Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Leith
That night Iona and I work in my study. She digs into every name we have from the Lowing list, and I make calls to inquire more deeply into what we’ve found.
But first I call Kion Forrest, head of enforcement. Now more than ever I want to find out if Darian was involved in bringing me down.
“Evening, Leith,” he greets.
Leaning back, I stack my ankles on the desk. “Evening, Kion. I’m calling to follow up on our last talk. Any idea why Darian would’ve been meeting with Hume Irving?”
“Aye. Irving gave Darian the go-ahead for two of his unlicensed casinos. In return, Darian gave Irving the names of two men the COPFS has been after for a while now. Men who no longer serve Darian’s purposes and are more of a liability than anything.”
Fucking Galiene.
“Thanks.” I ring off and toss my phone on the desk.
Iona looks up from the floor, where she lies on her belly working on her laptop. “What’s the verdict?”
“Another strike against Galiene to add to our growing list. She set me up to suspect Darian was behind everything. But he was just a decoy to keep me from noticing the real culprits—the COPFS.”
Iona sits up, crossing her legs. “Despite what Galiene said earlier, it’s possible the COPFS really did enable Irving to arrest you. After all, the murder case is another way to distract you from attending to the Lowing case.”
I crack a wry smile. “Ironically, she may be the reason the trial date was set for so early and why the judge let me out on bail. If we believe her claim that they were going to spare me.”
“What’s happening with Jason’s investigation?” Iona asks.
“Peigi Ormiston is gaun to testify about her sister Liùsaidh’s early departure from Ayr, Liùsaidh’s phone call from the road, her background with sexual abuse, and her keenness to adopt her young nephew.”
“Peigi doesn’t mind that this makes her late sister look like the murderer?”
“Jason can be very persuasive. He leaned into the fact that this would save an innocent man, and she agreed to play ball.” I put my feet down and pat my thigh.
Iona rolls to her feet and pads over, settling in my lap. “Are you an innocent man?”
“By no means, Iona. I’ve done plenty of dirty deeds.” Lifting her shirt, I palm her belly, undoing her jeans.
She hums deeply. “And the murder?”
“What do you think?”
“I honestly can’t tell.”
“Would it make a difference if I did commit it?”
She twists her lips in thought. “Aye? No. Mibbe?”
My erection throbs painfully against her backside.
Setting her down, I push to my feet and lower her jeans.
As she steps out of them, I rip her panties off.
“Bend over.” She folds herself over the desk, and I kick her legs apart.
Unhooking the tie from the drapes, I secure her wrists together behind her.
“If this were a punishment, I’d tan you with the curtain rod.
But you’ve been a good wee Flame, so we’ll save that for another day. ”
I skelp a springy buttock, admiring my handprint on her creamy skin. She jumps and whimpers, pressing her face into the desk. Relishing the crack of palm to flesh, I slap her other globe, eliciting a moan from her.
I knead her arse, rubbing in the sting to the sound of her mewls. “Such a needy, greedy wee thing. So helpless in the face of your desires. I’m gaun to come in your sweet cunt, filling you with my potent seed. But first you have to beg for it.”
“Please, Leith!” she pleads without hesitation.
“Please what?”
She pushes her arse toward me. “Please give it to me.”
I smile. “Give what?”
“Your cock!”
I undo my belt and unzip my fly, pushing my slacks and boxer briefs down.
But bonnie as the rear view is, I want to see her face.
So I flip her over, hitching her thighs around my hips.
She groans from the new position, since her hands are under her arched back.
Angling my tip at her slit, I sheath my thickness in her up to the hilt.
“Oh, Leith!” She extends her neck, sighing at the depth of my penetration.
It feels almost unbearably good inside her.
“I’m gaun to breed you and make you bear my baby, Iona.
” I pull out and pack her full again. “You’ll be round-bellied, heavy, and extra horny, all from my sperm.
” She gazes up at me, dazed by lust and thrown in a trance by my words.
I slide out and stroke her, again and again, speeding up.
“And if you obey me in all things, wee wife, I may let you have my cock on the regular.” I smile down at her as her eyes grow wide and darken from her impending O.
“I’ll fill all your holes with my essence, till it’s spilling down your chin, your arse, and your thighs.
” I revel in her tight, slick channel, welcoming me like its missing piece.
Thrusting harder, faster, more aggressively, I watch her chest heave and her jaw loosen.
“You were made for me, wee Flame. Made to take my punishments and rewards, my discipline and torments, my will imposed on yours.” My enlarged dick can take it no more.
I bury it in her soft flesh, just managing to command, “Come now.”
She squeezes me over and over, making me cannonball into ecstasy.
Throwing my head back, I roar, emptying my hot load in her depths.
She’s gorgeous in the throes of her own rapture, her lush, fiery locks spilling over the desk and paroxysms of pleasure rolling through her body.
If I could have her portrait done, the pose would be just as she is now, heedless, perspiring, and given over to bliss.
Her thighs clinging to my hips, her hands trapped behind her, and her shirt falling around her breasts, exposing her flat belly.
I remain inside her as we descend from our highs, cum leaking from our joining.
At last I pull out, step back, and tug my clothes up, tucking myself in. “Now I’m ready to tackle the case again.”
She smiles, watching me for a long moment.
Then she sits up, tipping her head toward her laptop.
“Movable Spaces is the sixth company we’ve looked into for which we haven’t been able to trace an owner or even the major investors.
” Iona is right. We’re running up against a wall with the partners we’ve researched so far from the Lowing list. “Are we doing something wrong, or is this truly a pattern among the companies?”
I untie her wrists. “I should be able to reach more of my sources over phone tomorrow. We’ll find out soon enow.”
* * *
All day Friday Iona feeds me more information she’s dug up about each partner on her burner phone list. From the contacts she finds I make phone calls, to Arthur Vox’s personal assistant, a customer rep from Thierry Gourmet Foods, a manager at Marcus Industries, and others.
I inquire as to who invests in these concerns, who owns them, and who started them.
Each time I get the runaround, one person referring me to another, who refers me to yet another, until I’ve got nothing after an hour of following a weak trail.
Ringing off from my latest call, I look over at Iona.
“Something’s gaun on with all these companies.
We just need to figure out what.” If I had time, I’d bring a few of these people in to be subjected to rough questioning in Declan’s cellar.
“They’re hiding something big. Whether the people I’ve been talking to actually know or have been kept in the dark, they’re giving nowt away. ”
Iona heaves a sigh of relief. “So it’s not that I’m a crappy researcher.”
“You’re excellent.” I dart up a brow. “And irresistible.”
“Uh-oh. I know that look.”
“C’mere.” I’m feeling in the mood for an appetizer before dinner, and Iona’s pussy beckons.
* * *
On Saturday morning Iona insists on going to a makers’ fair in the Southside. “There’ll be a printmaking booth, a bookbinding booth, and even a booth for papermakers.”
“Anything on cars?” I smile at her enthusiasm.
“As a matter of fact, there’ll be a model car tent,” she says brightly.
“That’s more my jam.”
The fair is hoaching with people of all ages, and Iona is instantly drawn to a kite-making stall. While she’s looking at the kites, I visit a nearby Forfar Bridie?1 booth and pick us up a few pastries for lunch along with a couple of Guinnesses.
As we sit at a picnic table in the shade of a large beech tree, Iona turns her beer can around. “I don’t think we should keep Diran out of the loop with what we’ve discovered about the COPFS—or what we suspect about the Lowing list partners from the burner phone.”
My chest tightens, and I take a long pull on my beer. “He fired me from the case. I’m not about to come to Manton and McCormick’s rescue until I have all the answers. I’ll look like a fool—and a desperate one at that.”
“But oughtn’t Diran to know that the COPFS brought you down?”
“Brought me down?” I repeat in a staccato tone. “No one has brought me down.”
Unreasonable as I know I’m being, I’ll be damned if I let Diran off the hook so easily.
He lost faith in me too readily, when it was most critical for us all to stick by one another.
He believed Darian and Iona, without bothering to ask me.
It’s a matter of pride to minimize my furlough and reserve secrets that will only help the Crew once I spring them.
Iona visibly grapples with my obstinacy. “Well, I meant he ought to know the COPFS are after all of you. He might be able to do something.”
No doubt bitterness colors my response, but at the moment I’m incapable of rising above it. “I’ll tell him when I’m good and ready.”
Her brows pull together. “What if the reason we haven’t been able to find anything on those companies relates to the COPFS’ mission against the Syndicate?”
I break apart another bridie. “Then we’ll find the link—without Diran and the rest.”
She munches on her lower lip. “I think you’re making a mistake.”
“And I think you’re jonesing for a punishment,” I say with lethal calm.
She wisely shuts up.