Page 13

Chapter

Twelve

GABE

I ’ve always considered Tara a strong person, but watching her today showed me I knew nothing of her strength.

It doesn’t matter that she has had a year to come to terms with what she went through.

I’m afraid that if I were a female and went through what she did, I would not have the strength to put myself through this to find justice.

But my girl is. It is all business now that Tara and Reed have worked everything out.

Reed jumps on a video call with Demon, and they start trying to find everything they can about Carlos Ramirez’s whereabouts over the last year.

Jessie shows up ten minutes after I call him, and he starts looking into Ned, trying to find out anything about the girlfriend Tara talked about.

We left Nick alone because Tara said he had enough on his plate.

“Princess, you need to eat something,” I say, pulling her out of Reed’s office.

I’m not sure if she ate anything this morning, but it’s early evening, and I’m going to feed her.

“Gabe, I need to help?—”

Whirling around, I plant my shoulder in her stomach and throw her over my shoulder.

My hand comes down on her ass.

“You are going to let me feed you, and then we will start helping the guys.”

“Put me down!” She starts punching my ass, but it does nothing to stop me.

Once we are in Reed’s kitchen, I finally put her down.

Her blue eyes narrow, and I see fire in them.

Whatever is about to come out of her mouth is going to turn me the fuck on.

“Listen here. You might be my man, but you aren’t allowed to manhandle me like that.”

I smirk at her and crowd her.

We move backward until her back hits the wall.

My eyes scan her, and my dick hardens, pressing uncomfortably against my zipper.

Tara is in a thin cotton shirt that doesn’t hide the fact that her nipples have hardened to points.

My eyes zero in on them, and even though I want to tug on them, I place my hands on her waist. Slowly, I run my hands up her side, enjoying that I can feel her breath catch at my touch.

I lean in and run my tongue up the side of her neck.

“Fuck,” Tara moans. Her hands push through my hair, and I groan into her ear when she grabs a handful of my hair and pulls.

“You like it when I manhandle you,” I whisper into her ear, and then I nip her with my teeth.

She pushes herself against me and turns my head toward her.

Her lips slam against mine in a frenzied kiss.

While I love it when we are so turned on we can’t help but rip our clothes off, right now, I need slow.

It’s been so fucking long that I thought I would never have this again.

I would never hold her again or kiss her, that I need to enjoy her.

Last night was the wild, crazy, fast-paced fucking, but now I need more.

Tara’s hands move down my body and are currently trying to get my shirt off.

I wrap my hand around both wrists and push them above her head.

My other hand comes up to cradle her face.

I tone the kiss down with long strokes of my tongue against hers.

I push my erection against Tara, and she rubs against me.

We each swallow each other’s moans.

Breaking the kiss, I keep my forehead pressed against hers.

“While I would love to stay here and make love to you. We really should eat something.”

Tara closes her eyes and sighs.

“Fine.”

With one more slow kiss, I release her, adjust myself, and head toward Reed’s fridge.

I settle on making hot ham and cheese sandwiches for everyone.

“I’m going to go check on Reaper,” Tara says before heading outside.

After talking to Reed, Tara headed back outside to get her dog and let him run around.

Reed wasn’t too happy about the dog considering his bandaged hand but let it go.

I’m not a fan of the dog either, but if he helps Tara feel safer, then I will learn to love the damn thing.

Right as I’m plating the second sandwich, two things happen at the same time.

Reed screams Tara’s name, and Reaper’s ferocious bark sounds from out front.

The plate shatters against the floor as I race through the kitchen and out the front door.

Reed and Jessie are hot on my heels.

They both draw their guns instantly.

“Who the fuck are you?” I yell at the man standing a few feet away from Tara.

Reaper stands between Tara’s legs, growling and barking at the man.

Tara is standing straight as an arrow; she looks calm to everyone, but I can see the little hints that she is anything but calm.

The muscles in her shoulders are pulled tight, her hands are in fists, and when I come around her, I see her eyes are wide with anger.

Reed and Jessie move to stand in front of Tara, facing the man.

The man hasn’t said anything nor moved an inch toward or away from us.

His calm and coolness are eerie, to say the least. “We are only going to ask one more time, who the fuck are you?” Reed says.

“Carlos Ramirez,” Tara says.

The hair on my arms stands up, and not for the first time, I wish I had my gun on me.

“Smart girl,” Carlos says.

I take a second to take in Carlos.

He is dressed sharply in a pressed white button-down and black slacks, and his shoes even shine.

I estimate him to be six foot four, around my height, but I have at least fifty pounds on him.

His light brown hair is slicked back, his blue eyes are trained on Tara, and the muscles in his jaw, while hidden beneath a trimmed beard, are clearly pulled taunt.

The feeling of eyes on me crawls up my spine, and I quickly glance over my shoulder to find two guys walking around Reed’s house.

“Jessie.” The tone of my voice catches Jessie’s attention, and when he glances my way, I barely tip my head.

He spins around quickly, training his gun on the two men.

“That’s far enough,” he says before pulling his second pistol from behind his back.

“Now, there is no need for all this gun power. We’re just here to talk,” Carlos says.

A smile forms on his face, and my fist fucking twitches to punch him until it disappears.

“How did you find me?” Tara steps up between Reed and I.

Reaper moves with her, never taking his eyes off Carlos.

Tara laces her hand with mine, and I squeeze it, hoping she knows that whatever is going on, she isn’t going to face it alone.

“Let’s move this inside, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know,” Carlos says, nodding toward the house.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen until we know you don’t have any weapons,” I say, letting go of Tara’s hand to step forward.

Carlos raises his arms and says, “No problem.”

Reed keeps his gun trained on Carlos while I pat him down.

Stepping back after finding nothing, I say, “Now, your men.”

“Vinny, Travis, come here.” I don’t turn around to watch the guys walk toward us because while Carlos doesn’t have any weapons, I don’t fucking trust him.

I see Jessie following them with his guns out of the corner of my eye.

Once Vinny and Travis stand beside Carlos, he waves his hands at them.

“Check them so we can get this over with.”

After another pat down, I came up empty.

“They’re clear,” I tell Reed.

“After you,” Reed says, finally lowering his gun.

Jessie also puts his guns down.

Tara tells Reaper to stand down.

We follow them into Reed’s living room, where all three take a seat on the couch as if we were all friends.

Reed, Jessie, Tara, and I stand with Tara between Reed and me.

“Talk,” Tara demands.

Carlos leans forward, placing his hands on his knees.

His steel blue eyes never leave Tara, which does nothing for the anger coursing through me right now.

He holds his hands out, and one of his men places what looks like a five-by-seven picture in it.

“Ms. Pope, do you remember this woman?”

Tara reaches forward and takes the picture from his outstretched hands.

She only looks at the picture for a few seconds before she places it face down on the coffee table and sits in one of the chairs across from Carlos.

“How do you know her?”

“She is my sister-in-law.” His blue eyes turn dark and stormy.

“Can someone tell us what is going on?” I demand, stepping closer to Tara.

Reed and Jessie mimic my movements, coming to stand behind her chair.

Carlos turns his eyes to me but says nothing.

“Ms. Pope, can you tell me how you came to know Hannah?”

“No, I will not,” Tara says, crossing her arms and relaxing into the chair like she didn’t just tell a member of the Mexican Cartel no.

“Excuse—”

Tara holds up one hand and says, “I won’t tell you a damn thing without talking to Hannah first.” Without taking her eyes off Carlos, she pulls out her phone.

The sound of a FaceTime call in process is the only sound in the tense room.

“Hi, Tara,” a feminine voice says once the call connects.

Tara’s eyes fill with pride, and a smile forms on her face as she stares at her phone.

The way she shut Carlos down earlier keeps me from looking at her phone screen even though I can clearly see it.

“Hi Hannah, you are looking so good. How have you been?”

“Life has been so good and I have you to thank for that. But I have a feeling you aren’t calling for an update because we have already had that this month. I take it my brother-in-law didn’t listen to me and found you anyway.”

“Well, a man is here claiming to be your brother-in-law, but you know how?—”

“Turn the camera around,” Hannah says, cutting Tara off.

After a second, she says, “Yeah, that’s him. Tara, you can tell him everything. I’ve already told him my side of the story.”

“It’s not just him here. My brother, his friend, and my…” Tara looks at me and says, “Marito. Are you okay with them hearing?”

“Your Marito? It looks like we have a lot more to talk about. I don’t mind you sharing my story. Call me later,” Hannah says, and then the sound of the call disconnecting comes next.

Carlos, who has been silent throughout the phone call, finally speaks, and this time, he looks at me.

“I didn’t know that congratulations were in order. My apologies. Mrs. Mariano, now that you have Hannah’s permission. Will you please tell me how you saved her?”

I look at Tara, who is smiling up at me, with my heart trying to beat out of my chest. Mrs. Mariano.

I love the sound of that so fucking much.