Chapter 1

1

ECHO

S urveillance could be boring as fuck, but I’d take tedium over the bullshit coming out of this asshole’s mouth any day.

Jeff—the asshole in question—laughed, the sound grating on my ears.

“She’s got a fat ass, but that just means more to hold on to when I fuck it.”

Anger stirred in my chest, and I clenched my fists, talking myself out of storming over there and beating the shit out of him.

Apparently, Jeff had taken a liking to his neighbor. Every time he talked about her, his disgusting words and tone made me feel like I needed a shower.

I’d never seen her, but from what he said, it sounded like she was sweet and innocent. I hated to think what this motherfucker would do to her if given the opportunity.

Jeff was a con man. He swindled women out of every dime they had. Although, how the smarmy shit managed that, I had no clue.

One of his victims had come to the Hounds of Hellfire, the motorcycle club I belonged to. We were in the business of helping people “disappear” for a fee, although we made exceptions from time to time, especially if the victim was running from an abusive spouse or assholes who were worse than Jeff.

In this case, Tina didn’t need to go on the run, but she’d come to us hoping we could recover her life savings and take down the scum who’d conned her.

Typically, we would have already dealt with him, but after listening to Tina’s account a few times and doing some research, it didn’t look like Jeff was calling the shots.

The president of my club, King, wanted to take down the whole operation, a decision we were all in agreement with.

Surveillance had been my specialty while serving in the Marines. I could pick up on things that others rarely heard, knew how to manipulate voices and noises to make them sound like anything we wanted to, and therefore, how to break them down to the original.

This was how I ended up in the apartment across the hall from Jeff’s, listening to all of his conversations for a hint of the next link in the chain.

After a few days of being forced to listen to his shit, I’d started to worry more about the neighbor—Violet Kimball, according to her lease.

So last night, I rigged up some equipment to allow me to listen to the hallway and her apartment as well. I didn’t put in cameras, tap her phone, or set up remote access to her electronics like I was working on for Jeff. But I wanted to make sure I would be alerted if he decided to pull any shit, and she needed rescuing.

Jeff hung up the phone—saving his life, for the moment—and from what I could hear afterward, it sounded as though he was getting ready to leave. Once he was gone, there was no reason for me to be listening to anything. A prospect was always on duty outside to give me a heads-up when the conman was coming and going.

However, I was curious…so I turned up the equipment I’d installed that covered the areas beyond Jeff’s apartment.

A low, sultry voice floated into my ears, and to my shock, my body stirred. I hadn’t felt any interest in a woman in years, physically or otherwise. A relationship wasn’t something I wanted, but I’d never been a hookup kind of guy. So the fact that I was responding to just a voice was bizarre.

My interest was piqued, so I turned up the volume dial and relaxed on the couch that I’d moved into the empty apartment so I would be comfortable during the hours of surveillance.

“Beau!” Violet cried out. “Oh, oh! Oh, yes! Beau! Beau!”

Bile rose in my throat, and a bitter taste saturated my mouth when I realized what I was hearing.

I was about to shut it off when her next words had me pausing.

Her voice shifted lower and took on a more masculine energy. “‘That’s it, sweet girl,’ I grunted. ‘Fuck. I can’t wait to feel this pussy wrapped around my cock. Oh, fuck, yeah. Fuck!’”

What the hell?

“I curled my finger inside her and bit her clit, sending her into the stratosphere. Even though my orgasm had begun to ebb, hearing her set off another. This one was harder, and I had to shoot to my feet and lean over the desk so I wouldn’t collapse on the floor.

My mouth found Isabella’s, and she moaned when my tongue slid along hers and she tasted herself. ‘See how amazing you taste?’ I mumbled.

I cupped her tits and used my thumbs to play with her nipples as I kissed down her neck. My cock hadn’t gone very soft, and it was nearly fully hard again. As soon as she was ready, I was going to ? —”

My phone buzzing in my pocket jerked me out of the world Violet’s voice had pulled me into.

I ripped off my headphones and yanked out my phone, stabbing the answer button before putting it to my ear. “Yeah?”

“Hey,” greeted my club brother, Wizard. He was a tech genius and had earned his road name because he could make shit appear from thin air…which meant finding stuff no one else had been able to get their hands on, often by looking in places no one had ever thought to consider. “I’ve been tracking all of Jeff’s accounts and was able to compile a list of former victims. Sending it to you in case he drops any info about them. Also, I’m still working on the accounts he transfers the money to. The account is constantly changing, and they’re buried behind a fuck ton of aliases and shit. He’s never given his cut from the same account either. Keep an ear out for anything he says about banking or former employers paying him, shit like that.”

“Will do,” I agreed.

We talked for another couple of minutes, analyzing some of the stuff Jeff had said over the past couple of days. Sometimes, things that sounded like useless bullshit were more helpful than others realized.

Violet was still on my mind during our conversation, and I hadn’t come up with an explanation for what I’d heard. So before we hung up, I unexpectedly blurted out a request. “Need some information on his neighbor. Get a dossier together for me.”

“Sure. You think she’s involved?”

“No.” I quickly tried to come up with an excuse that would make more sense than me being a stalker who was turned on by her voice but wouldn’t implicate her in Jeff’s activities. “She’s got the best access to his place with the balconies next to each other and sharing a wall. If I can get on friendly terms with her, it would make getting the cameras in his place easier.”

“Good idea. I’ll send you some info today and get started on a deep dive. If she’s got skeletons, you could use blackmail to get her cooperation.”

The idea of doing something underhanded to get close to her didn’t sit well with me…which was weird because it had never bothered me before. Not one of us would ever hurt someone innocent, especially a woman, but that hadn’t stopped us from using subversive tactics to get what we needed.

“Just get me her information.” I schooled my tone to make sure it was nonchalant when I added, “A picture would help.”

“Yeah, then you’ll recognize her if you see her outside the building first,” he assumed.

“Right,” I murmured, relieved that he’d come up with his own reason, rather than having to lie so he didn’t know I simply wanted to see if Violet’s looks matched her incredibly sexy voice.

We hung up, and I put on my headphones once again, listening to Violet speak and getting lost in her voice again.

“‘For now, it’s just you and me. Nobody and nothing else matters.’

‘I like the sound of that,’ I sighed, my cheeks heating.

“You’re going to like the feel of it even more,” he promised, dropping our hands onto his lap and pressing my palm against his hard-on.

‘Holy crap,’ I whispered, wondering how he was ever going to possibly fit inside me.

As though he could read my mind, he chuckled. ‘Don’t worry, sweet girl. Just like I did when I had you spread out on my desk, I’m going to make tonight very, very good for you.’

Remembering the five mind-blowing orgasms he’d given me, my fingers flexed as my cheeks heated further. ‘I’m sure you will.’”

Fucking hell. My body tingled from the overtly sexual tone in her words and voice.

A notification popped up on my computer screen, and I clicked open my email to see a message from Wizard.

I turned down the volume on my headset and opened the email, quickly downloading the attachment.

My intention was to look at her picture first, but for some reason, her occupation caught my attention.

Audiobook narrator.

Relief slithered through my body, and an amused smile curled my lips. I’d quickly realized I wasn’t listening to Violet with another man, but it hadn’t occurred to me that she was reading a book.

Considering how she’d pulled me in with her narration, she was obviously damn good at her job. However, it made me wonder if she would sound anything like her character when she was in the throes of real passion.

I skipped down the rest of the information and clicked on her picture, blowing it up on the screen.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

The buzz of sexual chemistry I’d been feeling exploded into deep hunger, an almost overpowering desire to storm across the hall and fuck the unbelievably sexy woman from the photograph.

Violet stood next to a table where another woman sat, her head bent over a book as she signed it. There was a banner behind Violet with a book cover and “Narrator: Violet Kimball” printed just below the author’s much larger name.

Violet’s stunning eyes immediately caught my attention. I wondered if her parents had named her for their unique, deep purple color. Her long, dark brown hair floated around her, emphasizing her pale skin, making her eyes pop even more. Plush lips were spread out in a wide, beautiful smile, showing dimples digging into her plump cheeks.

I continued to study her photo, my eyes tracking down her body, and I licked my lips, my rock-hard cock twitching with excitement.

She was average height, no more than five foot four inches, but it was enough of a difference that I would tower over her at my six foot two inches.

I might have worried that my muscular frame and tall stature would be too much for this dainty creature, but Violet had a full body with mouthwatering curves. Her big tits would spill out of my hands, and her wide hips would be perfect for holding while her thick thighs were wrapped around me. Although I couldn’t see her ass in the picture, I had a feeling it was just as round and sexy as the rest of her.

Dragging my eyes away from her picture, I scanned the rest of the file and was not surprised to see Violet described as sweet, funny, and witty. There was just something about her that had told me she was the perfect fucking woman. And Jeff would never get near her again because she was mine.