Trigger Happy (Girls with Guns, #2) (18 page)

G
age sat in his chair, rolling his pen along his desk in slow strokes, waiting for Jay and Logan to call him back. The inventory was finally complete. There were many items on the invoices that the credit union did not have. Small network servers, a lot of external hard drives, as well as a few monitors and other, more inconspicuous items. This was part of the job that Gage hated. Somebody was committing fraud against the credit union and he was going to have to confront his employees. What Gage couldn’t figure out yet was what was actually going on. Was Brian stealing equipment? Then re-selling it on the internet to keep the profits? But somehow Echo seemed to be involved because she was the one that input the invoices and knew whether or not to write the items off over time or to pay them instantly.

He rubbed the beginnings of a headache between his eyebrows. This was going to become a mess. He picked up his phone and called Echo and Brian, asking them both to come into his office.

“Tomorrow morning at ten? Yes, that works for me, too.” Echo replied.

“Great. I will see you both then.”

Gage sat back down, picked up his cell phone and called Amber. She picked up instantly.

“Come to my house tonight and have dinner with me.”

“Wow, demanding much? How about, Amber please come over tonight and have dinner with me?”

“Amber, my cock has been hard all afternoon thinking about the many ways I want to make you scream. Are you available tonight?” Then for good measure, “please.”

He listened to her giggle, the sound tugging on his heartstrings, “I am available and I would love to come over. What time?”

The sky was on the verge of becoming dark, the sun already having gone down. He lived in the newer part of town but unlike Amber’s subdivision, these houses were built close together. Amber pulled her BMW into the address Gage gave her. His house was tan with white trim. It looked like a two-story home with tall windows on the south side. There were no cars in the driveway. She didn’t know why her heart was beating so fast. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been around him before. Her hands were shaky.
Come on Amber, what is with you?
She walked up to his porch and rang the bell.   

The door opened and there he stood with a smile on his face. A real smile! He wore another black t-shirt, his closet must be full of black t-shirts, she thought. And he was wearing his ever-present denim jeans she had come to love. Her heart beat furiously inside her chest.

He swung open the glass storm door, “You look amazing. Thanks for coming over. I have dinner.”

She looked down at her worn jeans and Henley shirt, “thanks.” As she stepped inside, the aroma of food instantly made her tummy growl. “I guess I’m hungry. This is nice.” She heard music playing from somewhere inside the house. “Frank Sinatra. You have good taste. But how can you know Frank Sinatra and not be familiar with Patsy Cline?” She looked around, taking in the bachelor pad. There were minimal decorations and absolutely no color whatsoever. The foyer led them past the stairs and into the living room and kitchen. Much like her home, the kitchen and living room had an open floor plan. The color scheme was made up of beige and browns. The light colored granite counters offset the dark cabinetry.

“This is really nice,” she repeated.

“Thank you.” She tensed at his hand on her lower back.

“What’s for dinner?” Why was she so nervous?

“Ahh, steak. You like meat, right?”

She felt her cheeks heat up. Meat? Why did that have to make her blush? Was it just her imagination or did he intend to make that question sound sexual?

Her voice wobbled, “yeah, I like meat.”

His arms snaked around her middle, his body pressed up against her backside. “Why are you so nervous?” he whispered.

“I’m not,” she lied.

“Yes, you are. Tell me why.”

Her heart was skipping beats the minute she had left her house, “I don’t know.”

She felt his breath on her ear, through her hair, “Don’t be nervous. We’ve already had each other every which way.”

She shivered, “It’s not that, I guess it’s this whole dating thing. Dinner and all.”

Gage felt like such an ass. She was so used to him being one way that when he tried giving her what he thought most women wanted in relationships – dating, she got nervous. He was such a jackass. What was he thinking?

“I’m sorry. I guess I thought you would want this...instead of me just having my way with you all the time.”

Oh God, Gage Alexander, CEO was trying! He was really trying! And this was him giving what he could of himself to her. Only to her. Her heartbeat picked up a fast pace again but for a much different reason.

“No, Gage. This is perfect. This is great, it’s exactly what I wanted.” She tried lightening the mood by joking, “besides, I like when you have your way with me.”

“Which I fully intend to after we put something in that sweet tummy of yours. Would you like a beer? Or wine?”’

“Beer is fine.” Her nerves were suggesting a shot of whiskey but she ignored them.

They drank their beer and Gage served dinner. As the evening wore on, her heart melted a little more and more at the things he shared with her. Tonight was a whole different Gage. A Gage, she thought she might be falling in love with. He teased her about her clothes, about finding her in the studio dancing alone and she found she really enjoyed it. Her cheeks hurt from laughing so much. After dinner, they sat at his kitchen table, words failing them. The tension in the room got thick. She wanted to rip his clothes off, right then and right there. By the look in his eyes, she was thinking he wanted to do the same thing.

She got out of her chair and stood beside him, “Pull your chair out.”

He did as he was told, allowing her to wedge herself in between his legs. With her breasts eye-level to him, he grabbed onto her hips as she hugged him. Their sweet interlude quickly escalated into more as he began rubbing her center through her jeans.

“No. Let me do this to you. Unbutton your jeans.” He looked up into her eyes and she immediately saw the question in them. “Right here.” She proceeded to get down onto her knees as he unbuttoned his jeans. She reached her hand into his boxer-briefs and took him out. “I have to warn you, I’m no better than the last time I did this to you.”

What? What did she mean by that? Gage grabbed her wrist, “What are you saying?”

Embarrassed and slightly nervous, Amber released a deep breath. “I, um, well...it’s just that I don’t...I haven’t ever...I haven’t ever done this to anyone else except you.” There. It was out.

“Really?” he questioned quizzically.

“I’ve never wanted to. But I want to with you.”

Perched between his legs, she bent her head and took him into her mouth. She could instantly taste his saltiness and his sweat. Instead of repulsing her, it compelled her to suck him harder and deeper into her mouth. Practicing from memory, she relaxed her mouth and bobbed her head up and the down the length of him. She gripped the base of him, being sure her grip wasn’t too firm and continued her assault until Gage’s hand grabbed the back of her head and he let out a groan. She continued to suck even as warm semen filled her mouth and then she swallowed it down, being sure to lap up any excess juice.

“You pretty much just killed me,” Gage groaned.

“Did I do okay?”

Gage chuckled, “Far better than okay.” He adjusted himself and buttoned himself back up. He stood up abruptly, pushing his chair back. He held out his hand, “Come on. Come with me. I want to show you my bed.”

She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and stood up with him, placing her hand in his.

“Is your room upstairs? I need to use the restroom first.” She grabbed her purse off the counter and headed toward the hallway.

“Yes. I will wait here for you.”

Amber walked down the dark hallway to the bathroom. Just as she shut the door, she heard the doorbell ring. Odd. She wondered who that would be. She shut the door quietly, hoping to hear who might be at the door. All she heard was Gage’s voice asking whoever was there, what they were doing. She got a sick feeling in her stomach. What if it was his ex-wife? But after all this time, what would she be doing here?

G
age opened the door, surprised to see Echo and Brian from work. “Hey guys. I’m surprised to see you guys. What are you guys doing here?” he asked

“We wanted to speak with you and thought this would be the best way to do it. Can we come in?”

Gage usually followed his gut and right now it was telling him something wasn’t right but he stepped aside and let them in anyway. “You guys could have just waited until the morning at our meeting.”

“No,” Brian spoke, “that would have been much too late.”

“We wanted to settle this now.”

“This is about all of the invoices, isn’t it? Are you guys working together?”

Echo laughed, “Brian and I have been together for years.”

Really? They did a great job of hiding that at work. “What exactly did you guys come here for?”

Brian pulled a gun out of the back of his pants. “We came to shut you up. We can’t afford to be busted. We need that money, Gage.”

Gage prided himself on his quick-thinking decision making skills as well as his use of good common sense, but he was still having a hard time processing what was actually happening here. They were really going to kill him? Over ninety thousand dollars? He put his hands up in a placating manner.

“Calm down. Why don’t you guys start from the beginning? Tell me what the hell is going on. Maybe I can help figure out how to get you guys out of this mess.”

Brian laughed, “We already paid a visit to Jay. Had to take care of him first. There’s no way you can help get us out of this mess.”

Gage’s heart fell into his stomach. He didn’t like the sound of that. Jay had a family. A wife and two sons. Man, this was not good. He felt like someone kicked him in the nuts. “You killed Jay?”

“We did what we had to do. Now it’s your turn. Turn around. Walk toward the kitchen.”

Brian was lean. A lot smaller than Gage was. Gage knew if he had the opportunity, he could overpower him and take his gun. He just had to wait for the right moment, assuming Brian’s obviously crazy mind didn’t take over and do something before Gage found the opportunity. As they walked past the hallway, he heard the familiar creak in the floorboard that made noise every time someone walked past the vent in the bathroom. Amber. Fuck. He glanced at Echo, who seemed just as focused as Brian and continued to walk into the kitchen.

“Sit down.”

Gage sat in the same chair he had after dinner. In the same chair that Amber had just done intimate things to him. With his back to the window, he had a good view of the floor plan and the hallway where, at some point, Amber was going to walk out. Brian and Echo stood, their backs to everything Gage could see. Did they really not know someone else was here? Did they not wonder whose car was parked in his driveway? Unbelievable. He was going to get murdered by lunatics that were actually smart in the workplace but clearly lacking in common sense. What did that say about his judgment skills?

“This was all too easy before the auditors started poking around. I was able to make tons of orders, that Echo here, helped fudge the numbers on. So I ordered IT-related equipment and kept it. We’ve made decent money re-selling it all. It’s amazing how easy it is to sell things on the Internet.” As Brian spoke, he used his gun and hand to talk. Gage didn’t like when people did that. It was a sign of unfamiliarity with a weapon. Which didn’t bode well in his current situation.

A million things were going through his mind right now. Amber, and when the fuck she might pop out around the corner. Jay. His body warred with trying to sit still and to somehow call the police. What if he was still alive? Lying in a pool of blood trying to survive? Did they kill his wife, too? Gage couldn’t lose his focus. He couldn’t think of Jay now. He had to pay attention. Focus.

“There were a few times this past year I thought you were catching on, Gage.” Echo told him ruefully.

Gage tried to recall any moments were he might have questioned Echo but all he could think about was Amber and his chairman. And Logan, too! Shit.

“What about Logan? Did you pay him a visit, too?” he was afraid of the answer.

“We tried. We will have to go back. Lucky for him, he wasn’t home. But after you, we have all night.”

“Give it up, man. You guys cannot go around killing people and still think you are going to get away with it. Someone has probably already discovered Jay and called the police. There is no way you two can keep this up.” The headache Gage had earlier at work was back. He rubbed his forehead.

“We have this plan all figured out. Don’t we, Echo? After you called us into your office this afternoon, we knew we wouldn’t have long to concoct a plan.” Brian waved the gun around again, making Gage nervous. “We knew we had to act fast. And now we are here to take care of you.”

A
mber stood in the dark hallway listening to Gage talk to his intruders. His employees. The thought that they killed the man she met the other day made her absolutely sick to her stomach. All for ninety thousand dollars? For God’s sake, she could give them that money and no one would have had to get hurt. What were they thinking? No wonder Gage had been stressed out. Having to think that your employees could be stealing from the company you treated as your own was enough to send any man over the edge.

She tried not to make any noise as she edged as close as she could to the end of the hallway so she could see where their positions were. She didn’t want the light shining on her, making her presence known. She opened her handbag and quietly took out her gun. Better safe than sorry, she supposed. Did she think she would really have to use it? Could she? As familiar as she was with the weapon and as many times she had shot paper targets, the fact remained that she had never even pointed it at someone, much less ever used it on someone! But he was threatening to kill Gage and she couldn’t let that happen. If it would even come down to that.