After all, who doesn’t want to be the hero who takes down a human trafficker?
Everything that follows is surgical in its precision, as the bureau makes its move. Business associates become witnesses and dirty cops are quick to flip now that their freedom is on the line. Shell companies are frozen, bank accounts are locked, and safe houses are swept.
And piece by piece my brothers and I watch as the organization Dante built from the ground up crumbles into dust.
38
SYDNEY
It takesdays for the swelling in my lip to go down. I hide it as best as I can, with cold compresses and makeup, but they can only do so much.
Jade notices immediately. I see the worry in her eyes, the way her brow furrows when I walk into our shop the next morning.
“It’s not what you think,” I tell her. I hate the fear in her eyes, the panic.
“Then tell me what it is,” she volleys back at me.
I can’t look at her when I say it. “A love bite? And please don’t ask for details.” I grab the coffee she has prepared for me, and hide my growing blush by spinning around, turning my back on her.
“A love bite?” She lets out a shocked laugh. “Syd, are youkinky?”
“I plead the fifth,” I murmur into my drink.
Another laugh. “Was this the good doc’s doing?”
“Goodbye, former-friend-who-asks-questions-even-though-I-asked-her-not-to,” I singsong as I make my way to the back of the store with my coffee.
She lets it go after that. Which is good, because how do I explain to her what happened to me? How do you explain something like Viper?
And how do you explain how much you loved it?
I replay those few minutes in the dark over and over in my head, staring off into space when I should be working, lost in the memory. I fill in the gaps with my own imagination, licking at my split lip and squeezing my thighs together.
How had we looked from the outside, with my legs wrapped around him and his body engulfing mine? Had his eyes been closed when he’d come? Or open, locked on mine, staring deep into my soul? Had he felt it when he’d pushed me over the edge, felt the shift in my body, the tense muscles, the tightening of my thighs around him?
Had he liked it?
Viper doesn’t come back to the shop, not in the days following our encounter. I don’t know if I’m relieved or disappointed.
I don’t hear from any of them, actually.
Not Sebastian. Not Alec.
Not even Ashton.
I find myself missing the barrage of texts Ash was sending to my phone every day. Missing the way he wished me good morning, even when I refused to respond. He’s finally doing what I asked of him, finally giving me the space I requested.
The space I needed to finally start missing him. To want him back.
Call it hypocritical, maybe. Call it whatever you want. But I find myself checking my phone every few minutes, wishing he would text again. Wishing I could see him.
Maybe what I told Sebastian was more honest than I’d realized. Maybe I really have had enough space.
When the swelling on my lip has eventually faded days later, and I’ve just settled down onto my couch with Bea to relax for the night, I suddenly realize I can’t take it anymore. I miss him. Them.
I pick up my phone, and before I can stop myself, I send Ash a text.
Hi. Are you free?
