Chasing Thunder (23 page)

16. SHE’S ALWAYS A WOMAN

M
.J. was as mad as a wet hornet when they finally pulled to a stop in the high desert of San Bernadino County. She flew off the bike and turned on Snake in a rage. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” she shouted.

“I was coming to your rescue,” he explained casually as he dismounted. “White knight,” he said, pointing to himself. “Noble steed,” he added, pointing to the bike.

“When did I ever ask you to save me?” she demanded.

“Darlin’, you were pole dancing in a seedy strip club. That’s not a cry for help. That’s a bloodcurdling scream.”

“I had it all under control,” she informed him coldly, and he held up a hand.

“Oh, I could tell. Only the best dancers get dragged off to a back room somewhere.”

She didn’t have time for this. She pulled out her phone. Snake was quick to grab it. “Gonna call your new partner in crime?” he asked as he held her phone out of reach. “Or should I say new partner in
fighting
crime? Since when do you work with cops, M.J.?”

“Since never!” she spat as she jumped for the phone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Please,” he scoffed. “Bob from Scottsdale? Give me a fucking break. I nearly had to tie him down when that guy grabbed you. So who is he, M.J.?” Snake demanded in a softer tone, his eyes angry and hurt.

“Are you serious?” she exclaimed. “That’s what this is about? You’re jealous?”

“Fuck you,” he said in a cold voice.

They had a brief staredown before she backed off. He was a bastard for forcing her hand like this. Time was of the essence now. She still had one very important thing to do and had to depend on a wiseass cop to do it. She’d cave a little, and make him pay later. “Fine. He’s a cop. But I only used him to get inside the building. He was nothing more than a convenient tool, emphasis on
tool
, to execute the plan. Can I have my phone back now?”

The phone rang as he held it. He powered it down and then tossed it out of view into the dark shadows.

“I can’t believe you did that,” she said. She started to round the bike, but he grabbed her by both arms. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”

“I know one thing I couldn’t have done,” he said. “I couldn’t have gone one more night without doing anything.”

She saw the holster inside his jacket. “Snake, no.” She tried to wrench away, but he pulled her back against his solid chest. He cupped her face in one hand, drawing her closer.

“Like I ever had a choice. Can’t you see what you do to me, M.J.?”

Her eyes met his. “Can’t you see that if you ever got hurt—” She couldn’t even finish the thought. She looked away, so he tipped her chin with his thumb.

“Hurt?” he repeated. “I never know if you’re okay or if you need help. If you’re alive and well or dead somewhere in a ditch after pissing off the wrong person. You get hurt, you don’t tell me. You’re in danger, you take off and say nothing. It’s like having you and losing you all at the same time. And I never know which is which until you show up on my front door. You don’t think that hurts?”

She swallowed hard. She needed
him
, every bit as much as she needed to protect him. She had been weak because she missed those big strong arms holding her together, and the familiar scruff of his beard against her face that made her feel at home no matter where they happened to be. When she felt unsure, she knew she could draw from his endless well of strength. She knew it was unfair. But he had never sent her away for good.

Maybe if he did they would both be better off.

But it was the last thing she wanted as he lifted her up against him. The shirt she was wearing fell open, and her breasts swayed free against the thin cotton of his shirt. He groaned as he carried her back to the bike. He sat astride while she straddled his hips.

His hands slipped into the open shirt, sliding behind her and cupping her ass as he pressed her closer, grinding her down onto his lap. He captured her bottom lip tenderly in his teeth as he ended a kiss, and their eyes locked and held. “You break my heart, M.J.,” he murmured as he pulled away. “And only you can put it together again.”

He kissed his way down her neck and across her chest until he latched onto one hard nipple. His tongue slid around the sensitive peak until she was crying out into the night. She fumbled between them until she released his majestic cock. It stood rigid and proud within the circle of her fingers. He gasped as she stroked him out in the open. Traffic from the nearby interstate was racing by.

He glanced around. The other campers were already secured away in their darkened, silent tents. “God, babe,” he whispered, and she shuddered in spite of herself. “You do make me crazy.”

“Why do you put up with it?”

He stroked her hair with his hand. “Why? Because I would rather spend five minutes with you than a whole lifetime with anyone else, that’s why. You’re worth it, M.J. All of it.”

Her eyes were misty as he lifted her off of the bike. He reached for the canvas bag across his handlebars for his compact tent. He put it together by the glow of the headlight, and within minutes M.J. was secure inside. She had already taken off her clothes by the time he crawled through the tent flap. It was the only invitation he needed. He crawled up her body and claimed her with one decisive stroke. She curled herself around him with a contented sigh.

He spent the rest of the night loving her as thoroughly as the Fates would allow.

17. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY

“
What do you mean, she never showed?”

Snake’s eyes fluttered open when he heard M.J.’s hushed, angry voice coming from just outside the tent. He was naked and his shirt was missing. When he poked his head out, he quickly realized why. She wore his shirt over her jeans and was clutching the phone she had recovered from the desert to her ear. She scoured his saddlebag as she searched in vain for his key. With a sigh, he grabbed his jeans.

She was livid as he emerged, partially dressed, from the tent. They said nothing as he disassembled the tent and packed up what was left of the meager campsite. He withdrew a white cotton T-shirt from his saddlebag and retrieved the key from the pocket.

He’d known she wouldn’t bother with the white shirt when he stashed it there the night before. She’d opt for his black shirt to wear, and hit all his usual places, like his pockets, shoes, and wallet, to find the key. She sighed and leaned against the bike. “I’m beginning to think you know me too well.”

“No one knows you better,” he agreed. “Wilma,” he added with a wink, referring to her alias.

She chuckled in spite of herself. “Eugene,” she said, nodding toward his wallet. He reviewed the contents to see how much money she’d left behind when she raided it. She wouldn’t have left him in the desert empty-handed.

He swung his leg over the bike. “Come on. Let’s get something to eat.”

She planted one hand on her hip. “I need to get back to town.”

“I figured you’d say that,” he said. “But we’re going to eat anyway.”

She reached across him to grab the key, but he quickly palmed it and held it out of reach. When she grabbed for it again, he slid it down the front of his unzipped jeans. Her eyebrow arched. “Like that has ever stopped me.”

“It doesn’t have to stop you,” he grinned. “It just has to distract you.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him for another blazing kiss. He felt her relent against him. When the kiss ended, she climbed on the bike behind him. The bike fired to life beneath them and he skidded out of the camp area and headed toward the interstate.

They stopped at a retro diner on their way back. He insisted he needed to eat. She was antsy to get back to the city, so the mood was tense as they waited for his breakfast. He wolfed down a stack of buttery pancakes as she sipped at a cup of strong black coffee. “You should eat,” he murmured through a mouthful of food. “If I know you, you’re in for a long day.”

She grabbed one of the extra forks and stole a bite of his pancakes, but did not offer any information. Unfortunately for her, Snake was fully prepared to wait this one out. He leaned back in the booth to let his big lumberjack breakfast digest. “So how long do we play this game until you tell me what’s going on?”

Her eyebrows lifted. “I thought you didn’t want to be involved.”

“That ship has sailed,” he told her. “And you know it.”

She sighed and looked away. “It was stupid of you to show up at that club last night, Snake. The only way to keep those kids safe is to keep our association secret.”

“Our association,” he repeated.

Her eyes met his. She didn’t want to have this fight again. Not now.

He leaned forward onto the table. “I got news for you, sweetheart. Our ‘association’ has never been a secret. Anyone who does a little digging can find any number of things connecting my name with yours, including Wyndryder. It’s as well-known a secret as your dear ol’ dad.” She scowled. “It may take them some time, but eventually someone will connect the dots. Your only hope here is to do what needs to be done quickly. That means it is in my best interest, especially when it comes to protecting those kids, to know what’s going on so I can help you.”

She sighed. He was right and she knew it. This wasn’t just some small-time hood. Dominic Isbecky had a full-blown empire. She had bested him a couple of times, but she knew that would only make her more of a target. And he’d systematically test every single association she had until he found the one he could use. “That club Slick is owned by a guy named Dominic Isbecky. It’s mostly just a front. He gets to rub elbows with celebrities downstairs while he runs a sex-trafficking ring upstairs. You know the girl from the photo, the one with Baby?” He nodded. “She was at the club last night. He was keeping her prisoner on the second floor. Each room has a different theme so his customers can pick their fetish experience. From what I could tell, there was a room for an interracial experience, one for a dominant-submissive experience. And a green room, which apparently offers a sweet ‘girl next door,’ the ultimate hard candy.” She withdrew a few sour apple suckers from her pocket.

The more she told him, the sicker he felt. “And she was in the green room.”

M.J. nodded. “I used the cop to get me over the wall in the back, near the locked service entrance. With Isbecky’s security, it was a two-man job. Once he boosted me over, I disabled one of the janitors and took his work suit, figuring she could use that to escape if I could find her.”

Snake snickered. “And that poor sonofabitch had no clue.”

She bit back an impish smile. Nothing pleased her more than when she could best a cop. “I ended up sending her to Lou’s diner, but apparently she never got there. Kelly said he waited all night, but who knows with a cop?”

“Kelly?” Snake repeated. “I think I kind of prefer Bob.” She laughed. “So you think this Isbecky guy got her?”

She shrugged. “Only one way to find out. I have to get back in the club.”

He shook his head. “He won’t take her back there. Not after you were able to get her out.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. This guy likes to hide in plain sight. I think it gives him some kind of perverse thrill. He’s cocky as hell. I’m pretty sure he still underestimates me simply because I’m a woman. If I’m a woman all on my own, even better.”

“Setting a trap.” He nodded, remembering her dance from the night before. “But from what you said, he’s probably pretty adept at setting a few traps of his own. The more contact you have with him, the better he’ll be at predicting your moves. It’s entirely possible that he may be allowing you a few winning moves to trap you in a corner.”

She nodded. It was a real possibility. It was another game of chess, only this time with living pieces. “I wasn’t planning on going back to Slick after I got Tammy out of there. But unfortunately a couple of guys disrupted my plans.” She gave him a pointed stare.

He wasn’t having it. “Maybe we could have lived up to your expectations had you, you know, shared them with us.”

She met his gaze dead on. “I’m not going to apologize for working alone. You saw that guy. You saw his goons. You can probably figure out by now what he’s capable of.”

Snake immediately thought of Baby, of how beat up she’d been when she fell into their laps. “I could probably take a break and get the kids out of here. Go somewhere, anywhere else. Maybe my cabin at Big Bear.”

She shook her head. “You do anything contrary to your normal routine and you’ll draw suspicion. He’ll find her for sure.”

He took a deep breath and rested his head on the back of the seat. “So keep her in plain sight.”

M.J. shrugged. It wasn’t her first choice, but they were quickly running out of options. “She already looks like a different girl. I’m not sure it’s enough, though. We have to make sure he will overlook her.”

“How are you going to do that if he has a girl for every fetish?”

She smiled. “We could get her a tattoo.”

“What?”

“He hates them. He thinks it makes girls dirty, less valuable.”