Looping her arms around my neck, she spread her legs wider and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Then, what do you want to talk about now, Mr. Mathias?”
Dropping my head to lick the spot on her lip she’d just nibbled, I eased into her waiting slickness. “I wanna talk about how good you feel, Mrs. Mathias. How fuckin’ perfect you feel.”
We didn’t actually talk much after that, unless you counted the moans and dirty talk my lovely wife saved for the moments when I fucked her senseless.
“You’re sure about this?” Cade asked as he flipped the business card between his fingers.
We sat in his parked truck on a winding road that led to the lake. It was just beginning to get dark, and Dakota was safe at his parents’ house going over preliminary plans for the big wedding Brenda insisted they were going to have. Shawna and the prettiest little girl I’d ever seen were there with them. It was a good place for them to be right now, a safe place since there was a security gate leading onto the Donovan property, guards that discreetly walked the premises as well as a monitored alarm system. Charles was also there with his rifle.
Tor and Stan were inside the house to keep Dakota covered. Yeah, they were still living and in possession of all their limbs at my wife’s insistence. Although I had a lengthy conversation with them this morning about not giving a fuck if Dakota asks them to give her some space. They were to remain by her side at all times, or I was going to slit their throats should something happen to her. The specially designed ergonomic clip-point knife I held resting on my thigh as I spoke reinforced my words.
“Rafe flew down to Miami last night and went through the apartment Scottie was staying in again. He got some things we can use to do a DNA test, but from the pictures Cash snapped of the guy during their surveillance, it’s him.” I knew that wasn’t what Cade wanted to hear.
He’d been one of my first calls after having breakfast with Dakota and meeting with her security team before she headedout for the day. KC offered to come with me considering how my last meeting with Cade had gone, but I told him that wasn’t necessary. Cade loved his sister, he wasn’t going to do anything that would ultimately hurt her. Not to mention the fact that deep down I was certain he understood that I was the best man for Dakota. If I could see the hints of darkness looming in her, Cade had to see it too. The saying that game recognized game was amplified among killers. While there were definitely levels to being a killer, there was also an aura we carried that was unrecognizable to others. Death was a heavy veil that flanked the shoulders like a cape. A profiler like Cade would absolutely see it.
“Fuck!” He roared, tossing the business card somewhere.
“Cash handled it,” I said. “He can’t hurt her now.”
“You don’t know that,” Cade shot back. “If he was carrying this card, it was for a reason. Now that he’s gone we’ll never know what that reason was, until it’s possibly too late.”
That was a point I’d considered but other than what we were doing now to figure out exactly what was going on in Miami, there wasn’t much more we could do. “We’re working on the phone records now.” We hadn’t originally thought about dumping Tariq’s phone since his death was for more personal reasons, but Rafe admitted last night that he still had his brother’s personal items. “Hopefully they’ll draw a clearer picture for us. In the meantime, I just wanted to make you aware of what’s going on.”
Cade stared out the driver’s side window for a few seconds. I didn’t speak nor did I rush him to do so. I could imagine what he was going through. If I thought there was someone lurking out there planning to do any harm to Dakota I would be silently fuming too. I’d also be out there looking for the bastard so I could get to him first.
Which is exactly why I pulled out my phone to check my messages. KC had a team out looking for August. She hadn’t been in her office since the vandalism last week and her staff was being tightlipped about her schedule. Of course, that wasn’t a problem for KC to hack into the company calendar to get the information we needed.
KC:Security cameras outside the casino have her getting
off the elevator and going into the garage. I got a tag
number. Running it now.
There were two more texts from my lawyer, Rome, telling me he had a meeting with the judge that signed the warrant this afternoon. When we initially spoke, I told him I wanted to be at any meeting, but Rome advised against that. He assured me that he had a special way of handling this situation and that it was best that I kept my distance. Rome had a reputation for being vicious in and out of court so I trusted him to handle this in a permanent way that would satisfy me and the Ryders.
“When were you gonna tell me about the raid?”
My head immediately turned in Cade’s direction. “Excuse me?”
He looked my way, those eerie eyes locking on mine. “Don’t play dumb, Fury. I know the casino was raided two weeks ago. Heard about it in the office from one of the agents in the narcotics division. When they said the name of the casino, I had Shawna find the warrant so I could look it over.”
“So, you saw the warrant before it was served and you didn’t think to give me a heads up?” Irritation burned my throat. It might be hypocritical of me to be angry at Cade for not saying anything when I’d also kept this situation from him, but fuck that, he should’ve said something.
“Calm the fuck down. By the time I saw it, it was already being executed. I figured I’d let it play out then wait to hear from you for an idea of what needed to be done. I was thinking you would call a meeting but the only thing I heard from you was by way of those pictures.” He frowned and I did too because I wasn’t talking about that shit again.
“The Alliance wasn’t going to handle it the way I needed it to be handled.” My words were tight as I stuffed my phone back into my pocket. “The warrant was bullshit. In all the years we’ve been in business there have been no tips to the police about anything that we do. We’re very organized and careful about all the things coming and going there.”
“Which is exactly why you should’ve hit me up so I could squash this shit on the back end. Even if you didn’t go through the Alliance, you could’ve come to me.” He sounded really pissed that I hadn’t done just that and on one hand, I got it. On the other, fuck that, I’m always going to handle club business the best way I see fit.
“Unless the reason you didn’t call me was because you were feeling guilty about marrying my sister without telling me.” He gave a dry chuckle. “Yeah, that’s it right? You just couldn’t face me knowing you were doing that backhanded shit.”
“Look, I’m not about to do this with you again, man. What goes on between me and my wife is our business. I didn’t have to run that shit past you.”
“But you should have.” Cade sighed. “I’m not just some other guy on the street, Fury. You and I have been through some shit out here. I’ve trusted you to have my back and you knew I had yours. Whether it was with the Alliance or on our personal shit. Lying to me was foul.”
“Nah, I never lied to you.”
“A lie by omission is still a lie.”
