Hard Ever After
“Good,” Kat said, giving her a last look. “Then let’s eat, because I’m starving.”
Chapter Six
IT HAPPENED AGAIN the next week. More than once. Most recently, it occurred on her way back to the hospital after grabbing something for lunch. Becca saw Woodson lurking in a doorway farther down the street, but when she looked again, no one was there.
That night, as she and Nick lay in bed, Becca gave voice to the question whose answer she thought might best give her some peace of mind. “Do you know what happened to Tyrell Woodson after you interrogated him?”
Nick shifted to look at her, concern filling his pale green eyes. “Why?”
“I just wondered,” she said, feeling a little bad for not sharing what she’d been experiencing. She didn’t want to worry him, though, especially when they had so much going on—the construction, setting up his and the team’s new business, her work at the ER, planning the wedding. During their off hours this week, they’d managed to send out invitations, find an officiant, hire a DJ, and apply for their marriage license. Luckily, all the guys already had their dress blues from when the Army had held a memorial service for the fallen members of their A-team a few weeks before.
Eyes narrowed, Nick studied her. “You know we sent the harbor police out to that island where we dropped him, but he was gone when they got there. So once Detective Vance joined our investigation, I had him search for Woodson. Just to be on the safe side.”
Gone? Becca pushed up onto an elbow. Vance’s inquiry was news to her. “So what did he find?”
Nick tucked her hair behind her ear. “Woodson’s not in custody anywhere, but he’s not here. Vance tracked him to South Carolina using credit card transactions. Apparently he has family down there. Looks like he left town right after everything went down. Marz took that video of him spilling all kinds of secrets. No doubt he wanted to get clear of the city in case we turned it over to Church like we threatened.”
Relief flooded through Becca so fast that she sagged back down to her pillow. He wasn’t in Baltimore. Hell, he wasn’t in Maryland. So it really was her imagination at work. “Oh. That’s good.”
Leaning over her, Nick cupped Becca’s face in his hand. “Shit, Becca. I’m sorry. Have you been worrying about this? I should’ve said something, but—”
“No, not worried, exactly. I guess I just needed to know. For closure.” And it was true. Maybe she could stop seeing ghosts around every corner now.
Nick nodded. “Why don’t I have Vance run another trace on him? Make sure he’s still out of the picture? I can’t imagine why he’d come back with how volatile Baltimore’s gang scene is right now. Since the Church Gang imploded, Louis Jackson told us that the word on the street for former Churchmen is leave or die. It’s been open season on them as other gangs fight to consolidate power and take over the heroin trade.”
Becca nodded, Nick’s words strengthening the bulwarks against her fear. “Yeah, that makes sense. But have Vance run the check. It can’t hurt, right?”
“Absolutely. You know I’d do anything to keep you safe, Becca.” He nailed her with a stare full of such fierce love that it stole her breath.
“Of course. And so would I,” she said.
It only took the weekend before Vance had news. He called Monday night after Becca’s shift while everyone was hanging out watching movies in Nick and Jeremy’s living room.
“Vance,” Nick said as he answered his cell and got up from the couch. “How are you?”
“Want me to pause it?” Jeremy asked, sitting in the corner of the other couch next to Charlie, Eileen attempting to fit her growing body on his lap.
Nick waved him off and headed back down the hall toward his office. Becca followed. “And what did you find?” Nick asked as he settled into the chair at his desk. As Becca looked at him sitting there, memories came rushing back. One of her first nights here. Giving Nick a massage after his back had been hurt when he and Beckett had gotten into a fistfight. How he’d kissed her. “Well, that’s good news then.”
The words pulled Becca from her thought. Good news had to mean Woodson was still far away, right?
“Okay, sounds like a plan. Thanks, man,” Nick said.
“What did he say?” she asked when Nick hung up.
He tossed his cell to the desk and reached out for her, pulling her down to straddle his lap. “As recently as last Wednesday, Woodson got a speeding ticket in South Carolina. Vance is still working on recent credit card transactions. But that’s pretty good evidence that he’s stayed put.” Nick stroked his fingers through Becca’s hair. “Vance is going to put out a be-on-the-lookout for Woodson’s car with local PD, on the off chance he returns to the area.”
Becca nodded. “That all sounds good. Thank you for having him do that.”
“A little extra peace of mind never hurts,” he said. Hand slipping behind her neck, he gently pulled her down until their lips met. The kiss was slow and soft and exploring, full of the heat that always flared quickly to life between them. “You’re gonna be my wife in less than two weeks,” he whispered around the edge of the kiss.
The words made her smile. “I am.” The kiss deepened. “Yours to do with whatever you want.”
Nick’s gaze flashed hot. “My thoughts exactly.” He urged her to stand up, then he crossed to the door and closed it. When he turned to her, the expression on his face was predatory, so damn sexy she was immediately wet with anticipation. Without a word, he stood in front of her, unbuttoned and pushed down her jeans and panties, and sank to his knees in front of her. “Right now what I want is for you to come all over my tongue.”
Becca clutched onto the desk behind her as Nick planted his mouth between her legs, his tongue immediately plunging into her folds and finding her clit. Together they worked her jeans the rest of the way off, then Nick pushed her stance wider and settled his big body in tight between her legs.
He was relentless, his fingers holding her open, his tongue alternating between lapping at her and hard, fast flicks, his mouth sucking.
“Oh, God, Nick,” she rasped, her hand falling on his hair and clutching at it. He growled against her, not letting up for a second, and she thrust her hips forward, yearning and seeking and craving even more. She tugged his hair, pulling him in tighter, unable to restrain herself from demanding what she needed.
And it seemed to drive Nick harder, because he worked a thick finger inside her slickness and sucked her in a fast rhythm that had her panting and thrusting and straining. The orgasm hit her like a shock wave, not there one moment and then throwing her head over heels the next. She got light-headed and her knees went soft, forcing her to sag back against the desk.
“Holy shit,” she rasped.
Nick eased his hand free of her and looked up, his gaze so full of smug satisfaction that it made her shake her head as she smiled. And then, eyes on hers, he sucked the wetness off his finger and licked his lips. “You taste fucking delicious, Sunshine.”
Becca’s heart did a little flip as she offered him a hand and he rose. “You know,” she said, “if I hadn’t already agreed to marry you, I would say yes just based on how good you are at that.”
Nick threw his head back and laughed, the kind of free, joyful laughter she’d only heard from him a handful of times. His smile was freaking gorgeous, his dimple a mile deep, and his face so ruggedly beautiful that it made her whole chest ache with how much she loved him. “Good to know,” he managed.
Grinning, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Seriously. A man who can make the best Sloppy Joes on earth, helps total strangers, sings bad eighties anthems, loves his family fiercely, can kill in fifty-two ways if he has to, is smoking hot, and eats pussy like he’s starved for it is a keeper.” She tried to keep a straight face, but laughter was already bubbling up inside her.
“I . . . am really freaking
aroused now. Keep talking,” he said, his eyebrow arched, that smug smile returning.
She reached for his jeans and tugged the button open. “About what? Should I talk about how much I love your cock? How amazing it feels inside me?”
Nick licked his lips, a kind of amused disbelief filling his gaze. “Yes, definitely talk about that. Like, a lot.”
Grinning, Becca bit her lip and pushed off the desk. Walking backward, she hooked her fingers in the waistband of his jeans and pulled him along with her toward the bedroom. With her other hand, she grasped his hard length, squeezing just enough to wring a grunt out of him. “Come put this inside me, Nick, and I’ll say absolutely anything you want.”
NICK FELT LIKE he hadn’t seen Becca in forever, despite the fact that they’d woken up together this morning. But that had been fifteen hours ago—before he’d spent all day working with the guys to install the carpet in their new offices. As much as possible, they were trying to do the work on the business suite to allow the contractor to stay focused on the much bigger project of the building. Given Jeremy’s ability to figure out pretty much any home improvement project, Beckett’s electrical know-how, and Marz and Charlie’s expertise with all the wiring and secure computer hookups they needed done, they were in pretty good shape.
In the meantime, all of them had been working their contacts to get word out about the new security consulting services they’d be offering. Beckett, Marz, and Shane had already been working in various aspects of the field and had ready clients to reach out to. Having worked for years as a computer security consultant hacking into corporations’ systems to find their weaknesses, Charlie turned out to be an amazing asset in making new contacts. All of which was keeping them on track for a targeted post–Labor Day opening date, which would give Nick and Becca two weeks for their honeymoon in Italy and another two for Nick to be back and helping with all the last-minute prep.
Nick’s and Beckett’s cell phones dinged an incoming message at about the same time, and both of them paused where they knelt on the floor to check their phones. Since Becca and Kat had gone shopping together after Becca’s half-day shift, Nick didn’t have to guess at who it was.
On the way home. Be there in about twenty! xo
“Aw, look at you two,” Shane said, his tone full of sarcasm. “Stop chitchatting with the ladies and let’s get this shit finished.”
“You are as pussy-whipped as any of us, McCallan, so shut the fuck up,” Beckett said as he shoved his phone in his back pocket. Ah, it was so nice that they were all getting along so good again. Just like old times. In all the best ways.
From the next room where Marz and Charlie were working on some wiring, Charlie called, “For the record, I am not as pussy-whipped as the rest of you.”
Silence rang out for a moment, and then they all lost their shit. Just flat-out, tear-inducing laughter that had every one of them clutching their guts. Charlie fucking Merritt was coming out of his shell, that was for goddamn sure.
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Nick managed to get to two feet and make it to the doorway, where he found Marz red in the face with hilarity and Jeremy pressing a big kiss to his boyfriend’s mouth. The affection his brother and soon-to-be brother-in-law bore for each other made Nick happy, it really did. Because Nick had never seen Jeremy settle down like this before—with a man or a woman, and he’d dated both. And no matter how much Nick admired so many other things about Becca and Charlie’s father—the team’s former commander—Nick would never understand the homophobic bullshit Frank Merritt had apparently rained down on Charlie from the moment he’d come out. So Charlie deserved this chance to be happy and loved and accepted. By all of them. And, amazingly, they all fit together like clockwork—even Jeremy and Charlie, who hadn’t been part of their team.
They were now.
Beckett joined Nick in the doorway, his bright blue eyes gleaming. “Tou-fucking-che, Charlie.”
Because he had his hair pulled back in some sort of a bun thing, the red covering Charlie’s face was crystal clear, but the guy was smiling as Marz slapped him on the knee.
Everyone got back to work, shooting the shit as they finished up the last of the carpeting.
From where he knelt in the corner, Easy ran his dark hand over his short-trimmed hair and looked around the nearly finished space. “This is all really coming together.”
“Yes, it is,” Nick said. Right now, it was all plain white walls and industrial gray carpeting, but they’d come a helluva long way from the cement floor, exposed ceilings, and cinder-block walls that had stood there just a few weeks before. “Thanks to the hard work you all have been putting in.”
“I’m glad to do it,” Easy said. “It’s good to be busy. And it’s really fucking good to feel like I’m part of something again.”
Nick, Easy, Beckett, and Shane all traded looks and nodded. Every one of them felt the same way after the ambush, the other-than-honorable discharge, having their reputations tarnished, and being scattered to the four winds once they’d returned stateside.
“Amen, brother,” Shane said, clapping Easy on the shoulder.
When the other three men cleared out, Nick went into the next room to see how the wiring job was coming. “Almost done?” he asked Marz.
“Yeah, hoss. Maybe just another half hour,” Marz said. Charlie nodded.
“Anything I can do to help?’ Nick asked.
“Nope, we’re good. If you see Em, just let her know I’ll be up in a bit.” Kneeling in front of some cables sticking out of the wall, Marz kneaded absentmindedly at his thigh.
Nick frowned. “You okay?” Sometimes you could almost forget about Marz’s amputation because the guy never let it slow him down, even when he should.
“Hmm?” Marz looked up from the complicated jack he was working on. “Oh, yeah. No worries. Damn leg just gets cranky if I spend much time on the floor.”
“I told you I’d do that.” Charlie paused what he’d been coding on his laptop to look at Marz.
“I’m fine. And this is the last one anyway. Go see your bride-to-be.” Marz looked up at Nick with a grin.
Nick nodded. “All right. Later.” He stepped through the back door out into the warm July night and nearly walked into Beckett. “Sorry. What’s the matter?” Nick asked, noticing the serious expression Beckett wore.
Beckett shook his head. “I just made Becca cry.”
Frowning, Nick glanced around the otherwise empty parking lot. Kat’s car was there, so they were back. “What?” he asked, heading toward the door to the main part of the Hard Ink building.
Beckett fell into step beside him. “I came up behind her and Kat out here, and when Becca noticed me, she freaked out. Nearly jumped out of her skin. At first she tried to play it off, but then she got upset and ran inside.”
Nick punched the code into the keypad, and they stepped into the concrete-and-metal stairwell that led to Hard Ink on the first floor and their apartments and the gym on the upper floors. “Don’t worry about it. I’m sure she’s fine.”
Beckett gave him a doubtful look but nodded. “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”
Clapping him on the arm, Nick shook his head. “I’ll take care of her.” They parted ways as Nick let himself into his apartment and Beckett made his way upstairs. The big open kitchen and living room were empty. “Becca?” he called, an urgent need to see her and make sure she was okay flowing through him.
No answer. He went straight for their rooms at the back of the apartment.
“You need to tell him,” someone said. Kat.
“I agree,” came another voice. Emilie?
Nick rounded the corner into his office to see Becca sitting on his sofa, her face wet with tears. Kat and Emilie sat on either side of her. Nick’s gut dropped to the floor. “Tell me what?”
Chapter Seven
NICK NAILED BECCA with a stare. As he watched, she made a valiant effort to button up just how upset she was, and that made him worry even more. He knelt down in front of her, his hands on her knees. “What’s going on?”
She shook her head, and his heart fucking broke as he saw her struggle to find her voice and hold back the tears.
Kat grasped something from Becca’s lap and held it out to him. “Someone left this in front of Becca’s locker at work today.”
Frowning, Nick accepted the small, floppy, black-and-brown stuffed animal into his hand. He guessed it was supposed to be a German shepherd, and the damn thing was missing a leg. It looked like someone had cut the back leg off and stapled the opening closed. What the hell?
“Look at the neck, Nick,” Kat said, her voice serious.
He flipped it around, and that was when he noticed that the animal was so floppy because the head was connected to the body only by a thin strip of material along the back. He might not have thought much about that if someone hadn’t gone to the trouble of spray painting the torn opening red. As if the neck had been slit. “Sonofabitch,” he said, hot prickles running down his back. “Talk to me, Sunshine.”
She heaved a deep breath. “I found it at the end of my shift,” she said. “I went to get my stuff, and this was sitting upright on the floor in front of my locker. I thought someone had left me a present until . . .”
“This is fucking twisted,” Kat bit out.
The words echoed Nick’s own thoughts. Twisted and threatening. The removed leg was clearly meant to communicate that the person knew Becca’s dog had only three legs, which made the threat personal and specific. “Did you talk to security about this?” he asked, making sure to keep his voice even.