My pitch was done.

Now I had to wait.

Roman needed to think it over. He needed to come to his decision, but I laid it out as best as I could.

“I’ve heard what your woman can do.”

That surprised me. It wasn’t what I expected from him.

I frowned, but didn’t comment back.

Roman pushed up from the desk, going back to the window and he reached for his phone. He turned his back to me. “Go. Get your sister and get back here, alive.”

I wasn’t waiting for him to change his mind.

I started to leave.

He stopped me at the door, saying, “But Raize.”

I turned back.

He was watching me, his phone in his hand. “Your woman. I get that, but you’re my man. Your woman is then therefore one of mine. If there comes a time when I’ll need to use what she can do, I will. You will bring her to me to do that.” His eyes were harsh. His tone was unrelenting. “There is no room for negotiations with this one, not if you continue to be in my employment. Do you understand me?”

I had to give him the answer he wanted.

I said, “Yes,” as I reached for the doorknob and I left.

I didn’t wait to be excused, but I knew as I left, I was on a leash and I would find how far that leash extended one day. As I went back out, my car was brought up for me, and I drove away because that day wasn’t today.

Now, what we had to do was the reason Ash had come into my life.

The irony wasn’t lost on me.

We were about to kidnap my sister.

51

Ash

Something was really wrong.

I sat up in bed, waiting for him until I saw a sweep of headlights pull into the driveway. I was in the middle of the bed, my arms hugging my legs, my knees pulled up against my chest. I was there, and it was a long time before he came in.

That said almost everything to me.

He didn’t want to come in.

Why?

I didn’t wait.

I moved across the bed, standing barefoot and I left.

I was in a tanktop and my underwear, but I hoped Cavers and Jake would be considerate, not come in if they were up? I didn’t know. At this point, I didn’t care.

I found him in the kitchen, a bottle of tequila next to him. The only light was a small nightlight that was left from the guest bathroom, and that’d been overlooked since we normally kept no lights on anywhere we stayed.

He didn’t turn to me, and my gut clenched.

I went to him, crawling onto his lap, my legs straddling him, and I pressed my hands to his chest.

He didn’t grab my legs. He always grabbed my legs.

“What happened?” I asked softly. I was treading with caution.

I’d never felt this from Raize, whatever this was.

He didn’t answer, staring off into the distance behind me.

“Hey.” I slid my hand around his neck, turning his head to see me. I bent down, eye to eye. And I began rubbing my other hand up and down over his chest, slipping under his shirt. “Tell me.”

Now he moved.

His eyes flashed, and his hands gripped my thighs, pulling me tight over him.

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple moving up and down once before he rasped out, “There was a hit on Morales and his girlfriend.”

I rocked back.

The only girlfriend that would affect Raize was his mother.

“Raize,” I murmured.

He kept on, his eyes going back to staring at something behind me. “She was left intact. They executed her with a shot to the forehead.”

I leaned back, trying to get him to look at me. He needed to see me, not whatever was in his head. “Raize.”

“It was Marco.”

“But if he did that? Took over the Morales Cartel?”

“Then he’d come for me…”

Our earlier conversation flared to memory. My question and his response about Marco Estrada, and a whole new slew of chills were slithering through my body.

I rocked forward against him, only half realizing what I was doing.

I said, “Roman is sending you after Marco?”

His hands gripped my thighs again before moving up to my ass. He cupped me there, and he helped move me with my already rocking motion. His hands were kneading my ass, slipping underneath my underwear. “No.”

I frowned. “But—”

His eyes found mine, tipping up. “Roman’s too new over here. He’s not strong enough to take on Estrada, but we’re going to buy time.”

“How?”

His eyes skimmed the room behind us, the hallway. “He’s sending us to go and take Estrada’s half-sister. It’s a stall tactic.”

How he was talking…

He kept on, “He’ll lose time and energy by looking for her. We’ll let him know she’s alive, but then she’ll need to be hidden from him.” He paused. “If that’s what she wants.”

I tipped my head back, touching his chin so he was looking into me and I asked through my eyes. He didn’t want them to know?

His gaze flared, growing fierce, then burning, and then hardening. His hand kept rocking me against him so I was grinding on him.

I saw my answer. He didn’t.

I gave him a small nod, knowing my own eyes softened, and he closed his, getting what he needed from me. His forehead went to my chest. I caught his head, my hand cradling his neck and I brought my other one around, sifting my fingers through his hair.

His mother was dead. We were going to get his sister.

Everything else could wait.

I moved my lips to his ear and said, so quietly, “I’m sorry about your mother.”

His hand snapped up to the back of my neck, gripping me, but he only moved his head back, staring at me with such fierce yearning and a second later, his mouth was on mine. It was hot, demanding. His hands gripped my thighs, digging in, and I felt he needed more. Just more.

I closed my eyes, giving over, and Raize let out a growl, pushing me back.

He adjusted me, yanking my legs open, so I sank farther down on him. He tipped me back.

He was watching, his head back in the shadows, but I wasn’t.

The moonlight was shining in. I was in its spotlight, and Raize wanted to see me.

He kept kneading my thigh, watching me, and I felt an inferno blazing inside of me.

I wanted him, just him, however he gave me right now.

He tipped me back even farther, I was almost half lying on his legs. Almost. He stopped me halfway there, ran his hand up over my stomach, spanning it, and moving up until he was between my breasts. He swiped them, slow, smooth, with his finger, running it over my nipple and I shuddered. Every touch, caress was a tease from him.

I wanted to grind on him, to make this go faster. I ached for him, but something in the air held me back.

He needed to control me.

His hand moved back, turned, grabbed my top and he ripped it apart.

I gasped, arching my back from surprise.

My shirt fell to the side, down and off my arms. He grabbed it from the back, crumpled it up in a ball and moved it back over my body, moving down.

I was fully displayed for him, until he ran that hand over my stomach, my shirt still in his hold, and I felt him grab the sides of my underwear. I heard a ripping sound, and I couldn’t stop my body from responding.