Page 14 of The Flame of Carson (Blackout Security Inc. #3)

“Get the hell out of my way Danny, I need to see Gage.” Stacey demanded.

“Stacey, he’s giving a statement to Wilson right now. Here, let’s go in the kitchen and I’ll tell you what I know.” Danny sighed, taking her arm gently.

Stacey let Danny lead her into the kitchen while trying desperately to slow her racing heart.

About fifteen minutes earlier, Ethan had called her saying there had been an incident at Gage’s house and that it appeared to be linked to her anonymous emailer.

She hadn’t thought, she had just stripped off her works clothes, threw on jeans, a t-shirt and her boots, then ran downstairs to grab her helmet and jacket.

She jumped on her bike and sped over to Gage’s.

Shakily she slipped onto one of the bar stools while Danny went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.

“Is...is Gage...”

“Gage is fine Stacey. I got here a minute after Ethan. Gage told us he had just got out of the shower when he said he heard a noise downstairs. He grabbed his gun and was on the landing overlooking the living room. He saw a guy standing there. A second later the guy turned, looked up and pulled out a .45. The intruder emptied it before running out the front door.”

“Oh my god.” Stacey breathed, burying her face in her hands.

Footsteps behind her had her head snapping up and she turned on the stool just as Gage walked into the kitchen.

She took a breath, opened her mouth, closed it, then threw caution to the wind and rushed toward Gage, jumping into his arms. When his arms came around her Stacey felt her body break into shakes.

She was shocked to feel the tears beginning to flow down her cheeks.

She barely registered Gage picking her up and carrying her.

“Shh, Shh. Hey, babe. I’m okay.” Gage assured her as he rubbed her back.

“I...I’m...I’m sorry.” Stacey sobbed quietly as Gage held her and sat on her vacated stool.

Gage watched Danny slip from the kitchen. Gage sighed and held his woman tighter. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry about Stacey. Okay? You hear me?”

Stacey lifted her head from his shoulder and her gaze met his. “I hear you.” She reached up and cupped his face. “I just thought, well, I just thought he was some person behind a computer screen. Before today...”

“Before today he showed no sign of making physical contact.” Gage finished for her.

“Yeah.” She sighed.

Gage wrapped a hand around one of her wrists, “Tomorrow morning Jimmy and Cain want both of us in their office. Wilson took my statement and he said he would forward it to them first thing, as well as to Sherman, Harrison, and Vance in New York.”

“After I got the email today, I called you, then called Jimmy as I left the office about the email. You didn’t answer.”

“I was probably in the shower that’s why. Look, let’s go into the living...”

“Gage, I thought you said you were okay?” Stacey demanded.

Gage frowned till he saw where she was looking at the bandage wrapped around his upper arm. “Shit. Look, one of the bullets grazed my arm, it’s barely a scratch.”

“He hurt you...because of me...”

“Stop. Stop that right now. You hear me? This isn’t your fault in any way shape or form babe. You got that?”

Stacey let out a slow breath and nodded. She slipped off his lap and allowed him to stand. With his arm around her, Gage led her into the living room where Danny and Ethan were sitting on the couch. Both men stood. “Thanks for calling me, Ethan.”

“Anytime. Now, Jimmy called me and said you got an email and that you called him when you couldn’t reach Gage?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah. I was just getting ready to leave for the day when I got a notification of a new email. I opened it and it was from him.” Stacey answered.

“Stacey, do you have access to your work email?” Danny questioned.

“Yeah, I just need a computer.” She nodded.

Gage hopped up and headed for his office.

He returned a few moments later with his laptop.

Stacey took it, sat it on the coffee table and opened the web browser.

In about a minute, she was in her work email account and brought up the email.

“After the first one, I began saving them under a folder in my email. Before Walt closed my old account, I forwarded those to him as well as myself and saved them on my laptop. When I got my new email, I started a new folder. Just in case you know.” Stacey explained as the men read over the email.

Gage frowned as he read the email. “Have all the emails been like this? Possessive?”

Stacey nodded, “Pretty much.”

“What are you thinking Gage?” Danny inquired.

“I’m not sure. I won’t really have a better idea until I see the other emails.” Gage replied then faced Stacey. “Babe, do Jimmy and Cain have copies of those emails? The older ones I mean?”

“I think so. I mean, they said they reached out to their counterparts in New York. If not, I can get them.” She stated.

“Ask Jimmy and Cain in the morning. After you two are done there, I want you both at Blackout.” Ethan said. “Come on Danny, let’s get out of here.”

“If you two need anything, just call.” Danny added.

Gage and Stacey gave the two a wave and once the front door closed behind them, Gage felt Stacey sigh and snuggle deeper into his arms. Gage rested his head against hers as he felt her hand slide up and into his hair.

He couldn’t help but smile. When they first met, he had his hair cut in a buzz cut but now it had grown out and he let it after she had said she liked being able to run her fingers through it.

He had to admit, he enjoyed it too. His soft smile faded when he felt the small shivers that began rolling through her.

“Stacey? Baby, what’s wrong?”

“Gage...I...”

He shifted his hold so that he could tilt her chin up so their eyes locked, “Talk to me.”

“I was scared. I saw that email and when you didn’t answer my call...God. Then Ethan called...” she paused and took a breath. “My mind started running through dozens of scenarios of what I would find when I got here.” She explained.

“Stace, I’m fine. Yes, the bastard grazed me with one shot, but I’ve had worse injuries. If he hadn’t turned, I would have had him.”

“I know you can handle yourself Gage, but this fucker...we don’t even know who he is. He seems to know me or at least enough about me to know we’re involved and to find you and your house and get in. That makes him dangerous. I’m starting to get scared about this now.”

“Babe, as for him getting in my house, that’s on me. I didn’t engage my security system like I usually do. So, don’t blame yourself for that mistake on my part.”

Gage sighed and hugged her to him, his hand rubbing up and down her back soothingly.

He didn’t know what to say to ease her fears.

He wanted to tell her that everything would be fine, but he honestly couldn’t.

All he knew was now that this guy had made a move against him, that would bring in Blackout.

Yet, he also knew Ethan would want him to stay at a distance which Gage wouldn’t like, but if Ethan ordered it, he would follow his commander and boss.

“So, guess this means Blackout is now involved huh?”

“Yeah, it does.” Gage nodded. “Ethan will probably want me to keep some distance and I will if that’s what he orders.”

It was Stacey’s turn to pull back, “You mean he’d keep you off this?”

“No, well not completely I think, but I wouldn’t be right in the thick of it either. When Krista was in trouble, Ethan was smack in the middle, and I know he believes because of that he missed Ingram.”

“That’s bullshit. None of you suspected him.”

“True and we have all told him that, but Ethan shouldered that blame and after that, he told all of us that if any of us get put in that position he’d want us to be at a distance.”

Stacey frowned, “But what about Lance and Alora? Wasn’t he in the middle of it?”

Gage chuckled thinking about Alora’s case.

“No, not until the very end. Lance was very much on the peripheral. Even when the Malconi’s shot up his house, Lance remained in the background of the case.

Even though it didn’t seem that way to an outsider.

Ethan and Krista, however, were different and Ethan was in the forefront almost immediately because of his past with her.

But even if I’m ordered to back off a little on the Blackout side, personally I will be right there by your side.

If I have to excuse myself from your case with Blackout, I will but, I won’t go anywhere.

I’ll be tattooed to your sexy ass until this is over. I promise.”

Stacey beamed at him. She reached up and cupped his cheek before leaning in and kissing him. God, she loved this man. “I can think of no one else I’d rather have at my side than you.”

Gage leaned in and kissed her sweetly. He sighed as her arms slid around his neck and she shifted herself on his lap so that she now straddled him.

Keeping the kiss light, Gage slid his own hands down her arms, over her rib cage and stopping to rest at her hips.

He groaned as Stacey’s hips began to gyrate slowly and sensually. Pressing herself against him.

“Stacey...”

“I want you, Gage. Now. Take me upstairs.”

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A cross town, in a seedy motel room, the man smiled in the dark.

Yes, it had been risky going to Gage Carson’s house but oh, the understanding he saw in the bastard’s eyes more than made up for the risk.

He had been quite surprised the Marine had not engaged the high-tech security system he saw or had even bothered to lock the front door.

“Soon, soon Stacey you will know pain. You will know fear. Then, and only then will I get my desire.”

Sitting in one of the chairs by the window, he pulled out his gun and in the moonlight that filtered in through the window, he started the task of cleaning it.

As he cleaned, he started plotting his next move.

He knew after tonight’s ordeal that Blackout would now be firmly involved and that posed quite a challenge for him, but one he gleefully was looking forward to.