did?”
“Yeah. You’ve been out for almost four hours.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh.” He stroked her tumbled red curls off her face. “You’re pushing yourself way too hard with the physio and handling all this stuff with Naomi. Just – just stay still and breathe for a minute, alright?”
She turned to face him and cuddled down in to his arms. She rested her forehead against his broad chest, felt his steady heartbeat under her fingertips. “I was so scared when I woke up and had no memory of getting here… I thought that I was starting to forget new things, too.”
His arms tightened around her. “You didn’t forget anything, doll.”
“OK.” She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “OK.”
He made small circles on her still-tense back. “You were so wiped out, it worried me a bit. Was last night too much? I was too hard on you?”
Sarah pulled back and gave him a shining, wicked smile. They had made love the night before, for the first time in more than two months, and it had been nothing less than incredible. Exhausting, for sure, but it was that amazing exhaustion that only Jax made her feel: he left her limp and sated, but still craving him, still hungering for more. No matter how many times he took her, there was no such thing as enough of him, no such thing as too much from him.
She saw the worry on his handsome face, though, so she kissed him. “No. You were perfect last night.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She slowly ran her foot up the side of his leg. “The whole night was perfect.”
Jax grinned now. “It was, wasn’t it?”
“Mmm-hmmm.” She made that low, throaty sound that she knew he loved. Sure enough, those dark green eyes sparked in to flame. “What time are you going to Curves tonight?”
“I have about two hours.”
“Two, huh?”
“Yep.” His hand was tracing the curve of her generous hip now. “Why are you asking?”
“Oh, no reason. Just wondering if you want to make the first part of
this
evening perfect too.”
“What did you have in mind, Red?” he asked, his voice husky.
“Maybe I can show you?” She pressed her palm against the front of his jeans. “It would help things quite a bit if you took these off, though, Stud.”
“Oh, God, baby.” Jax groaned as she rubbed herself against his hardness. “Yes. Show me.”
**
King made eye contact with Tex and Honey. They were watching the warehouse closely and he saw their wariness even from thirty feet away.
Yeah, I'm with you, guys. This is all wrong.
"King?" Knox's voice in his earpiece was hushed. "You there?"
"Yeah," he muttered. "You and Tank in position?"
"Copy that."
"What do you see?"
A short pause. "Nothing much. No guard at the door, no cameras. The van is in the garage and the door is fucking wide open."
"Who the hell leaves the getaway vehicle in plain sight like that?" King said. "This is fucking amateur hour, man. No way these are the same people who took the kid from the hospital. That was textbook."
"No shit. Whoever these guys are, they're just the babysitters."
King looked at his watch. "OK. We move in two and on my mark. Knox, you and Tank take the front, Honey and Tex take the side. You clear my way and I'll retrieve the package. Guys?"
"Copy, boss," Honey said. "We got it."
"And as tempting as it is to shoot these fuckers in the head, refrain for the moment," King said. "These boys aren't the ones we really want, but they have to know something. Maybe we'll be able to persuade them to talk before we bring in the cops."
His team murmured their assent, then fell silent. King stared at the back door some more, pondering his next few moves. No way to tell for sure where Freddie Karr was, but he was determined to find him. King just hoped it was in one piece and still sucking in air.
For just one second, he allowed himself to think about Pete and Jillian Karr; their pale, stricken faces had haunted his dreams for the past week. Despite not being wealthy people, they'd
Stephanie Laurens, Alison Delaine