Shaking thoughts like that from her mind, she recalled all those moments that had made her sure of their love, including the ones where he fought their craving for each other.

“What is it you want, Flame?” she whispered. “Talk to me.”

Snapping out of his thoughts, he grazed a knuckle beneath her chin. “I want my toy back.”

The processor, which could have so many more uses than just facilitating the Point. “Ok,” she said.

“Ok?” She nodded. “If you don’t want to—”

Boosting up, she grabbed his neck to pull him down for a kiss. When the weight of his body rested on hers, she didn’t want to move for fear she’d lose him all over again. They were still enjoying each other’s mouths when Torres called out from the other room. “Hey!”

There was a snarl in Strike’s voice when he ripped his mouth from hers. “That fucker’s got a death wish.”

Stroking his face, she lifted her head to kiss him again. “Was I too loud?”

Some of the ire left his eyes when they met hers. “No, baby,” he said and kissed her. “Bastard’s probably jealous.”

Next time he bowed to kiss her, his lips met her smile. Sliding her hands around his head and into his hair, she parted her legs, twining them around his, begging him to own her again.

“Hey!” Torres called out.

Strike’s irritated groan made her laugh. “Maybe he needs to pee or something,” she said. “We were driving for a while.”

“I don’t give a fuck what he needs,” he said and kissed her chin then descended to begin feasting on her breasts. “If I fuck off back to Bella, what are you going to do with him?”

“Torres isn’t going to hurt me,” she said, moving beneath his mouth as he skimmed his lips from one nipple across to the other. “And unless he can convince us otherwise, we have no use for him.”

He lifted his head. “You want to cut him loose?”

“Or take him with you, a prize for Bella, barter for Burke.”

“And leave you alone?”

“I can take care of myself, baby,” she said, letting her fingers run through his hair. “I’ll go to Leandra, get her out before Bella can get to her… then you bring Bella.”

“You want me to bring Bella to Leandra’s location?”

“I’ll make sure she’s out before you get there,” she said and licked her lips, watching her fingers move through his hair. “Leandra’s place is isolated… very isolated.”

His mouth relaxed. “The perfect place for a little payback.” She smiled. “What would you do with Leandra? Where would she be safe while we dispose of Bella?”

“I thought maybe your friends could help us with that.”

“My friends? I don’t have friends, baby.”

So he liked to say, but she knew that wasn’t exactly true; he had friends, whether they were willing or not. “Before you go back to Bella, will you get me some backup?”

“Build you your own posse like I did for her?” he asked. “I don’t know that we have time—”

“I had something more specific in mind,” she said, and his head tilted in question. “X.” Slowly, he tensed. “When we went to visit Shula, she said that that guy Thane was—”

“No,” he said. “We’re not getting them involved. We’re not asking for their help… Thane wouldn’t kill federal agents anyway.”

“We don’t need him to kill anyone. I meant we could ask them to protect Leandra while we deal with Bella and Burke. I’m not worried about the feds, but they do have access to manpower and I think Bella will pull out all the stops. Whether she gets to Leandra or not, Bella isn’t going to stop until she has no more options. We need to limit her options.”

“And you want me to find out what those options are? Bella’s not going to let me waltz back into her life after I told her I was in love with you. She was fucking livid, Ro. She didn’t care who I fucked, but finding out we were in love—”

“I know,” she said. “But I trust you’ll be able to convince her. Tell her it was a ploy. That you wanted to get my trust back so I’d give you the Point, and when Junker took off with it, you dumped me too.”

“Isn’t that what you thought when I first stumbled into your motel room? That I was playing you?”

Yes, that was what she’d thought, and it was what she’d feared up until she decided to surrender to her feelings for him. “I’m trusting you, Strike. I’m trusting that you love me more than you love her.”

His expression hardened. “I don’t love that witch. I want to put a knife in her eye for what she did to you.”

“I know,” she soothed, stroking his face and rubbing herself against him. “I know, baby. But let’s not worry about that. The Point is out of play, all we need to do is get our hands on the processor and protect Leandra. I’m worried that when Bella finds out she can’t have the Point, she’ll lose what’s left of her sanity… we could all get hurt. I trust that you and I can take it. And I don’t care about Burke and Torres; they have their own safety net. But Leandra doesn’t deserve any of this.”

“So that’s your plan? You just want to send me off to Bella with Leandra’s location? You trust me enough to—”

“You are my love,” she said, picking up his hands to kiss each of them. “If you betray me, if that’s your plan, I can’t stop you. But I’ve already told you, I don’t have anything to live for but you. So if I’m being naïve, if you’re playing with me, so be it. I’ll take care of my own fate.”

An angry look of sympathy crossed his face and rose up to brush his thumb across her cheek. “I’ll keep you bound if you threaten to hurt yourself one more time, Cupcake.”

“You don’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you,” she said. If he didn’t betray her, she wouldn’t have any need to take her life. “Deal?”

“Deal,” he said and lowered to kiss her. “But that works both ways.”

In a moment of clarity, she understood the gravity of being responsible for another’s life. If she hurt herself, Strike would do the same. But if he hurt himself… she wouldn’t be able to take another breath; the pain would overwhelm her.

But it wasn’t only Strike’s life that she had in her hands at the moment. “We’re going to need help,” she said, threading her fingers into his hair again. “Someone has to protect Leandra, and I can’t do that alone… Your X friends are the only ones I can think to ask. They have the manpower, right?”

“I can’t endanger Shula, Ro.”

“Do you love her?” she asked.

He’d said Shula wasn’t an ex and that Thane would kill him for thinking about making a move on her. But he’d never explained his connection to the couple.

He shook his head, rising to sit between her legs. “It’s not like that. I’ve known Thane a long time. I met him and his brother overseas while they were training with their father… We got involved in some shady shit together. Emeritus, that’s Thane’s father, he wouldn’t let the boys come back until he was sure they were ready. Thane asked me to come back and watch over Shula, she’s his Beloved, it’s a thing in their cult.”

“X,” she said. “Shula said it wasn’t a cult.”

“To-may-toe, to-mah-toe,” he said. “They say it isn’t, I say it is. They have a council of ten men who make decisions for those below them. Their mission is to keep the city safe. Thane is the First, the guy in charge.”

“So if you ask him—”

“He owes me. If I ask him to watch over my beloved, he will… but Leandra isn’t my girl. If we ask him to endanger his men, out of his city limits, as a favor… there’s going to be a price. You know how I feel about working under other people’s purview.”

“And if I know it, Thane knows it too,” she said, but her thoughts wandered back in another direction. “Did you ever… think about it?”

“About what?”

Pushing her fingers into her thigh, she avoided looking at him. “You said Thane would kill you if you touched Shula… but you didn’t tell me if you wanted to touch her.”

“You think I’m harboring some hidden desire,” he said, deadpan. “If another guy had been our problem, we wouldn’t have had a problem. If I’d wanted to fuck Shula, I’d have fucked her. Thane would be worm food.”

Feeling that there was something else he wanted to share, her chin rose to search for what it was. “You’re not attracted to her?” she asked. “She’s beautiful.”

The look in his eye was sure, but hesitant. “She’s my cousin.”

“Oh my god. Your cousin?”

“Sort of. Her biological father and mine are half-brothers. Same mother, different fathers.”

She sat up to grab for his wrist. “Does she know?”

“No,” he said, pulling his arm away. “No one knows. It was no coincidence that I met Thane overseas. I found out who Shula was and that she’d been claimed by this guy, but she was still a kid…”

“You went to find out who he was,” she said, understanding his thought process exactly. “You couldn’t just walk up to the woman you’re actually related to and try to form some kind of connection with her to ask about her relationship with Thane. Your way of showing your love was to track down her boyfriend and spy on him.”

He wasn’t contrite, in fact, his mouth slanted. “You know me, Cupcake. I got to know him and what his cult was all about. Thane sending me back to watch over Shula was just sort of… accidental.”

“But it worked out because you did get to form a bond with her… even if you couldn’t tell anyone the whole story… until me.” Sentiment welled within her. “I love when you confide in me.”

“You’re the only one,” he said, not resisting when she took his hand.

Much as she’d love to appreciate him for his faith some more, they had to deal with business first. “Do you think we can take Bella down alone? We don’t need an army with us… do we? X could protect Leandra in their city, if I took her to them, maybe.”

“Bella doesn’t worry me, and I’m not worried about avoiding the feds or even fending them off if I’m alone… But you’re asking me to leave you out there unprotected,” he said.

It was obvious from the way his jaw moved, he didn’t like the taste of that plan.

“If there’s even a shred of truth to what Torres said, Burke won’t have an army at his disposal. What did you find out about Torres?”

“Burke put in a report,” he said. “Said he and Torres got into an altercation and the latter left. He’s accusing him of going rogue… I don’t know what his game is… I think it’s a con, that it was put there for me to find. I’ve known Torres a long time and yeah, he bends the rules, but he also likes the protection of his home.”

“Like I do,” she said, sitting up to scrunch her hands in his hair to draw him in for a kiss. “I love you, Strike. I want both of us to keep loving each other for a long time… You have to make Bella think you’re on her side, it’s the only way we’ll know what she’s doing.”

And if he was with her, he could make sure the Jewel wasn’t close to catching Rora as she secreted Leandra with Strike’s X friends.

“And if she wants to have sex?” he asked.

Easing back, she stopped nuzzling his mouth to search his eyes. “If you fuck her, you won’t be fucking me.”

There was a twist to his lips as he took his eyes to the side. “Remember how you reacted when you saw her make me bleed.”

The memory of what happened in that Wonderland bedroom sickened and angered her at the same time. She yanked him close. “If she makes you bleed again, I’ll skin her alive… Remember that if she starts to get close to you. Now, are you onboard, or do I have to find myself a man with the balls to be bad with me?”

Grabbing her hips, he hauled her against him, pressing his erection into her. “This is why you’re my Kero.” Because her actions set him alight. “I’m your slave, baby. Whatever you want, you get.”