Page 85 of Callous Shot

Hooking my arm around him, I half carried, half dragged him over to his bed and made him lie down on his back. Dipping down, I brushed a kiss over his forehead, and his lips curved into a tired smile. “Mmmm, kiss me some more.”

“I’m gonna go now. You’ve got stuff to do with your family when the others get back, remember? You need to rest.”

He pouted. “Don’t want to.”

“Tough shit.”

“You’re not very nice to me. I thought you liked me now.”

“Don’t push it, Arson.”

He smiled widely at that. “Ahhh, you’re using my nickname again. Do I get to call you Bells, like your teammates do?”

“I prefer Link. Please be quiet now. You need to rest.”

“But you might miss me.”

I rolled my eyes, even though I couldn’t hold back a smile. “Are you trying to say you’ll miss me?”

“Nope. Never.”

“Dan.”

“Fine.” He huffed. “Maybe. Just a little bit. Minuscule, really.”

My smile widened. Daniel Hoyton, admitting he was going to miss me? What kind of alternate universe were we in?

“We can meet up tomorrow, okay?”

“I guess so, but you have to kiss me before you go. That’s what fuck foes do, right?”

“Bloody hell,” I muttered. “Fuck foes.”

He smirked at me, his blue eyes sparkling with humour. “Uh-huh. Technically, now we’re fuck buddies, since you have a massive boner for every part of me.”

“You’re a dick,” I told him. “But either way, I don’t think the point of fuck buddies is to kiss. It’s all about the fucking.”

“Yeah, but we make our own rules, and we like kissing. Why would we deprive ourselves? That would be a stupid idea.”

“When you put it that way…”

“Yep. Repeat after me. Daniel Hoyton is always right.”

“Shut up,” I said, climbing onto the bed so I could kiss him properly. A few more minutes wouldn’t make any difference, and he was right about this, at least. I liked—no, loved kissing him, and I wasn’t about to deprive either of us of that.

His lips met mine, so softly, and my stomach swooped. I forgot all about the things we still hadn’t talked about. The worries we’d temporarily brushed aside. All that was important now was right here in front of me.

37

LINCOLN

Gravel crunched beneath the tyres of my SUV as I brought it to a stop outside the front entrance of my family’s mansion. I knew that the news of my visit would make it back to my father, but he was in London right now, so there was nothing to stop me from doing what I needed to.

The mansion was dark and silent as I padded through the cavernous entrance hall. The staff were probably either asleep or had retired to their own quarters for the night. I’d disabled the security as soon as I got inside, so no one should bother me, but there was still another hurdle between me and my goal. My father had a separate lock on his office door, and I didn’t know the code. I also had no knowledge of lockpicking or code breaking, so that was a no go.

I couldn’t endanger Daniel, Mike, or Tilly, and that left me in a nearly impossible situation. So here I was, creeping through the house and hoping against hope that I could pull off a miracle because I didn’t have a plan B. I couldn’t involve Mike in this because I’d be jeopardising his career. If I told Daniel, I’d be risking him and his family and friends at a time when they needed to lie low. Until Operation Foxglove concluded, they were all at risk, and I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to him or anyone he cared about. That didn’t even take into account the likelihood that he’d get his uncle involved, at the very least, and the situation between our families would deteriorate even further.

No. It was just me, and I alone had to pull off this plan, because otherwise, we were all fucked.