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I nod. “Sure, I’m good to go.”

“Here.”

I look up to see the gun in his hand, thankfully not pointed at me, but being offered. “I’m trusted with a gun now?”

He shrugs. “We’re the muscle men, hard to be overly intimidating without a weapon.”

I chuckle. “Trust me, you manage that quite well.”

He grins devilishly and bows his head in thanks. I take the gun and tuck it in the waist of my jeans at the small of my back just as I hear footsteps approaching from the living room. Charlie and Reece have filled out, no longer malnourished and used for fighting practice. They are both now broad and built. I can tell them apart easily as Charlie shaved his hair almost completely off, but Reece kept his a little longer in top. They now look like young men instead of the kids they were four months ago.

“Hey, Harvey,” Reece says with a smile.

“Boys, you’re looking good. Been hitting the gym with this one?” I jerk my head at Stuart.

“Yeah, and running circles around him,” Charlie says with a cocky smile.

“Cheeky git,” Stuart mumbles. “Just remember I can still kick your arse boy.”

“But then Lorraine would kick yours.” He just shrugs.

“Can’t even argue with that,” Stuart sighs and I laugh at them. Like us with the girls, Stuart and Lorraine have found family in Reece and Charlie and have never been happier.

The clicking of heels has my heartrate picking up, like it does every time I’m with Annika. She rounds the corner in a cherry red suit with a black blouse and those black shoes with the red sole that she loves so much. She is such a fucking vision.

“Rainha,” I greet, my voice lowering an octave.

“Boys,” she acknowledges all of us with a nod. “Come on you two, let’s go lay down the law.” She gives me a sultry smile as she passes, and I follow her out the door like a puppy dog.

The Kukri scumbag we have at the same holding house where Calvin Gregson lost his dick and his life is wheezing through a broken nose, slumped forward in his chair with his hands behind his back. Annika sighs disappointedly at him and waits for him to catch his breath. Annika and Lance Preston agreed that, for now, their only sure tactics are that any of the Kukris identified by any of the kids are pressed for information and killed if found on Talon or Dao territory. Hence why we’re here.

“I’m only going to ask you once more, then you start losing body parts,” she warns, coming to stand right in front of him. We sent the guards out as Stuart and I are capable of keeping an eye of him, so it’s just the four of us in the barren room. Stuart leans against the wall, hands in his pockets and face neutral likehe’s waiting to meet a friend at a park, not watching his boss interrogate the enemy. “Why were you in my hotel?”

“Didn’t know it was your hotel, bitch. Just wanted to treat myself to a little spa break.” He looks up at her, giving her a bloodied smile.

She gives him that disappointed sigh again. “It’s idiotic that you show Volkov so much loyalty when he sent you to me to die.”

The idiot loses some of his bravado now, swallows hard and pales under the blood caked to his face. “He’s going to fuck you up so bad,” he tells her. “He’s going to make up for everything his brother missed out on.”

And I’ve had enough. I walk over to him and swing another fist into his temple this time. Then I hit at his ribs and stomach. When he’s gasping for breath, I knock his chair over to kick him again and again. He’s passed out before long, and I can feel Annika’s eyes on me as I continue letting blind rage drive my movements. It really takes no second thought to take my gun from my belt and put the bullet in his head. As a cop, I probably should feel bad about that. Good thing I’m not a cop.

Stuart takes a separate car home and I drive Annika and myself, the air charged in the car between us as neither of us say anything. Nor do we say anything when we get back to the house and I follow her up the stairs to her room, or when I click the door shut behind us and come up behind her, holding her hips to keep her body plastered to mine. I nuzzle her hair off her neck and then place wet kisses against the soft skin there. She tilts her head, giving me access to continue tracing up to her earlobe and when I’m happy she’s not going anywhere, I lift my hands to pull her jacket from her shoulders and down her arms until it falls to the floor.

She reaches round to cup the back of my head, her breathing deep and laboured as I stroke her over her body. I can feel her nipples stiffening through the thin materials of her blouse andbra and I tug on the pointed peaks hard enough to make her whimper.

“You like that,rainha?”

“Mmm,” she groans, arching her back to push her tits further into my palm.

“Want me to suck on them ‘til you come? Or maybe I should tan your arse and then fuck you with my fingers?” Keeping one hand on her breast, I trail the other down over her stomach and dipping into the waistband of her trousers. “Come on,rainha, tell me what you want.”

“Javier,” she breathes, rubbing her backside against my crotch.

I delve further into her panties and slide my finger along her slick seam. “Already so wet for me, huh? Tell me how you want to come, Annika.”

“On your cock,” she whines. “Please,sir.”

I freeze, the request so unexpected. “You’re sure?”