“What if Gracie is already dead?” Her lip trembles the smallest amount.
Hand lifting to brush over her mouth, I smooth the tiny tic. “You can’t think like that.”
“I’m being realistic. What if we’re too late?”
There are times when being the ultimate authority in our team sucks. Point in case. No one else has the heart to tell Ember that this could all be for nothing. Though it seems she’s having the same doubts already.
“Then I’ll happily hold Gael down while you take whatever pound of flesh you so desire from his corpse.” Her lip shudders where I pull it free. “And I’ll do the same thing for Nolan Madden.”
“I don’t want revenge,” Ember mutters. “Only justice.”
“Will you settle for an end to this nightmare?”
“Not if it doesn’t involve bringing Gracie home.”
Dismissing me, Ember turns to tackle Tom’s new fingerprint ID scanner. It protects his steel-reinforced, Sabre-fitted door, the crown jewel in a whole host of improvements. Growlingunder my breath, I catch her around the waist and spin her to face me.
She makes a small squeak when I back her up into the front door, aligning our hips and bodies in perfect correlation. Her head tilts up to mine as I clasp her chin between forefinger and thumb to prevent her from looking away.
“What are you doing?”
“You’re going to listen to me carefully, Ember.”
Defiance barely covers the sheen of real fear roiling in the thunder-stricken skies that paint her irises. Bravado aside, I know she’s scared. Terrified even. We’ve come so far to reach this point, and the end feels within reach.
“I will not lose you now that I’ve found you,” I whisper harshly, pinching her chin tight. “Not for justice, revenge or whatever you want to call it.”
“We have the advantage.” Ember stares back at me without flinching. “Nolan Madden doesn’t know that we have his location. We can extract Gracie and apprehend him in one fell swoop.”
“Just like that?”
“Not exactly. But this is the lead we’ve been waiting for. We can’t allow fear to control us now.”
This fucking woman.
Only Ember can lecture me about grand, heroic gestures and still turn me harder than steel with the rough timbre of her voice. That fiery defiance is one of the first parts of her that I fell in love with.
Uncaring of our location, I frantically crush my mouth on hers. Abrupt. Heavy. A dominant display of just how hard I’ll fight to keep her on the safe side of this fight. Even if she hates me for it.
At least she’ll be safe.
Ember furiously kisses me back with all the rage that’s kept her going until now. The sheer, unbreakable will to confront her abusers. Her need for redemption wrapped up in this teenage girl’s stolen life.
We’re a messy tangle of emotion, both grasping each other and trying to find some sense in the unthinkable. She can’t walk away from this case. I can’t protect her from it. We’re on a one-way track to an ever-nearing collision, and still, she refuses to stop.
I push my hand beneath her cropped black tee, fingers splaying over soft skin. Ember winds an arm around my neck, pulling me closer so she can deepen our kiss with a hot swipe of tongue. It makes me growl down deep like some kind of wild animal.
I’m itching to touch her. To cast all final doubts aside and slide so deep within her, she can’t ever hope to dig me from her veins. I want to own Ember, to love and fucking cherish her. To hold her close and share her with those I care about most.
I want her.
And I don’t care who that will hurt.
If we’re walking into a firefight, I refuse to do it without cementing her place at my side. No matter the complications or countless problems still to sort. I’ll take the small slice of her heart she’s willing to part with and charge ahead as a happy man.
Tearing my lips from hers takes great self-control, but I find the sense to do it, tucking my face into the crook of her neck and breathing her in. Her scent seeps freely, all feminine and floral. She shivers against me when I lave my tongue up the side of her neck, throat to ear.
“Fuck, love. I want to throw you against this door, spread your gorgeous legs wide open and sink my cock inside your heat.”
