Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
Blaze set the two evidence bags down on the conference table and pushed them across to Dom.
Stella knew all the members of Steel Protection from their Do Not Serve photo and the additional information she’d learned about them since.
Hunter was leaning against the back wall with his arms crossed.
Siren was at the far end with a laptop open and the blue glow on her face.
Axel was two seats down from Dom, headphones pulled to his neck.
Valeria stood in the doorway with Adrian on her hip.
Blaze started, “There was a chemical trace coming off the trail. We took an animal path through the underbrush. The handkerchief was in the leaves at the base of a log, ten feet in. I scented it as chloroform.”
Dom’s jaw set.
“Stella picked up Nell’s scent, and we found the phone under a tree nearby.”
Axel took the phone bag. “I’ll see if I can get something off this.”
“I’ll run her stats tonight,” Siren said.
“I’ll search the trail again at first light,” Hunter said.
After the meeting, Stella stood halfway between the conference room and the front door with the strap of her purse in her hand. Axel’s bank of monitors glowed blue in the corner. Siren was staring at something on her laptop.
“Are you hungry?” Blaze asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You should eat. Come upstairs. I’ll cook for you.”
She opened her mouth to say no out of habit, but her bear moaned in disagreement.
“Okay.”
His apartment smelled like chili oil, lemongrass, and exotic incense. Blaze pulled a wok off the hook in the kitchen, set a pot of water on the back burner, and pulled containers out of the fridge.
“Can I help?”
“Yeah. The cutting board is in the cabinet. Knife on the magnet. You can cut these.” He pointed to a handful of scallions.
She found the cutting board, pulled the chef’s knife off the magnet, and started slicing.
Blaze pounded garlic and chilies in a stone mortar with quick controlled strokes.
The kitchen filled with the smell. He dropped the noodles into the boiling water.
The wok came up to temperature, oil shimmering, then smoking.
“What is this?”
“Drunken noodles. Pi Noi taught me in Chiang Mai.”
“Pi Noi?”
“Cook at the gym I trained at. She fed the fighters.”
He tossed the wok in a single fluid motion, dropped the marinated chicken and scallions in, and stirred it all through the hot oil.
He then added the garlic-chili paste, and the drained noodles.
He poured in soy and fish sauce and tossed the whole thing twice.
He finished with a handful of basil and plated it into two bowls he pulled from a low cabinet.
He was a man who cooked. He’d fit right in with her family.
She picked up both bowls. He carried two forks and a glass of water for each of them. She followed him to the couch. They sat with about a foot of space between them and ate without talking for a few minutes.
The food was excellent. The heat hit first, then the sweet, and the basil bloomed at the back of her throat.
The noodles were wide and slick and had the breath of the wok on them.
She ate half the bowl in five minutes and only realized when she stopped that she was the hungriest she’d been in months.
She set the bowl on the coffee table. “I can’t believe they took Nell,” she said in a low voice. A memory surged up inside her. “On her first shift, she dropped a tray of waters all over a table of four. She almost cried.”
Blaze set his bowl on the coffee table next to hers. He didn’t interrupt.
“I sat with her in the back office for ten minutes. She thought I was going to fire her, but I promoted her ten months later.” She paused. “I told her mom I’d find her.” Her voice cracked.
Nell was twenty years old. She’d moved across state lines on her own to go to a school no one in her family had attended.
She’d walked into the diner two years ago barely able to speak to a customer and now ran the floor by herself.
She was going to graduate in eighteen months and do something Stella had never been brave enough to do herself.
Stella saw it every time she looked at her.
Nell was the woman Stella might’ve been if she’d ever once chosen herself. And now Nell was gone.
Her chest filled with grief and rage and terror.
Her throat was hot and her eyes burned as a tear ran down her cheek.
Her breath caught. When she lifted her hand to her face, it was shaking.
She put her hand over her mouth, and the sobs broke through her control.
Blaze reached for her and pulled her against his chest. Stella let herself cry in his arms.
When she finally stopped, she felt his heart beating under her ear. He smelled good. She looked up at him. His blue eyes were very steady, his arm around her back. He reached up and brushed her hair away from her wet face. The pad of his thumb was rough against her cheek.
She pressed her mouth to his, and he went still. Then he kissed her back.
His mouth was warm, and he tasted like chili and basil and salt. His arm tightened around her back, and he pulled her closer. The bond opened so wide and so hot she made a desperate sound she’d never heard herself make before.
His tongue slid into her mouth and stroked against hers.
Slow. Wet. Deliberate. Heat dropped through her stomach and pooled low between her legs.
He tightened his hand on the back of her neck and his tongue drove deeper.
Her breasts dragged across his chest, and she could feel his erection press against her hip.
He pulled back. “Stella. If we go any further, I’m not going to let you leave.”
“Right.” She stood and picked up her purse from the kitchen counter. “Thank you for dinner.”
“Anytime.”
She walked out to her car and sat in the dark.
Her mouth still tasted like him. Her pussy was wet and throbbing.
She’d cried in Blaze Mercer’s arms. She’d kissed him until she couldn’t think straight.
She’d walked out of his apartment with her body still wanting him.
She thought about her father. Eventually, she’d have to tell him her mate was his sworn enemy. But first, she needed to find Nell.