* * *

We headed back to the others each of us deep in thought. It was obvious we couldn’t leave right away like we’d planned to and we were fast losing cover of night.

We had to figure out what to do with the other girls and our new prisoners. Mancini went to his people who had been standing guard outside.

Back inside the cottage Law’s brother and his crew had shit under control. The females were in one room and the kidnappers in another.

I looked the men over until my eyes fell on my prey. I have to say, from what we’d learned thus far, they didn’t fit.

The men Cord had taken down a few weeks ago were pros. These guys looked like your garden variety scumbags that hung out on street corners looking for their next fix.

“Who the fuck are you working for?” I stood in front of the one who’d manhandled her on the beach. In this new light it was easy to see he was little more than a kid himself, and I’m pretty sure he never saw any action.

If Khalil and whoever he had working for him on the domestic end were using random assholes to carry out their misdeeds, then we were in serious shit.

“I don’t know, I already told them.” He wasn’t looking so brave now and I wondered what Law’s boys had done to put that look of fear in his eyes.

There were four of them and five females. I was trying to work that shit out in my head. When we questioned the girls earlier we learned that they didn’t all live in the same area, some not even the same state.

Some of them had been snatched the day before the others, but it had been done in a way that the alarm hadn’t been sounded.

That twenty-four hour window had given them the time they needed before anyone noticed a pattern. But four men to carry it out would’ve taken a lot of work and planning and there’s no way this kid had that kinda smarts.

He could very well be telling the truth, that he didn’t know who he was working for. I don’t see Khalil dealing with this bunch, he’s way more sophisticated than that. But somebody had given the order.

His cohorts were doing their best to become invisible, but I was sure they all had the same answer.

I needed to think, to put shit together in my head until it made sense. So far we’d dealt with enlisted men, the boys from Langley and a money laundering corporate skell.

Stockton had led us to the hate brigade in Law’s neck of the woods, but so far they were the lowest ones on the totem pole, until these clowns.

It was beginning to look like this shit was even bigger than we’d first realized. There were layers and tentacles that seemed to cover all four corners of the damn country. Just what the fuck had we stepped in here?

Just then Kelly yawned from some place behind me and I throttled back. I looked over my shoulder at her and saw the fatigue.

“I’m going to take her home and come back. Maybe I should get the others settled as well. Mancini, they can take a couple hours down before we head out right?”

He looked at his watch and nodded. “So long as we leave under cover of dark we’re good and we still have another few hours before daylight.”

I hadn’t even realized so much time had passed but he was right, it was already well past midnight. Lyon and the others hadn’t said a word since this whole thing started and I could only imagine what the hell was going through their heads.

“Come on Kelly.” I took her hand and led her into the other room where she rounded up the girls who also looked dead on their feet.

I should probably take them to stay with my sisters at Zak’s place, but I knew if I took them there she’d want to stay with them and I wanted her in my house, even though I wouldn’t be there with her.

I got them settled and just as I thought, they wanted to stay together. So instead of my bed, she spread some blankets on the floor in the living room and they turned on the TV for some normalcy.

After she’d got the others settled I took her hand and led her from the room to the sound of twitters and murmurings. At least they weren’t too traumatized to be annoying ass females. They really do start young.

“You sure you’re going to be okay?” I smoothed her hair back and read her eyes for the truth. She did that thing where she turned her face into my palm and even that small gesture went directly to my cock.

She nodded with her head still in my hand, her eyes staring into mine and it was as easy as breathing to lower my head to hers.

The kiss was electric, no other word for it. She zapped me as soon as my lips met hers. It felt as if some strange energy flowed from her to me or me to her, I’m not sure which. But whatever it was, it had me pulling her into my arms until our bodies met.

As with everything else since I found her, it felt like the most natural thing to have her in my arms. That strange tingling started again and my skin felt like it was on fire. “If I get inside you now, we’ll both go up in flames.” Shit, did I say that corny shit out loud?

I moved to pull back but she ran her tongue along my lip and I ended up hauling her in again. She sighed, I moaned as we deepened the kiss.

Everything about her was superimposed on my brain. The feel of her slight body under my big rough hands, the way she barely came up to my chest. So tiny, so precious.

A well of protective emotion welled up inside me and I was almost tempted to think that she wasn’t real, that this wasn’t real. Nothing in my life has ever been this perfect, this right.

Maybe I was still trapped in the dream from the night before and all this had been part of it. But I knew as I felt the warmth of her body under my hands, that it was real.

I also knew why a part of me wanted to shy away from it even as I held her closer in my arms. The reason dad had been so against this ‘curse’ was because as he’d told it, it made a man weak.

He’d become almost a slave to my mother and nothing else had mattered but pleasing her. He’d lost interest in everything else around him and she had become the center of his world.

Funny that I remembered those words now, and sure they did make me think that maybe I should take a step back, assess the situation and come at it again when I had more control.

But I couldn’t stand the thought of letting her go. Besides, I was a stronger man than my father had ever been.

Only a weak man would’ve tried to destroy his own son and I don’t see myself ever being that guy. Shouldn’t that count for something?

In the end it was only because we needed air that I finally released her lips. I stood looking down at her in amazement, because no matter what, I knew I would never let her go. The die had been cast.

“What are you doing to me lil bit?” Were her eyes really that dreamy or was that too part of my imagination?

There was emotion in her eyes too and I wondered for a fleeting moment if maybe that would be the difference between us and them.

You see, my dad had been an over possessive prick who couldn’t bear to let mom out of his sight. But what made it worst, was that she was a jealous, insecure girl when they met and the two negatives fed off each other.

Add to that the fact that mom just never seemed to be in love as much as she stayed around for necessity’s sake after I came into the picture.

I don’t think dad was ever sure of her love and that added to his turmoil, which turned him into the man I knew. A man that I’d heard so many times had been nothing like the monster he became after I was born.

From the stories I heard he’d once been a fun loving hard working artist. A man full of light and wellbeing.

I can’t remember hearing anything but good things about him, but it all seemed to change when he met and married mom and had me.

For the first time in my life I was beginning to understand him. His own personal weakness had been part of the problem; I see that now.

He’d told me once that this was a curse and no gift. I could see where it could make a lesser man weak, but I was no weakling and the way she looked up at me now, I didn’t think it hard that she could fall in love with me.

I’ll make damn sure she does before I lose my shit like he did. I’m a fucking SEAL nothing makes me weak. Her ass had better be in love or else. I’m not doing this crazy shit alone.

Where the hell did that come from? I shook my head to clear it and placed one last peck on her lips.

“I gotta go baby, you watch over them until I get back okay. If anything happens, if you need me I’ll be in the cottage.”

I started to pull away but she tugged me back by my arm. “What is it?” There was a look of uncertainty mixed with stubborn pride on her pretty little face.

“Those women that were staring at us from the windows.” She stopped and took a breath before continuing.

“Is one of them…?” Her eyes lost their look of surety and I found that I didn’t like her being unsure of herself.

I like the feisty little firebrand who’d socked the enemy in the mouth and looked like she wanted to do much worse.

“No sweetheart, they’re my sisters, my brothers’ wives. I wouldn’t be here with you like this if it were otherwise, if one of them were mine.”

I lifted her chin and looked down into her eyes, which had lost that look. “I’m no cheat, that’s something you’ll never have to worry about ever. We’ll talk more when I get back.” I kissed her nose and forced myself to walk away and out the door.

Outside I carried her scent with me into the night air. The shit seemed to be all around me now, like wisps of smoke, twirling around and around, ensnaring me.

No doubt this was part of that crazy shit. I guess there’s no point in fighting it, I knew at least that the shit was real and I no longer had that fear of becoming a mindless sap.

If things started to go south I’ll just have Dev or one of these others put a slug in my damn head. Shit, I really need to get a damn grip. Each step I took away from her felt like I was severing a damn limb.

I only looked back once before shaking my head at myself and heading back to the others.

We still had to get in touch with the families of the other girls, which I was pretty sure Lo had already got a head start on knowing him.

By the time I met them in the yard between my place and the cottage, Lyon, Mancini, Law and Creed were arguing with Lo and Con. “What’s going on?”

“They want to blow the tunnel while we see to our guests.”

“Make sense, we’re strapped for time and I’m sure they know what they’re doing.” At least I thought they did.

“See, lover boy here is thinking.” Lyon clapped Lo on the shoulder and started to head off. When Lo opened his mouth to argue Law stepped in.

“Best to leave it alone Lo. If Lyon isn’t preoccupied with something before long, shit might get hinky.

“What do you mean?” Lo looked in the direction Lyon had taken.

“Well, let’s put it this way. He seems cool on the outside, but let’s not forget, his kid was in that flesh book. And that little appetizer in the desert, he was only just getting started. Best to keep his crazy ass busy.”

We all turned and looked at him as he headed to Zak’s. We saw the change when his wife opened the door and stepped out.

We couldn’t hear what was going on but it looked like she was giving him hell about something. We did hear his roar of laughter though, and saw the way he picked her up, making her giggle.

“I feel like a damn voyeur.” I looked away from the spectacle when he started kissing her like he’d forgotten there was a yard full of men looking on.

“Hey Colt buddy, get a room.” I think Ty was the only one who dared. Lyon put his woman’s feet back on the ground, patted her ass and pointed a finger in her face before she turned and flounced back inside.

Well as much as any heavily pregnant woman can flounce. Must be something in the water, all the damn women around here were breeding. Oh shit, I came in her over and over again without protection.

Before I could freak the fuck out Lyon made his way back to us. “Come on, what the fuck we waiting for? Let’s get this shit going.”

He rubbed his hands together and gone was the teasing husband of just a second ago. Guy’s a damn chameleon.