As I walk down the hallway to the kitchen the following morning, the sound of her laughter drifts out into the hallway. I contemplate turning around and going back to bed, because as happy as I am for my brothers to have her back, it hurts too damn much to see her.
“Morning, bro,” Conor throws an arm around my neck walks up behind me. “You joining us for breakfast? Mikey’s made pancakes.”
I groan inwardly. But, fuck! This is my house and if Jessie is sticking around then I’d better get used to it, and quickly. Besides, I could use her help finding Alexei. “Yeah,” I say, and we walk to the kitchen together.
“Did you and Jessie get a chance to talk?” he asks.
“Yeah. We spoke last night.”
“Oh?” he frowns at me.
“What?”
“She was alone this morning when I got home is all.”
“I said we talked Conor. We didn’t fuck!”
His frown deepens, and I roll my eyes. “We straightened things out. We’re good. But we’ll never be what we were,” I tell him and saying the words out loud to him is like a knife slicing through my heart.
He shakes his head almost imperceptibly and continues walking.
I stop in my tracks. “What?” I snap.
“I didn’t say anything,” he holds his hands up in mock surrender.
“You don’t have to speak for me to know exactly what you’re thinking.”
“Well, if you already know what I’m thinking, you already know that I think you’re being a stubborn ass about this.”
“You think I’m being too hard on her?” I scowl at him.
“No, Shane. I think you’re being too hard on yourself,” he says before he heads into the kitchen.
I walk into the room a few seconds after Conor, right on time to see him pulling her up from Liam’s lap before lifting her onto the breakfast island and tongue fucking her mouth while she wraps her legs around him. Fuck! Me!
“Morning, bro,” Liam shouts with a smile on his face that I haven’t seen in weeks. Mikey tosses blueberries into his mouth while he waits for the pancakes to cook on the stove. I feel like I’ve walked into a fucked up porno version of Little House on the Prairie.
“Morning,” I reply, and the sound of my voice makes her pull back from Conor. Her cheeks flush pink and she whispers something to him that makes him set her down on her feet.
“Morning, Shane,” she says quietly as she walks back to the table and sits down again, on a chair this time.
“Jessie,” I say with a nod as I take a seat myself. I look at my cell phone but my eyes keep being drawn to her thighs as she sits there in Liam’s t-shirt and probably fuck all else. My cock hardens at the memory of her naked body and all of the things I did to it. And the thought of all the things I’d still like to do to it.
“What are your plans for today, Angel?” Conor asks as he kisses her head and sits down beside her.
“I was hoping to do some digging on Alexei.”
Thank Christ! Something to distract me. “Do you have any leads yet?”
“Nothing concrete. But I’ve found some financial records today linked to the house in Connecticut where he took me. The funds have been funneled through at least four different companies, but I think I’ve found a common denominator that will identify some other properties Alexei might own. It will only take a little more digging and then I’ll have a list of possible places where Alexei could be hiding, and then we can go from there,” she says.
Fuck! I forgot how good she was. She got more in two days than I have in two months.
“Well, the sooner you get me those addresses the better. Because we need to act fast. It won’t be long before he finds out you’re back here.”
“About that,” she says as she looks between me and Conor. “I can handle Alexei. I don’t want any of you getting-‘
“He came to our club and shot three of our men, Jessie,” I say to her. “We are all in this together.”
“Yeah, Red,” Mikey says as he walks over and places a gigantic stack of pancakes in the center of the table. “There’s no way we’re letting you deal with him on your own.”
“Besides,” Liam adds as he sits on the other side of her and takes hold of her hand. “He stole you from us, and we owe him for that.”
The flush creeps over her cheeks and she rewards him with a smile that makes me want to bend her over this table and fuck her brains out. I swallow as I try and maintain some level of self-control. Everything I said last night was true. I can never trust her again, so I can never go back there. But I guess my cock didn’t get the memo. Asshole!
“We want Alexei almost as much as you do, Jessie,” I say.
She smiles at me too and I have to look away before all of my blood rushes straight to my cock.
“Why not get the word out that I’m back, and then we can bring the fight here?” she offers as she helps herself to a pancake and places it on her plate.
“No!” me and Conor reply at the same time.
“Why not?”
“Because we’re not using you as bait,” Conor snaps.
“And because we’d prefer the element of surprise,” I add. “If we sit back and wait for him to come to us, we lose that.”
“Okay. It was just a thought,” she shrugs.
“If you can find out which of those properties belong to him then we’ve got something to go on,” I say as I take some of the remaining pancakes.
“Okay,” she nods. “I’ll get on it today. Any chance I could use your computer? It’s got more juice than my laptop and it will probably take me the whole day?”
“Sure. After breakfast?” I offer.
“Great. Thank you,” she whispers.
Jessie and Liam cleared the dishes after breakfast while Mikey, Conor and I discussed club business. She disappeared to her room about five minutes ago and I pray that it was to put on some clothes before she spends the day alone in my office with me.
I sit at my desk and sure enough, a few moments later, Jessie appears in the doorway wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. The relief that I’m not going to have to stop myself from staring at her all day is equal to the disappointment that she has completely understood and respected what I told her last night. We have spent so many hours in this office together, during which she rarely wore any clothes. As a rule, she prefers to wander around this apartment in nothing but one of our t-shirts and a pair of panties. The fact that she is so fully dressed today should make me happy, so why does it piss me off so much?
“You ready now?” she asks softly as she pulls her hair up into a pony tail?
“Yeah. Come on in.”
It’s early evening by the time Jessie and I stop working. She has had her head bent over the computer for seven hours, only stopping for a quick sandwich when Mikey insisted she eat something. I’ve made calls and chased leads and generally been impressed by how quickly and efficiently she works. It has been a relief that we’ve both been so busy because it has stopped me thinking about all of the times I’ve fucked her in this room.
Conor walks through the door, making Jessie look up from the screen. “How are you two getting on?” he asks as he flops down onto the sofa.
“Good,” she says with a smile.
“Our hacker did good,” I say and I don’t miss the look of pride on her face. “Jessie found the name of the company that owns Alexei’s house in Connecticut, as well as another property in the area. I’ve sent some of our men to do some recon on the other property and they haven’t reported back yet. But I suspect we might have found Alexei.”
“Fuck! You two work fast,” Conor says with a grin.
“It was all Jessie. I’ve been looking into this fucker for two months and had nothing.”
“You helped,” she says.
“Yeah, as your gofer!”
She opens her mouth as though to reply and I wink at her, making her smile and blush.
“So, what’s our next move?” Conor asks.
“We need to strike soon, before he finds out Jessie is here.”
“How soon?” she asks.
“Like tomorrow night soon? Are you both okay with that?”
“Yes. The sooner he takes his last breath on this earth, the better as far as I’m concerned,” Jessie replies.
“Fine by me,” Conor adds with a nod before he stands up. “You done for the day?” he asks her.
“Yep,” she switches off the computer and stands too. “You didn’t need me to do anything else, did you?” she turns to me.
“Nope. We’re all done,” I say and wince at my choice of words, because me and her really are all done.
“Good. I need you to help me shower before I go to work,” Conor winks at her and then he slides his hand on to her ass as she reaches him, and squeezes before leaning down and kissing her. She stands on her tiptoes and kisses him back before the two of them say goodnight to me and walk out the door.
