Flynn scrubbed a hand over his face as he sat on the couch. The last of their FBI liaison’s guys, along with Steve himself, had just left. They’d taken samples of the blood from the floor, so with any luck, Flynn and his team should know the asshole’s name in a few days. While that was happening, Flynn also had someone fix the broken doorknob.
Callum, Tyler, Aidan, Blake, and Jason stood around his living room. Logan and Liam were in Idaho Falls, watching Paul and his wife.
“I need to be quick,” he said quietly, looking around at the guys. “I need to be with Carina.”
His gaze shot to the stairs. She was staying with him tonight and had just gone to his bedroom. He could hear her moving around up there. She was far from okay. Being attacked and shooting a man had shaken her.
“I’ll call Wyatt,” Jason said, tugging out his phone. “Let him know the latest information on this guy.” Flynn’s team had kept the guys in Marble Falls up to date on the information about a potential enhanced suspect in Idaho Falls.
Wyatt answered on the first ring. “Jason, what’s going on?”
“That man we told you about,” he said. “The one just as fast as Flynn? He broke into Flynn’s home today and confirmed he was part of the project.”
There was a beat of heavy silence. “What part?”
Flynn leaned forward. “He claimed he was a former guard of Hylar’s. He wasn’t at the facility the day your team infiltrated the place and broke us out. Said there were a handful of them who weren’t. That they’re now basically guns for hire on the black market.”
Wyatt cursed. “Where is he now? Has anyone interrogated him? Found out where the others are?”
“Carina shot him, but he got away,” Flynn said quietly. “I had to choose between saving Carina and chasing him. I chose Carina.” And he would choose her every time. The same as the rest of them when it came to an innocent person…or a woman they loved.
Blake stepped forward. “The FBI took a sample of his blood, so we should have a name soon.”
“Got it. At least that’s something,” Wyatt said. “I’ll let my team know. We’ll search for information on others from this end.”
“We’ll do the same here,” Callum said.
“Thanks for keeping us updated. You need anything else from us?” Wyatt asked.
Flynn shook his head, even though the other man couldn’t see him. “Not at the moment. But we’ll let you know if that changes.”
“Okay. Talk later.”
When the call ended, Flynn blew out a long breath and leaned back in the seat.
“So,” Aidan said quietly. “Who was the hit on, you or her?”
“That’s the fucking question.” And it was tearing him up. “I would have assumed he saw my face in Idaho Falls when I chased him, and he came to eliminate me. But the guy said to Carina that he was here for a job, just like he was doing a job there.”
“Does she have any enemies?” Callum asked.
“None that I can think of, except…” He paused before shaking his head.
“Victoria?” Tyler asked.
“She wasn’t happy when I broke up with her, and she was even less happy when I started dating Carina. Hell, she tried to frame Carina for drug theft.”
The damn hospital footage—both from where the drugs were stored and the hall where Victoria bumped into Carina—had been wiped for that day. He didn’t know how she’d done it, but he suspected Victoria was responsible.
“Do you think she’d go so far as to hire a hitman to kill her?” Aidan asked.
“No. But then, I wouldn’t have thought she’d frame her for drug theft and erase the footage, either.”
“We’ll find this guy and ask him ourselves,” Tyler said, pushing off the wall. “In the meantime, we make sure Carina’s protected, and you watch your back.”
“Want us to stay?” Aidan asked.
Flynn shook his head. “I’ll alarm the house. I don’t think we’ll receive any more visitors tonight, but I’ll be ready if we do.” He could go from asleep to awake in seconds.
Once they left, Flynn took his time going through the house and checking that every door and window was closed and locked, then set the alarm.
His team had brought over some food. Food that Carina hadn’t so much as touched, and he’d had very little stomach for. He quickly put the leftovers in the fridge before moving up the stairs.
The floor was silent as he made his way to his room. The second he stepped inside, he heard the steady heartbeat. The quiet breaths. Sounds that were already achingly familiar to him.
He stepped up to the closed bathroom door. There was no sound of movement. No running water or rustle of clothing.
He lifted his hand and knocked softly. Her breath stuttered.
“Carina? Can I come in?”
There was a short beat of silence. “Yes.”
He cracked the door open slowly. She was facing the mirror wearing one of his shirts. It drowned her, making her look ten years younger than she was. In her right hand was a bloodied antiseptic wipe.
“Did it start bleeding again?” he asked quietly, studying the cut on her temple. They’d already cleaned and covered it. He’d pushed for a hospital visit, but she’d insisted she was fine and didn’t want to go back there. He couldn’t blame her, given her experiences so far.
“Yeah. It’s okay, though.”
Nothing about tonight was okay.
His hands went to her hips, and he gently turned her before lifting her to the bathroom counter and stepping between her legs. He took the wipe from her hand. “How are you feeling?”
A large bruise bordered the cut. Fuck, but he hated that.
“I’m all right.”
He paused from dabbing her head. His voice lowered. “You’re not. And you don’t need to pretend you are. But you will be.”
Her brows tugged together as she looked at his chest. “Do you think I killed him? I know he ran out of here, but do you think the bullet wound will kill him?”
He wasn’t sure if she was worried about the asshole dying at her hands or worried that she hadn’t killed him and he’d come back. But he couldn’t lie.
He lowered the wipe and took her face between his hands. “He’s like us. Fast healing. So he’ll probably live. But he won’t get near you again. If you had killed him, it would have been okay, because the man doesn’t deserve the air he breathes.”
Not a single fucking breath.
“I know. I just… I’ve never shot another person before, and it feels…”
“Wrong,” he finished for her. “I remember feeling the same the first time I shot a man.”
She gave a slow nod. “I’m sorry you had to choose between saving me and chasing him.”
The woman didn’t need to say sorry. There was nothing to say sorry for.
He lowered his head, touching his forehead to hers. “I would choose you again. Without thought. Without hesitation. Every time.”
Her hands rose to his neck. The first kiss she pressed to his lips was soft. Almost more of a graze. Yet, it stole into his heart, taking every good feeling he had and making it her own.
He itched to take her into his arms and devour her. But she needed to choose now. The pace. The touch. What happened next.
She kissed him again, her fingers threading through his hair.
On the third kiss, her tongue slipped inside his mouth.
Blood began to pound through his veins. He slid his hand under her shirt, gently digging his fingers into her flesh.
She continued her slow exploration of his mouth while wrapping her legs around his waist, pressing her softness into his hardness. His chest rumbled at the feeling.
Slowly, so slowly that she could stop him at any time, his hands went to the hem of her shirt before pulling it gently over her head. She was naked beneath the shirt, save for panties, and it almost had his control snapping. Almost.
She did the same to him, tugging his shirt off, their lips only separating for a second. Then they returned to each other.
When he wrapped his fingers around one soft breast, she hummed, pressing into his hand, her fingers tightening around his neck.
After what had happened tonight, this was everything. She was everything. She soothed the fire that had been raging since he’d opened his door. She was the peace that had been stolen from him.
His thumb grazed her peak, and she whimpered, her fingernails now scraping down his chest.
His mouth trailed along her neck, her chest, stopping at the breast he hadn’t yet explored. He took her hard nipple between his lips. Her cry was loud, echoing through the room. He sucked and nibbled, absorbing every little whimper and jolt.
His other hand lowered, slipping inside her panties and grazing her slit. He lifted his head and took her lips again, swallowing her cry. He swiped and played with her as her fingers dug into flesh. Then he placed a finger at her entrance and slowly eased inside.
This time her head tilted back, her lips separating, drawing a long breath into her mouth.
So damn beautiful.
He thrust his finger in and out, all the while swiping at her clit with his thumb. When he pushed a second finger inside, her nails dug deeper into his biceps.
“Flynn…”
He kissed her neck. Nibbling. Tasting. “What do you need, baby?”
Her hands lowered, stopping at his jeans, unbuckling and unzipping. Then her fingers reached inside his briefs, holding him.
Everything in him stopped. His movements. His breath. His heart. When she stroked, just once, the fire inside him ignited and flared. The blood roared between his ears.
For a moment, it was all he could do to force his lungs to work. The air to move in and out of his chest. She stroked and grazed him, moving her hand from his base right up to his tip.
It was too damn much. With desperate fingers, he opened the drawer beside them, whipping out a condom and donning it. He easily tore her panties from her body. Then he returned to her, pressing himself at her entrance and pushing inside.
Her eyes shuttered as he caught her mouth, plunging his tongue between her lips. Then he thrust, filling her each time, pulling out to the tip.
She consumed him, drove him crazy. But she was also his sanctuary.
Everything in Flynn knew this woman belonged to him. That they belonged together. It was this voice deep in his soul, which had once been a whisper but now was a shout. Demanding he keep her close. Demanding he protect her. Protect them.
His hand rose to her breast while the other wrapped around her waist, tilting her hips and changing the angle.
She moaned as he rolled her nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
That sound… It tormented him. He did it again and again, rewarded every time. He thrust harder. Faster.
It was on another roll of her peak that her back arched, her lips tore from his, and she shattered.
Flynn continued to rock inside her, but at the feel of her walls tightening, his entire body tensed, then he broke. He cried out as he recaptured her lips.
When he finally stilled, it was only their chests that moved. He held her close, making a promise there and then. This woman was his to keep and protect. And he would destroy any man or woman who tried to take her from him.
