Chapter 19
EVELYN
The warmth of the morning sun streaming across my face woke me.
I blinked against the bright light, not immediately recognizing the room I was in.
A warm weight rested on my hip, and I shifted slightly.
Dominic. The corrupt police officers. Dominic getting hurt.
The events of yesterday flooded back to me, and I sank back into the bed.
We had stayed up a bit longer cuddling. Adrian checked on us but didn’t linger, giving us time together without interruption.
We lay in bed and talked, learning about each other like we were on a date, not recovering from an attack.
While Kingfisher’s text message lingered over us, the time we spent getting to know each other felt like a little bubble against the outside world.
I turned to face Dominic, the warmth of the sun pressing against my back now.
I closed my eyes, snuggling closer to him.
He smelled like cedar and sunlight, and I took a deep inhale.
How did I end up here? With five boyfriends?
I never dreamed my life would turn out like this.
Although I never would have dreamed I would be running a vigilante organization either.
Things with Dominic felt right, though. Like a piece I didn’t know had been missing was slotted into place.
But still, doubts lingered. What would happen when this was all over?
Would he go back to the FIA? What would that mean for us?
For him, if we were dating? The work the Archers did wasn’t always legal, and I didn’t see that changing.
Could he work for the FIA knowing that? But if he quit the FIA because of it, would he grow to resent me?
“What are you thinking so hard about this early?” His rough, sleep-drenched voice rumbled under my ear.
I lifted my head and tilted it upward so I could see his face. His brown eyes blinked sleepily at me. I don’t know what came over me, but I just blurted out everything.
“Are you leaving after this is over? Are you going back to the FIA?” I waited anxiously for his answer.
He stiffened slightly, then pulled me closer. I dropped my eyes to his chest, but his finger under my chin lifted my gaze back to his.
“I don’t know what my future plans are,” he said, and my stomach sank.
“But whatever they are, they include you, okay? Once this is all over, we’ll talk it out and figure out what to do next.
Maybe Alexander will offer me a position at SDS, or I’m happy to work with you and the Archers.
However this shakes out, we’ll figure it out. ”
Relief flooded me, and I stretched up to press my lips to his, trying to convey all the words I couldn’t find.
I wasn’t ready to lose him. Dominic took control of the kiss, teasing my lips with his tongue until I opened, allowing him the entry he requested.
My mind danced around the thoughts of forever with someone like him as our bodies pressed into each other.
It wasn’t until he rolled me onto my back and covered my body with his that reality set in. I pressed my hand carefully to his chest.
“Wait, I don’t want to hurt you.”
Dominic looked down at me. “First, there is no way you could hurt me, and second, if you think I’m stopping now, you are crazy.”
I couldn’t help but laugh as he pressed his hard cock into me. He held himself over me, placing kisses down my neck and pulling at my shirt with his free hand. I wiggled beneath him, letting him pull it over my head and was rewarded with a smile so big my heart fluttered.
His lips covered my breast, and I arched into him as I closed my eyes, giving into the pleasure. His hands and mouth on my body were the reassurances I needed to know this wasn’t the end of us, like I feared, but rather the beginning I had hoped for.
His hand ventured lower and teased along the waist of my shorts. “May I?”
The soft questioning of his voice undid me in ways I didn’t want to over-analyze. “Yes. Please.”
His fingers slipped below my clothing, and he found me wet and needy.
“Is this for me?” He groaned as he slid his fingers through my wetness.
I moaned as he slid two fingers over my clit and circled it gently. “Yes…all for you.”
Dominic shifted to lie beside me and pulled my sleep shorts down, discarding them to the side. He pressed my chest down and lifted my leg over his hip. I stiffened, worried I was hurting him.
“Relax, Evelyn, let me give you what you need.”
I let out a deep breath and looked up at him.
His gaze held me steady as his finger carefully pushed into me, stopping only once his thumb reached my clit.
My hips rocked forward as he moved in and out of me.
I reached for his neck, pulling his lips to mine.
He kept his pace slow and steady, a form of torture despite the pleasure rising inside me.
My body felt heavy as I gave into him. My mind cleared, and the world disappeared around us until it was just Dominic and me.
Slow waves of pleasure rose within me, sweeping me away with every stroke of his fingers. I grabbed his forearm as the waves pulled me under, my body shaking against him. He never stopped moving his fingers, pushing me through the orgasm until I begged for mercy, my body oversensitive.
My arms felt weak, and I let go as he slipped out of me, lifting his fingers to his lips and sucking my come from them. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the sight. I shifted and turned, pulling at his sweatpants to reach for his hard cock between us, but he shook his head.
“No, not now, Evelyn. Just let me hold you. Please.”
“Are you sure?”
He placed a kiss on my nose. “I am more than sure. We have time for that later. I just want to hold you now.”
I nodded and snuggled into his chest as he pulled the covers over my naked body. I took in his scent and drifted back off to sleep with overwhelming pleasure still tingling through my body.
Sometime later, the sound of someone knocking on the door woke me up.
“Morning, you two,” Adrian called through the door. “Can I come in?”
“Yes,” Dominic said.
Adrian opened the door, his face softening into a smile when he saw the two of us wrapped around each other. Something in me eased at his reaction. He told me they wouldn’t mind, but hearing it and seeing it were two different things.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” he asked Dominic, leaning against the door frame and folding his arms across his chest.
“Sore, but alive,” Dominic replied.
“Good to hear. Are you up to coming upstairs and going over the profile? We really need to nail this asshole.”
“Yep,” Dominic said, rolling over and getting up.
I wanted to groan at the absence of warmth, but I pulled myself together. It was time to put on my big girl pants and find Kingfisher. The faster I did that, the faster I could live happily ever after with all of them. Well, as much happily ever after as our lives allowed.
A few minutes later, we were dressed and following Adrian into the brothers’ penthouse. Maya, Liam, and Izzy were sitting at the large kitchen table. A whiteboard on wheels sat behind the table. Alexander was in the kitchen with Marcus, and Sebastian was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey, boss,” Maya greeted from their seat at the table.
“Maya,” I greeted warmly, embracing them. “How are you feeling?”
“Good,” they said. “Ready to work. I’ve been helping Liam finish the profile.”
They nodded at Liam, who sat next to them, typing on his laptop. “Hey, Boss Lady,” he greeted me distractedly. “Just pulling the final things together.”
Izzy sat on Liam’s other side, and she nodded at me.
Arms wrapped around me from behind, and Sebastian’s bergamot scent filled my nostrils. “Hi, my darling. Did you sleep well?”
I turned my head to see him waggle his eyebrows at me. I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I did. How about you?”
“Awful,” he announced. “But I always sleep awfully without you in my arms.”
“Stop hogging her,” Marcus grumbled, gently shoving Sebastian out of the way. He placed one hand on my hip and the other hand cupped my cheek. “Morning, sweetheart,” he said, kissing me softly.
“Morning,” I whispered, kissing him back. He released me, and my head spun at the drugging effect of his kisses.
Alexander stepped up next to me. He held a steaming pan of breakfast casserole between two oven mitts and kissed the side of my head as he passed. “Good morning, baby girl,” he said. “Everyone, sit down and dig in.”
A warm smile spread across my face. I was learning that there was nothing Alexander loved more than taking care of people. In another life, maybe he would have been a chef instead of running a security firm.
For a few minutes, all you could hear was the clink of utensils against plates as everyone dug into the food.
“Okay,” Alexander said. “Let’s get started. Dominic, are you feeling up to sharing the profile with us?”
Dominic nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“Before we get started.” Izzy cleared her throat. “There’s something you all should know. I just found out about it this morning.” She hesitated. Izzy never hesitated, so my stomach immediately sank. “Director Keller was found dead in his cell this morning.”
Fuck.
Alexander swore. “How did he die?”
“Initial report says apparent suicide.”
“Well, we know that’s not the case.” Marcus folded his arms.
“We do,” Izzy agreed. “But will the SID?”
Everyone looked at Dominic, who shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “There will be an investigation, but everyone there wants this gone, so they may just try to wrap it in a tidy bow.”
“If only we lived to make their jobs easier,” I drawled.
“If only,” he agreed with a wry smirk. “I’ll call Mercer after we’re done. See if there’s anything he can tell me or if I can influence him in any way.”
“After,” Alexander said. “We need to go to him with answers about who Kingfisher is.”
I nodded. This profile was more important than ever.
Dominic pushed back from the table and walked over to the whiteboard.
Grabbing a marker, he studied the board for a moment.
There was something different about the way he carried himself this morning, an edge that hadn’t been there yesterday.
Yesterday had changed him. It changed me too.
“All right.” Dominic uncapped the marker.
“Here’s what we found. Victimology first. The women and girls he targets are young, between fourteen and twenty-five, and conventionally attractive.
Beyond that, there’s no consistent pattern.
He pulls from clubs, off the streets, and in some cases from families who sell their own children. ”
The room went quiet at that dark reminder, but he kept going.
“What is consistent is geography. The women are taken around certain areas repeatedly. This points to Kingfisher having business in all of these geographic areas.” He listed several cities on the whiteboard.
“Kingfisher has some kind of footprint in these cities. Property, business interests, connections, something that links him to this area.”
“All of those cities are in the Midwest,” Alexander pointed out.
Dominic nodded. “He has some national reach, but the Midwest is his hunting ground for sure.” He moved to the next section.
“Methodology. His whole operation is built on insulation. Middlemen on top of middlemen. He has never, as far as we can tell, gotten his hands directly dirty. He uses several different brokers across states and hires people to do the dirty work for them. He primarily moves the women via freightliner and box trucks, and once someone becomes a liability, they disappear.”
The weight of his words, along with Izzy’s announcement, hung heavily in the room. Kingfisher had the power to take out a federal agency director. That was not someone to be underestimated.
“He’s maintained at least one to two layers between himself and his operation, as far as we can tell.
Historically, he’s kept more, but with the added pressure of the last couple of months, he’s been forced to compress his operation, which is why I think Director Keller had stepped up to do the work directly.
We can use that to our advantage because it makes him more exposed. ”
“But it’s also likely to rattle him,” Marcus pointed out. “Which could make him more dangerous.”
“It could,” Dominic agreed. “But I think we can use it. The next piece of the puzzle is motivation.” He wrote three words on the board.
Money. Power. Control. “This isn’t purely financial.
The money matters to him, but so does the power.
And then there’s an element of cruelty as well.
The taunting behavior he’s expressed through his text messages shows his ego.
He has a god complex, and he’s been unchallenged long enough that he believes he’s untouchable. ”
Dominic’s jaw tightened slightly. “The Archers changed that. He doesn’t like it. He’s fixated on neutralizing the threat rather than pulling back and going quiet, which is what a purely rational actor would do.”
“He thinks if he takes Evelyn out, everything will go back to normal,” Adrian said. His words landed grimly in the silent room.
My life had always been at stake; I was used to that. But the expressions around the table said the others hadn’t made peace with that the way I had.
“That’s my read,” Dominic said, lips in a grim line. “But that fixation is what is going to get him caught.”
“Why?” Alexander questioned.
“He’s getting sloppy,” I said. “He’s taunting me, but in doing so, he’s going to leave himself open. If he’s focused on me and not his operation, things will slip through the cracks.”
Dominic nodded. “Last thing: timeline. We believe he’s been operating for approximately a decade. There’s a file on him at the FIA and the SID, but it’s thin. Too thin for an operation of this size. He’s had people looking the other way for a long time.”
“Like Director Keller,” Izzy said.
“Exactly,” Dominic said. “So that’s it for the profile. The next step is to match it.”
“Which we’ve already been doing,” Liam said, spinning his laptop around. He jerked his head toward Maya. “We matched the profile to eleven names. And I think you’re going to be very interested in who’s on the list.”