“I didn’t know you were a Ranger.”
“And this is my problem because…?” He let that hang.
“And it’s also over twenty-four hours since you had your powwow with Lee and Tanner and I don’t know about that either,” I retorted, finally bringing the matter in hand.
He took in another deep breath and on the exhale murmured an annoyed, “I see.”
“Are you going to tell me about that sometime in this century?” I asked sarcastically.
“Yeah, but, see, yesterday, sweetheart, you let go of the physical manifestations of your life with that piece of shit which I suspect was profound for you. It also took effort and you were busy all day. Then you got a headache likely because it took effort, you were busy all day and what you were doin’ was profound for you. Then, since I know how tight you are with your family and your posse and your stay here and away from them is indefinite, I figured you’d want to enjoy your time with them so I wanted you to have that and not burden you with outside shit.”
Damn. That made sense and it was nice.
Still.
“Well, thanks for that Sam but I did ask twice to be told and I can see you not wanting to do it through that and me having a headache but you’ve had all day today.”
“Yeah? Should we get in a discussion about people wanting to whack you when we can be overheard in a departure lounge or on a plane?”
Now he was being sarcastic.
But damn again because he was also right.
He kept talking.
“And, you think maybe you can give me a chance to relax and be home, which I haven’t been, Kia, a lot longer than you, and spend some time with a buddy of mine without that shit intruding for awhile?”
Oh man.
Now I was feeling like I was a bitch and a worse one than I thought because he had valid reasons for his decisions and I hadn’t asked nice. I’d been, well… a bitch.
“Okay, honey, maybe I was out of line –” I started.
His brows went up. “Maybe?”
Now hang on a second.
As soon as I remembered, I forgot to stop being a bitch.
“Okay, Sam, I can see you had your reasons but it’s not like I asked you to tell me when you planned to take out the trash. This shit is kind of important, it affects me and you know, my Dad knows, my brother knows but the person it affects, me, does not know. I’m sorry to cut into your relaxed vibe but someone out there might be hunting me in order to kill me. It’s kinda weighing on my mind.”
Sam’s jaw flexed.
I waited.
A muscle in Sam’s cheek jumped.
I waited.
Then I was done waiting and prompted, “Well?”
“Lee and Tanner found the broker.”
I blinked.
Then I breathed, “What?”
“They tracked down the broker. They also…” he hesitated, clearly searching for a word and then found a scary one that said it all without saying anything, “persuaded him to get a message to the man to call the hit off. Easy payday. He backs off, confirms via e-mail he got the message and is a memory. He keeps his pay, the broker keeps his commission and you breathe easy. Ozzie gets fucked in this scenario seein’ as he can’t dismantle that bit of trade but I don’t give a fuck. You’re safe and that’s all I care about.”
“I’m safe?” I whispered.
He shook his head. “We haven’t received e-mail confirmation. What we do know is that the broker has been contacted by that bitch since your dead husband died and he’s been contacted to tell him the job was still on.”
Oh my God.
“She did that?”
Sam nodded.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
“Something else Tanner found out was that, in case Clementine was unable to collect your life insurance, that bitch did. Clementine named her as second beneficiary.”
God, Cooter was such slime.
“I cancelled the policy,” I told him.
“I know but wouldn’t matter if you did. Her bein’ behind your death would mean she wouldn’t collect. In fact, in one of my briefs with Oswald, he told me your insurance company came sniffing around Clementine’s death to ascertain if there was foul play that would invalidate his policy.”
My breath went out of me.
Therefore I had to force out my, “What?”
Sam shook his head. “You’re good. Murder is covered in that policy and Cloverfield was not involved in their dealings. But I don’t think she cares her actions invalidate your policy or that it’s cancelled. I think the bitch just wants you dead.”
“But…” I paused then went on, “wouldn’t it be important for Ozzie to at least have a chat with this broker so he could tell her Vanessa is still plotting to kill me?”
“Don’t need it. She purchased an extra cell to communicate with the broker. Seein’ as she’s just a bitch and not a criminal mastermind, she didn’t get a burner. But she did get it under an alias and gave her Mom’s address to send the statements. Tanner and Lee found it, tapped into it, taped conversations, transcribed them and also got copies of the statements and printouts of the texts. Oswald has all that shit and all of it is admissible mainly because Oswald is not gonna share how he procured it and is gonna say he and his boys got it. He’s gotta call in some markers to get warrants dated appropriately but luckily he’s got those markers to call. Yesterday, they arrested her again seein’ as continuing to conspire to commit murder when you’re out on bond after being arrested for conspiracy to commit murder is a violation of bond. She’ll now most likely be held without bail until her trial where it is also very likely she’ll go down and hard.”
I was stuck on an early word so I asked, “A burner?”
“A disposable phone.”
Right.
Then the rest of it penetrated.
“So this is good news,” I pointed out, my heart beating faster but the muscles in my neck getting looser.
“Yeah it is except the part where she didn’t call off the hit, we now know a man is waiting for his moment to take you out and until we get the confirmation e-mail we have to assume he still is.”
Yeah, except that part.
It was my turn to take a deep breath and I did.
Then I said softly, “This is mostly good news, Sam. I don’t understand why you waited to tell me.”
“Because the part of it that’s not good is really not good. You’re comin’ back to you. Every day, you smile more, laugh more, more of the real you comes out or you put back in place more of her. And your friends and family are visibly relieved to have you back, you, their girl. You’re not there but you’re getting there and I suspected every step you took to release the life you led with that asshole was leading you there. I wanted you to have that. Not a reminder of just how much of an asshole that asshole was.”
This made sense too. And it was also nice.
However.
“Isn’t it up to me to make that decision?” I asked.
“No,” Sam answered instantly and I blinked.
“No?”
He shook his head.
“Sam –” I started but he interrupted me.
“We had this conversation. You agreed. And we’re not havin’ this conversation again.”
Now I was confused.
“We’ve had this conversation?”
“Are you my woman?”
I was still confused. How were we back to that?
“I don’t get it,” I told him.
“Kia, sweetheart, are you my woman?”
“Mostly,” I replied without thinking, encroaching into territory we needed to explore but I didn’t think it sensible to breach at this juncture.
I watched his brows snap together again and I also watched his entire body get tight.
“Mostly?” he asked quietly and very, very scarily.
Oh man.
“Yes,” I changed my answer hurriedly. “I’m your woman.”
“That’s a
better answer,” he whispered again very, very scarily.
“Sam –”
He cut me off again.
“I protect my woman as I see fit. You agreed to that.”
“Well, yes, I did,” I concurred. “But how does this fit into that?”
“I protect my woman however she needs to be protected and whatever she needs protection from.”
Oh.
Now I got it.
“So, essentially, what you’re saying is you decide how I need to be protected, what I need to be protected from and therefore there are times when you’ll decide what I need to know and when.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No in the sense that there’s nothing ‘essentially’ about your statement.”
He couldn’t be serious.
“Sam!” I cried.
“What?” he asked.
“I’m not a little girl and that’s just… it’s just… I don’t know what it is but it isn’t right.”
“How isn’t it right?” he shot back.
I threw out an arm saying, “I don’t know, it just isn’t.”
Sam uncrossed his arms and planted his hands on his hips, leaning in and exploding, “Jesus, fuck, Kia! When this shit is over we will never be back here so when it’s done, we won’t have this problem unless, hope to God not, some other shit comes up. But this shit isn’t over. There is a woman out there who wants you dead. She’s incarcerated now but the man she hired isn’t. This is serious shit and we agreed I’ll deal with it so I’ll fuckin’ deal with it and, sweetheart, I wake up and live and breathe worry that I’ll miss somethin’ or someone will fuck up and the consequences of that is you bein’ dead and now we know that threat is real. You wake up and go on viewings with your girl and giggle yourselves sick. You sit with your Mom after eating a chicken breast stuffed with cheese and surrounded by three slices of bacon which explains why she needed a heart valve replaced though she clearly didn’t get the message and you two gossip and cackle about everyone in town. You didn’t ask to meet Lee and Tanner. You haven’t asked to meet the men who are lookin’ out for you. I assumed that meant you were puttin’ this shit in my hands where it belongs. And I was glad of it. The only thing I have to hang onto is I got control of this situation and my woman can giggle with her friend and gossip with her mother. I might worry, she keeps eatin’ her mother’s food, she’ll need a heart valve replacement in ten years but I see you emerging from the shit he left you, I’m good with that and can focus on the other shit he left you. What I’m not good with is havin’ this conversation that you promised me we would not have.”
He stopped speaking and scowled at me.
I pressed my lips together.
Then I defended myself. “Okay, I get that but I have to tell you I wasn’t aware of all the nuances of that agreement and I still might not be.”
“Then let’s clear this shit up,” he offered. “You trust that I got matters in hand. You trust I’m lookin’ out for you. I pay for makin’ you safe. And you trust that the decisions I make are done for rational reasons I’ve thought through with you in mind. Does that work for you?”
“Um… yes,” I muttered.
“Fuck,” Sam muttered back.
Since we seemed to be concluding things, I thought it important to add, “I still don’t want Memphis going outside off the lead until she’s more accustomed to your house.”
Sam again scowled at me.
Then he asked, “Fuck me, how the fuck can you piss me off to an extreme and then, right after, be cute and make me want to laugh?”
I was being cute?
I thought it prudent not to ask that question and instead remain silent. So I did.
Sam didn’t.
He ordered, “Come here.”
It was then I thought it prudent to do as he ordered. So I did.
When I did, Sam’s arms folded around me and I returned the gesture.
He tipped his head down and caught my eyes. “We good?”
“I don’t like it that you live and breathe worry about me.”
“Soon, I won’t have to.”
I pressed my lips together. Then I nodded.
Then I did a face plant in his chest.
“I didn’t ask to meet the guys because, well… with everything else, it kinda slipped my mind,” I told his chest.
“You wanna meet ‘em?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll arrange that.”
I sighed. Then I whispered, “Okay.”
One of his hands slid up my back, my neck and into my hair where his fingers cupped my head. His other arm held tight.
Okay, well, there it was. We had that out.
It wasn’t everything but it was something.
I still wanted more.
But standing in Sam’s arms, in Sam’s house which underlined the fact he was definitely not a euro-trash Lamborghini man and doing it after he made logical explanations that all were embedded in looking out for me one way or another not to mention he admitted to living and breathing worry about me, I’d take this for now.
Definitely.
* * * * *
I was close. Oh God, I was close.
I was on my hands and knees in front of Sam… no, strike that. I was on one hand and my knees in front of Sam, my other hand was between my legs, my finger adding to the magic Sam’s thrusting cock was making.
It was going to happen, I knew it.
And, as ever, it was going to be fabulous.
Then, before it did, Sam pulled out. I whimpered in surprise and was about to protest when his fingers wrapped around my forearms, he yanked me up so my back was pinned to his front and my arms were pinned in front of me with his hands at my wrists.
Then his mouth came to me ear and he growled, “Are you my woman?”
I opened my mouth to speak but he kept growling.
“Or are you mostly my woman?”
Oh God.
I should have known he wasn’t going to let that slide.
“Sam,” I whispered and his hands gave my arms a gentle shake when I said no more.
“Answer me, Kia. Who am I fucking right now?”
No one since he pulled out.
I didn’t point that out.
Instead, I turned my head and pressed my temple into his neck. “Baby –”
“Answer me.”
“Are you my man?”
Yes. That’s what came out. Naked, on my knees, held captive by Sam who was the same, that was what I blurted.
He transferred my wrists into one of his hands, his other hand went away, I felt him move, adjust then I felt his cock drive up and fill me, taking my knees off the bed.
My head shot back. God, I loved being connected to him.
“What does that feel like?” he growled.
It felt unbelievably good.
“Honey,” I whispered.
He ground up as his lips went to the skin under my ear and he whispered back, “You have me, Kia.”
My body went perfectly still.
His fingers tightened on my wrists and he repeated, “You have me.”
I didn’t know what he meant.
But I hoped I did.
He kept whispering, “You just have to take me how I can give it, baby.”
I closed my eyes.
“You with me?” he asked.
No. I was not.
But I was thinking, maybe, I was closer.
“Baby,” he ground deeper and his lips moved up, his teeth nipping my earlobe and I trembled, “are you with me?”
“Yes, honey,” I lied.
He pulled out again then I was on my back, his hands were on my hips, he was sitting back on his heels, he slid me up his thighs, I pressed mine to his sides then held me steady, staring down at me in his king-size bed, his eyes intense, his face intense, as he fucked hard until I came hard and so did he.
* * * * *
It was later. After I’d cleaned up. After I’d
pulled on a nightgown. After Sam had turned out the lights, tucked me into his side and Memphis had joined us to sprawl in the vast expanse left to her in Sam’s big bed.
His breaths were coming even. My eyelids were drooping.
Then his hand drifted up my back, into my hair, it fisted and twisted.
It didn’t hurt but it made my eyelids stop drooping.
“None of that ‘mostly’ shit again, Kia,” he rumbled into the dark, his voice deeper, rougher and not like velvet.
He wasn’t angry, I knew that tone. And he wasn’t annoyed, I knew that one too. He also didn’t sound tired because I knew the sound of that too.
This was something else.
Something new.
I stared at his shadowed chest knowing somewhere in my soul I’d hurt him when I said that.
I’d hurt him.
Oh God.
What was happening?
I didn’t get it but what I did get was that I was thinking Sam had told me earlier that I couldn’t ask. Instead, I had to take it as I got it.
I closed my eyes.
Then I did the only thing I could do in that moment, for him and for me.
I whispered on a squeeze of my arm around his gut, “Okay, baby.”
His hand relaxed, sifted through my hair then drifted down to become an arm wrapped around my waist.
Sam fell asleep about thirty seconds after Memphis.
It took me a lot longer.
Chapter Nineteen
A Mission
My eyes flitted open and I saw the wall of Sam’s chest as well as the wall of Sam’s bedroom. It was grooved wood painted light gray.
His room also had white woodwork, dark wood floors with a big dark gray area rug under the huge bed. His bed had dark gray sheets and a dark red comforter cover. Black furniture, mission style, tall, wide dresser, nightstands, attractive lamps over the nightstands built into the wall that swung around so you could position them where you wanted them.
The only thing on the wall was a framed black and white photo of a headshot of Walter Payton wearing a white headband and looking over his Bears jersey covered, shoulder padded shoulder, his handsome face reflective.
It was an awesome picture.
Sam was asleep. I knew this from his breathing but also from the feel of him. You could sense his power always even if he was only in the vicinity. Now his power was shut down.