Her shy eyes met mine when I looked up at her, and she looked even more beautiful with her cheeks flushed and her eyelids at half-mast. I grinned at her before kissing each of her thighs and then placing one final, soft kiss between her legs.
“I can’t believe I let you do that,” Carissa whispered, burying her face in my shoulder when I rose to my feet.
“I can’t believe I’m going to take you home when all I want is to feast on you over and over again.”
If only I’d gone with what I wanted to do instead of what I thought was the right thing to do for Carissa, I would have saved both of us a lot of torment. Had I known three days would pass without a single word from Carissa, I never would have taken her back to her parents’ home at all. My texts and calls went unanswered. If it weren’t for the fact that Whit and his team had eyes on her house, I would have been out of my mind with worry over her.
Even with them there to watch over her, I was getting close to the end of my patience. She’d been shy about me going down on her when she’d left me, but I didn’t believe she would deliberately ignore me because of it.
I’d tried to use the time away from her wisely, digging further into Bellamy’s life in an attempt to confirm that the trafficking ring would end with him if I killed him. There wasn’t anything indicating otherwise in the financial records Gaige had managed to get his hands on, but there were a few payments to accounts owned by Carissa’s father which concerned me. Not because I thought he was tangled up in the trafficking ring, the timing of the payments didn’t line up with any of the ring’s activity. But the amounts were enough for me to take action.
Just that morning, I’d instructed Whit to find a way to bug the house since he’d been unsuccessful in picking up any useful intel using long-range directional microphones. I knew sending someone inside was a risk, but he’d assured me that Sera, the lone woman on his team, would be able to get in and out without anyone being the wiser. It wasn’t until I received a text from him two hours later confirming the bugs were in place that I finally relaxed, as much as I could until I spoke with Carissa myself.
When my phone rang four hours later, my hope that the wait was over was quickly dashed when I recognized Whit’s number. My entire body froze when he skipped the greeting and went straight into the matter at hand.
“I haven’t caught your girl’s voice yet, but I did pick up a call between her father and Bellamy.”
“How long ago?”
“They just hung up.”
I was up and out of my seat, heading to the stash of weapons I kept in the basement, since I knew damn well that he had to have heard something bad if he didn’t wait to give me an update.
“Bellamy called to confirm dinner plans for tomorrow night. It didn’t sound like a business dinner to me, not with your girl’s name coming up in conversation. Bellamy was very specific about the fact that she’d better be there. He said he didn’t want anything to interfere like it did last week and that he was nearing the end of his patience.”
It was all starting to add up in my head, and I didn’t like the picture which was building.
“Hold on a second,” Whit said, just before I heard muffled voices over the line like he’d placed his hand over the phone. “It’s a good thing you had us bug the house today because it looks like your girl is going to need to be extracted, and soon.”
“What happened?” I asked as I slipped on shoulder, thigh and ankle harnesses.
“Sera was monitoring the feed while I called you. The mother kept quiet during the call, but she had quite a bit to say once they hung up. She wanted to know how much longer Bellamy would wait and what they would tell people if Carissa didn’t go along with the plan and he just took her.”
“That fucking bitch,” I hissed.
“It gets worse,” Whit warned. “Her father already has a cover story prepped. Something about sending her back to Switzerland because she missed her friends after spending so many years there.”
“The only reason you prep a cover story is because you think you’re going to need it,” I bit out.
“I don’t see good things in your girl’s future if she stays in that house.”
“She’s not staying in there,” I growled. “We’re going in to get her tonight.”
8
CARISSA
“When Alexander comes to dinner tomorrow evening, I expect you to be warm and welcoming to him. He’s an important business connection for your father.”
“I would never be rude to a guest, Mother.” Although, after hearing about Alexander Bellamy non-stop for the last three days, I was sorely tempted to do whatever it took to deflect his attention away from me.
“We’re lucky he’s still interested in you after the fiasco at the charity gala. You’d do well to remember that he’s quite the catch.”
I barely restrained myself from picking up the priceless vase off the fireplace mantel and throwing it at her head. “I’ve no desire tocatchanyone, Mother. Especially not after my date with Vaughn.”
“Oh, please,” my mother sighed. “We know absolutely nothing about the man, except that he’s new to town and gauche enough to bid a ridiculous amount at the auction. I’m sure your little date with him was entertaining, but he’s hardly the kind of man who your father and I would allow you to marry.”
“Marry?” I repeated incredulously. “I didn’t say anything about marriage, and I certainly hope neither you or Father have told Mr. Bellamy I’m interested in marrying him. I barely know the man. The only time I’ve ever spoken with him, I wasn’t even eighteen yet and barely a dozen words were exchanged.”
