Page 17

“ D rop it,” Jake called. “Right now. I’m not gonna fuck around with you.”

The man smiled. Tightened his grip on his gun.

Jake raised one eyebrow. “You’re gonna shoot me here? With no Gowanus Canal to dump me into?”

The man reared back, apparently shocked that Jake knew their plans. “Don’t worry,” he said. His smile showed several rotten teeth. “We’ll manage.”

“Yeah, I bet you will,” Jake said. “One more chance to put the gun on the ground before I shoot you,” he called.

The man smiled more widely. “Not going to happen,” he said, and Jake saw his trigger finger tighten.

Lowering himself behind the dumpster, he murmured to Livvy, “Now.”

Livvy had moved into a position where she could see the guy but the edge of the dumpster kept her hidden. Livvy fired, and the shot hit the man’s thigh. He screamed, a high-pitched, agonized squeal, and dropped onto the pavement. Jake hadn’t wanted to shoot the guy, but he’d left them no choice. Jake wiggled out from behind the dumpsters and saw the gunman grasping his leg. Blood flowed through and over his fingers, leaving a growing red puddle on the cement.

Jake’s stomach churned. He didn’t have to fire his weapon very often, and every time he or his partner did, it took another piece of his soul.

“You broke my leg,” the man on the ground yelled.

“Hey, we didn’t kill you,” Jake said. He moved closer and kicked the gun out of his reach. “I know that’s what you intended to do to me, so count yourself lucky. You’ll probably even walk normally again -- after a lot of painful physical therapy.”

Jake stood over him, patted him down then stared down at the man. “Did Alexei order you to kill me?”

“Didn’t need to order anyone.” The gunman’s hands gripped his leg so tightly that his fingers were white. No matter how hard he squeezed, it wouldn’t make the pain go away. “Was the plan all along.”

“Sorry to disrupt your plans, but I’m not ready to die.” He stepped in front of Livvy. “Neither is my friend. Too many things left to do.”

He crouched next to the bleeding man. “Tell you what I’ll do. Once we’re out of this alley, I’ll call the cops. Tell them there’s a wounded man in this alley. That he needs some help so he doesn’t bleed out.”

Jake stood up and put his foot over the bullet wound. “Anyone else coming after me? Maybe going to the other end of this alley?”

The man’s teeth clenched tight, and he held Jake’s gaze, but didn’t say a thing.

“Really? You want to lie here until someone else walks through this alley? Could be quite a while.” He nodded at the growing pool of blood around the bullet wound. “Not sure you have a lot of time left.”

Jake waited a long moment, but when the man didn’t answer, he pressed down lightly on the ugly wound. The guy screamed, and the high-pitched, agonized sound bounced off the fence on the other side of the alley. “Is one more man in the alley,” he finally managed to say. “Others on the streets.” He swallowed hard. “Call an ambulance. I don’t want to die in this alley, surrounded by garbage.”

Jake looked at Livvy. “I think he’s talking about me,” he said to her. “But that’s okay. I’ll call him an ambulance.” He held the guy’s gaze. “What’s this alley called?”

“Is known as the shortcut alley,” the guy managed to say. “Between the business district and the canal.”

Jake removed his foot from the guy’s wound, dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed 911. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

When the operator said, “What’s your emergency?” Jake said, “There’s a man lying in the alley. He called it the shortcut alley. Looks like he’s been shot. Bleeding like a son-of-a-bitch. And he’s in a lot of pain.”

Jake listened for a moment. “Nope. Rather not do that. The guy who was shot knows my name, because he was assigned to kill me.” He listened for a moment, then said, “You need to get here soon. He’s lost a lot of blood.” He ended the call and slid his phone back into his pocket.

Jake looked down at the man on the cement again. “Is this where Alexei told you to shoot me?”

“Alexei didn’t order it. But I knew this was best place for it,” the man said, grimacing as he held his now blood-covered hand on his wound.

Jake shook his head. “Now you’re just lying to me. I saw hope for my death in Alexei’s eyes. The plan was always to kill me.” He backed away from the guy. “But an ambulance is on its way. With a little luck, you’ll make it to the hospital. And since I don’t want to be associated with you, I’m outta here. Good luck. They’ll get that bleeding stopped and get you to an ER. You’re gonna be fine.”

He and Livvy started to walk away, and the man called after them, “You don’t know that. I might be dying.”

“Anything’s possible. But as long as that ambulance gets here soon,” Jake stopped and listened. “In fact, I hear it how. You’re gonna survive. Good luck with the rehab.”

The siren was closer now, as if it had turned into the alley. Jake grabbed Livvy’s hand and tugged her around the next bend. Once they were out of sight of the wounded man, they ran.

As they reached the other end of the alley, they heard the ambulance slow, then its siren died. “They’ve got him now,” he said, tightening his hand on Livvy’s.

“You think they’ll spot us?” she asked.

“Hell, no,” he said. “They’ll be too focused on stopping his bleeding, starting an IV and giving him meds for his pain. By the time they’re done treating him on-site and loading him into the bus, we’ll be back in the hotel.”

“Let’s hurry,” Livvy said. “I don’t want to take any chances. Don’t want to give anyone a chance to see us out here.”

“That guy said there was someone else in the alley. Keep your eyes and ears open, and I’ll do the same.”

“Right,” Livvy said. “Figured there’d be someone else. Alexei would be stupid if he didn’t have a backup, and he doesn’t strike me as a stupid guy. Nelson wants to make sure you’re dead, and he wouldn’t hesitate to send a bunch of men after you.”

“Afraid he’s gonna be disappointed,” Jake said. “I have no plans to die today. Or letting you die today.”

Livvy grabbed his hand and squeezed. Pulled him to a stop. “I saw someone stick his head out from around the corner of the alley up ahead,” she whispered into his ear.

Jake nodded but didn’t answer. He studied the buildings that lined the alley. Most of them looked like the backs of small shops. He peered over the fences on both sides of the alley, until he found a shop that had a walkway on one side of it. It looked like it led to a street.

He nodded at it. Watched as Livvy studied it. Finally she whispered, “It’s our best bet. If we walk between those buildings, we’ll come out on a main street. We can catch a cab back to the hotel to avoid anyone else out looking for us.” She pointed toward a tall, dark building on the skyline. “That’s our hotel. A few blocks away. If we can get onto a main street, we can hail a cab pretty quickly.”

“Let’s check it out.” Jake eased the gate open, wincing when it squeaked. But he pulled Livvy through the small opening, then eased the gate closed. They both trotted along a narrow sidewalk, ducking when they reached the windows on the side of the building. In less than two minutes, they were at the front of the shop and on the sidewalk there. A long line of women waited to go into the shop.

“A deli,” Livvy said after glancing in the door.

“Sounds about right,” Jake answered, gripping her hand tightly and pulling her away from the line of curious women.

They stayed in front of the deli, near the line of women. A cab appeared in less than a minute, and when Jake hailed it, the driver pulled to the curb. After giving him the name of their hotel, Jake drew a deep breath and relaxed into the seat.

Livvy reached for his hand, and Jake wanted to stroke the soft skin of Livvy’s hand in his. He wanted to lift her hand to his mouth and kiss her palm. Inhale the scent of her skin.

“Stress response ,” he told himself. A visceral response to danger. The relief when the threat was removed.

But it didn’t feel like an easily dismissed reaction to danger. It felt like the culmination of far too many moments he and Livvy had spent together, going back to when Livvy was also an FBI agent. Too much awareness that had rippled between them, wrapped around them, drawing them closer together.

Five minutes later, they exited the cab and walked into the hotel’s front door. Jake desperately wanted to wrap his arm around Livvy and draw her against him. Leave no space between their bodies, so that he could feel every breath she took. Every stutter of her heart. Every quiver of need that he hoped matched his own.

Beside him, Livvy took a deep breath. Blew it out and took another. Realizing he was still shaky and amped up, Jake did the same. By the time they walked across the lobby to the elevators, they were both breathing heavily. Pheromones danced between them like damn butterflies, all flash and color. All Jake could think about was getting into their room and ripping Livvy’s clothes off.

He snuck a quick glance at her. Livvy breathed deeply, sucking in air as if she couldn’t get enough of it. Jake knew exactly how she felt. All he wanted was Livvy. Touching her. Holding her. Kissing her. Ripping off her clothes and burying himself inside her.

Fortunately, since it was the middle of the day, there wasn’t much elevator traffic. They were the only ones in their car, and they both gripped the back railing to keep themselves upright.

When they reached their floor, they stumbled out of the car. Jake grabbed Livvy’s hand as they walked toward their room. When they opened the door, they saw that it had already been made up by the maids.

Blowing out a relieved breath, Jake threw the double lock on the door. He collapsed onto the couch and Livvy dropped onto the cushion beside him.

Jake curled his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. When he felt her curves pressing against his body, a tidal wave of need surged through him, obliterating everything but his awareness of Livvy. If he couldn’t touch her, couldn’t taste her, he’d lose his mind. Now that they were safe, Livvy was all he could think about. All he wanted -- Livvy naked and wrapped tightly around him.

“Livvy,” he murmured, turning to swipe his mouth over hers. The sensation of her smooth, hot mouth made him shiver. Want . When his lips touched hers, she opened for him immediately.

“I want you, Liv,” he said. “I could have lost you, and I would have mourned that for the rest of my life.”

“Jake, you read my mind,” she said against his mouth. “I’ve wanted you since you rode on the back of my bike back in Montana.” Her breath feathered over his mouth and he wanted to crush her into the cushions of the couch and drive into her.

Instead, he smiled against her mouth. “I’ve wanted you longer than that,” he said. “Since before you left the FBI. I’ve kicked myself in the ass ever since the day you left for Montana. I wish I could go back and change that last day.”

“Yeah?” She walked her fingers across his face, and he shivered with need. “Even though we didn’t know each other well when we were both agents, I still wanted you. It was a visceral ‘he’s the one’. I should have paid more attention to it instead of running away, which was a dumbass move. But what I felt for you terrified me. I didn’t know how to handle my feelings, so I did what I always do,” she said. “I ran.”

Jake leaned back so he could look into her eyes. “Sounds like we’re a pair of dumbasses,” he said. He nuzzled into her neck, drew a deep breath of Livvy’s distinctive, sweet scent. “If I touch you, are you going to run again?”

“Last thing I want to do,” she said into his mouth. She closed her lips around his bottom lip and sucked it into her mouth. Ran her tongue over the soft surface of his lower lip. “I want you. Right now. On this couch.” Livvy nipped at his lip, and he groaned into her mouth. “We almost died, and all I could think about was that we hadn’t had the chance to make love with each other.”

Jake ran his hand over her body from her neck to her waist. Felt the tremble of need and desire beneath his fingers and sucked her lower lip into his mouth.

“I don’t want to have you on this couch. It’s too small. Too confining.” He slid away from her and bent to scoop her into his arms. Pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth.

“I want you on the bed. Where we have plenty of room to get to know each other better.”

Livvy wrapped her arms around his neck. “Good call. There isn’t enough room on that couch for me to do everything I want to do to you.”’

Jake’s mouth curled into a smile. “I like the sound of that.” His fingers played with the buttons on her shirt. “May I take this off of you?”

“Yeah, you can take off my blouse. But then it’s my turn to take an item of clothing off you. ”

“Anything you want. Any time you want,” Jake said as he poked the buttons of her shirt through the stupidly tiny buttonholes.

“Either these buttonholes are too small, or my hands are trembling too much,” he said as he managed to unbutton two buttons. He spread her shirt and put his mouth on the upper curve of her breasts. She sucked in a breath, then reached up to unbutton the rest of the buttons.

“You’re doing a fabulous job,” she said, her voice trembling with need. “But you’re way too slow.”

“Show me how it’s done,” Jake said, his voice uneven.

Livvy lifted his hands away from her chest. Kissed his fingertips, one by one. Jake swallowed hard. He wanted to rip the buttons off her shirt, but he managed to slide his hands beneath her ass. Wiggled his fingers inside her waistband, and she sucked in a breath when his hot fingers touched her still-chilled skin.

Moments later, he slid his fingers away from her perfect ass and went to work on the button and zipper of her pants. As he tugged her pants down her legs, she wiggled to make them fall off more quickly.

Once her pants were off, he went back to work on her shirt. Soon that was gone, as well, and she was lying in front of him, naked.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said, running his hand over her breasts, her belly, her thighs. “I could just stare at you all day.”

“Are you actually trying to drive me crazy?” she asked.

One side of his mouth curled up. “Am I succeeding?”

“Oh, yeah,” she said, bending to press her mouth against the happy trail of hair that disappeared into his waistband. “Tell me how crazy I’m making you.”

“On a scale of one to ten?” Jake swallowed the saliva that had pooled in his mouth. “It’s about a fifty.”

She nipped at his lower lip. “Good to know. For the future, you know?”

“The future?” he muttered. “Not sure I’m gonna survive today.”

Eventually, they both were naked on the bed. Jake had yanked the blanket and top sheet down, so they were lying on the bottom sheet. Jake bent to take one of Livvy’s rosy nipples in his mouth, and she moaned. Curled her fingers around his shoulders and held on tightly.

When he slid down and put his mouth on her, she cried out. Her hips jerked, and she screamed as she orgasmed. It seemed to go on and on, and he loved watching her. But she finally eased him away. “Do you have a condom?” she panted, her breathing still ragged. Uneven.

“Of course I do.” He reached into the drawer in the nightstand, and Livvy lifted onto one shoulder.

“You were that sure of me?”

“No. But I was hopeful. I’ve been watching you carefully. I thought you wanted me as much as I wanted you. I wasn’t sure, but I wanted to be prepared.”

“Jake,” she said. “Get that condom on right now.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a grin, rolling the rubber down his length. “You ready for me?” he asked.

“If I was any more ready, I’d be orgasming again.”

“Can’t have you going there without me,” he said. He slid into her and groaned at the sensation of her gripping him.

“I want you, Jake,” she murmured, nipping at his ear. “Right now.”

“Might be pretty quick,” he said. “I’ve wanted you for a very long time.”

“That’s okay. We have all evening,” she said.

He moved slowly inside her, until she gripped his shoulders hard. “Faster, Jake.” she moaned. “Harder.” Her voice was rough. Uneven. Edged with desperation. He made sure she came again before he did, then he rolled them over so she was on top of him. He smiled against her mouth, nuzzling her neck, then stroked his hand down her back slowly, over and over, relishing the satin of her skin. “That was amazing, Livvy. I can’t wait to do it all over again.”

“You’re gonna have to feed me first,” she said, lifting up and grinning down at him. “I’ll need to keep up my strength tonight. I plan on wearing you out.”

“Good,” he said. “Because I have the same plans.” He grabbed the room service menu. “What do you want?” he asked, his voice rough.

“Salmon,” she said, and he swallowed hard as he fumbled for the phone. “Salmon sounds good.”

He pressed the button to connect with room service, and when someone answered, he said, “Two salmon dinners,” he said in a rough voice. When the woman asked for his room number, Livvy, snugged up against him, gave the woman the number.

“Thank you,” the woman said. “Expect your meal in fifteen to twenty minutes.”

“Thanks,” Jake said taking the handset and fumbling it into its cradle. Then he turned back to Livvy. “Now where were we?”

“We were talking about you wearing me out tonight,” she said. She swallowed hard, and her hands tightened around him, then slid away.

Jake lifted up. After the intense day they’d shared, he thought he knew her pretty well. “Livvy? What’s wrong?”

She swallowed hard. “Nothing,” she said, but she didn’t meet his gaze. Her hands tightened on his back, then loosened again. Slid off his back and onto the sheet.

Jake kissed her deeply, then wrapped his arms around her and breathed in her soft, woodsy scent. Stroked the delicate satin of her skin. Listened to the sounds of her breathing steadily in and out, her breath feathering over him. He could lay here with Livvy until the end of eternity.

Something bumped into the wall outside their room. Ignoring it, he kissed Livvy again.

He’d lost all sense of time, and he didn’t care. All he cared about was Livvy.

Then someone knocked at the door, the sound sharp and impatient, and that jolted him to alertness.