Chapter 20

"Oh,how cute. My beast is pouting," I said, wrinkling my nose in Reed's direction. The afternoon sun glinted in his green eyes. I reached over and twanged his bottom lip. He huffed and crossed his arms, and I had to snicker under my breath about it. He'd been slightly pissy since I'd put him in the passenger seat two hours ago to begin the waiting game. Turned out, my beast preferred to drive, but we were giving his knee a break.

"Why did you send the roses?" he asked, shaking his head. He refused to look at me, and my fingers itched to shock him for the insolence, but we were on a mission. I couldn't risk him being anything other than one-hundred-percent ready to spring into action.

We were parked across the street from a four-story brick apartment building in the Vinegar Hill neighborhood, not too far from Sloan's house of horrors. There were some Christmas decorations up and the lights were even plugged in, which gave this entire occasion a festive atmosphere that I was enjoying. The delivery man climbed out of his van and went inside the front doors to the apartment lobby that I'd checked out earlier. A thrill skittered down my spine.

"Because it's only polite to send flowers for a funeral." I wriggled in my seat and slapped his arm lightly. He was a vain beast because he flexed his bicep, and I couldn't let that go to waste, so I squeezed his thick muscle.

He snorted and tilted his head in my direction. "You're a creepy fuckin' psycho," he whispered.

With a smirk, I turned toward him and rested my chin on my fist. "Go on. I love it when you talk dirty, Beastie."

He rolled his eyes and settled back against his seat, but I didn't miss the way he sprawled his legs, preening a bit at my compliment. I slid my hand over to his lap, and he bared his teeth but didn't say anything. Waiting for something to happen was boring, but Reed was anything but. I rubbed my fingers over his pants along his soft cock, and he watched the apartment building from under hooded eyelids.

"What if they go out the back?" he murmured, but the snarky heat that had been in his tone had shriveled up—the opposite of what was happening under my fingertips. His cock plumped, and my mouth watered. I wanted to do more than this. The lazy rub-off for my beast was a tease to us both.

"Olberg's car is right there," I said, nodding at a flashy green BMW. Even if he hadn't gotten a shipment of drugs from Reed, he'd clearly been getting something from someone. As far as I could tell with a day of snooping, Erickson and Olberg—the two idiots who'd shot Beastie's mother—had no straight-edge jobs. They were dumb as a box of rocks and about as creative. Having a flashy car and no explanation for the funds that bought it was a great way to get the government on your ass.

"They could take a bus," he mumbled, dropping his head back against the seat. He sucked in a harsh breath through his teeth and rolled his hips, trying to get me to put more pressure on his trapped cock.

"Someone ostentatious enough to buy a BMW that shade of green is not taking a bus," I said with a sniff.

He hummed.

"Watch the front door," I singsonged.

"I am. I'm going to rip them apart with my bare hands," he muttered, and my cock twitched. All the air was sucked out of the car with that one statement, and I wanted to strip off my clothes and sit on his dick. Fuck, I would love to see him do it, too. Twist someone's head clean off their body while his muscles bulged.

Things like this spying business could take a while, and thankfully, I had Reed to distract me. I slipped his cock out of his pants, and he grabbed his jacket from the seat behind us and draped it over my hand. I wanted to roll my eyes because if a cop happened to wander by, they would know exactly what I was doing, but I was too wound up waiting for our targets to come out of their snake hole to give a damn.

No one exited the building.

For about ten minutes, the only person who left was the delivery man.

Fuck, this stakeout was taking too long. Without the shock from his collar, Reed needed a thorough amount of teasing from me to get fully hard, but I didn't care—he had a nice cock and I liked to play with it.

His face flushed as I kept going, and he was panting and moaning when two men darted out of the building toward the green BMW. I dropped his cock and sucked the gloss of his bitter precum off the tips of my fingers. Our targets didn't seem to notice me, and why would they? The black SUV I'd borrowed from Sloan's fleet was a dime a dozen in NYC—probably every city.

"You're stopping?" Reed asked, scowling. I loved the way his cheeks were pink and how his neck muscles stood out.

"Yes. Put it away, Beastie," I said, patting his cheek hard enough that it probably counted as a slap. With a grin, I started the SUV and took off into traffic after Erickson and Olberg.

"What are we doing?" he growled out, grunting as he did as I'd said. I'd half hoped he would fight me, jerk off right there to spite me, but it was probably for the best that he'd listened. I was a good driver, but I might wreck while trying to navigate traffic and stare at his hand on his dick.

"Oh, well, I printed out two obituaries I had published. One for Erickson and one for Olberg. My grandmother used to clip obits, then take snapshots of bodies at the funeral. I took a cue from her and tucked the obituaries into a card brimming with my personal condolences. I assume we're following them to a safe house or something of that nature." I shrugged. "They're scared shitless."

Reed turned to glare at me. "What if they know we're here and it's a trap?"

A delightful pit of fear bloomed in my belly. "They don't. See, they're arguing. Neither one has checked the rearview mirror." The man in the passenger seat was doing a hell of a lot of gesturing. I smirked in Reed's direction, but I didn't take my eyes off our targets. It would be a real drag to lose them in traffic after going to all that trouble to flush them out.

"This isn't usually your deal, right? Murder? Hits? Do you know what you're doing?"

Violent anger thrashed in my guts, and if I didn't want to fuck my delightful beast so much, I might shoot him and toss him out the door. I took a deep breath and forced myself under control, but maybe I looked as murderous as I felt because he mumbled, "Sorry, Master."

"I suppose those are all valid thoughts. I prefer not to use weapons, but I'm a good shot, and if I miss, I keep going until the job is done. I savor mind games." I winked at Reed, and his face paled as he settled back against his seat.

"Fuckin' great."

There was silence in the cab for a long while. We left the city, and at one point I was certain we'd been spotted because the BMW sharply exited the highway at the last second, forcing us to make some risky maneuvers to stay on their tail, but they didn't speed up or deviate after that, so my heart settled down and we kept following them.

We drove for about three hours, and it wasn't until we were on a gravel strewn country road and night was beginning to close in that they noticed us. The BMW slowed down to nearly a crawl, and they both leaned closer to the rearview mirror. It had taken a ridiculous amount of time. Or maybe they had been aware of us, but they were simply too scared to stop.

"They spotted us," I said with a laugh. I tapped Sloan's name on my phone as I braked behind the BMW, and the sound of the ringback tone rumbled through the SUV.

"Yes?" Sloan said, tone soft and steely.

"Oh, did I interrupt?" Sex or death, either way he wouldn't be happy if I made him wait for the good parts.

"Make it quick," he said, tone going even softer. Shit, he was in a bad mood.

"Sir, did you know that Reed wasn't working alone during that little fiasco?" I asked sweetly. Maybe reminding him of Beastie's debacle wasn't a great idea, but I was squirming in my seat. I pointed at the glove box, and Reed opened it. With a fumbling hand, he took a Browning Hi-Power out and held it. The pretty gun had a glossy scarlet finish, and I adored it. My adrenaline redlined until he pressed the handle into my outstretched palm. He could've turned the gun and shot me in the face.

He didn't.

This time.

My cock ached, and I smacked the butt of the handle to my temple to force myself to pay attention to the life-or-death situation in front of us and not my dick.

"That's news," Sloan said, ripping my attention back to the conversation. Interest warmed his tone.

"I have a unique opportunity to bring that entire chapter to a close. Do I have your permission?"

He chuckled and the happy vibration tingled through me. Maybe I wouldn't ever fuck the boss, but being in his good graces was a wonderful position to find yourself in.

"I suppose this will count toward some future favor," he murmured.

"Maybe," I teased back. "Maybe I'm just doing it out of the goodness of my heart."

Reed glared at me, and I winked at him.

"Go ahead. I expect a full report when it's convenient."

"Bye, Boss," I lilted, then hit the End button as the driver's side of the BMW cracked open and a bullet bounced off the windshield of the SUV.

"Fuck!" Reed yelled, hand flying to his heart. He stared at the small nick in the glass right in front of his face.

I laughed. "Bulletproof glass."

I hit the ignition button and smashed the gas pedal.

"What are you doing?" Reed shouted as the SUV careened forward like a drunken horse on the rutted road.

The vehicle shuddered on impact, throwing us forward against our seat belts, and the sound of crinkling metal had me laughing. I'd expected the air bags to explode, but we must not have impacted hard enough. The SUV was much heavier than the BMW, and it took almost nothing to shove it off the road into a deep ditch on the right side. Erickson and Olberg must've kicked out the windshield because next thing I knew they were scrambling up a steep embankment toward some pine trees.

"Let's go have fun," I said with a wide smile I directed flirtatiously at my beast. "There's another gun in the back. You'll find a Nitro Express Zeliska and extra bullets in a case." My heart hammered and my head buzzed. This could be the thing that killed me, right here. "Grab it and go shoot someone. That gun should rip a hole in an elephant, so be careful where you point it." I waggled my eyebrows at him. If he decided to shoot me, well, I deserved it for not being smart enough to stop him.

If our situations were reversed, I might've put a bullet in him just for not letting me get off earlier. I would regret it later, but I might still do it. I leaned over and dragged him into a kiss, and he ate my lips like they were dessert.

"Be careful when you get out. They might've decided to hide in the trees, but I'm pretty sure they were headed for the farm at the end of the road, considering that's the only thing out here." I checked the map on my phone, then shoved it into my pocket. "They're probably going to hide in the house there. I can't think of any other reason they would go this way."

"Shit, they'll be armed to the teeth if they make it there. I think Olberg's grandparents left him land, and he was the explosives expert who helped me rob the train." Reed shook his head.

"Well, we have two miles to get to them first," I said with a laugh. "And they have a head start, so we better move." I gave him one more kiss, then bolted out of the SUV.

"I love you. Be careful," I said, twiddling my fingers. I took off in the direction the men had run, clawing up the embankment with one hand and holding my gun at the ready with the other.

"Hey! Why did you say that stupid shit?" he roared.

Panic ate at me. I wasn't afraid of dying, but this conversation? I never should've brought that up right now. I didn't have a good reason for most of the things that came out of my mouth, though, and planned far less than people assumed. "So you won't shoot me," I called back over my shoulder, scanning the tree line.

"That won't stop me."

"Good!" I yelled, then ran as fast as I could in the direction the men had disappeared. I really did like a good cat-and-mouse game, and now they knew our position, so I would have to be even more careful. This was going to be fun.

And deadly.