“No going slow, baby. No holding back.” Blake moved her hand faster as she buried her face between her femme’s thighs. “Scream for me.Comefor me. Drown me in everything you are. I will destroy anything in this world that eventhinksit will threaten you in any way. Becauseyou are mine.” Drawing Brooke’s rigid, pulsating clit into her mouth, Blake started to suck hard as Brooke squealed, a wave of arousal flooding Blake’s mouth.
As good as her word, Blake didn’t hold back, determined her woman would know she had been captured, claimed, andthere would never be any escape for her. Brooke cried out as she moved her hips even faster, trying to reach the peak that seemed to hover just out of reach. “Blake! Blake!” she sobbed as,finally, the first tremors of her release started to take hold, Brooke’s screams intensifying until she was breathless. Finally, the explosion that burst from her sent her straight over the edge, plunging into the abyss, as she shrieked and cried out her love, tears flowing down her face at the enormity of her emotion.
As she finally pulled herself up to the top of the bed, a barely conscious Brooke automatically curling up in her arms, Blake cuddled and held her femme, kissing her gently, until Brooke’s violent shivers stopped and she lay calm. Swiftly, Blake got out of bed and went into the bathroom to get a warm washcloth and a dry hand towel. Coming back into the bedroom, she stripped off the wet bedsheets and put on clean ones, rolling Brooke’s body side to side as she did, then cleaned her woman up before climbing back into bed and pulling up the fresh sheets and comforter. Tucking Brooke in snugly to make sure she was warm, Blake pulled her close, resting her head in the crook of her shoulder and lifting one of Brooke’s legs onto both of hers.
“I love you,” Brooke breathed, almost inaudibly, her face still stained with residual tears. “I won’t ever let you go either.”
Blake kissed the tip of her nose. “You’re stuck with me. Christ knows someone needs to keep the APS smartass under control, and it looks like you’ve been elected.” Brooke laughed drowsily. “Go to sleep, my tigress. We still have some things to clean up tomorrow, putting this Reflex bullshit to bed. Plus, you need to get back to your business and get all of that back on track. All I know is, whatever we have to do, we will always do ittogether. We both said it tonight: I’m yours, and you’re mine. Forever. And nothing in this world isevergoing to keep us apart.”
Chapter 30
“It turns out,” Trill stated the next morning after everyone had reconvened, “there is a ring of illegal body brokers operating in the Tampa Bay area. Just as there are sex traffickers, human tissue trafficking rings that feed an international trade in body parts arewaymore prolific than you’d think they would be.” A dark rumble swept the conference room. “Organ and tissue recovery for profit is fucking huge, with the body snatching industry worthbillions,” Trill continued. “Rob Kilgore was trying to break into that magic circle but, despite initial appearances, he hadn’t truly gotten that far into it.”
The APS and Infinity teams, including Brooke, were meeting one last time before Shaelyn, Dani, and India took off to go back to Tallahassee, their mission accomplished. Now, Indi asked curiously, “I never had the impression Marion’s mother was caught up by something like that, a body brokering trafficking ring. More like lifting Ms. Erma’s remains was more of a crime of opportunity, which we’ve already talked about. What are the chances there was more to it?”
“Honestly? Slim to none,” Trill told her. “That’s not why Marion was targeted in the first place. Kilgore initially was only looking to steal her money. Anything that cropped up beyond that was an unexpected bonus to be taken advantage of, as far as he was concerned.”
She tapped the side of her laptop. “The thing is, I’m fairly certain Drew’s little friend knows far more than she’s telling about what’s going on in Tampa Bay with this illegal body brokering bullshit.” Then she shrugged. “Maybe we shouldn’t worry about getting involved since it’s technically outside ourcharter. Body brokering isn’t something that targets women specifically, so we normally would take a pass. However, I don’t mind admitting I’m curious as hell, especially since my cuz said the moonchild stopped hanging out in Purgatory when Rob Kilgore died, and it has her itchy.”
“And whenhergut goes off the way it has been? Ignore it at your own peril,” advised Bryn, raising a dark brow at Drew. “She’s been like that since we were kids. Any time we didn’t listen to her intuition, we ended up stepping in a steaming pile of shit.”
The corner of Drew’s mouth quirked. “Neither Dara nor Ari has seen the moonchild in Purgatory either. There’s something about bothherand the whole body snatching thing that has me on high alert.Livebody brokering is also lucrative, let’s not forget, but I don’t think that factors in to what I’m feeling. We can put Reflex and their entire embezzlement and money laundering con to bed, however. This other, my crew and I will poke around separately to see if my feelings are justified. Beyond that, it’s back to business.”
With slightly shiny eyes, Brooke smiled at the Infinity team as she said, “I know the three of you are aware of how much we appreciate you. Itsucksthat you live so far away. I have a question, however. What are the chances you could hang with us at Seashells tonight and leave first thing in the morning instead of today? It would be an early night since everyone has to work tomorrow—and I doubt we’ll indulge in anything but iced tea or a non-alcoholic cocktail—but we can have some fun for a few hours.”
Shaelyn looked at Dani and Indi, who nodded, smiling back at Brooke. “We wouldlovethat,” Shae told her, grinning. “Only the good Lord knows when we’ll see each other again, so let’s take advantage of the opportunity while we have it. Bryn and I haven’t really been able to sit down and catch up with all thiscrap going down, and I know my sister would love to touch base with Riley, too. Besides,” she guffawed, “we’ve barely talked to either one of them since they got married. If you think Dani won’t give them a rash of shit for that, you definitely don’t know her yet.” The entire room cracked up.
“That’s okay, Drew,” Indi said in her quiet way, holding up her hands and smiling at the counterintelligence team lead. “Since Kelly tells me you’re the last one who’s avoided the ball-and-chain noose as far as the APS management team goes,” she mock-shuddered, “and I ammorethan committed to my single status, we’ll hide in the corner and talk about Sambo or tracking or something else not so damnscary.” Drew burst out laughing and gave the petite operative a salute.
Everyone rose and prepared to go. “If you want, Kelly and Piper can show you around Whimsy since neither one of them has anything pressing going on today that I know of,” Bryn said as everyone moved toward the door. The two femmes shook their heads. “We’ll meet at Seashells at seven then. I’ll have our receptionist, Daniela, send an email to our associates—Daniela is my and Riley’s little sister, incidentally—so I’m sure we’ll have a full house when word gets around.
“Thank you again foreverything, you three. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: there’s a damn good reason why Infinity has the reputation it does. I don’t know that we’ll ever have the chance to work together like this again, but if we do…whatever lowlifes put themselves in our crosshairs will understand exactly what it feels like to be flattened by a freight train they never saw coming.”
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“She’s covering her tracks, chief,” said Dara, an edge to her voice. She, Ari, and Drew were sitting in Styx later that afternoonwhile Drew was bringing the two associates up to speed on the APS management team meeting and the discussion about the illegal body brokering going on in the Tampa Bay area. “She is definitely gone from Purgatory. But your little moonchild is leaving echoes on the rest of the dark web. Whatever she’s looking for, she’s searchinghard. I agree this isn’t normal APS business. Typically, it wouldn’t cause a ripple.
“But frankly, that’s on the surface. Like you, every instinct I have is telling me we need to chase this down. I don’t have a fucking cluewhy, all I know is that it needs to happen.”
Ari nodded, lacing her hands on the back of her head and leaning back in her chair. “I’m with you, Dar. Something occurred to me, however.” Dara and Drew waited as Ari gathered her thoughts. “What if the moonchild haspersonalreasons for wanting to know about body brokering in the area? What if Kilgore was only her starting point in chasing down whatever the fuck it is that’s goosed her in the ass? He’s dead, but she still hasn’t let go. That tells me something else is driving her…and it may be well in our best interest to find out what.” There was silence for a minute as Dara and Drew considered it.
Finally, Drew nodded slowly. “That tracks. One of the things Trill told us was that when it comes to donating your body after death, either poor people who can’t afford any kind of funeral are the ones who often donate—because that way, having their remains taken care of won’t cost them anything—or individuals who would simply like to help to advance the cause of science. Their bodies, however, are sometimes stolen by these sleazy brokers and sold to a temporary processing plant to harvest the organs, bones, eyes, appendages, and fingernails so the individual parts can then be sold. Also, people who never signed up to donate their remains in the first place occasionally have their bodies stolen as well and sold for profit by shady funeral homes and directors.”
“That’s fucked up.” Ari was disgusted.
“Yes, but that tells me the moonchild isn’t part of the U.S. intelligence community, which was another speculation the twins and the Seven had. What I’d like to know is, if thisispersonal, what pulled her trigger and set her off? It’s clear she’s highly intelligent, absolutelyfearless, and interacts withThe Shadowas though I’m nothing more than another stepping stone to get to where she’s going.”
“Jesus. No sense of self-preservation at all, is there?”
Drew was thoughtful. “That’s the thing, though. She’s banking on the fact that I’m not going to hurt her.Cyb3rmoondoesn’t harm women in any way that I’ve been able to find, despite the red herrings she’s thrown at me. Neither do I sense that damaging females is on her agenda. She feels safe with me in spite of her aggravating game-playing because she knows hurting women ismytrigger. But that’s not part of her plan.
“How’s this for speculation? What ifshe’shad the body of a loved one stolen?” Sharp, indrawn breaths came from Dara and Ari. “As she was hunting down the culprit, little moonchild found Rob Kilgore and his operation, planned to exact revenge if she found evidence that it washewho stole the remains of her loved one, but he was killed before she could verify. Along the way, however, she finds out there’s a much bigger illegal body brokering operation in this area. Talk about pulling a trigger…fuck, it was probably more like detonating a bomb. The hell she’s not going to do whatever it takes to make sure no one else goes through the pain she did.”
Spinning around in her chair, Drew accessed Purgatory. “I have an idea.”
“Which is what?” Dara asked curiously, leaning forward with Ari and watching the monitor.
“My moonchild is hunting, so I’m going to give her something to hunt. Although she’s not directly in Purgatory,someone will get a message to her for me, if only to get intoThe Shadow’s good graces.” Drew’s fingers flew across the keyboard.
