Chapter Eight
Several days later, Titanium stood outside the hangar in front of one of the helicopters Merc often flew. Adamantium and Platinum stood with him discussing all of the new additions they’d been working on. Adamantium was actually doing the talking. Platinum was his stoic self like always.
Comforting when it seemed everything else was changing around him.
“The new infrared displays can shine even in full black-out mode. The heat-seeking radar will be fully functional in less than a week. So fucking excited. I’ve been waiting for two years to fire her shit up. After we get you to sign off on it we’ll…”
They were getting him up to speed on all the upgrades he’d authorized to the big equipment in the last few months. Even a new drone they could release from the compound and remotely manipulate from any of their accessible smart devices.
Adamantium’s enthusiasm rocked. Made him a kickass Elite Geek Squad aficionado. Talk quickly turned to intel he’d extracted from one of the asshole’s phones they’d picked up recently.
It was all important. It was. Vitally important to the teams, their missions and the ultimate goal of stopping Red Wolf.
Problem with the info?
He couldn’t concentrate.
His focus, no matter how many times he reattempted to lock onto it was as fleeting as a fart in the wind.
Annie was with him, which normally helped him center his thoughts.
She leaned against his leg, right where she usually was but she wasn’t there in the same capacity. And restless was apparently her new middle name. Sit, stand, lay, sit, stand, lay. Whine. And he kept reaching for her harness.
It must have been incredibly weird for her. Wasn’t something he’d given a lot of thought about for an eventuality after the surgery.
What it would be like from her perspective. Having a job you were trained to do. Months and months of training and then years of doing the job with aplomb and then—nothing. He stripped it away from her and thought it would be great? She could be what? A dog again?
Only she couldn’t settle. Even at night she was off.
Kept turning in circles, nudging him. Whining.
And he was weirded out too if he wanted to own it, which he totally didn’t.
He should have been ecstatic, dancing in the streets but he—wasn’t.
Reaching for her harness kept throwing him. Not because it felt weird reaching for her harness, but because it felt odd when there wasn’t anything there to take. His right hand felt empty.
His phone went off and he stared at the screen.
Unlisted number.
Thank fuck.
Adamantium kept on chugging. “Then we’ll outfit the swat van with the newest EMP ignition from the—”
“I have to take this call. Catch up with you guys later.” He pushed the button to accept the call and turned away with Annie at his heels. “Warbucks.”
Several clicks sounded in his ear. A sat phone somewhere across the pond connected and a male voice filled the line. “I have a package. Needs to be hand delivered. A package you’ve been waiting a long time for.”
Titanium smiled and if anyone would have seen it they would have backed up a couple miles. “What does the package concern? A wolf or a mole?”
“Using a mole to catch a wolf. Interested, boss?”
“Highly. ETA, Kryptonite?”
Silence filled the line and Titanium thought maybe the connection had been dropped. Dread filled the void as Kryptonite spoke.
“There’s something else, sir.”
Titanium closed his eyes, hanging his head. Sometimes… Sometimes he hated being right. “Fuck,” he whispered.
“I’m sorry.”
Shaking his head, though the other man couldn’t see him, did little to clear the sickness crawling through his head. “Not your fault.”
“It’s not yours either, boss.”
“Tell that to the dead bodies lying in my wake.” He shook his head one more time. “ETA?”
“Coming in low and slow is the only way it’ll work. We’re all below the radar at the moment. Wanna keep it that way. ETA around a week. We have something to take care of first.”
“We’ll have turkey and dressing ready for you when you get here.”
“I’m bringing the whole crew. See you in a few.”
“Be careful.”
The connection disappeared before he could even remove the phone from his ear. He slipped his cell into a pocket and thought about what they could be bringing to him. Being this close to taking out the assholes who changed all their lives made him tense up. Losing them this time wasn’t an option. Especially knowing what he’d have to face before it was all said and done. What they’d all have to deal with.
Walking toward the house with Annie, he reached for her harness again. A deep breath sure didn’t help him clear his head. Thoughts of Thanksgiving dinner distracted him and he went with it.
He loved the idea actually. He had a super hard time showing it in the gym the day the week before. Being there with the rest of his—family. With Raine. He should be over the moon. But he just…wasn’t.
“Annie, wanna go for a run before our date?”
She yipped and he grinned.
“Let’s go.”
He head nodded several more members of Elite on the way to the house to change. They still looked at him funny or it could have been him and nothing more. Or they were looking at him strange now because they knew he could see them again.
Nothing like lack of kickass confidence to get in the way of being the supreme leader of their neck of the woods.
He tried to fit a few pieces of the Red Wolf puzzle together while they ran. Thought a whole hell of a lot in circles but it didn’t really get him anywhere.
Soul searching came next. About Raine and what she meant to him. What he wanted from her and hoped they could accomplish together. Be together.
While they ran, he noticed his gait was strange. Getting used to seeing again was throwing him off. His depth perception was a bit off. Out of habit, he’d put Annie’s harness on her before he’d left. Instead of heading to the house to take it off, he ran with her, and closed his eyes. She yipped with excitement when he fully let her lead him again and his gait evened out, they found their stride together.
At the far corner of the property where they normally stopped to take a break, Annie kept trying to lead him over to a certain spot at the right corner of the open area by a huge stand of trees. She’d done it the last few days when they’d run together. Seemed odd. He’d investigated every time. Nothing strange. No funky smells, evidence of people there. Nothing.
Finally moved her along and they finished up. He took a shower and felt pretty awesome. The exercise helped him not feel so claustrophobic.
Ironic.
He could see and felt more trapped than he did in the dark.
Being able to see was incredible and it was a gift he didn’t want to take for granted.
Raine told him to meet her outside the hangar at 19:00. Something about the new medical facility they were constructing and getting his approval for the layout on a piece of the—something. Totally not his thing so he’d left it in Merc and Hazel’s beyond capable hands. Glancing at the clock, he still had almost thirty minutes to kill before he was scheduled to meet her but restlessness gripped him.
He pulled on jeans and a shirt that said, “Keep Calm. I’m a muff diver.”
So he decided to go find his bike in the hangar. Adamantium and Platinum were gone and actually he couldn’t see anybody else around. Bit weird. They were probably all eating dinner, or with their spouses. Bit nice.
Made him think of Raine when he approached the hangar. He’d missed her all day. They’d been spending a lot of time together. More and more every day. Time apart usually recharged him when he’d been dealing with people and missions and revenge.
Now he craved the closeness.
With her.
With his girl.
He wasn’t certain if she knew it yet but she was most definitely his. He couldn’t live without her. Wouldn’t live without her. Giving her up wasn’t really an option any more. Not after he’d been inside her, come inside her, slept next to her. Held her close while she was falling asleep.
Instead of planning how he could get away from everyone, he was finding ways to seek people out. And not only her. Even the other men and women he’d found more things to handle himself instead of filtering to the teams through Poppy as he’d always done since bringing them in.
He looked at his watch, anxious to be with Raine and see what she’d been up to all day. She’d been MIA a lot lately but every time he’d brought it up she’d changed the subject and for some reason he hadn’t pushed her on it. She’d seemed so happy with whatever she was working on and he didn’t want to ruin the surprise.
As he approached the hangar, he finally realized why he’d been angling to get there. The want to take a ride on his bike was building inside him. It was a need eating at his insides. Seeing wasn’t the problem anymore. His prostheses were. They wouldn’t work with a standard bike. Disappointment clung to him. A lot. He tried not to let it get him down.
He was so thankful. Okay thankful might have been a little bit of an overstatement. Working on it took some serious concentration.
Opening the door to the hangar, he stepped inside expecting to see a whole lotta nothing going on.
Instead, it looked like all the members of both Elite teams and their spouses and children filled the large space.
“Did someone forget my invite?”
“Dammit. What’s he doing here now?”
“He’s early.”
“Shit.”
No clue who said what since everyone seemed to be trying to hide something in the midst of them all.
“Surprise!” one of Cammie’s twin siblings yelled.
“No, Thomas, sissie said we had to do it together.”
“Oh. You’re right. Can we do it again, sissie?”
Both of the seven-year-old twins looked at their sister who was effectively their mom. She smiled and hugged the girl. Her name was Teresa. Chrome, one of his most badass friends, scooped up Thomas and ruffled his hair. “How about we all say it together this time.” He looked around at the whole group and they all resembled smiling bobble heads.
“On three people. One. Two. Three.”
“Surprise!”
Titanium made a face, since he had no clue what they were talking about. He opened his mouth to ask and then they parted.
Quickly they moved to the side.
All but one person.
His Raine.
She stood in the center. Next to his bike, holding his leather jacket.
Fuck, she was beautiful.
His girl outshined the bike, a million to one.
No clue how long he stared at her but then two little hands were pulling him along. Thomas was the first to speak. “Come on, Uncle Tanium. You gotta see this. They made your bike work for you.”
“My bike?”
“Uh huh,” his sister answered. “So you can ride with your robo legs.” They stopped him in front of the metal work of art and all he could stare at was Raine.
“Isn’t it pretty?” the kids asked as they jumped circles around it.
“Yes, she is.”
Raine blushed when he answered and still hadn’t looked at the bike. “You’re early, Mr. Commander.”
“Early for what?” He looked around and everyone was trying to act like they weren’t hearing every word they shared.
“We’ve been working on a present for you.” She patted the seat on the bike.
“I’ve already ridden on it. You showed me the modifications so I can ride on it.” He whispered it to her and used it as an excuse to draw her body into him.
“As a passenger.” She pointed to a few things he’d never seen on his bike before. “Now it’s ready for you to drive.”
He stared at it, unable to process what he was seeing. “How?”
“We all helped.” Steele stepped forward with Alayna.
Gabriel added. “Each of us wanted to thank you.”
“For bringing us back from the dead.” Mercury nodded and pulled Hazel closer.
Raine lifted his arm and put it across her shoulders.
Squeezing her arm, he held her tight. Everyone stared at him. Something close to acceptance or thankfulness lifting their expressions.
“What’s different today? Different than all the other days I mean? We’ve been here for more than a year.”
“We might have shared what we learned from you the other day in your office before your surgery.” Chrome offered the info and nodded at Steele who continued.
“Then we might have taken the file you said was from Gold.”
“I might have shared a bit more info about Grandad, and what really went down in Russia, and everything you gave up. I love you, Uncle.” Poppy had always been one of his biggest proponents.
Silver piped up too. “You got me out of some real trouble. I lost my way and you sent my blonde-haired girl to save me.” He stared at Poppy. “I can never repay you for what you did for me.” His gaze met Titanium’s. “What you did for all of us.”
Tungsten gestured to the bike. “Our way of giving you back a tiny bit of the freedom you gained for all of us.”
Uranium smiled which didn’t happen too often. “So we’re all gonna bow out and let you and your girl have a few minutes to talk. Then you can ride.” He stepped up to him, saluted and held his hand out.
Sadness and hope warred inside Titanium as he shook his hand, more than a little shaken by the gratitude.
Maybe he’d been wrong all this time keeping what he saw as his shame to himself. Making up for the part he and his father played in what happened in Russia was all he could do to be able to sleep at night.
Uranium walked away.
And then Tin and Nickel stepped forward. Saluting and shaking his hand.
Chrome and his family. Salute and shake.
Lithium.
Tungsten. Brass. Copper.
All the rest.
One by one. Or two by two. Or three by three.
They all silently thanked him.
As the last person walked out he turned to Raine. She stood with tears in her eyes and something else he thought looked a lot like love.
They met in the middle.
He held her cheeks, his lips on hers, her arms around his waist.
Love was on his mind.
Specifically telling her he loved her.
He couldn’t get them out though. If he opened his mouth and said anything he’d probably lose his shit.
“Happy?”
He cleared his throat. Twice. “More than I can say, beautiful.”
“Want to see what we changed and you can take it out for a solo ride?”
“I can’t imagine wanting to do anything more.”
A few hours later he sped down Highway 175. He’d been gone for almost two hours after his primer from Raine. Fuck, did his girl know her way around a bike.
They’d even changed the entire dash into braille as well as English, since the bumps were what he was used to reading for the past few years. Had to have it custom made of course. A blind person driving a bike probably wasn’t so common.
He’d planned on being out for hours.
Days even.
The feeling of freedom pushing him for miles. The quest of it drawing him on.
What was interesting?
Until he turned around, headed to Elite, he felt like he wasn’t getting anywhere. Like a hamster stuck in a wheel, making no progress whatsoever no matter how long or hard he rode.
When he headed toward the compound?
The miles disappeared faster and faster as he pushed his bike to see what it could really do.
His girl and the rest of the team had outdone themselves.
It wasn’t just a two wheeled machine outfitted to allow him to drive completely by hand, with notches added to fit his prosthesis.
No.
There was a stronger engine, better transmission and a throttle that sounded like the hounds of hell were beneath his thighs.
The bike was chipped to the gate and it swung open on his approach.
The tree-lined drive drew his attention as he drove to the main house where he laid his head and his girls would be.
He had an idea but didn’t exactly know how to make it happen yet.
Though he would.
Because his girl needed to know exactly what she meant to him.
Pulling around to the hangar, he parked the bike. Himself.
Independence was not overrated.
He made it to the house and opened the door. There his golden girl pranced, waiting for him. She mumble barked something at him, certainly trying to tell him something he should totally understand by now.
He tossed his keys on the counter and scratched her behind the ears. “Need some help, Annie.”
She hit work mode so fast she actually sat faster than he blinked. Her tail worked like a windshield wiper.
His palm faced her, in her wait command. “Find Raine, Annie.” He kept his palm there to reiterate what he needed. Not wanted. Needed. “Find Raine.” The moment his hand went down she was off. Took her a second to get traction on the hardwood floor. And he hadn’t seen her as excited in years. It was nice to be needed for something.
He, of all people, understood her.
Following Annie, he listened for the jingle of her collar and the clicks of her paws on the floor. Before he turned down the hall of their bedrooms, he heard his other girl.
She was in her bedroom instead of his but she must have been sleeping with the door open. Annie was inside, pulling her out of bed by her sleeve. “What’s wrong, Annie? Oh my gosh. Slow down. I’m coming. I’m coming.”
She hit the doorway as he was only a few steps away. “Charles? Are you okay? Did something happen on the bike? Did—”
His lips silenced her as he moved her against the wall beside her door.
“I know it’s late.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she assuaged him with a shake of her head and a cool palm to his cheek.
Her lips against his. Her sighed breath caressed his cheek as he kissed her jaw. Her fingernails digging into his arms he could feel through his jacket.
All of her is what he wanted. What he needed more than what he assumed would make him happy.
“Have a nice ride, lover?”
Moving her into the doorway and backwards toward her bed he stared at her in the moonlight. “Yes.” Her face lit up. “And no.” Her smile faded and her eyebrows dipped low.
“We can change anything if it doesn’t work for you.”
He kissed her and pulled her shirt over her head.
“Nothing on the bike needs to be changed.”
Her pajama pants were the next things to go.
“Then what was wrong with the bike?”
He quickly shed his clothes and took his legs off, amazingly more comfortable with being himself with the woman laying naked beside him.
“Nothing was wrong with the bike. Absolutely…” He rolled between her thighs and licked along her slit. “Nothing.” Up on her elbows her head fell as he licked her again. And again. “My bike is absolutely amazing. Better than I remember it. Faster. Smoother. Perfect.” He licked her clit between each word until her legs shook.
“Then…what was bad…about it?” She faced him again and seemed to have trouble breathing.
Made two of them. “You weren’t with me.” He looked her right in the face when he owned it, sucking her clit into his mouth. Licking her straight up the middle she shuddered and then fell, pulling at his shoulders.
“Need something, lover?”
“You,” she whispered. “Inside me. You’re what I need.”
She was slick. Ready. And he pushed inside her, the tip of his cock sliding inside, forging his way inside the woman he loved.
When he was completely buried in her slick heat and she moaned, canting her head to one side, he gathered her close and spoke against her shoulder.
“Freedom. It’s what I’ve prayed for since Phoenix. Independence, so I didn’t have to rely on anyone else for my safety. My hygiene. My confidence.”
Her legs were wrapped around his thighs and her arms around his waist, holding him close. Holding him together as she’d done since the explosion that robbed them all of so much.
“But…” She prompted as he fucked her in the dark.
No.
He was done denying it. He was done hiding behind his injuries as a way to be mad at the world or keep himself separate from the woman and the family he’d worked so hard to keep safe.
He made love to her.
It was different.
He felt like a whole man again. Had for a long time. When he was with her.
“When I was out on my bike tonight. Finally where I’d been striving to be for so long I couldn’t remember another goal, do you know what I thought?”
“No.” He distinctly heard a sniff. “What did you think?”
Moving his head his lips found the soft skin beside her eye as a tear rolled down.
Her quiet tears broke his heart wide open. He silently vowed then and there to make her happy. To do anything and everything in his power to bring her more joy than any man had ever brought to a woman.
“All I could think of was you. I would have traded it all if it meant you could be with me.”
Raine’s tears flowed freely and she held him tighter.
He kissed the salty emotion away as he held her close.
“That’s just the thing. You don’t have to give up anything to have me. You can have it all. I’ve been trying to tell you all along.”
“Never said I was the brightest, but I finally got there. Thanks for never giving up on me.” For thank yous, it had been a long time coming and he couldn’t have meant it any more than he did then. With this woman. His woman.
He smiled and kissed her again. Tasting her lips, her tears, her emotion he was unwilling to feel worthy of until now. Looking down into her eyes. They were wet with a sheen of tears, and he slowly pumped inside her.
It was slow.
Not a race to the finish line. Not fast and furious.
Not even close.
They moved together until he knew how close she was. “Put your hand between us. Fingers on your clit. Make yourself come on my cock. I need to feel it before I come.” He wanted to be the best lover she’d ever had. His lack of self-confidence had messed with his head for so long, but no more.
He would have had to let her go to put one of his hands between them and he couldn’t do it. Not yet.
And he’d been so worried about his lack of legs turning her off he’d been unable to see the plus side of them being gone.
On the bed.
Inside her.
They were the perfect size to fit together.
Together—she made him whole.
“No one has ever turned me on more than you. Ever.” Her shaky voice nearly pushed him over the edge.
“Ditto.” He gritted his teeth as her hand moved between them.
Tight circles, made her pussy twitch and she came on him, in him, all around him.
He pumped inside her, giving her something he’d never given another.
His love.
Which would be hers until the day he died.
They rode the wave of pleasure together. Moving and touching and holding and tasting each other as the entire world fell away.
Slowly, they relaxed and he moved beside her.
Tucked them in.
As they fall asleep together, Annie jumped up and snuggled at the end of the bed. Somehow knowing they’d needed their space.
Words of love were on his lips, ready to be voiced but Raine was already asleep.
A smile of happiness morphed his entire existence as he snuggled closer.
Tomorrow.
He’d tell her he loved her.
He’d never looked forward to the dawning of a new day. He closed his eyes. And slept.