Chapter 21

Bennett

Holy shit. It was done. The nightmare that I'd been lost in for what was starting to feel like forever was finally coming to an end. There was just one last step…one final roadblock between me and freedom for Tori and me.

And par for the course, Richie was bent on fucking that up too.

"Why aren't they moving?" I demanded, slamming my hand against the side of the monitor.

"Hey! Easy there!" one of the technicians barked, cradling the monitor as though it were his own damn child. He shot me a nasty scowl as he looked it over.

"It's fine," I sneered, pushing up from my place at the desk. I spun on my heels and ran my hands over my hair. "What the fuck is taking him so long to move that shit? He's playing at something."

Harold Stevens, my boss, said, "Bennett, chill the fuck out." He managed to keep his tone calm and even. "He'll move it soon. He knows he can't sit on that shit for long."

I gave a terse nod, but inside my mind, a shitstorm of possibilities raged. If Richie didn't move the weapons, the rest of the sting would fall apart. Sure, we could zap him for possession, but we needed him to move them across state lines. That was when the hammer would fall on his greedy ass.

We needed to wait until we found out who he was selling them to. That was the bigger picture. If that fell through, the mission would go down as a failure. Months and months of work would all go up in smoke.

I turned around and crossed my arms to keep from slamming a fist against the monitor again. Unfortunately, the lights were still blinking, indicating they were still at the warehouse. Damn it, Richie. Get your fat ass in gear.

What was he waiting for? We'd made the swap two hours before. For two fucking hours, we sat in the surveillance office—an FBI outpost set up to look like an accounting office—staring at the tracking device reports on the screen, waiting for Richie to make the call and move the weapons. As soon as they moved, we could follow the trackers and find the new owners. Then the arrests would fall like fucking dominos.

"Damn, Bulldog," Pax started, one of my best buddies at the agency. "You've been in the field too long. You've forgotten how this part works. Patience is your friend."

I snarled at him as he casually munched his way through a bag of barbecue potato chips, his feet propped up on the desk, not a care in the whole damn world. "Yeah, well, when it's your ass on the line, you let me know if you can sit still."

Pax shrugged. We made a good team. I was the bravado and muscle; he was the cool head and steady hand. I'd spent the last few months working undercover, deep cover, all by myself. I'd managed to keep my shit together, for the most part, but now, all bets were off. I was a loaded Jack-in-the-Box, and someone just tripped my spring.

"Pax's right," Harold interjected. "You need to play it cool. Your part in this isn't over just yet."

I cringed at the thought of going back to see Richie. He'd made his feelings about me quite evident during the final meeting. He didn't trust me, and if there was one more whiff of suspicion, he'd put a bullet in my head.

No, I wasn't going to talk to Richie again. I was going to grab Tori and vanish into the night. I'd already made up my mind. Nothing was worth risking her safety. I needed to get her far, far away from Richie and any of his creepy-crawly friends. The whole damn Sanderson organization could burn in hell as far as I was concerned. And if they pushed me one more step, I'd find a way to light the fucking match myself.

I threw myself back into my chair. The tech gave me a steely eye, and I made a show of crossing my arms, indicating I wasn't going to further abuse his precious surveillance system. "Do we have the tap on his cell?"

The tech shook his head. "He's gotta have some kind of jammer on it. Can't get anything. Either that or it's a decoy, and he uses a different phone for business."

"Nah. I would have seen it when I was staking him out."

The tech shrugged.

With a heavy sigh, I reached forward, snagged my coffee from the desk, and chugged it down. It was going to be a long-ass night. Especially when all I wanted to do was race back to Parkston's and grab Tori.

I hated that she'd been there, watching me as I'd practically been dragged out the front doors by Richie's men. It had all been a part of his power play. He wanted me—and everyone else—to remember who was in charge. Damn, I hated his motherfuckin' guts.

I fished my burner phone I'd been contacting Richie with from my pocket and stared at the blank screen. I pulled Tori's number from the scrap of paper she'd given to me the night before and plugged it into the phone. A smile crossed my lips as I remembered watching her write it down. She'd been lying naked in the bed, a contented expression on her beautiful face. We'd joked that it was like the first time we'd met, her in my bed, scribbling her number down on a hotel napkin.

Damn. Even with all the shit raining down on us, Tori Barnes still made my heart stop and the rest of the world fade away. I'll never forget how she looked at me when I first saw her.

I'd just arrived in Vegas with my best friend and partner-in-crime, Ryker Knight. We had just returned from a tour in the Middle East and were in Vegas for some downtime before our next assignment started.

Ryker and I had been best friends for most of our lives, and we'd both served as Navy SEALS. We extended our enlistments for a special assignment that involved several federal agencies. When our extension ended, we took assignments with the FBI and ended up in Vegas to take down the Sanderson group.

We were at a casino bar, and Ryker wasn't in the mood to party, so he left me and went back to his room. I stayed and found the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on.

Tori was dancing on a platform, and when my eyes locked on her, it was clear she'd already zeroed in on me. She licked her lips and taunted me to join her. My cock was hard as a rock, and I could barely move. I was mesmerized. Staring at her like an idiot. She had sin written in her smile, so I said a prayer of redemption and got her back to my hotel room as soon as her shift ended.

"Damn, girl," I growled, running my fingers across her body. "Do you even know how fucking crazy you made me tonight?"

Tori gave a throaty laugh, her neck arched back as my lips trailed down the side, tasting her, teasing her. "Sure do, cowboy."

I nipped at her earlobe, chuckling softly. "You're fucking perfect."

She spun around and smiled up at me, casually draping her arms over my shoulders. "You're pretty fucking perfect yourself, cowboy."

I captured her mouth and pressed my cock against her, leaving no doubt that I was ready for her. As our kiss deepened, I backed her up until she hit the edge of the king-size bed. "I'm glad you came to the club tonight," she said.

"Me too, gorgeous."

I couldn't get enough of her. Every taste, sight, scent drove me closer to the brink. She shivered, her eyes fluttering closed as I raked my fingertips over the silky skin on the inside of her thighs.

"You're killing me, baby," I growled, her thighs wrapped around my hips. I pushed her panties aside and grinned as she gulped and bucked against my fingers, her pussy begging for more.

She was so damn sweet—I couldn't take my time. I bent her over the side of the bed and tugged her panties to one side as I thrust deep inside her. Tori turned around to watch me as I fucked her, and it took every ounce of control to harness myself from exploding at the sight of those big, round baby blues as pleasure rippled across her beautiful face.

She was a hurricane in bed. Confident, then vulnerable. Cocky and sassy one minute, then demure and sweet the next. I couldn't figure her out. And didn't want to. I just wanted to fuck her some more.

She drove me crazy. Being with Tori was hands down the hottest fuck of my life.

Afterward, when I came out of the bathroom, I found her tangled in the sheets, writing something on the hotel notepad by the phone. "Writing me a love letter already?" I teased, sinking down on the side of the bed, staring at her legs as they peeked out from under the wrinkled sheets.

Tori rolled her eyes at me. "Yes, I'm hopelessly besotted. Please don't leave me!" she whined, giving me her best Scarlet O'Hara impression.

I smacked her round ass with the flat part of my palm, and she giggled. She tore the paper from the pad, pressed it into my hand, and then jumped up from the bed, leaving the sheet behind as she stalked across the room butt naked. And what a butt it was!

I got lost, staring at her beautiful body, and didn't even look down at the paper until she'd finished dressing. "Your number?"

I chuckled. "I see. Next time, I gotta buy dinner?"

"Something like that." She smiled, her eyes dancing like fireflies against a midnight sky. "See you later, handsome."

And just like that, she swept from my hotel room, and my life has never been the same.

My skin warmed at the avalanche of memories, and I was overwhelmed with the need to get Tori back in my arms to shield her from the darkness of the world. I dialed her number and waited, holding my breath as it rang through to her voicemail.

"This is Avery. Leave me a message. I'll call you back."

Beep.

I frowned. "Avery, it's Eric. Call me back."

I clicked off the call before I got carried away. There were so many things I wanted to say to her. But they would have to wait. Over the past few days, I'd been thinking about the future. It was the thread of hope that got me through the last hump of the mission.

She didn't want to return to WITSEC, and I couldn't blame her. Hell, I didn't want her to since it would mean losing contact with her. No, that wasn't an option. But I was running short on other ideas. She couldn't stay in Los Angeles. I couldn't go back to Vegas without her.

Somewhere along the way, I'd started putting together a new vision. Tori, with a big diamond ring on her finger, a swollen belly, and a couple of little red-headed rugrats tearing up the front yard in front of a two-story craftsman.

It was crazy. Something I never pictured for myself. Not in a million years. But that was what I liked about it. The unexpectedness of it all. The idea that I'd trade in car chases, sting ops, and chasing skirts in every city was insane, unheard of, but that was what made it perfect. There was no other reason for it. Just love. Genuine, down to the bone, unshakable love. Tori and I had that, and I wasn't giving it up for anything.

I pushed up from my chair. "I'm going to the club."