Page 29

Chapter twenty-nine

Damien

The air tonight isn’t nearly as cool as it has been. It’s warm and sticky, proving that summer is barreling towards us. The breeze on top of the old steel mill is nice, though. It probably feels better up here than being stuck in the surveillance van like Alex, Carter, and Ezra are. We’re sitting on top of one of the old maintenance towers across the way from their meeting spot behind the abandoned steel house. This is a new spot for them, and I can see why they picked it. It’s secluded, away from downtown, and no one looks after the property anymore. Dust is starting to use their brains, and I don’t like it.

Darren called this morning to let us know about the deal tonight. Said Dranan Hugo found where Cooper was keeping the guns, so they moved up their deal with this big buyer. He didn’t know who it was and knows that the man behind the money wouldn’t be present, but we could at least stop the guns from getting into the wrong hands.

He said their deal was planned to be seen together as little as possible. Dust’s men, including Darren, are already waiting for the buyer, and once they get there to confirm that all products are satisfactory, they’ll get the money and leave while the buyer stays behind to load up. It must be a large amount of product, because not including the two SUVs parked with their trunks full of it, but there’s a box truck waiting with them as well.

I watch through the scope of my sniper rifle, waiting for the buyer to arrive, and I watch Darren closely. He used to fit in well with the other druggies, even though he’s never been addicted to anything but video games. He was scrawny and has scars on his face from his horrible acne as a teenager, but they passed well for the cysts drugs can leave behind.

Now? He’s muscular, strong, and a quick hit like their other dealers, although he hasn’t been promoted quite yet like our other two moles. He does a good job though, especially as one of the dealer’s right hands, he’s good at getting us information. I was surprised when his dealer was chosen for this drop, and not the other two, Bradley or Jeremy. This Dust King has five big time dealers he likes to use, and others for small time street deals. Bradley and Jeremy seem to be on the top of his list recently, and that works out even better for us.

I look over to Darren, and he’s adjusting his left boot with his hands crossed. To anyone else, it would be nothing. For us? It’s his tell to let us know something is wrong. He obviously can’t just call us up and tell us, so now we’ll have to be prepared for anything.

“Stay alert. Something’s wrong.” I say into the com-piece in my ear. Letting everyone else know.

Another black SUV pulls up, and I immediately see Darren tense up. This is either about to be very good, or very bad. We’re all silent as the vehicle parks, either on purpose or because we’re holding our breath. A tall, bald man, riddled with tattoos, and wearing a tailored pin stripe suit steps out of it. As well as four other men, all dressed in black like Darren. The tall man has a large scar striking down the left side of his face, and a matching scar on the right side of his bottom lip, as if someone slashed him across the face with a knife. His eyes are black, and beady, sharp enough to stare daggers into someone’s head. He’s huge. His entire body is riddled with rippling muscles and his clearly dominant demeanor only accentuates his physique.

I move to focus my scope on him. Keeping it steady as he moves through the lot and overlooks the trucks and inventory. Then as he moves to look over all of Dust’s men standing by.

“Carter?” I say through my earpiece.

“Yeah, D?” His voice crackles through.

“You see the feed from my scope?”

“Yeah.”

“Get me facial rec on the big man.”

“On it.” I hold it for another moment, to be sure he gets a clear enough picture, before I hand the sniper off to Henry.

“What are you doing, D?” He asks me with concern etched into his voice. He never does like it when I go off script, but it also bothers him that it’s my specialty. I take out my pistol and check the ammunition. Just in case I end up needing it.

“I’m getting closer so we can catch what they’re saying.” Henry grasps my arm. Firm enough to get his point across.

“We didn’t prep for that, Damien, how do you know you can get close enough?” He says, almost sounding agitated.

“Because I’m me.” I smirk at him as I nudge him on the shoulder. A scowl grows on his face as he mounts the rifle back into position.

“Don’t fuck this up. If I have to go tell that girl of yours that you died, I’ll kill you.” He says seriously.

“Trust me, you won’t ever have to do that.” There’s no way in hell I’d ever abandon my little wolf. As the breeze flies past my nostrils, I long to smell her again. If she would have asked me to stay with her tonight, I would have. That being said, I’m glad she didn’t. Now that this isn’t a routine deal, I’d be a nervous wreck if I wasn’t here.

She said she would never ask me to stop doing this. Does she mean it? Or have I kept her so far away from it she doesn’t fully understand what I do? She can listen to that podcast all day long, but it doesn’t even begin to chip away at what we do. I’ve been showing her a bit of the administration side of things. The paperwork and scheduling that comes into play, as well as the situations we respond to, but nothing extensive. I love how interested she is in it, and her place by my side is becoming more evident to her. She’s always asking if I need help or talking things through with me if something doesn’t make sense.

I climb down the latter to make my way closer to the deal spot, and as my hands slide down the cold metal, all I can think about is how they’ve glided across her soft, tight, warm body. She’s invading every part of my mind, and I can’t seem to pull away long enough to focus. I need to focus tonight, cast my thoughts of her aside, but that is much more difficult to do than I say.

When I apologized for the lack of showing my loyalty to her, she was shocked. What did she expect? For me to be mad at her because another woman touched me and I didn’t push her away fast enough? I should have. The moment I saw Mikaela walking up to me, I should’ve walked straight over to Ashia and made a big show, and I thought about it to, but Mikaela is a nice girl. I didn’t want to embarrass Ashia, or Mikaela, or degrade her in any way. I’ve beat up men for less.

I also didn’t think she’d touch me like that either. We had sex once, and other than that, she’s never acted that way. It took me by surprise, but the moment she shoved her greedy hands on my chest, I swatted her away and told her about my beautiful girlfriend. I was even going to point Ashia out until I saw her walking outside, and then I immediately dismissed her and told her we had nothing left to discuss.

Walking outside to talk to her, I was prepared for something completely different. I figured she’d withdraw from me or scream at me, call me an asshole, and doubt my feelings and dedication to her. But she wasn’t even mad at me, instead she tore herself down, and that’s way worse than what I expected. I don’t ever want her to feel like that, and I’ll make sure it never happens again. She still doubts herself. So much so, that because a woman like Mikaela got near me, she immediately felt inferior? I need to do more to reassure her.

“D? Can you hear me?” Carter’s voice comes through my earpiece, concerned.

“Yeah, sorry Carter, what do you have?” I look around, not even realizing I was at the bottom of the latter and standing in the alleyway.

“The big guy? That’s Dranan Hugo.” Perfect. Now that we have a visual and confirmation, we can follow him and search more into his background.

“From this point forward, this is strictly surveillance. Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage.” I say as I make my way down the alleyway and around the building. Needing to come in at a different angle so they don’t immediately see me. I make my way up a little further before I cross the street and crouch. Quietly stalking up to their line of SUVs.

“Be careful, D, these guys seem high on alert tonight.” I nod slightly, knowing Henry is watching through the scope and Carter can see me. The moment I press my back into the hood of the car in the middle, I hear more vehicles pull into the structure’s parking lot. One engine is louder and deeper than the rest, and a new wave of diesel fuel covers the air. Obviously coming from another truck. The slamming of multiple doors follows, and I focus on any other noises I can pick up.

“Fedor! My old friend! Welcome to my new empire!” I hear a deep, elongated, boisterous voice call out. My assumption that it’s Dranan. Since he’s here, I doubt anyone would be addressing the buyer directly. I gently tap on my earpiece to ask if Carter can hear and record his voice.

“Barely, it most likely won’t be audible information at that distance.” He crackles through again, and I can feel my irritation building. Fuck . I know I shouldn’t do this, but we need to get this information so we can analyze it later. If deals with this buyer are going to be a new routine for them, we need to be prepared. I point my finger straight and double tap it to my eye to make sure Henry is seeing the exchange.

“Yep, getting all of it, D.” He confirms. I then drop down to my stomach and quietly army crawl under the vehicle. The cold concrete seeps into my skin. Scraping and scratching deep, but I’m careful not to make noise as I make my way closer to the exchange.

“D! What the fuck, that’s too close! Get out of there!” Henry yells in my ear, but I’m not listening. If the fucking ‘Dust King’ is here on a deal, it’s important, and means that these are the large buyers Paul was talking about the night I interrogated him. We need more information to know what the fuck we’re dealing with here.

“Dranan Hugo! Has the American life been treating you well since prison?” Another loud, deep voice calls out, followed by a deep guttural laugh. This voice, though, is coated with a heavy accent. Russian maybe? I can’t quite tell.

“I can hear them better now, you stubborn mother fucker.” I hear Carter say in my ear, and I stop from crawling any further. Not willing to risk them seeing me.

“Oh, I’m living the American dream, мой друг (my friend). I certainly hope you find our selection to your liking.” I scoot back ever so slightly as the foot steps appear to be heading in my direction.

“It took long enough. We may be old friends, Hugo, but I am not a patient man.” They stop at the edge of the vehicle, and I hear the trunk pop open. My heartbeat begins to thump against my chest, knowing that all it takes is for someone to look under the car, and I’m done for.

“I understand and sincerely apologize for the delay.” Dranan says.

“Unexpected delays?” The accent man asks suspiciously.

“Not unexpected, just more forceful than anticipated.” You got that right, mother fucker. “Though even with the vigilante, nothing will hold us up further. With us stepping into the next phase of our empire, nothing will stop us.” And he’s back to delusions.

“I certainly hope so. I do not wish to gain an enemy with this alliance.” The accented man, Fedor, exclaims.

“Any threat to us will be eliminated soon enough.” I wish I could kill them right now, but we're severely out numbered, and if I show myself to kill Dranan, I'd be dead in a second, and Dranan would just be replaced. He’s confident enough to believe that we’ll be eliminated? What does he have planned?

“Did Sahara follow you from Seattle?” Fedor asks.

“No, this one is a much smaller group.”

“Ambitious bunch.” The accented man says, almost proudly.

“You have no idea.” They exchange pleasantries and list off everything being sold tonight. Dumbasses. They discuss the ‘third partner’ arriving in a few weeks, and about moving ahead with ‘other branches’ of operations. They never say his name, or what this ‘other branch’ could be, but I believe some of the information we’ve acquired will help us.

Once they unload the product, I sneakily make my way back out the way I came, and crouch around the building long enough to remain hidden. Quickly and quietly, I make my way over to behind the neighboring storage house.

“You guys got everything?” I ask into my earpiece quietly.

“You know we did, D.” Carter says.

“Great. Wait for Dranan to leave, then once this ‘Fedor’ visitor tries to leave and makes it about a mile out, we’ll intercept.”

“On it.” Carter says, and Henry starts giving additional orders on how to trail then intercept.

I am ready for this night to be over. Intercepting the weapons was harder than we anticipated, and Fedor actually got away with about half of it. A few of our guys are a little beat up, and Graham had to handle about eleven bodies before we could head out. DJ took the guns from us to make sure that they couldn’t be traced, and Tyler is keeping an eye out at the club in case any of Dust’s men decide they need a drink after what had just happened.

Carter identified the Russian, Fedor Popov. He came to the United States ten years ago and has been causing trouble ever since. Mainly in New York, which is what doesn’t make sense to me. Why start operations and partnerships here? There’s no way he’d be stupid enough to try and cross state lines with product like that. What is it about this city, this area, that is so important? We need to look deeper, and broader. We’re not getting any answers from the recent escalation from warehouses and dealers anymore. This is more serious. Bigger than anything we’ve dealt with, and my head is spinning trying to figure it out. Now that we know that Dranan Hugo has spent time in prison, that might make finding information on him easier, and hopefully give us a few answers as to why they’re here and what they are potentially planning.

I can’t wait to crawl into bed with Ashia. Her scent and warmth always calm my nerves. She’s my one escape from the mental turmoil work has brought me lately. Even if she tries to act as if she doesn’t like me, which she doesn’t do much anymore, I’d take all of her verbal abuse if it meant her talking to me. Every time she speaks, it pangs my chest. As if her voice is my life support. The only thing that keeps me breathing sometimes, even when she uses it to sling insults my way.

Her touch is enough bandage to heal my wounds. The soothing feeling is like a phoenix tear. It soothes my pain with a simple graze. Laced with enough electricity to restart my cold heart. After witnessing what I do, she continues to be my only light in this depraved world. Her golden eyes are the only beacon at the end of this contorted maze, and I’d tread the harsh terrain over and over again to reach her.

I lazily make my way down the hallway. Feeling the heaviness in my muscles and the tightness in my chest. I need to feel her more than I need to breathe, and I can feel my skin crawl at the anticipation. I walk up to the door, and just as I'm about to pick the lock, I look up to see a handwritten note taped to the door.

Aren’t you tired of breaking in?

I huff out a laugh and pull the note off the door to feel a light weight to it. Turning it over to find a small silver key taped to the back. Damn, this girl… I smile and bite my lip as I take the key off and use it to open the door.

As I walk in and round the corner, I look over to the couch to find my girl’s annoying blonde laying on it asleep. The pale locks are sprawled and disheveled, and draped over the edge of the couch. Her scrubs are laying on the opposite end, and from the look of deep slumber on her face, she clearly passed out and didn’t just fall asleep. Her tank top is half way down her chest, exposing her bra, and her shorts, that are clearly Ashia’s, are riding half way up her ass. I grab the blanket off of the back of the couch and drape it over her. Not only to cover her, but to assure that she doesn’t wake up chilled along with her hangover.

As abhorrent as her friend is towards me, after everything she’s done for Ashia, she still deserves respect. Even if she doesn’t treat herself with any.

I walk into the bedroom to see my angelic woman curled up at the top of the bed with her soft blanket covering her waste and legs. Her arm is bent and her head is resting on it against the head board. She was clearly sitting up before she fell asleep, and I assume she was trying to wait up for me. I walk over to the empty side of the bed, take off my clothes, and hop in the bed beside her.

Her beautiful black hair is in disarray, draped across her face, and her low tank top is showing off her perfect chest. I wrap my arm around as I press myself against her. Inhaling her fresh vanilla scent, she must have showered before she sat down. Not resisting the urge, I begin placing gentle kisses on her forehead, nose, cheek, and jaw. Worshipping every beautiful feature of her face, and moving as far down as her neck before I feel her starting to stir.

“Hello gorgeous.” I whisper in her ear.

“Hey.” She groggily says as she wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me closer. “How was the deal?” The sleepiness in her voice begins to fade.

“Successful on our end.” I mutter out between trailing kisses to her breasts. As I pull down her tank top and take one of her nipples in my mouth, she releases a soft moan that instantly goes to dick. My hand comes up to knead the other breast while I swirl my tongue around and suck on this one. I'm sure to show the first one enough attention to harden it fully before moving to the second. She rakes her hands through my hair. Gently grasping the strands and pulling my mouth more into her chest. After I bite and suck enough for the second to harden, I make my way back to her face and force my tongue between her lips. Reaching into her shorts and grabbing a handful of her perfect ass, I pull away slightly to look at her. “Did you have fun after I left?” She nods in the shortest and cutest way. Her breathing slightly heavy from the feeling of my mouth and hands on her.

“Yeah, it turned out good.”

“Good.” I force my mouth back onto hers and begin to take off her bottoms. She thrusts into my touch, freeing one leg and wrapping it over my hips. Exposing that soft, wet pussy to me and grinds into my fully erect cock. Once I fully get her shorts off, I flip us over so she straddles me, and I pull her tank top off of her. Showcasing every perfect inch of her and dragging my gaze over her.

She then runs her hands up my chest as she lowers herself to me, and presses her lips to mine. Holding my face in her hands and running those teasing nails over the skin of my cheeks and jaw. My own hands find their way to her hair, and I entangle the strands as I cup her head with one hand and the other grips the soft locks in my hold. She then sits up again and plants her hands on my chest. Bracing herself to take all of me in. I take this time to glide my hands over her perfect tight body and roam every dip and curve from the swell of her breasts down to the roundness of her ass.

“God, how are you even human?” I say as I run my hands over her soft tight stomach, and cusp her breasts with my hands, running my thumbs over her nipples as she runs the pads over her fingers over the ridges of my abs. Her desperate whimpers make their way through her lips. “I swear you’re something out of Greek mythology.” I watch as she looks down at me with a hungry gaze and metaphorical light flashes across her eyes as if she came up with a plan. She reaches down and kisses me again. The contact is slow and sensual. Only to heat up as she slowly moves from my mouth to my neck, my chest, and down my body until she runs her delicious tongue along the hard, veiny shaft of my dick.

“Fuck, baby…” Her nails sink into my hips as she plants a gentle kiss to the tip, agonizingly teasing me before she swirls her tongue around my swollen head. My hips instinctively buck. Attempting to slide some of my length inside of her delectable mouth.

She takes the head into her mouth. Continuing to swirl that demonic tongue around the head as she begins bobbing up and down, taking my length down her throat one torturous inch at a time. A moan escapes my lips as she continues to bob, speeding up slightly only to slow back down. I feel the tip hit the back of her throat, then sliding down it, and my breath hitches as she takes me deeper.

My cock starts to pulse and I can feel the tingling sensation begin to swell in my balls. I wrap my fist in her hair again and force her head up and down. Trying to hold myself back from fucking her pretty mouth until her throat is so raw she cries. She reaches up with one of her hands and begins caressing my body. Circling her finger around my nipples then tracing the outline of my muscles. I try to call out for her, but she has me fucking stuttering.

“G-god damn Ashia…” I grip the sheets with my other hand as I caress the back of her head in between tightening grasps. “God you’re such a good fucking girl…and you’re all fucking mine!”

I thrust my hips into her, taking every loving touch from this miraculous woman. A long deep moan releases from my throat, and I feel my body tense to her tongue molding to the shape of my dick, causing her to gag lightly as she takes me all the way in. Fuck as good as she feels, I need to feel all of her. I want her lips on mine, her soft body grazing my touch, her tight walls sliding up and down as I explode into her. She occupies every dark corner of my mind, and every empty space in my heart, and I won’t stop until I do the same for her.

“Ashia, you have five fucking seconds to clinch your pussy around my dick before I make you sorry…”

Yanking her head up, I force her mouth off my cock with a loud ‘pop’ and tighten my grip in her hair. I watch her gorgeous smile spread across her face. My chest swells at the confidence radiating from her. She winks at me before crawling back up to my face and planting her lips to mine. My tongue is vicious. On a crusade, attacking hers as if I’m fighting for my life. In a way I am, for any shred that’s left of my heart. Any piece that she hasn’t already stolen. Any remnants of my belief that love doesn’t exist, although I’m afraid that has already been lost.

She stands back up on her knees, stroking my dick with her soft hands as she lines it up with her entrance. Slowly, she sits back, engulfing me in her tantalizing, wet, hot grip. The tight walls of her pussy pull a loud, guttural moan from my chest. Gripping me so tightly that I know I’m not going to last very long. Her hips begin to move. Sliding up and back down in a slow, agonizing pace.

She begins bouncing up and down, rolling her hips into me, and I run my hands up her irresistible body and cusp her breasts once again. Rolling her nipples in between my thumbs and forefingers and pulling them out gently until her loud moans overtake the room. Her pace begins to quicken, and her pussy starts to clench. Making my cock throb.

“That’s right, little wolf, howl for me.” I thrust into her from below. Taking over as I increase my speed and power causing her to shiver above me. I grip her hips. Moving her up and down on my cock at a pace that has us both whimpering. She throws her head back and closes her eyes as she screams out. The pleasure and ecstasy radiating off her face. “Open your eyes and look at what you do to me baby.” She opens those beautiful golden globes and looks down at me with her mouth open wide. Erratic moans escaping with every feral thrust. I fling my own head back in response. My cock instantly starts twisting and my balls draw up. If I look at her in that blissful state, I’ll come inside of her right now. “Oh, f-fuck…” She grabs onto my torso, gripping me with her nails and leaving little crescent shapes on my chest.

“God, Damien! Please, let me come!” She screams, and my hips stutter for a moment.

“Come all over me baby!” She releases a siren’s moan as she clenches down, and her legs shake around me. Her sweet warmth floods my cock, and one more pulse of her pussy has me coming with a feral roar. That heart-gripping gasp she lets out when she feels my hot cum exploding inside her always squeezes a little tighter, pulling my heartstrings. Her pussy throbs around my dick, milking me dry as I pump and release every last drop I have into her divine cunt. I can even feel her abdominal muscles tighten under my palm, she’s coming so hard.

She lays one hand on top of mine as she uses the other against my chest to ground herself. Gripping my flesh as a lifeline while our paces slow. The feeling of our hands touching like that is unexpected, but not unwelcome. I can feel the electricity between us just from the one subtle touch, and has my heart feeling weak. It only lasts for a second before she drops that hand to my chest as well. The first moment we met, I allowed her to do the same thing, and now that she’s done it again and taken it away so quickly, I miss it. I never thought I’d want to reach down and pick her hand up in mine, but I do, and the urge is almost too powerful to resist.

So instead, I place my hand on her heaving chest to feel her racing heart. My palm lays against her sternum and in between her breasts. Rising and falling steadily with her chest, and she reacts by running her hand over my arm gently. Trailing the tips of her fingers over my flesh delicately.

“Fuck you are…”

“Amazing…” She finishes for me before she moves her hand to my jaw. “You really are amazing.” She says with sleepy eyes. As if my heart wasn’t already running a mile a minute, it picks up pace with her words. “I know I haven’t said it out loud to you, but I really like you, and I'm glad that you found me…”

I’m pretty sure my heart just stopped beating.

I can physically feel my face relax as I reach up, grab her face in my hands, and pull her down to me so her body is flush with mine. I know she feels this way, but fuck hearing her say it has me feeling like my heart is going to burst. Like any moment, I’ll just spontaneously combust.

“Me too, little wolf. I'm so grateful for you. Every damn day.” I kiss her again as I wrap my arms around her soft body. Pulling her as close to me as possible so I never have to let go and then roll us over to fit her perfectly beneath me.