Chapter Ten

Vivi

Another day had come and gone holed up at Jag’s and still no fucking word from Bob. I was officially beyond pissed off and secretly hoping that the reason she hadn’t called back yet was because she couldn’t. Permanently couldn’t. Not that I wanted any harm to come to Bob, I just wanted to come up with a reason for her radio silence. On top of all that, I couldn’t even peek inside my apartment since all the cameras had been removed. By the damn police who wouldn’t stop calling me.

After two days of nonstop calls, I picked up angrily. “Yes, Detective, I am very much alive and well and I’d like to stay that way.”

“Do you have any idea who could be behind this, Ms. Montgomery?”

Not any answer he would believe. “Not a clue, so if you could find out who the fuck ran me off the road, I’ll donate a thousand bucks to the Police Foundation.” That came dangerously close to bribing an official, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

The detective sighed. “Ma’am we can’t keep you safe if we don’t know where you are.”

“You can’t keep me safe anyway, Detective. But I can keep me safe until you find this psycho. I promise to keep you updated regularly.”

He waited a beat and when the detective spoke, there was resignation in his voice. “Fine. You can reach me at—”

“I’ll have no problem finding you,” I told him and ended the call quickly. The last thing I needed was someone else on Governor Blaise’s payroll able to find me. Then again, with that tracker they knew I was in or near Vegas.

Done with one set of lawmen, I turned my attention to another duo, specifically the two federal agents from the photos. I already knew they were Agents Ryan and Hewitt and in less than an hour I had their home and cell phone numbers, personal and work email addresses and all kinds of other personal information that two members of law enforcement should know better than to make it so easy. Lucky for them, I just wanted information, not to ruin their lives.

Not yet, anyway.

Armed with things like wives’ birthdays and anniversaries it took me no time at all to pull up phone records, which was where I struck gold. Or at least gold plated. Two phone numbers appeared too frequently to be a stranger but not nearly enough to be a mistress. And the most fucked up part of all? Both numbers had Nevada area codes and a quick reverse number search produced one result. Vigo Rizzoli, a name that meant nothing at all to me but gave me another string to start pulling. “Got it!” The other number belonged to Roadkill MC, a motorcycle club located in the heart of Las Vegas.

That definitely was not a fucking coincidence, and further digging showed that Vigo Rizzoli wasn’t just a member of the club, he was the goddamn VP. Those familiar tingles that had helped me avoid real danger my whole life, began at my toes and quickly worked their way up. A picture was forming in my mind, but I couldn’t see all of it. But the deeper I dug into Roadkill, the more shit I found I didn’t want to know—coke, heroin, underage girls, guns and even contract killings. And the more I found out, the more I began to think that coming to Vegas—to Jag—might have been my biggest mistake of all.

The online police blotters for both Mayhem and Las Vegas proper revealed a longstanding feud between Roadkill and the Reckless Bastards, with group arrests going back years and years. I didn’t know what it meant, yet, but I would.

I hoped.

Doubts began to creep in and I couldn’t stop them. Doubts about whether or not I could trust Jag. He was in a club. They were also a club. What if both clubs did business together and giving him this bit of information only put me in more trouble? I trusted Jag, or at least I thought I did. For now I would keep it to myself.

“Hey. How are you feeling?”

Jag’s voice startled me and pulled me from my thoughts. I slammed my laptop shut and looked at him with a blank expression. “Fine. It’s not like I’m a delicate flower or anything.”

He rolled his eyes but the smile that pulled his lush lips up at the corner made my pussy clench. Damn stupid lady hormones. “Good. Let’s go.”

“Where?” I stayed where I was with my arms crossed, waiting for more details.

“Just come on. And grab your helmet.” Damn stubborn man just walked off but not before I saw the smirk on his face. He was enjoying bossing me around.

“You’re lucky you look good walking away or else I would’ve thrown something at your head.” His laughter sounded but he didn’t respond. I didn’t mind; he had a really nice ass. “My bike is totaled,” I reminded him when we got to the garage.

His mouth pulled to one side in a smirk. “Then I guess you better hold on tight.” I should have tossed my helmet at him but the sight of Jag, all big and strong as he started the motorcycle engine, had my body responding and suddenly I couldn’t wait to wrap my arms around him.

I held on tight as he let the engine roar, zooming down the road and weaving through traffic. When he soared around the curves, dipping low to one side, I held on even tighter. His body was hard and his male potency combined with the engine between my thighs, had my pussy pulsing and my nipples tingling beneath my leather jacket. We stopped in a strip mall parking lot and I slid off, feeling that familiar sensation as my legs readjusted to solid ground again. “What are we doing here?”

He pointed to a sign over a shop that said Green Mayhem. “Gotta fix some computer shit real quick.”

“Real quick for real?” He smiled and nodded before disappearing inside, leaving me alone and leaning against the wall while I stared at the bike. I looked around at the dispensary and it looked just like what I’d seen in Colorado and Washington, in a long row of other businesses that sold everything from power tools to prom dresses, yarn and sneakers.

But across the street my gaze drifted over something that gave me pause. A big ass, look-at-me bright red extended cab pickup. Nevada had a lot of fucking trucks, probably more red ones than any other color but I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Something told me I should get closer, get the plate so I could run it later, and my feet were already moving in that direction. If I could just get close enough.

“You should watch the company you keep.” I didn’t recognize the voice, clearly male and angry for some reason. I looked to my right to find a skinny asshole with long blond hair standing about five feet away from me.

Too damn close for my comfort. “And you should mind your own fucking business.” I slid one hand down my hip and around to my back pocket and looped my thumb through the hook. A smile crossed my face as it always did when I got an opportunity to use my knife knuckles.

He took a step forward, his face marred with a dark anger I’d seen before. Men who didn’t like mouthy women. “And you better watch how you speak to me, bitch.” He got in my face and gave me exactly what I was looking for.

A chance to go crazy. The blade was out of my pocket in half a second with my fingers pushed through the holes, the cool metal of the knife pressed against his skin. I had at least two inches on him and pressed my knee between his legs, daring him to move. “You were saying, limp dick?”

His eyes, green I realized, went wide. Big as saucers as they stared into my smiling face.

“You’re crazy.”

“Oh, you have no fucking idea how crazy,” I told him with a wild laugh. “But let’s talk about you, Limp Dick. Who the fuck do you think you are, telling me who I should spend my time with? What business is it of yours?”

“I-it’s not. Get off me you crazy bitch!” He let out a gurgle when I applied just a bit more pressure that made me laugh.

“You really ought to watch that mouth of yours. Show a little respect before someone washes your mouth out with soap.” I was having too much fun with this clown. “Better yet, maybe someone ought to cut out your tongue.”

“Vivi, what the fuck?” Jag. Here to ruin my fun.

“Crazy bitch,” the blond said again and shoved me since I was distracted. Not too distracted to land a blow to his right cheek that sent him to his knees.

“Next time I’ll bring soap.” I laughed as he scrambled away, looking at me like I’d lost my mind.

“Keep your bitch in check, Jag!”

“Fuck off, Carter, before I let her have her way with you.” Jag’s face was twisted in an anger I’d never seen before, even as he was trying to push me behind him. Protective jerk.

“Watch yourself, bitch.”

I laughed. “Go home and change your shitty drawers, pussy!” Another laugh bubbled up out of me at the absurdness of the past five minutes until I was doubled over and tearing up from laughter.

Jag bent down so we were face to face, one brow arched in a what the fuck expression. “Can’t take you anywhere.”

“Apparently not. That was fun, though.”

“He might be right. You are crazy.”

“Just a teensy bit,” I told him, thumb and forefinger just a few millimeters apart.

He flashed another one of those panty incinerating smiles and hooked an arm around my waist. “Come on, Bruiser. We have an appointment to keep.”

“We do?” The irritating man stayed silent on the way to wherever we were going, not uttering one word until he came to a stop in front of a very nice two-story family home in a gated subdivision.

“Here we are.”

“This is our appointment?” I pointed at the suburban monstrosity.

“Yes. Come on.” He pulled me inside of a furnished but unlived in home. “This is the quick dime tour.”

I laughed as my gaze bounced off what few details there were—basic farmhouse-style furniture in soothing shades of blue and green, plain pale blue walls and an exposed beam kitchen—while Jag pulled me through to the backyard. “That tour was worth way less than a dime. I expect some change back.”

“I’m fresh out of cash. I’ll get you later,” he said, flashing that slow burning smile that did things to my insides. “Let’s have a seat.” He curled his body around me on a large lounger in the center of the yard, overlooking an egg-shaped pool.

“This place is nice. Yours or the club’s?”

“Mine. This house is the dream of a future I’m not sure I’ll have. But if I do…” he said but never finished.

“You’ll already have the house?”

“Yeah, something like that.” He pulled a joint from his pocket and sparked it, taking a long pull before handing it to me.

“I haven’t smoked pot since I was twenty-one. You know the feds drug test.” And it was damn good quality. I took three more hits until I felt weightless in his arms. Until all I could feel was his warm skin and the only thing I could smell was his clean, masculine scent. I let my body revel in being this close to him. I rarely allowed this level of closeness with anyone but right now, I let myself enjoy it.

“I know you’re not telling me everything, Vivi.”

So much for enjoyment. “And?”

“And I don’t like it. But dammit, Vivi, I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”

I nodded at his words and stood, feeling uncomfortable with the emotion I heard in his voice. There weren’t any people left in my life who cared. There were people I knew, people who I was useful to or were useful to me. A few might be considered friends, but the rest were acquaintances at best. Colleagues, really.

So I buried down the soft, vulnerable feelings that threatened to rise up and I stripped right in front of him before slipping into the pool. I swam the length and back, clearing my mind and berating myself for wanting to tell him everything. I would, but not yet. “What the—” I spluttered as my forward movement was halted by a hand wrapped around my ankle.

“You are fucking stubborn as hell, woman.” He tugged me closer until our naked bodies were lined up perfectly.

“Hey.” My voice was breathless, projecting just how turned on I was by this man.

“Hey back.” His lips pulled into a smile and then his mouth was attacking mine in a frenzy of raw hunger. It was a kiss unlike any I’d ever felt before, hitting me right between the legs and I wrapped myself around him. I needed to get closer. I had to. But before I could, he lifted me out of the water and onto the cool concrete, with my legs spread wide he buried his face between my legs and did the thing he did so well.

I looked up at the darkening sky while Jag ate my pussy and brought me to sexual heights I’d never experienced. And when my orgasm came on violently, he didn’t even give me a chance to come down before I was back in the water and sliding down his cock. “Oh fuck!”

He didn’t let up, driving deep and hard into me, the water making it feel like we were floating in the air.

“Vivi. So perfect. So fucking tight.”

His deep growling voice was adding more fuel to the fire and my hips began to swirl and pump against him.

“Jag, please. More.”

“Vivi,” he growled again, sliding us over until his feet were on the bottom of the pool. Then he fucked me like his life depended on it, hard and fast and so damn deep I was pretty sure he couldn’t get any deeper.

“Oh fuck,” I moaned, gripping him tighter as he pumped harder and deeper. And then I was swimming in the most overwhelming orgasm of my life. Maybe it was the pot, but it was probably the man. The man still thrusting into me as pleasure kept me in a hazy fog that stole my breath and made me dizzy. “Damn.”

His smile was intense as he kept thrusting until a low growl escaped and those last few strokes pulled a second orgasm out of me just as his own orgasm vibrated through both of us, causing small waves in the pool. “Fuck, Vivi. You undo me.”

“Ditto, Jeremiah.” His breaths were fast and shallow, matching mine as we stared at each other in wonder. That passion, that intensity had come out of nowhere. Burning hot and fast.

That was probably a fitting foreshadowing of how things were destined to end.