Total pages in book: 45
Estimated words: 42332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 169(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42332 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 169(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
But I did.
Every fucking minute of it.
I even watched over her from a distance when I couldn’t be with her. Wizard had tapped the diner's security feed and local traffic cams. Fed them through a learning script to flag her location anytime she crossed the frame.
I’d thought about bringing this to King, but it wasn’t club business yet. Even though I’d been monitoring the weapons pipeline, this—Maren—was just mine.
My obsession. My fucking failure if something happened to her.
I dragged a hand down my face and checked the time. Her shift would end in just under an hour. Every other night, I’d leave ten minutes early, wait in the lot, and follow her home. She never noticed, which only reinforced what I already knew—she needed someone to fucking protect her. Someone who knew how predators moved and would see this shit before it could get close.
Like me.
Following her home might not be an option anymore.
The next time she ducked into the back for something, I stood and strolled to the counter under the pretense of needing a coffee refill. Susan was nowhere in sight. And Mark was behind the pass window, focused on a ticket. No one was paying me any attention.
I casually leaned over the counter and flipped through the stack of credit card receipts. It didn’t take long. The third one down had the name I needed. The amount and timing matched. Maren’s handwriting was neat and precise.
I slipped it back into the pile, made sure everything looked untouched, and walked calmly back to my booth.
Then I pulled out my phone and fired off a message.
Me
Run this name. Fast. Probably an alias.
Wizard
On it.
I winced for half a second when I remembered that he had a one-month-old baby at home and quickly sent a follow-up.
Me
Tell Thea I’m sorry.
Wizard
This is about Maren?
Me
What do you think?
Wizard
Then she understands.
I set the phone down and watched Maren walk past again, that soft sway in her hips making it damn near impossible to keep my thoughts straight. A few minutes later, she brought my refill with a smile, completely unaware of the storm brewing in my gut.
As she turned to move to another table, I resisted the urge to pull her onto my lap and tell her she wasn’t going home alone tonight. Or any night after this.
I blinked and lectured myself for my lack of self-control. I was supposed to stay alert. Focused. But dammit, every time I looked at her, my brain short-circuited.
And fuck me, the things I’d imagined doing to her.
I wanted her on her knees, those pink lips wrapped around my cock, eyes locked on mine while I fisted her hair and fucked her mouth. I could practically see those sweet freckles dusting her flushed cheeks, her blue eyes filled with fire.
I wanted her wrists above her head, tied to my bed, her body naked and open. Her breath caught with every slow stroke of my fingers between her thighs, teasing her clit until she was writhing and begging me to fill her.
I wanted to watch her squirm while I held her wide open and pressed deeper, inch by inch, until she broke. My cock throbbed at the thought of the sounds she’d make when I claimed her so deep she couldn’t think straight.
She didn’t even know what she was doing to me. Sashaying around, smiling, brushing her hair back like she wasn’t built for worship.
I shifted in my seat, my jaw clenched tight, the strain in my jeans uncomfortable. Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself—again—that I needed to focus on the threat. Not the fantasy.
Besides, I’d decided I wasn’t gonna touch her. Not yet. Not until she was safe.
But once that happened, I was going to take my time ruining her for anyone else. One slow, filthy inch at a time.
My phone buzzed, and I snatched it up fast.
Wizard
You were right. Fake name. But I got a hit with my facial recognition program.
I started to type, but saw the dots jump on the screen and waited to see what he said next.
Wizard
The guy’s linked to Russell Dunbar.
My entire body went cold.
Me
You’re sure?
Wizard’s reply was a middle finger emoji.
Normally, I would have rolled my eyes and shot off a smart-ass comment, but I’d already moved on from our exchange.
Russell Dunbar.
Fucking hell.
That name hadn’t crossed my radar in years. But I hadn’t forgotten. Couldn’t. He’d been a contractor-turned-criminal back when I was still running ops with a few of my brothers before the club. He helped move black market weapons through a quiet little pipeline on base.
Russell wasn’t involved with selling weapons retail or street-level deals, but he was the infrastructure that allowed the weapons pipeline to exist without exposure. He coordinated logistics and arranged storage locations where the weapons were temporarily cached before redistribution. He vetted couriers and safe nodes, ensuring deniability at every step so that no single link could identify the whole chain. Basically, he made sure weapons were moved without leaving fingerprints.