He doesn’t just use his lips. He uses his whole body. With his hands buried in my hair, he spins me around and walks me backward until I’m pressed against the lower cabinets on the other side of the kitchen.
When he finally releases my hair, leaving it in a tumbled mess around my shoulders, he pulls back. “I’m gonna fuck you right here unless you say otherwise.”
I stay silent. Dinner can wait.
21
Kane
Ipush away from my desk and glance up at the clock.
Three a.m.
I’ve been digging for hours and haven’t gotten a single hit on Ransom. I have to get in touch with him or this situation is going to be even more fucked.
When Mount called me in, not only did he not realize I already had a connection to Temperance, he also didn’t realize what cargo Ransom hadn’t delivered that started this whole situation.
People.
Ransom stepped in the wrong pile of shit. Took a bad job. Why, I don’t have a fucking clue, because he’s always hated human traffickers.
Now he’s hiding out somewhere with human cargo, because I’m guessing he couldn’t live with himself if he finished the job. Even though I want to knock his teeth down his throat for putting his sister in danger, I can’t blame him.
I still don’t know who was supposed to take delivery of the cargo, but given the disaster on our hands, it’s someone who can’t afford to get caught, hence the high-paying hit and the urgency.
They wanted the job done in two weeks. I countered with six. We settled on a month, but I got the sense they weren’t happy. Which means my exclusivity period might not be worth a shit. If I’m right about how far up this goes, we have a hell of a lot less time before everything goes to shit, and there are more people looking for Ransom right now than just me.
I have to find him first. That’s the only option.
“I think I have an idea,”Temperance says, her voice startling me as I slide back into bed.
“You should be asleep.” In the dark of the room, I can barely make out the stubborn set of her features.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t know when you disappear in the middle of the night?”
I let the comment pass. “What’s your idea?”
She takes a deep breath, almost as if she’s not sure she wants to tell me. “You have to swear to me that you won’t tell anyone else. Ever.”
That vow is easy to make. “You want a blood oath?”
Now that my eyes are adjusting to the darkness, I can easily see her scrunch her nose. It shouldn’t be so cute, but this is Temperance.
“I try to avoid bloodshed, thanks.”
“So, what’s the idea?”
“There’s a place Rafe might’ve gone. Or if he hasn’t gone there, he might still go there.”
“Where?”
“It’s in the swamp.”
“Give me directions.”
At this, she laughs. “Even if I could give you directions, you’d never find it.”
“Then how the hell do you propose I get there?”