Addict (16 page)

He stared pointedly at me, and I knew he couldn’t say it. He loved me, but he’d given up the right to say it. He’d given up the right to have me say it back.

He shook his head as if to clear it. “You’re like a fucking drug, Kelsey mine. I can’t work with you.”

I pulled the towel off the rack because I was cold and sat on the bench. “Too bad. I told you before I’m on a case. Liv’s boyfriend is missing, and this is the last place anyone saw him. He works here. I have to talk to him.”

“No.” Gray ran a hand through his wet hair to get it out of his eyes. “If you go into the bar, I doubt you’ll walk out again. Someone will recognize you in there. Tell Liv I’ll handle Scott. I have no idea how, but I’ll handle him. Can’t you see we have much bigger problems than that idiot getting addicted to Brimstone?”

“He’s on the drug, too?” A pit opened in my stomach. I’d seen what it did to Alan. Scott wasn’t my favorite person, but Liv would be devastated.

“They’re all on the drug,” Gray said sadly. “Julius’s been testing it on his staff.”

“What’s in it?”

“I don’t know,” he said, frustrated. “Why do you think I’ve been trying to set myself up as a supplier? He’ll let me use it, but I haven’t gotten close to being able to take a testable amount off site. I would go ahead and use…”

“Don’t you dare.” I was shocked he would even offer to try. I didn’t want him using something like that. We had no idea how it would affect him.

He smiled slightly. “It would likely have no effect on me at all, sweetheart. I’m a demon. My blood is strong enough that something like this won’t harm me. Winter is trying to get supes hooked. I’ll know more once I can get my CTU techs to test it.”

“Henri Jacobs is testing a user’s blood.” I quickly told him what had happened.

“Jacobs is an academic. Dutch, I believe, turned sometime in the seventeenth century.” Gray was an encyclopedia of knowledge when it came to the vampires he considered close to the king.

“He’s also a doctor. He’s certain he can isolate the drug. I’ll let you know what I find out. If you can bring yourself to work with me…” I held a hand up because I heard the door open. It was the outer door. Someone was walking into the room we were in. “Someone’s coming.”

Gray picked me up, and suddenly my back was against the wall and he was arranging my legs around his waist.

“Moan,” he commanded as he gripped my ass and started to simulate sex.

I played my part. I buried my face in his chest and held on for dear life. I could feel his erection rubbing against my stomach. His breathing picked up and I couldn’t help but think about how good this had been between us. Gray had been the best sex I’d ever had. He’d been the first man to give a damn about me in bed.

I closed my eyes and thought about Marcus. Marcus was good for me, and I was good for him. Marcus and I worked. Gray and I would tear each other apart.

My hand went to his torso, running across his skin, feeling muscled flesh under my palm, and then an electric heat flashed through me.

Gray hissed and his head fell forward, and I could feel that dragon vibrating, begging for my touch.

“Please,” Gray said.

I couldn’t help it. I ran my hand along his tat, fascinated by how it responded to me.

Gray moved against me, his cock against my pelvis now, and I could feel the hard grind on my clit.

I heard the bathroom door open, and through slitted eyes I saw the servant from earlier sneak a peek in. When he realized what was going on, he gently closed the door and hightailed it out of there, most likely to report to Winter that the lieutenant was, indeed, breaking his celibacy.

After a moment, Gray let my legs slide down. I kind of wanted to punch him because I’d been close. A few more thrusts against my clit and I likely would have gone up in flames. I stood unsteadily as his hands shook. His forehead fell against mine, his hands finding my hips.

“They’re watching me, Kelsey,” Gray said. “If they think for a second that I’m lying to them, they will kill me. I don’t think I have a choice about working with you. Winter pretty much ordered me to bring you to dinner Sunday night. Tell Marcus I need to meet with him.”

“He’ll love that.” I didn’t even want to contemplate how that conversation would go.

“I don’t need the kind of trouble he can give me. He’s your boyfriend, your lover, whatever. You’re in a relationship with him. It’s not fair to him to lie about it.”

“He’s my trainer. He knows I’m here and he knows I came to look for you,” I said stubbornly. I wasn’t some loose woman lying to my boyfriend. I was a professional on a job. Sure the job ended up with me simulating sex and wearing a thong, but I was a professional all the same. “He trusts me. I’ll have him call you tomorrow.”

Gray shook his head. “No, all of my phones are tapped. I’ll contact him. And Kelsey, I’ll go down and talk to Scott. I promise. I’ll make sure he calls Liv. Okay?”

I nodded because it was all I was going to get tonight.

“Now, go get dressed,” Gray said. “I need to get you out of here.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked because he wasn’t following me.

He smiled, but there was no humor in it. “I’m going to do what I have to do, Kelsey mine. I’ll do what I’ve done since you left me. Walking around here with a hard-on the size of a Mack truck would probably raise suspicions. I’m supposed to be a satisfied man.”

I nodded and closed the door behind me.

Chapter Eight

I had on Gray’s coat as he escorted me through to the elevator. I’d cleaned up, but still had been forced back into the “clothes” Matt had given me. Only Gray’s big coat covered up my near naked state. It swallowed me, and I was grateful for the warmth. It was January, and I shivered at the chill. It was extremely cold considering it was Texas. As Gray walked me through the lobby, I noted a light snow had begun outside. I looked up at the chilly night sky in wonder as it fell all around me. I grew up here in Texas so I’ve rarely seen it snow.

“Keep the mask on until you’re sure no one’s followed you.” Gray surveyed the area around us, his whole body tight with anxiety.

I hesitated. I felt like I hadn’t done what I’d come to do. Scott was right there. “Are you sure there’s no way…”

“I am not taking you into that part of the club.” Gray pulled me along as he crossed the street. I could see his pickup in the distance. “It’s full of outliers—all the criminals who don’t want to deal with Donovan are regulars in that club. Most of them are now addicted to Brimstone. You probably haven’t met them, but I can’t take the chance that one of them will know your scent or have seen your face. I don’t trust Scott anymore, either. He’s in too deep.”

“I can’t leave him there.” I had no idea how I could go back to Liv without doing everything I could to save that asshole she loved. She couldn’t help the fact that she had terrible taste in men. She also had wretched taste in girlfriends, and I would hope that wouldn’t stop someone from saving me.

“I told you I would handle it, sweetheart,” Gray insisted.

“And stop calling me that.” It was hard to be around him. “Marcus won’t like it.”

Gray laughed for the first time that whole evening with genuine mirth. “He would prefer
cara mia
, I suppose.” He grinned and it softened the hard lines of his face. “I might have a little fun with this, Kelsey. Vorenus can dish it out all day. It’ll be fun to see if he can take it. The man isn’t famous for keeping his hands off other men’s women. Your boyfriend is quite the player. Ask the king.”

“I’ll take a pass, thanks.” I didn’t need to hear stories of how Marcus chased after Zoey Donovan-Quinn.

We were comfortably out of sight of the club. I slipped the mask off my face. Gray clicked a button on his keys, and the security alarm chirped on his truck. Something to his left caught Gray’s attention and his head turned. He smiled, and I followed his eyes. My brother Jamie walked out of the abandoned building across from the club. He had a camera around his neck, and I had no doubt there was a gun in a holster under his coat. I smiled broadly and rushed to hug him.

“Kelsey Jean Atwood.” Jamie picked me up and whirled me around. I hugged him tight. Most of my life, any positive male influence I’d enjoyed had come from this man. My brother. I loved him unconditionally. He might be my half brother, but Jamie Atwood had my whole heart. “I thought we’d never get you back in the States.”

I smiled up at my big brother, who was six years older than me. “They had to drag me back kicking and screaming. I’m so international now.”

“And you’ve stopped wearing pants,” Jamie pointed out, looking at my bare legs with a fierce frown.

Gray sighed and reached out to shake my brother’s hand. “That was not my idea in any way. I’m just as surprised as you to see her. Can you get her home?”

“Of course,” Jamie replied, slapping his friend on the back. “I’ll e-mail the pictures to you tonight. I got a lot of good shots, but I’ll need someone to ID all those faces. I’m doing surveillance on Winter’s place tomorrow.”

“We’re going in Sunday night, so get me everything you can,” Gray requested.

“We?” Jamie asked, looking between the two of us.

Gray nodded, not looking pleased at the situation. “Yes, she’s on his radar. He requested I bring her along to our business meeting. I have no doubt he’s told my brother to come with Tristan. You know Julius. He wants his business partners to have wives or lovers. It gives him someone to threaten when he needs to keep us in line.”

Jamie snorted. It was a family trait. “He’s going to threaten my sister? He has no idea.”

Jamie had seen me fight. He was a true believer now.

“The fact that he has no idea who she is, is the only reason we’re still alive. Take him seriously, Jamie. He’s a duke. His human form might be non-threatening, but he could kill her. Don’t underestimate him. And I’ll figure out what’s happening with Scott. I don’t want you going into that bar.” Gray backed up toward his truck. “Take care of her, Jamie. And Kelsey, tell Vorenus I’ll call him in the morning.”

Gray got in his truck and with a final nod my way, turned the engine over and took off into the night.

Jamie stared at the truck as it sped away. “He’s making a man-date with your boyfriend?”

I rolled my eyes. “No, it’s about work. Why didn’t you tell him I was with Marcus?”

He shook his head. “I’m not going there with him. Look, Kels, I did what you asked. I didn’t leave him alone. We’ve managed to get back to being friends. He lost his damn head over a girl. I wish it hadn’t been my sister, but we’re good, Gray and me, as long as we avoid the subject of you. Nate, on the other hand…”

I brushed a hand through the air. The snow was starting to come down now, falling on my skin. “I don’t want to hear about Nate.”

Jamie’s eyes narrowed, a sure sign he was irritated with me. “He’s completely alone, Kels. He won’t talk to Dan anymore, or Justin or Blake or Mike. He’s been with those guys since he was seventeen freaking years old.”

Too bad. I was the injured party. Everyone kept forgetting that. “I don’t see how it’s my fault.”

Jamie took my arm. “If you would just talk to him. Tell him you forgive him. Kelsey, he thought he was doing the right thing for you. Tell him it’s okay to be friends with the same guys he’s been friends with for years. I’m worried about him. He’s skipping classes.”

“Hey, he has a guilty conscience. It’s not my fault he decided to betray me to his gaming group.” I didn’t mention that, at one point in time, they’d been my gaming group, too. I’d never met them in person. I played with them over the computer and they’d gotten me through many, many a lonely night. I knew the names they used when we played online games. Now I wondered which one Justin was. I would have to think about maybe not being so mean to him tomorrow.

Jamie frowned as he started clicking off talking points. “Yeah, you got a real bad deal out of it, Kels. Your life is rough, little sister. Let’s see, Marcus sees to your every need. You work because you want to, not because you have to. You have an entire team working to train you to be some sort of superhero. Tell me, deep down, you don’t like this. I remember your childhood. You and Nate spent all your time reading comic books and pretending to be X-Men. Did you ever think about how hard it was for him to realize his sister was the one with all the power?”

“If I could give this shit to him, I would.” I was lying. Jamie was right on one count. I was getting comfortable with the strength and power at my fingertips. I kinda liked playing the superhero. And if Jamie had watched out for me while we were growing up, Nate had been my playmate. Nate was only a year older than me. We’d been each other’s companions.

“So let’s add up the score,” Jamie continued. “Kelsey lives in a big, rent-free condo with her rich, powerful boyfriend, and Nate doesn’t even have his gaming group anymore. How much does he have to pay?”

“Don’t make it sound like I’m some sort of princess,” I complained, surprised at his attitude.

“Marcus treats you like one,” Jamie shot back. “Tell me something, Kels, when was the last time you cooked your own food or did a load of laundry? Does Marcus make you do the dishes?”