Black Dawn (27 page)

Didn’t make sense. At all. But he didn’t care.

“Hello?” Her sleep-drenched voice sounded like a dream. “Hello…? Wrong number.” Lex dropped the phone back on the nightstand and crawled back into his arms. “Morning.”

He bent over, lightly pressing a kiss to lips that had him mesmerized. “Morning, Lex.”

“I like waking up next to you.”

He brushed her hair with his fingers, nonchalantly toying with the strands and thinking that her sleepy grin was too damn sweet. “Another one of my favorite things I get to do with you.”

That made her pretty features morph to almost embarrassed, and her fair skin blushed. With a quiet giggle and an almost shy cast of her eyes, she whispered, “You have a lot of favorites?”

Morning wood was quickly morphing into a not-to-be ignored hard-on, and he cursed quietly against her lips. “Wish safe houses stocked condoms. Actually, they might.”

She quietly moaned as his hands found purchase under the baggy white shirt she’d found folded in a dresser. That was all she had on. His boxer briefs weren’t doing him any favors as his length rubbed against her. Parker smoothed his hand down her stomach, between her legs, and found her wet with arousal. His stomach spun. His mind was just as turned on as his body, and she made the sexiest sound as his fingers strummed over her folds.

Kissing him in a drowsy, needing morning wake-up sex kind of way, her hands also drifted south, sliding over the rigid length of his shaft. Parker sucked in a breath as her thumb circled his crown.

“We could,” she whispered, torturing him with her deft hand movements. “After I went dark, I, um, went to the doctor’s, just to make sure and all. Doc checked everything from bruises to… um, testing. So… I’m okay.”

“I’ve never not with a condom.” Which didn’t mean he couldn’t with her…

Her hand stilled. “Right, sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“Are you on birth control?” he asked.

“I get a shot, few times a year.” She nodded, all cute, sweet, and nervous. Little things like birth control made her blush, but bold statements like
I love you
she was so damn confident about.

That feeling like a time bomb was going to blow in his chest, like he couldn’t get close enough, deep enough, in her head enough.

“Parker…”

He slid down and kicked off his boxers then tugged off her shirt to bare her sinful body. With his heart in his throat, her phone rang again.

He held her hand. “Don’t answer it.”

She cringed. “What if it’s Shadow?”

Shit, he had no argument against that, and he nodded.

“Hello?” Her eyebrows rose. Then she shook her head, pressed a button on the phone, and dropped it. “No one again.”

“Wait a minute.” He reached for the phone, his senses firing as much with worry as with arousal.

“It wasn’t Shadow. It won’t be Matt. Just you and me.” She brushed her lips across his skin and let her hands roam until she had the weight of him in her hold. “I need this, us.”

And thank heaven for that. He didn’t just need her; he had to connect with her, to feel her in every way, because his exploding heart and emo-drunk mind were almost more than he could survive. He pulled her to him, needing to be inside her to alleviate the deep ache that threatened his sanity.

Lexi lifted her legs, hooking them over his thighs, and with that little gesture, the head of his cock was dangerously close to her center. Hot and wet, he throbbed to push inside her. His eyes sank shut as he inched in. Bliss. Fucking heaven. Her tight pussy on his bare cock was out of this world.

She sucked in a breath as he pushed deeper. On their sides, he kissed her, thrusting gently, waking her body up with his. Tangled in the sheets, they were hidden from the world, and the deeper he reached into her, the longer he wanted to stay there. There was no letting go of Lexi. He couldn’t dream of this with another woman and didn’t want it anyway.

Her mouth gaped, her breathing escalated. Their eyes locked, his dark blues to her icy ones, and just the same as last night, he fucked her in a way that made love, that made him reach past everything that made sense of his world. This wasn’t about him giving a woman some gigantic climax, him getting his in the process and everything as it should be. It was just so them…so fucking catastrophic.

He flipped them, powering into her as they rolled. He didn’t only want her today, tomorrow, whenever. He wanted her. Period.

Lexi met his every move, her fingernails tearing into his back. “God, yes.”

Buried bare in her, her mouth open and moaning his name, her legs wrapped tight around his hips, he lost himself, living for the moment that she came. Her core clenched, her eyes pinched shut, cries and pleas fell from her lips, and everything she asked for, he gave. She came hard, rippling her most intimate muscles over his throbbing shaft, sinking her nails into him. Parker stilled and strained, releasing his climax as she spasmed with him.

He stared at the most important thing he’d ever held. His mind spun as he fell onto her, rolling them, still connected and locked in every way. “I love you too, sweetheart.”

Her smile reached her eyes, which slipped shut as he kissed her. “We should wake up like this again and again.”

“We should—” Her phone rang
again
. What the motherfuck? As he slid from her, he grabbed it. “Who has this number?”

“No one really. You, Shadow, my sister, um…”

“Matt.”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

Buzz kill. But that wasn’t what bothered him. His senses itched, and as he pulled from Lexi, now that he was momentarily sated, his brain went into overdrive. “He’s been calling and hanging up?”

She shook her head. “Unknown number.”

The hour didn’t sit right. Matt was a party guy, and it was seven fifteen in the morning. So either he hadn’t gone to sleep yet or… it wasn’t Matt.

“Get up. Get dressed.”

“What? Why?”

“No idea. We’re compromised. Let’s go.” He tugged her hand, dragging her from the warm sheets.

“Parker!”

“Someone’s tracking you down. Pinging closer to your location every time you answer.” His mind raced. “Have you talked to Shadow at all since he ran after the laptop guy?”

She shook her head, realization that they were being hunted clouding in her eyes. “I am
not
cut out for all this real-life BS.” She sat upright. “But what about Shadow? What about him?”

Now wasn’t the time to explain that Shadow’s phone likely wasn’t in his possession anymore, and if neither of them had heard from him through alternative methods, he also likely wasn’t breathing. “Get dressed, Lex.”

She tugged on her clothes as he did the same. For as talented of a hacker as she was, as much of the underground as she was aware of, she still couldn’t see criminal activity. It wasn’t in her training to sense, wasn’t in her mind to search out. It should have been in his mind, but he was too stuck on the woman to see what was happening around them.

The doorbell rang.

“Fuckin’ hell. Are you kidding me?” Guess they’d learned from trying to pick his lock last time. He ducked under the bed, running his hand around the frame until he found a Glock. He pulled the magazine, checked his count, and snapped it back in. “Let’s go.”

“Could just be Girl Scouts? Jehovah’s Witness folks? Right?” But her face said she didn’t buy it. Nervous energy radiated from her as she clung to his hand.

“It’s seven in the morning.”

Her worried face pinched. “Crap.”

“Just in case, stick close and duck the windows.” He held her against the wall then rounded a corner. All clear.

Parker held her again and snagged the keys for his bike as she grabbed her jacket. He followed, doing the same, and picked up their helmets. He opened a closet and snagged two Kevlar vests.

“We don’t really need that, do we?”

“Better to be safe…” He pulled one over her head and cinched it tight then did the same for himself. If someone was at the front door, they couldn’t see the garage, and they’d have to round the house to get to them. Parker and Lexi had a few seconds of head start if they rolled out on his R1.

“Helmet.”

She took it and slipped it on.

“Now stay put. Just give me a second.” He took her hand and pressed the Glock to her palm. “Anyone comes in here not me, just shoot.”

She nodded, and he ran back into the house from the garage. Parker reached the room farthest from Lexi as the doorbell rang again. Just in case it was some pushy-ass cookie seller macking her entrepreneurial skills at the crack of morning, he peeked. Nope, just a guy in his twenties. Parker snapped a picture with his cell then ransacked the linen closet, finding a couple of cherry bombs amongst the stash of weapons and ammo. He took them and slipped into the front room again.

“Thanks for stopping by, asshole,” he mumbled then slid the window open enough to toss lit cherry bombs outside for a loud, smoky, snap-crackle-pop distraction.

He beat feet back to Lexi as the cherry bombs detonated. Surely the mini-explosion turned the attention of the man at the door away from the ultra-silent garage. With the garage door opening, he pulled Lexi onto the motorcycle and waited for as long as he could.

“Duck, sweetheart.” He switched the ignition, throttled down, and burned out of the garage, cutting off the driveway, heading down a sidewalk, and exiting onto the street from someone else’s driveway.

A high-pitched squeal came from behind him, and his gut churned until he realized she wasn’t screaming in terror. Lexi Dare had just enjoyed the hell out of their little escape. He’d laugh if he wasn’t terrified of her getting shot in the back. Parker wove down side streets, swooping down a maze of two-ways. He was certain no one had eyes on them when he hit the interstate to head to the belly of the beast. Time to bring Lexi to Titan.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Phiber climbed from the bush he’d ducked in then checked his surroundings to make sure no one had seen him dive like a coward. Only then did he pull the gun from his waistband and run to the garage. It had closed. While it looked like a harmless garage door, his fingers still had burn marks from when he’d tried to pick the lock at the last place Silver had been hiding.

Who was that woman? More importantly, why did she live like a commando? Maybe he hadn’t given her enough credit. Then again, she had stupidly let him track her to this place.

Phiber circled the house, unable to see in anywhere. A window on the side of the second floor was cracked a few inches. While he might be able to get a ladder or something and crawl in, he was wary of entering that way. Maybe she had electrified windows.

His phone buzzed with a text message, and without looking, he knew who it was.

Taskmaster:
Complete?

With a slightly bruised ego, Phiber scrolled up to see his previous message that he’d found Silver and it would be a sure thing this time. His fingers hovered before he responded.

Phiber:
Almost
.

All he needed was a plan, because they wouldn’t send him another bank transfer until they had her. His greedy heart wanted that payday in a bad way.

Taskmaster:
New task at the incoming location. All you’ll need to move forward will be in there. Consider it a thank you gift
.

Well, fuck him running. Maybe he wasn’t as off today as he thought. A second later, a text buzzed through with an address. Phiber hopped back into his car and punched the location into his GPS. Less than a mile away. It took a few turns, and he found nothing but yellow-lined do-not-park curbs in a sea of driveways. At the fire lane, he threw his car in park anyway and jumped out. His phone buzzed again. Another address with one accompanying command.
Walk there
.

He got his bearings and headed down the suburban street until he found the address. The garage door was up, and a Mercedes sat inside. Holy shit. He pulled out his phone to ask if what he was thinking was what was happening, but the Taskmaster beat him to it.

Taskmaster:
Key in the ignition center console. Consider it a gift for the job done.

Well, shit. He hadn’t even finished yet, and maybe they didn’t get that it was turning out to be harder than he expected, but what the fuck. A new ride ten times better than his current one? That he’d take. Phiber ran his hand over the frame from the trunk until he pulled the driver’s door open and sat in leather-covered heaven. This ride was sick. Not really his style, but it was crazy high end and would sell quickly. But not before he checked out how this baby could burn rubber.

He ran his hands over the steering wheel and saw the keyless key waiting for him. All he had to do was press his foot to the brake and push the button that said IGNITION. He took a deep breath of new car smell as he rested his foot on the brake pedal.

The snap of the interior locks surprised him. “What the—”

The garage door began to close.