Chapter 12

Chapter

Twelve

MCQUADE

B ody disposal had never been my favorite task, but it was a practical and necessary one. Our prisoners hadn't known much. They were grunts, working a grunt assignment on a need to know basis. Clearly, they hadn't needed to know. How unfortunate for them that their employers considered them that disposable.

Why else keep them out of the loop? What they didn't know, they couldn't reveal. Course, it could also mean they had an expected fail rate. For that, I was fine. If they considered sending anyone after Patch was a lost cause, then good . From this point forward, I was sending their people back in pieces.

We'd left them a pretty fucking clear message back at the house we'd used. The bodies stacked like cordwood should send them a signal. Come for her at your own peril. As it was, I was torn between heading down to Louisiana and firebombing that location after we data-mined it, then going on to the next.

Remy hadn't seemed opposed, however, he did point out that we needed to wait for Patch to remember. She had to be a part of the op.

I got it, I really did. But… "I don't want her to remember that part." When he frowned, I'd just given him a look. "We can meet her a hundred times. I don't care if she remembers we came for her. We can make new memories. But if she remembers her captivity, she remembers the torture, and she doesn't deserve that."

While the British fucker remained skeptical, I couldn't agree to her remembering her incarceration. Sure, would I like to have some of our progress back? Yes. But could I wait for her to truly trust me again? Also yes. Particularly if it meant she didn't have to relive that trauma. Her nightmares remained littered with it.

Those screams killed me, so did her begging. But her whimpers? Those just left me wanting to slaughter any and all who had ever hurt her. It was going to happen. Just a matter of time.

Once we finished, we were free to get on the road and meet them at the rendezvous. If we weren't there by dawn, it would be the second one.

We had a few hours. Of course, the skies decided to help us with potential tails and surveillance by opening up. The icy rain came down in sheets. It didn't turn to snow, which was a blessing and a curse, but Remy didn't seem to be troubled by the low visibility or the crappy road conditions.

Good. The need to put my eyes on her and know for certain she was fine burned in my gut. Impatience was a good way to die on an op. So was longing. Yet, here I was, suffering from both. I just?—

"We're here," Remy said and it jerked me away from the needy direction my thoughts were going. It was damn near two in the morning. I squinted at the clock. No, that said three. Fuck. My eyes were gritty and I'd kill for a shower, but all of that could wait.

"They could be asleep," I warned, not that Remy was an idiot.

"Agreed, but we have codes for a reason." Practical son of a bitch didn't quite smirk, but I heard it there in his voice. If he weren't so fucking useful in a fight, I'd be tempted to just dump him on the side of the road. We pulled into the packed rest area, passing all the trucks pulled off onto the shoulder of the road because the interior slots were all taken.

The mobile unit blended in pretty damn well. We were both scanning, but we didn't spot it right away. Maybe we did too good of a job.

"There." It was near the end of the row, but not so close they were exposed. The rain began to slant sideways and the pellets of ice tapped against the windows. We still needed this vehicle, at least until we transferred what we had to the mobile unit.

"Parking first."

Agreed. Not that I said anything. The entirety of the rest area seemed silent, frozen in time. The rain turned even more into ice. I dragged on a jacket with a hoodie and pulled it up before we climbed out of the car.

Remy led me by two strides as we crossed from the car parking to truck parking. Even the lights on near the toilets and the information center seemed like isolated islands in the darkness.

The rumble of engines idling at low offered the only other sound to accompany the ice plinking against the trucks. I'd caught up to Remy as he circled past the truck next to theirs. Good plan, we didn't want to draw attention to the mobile unit. I scanned the front windows, and the vehicles around ours for cameras.

Nothing jumped out at me, but our cameras were also camouflaged. Paranoia, Patch used to preach at me, was a terrible way to live. It was a good way not to die, I'd always quip back. I had no idea how intimately aware she truly was of those facts.

Not for the first time, it occurred to me that I really wish I had known sooner. I'd always been fond of her. Grown to like her more and more over the time we'd worked together. Enough that I made a point of calling her to check-in, even if I didn't really need her for a consultation.

Talking to her always made me feel better.

Being close to her was even far more preferable to that. Two quick scouts and we were at the door. Remy opened the keypad and entered the code to let us in. I was shaking ice crystals out of my hair and beard when the smell of sex hit me.

Sex?

I wasn't sure if it registered with Remy in the same instant though he mirrored my actions. I'd already shrugged my jacket off, but caught it with one hand as we circled the first of the faux walls to stare at the bed, it had been lowered for use. And it was definitely in use.

The low-lighting did nothing to hide Patch and Locke entangled atop the sheets. Not one goddamn thing on them was covered. While I wanted to take time to inspect every inch of Patch's skin, I couldn't quite choke out the rage that geysered through me.

What the fuck was he doing?

Her eyes widened as she stared at us. "You're here…" The husky note in her voice was pure sensual overload. I wanted to wrap myself up in the voice that had saved my sanity and my life more times than I could count.

As tempting an idea as it was, I couldn't shake the fact she was wrapped around Locke or the swollen state of her lips and the red marks on her cheeks betrayed the kissing. The scent alone told me all about the fucking.

I switched my glare to Locke, largely because not even my rage at him was calming the erection stiffening in my pants. Patch was every inch the beautiful woman and there was something absolutely hypnotic about her freshly fucked expression, tousled hair, and raw voice.

It was enough to drive a man to pure madness and kill the son of a bitch who had his hands on her.

"Gentlemen," Locke said by way of greeting like he wasn't sprawled there with his wet dick, caught with it literally in the sweetest jar. He eased away from Patch and dragged a sheet up to her. "Give her a second, why don't you."

The last few words held a semi-hostile note. I wasn't impressed, nor was Remy. Neither of us moved.

"Guys…" Patch's inquiry tugged my attention back to her. Far more powerful than the lure of a siren, the need to answer her had me taking a step forward. "You're all right, right?"

Her marked up cheeks seemed to pinken deeper the longer I stared at her. I swallowed the bitter pill of anger and shook my head. "We're fine." I could lie to her with my words, but not the rest of me. Her brow tightened as if she understood. Instead of holding up the sheet, she dropped it to scoot off the bed.

Fuck my life, she was all curves from her hips to her breasts to the way her tummy belled out a little. Nothing hollow or too taut for her. There were muscles, but she wasn't all muscle. So much softness to wrap around a man.

No matter how hard I tried to keep my gaze on her face, there was no way I could resist sweeping a look over the roundness of her breasts or how puffy her nipples were.

Goddamn it. I was going to kill Locke.

"We're fine," Remy said abruptly, echoing my statement with a great deal more calm and elegance than I could or wanted to manage. He stripped off his oversized coat and moved to her. "Here…"

She eyed him then the long coat that reached his knees and would probably drop to her ankles. Rather than argue, she twisted to give him her back and let him slide the coat onto one of her arms, then the other. The dark material draped her, hiding that sumptuous body from my sight.

Not that I hadn't already memorized so much of it I could conjure the image with a single thought. As it was, Locke was pulling up his pants when I returned my attention to him.

"All clear?" The inane question irked me on a primitive level.

"We wouldn't be here otherwise," Remy answered and for once, I let the fucker have it. His cool, accented tones held far more control than I possessed at the moment. Far more. "Do you really think we'd be careless with her safety?"

The fact the question not only dismissed Locke for asking in the first place, it slapped him for what he'd done—fucking her and forgetting that he was supposed to be guarding her. We'd just walked right up and onboard, he'd not known we were here until we came in.

"And you don't even have a fucking weapon handy." The realization burned like acid in my gut as I spat out the words. Then Locke had a gun up and pointed right at my head.

"Think again," he advised. "Just because I don't like the damn things doesn't mean I can't use them."

I took another three steps forward until the muzzle of the gun was right at my forehead. Gaze locked on his, I practically dared him to pull the trigger.

"And you could reach it while you were fucking her?"

"Obviously." Disdain practically crawled through Locke's voice. "I wanted her to have all the pleasure I could give her. The gun being handy didn't prevent that."

Smug.

Arrogant.

"John," Patch said in that low, husky voice of hers. I cut my eyes to the left but I didn't back off from the gun. I really didn't fucking like Locke right now. The uncertainty in her eyes sliced me open from sternum to throat.

I was scaring her.

Goddammit to hell and back.

"It's fine, Sugar Bear," I soothed her. "Why don't you get our resident lordship to show you the bathing facilities, such as they are. Then you can get dressed and we'll bring you up to speed on everything."

A frown tightened her brow and she didn't take those storm gray eyes off of me. "I can… but you're angry."

"Never with you." It was true. I'd never been angry with her. Even if she gave herself to him. That was her choice. I'd never begrudge him. Locke, on the other hand, was a fucking idiot for burying himself so deep in the prize he forgot to watch out for her.

"C'mon luv," Remy said, holding out an arm. "We've got a bit of a clever workaround I think you'll like."

"I don't want to leave them to fight."

"We're not going to fight," Locke told her and he took the gun from my skull and put it away. Better him than me to say it.

Still, she hesitated. No way she believed Locke, or me for that matter. That was fine, I could earn her trust. Finally, she licked her lips. "I could use some water."

"Good girl," I murmured. "Let Remy look after you."

I waited until he ushered her around another faux wall, his soft words to her carrying for a moment. The nice part of the design was we'd used sound dampeners on purpose. Harder to listen in if we didn't let sound escape. When I was sure they were another room away, I slammed my fist toward Locke.

I'd give the little prick credit, he batted my fist to the side and dodged the follow-up blow. The third, an uppercut, lifted him off the ground. He hit the bed before he bounced and rolled off of it.

With a tumble, he was back on his feet and instead of the gun, he had a pair of knives in his hand. I nodded slowly. That was better. Maybe he was more prepared than I'd cared to admit.

Maybe.

"I told her we weren't going to fight," he warned me.

"I didn't." I said then shrugged. "Next time you want to get your dick wet, you make sure you have backup present who can watch out for both of you. We could have been anyone coming through that door, there you would be, ass in the air, balls deep in her sweet cunt and what?"

A blade flew across the room and slammed into the wall just behind me. The whisper of its passage brushed my cheek and it wobbled there, so close, he could have offered me a shave.

I studied the blade for a moment then met his challenging gaze. "Fine. You still wait until you have backup."