“Is it dead?”
“Everything I had has been completely obliterated, Maverick,” she replies in a hushed tone between gritted teeth.
I shove my hand in my pocket quickly. “This is all I have,” I say, handing her a small knapsack that contains a small microphone and invisible earbuds so we can hear what's going on on her end. “We can hear you but you can’t hear us.”
She dips her chin but flicks her gaze away from me, and again, I keep my face neutral. Kane comes back before I can ask her if she learnedany vital information. She shoves the knapsack in her bra so smoothly I wouldn’t have caught it if I hadn’t already been looking at her. “I’ve got a car on its way here. Thank you, mate. We appreciate your help. Come, love, we’ll need to buy you new clothes since yours have been burnt to a crisp. Can’t have you walking around in pajamas, can we? We have a long week ahead of us.”
I tuck that bit of information away.
I wave a hand dismissively, knowing Sabrina is sticking to her script, but she smiles apologetically. “Thank you.”
I blink down at her before walking away.
Back at the headquarters, Raven is getting her ass chewed out by both Damon and Jonas in the study. Me? I’m back with Parker and the crew in the library, watching Sabrina’s every move via her location due to her chip—nother phone. Which tells us she has yet to charge it.
“What did he say exactly?”
I sigh, pulling my glasses off my face and squeezing the bridge of my nose, then put them back on. “Theyhad a long week ahead of them,” I repeat for the third time to Parker, who is still staring intently at the screen, following her every move like a hawk. The tension around his mismatched eyes hasn’t gone away. He looks like Damon when he’s been away from Raven for too long. It seems every hour Sabrina is here, he’s getting paler.
We see when and where she eats, she shops, everything. It’s late into the evening when she’s not only headed in our direction, but the car zoomspast us. “Where the fuck are they goin’?” I glance over at Aleksi and stand up to where the maps are on the wall. Hands on my hips, I look between the screen and the maps where all the little red X’s are. “Fuck,” I grunt, my mind running back to a case I worked in Illinois.
“What?” Parker asks.
I shake my head, looking at the ground and then back up at the guys. “He’s been cached away.”
“The fuck does that mean?”
“That means they somehow either learned or caught on that we were searching for Maksim, and we got too close. It means instead of moving him to anewlocation we haven’t searched, they moved him to one we alreadyhave.”
“Mmmaverick?”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath before turning my head to look up at my wife. When I do, the sight of her hurts me. She stands at the threshold, clutching the hem of the sleeves of her oversized sweaternervously. It hangs off one shoulder, going lower as she fiddles with the sleeves, slightly pulling down with each tug. Her eyes and nose are red, and even though I want to go to her, take her in my arms, and punish her, I’m still trying to sort out my anger. Christ, my sessions with Damon have been helping way too much. “Yes, Raven?”
She winces when I use her government name, but she lifts her hands.While I was there, Kane said the games were being held at the Ainsworth Estate. Not the one I was held in. Kane also said they have Maks underground. He’s planning on killing him.She stops for a bit and steps forward, giving me her phone. I take it from her, noticing her hands slightly trembling. It takes everything in me not to pull her in my arms, but the anger I have makes it easier not to give in. Her hands go back up and she retreats, the tension in the room growing by the second.While I was there and Sabrina kept him distracted, I was able to go through some of his things. I didn’t find much, but then I found this weird room hidden behind a huge portrait.
She points to her phone, and I put the code in to unlock it, going to her gallery. Pictures upon pictures of blueprints for an underground facility beneath a manor. “Shit,” I mutter under my breath. “Aleksi, come look at this.”
He takes the phone from me, brown eyes quickly scanning each photo before swiping to the next. When he gets to the end of them, he quickly types something in and hands the phone back to Raven. “Sent them to myself. I’m gonna print them out.” He dips his chin at my wife. “You did good, Ray. You didn’t miss a single thing, and I’ll be able to look at it as a whole once they’re up. Because of you, we’re one step closer to knowing exactly what we’re dealing with.”
She blows out a breath, caramel eyes welling up with tears at the compliment, chin trembling, then scurries out without looking back, like she’s doing her best to get as far away from me as possible in the shortest amount of time she can.
Fuck me.
I shut my eyes, take a few deep breaths, then glance over at Parker, scarred eyebrow lifting as if saying, ‘Yup. Go handle that. We’re fine here.’
So I do.
Brushing past an irritated Jonas and Damon, I chase after my wife, who I find in our designated bedroom. Raven stands in front of a mirror, sweatshirt tucked up under her bra, the waistband of her sweatpants scrunched down to her hips so the soft swell of her stomach is on display. She has both hands on her stomach, rubbing the sides of her now growing bump. It’s small, barely noticeable to others, but I am so aware of herbody, like it was my own. I was the one who noticed when her nipples changed just a light shade darker a mere two months ago.
I stand behind her, cradle her stomach in my hands, then plant a kiss on the back of her head. Her eyes flutter closed in our reflection, but I stare in wonder at the life in my hands. “Never again. Do you understand me? You did a good thing. I know you did. I know you were trying to help. And you did. You're an amazing woman, and I love you with every breath I have, but Raven…” My voice cracks and I spin her fast to face me. I cruelly tug her closer to me, shove one hand in her silky chocolate tresses, and use the other to grip her chin so she seesme. Her lips part in a slight gasp, and the sound awakens my beast. I lower my face to hers until her lips are only an inch away from mine. “There is no future for me without you in it. If you go before me, they’re going to need to make the box big enough for both of us because I'm going with you. I will not take a breath,not one breathpast your last one. So never again, do you hear me? Say you understand.”
“I… underss..tand,” she whispers against my lips. Only then do I cover her mouth with mine, letting my tongue dance with hers. I groan at the taste of my little angel of death, undress her and myself quickly, lift her easily, and take her to bed.
Her thighs spread for me, already glistening, clit swelling, but I want it pink and hot. I want to dip my dick into her pool of liquid hellfire and burn with her. I drop my face between her thighs, flatten my tongue, and lick long, languid laps over and over her until her thighs tremble against my ears. I sit up on my knees and bring up her leg, putting her ankle on my shoulder, and watch as I notch myself at her hot, wet, welcoming cunt, always so fucking ready for me.
Her hands go to her breasts, pinching and tugging at her pearled nipples. Nipples I can't wait to watch leak with milk so they’ll feed me.
Fuck.
