Chapter 16 #2
Her smile widens and she swivels her hips again, earning another curse.
I watch as she tries other movements, testing to see what feels the best to her.
Everything is fucking amazing for me. Once she finds the rhythm she wants, I let her set the pace and then match it.
When she looks at me again, there’s so much written in her eyes that it makes my chest tighten.
This isn’t a random fuck or the need to blow off steam.
This is… something else, and I don’t know what it means.
I don’t bring it up, focusing instead on helping her drive us toward release.
It’s not hard. The two of us are in sync as we race toward the end, and as she cums, she cries out my name.
It’s the sweetest sound and triggers my own climax.
I squeeze my eyes shut, my back arching, and her grip on my hands tightens almost until it hurts, but the white-hot pleasure coursing through me absorbs any pain and just makes it all more intense until I’m pretty sure I’m going to black out.
I lose some time and when I come back to myself, Nova is slumped on my chest. Our bodies are still connected, and I know the way her legs are bent isn’t really comfortable, so I manage to get enough energy to take care of what needs to be taken care of before crawling back into bed with her and pulling her onto my chest. I stroke her hair until she falls asleep again.
Me, I can’t sleep. What we just did sticks with me in a dangerous way, and I know that my previous revelation came too late. I’m already attached to this strong, gorgeous woman. Basically, I’m fucked.
I keep staring at the ceiling until there’s a knock at the bedroom door.
“Prez, I found something.”
Cipher’s tone says, whatever it is, it’s not going to be good, and a part of me wishes I could ignore him and wake Nova up for another round, but reality is here and I need to deal with it, so I get up and grab my jeans from the floor, yanking them as quick as I can.
I don’t want Nova waking up in the middle of me leaving and have to explain to her she can’t come with me because I need to know Cipher’s news first, even if it has to do with her family.
Cipher waits until we’re in the security office to say anything.
“I moved Nova’s Uncle Marty to the top of my list of people to look into once she came to me about him.”
Cipher clicks on something and a picture of a man comes up on one of the screens. He has thinning red hair and a round face that gives the impression he’s younger than his hairline makes him look.
“Martin Reed, fifty-two. He’s not Nova and Layla’s uncle, but their cousin on their father’s side.
They’re first cousins once removed,” Cipher explains, “but it looks like he’s been around the sisters their whole lives.
There’s evidence he helped them out financially a few times, and the sisters’ social media shows him at birthdays and holidays. ”
I nod. That tracks with the things Nova’s told me, except for the cousin thing, but that doesn’t matter. Every person in this MC is part of my family even though we don’t share a drop of the same blood. They’re as much my brothers as Revenge was.
“He doesn’t have a social media presence,” Cipher continues, “but once I started digging deeper, I figured out it was because he’s hiding shit and not because he’s no good with tech.”
“Dammit.” I rub my forehead. “I know Nova got suspicious after the phone call yesterday, but she was hoping to be reading into things. It’s gonna kill her that she was right about him being into shady shit.”
“Yeah, and it’s not little shit like a pot habit or fucking prostitutes either,” Cipher says.
“He’s been gambling and he sucks at it. Looks like he’s been doing it since his twenties, starting at the legal casinos in Vegas and Reno, then moving to underground casinos in Carson City and the Nevada border towns.
He’s even taken a couple of those gambling cruises, but it’s been a while since he did those.
Pretty much since he got into debt too deep for any legit place to let him inside. ”
Shit. I rub the back of my neck. This just keeps getting better and better.
“I found a handful of burner phones, hotel reservations, and credit attempts under fake names that I traced back to Martin Reed.”
Cipher clicks on something else and a bunch of images show on the screen. Lots of names and numbers that I’m sure connect to what he’s telling me. I don’t bother reading any of it. I trust him to tell me what I need to know.
“When I looked into his financials, I found he uses cash, but there aren’t any records of withdrawals of cash amounts in those sizes.”
“He’s going to loan sharks,” I fill in the blank.
“I confirmed a couple here in Pine Ridge who we have good relationships with, but based on the timeline we’re working with, I think there’s one big one he owes a lot to right now.”
I lean back in my chair and Cipher waits, letting me process all of it.