Page 20 of Shadow’s Protection (Hurricane Heat MC #1)
Shadow
Violet sucks my dick like her mouth was made to fit me.
Her tongue laps the barbell more confidently now, like she’s no longer afraid she’ll pull it out or hurt me.
Her confidence would be sexy if I had the brain cells to think.
Right now, with her hand cupping my balls and her head bobbing on my hard-on, thinking is the last thing I can do.
We’re still on the couch, and when I’m good and wet, she stands before me naked. I don’t care how many times I’ve seen this woman, every angle, every new glimpse of her, brings out something violent, primitive, and possessive in me. I want her.
I reach for her and bring her close. “Straddle me,” I demand, and she centers herself over me.
She’s about to sink down and lower herself when she stops, the muscles of her thighs rippling. “Condom…”
I groan. “Over there.”
She practically runs over to the bedside table, yanks open the drawer, and pulls out a condom. Then she comes back and kisses me as she tears open the foil. “Someday, I want to feel that piercing without anything between us.”
My heart rate slows in my chest. What is she saying? Is she saying she wants more of this? More of me? A someday beyond the short-term future in which the roads are too bad for her to leave?
I don’t ask. I don’t want to know. I’m not a forever guy.
I break faces for a living, doing the most I can to keep my contacts in law enforcement happy—happy enough that they don’t look too closely at everything else I do to make a living.
There’s no room for long-term in that situation.
There’s only room for my brothers. The next score. The next ride.
“Fuck me,” I tell her, and she rolls the condom over my cock before she lowers herself onto my lap.
Bracing her hands on the back of the couch, Violet rides me violently, pounding the back of the couch against the wall, her head thrown back.
Her bare toes push against the backs of my calves, and it seems like she’s coming in seconds, not minutes.
I watch her work out her pleasure against me—rough and needy—and I don’t need more than a couple of seconds before I’m shaking beneath her, my climax chasing hers.
She is sweaty and looks stunned when there is a rough pounding against my bedroom door.
“Shadow. We found something.” The voice that comes through the door is Savage, our sergeant-at-arms. His booming words sound as serious as a heart attack.
Violet’s body stiffens, and we both go cold.
“Get dressed,” I tell her. “I’ll handle this.”
She lifts herself off my cock, and I dispose of the condom in the bathroom and get back into my clothes.
Violet is already dressed, sitting on the couch, shaking.
I take her in my arms.
“Whatever we find, you’re gonna have to be ready to deal with this. I’ve got you. I know you’ve got this. You with me?”
She swallows and licks her lips, but her eyes never leave mine. “Okay. Okay.”
I yank open the door to find both Savage and Viper in front of me. Savage nods at Violet, but Viper just stands there, gritting his teeth so hard a vein pops in his forehead.
“We found this.” Viper is holding a small black thing shaped like a hockey puck.
“Bastard’s good,” Savage says, turning and immediately taking off down the corridor. We’re not going into the main room, but we’re heading to the opposite side of the compound—the offices.
I reach my hand behind me and take hold of Violet’s while we walk toward the office I share with Blade, the treasurer. Violet’s hand is weak in mine, but I keep a tight grip on her until the four of us are inside my office with the door shut.
The compound has only two designated office spaces—one that Phantom uses full time, and another with two desks and two laptops that Blade and I share. Most of our business isn’t done behind a desk, but it comes in handy to have a private space to talk at times like this.
I motion for Violet to sit in a chair, and she does, looking from Viper and Savage and then back to me. Her hair is mussed from fucking, but all the glow and satisfaction are gone from her face.
She’s pale.
A fist clamps around my heart, and my gut twists into a knot. I want to kill the man who’s making her feel like this. This worthless piece of fucking shit who can’t take no for an answer and leave well enough alone.
I’m furious, but I need to control my reactions. I’m surprised by how brutal I feel.
Any threat to Violet—even the idea that this worthless squirt won’t let her go—sends my vision to a dark, dark place.
I’m not at all surprised that they found something.
Of course, that asshat Clive was tracking her movements.
What surprises me is how completely invested I am in making this right. In making him pay for what he’s putting her through. How completely invested I am in freeing her and making sure Violet James never, ever feels unsafe again.
Now I just need to know what he knows, so I can be prepared.
“What do you know?” I ask, glaring at the device. “Tell me everything.”
Savage rattles off stats, addressing Violet directly.
Every one of us is already familiar with this thing and what it’s capable of.
“This device is as cheap as they come. He’s probably got two or three of them.
They cost $80 or 90 bucks each and have a powerful magnet inside.
” He takes the device and flips it over, then attaches it to the metal desk to show us how it sticks.
“With an older car like Violet’s, this was really tough to find.
The fucker hid it inside the front bumper.
We tore that car apart. The only reason we found it… ” He trails off.
He doesn’t have to complete the thought.
I know how he found it. We stash trackers just like this one on some of our clients.
One of the best places to hide these buggers is not in the wheel well like they show on TV, but inside a bumper where it’s protected from wind, rain, and pebbles.
Unless the car is in an accident and the device is damaged, it’s almost impossible to find.
“Inside the bumper?” Violet looks confused. “What does that mean?”
I trade a look with Savage and then explain. “The tracker has a battery life of eighteen to twenty-four days, depending on how much driving the mark is doing.”
“Wait, wait…days? Eighteen to twenty-four days ?” Violet covers her mouth. She looks like she’s gonna be sick, but there is no way I can sugarcoat this for her. She needs to know what this asshole has done.
I blow out a long, tense breath. “With the storm and how little your car was moving, who knows how much life is left.”
“So, he knows I’m here? He knows exactly where I am?” Her eyes are wide, and her voice trembles. “For a couple hundred dollars, he could keep track of me for months?”
I nod. “Absolutely. These things are accurate, Violet. Very accurate. That’d explain why every time you went someplace, he’d show up not long after you got there.”
She rubs her face with both hands and looks at me, those wide green eyes searching for answers. “What does that mean, Shadow? I don’t understand. How accurate are these trackers?”
I take a slow, steadying breath and look at Savage. This is his area of expertise.
He lowers himself into the chair beside Violet and speaks to her gently. I can imagine the days in the past when he was a hero, on the right side of the law—or so he thought.
When he was in the military, doing special ops or whatever he did, vital witness extractions were one thing I know he specialized in.
I can see how good he must have been at the job, and yet again, I have to wonder what brought him so far from that lifestyle. I’m just grateful he’s on the club’s side now.
“Violet, these trackers provide real-time data to the device owner using the cellular network. No Wi-Fi required. They are accurate to within six feet, so whoever planted this on your car would have no trouble getting this close to you.” He uses an arm to gesture between himself and her.
“He probably has a couple of these devices. Keeps one charged at all times. When he knows you’ve been on the move long enough to drain the battery, or when you’re conveniently not on the move, he could park beside your car in a lot, pretend to drop something on the ground, and swap them out without you ever knowing. ”
I drop into the chair behind my desk and rake my hands through my hair.
I know what this means. This fucker is stupid, and he wants Violet.
He knows I’ve been with her, so he’s assuming—rightly so—the worst. That I’ve fucked her.
That she’s mine now. And a dumbass like him is gonna make damn sure he gets up in my face and forces me to make good on my threat to stop him from breathing.
That is, if he doesn’t get to Violet first.
I can’t let her leave the compound. Not until Clive makes his move. Reveals himself as the bottom-dweller he is.
“Where’s this asshole live?” I interrupt. I have a lot of calls to make, and with the storm, I’m gonna need all the time I can get.
She swallows and looks from Savage to me. “Just outside of Tallahassee. A little ways north, by the Georgia border.” She closes her eyes and clasps her hands tightly in her lap. “He could make it here in…”
“Three to four hours,” Savage tells me. “Maybe five to six, depending on the state of the roads. That part of the state won’t have the same storm damage we do, and we don’t know how far away he was when the storm hit.”
“What?” Violet cries out. “Wait a minute. Do you mean you think there’s a chance he’s been here in Tampa this whole time? He could be close right now?”
I come around the desk and pull Violet out of the chair. “How long were you on the road before the storm hit? Did you drive straight here the morning of the storm?”
Anguish coats her features. “Yes. But it’s not like I was watching to see if I was followed. Why would I even suspect such a thing?”