29. River
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
River
Two days after my arrest, I got my release papers. No contrite apologies. SAC Stanford didn’t even deliver the news himself.
But when I walked out the doors of the federal holding facility, Owen was waiting for me in his uniform.
So was the media.
I passed through a gauntlet of reporters shouting questions. Owen waved me toward his Hart County Sheriff’s Department SUV, and I jumped in.
“Personal pick-up service. I’m flattered, Sheriff.”
“Thought you could use an official escort. Didn’t want you getting lost on the way.” Owen gave me a rough pat on the back, which turned into a genuine hug. I hugged him right back.
Federal custody hadn’t been that bad. But I was damned glad to be out of there.
Two days away from Charlie. I was champing at the bit to see her. And to find out what the hell I’d missed.
He pointed at my nose. I had a nasty bruise from the smack that Stillwater gunman had given me, though the cut was healing. “That looks painful. ”
“It’s nothing. How are things in Hartley?” I’d spoken to Charlie and Trace on the phone, but the Feds eavesdropped on all such jail calls. Charlie hadn’t been able to share anything except for the barest assurances. She had said that all was well, which I took to mean she’d gotten the list from Jud’s safe deposit box.
“A little chaotic,” Owen said. “The FBI was pissed that Charlotte took off without a word, but it’s getting smoothed over. There’s far more attention on you. The valiant hero, wrongly framed as the villain. That’s the new narrative in the media. The state and Denver police and the Feds are busy pointing fingers at each other.”
That didn’t surprise me at all. I didn’t enjoy being in the spotlight, and I hated bringing notice to my friends or Last Refuge. But maybe it was inevitable.
There was still a risk that they’d come after Charlie again. Stillwater had to be wondering if we’d gotten a copy of Jud’s list. All I knew was that the story hadn’t broken yet about their bribery of public officials. That would be big news.
“Any signs of Stillwater operatives in Hartley?” I asked.
“Not as far as I can tell. Charlotte has been up at Last Refuge. Jessi and Aiden canceled all their reservations for the time being and offered refunds or set up their guests at other hotels. I’ve stepped up patrols. We’re not letting anybody near the lieutenant governor unless they’re vetted.”
“Good. But you do have the list of Stillwater’s people in the government. Right? We know who to be watching for?”
He grimaced. “Sort of. But there’s a snag with Jud Hale’s hard drive.”
“A snag ?”
“Nothing major. A delay. I’m taking you straight to Last Refuge. The Protectors are meeting this afternoon to discuss the latest. You’ll have a couple hours to get settled before then. ”
“Sounds good.” Hopefully that would include some alone time with Charlie.
“You’ve had a wild few days. But if I’d taken bets on which of us would land in federal custody, you had the best odds.”
I grinned. “You missed me, didn’t you?”
“You know, I kinda did. Without you, it’s just Aiden and Trace. And they’re all dourness and grunts. You lighten the mood.”
“Why thank you, Sheriff. I’ll be coming by your office a lot more, since you can’t get enough of me.”
“And you already have me regretting my words.”
“Two seconds flat. That could be a record.”
Owen chuckled as he steered us down the highway. “Charlotte has been spending all her time with Jessi, Scarlett, and Gen. Also my deputy Keira Marsh. They’ve been taking good care of her. Not like there was any doubt, but I’ve been checking in on her too.”
Hell. Suddenly my eyes and nose stung with tears. “Thank you,” I said sincerely.
Owen glanced at me sidelong. “Is Charlotte the one you told me about before? The woman you loved who got away?”
“Yep. Still love her. I can’t help myself.”
He nodded. “Then I see why you dropped everything to run off and save her.”
I looked down at my hands. “I’d do it all again.”
“Of course you would,” he said. “Gen was right. You are a secret romantic.”
“For Charlie, yeah. I guess I am. We all are, for the right person.”
“This is true.”
By the time we pulled into Last Refuge, I could barely sit still. I was driving Owen nuts with all my tapping on the dashboard and bouncing of my knees .
Before the truck stopped, the door to the main building opened, and Charlie dashed out. As if she’d been waiting for us to arrive.
I yanked off my seatbelt, pushed open the door just as Owen was stopping, and met her in the middle of the parking lot.
“Hey, sweetheart.” My smile was a mile wide. “I’m home.”
Charlie jumped into my arms, clinging to my neck and kissing my face. I held onto her hips and spun her around. Now this was a welcome. It was like I’d just come home after an eight-month deployment, not two days of separation. But every time we’d said goodbye in our past, it had taken years to cross paths again. So from that perspective, this was a hell of a lot of progress.
“I wanted to go with Owen to pick you up, but the jerk said no.”
“Hey, now,” the sheriff complained behind us. I laughed, pushing my forehead into hers. I hadn’t set her down yet. My eyes were on Charlie, but from the corner of my vision, I spotted more of my friends coming outside.
“You realize everyone is watching us,” I murmured. If she’d wanted to keep our fling under wraps, this wasn’t the way to do it.
“I don’t care. Right now, nothing in the world is going to stop me from kissing you.”
“I take it we haven’t switched to just friends yet?”
“Nope. Not yet.”
“But this would be more fun alone. Just saying.”
“Good point.” She straightened her legs, and I eased her down. The moment her toes touched the ground, she grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the cabins.
“I’ll be back,” I shouted at the others.
Laughter and a few hoots followed us .
Charlie was staying in the first cabin on the row. The moment she got me inside, she flipped the lock and pushed me up against the closed door. More kisses, these ones open-mouthed and far more scandalous than the ones we’d shared in the parking lot. Tongues gliding together, hands pulling at clothes.
“You don’t even want to talk first, baby?” I teased.
“I’ve done little except talk for the last two days. That, and worry about you being stuck in a jail cell. I just… I want to feel you again. Knowing that we’re both safe.”
“That I can do.” I kissed her hair, pressed another to her neck. “Can we shower? I need to wash the jail off me.”
“It’s a really tiny shower.”
“We can make do.”
We stripped, leaving our clothes in a trail to the bathroom. The shower was indeed tiny, but somehow we squeezed inside. We washed each other and laughed as we moved around, trying to rinse the suds. It required a lot of pressing our naked bodies together. That was no hardship at all. My hands wandered over her curves. Squeezing her butt cheeks as my cock hardened to aching against her stomach.
I fumbled behind me to switch off the water. Grabbed a large towel to dry us and wrapped it around both of our shoulders in a cocoon.
I couldn’t get enough of her kisses. Her slippery body up against mine.
Eventually we made it the few feet to the bed and collapsed, still tangled up. I landed on my back with Charlie on top. The shower had turned her reddish blond locks to dark, and damp strands stuck to her forehead and neck. Her freckles stood out against her creamy skin in the low light.
Memories slammed into me. The dangers and triumphs of the past week. But also the years that I’d wanted exactly this. Charlie McKinley in my bed, gazing down at me like she might feel a fraction of the adoration I had for her.
Was that possible? Or was I fooling myself?
“God, you’re beautiful,” I breathed.
“You too. I’ve always liked your smile.” She brushed her fingers over my lips. I kissed them as they passed. “And your hair. Your body’s all right too.”
“Wow, such high praise.”
“Trying not to feed your ego too much. Genevieve told me you once compared yourself to an ancient Egyptian god.”
I groaned. “Wait. My friends have been snitching on me? That’s not fair.”
“Just wait until you find out the stories I’ve told them .”
The thought of Charlie bonding with my Hartley friends made me happier than I could describe. So I went back to kissing her instead, stroking her skin and holding her close. After the stress of the last couple of days, the good feelings were even more intense. We weren’t running from anything. Weren’t needed until later. My friends— our friends—were nearby, and we could relax and enjoy one another.
After a while, Charlie spun around so she could take my cock between her lips, and I could use my mouth between her legs. So good.
But no matter how much I liked that sweet mouth sliding along my shaft, or using my tongue to make her moan, I enjoyed gazing into those pretty eyes even more. So I rolled her onto her back and repositioned so we were face-to-face once again. Touching and making out, her soft breasts against my chest.
Charlie’s legs went around my waist and she tilted her hips. My erection nestled at the cleft between her thighs.
“You ready for me?” I asked.
She felt around beneath her pillow and produced a condom. “You still don’t mind using this, right? ”
I took the wrapper and ripped it open. “Of course I don’t mind.” If I never got to be with Charlie without that final barrier, I still had no complaints.
For all I knew, today would be the last time I ever got to have her.
Her body gripped me in the best way as I slid into her. I started off at a slow rhythm. So I wouldn’t miss a single detail. I moved inside her, our eyes locked and my heart flipping wildly in my chest.
I lifted her left leg and bent it, pushing her knee toward her chest so I could thrust my cock even deeper. Charlie’s arms flew over her head, and she grabbed onto the edge of the mattress. Moaned and gasped my name.
I bent her other leg and held her thighs apart as we both edged closer to climax. That release we both wanted, even though I wished this didn’t have to end. But when her body clenched and she cried out, I was right there with her. First the pleasure rocketing through me. Then a blissful, drawn-out moment when it seemed like we could live right here forever.
If only we could.
After, reality slowly crept in again. Whether I wanted it to or not.
“I should tell you what’s been going on.” Charlie was tucked into my side, cheek against my chest.
“I suppose you should. You got to the safe deposit box in Silver Ridge okay?”
She lifted her head. “Trace drove me straight there. On the way, I realized we might have a problem if the bank demanded ID. So Trace called Owen, and the sheriff sent Keira Marsh to meet us. They had to arrange for a warrant, but she was able to get in and empty the box.”
“But Owen said you hit a snag with getting access to the list?”
“The file is encrypted. Which Jud failed to mention.”
That asshole. I should’ve expected he would hold on to that info. Any little bit of leverage. “Where’s the drive? I can handle decrypting it.”
“Figured you could.” She ran her fingers through my hair. “Trace has the hard drive in a safe place. But the FBI has figured out Sheriff Douglas got something from Jud’s safe deposit box, and they’re making noise about it. Brynn swears she hasn’t told anyone about the contents of that hard drive, but she has her own ideas about how this should go. And I spoke to the governor and gave him as little info as possible, but he wants to be in charge of anything and everything. It’s politicking on all sides.”
“Politics? Isn’t that your forte?”
“Not when all I can think about is you . Getting you home and making sure you’re okay.” She buried her face against my chest.
There went my heart again. There was something ridiculously sweet about her being so determined to protect me. Hell, I’d needed it.
“My stay in federal custody wasn’t so bad. SAC Stanford got tired of asking me questions I refused to answer. They kept me isolated, and I figure that was Brynn’s doing?”
“She promised she’d look out for you.”
“I appreciate that. And our families? You had a chance to talk to your parents?”
“I did. My mom and dad wanted to come straight here to see me, but I talked them out of it. I’ll have to arrange repairs for their house once the FBI releases it as a crime scene. Brynn thinks that Stillwater was listening to my parents’ cell phone calls, by the way. That’s how Stillwater found us at my parents’ house. They knew Brynn was on her way there.”
Damn. That was a wrinkle we hadn’t anticipated. “And my mother? Have you spoken to her?”
“I left Natalia a message, assuring her you’re all right, but I haven’t heard back.” Her fingers moved over my side. “And your brother called too. We’ve been playing phone tag, since he’s on the other side of the world, but he heard you were in trouble. I left him a message that you’d been cleared of any wrongdoing, but I’m sure he’d like to hear it from you.”
My insides clenched as I thought about Ross. “I’ll touch base with him. Later. We have plenty to deal with.”
“We do.” Charlie pressed a kiss to my heart. “We have decisions to make. There’s something I haven’t told you. I promised Brynn I would share the list with the FBI as soon as we get access. That was the deal for her agreeing to protect you.”
I sighed. Maybe I didn’t appreciate Agent Somerton after all. “I’m not surprised. I get it. Doesn’t mean I’m going to follow through.”
“No matter what, we won’t turn over the list before you’ve cracked it and we know what’s on it.”
“Right. Probably won’t take me long.”
But dread twisted in my stomach. Because as soon as we had access to the list, Charlotte would head back to Denver. To her job and her life.
I didn’t want to lose her again. But I had no idea how to keep her.