ASHFORD (Gray Wolf Security #5) (10 page)

At Rose’s

Rose ran her thumb over an image of her husband’s face, remembering the day the photo she was wrapping in newspaper had been taken. He’d been a gentle man, her husband. Too shy to allow many photos to be taken of him, but he’d been distracted enough that day to allow it. He’d taken them to the beach. Michael, her youngest, was playing in the waves, and Bruce, her eldest, was chasing the dog up and down the shoreline. Richard, her husband, wrapped his arms around her and whispered in her ear all the things he’d planned to do to her when they got home. She’d laughed, telling him they were too old for that sort of talk anymore.

“You’re never too old for love.”

That was when Bruce ran up with his camera, snapping the picture with almost no warning.

It was Rose’s favorite picture of Richard. He’d gotten sick a year later and would be gone in a matter of months. This picture represented the last of the final bit of happiness they’d shared.

She slid it into a box that was going to the cottage, one of only a dozen she was allowing herself. The cottage was much too small for all the things that filled this four-bedroom house. The rest would go into storage for a while, until the kids had a chance to pick through it and chose what they wanted for themselves. Then she’d probably sell the rest, or donate it to charity.

Funny how life could be boiled down to just a few belongings. But it was almost a relief to leave this house. To simplify her existence.

She’d been grateful to Ash for offering her a job. She’d never really worked before, so the idea of venturing out into the workplace blind was daunting. But she’d organized a family for thirty years. How hard could it be to translate those skills to an office?

More than that, how great would it be to get out of her own head and focus on something beyond her grief?

Ash saved her life. She liked to think she’d done the same for him and Donovan and Kirkland and Joss and David. They were as much her kids as her biological sons. She’d do anything for them.

It felt good to be moving to the compound.

But she was too old to stay up so late.

Rose went to the bedroom and performed her nightly ritual, brushing her teeth, combing her hair, applying her nighttime moisturizer. Then she crawled into bed, a sigh of relief slipping from her lips as she lay down. It always felt good to get into bed every night.

She was nearly asleep when she heard a sound downstairs. She sat up, grabbing her cell phone off the nightstand. She listened for a long minute, but then decided it was just her imagination.

Getting so old…

She put her cell phone down and curled up again.

She didn’t even hear them come through the door.

Mina

The house was finally quiet. Kirkland and Mabel had just left, stumbling down the front steps to their cottage, a hundred yards or so to the left of the main house. Ash stood at the front windows, watching them go.

“You know, she was a client of ours. She owns a pornographic website and—”

“Mabel owns a porno site?”

“Yeah. Pretty funny, huh?” he asked, drawing me against his side.

“You’d never guess, just talking to her.”

“She’s a pretty innocent kid until you get her into a board room. Then she becomes a firecracker from what I’ve heard.”

“Wow. I think she just became my new hero.”

“She is something else. And Kirkland…you should have known him before her. He was something of a playboy, never sticking with the same girl longer than it took to get the deed done. But Mabel changed all that.”

“Good for them.”

“The same’s true about Ricki and David. He was in a wheelchair before he met her, refusing to get the surgery. But then she got into some trouble and he decided he needed to be able to protect her.”

“Romantic.”

“Not to her. She was pretty pissed for a while.”

“What about Donovan and Kate?”

“They knew each other when they were kids. Grew up together. But then on the night of their high school graduation, they were off stealing a few moments alone together and her brother was beaten to death. She blamed him, and he blamed himself for a long time, but then she was a witness to a murder. Her father hired Donovan directly, and they worked their way through it.”

“Intense.”

He looked down at me, running his hand slowly over the side of my face. “They all have dramatic stories to tell their grandchildren.”

“Even Joss?”

“Oh, yeah. She was mute, wouldn’t speak out of grief for the accident that took her husband and child. But then she was assigned to watch over McKelty after her father received a few kidnapping threats. The two of them…they were like oil and vinegar at first.”

“Wouldn’t know it now.”

“No. They found their way to each other.”

“What about Rose?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know how she met her husband. But I know she adored him. I saw them together every day when I went up to the hospital to visit David.”

“Hospital?”

“He had pancreatic cancer. She stayed by his side until he died. And then she disappeared for quite a while. When I decided to start Gray Wolf, I tracked her down, asked her to come work with us. I thought she needed us, but I think we needed her a little more.”

I curled up closer against him. “You did a lot for these people. You saved Joss from her depression. Saved Rose from her grief. You helped Donovan find closure. Gave David a reason to get out of his chair. And you gave Kirkland a human connection he probably never knew before.”

“I didn’t do that. I just run a security firm.”

“You do more than that.”

He turned into me and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“I was standing here, wondering what story we’d tell people.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do we start with Ford’s birth, or do we start further back, with Alexi and the hell she put me through so that I’d step onto the road that would lead to you?”

He kissed me, and I was instantly lost in his touch. I slid my arms around his neck and let him pick me up. I didn’t even realize we’d made it to the stairs until he rested me against the railing to lift off my shirt. His hand slipped under my bra and his phone began to buzz.

I groaned, but he ignored it. Unfortunately, whoever was on the other end was determined to get through to him. Another buzz, another touch of silence, then more buzzing.

“You should probably see who it is at least.”

“Sorry, babe,” he said, pressing his lips to my throat as he reached into his pocket for the phone. About the same instant he pulled it from his pocket, someone began pounding on the front door.

The fear that shot across Ash’s face scared the crap out of me.

He untangled himself from my limbs and rushed back down the stairs.

“It’s Rose,” I heard Kirkland say. “They broke into her house, beat her until she convinced them she was dead.” Kirkland’s usual playful tone was deeply serious. “They’re taking her to the hospital now.”

Ash was pale when he turned to me.

“Go,” I said. “Don’t worry about me.”

He came over and took my face between both his hands. He didn’t say anything, just studied my face for a long second. Then he kissed me before rushing off, leaving behind a puff of dust as he drove away.

All I could think was Dimitri. It had to be Dimitri.

Ash

It was like a repeat of the day Kirkland was shot, except Kirkland was sitting in the passenger seat beside me. We pulled up to the emergency room, and I could see three other SUVs identical to mine parked close to the front doors. Joss, the baby in her arms, Carrington, Donovan, Kate, David, and Ricki were all in the waiting room in various stages of pacing.

As much as it was something of a relief to see them all here, all well, I knew it was a bad idea.

“Is Emily here?” I demanded of David.

“She’s with Rose.”

“You can’t all be here.” I looked around at their familiar faces, then focused on Donovan. “You stay with me. The rest of you need to go to the compound. Joss,” I said, turning to her, “help Mina find a place for everyone to sleep.”

“Ash—”

“Don’t argue with me.”

I could see the panic building in Kate’s eyes, the overwhelming fear in Ricki’s. I wasn’t being paranoid. Someone was out to get my people, and until I knew who that was, I wasn’t going to put anyone else at risk.

“Do what I said. Please.”

There were a lot of hugs and requests to be kept up-to-date, but they left, dragging themselves out to the SUVs and driving in a caravan that might have been the worst idea ever. But, as much as I realized whoever was behind this wasn’t done, I didn’t think they would hit us again tonight. They wanted us to suffer.

“We need to talk to Emily. We need to know what’s going on.”

Donovan led the way to the nurse’s desk. He managed to convince the severe-looking woman sitting there that we were Rose’s sons. She let us back, and we nearly ran headlong into Emily.

There was blood smeared on her sleeve. I tried not to think of it as Rose’s blood, but it was hard not to.

“You have to let us do our job, Ash,” Emily said immediately, pushing me back with a hand on my chest.

“What happened?”

She shook her head. “All she could tell us was that three men broke into her house shortly after she went to bed, dragged her into the living room, and beat her. She fought them for a little while, but then she went limp. They thought she was dead, so they left. She grabbed the phone and called 9-1-1.”

“Good for Rose,” Donovan said.

Emily leaned back against the wall, clearly exhausted. “Jack’s got his best people on this one. He understands how important Rose is to you guys. But, without an ID from Rose, there’s not much he can do unless they get a hit on a print or one of the assholes was thoughtful enough to leave behind some DNA.”

“That’s why you need to let us deal with this,” Donovan said.

Emily straightened up, pulling herself to her full height. “You won’t be doing anything. You’ll let the police do their job.”

“But you just said—”

“Yeah, well, miracles have been known to happen. And I’d rather play for a miracle than watch you get yourself killed.”

I grabbed Donovan’s shoulder and pulled him back.

“Can we see her?”

“They’re about to take her to surgery. But, yeah, you probably can.”

Emily led the way back down the hall, pausing outside an exam room door.

“Prepare yourself. They did quite a number on her.”

I’ve been to war. I’ve seen pretty much the worst people can do to one another. But when I stepped through that door, I was horrified. I heard Donovan gasp, and he’s an explosives expert. He’s seen people torn to pieces by his bombs, but I guess it was different when it was someone you knew.

“Hey, Rose,” I said, crossing to her and taking her hand in mine.

“Ash,” she mumbled through lips that were swollen to ten times their normal size.

“Don’t talk. It’s okay.”

She tried to shake her head, but there was so much going on and so much pain that she simply wasn’t capable of it.

“Don’t…my boys.”

“We have to call them, Rose.”

“No.”

It was single word, but it was clear. She didn’t want her kids to know.

“Okay.”

Donovan moved up beside me and ran his hand over one patch of clear skin on her jaw.

“We’ll take care of you, Rose,” he said softly. “You’re going to be okay.”

She closed her eyes, or eye as the other was already closed because of the swelling. And then the nurse asked us to step back so they could take her up to surgery.

I watched her go, anger and hatred for whoever could do this to such a kind, gentle woman boiling in my chest.

I was going to get these guys if it was the last thing I did.

Mina

The house was suddenly flooded with people again. Mabel came over to help me figure out what to do because Joss had stopped by her house to pick up Carrington’s daughter, McKelty. David and Ricki took David’s old cottage, and it seemed simple to put Donovan and Kate in his old cottage, but it had been cleaned and emptied for Rose to move in this weekend. So we put them in Joss’s old cottage since the small house wouldn’t be nearly big enough for the four members of her family. Instead, we put them in the guest bedrooms at the back of the first floor of the main house.

Kate stayed at the main house and helped us box up supplies for everyone, making a list of things we’d need if this confinement lasted longer than just a day or two. When there was nothing more to keep us busy, Mabel made a pot of coffee and we sat around the table, staring out the darkened windows at the menacing world beyond them.

“Who could do something like this to Rose?” Mabel finally asked, putting voice to the question everyone had been wanting to ask.

I stared down into the depths of my coffee cup, not because I was contemplating the answer, but because I knew the answer. I just didn’t know what to do about it.

“Donovan thinks that someone Gray Wolf put behind bars might be behind this.”

“But who? And why would they do this now?”

Kate’s hands were shaking. I reached over and pressed mine over hers.

“Ash will figure this out,” Mabel said.

“And if he doesn’t?” Kate shook her head. “If something were to happen to Donovan…”

Mabel and I exchanged glances. We were both thinking the same thing. Only, of course, Mabel was thinking of Kirkland and I of Ash.

And I knew the answer. I didn’t know how they could be stopped, but I knew the who. I had to tell someone.

“What if they knew who was doing this?” I asked.

Kate looked at me. “Obviously they’d know how to stop them.”

“What if knowing the who just made things worse?”

“How could it?”

“You haven’t been around all this for very long,” Mabel said. “You don’t understand how they work. But knowing the who…knowing who is after them could go a long way to helping them figure out how to stop them.”

“But what if it was someone they couldn’t go after on their own and someone the cops couldn’t stop, either?”

“There’s no such thing,” Kate said.

“I guess what I’m asking is, if we knew that the who could place them in more danger if they knew and went after them than if they stayed ignorant of the whole thing, should we tell them?”

Mabel and Kate stared at me. Then Kate said, “You can’t fight an enemy you can’t see, no matter how big and frightening that enemy might be.”

“Exactly,” Mabel agreed.

The last excuse I had for not telling was gone. However, I couldn’t tell anyone but Ash. It had to be Ash.

***

Donovan called to say that Rose was going to be in surgery until early morning, so everyone should try to get some sleep. Kate was reluctant to go to the cottage alone, but she did. Then Kirkland came for Mabel. I climbed the stairs alone, peeked in on Ford, then went and sat on the window seat in Ash’s bedroom.

My thoughts were swirling, but I knew what I had to do, and I was pretty sure I knew how I was going to do it. I just had to have the opportunity.

I’d never meant to bring trouble to Ash’s door. I knew that Dimitri was after him before, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the fact that I was living here, that I’d run to the enemy to find protection, had made things worse. Dimitri was a dark man, one capable of atrocities that even Ash might not have ever seen. I was in the room on more than one occasion when he planned out these things. I heard what he did, what he wanted done. It was sickening, but what could I do about it?

When I saw Ash’s picture in that magazine, the one Dimitri threw on the ground, I knew it was the face of a good man. I knew he would help me. When I ran away, I hid out there in those woods, the ones that grow up on the outskirts of the fence. I’d thought about climbing the fence, but understood Ash was not a man who would make it that easy for someone to infiltrate his property. So I watched. I waited. And then I saw my opportunity.

I hoped for a little help. I hadn’t expected all that Ash had given to me.

It was a little before dawn when I heard him come up the stairs. I stood because it didn’t seem like the kind of moment I should sit through. He paused in the doorway, exhaustion coming off of him in waves. I couldn’t help but go to him, curl up against his chest, and take in the comfort that came from the feel of his arms around me.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

He touched my lips with one finger, replacing it with his lips a second later. It was a hard kiss, a kiss filled with an overwhelming need. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he lifted me, carrying me to the bed. He needed oblivion. I could feel that in his touch, in the desperation that sat just below the surface. He needed me.

I’d never been needed quite like that before.

We tumbled onto the bed, and he grabbed my wrists, holding them over my head. His mouth moved over my throat and down into the space revealed by my t-shirt. One hand snuck under the bottom hem of the shirt, sliding up over my hip, my ribs. He exposed my breasts to his mouth, nibbling until a little milk dribbled down the bottom edge of my breast. He licked it, taking it into his mouth with a soft, mewling sound that was everything and nothing like the little sounds Ford often made.

He moved down my body, touching me and kissing me everywhere. I lay still, afraid to distract him, to bring him back to the reality of all that had happened tonight. He tugged at my panties, and I pressed my head back against the pillows, a groan slipping from my lips. I ached almost desperately, my belly tight at just the thought of what he was about to do. And when he did, when he touched me, my thighs quivered and the tightness in my belly grew.

He nibbled at my lips, his tongue brushing against my clit. He was the one who craved oblivion, but it was my body experiencing the most intense pleasure it had ever known. I moved my hips, encouraging his touch. He slipped his fingers against me and…
oh, God!

He pulled me to the edge, and then he backed off, removing his fingers and pressing his lips against my inner thighs. And then his warm breath washed over me, his tongue touching my clit again. And then his fingers slipped inside of me, and I was writhing my hips, unable to sit still as he touched places inside of me that stood up and cheered with each brush of his fingers.

“So good,” I whispered.

“I want to watch you come.”

Our eyes met, and there was this smoldering need in his eyes that made my heart skip a beat. And then his mouth was back against my cunt and my head was spinning and I couldn’t think of anything but the feel of his lips on my innermost places. I rocked my hips, unable to hold back the groans that wanted to escape my lips.

I was so close. I writhed against him, needing his touch everywhere. It wasn’t enough to feel his teeth nibble at my lips, to feel his fingers inside of me. I wanted him to twirl my clit behind his teeth, wanted him to kiss my inner thighs, wanted everything he could offer and more. I wanted the paradise he was promising.

And then…I clutched at the sheets, tugging at them as my hips froze in midair. Right there. That spot was just…and then the tightness turned into a quiver, and my nerves exploded with the most intense orgasm I’d ever experienced. My vision darkened, my ears rang. It felt beyond good. But it wasn’t over. He slid up the length of my body and turned me onto my side, pulled me back against his chest, and pressed his finger to my clit, sending even more explosions through my body. And then he slid inside of me, his cock hard and thick, touching things that his fingers couldn’t quite reach. The rhythm he established, the quiver of my muscles, turned that one, singular orgasm into something bigger. Something better.

I couldn’t catch my breath. His arms around me, cradling me back against his chest as he rained kisses on my shoulder. It was all just too much. I was lost in him when I was supposed to be the one taking care of him. I was supposed to be comforting him. Yet, I was the one reaping all the benefits.

I never wanted it to stop. And it didn’t. For a long time, he held me there and made me feel like I was the only one that mattered. He filled me with his seed, but it didn’t end. We moved together again, slowly, our kisses lingering and gentle. And then the fever came back and we both walked off that cliff again. When we were both exhausted, our bodies satiated, I curled up against his chest. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but…I should have told him.