21. Marilee
Marilee
“About damned time you got here,” Lois snapped as Hazel and I walked into the crowded conference room.
Several team members were seated around the table, as well as Boris, his brother Yuri, and Hazel’s parents, who were looking a little shellshocked.
I led Hazel to a chair, then went to the refrigerator in the corner, grabbing a bottle of water for each of us and bringing them back to the table.
“I could use some water,” Colm O’Brian muttered.
“I don’t wait on criminals who try to choke people I care about,” I snapped back.
“Who’s going to tell me what’s going on?” Lois demanded impatiently.
Martha, Allie, Boris, and I went through the details of what happened with the gunmen who tried to snatch Hazel at the luncheon. Then I explained about finding the O’Brians in our hotel room, and what happened next before asking the O’Brians to explain their beef with the other crime families.
“Christ on a cracker this is convoluted,” Lois groused. “Let’s map this out.”
One of my newer coworkers dragged the whiteboard over and we went through it again, diagramming relationships and areas of conflict.
“Who’s got ideas?” Lois asked as we all stared at the board.
Hazel raised her hand like she was in school. “I think I should meet with Donny Murphy, make him believe I’m on board with getting back together with him, and see what I can find out about what’s going on.”
“Great!” her father said.
“No!” I said at the same time.
Hazel frowned at me and I made a mental note not to tell her no again if I could help it.
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” she said. “I’ll meet with him, apologize for what happened, and explain that my parents didn’t know about my decision to leave so it’s not their fault. Then I’ll suggest he find someone younger to impregnate.”
“And thinner,” her mother added.
I whipped my head in her direction. “Watch it, Elizabeth!”
What was it with Hazel’s mother implying she was fat? I’d seen every inch of her body. My mate was soft and womanly but also strong and fit. She was not, by any definition, fat.
Elizabeth just sent me a belligerent look. I bet she was still feeling salty about the whole cross thing. Because I was feeling like an asshole, I dug it out of my jacket pocket and brandished it at her with a wicked smile.
“I doubt this guy is going to just back away,” Lois said, ignoring my antics.
“He only wants you, Moira,” Colm said. “His ego can’t take the fact that you left him. He’s still angry about it all these years later.”
“Yeah, I know, but I figure it’s worth a try. Maybe he’ll see me and think I’m not attractive anymore now that I’m older.”
“Impossible,” I said quietly.
“Anyway, it was never about attraction with him. It was about the status of possessing the only O’Brian daughter,” Hazel said. “I’ll let him believe that I’ve always regretted dumping him, and he’ll believe it’s true, because he thinks he’s such a prize.”
“The Murphy family is highly respected,” Elizabeth said. “At least in our circles.”
I bit my tongue to keep from making a sarcastic comment about what was respectable in their ‘circles’. Judging by the knowing look Hazel sent me, she’d read my mind.
“You can wire me up,” Hazel said to Lois, who we all knew was the real decision maker here.
“I’ll spend some time with him, play the sweet and regretful fiancée.
When I’ve lulled him into thinking he’s convinced me to get back together and that he’s won, I’ll pump him for information. Subtly of course.”
“You’re not going to pump him for anything,” I growled.
She ignored me. So did everyone else in the room.
Unable to think of an alternate plan that was less dangerous for my mate, I sat back as the team worked through the logistics of dealing with Donny Murphy before moving on to the Rossi problem.
“You said the Rossis started all this, right?” I asked Colm.
“Yeah.”
“So the whole thing hinges on Donny,” I said to Colm. “If he’s out of the picture — discredited, in jail, dead, whatever — Rossi loses the one card that gets the Murphys to back him.”
“That’s the idea,” Colm said slowly. “But we can’t just walk up and discredit him, Moira. He’s careful. And you’re out of practice.”
“I’m not planning to walk up to anything,” Hazel said.
“I’m planning to spend some time with him and let him think he’s already won.
He always had loose lips, because he figured I was just a girl, so it didn’t matter what he said in front of me.
It’ll be easy enough to get him talking about his accomplishments. ”
“That might work,” Colm said. “But if we’re going to deliver you to him — which we totally are so we can get credit for it — we can’t go in there alone. We’ve lost a lot of our soldiers in this little skirmish, we’re going to need back-up.”
His eyes went to Boris and Yuri, who were eating their way through a Costco sized bag of peanut M&Ms at the end of the table. “Strong back-up.”
We finished mapping out a plan, then sent the O’Brians back to the hotel. They were crying poor, so we told them they could stay in our room since it was already paid for tonight.
“But stay away from the mini bar,” Hazel ordered. “I’m not paying for your ten dollar candy bars and twenty dollar shots.”
“Uh, can we get the blood out of the fridge then?” Elizabeth asked. “It grosses me out.”
Martha and Allie agreed to go back with the O’Brians, get them settled, and pack for me and Hazel – including grabbing my bottle of blood from the fridge. Then they’d bring everything to the safe house where Hazel and I were staying.
“Make sure no one’s tailing you,” Lois reminded me. “I’m going to be pissed if another safe house gets compromised.”
“Understood.”
Hazel and I drove to a location about thirty-five minutes outside of Seattle, doubling back several times to make sure we weren’t being followed.
The safe house was a nondescript duplex, one of those ugly boxy buildings that builders had slapped up in the eighties while trying to quickly increase the supply of housing in the region.
One unit was used mostly for storage, with the other one being the main living area when we used the duplex. I pulled into the garage, then dug out my wand to check for bugs and evidence of explosives. Keeping Hazel behind me, I carefully checked both the residential unit and the storage area.
When I was satisfied that the building was clean, I led Hazel into one of the bedrooms.
“This will be your room,” I said.
“Don’t you mean our room?” she asked, her eyebrows raised.
I smirked. “Yeah, but I didn’t want to presume.”
“It’ll be a while before Martha and Allie get here, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
She pulled me into the room, closing the door behind us and clicking the lock.
“All these people trying to hurt me today has made me incredibly horny,” she said in a flirty tone I’d never heard her use. “I was hoping you could help me with that.”
“It’s the adrenaline surges,” I said lamely.
“Don’t care,” she shot back. “Get naked. Now.”
There was something different about her now.
Despite her flirty order to get naked, I could tell something was bothering her.
And if I was a better woman, I would have stopped right then so I could get to the bottom of it.
But Hazel was standing in front of me completely naked, her full breasts and curvy body on full display, and every thought went out of my head besides ‘mine’.
Hazel gave me a push, and I let myself fall back onto the bed. She crawled up, lowering her body over mine and giving me a long, hard kiss. There was something there, a feeling like there was a goodbye in that kiss, but then her hand snaked between my legs, and I forgot all about it.
She squeezed my cunt once, twice, three times before sliding her fingers inside and making a happy sound when she realized how wet I was already.
“Is this all for me?” she asked against my lips.
“You know it is.”
Hazel scooted down a few inches, clamping her teeth around my collar bone and biting down hard enough to sting.
She slid two fingers inside me, stretching me as she pumped in and out of my body, ramping me up more.
I could feel my vamp and wolf struggling, both of them wanting to come out and claim her.
I pushed them back into the far recesses of my mind, focusing instead on the waves of pleasure that were rolling through my body.
I rolled my hips up to meet her questing fingers, pulling them deeper with each thrust. Then Hazel added a third finger, the stretch a combination of pain and pleasure that I couldn’t ignore.
“I want you to come for me, Marilee,” she whispered. “I want to see you break apart for me. I want you to soak my fingers with your cum.”
With her free hand she caught one of my nipples between her fingers, pinching down hard and pulling at the same time. I cried out, then she curled her fingers, reaching that spot that drove me crazy, and I was flying.
“Hazel! Mate!”
I shuddered beneath her, half out of my mind with the force of my orgasm. Hazel released my nipple, the movement causing the blood to rush back, creating another jolt of delicious pain that made me gasp. Meanwhile those fingers kept sliding against my inner walls, prolonging my pleasure.
When my body finally stilled she removed her fingers, meeting my eyes as she sucked my juices off her skin. I growled, the sound more animal than human, and pulled her up to my face so I could kiss her.
“That was… good,” I said, echoing her words from earlier.
“Just good?” She laughed. “I guess we’ll have to do better next time.”