Over and over, I took him to the brink while he thrashed and moaned beneath me. I gripped his thighs and opened his legs, pushing them wider as I deep-throated him. My fingers gripped the base of his cock, and I looked up at him again, and if I could’ve frozen the world in that moment, I’d have done it in a heartbeat.
But as the world kept turning, a soul-deep desire for him spurred me on. I slid a wet finger into him. His ragged cry pierced the air and his whole body trembled. That it was me turning him inside out sent my blood roaring in my ears, and the urge to add another finger and curl them, to make him come, was so strong I almost gave into it. But there was another urge coursing through me. I withdrew my finger.
“Harry.” Joe tangled his fingers in my hair. His eyes were clenched shut. “Fuck—”
A wailing siren shattered the heady air. Blue lights flashed through the window, and Joe leapt from the bed, launching himself over my head and to the floor to snatch his clothes.
He was gone from the room before I could comprehend it, and I staggered to the window just in time to see four police cars and a van pull up in the yard.
Chapter Sixteen
Joe
“How the fuck did you get this warrant?”
The CID officer somehow managed to look bored and smug at the same time. “We got it the same place we get every other warrant in the land, now step aside so we can search this property.”
“You’re not searching the stables.”
“Yes, we are.” The officer jabbed a pudgy finger at the warrant he’d stuck to the side of the house. “The warrant covers the house, the stables, and all outbuildings and land. I’m asking you nicely right now to let us work, but if you obstruct, I’ll arrest you.”
Cunt.
Harry came out of the house, dressed in a hotchpotch of clothes he must’ve found on the floor. Two policemen jumped on him, demanding to see ID. He shot me a quizzical glance, but I had nothing.I’m so fucking sorry.
A team of police officers started towards the stable block. I moved fast to block them again. “Wait. You can’t just barge into the stalls. I need to get the horses out first.”
“One by one,” the CID officer said. “And we’ll be watching every move you make.”
They started with Tauna and Carric. I led the placid old mares out and stood in the lane with them, fury seeping from every pore as my mind worked to figure out how this was happening to us again.
It didn’t have to work very hard. Raids like this had happened dozens of times before Grandpa had kicked Jonah off the farm for good, and we hadn’t had one since... until now.Bastard. I could’ve killed him. Would’ve, if he’d been in my line of sight, and everything he’d done for Emma and the horses while I’d been in hospital evaporated. He’d taken advantage of us at our weakest, and now all that remained to be seen was how deep a hole he’d left us in.
My mother and Emma were escorted from the bungalow and made to stand by the police van while the houses were searched. Harry stood with them, his back to me as he comforted Emma. I longed to see his face, to ground myself in his eyes, to go back to where we’d been a split second before this latest nightmare.
I had to settle for whispering soothing words to Tauna that the stoic old mare didn’t need.
One by one, the stalls were searched. When Sal and Emma were allowed into the house to wait in the kitchen, Harry came out to help me with the horses. I thought he’d never led horses out by himself, but apparently, I was wrong. Mani went with him easily, and then Ava, until finally we were left with Shadow.
Police surrounded his stall. I rounded on them again, but Harry pulled me back, his lips at my ear. “It was your father’s idea to move the horses around.”
The words were muttered. Barely intelligible. But the implication was deafening. If there was anything to be found, it was in Shadow’s lair, and if we didn’t bring him out, the police would call someone to do it for us.
Someone who couldn’t handle him.
The idea of Shadow being tranquillised—or worse—poured water on the fire in my veins. I didn’t give a fuck what my father had buried in that damn-fucking stable, Shadow was my priority—and as much my family as Sal and Emma.
“I’ll come with you,” Harry said. “He doesn’t seem to mind me when Emma leads him.”
I nodded. “Okay, but step back if he kicks off. I can’t handle you getting hurt.”
We advanced on Shadow together. I’d always approached him with absolute quiet, but Harry spoke to him in much the same way he had to me when I’d been losing my mind with pain. His voice was low, entrancing, and Shadow tuned into him almost as fast as I had. I slipped a head collar on him and then reins, and we walked him out of the stall.
“Stand back,” I gritted at the waiting police. “He’ll brain you if you startle him.”
Shadow was a big enough horse for them to take me seriously. They moved aside, but even with them well out of the way, Shadow couldn’t be trusted to wait patiently in the lane like the others had. “We’ll have to take him to the top field,” I said. “Turn him out and hope he doesn’t get into mischief before morning.”
Harry opened the yard gate. “Have you left him out overnight before?”
