the blood rushed to my dick the second you painted that little picture.”
She didn’t feel bad about that at all. “Maybe it will get you here faster if I keep you in a constant state of wanting me.”
“I feel that way all the time, sweetheart. And I’m desperate to be with you, especially since I hardly got to spend any time alone with you before you left. I really need my Aria fix. Now.”
She needed him just as much. “Well, come and get it.”
“I wish I could, but I’ve got some bad guys to talk to today to help wrap up this case.”
That quickly dissipated her desire and raised her hackles. “It’s not over though until you find that asshole who trafficked those poor sweet kids. How are they?”
“I spent the morning getting all their statements. Or at least as much as they were willing to share right now. It included all the names of the people who hurt them.”
“Oh, Nick, that must have been really hard for them. And you.”
“There were so many names.”
“And you’ll get them all.”
“Already on it. We’ve got agents picking up the people the kids knew first and last names for. They were often given drugs to make them more compliant, so a lot of times they only could remember the first name. But we’ll get them. The resort likes to name-drop who stays there, so we’ll link names to dates stayed there to any video surveillance we have of Julia delivering the kids in her fucking cart. Julia had an encrypted computer. Tech guys are trying to crack it now. We think she kept records. And possibly video to blackmail anyone who threatened their business.”
“You’ve been busy.” Aria was impressed.
He’d barely slept. “There’s so much to do. This case is so big. Javier didn’t just have these four kids. There were more. There are more. He’s got others working for him, doing this shit in multiple states. If we get him, maybe we can get the rest of them.”
“You will. Are the kids happy to be back with their parents?”
“It seems so. But they’ve got a long road to recovery. I found a therapist who will reach out to the families. I think it would be good for the kids to stay in touch with each other. She thinks a group session with all of them will help them open up about their experiences because they all looked out for each other and experienced the same trauma.”
“That was very thoughtful. What about Stacy? Is she settled into the safe house?”
“Two agents took her last night.” He sighed. “I hate leaving her with new strangers. She really connected with you and me. I connected with her.”
She understood his apprehension. “Stacy’s been through a lot. I’m not sure how to help her with the trauma she’s suffered. That’s what a therapist will do for her. But she needs more than therapy. She needs someone to love and take care of her, to give her a safe place.”
“I want her to have that,” Nick admitted. “But the only place she’s going to end up after the case is closed is in foster care.”
“Focus on one thing at a time, and that’s putting the bad guys behind bars. She’s safe right now. Go do good things. Make those assholes pay for what they did to those kids.”
“I will.”
She knew he would, because protecting people, taking down bad guys, that’s what Nick did best. But what she knew he needed, what she knew he wanted, was some balance in his life. He wanted a wife and family, like his brother, Mason, had with her sister Lyric. He wanted some happiness, stability, and connection to balance out the darkness he saw at work all the time.
She wanted to be the light and joy in his life. She wanted them to join their two lives, so they could stop wishing to be with each other and actually build a life together.
Soon.