Convicted (Entangled Ignite) (11 page)

She supposed he was entitled to his arrogance, at least a little. Handsome enough, with that tall frame and broad shoulders and the way the sun turned the deep wheat color of his hair into some kind of angelic gold. And he was probably a seriously lethal son of a bitch. He’d just never done it for her. Something about his confident grin and the way he’d always been so sure of himself. When they were kids, Rick Trelane just had it all too easy.

Now? Now he just pissed her off.

“You wanna tell me why you dragged me up here at the crack of frickin’ dawn?” Meeting was risky, so they made sure not to do it very often. He hadn’t even given her a reason in his text. Just the time to arrive, the lazy prick.

Rick finally turned, taking a squinty-eyed drag on his cigarette. “What’s the matter, Katy, worried about losing some beauty sleep?”

She answered him with a raised finger. “What do you want, Rick?”

“I want to know what you’re doing with Cade.”

The temptation to turn on her heel and let him enjoy the sight of her ass walking away almost got the better of her. Instead she crossed her arms and glared at him. “Nothing. Like he asked me to.”

Even if it hurt like a son of a bitch to keep her distance.

It was the right thing. The safest thing, for both of them. He didn’t need her confusing him, and she couldn’t afford to give Frank a way to hurt her. If anything happened to Cade because of her, she didn’t know what she’d do.

“He
asked
you to leave him alone?”

She shrugged. “He decreed it and I decided he was right. The two of us make about as much sense together as sugar in a gas tank.”

It was the truth. Except… Except when she was with him, it felt more right than anything she’d ever known. Peaceful, yes, but also thrilling. Exciting, arousing, freeing… And though he would never understand why, having him in her life, even just for those stolen hours, having him to look forward to, made her feel clean again. Real.

The man made her forget the tightrope she walked, giving her a sense of herself again. The woman she was under all the bullshit and carefully constructed lies. When she was with Cade, she could be Katrina, David Killian’s daughter. Not Katy, Red Dog’s hated niece.

That was precisely why he was so dangerous. And why she was even more deadly to him.

She was in this position expressly because she had no ties and nothing to lose. No one who could get hurt if her gamble didn’t pay off. Cade could be used, if Frank ever felt the need to make a point.

She never expected the one with the blade to grind would be Rick.

“Why don’t I believe you?”

“Because you’re a suspicious prick.” She shrugged again, not caring if he could tell he was making her defensive.

“He’s worried about you.”

Her angry stance faltered, but she shored it back up as quickly as she could.

“Look, I don’t like this any more than you do.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “But Cade’s my friend—probably the only real one I have left. And you and I have been in this together from the beginning, so whether you admit it or not, it’s my job to protect you.”

Actually, since she was a federal agent, she was supposed to protect him, but the truth was, they’d been looking out for each other since they both came home and found the town to be worse than either had imagined.

“He cares about you, Katy. You’re important to him. I don’t know if you can appreciate what that means to someone like him—”

The defensiveness eased out of her and she looked down to the hard-packed earth under their feet. “Yes. I can.”

Rick stayed quiet for a few strained minutes. “The things we saw out there… The things we did to survive… You can’t know what it was like. You’ll never fully understand what he’s been through.”

What they’d
both
been through. She swallowed at the knot forming in her throat. It wasn’t comfortable, wanting to console Rick. So she simply nodded. He wasn’t wrong. She remembered too well the demons her father had faced, the ones he’d lost to. The thought of Cade walking down that same path made her chest ache.

“Why didn’t he see someone after you two came home? Therapists, counselors.” Things were different than in her father’s time. Back then, the military didn’t even want to admit PTSD existed.

Rick suddenly ran his hand through his hair, agitated enough that he didn’t bother hiding his feelings. Or maybe he couldn’t. “Mandatory therapy isn’t going to help anyone who doesn’t want it. Cade went through his paces, same as me, but you know how he is. Whatever they wanted to hear, whatever they asked for, he complied, just to get the fuck out.”

Yeah, she could see that happening. Evaluators getting precious little more than Cade’s stony expression. Unless they outranked him. Then, she imagined, they got a salute.

“Maybe you should tell him the truth.”

Katrina’s head shot up, shock opening her mouth before she even knew what to say.

“Tell him the truth and get him out of here.”

“Are you insane?” As if Cade would believe her. Her past spoke for itself and the story wasn’t kind. Truth never was.

He stalked closer to her, lowering his voice as if they could possibly be overheard. “If we work together, we can get you both out without Frank realizing a thing.”

“You know that can’t happen.” On the off chance Cade did believe her, he wouldn’t leave Rick. Wouldn’t leave any of these people to die or worse, knowing he could do something about it.

“Yes, it can. We can come up with something, something that bastard will believe.”

All at once, Katrina flashed back to her conversation with Shana. The similarities made her breath catch. Was this how Shana felt every time she had to justify continuing to risk her life? Knowing the impossibility of running all the way to the depths of her soul, even though she knew the person in front of her was speaking sense? How did you make someone else understand something that only made sense when you were the one walking the path?

“I can’t just throw away the last two years and who knows how many lives—”

“Yes, you can,” he insisted, daring to put his hands on her shoulders to ensure she met his searing gaze.

For a second, all she could hear was the scrape of her oddly panicked breaths, temptation teasing her with smoky tendrils she could feel almost as tightly as his hold on her.

Walk away from all the fear of discovery? From the lies that had become open wounds? To have Cade look at her with pride instead of his confused attraction? But reason came back soon enough, making her shake her head. “Why are you saying this? Why are you—”

“Because I’m afraid if we don’t tell him, he’s going to get himself killed trying to save you.”

She pushed him away, but his words kept her rooted to the spot.

“That man is the only reason I made it back home.” Rick’s voice rumbled, a whisper made gruff with remorse she could practically touch.

She closed her eyes, trying to shut out his words. “Stop.”

“You care about him, I know you do.
He
knows it.”

Katrina backed away. One step. Two. “Stop.”

But he didn’t. He just kept hammering at her. “This is how you help him. He needs someone to care about, someone to live for.”

The past spiraled upward in her mind. She’d been that once. The only reason her father had clung to life. The reason he’d suffered day after day, night after night. Until he’d started to blame her. Until she blamed herself…

“
Stop, goddamn it!
” Both her fists landed hard on his chest, her head bowed until she was practically leaning on him. Hot tears stung her eyes, falling to the dirt without ever touching her cheeks. She blew out a breath, willing the shaking and the panic back.

Rick said nothing, just stood there and let her get her bearings.

She wrapped her arms around herself, but she couldn’t lift her head. “I can’t be Cade’s crutch. It wouldn’t do him any good.”

“Okay.” He at least realized he’d hit too deep a nerve, his voice low and almost soothing. “Not his crutch. But you can be more to him than I can. You can reach him, Katy. All I’m asking you to do is try. For him. For you. Get out of here, find out what you can be if you give it a chance.”

She was already shaking her head, trying to ignore how much she wanted to take him up on his offer. Abandon her assignment? Tell the DEA to go fuck themselves for keeping her in this position when everyone else in her task force was gone? Tempting, but she knew damn well she’d put herself here. She’d fucking volunteered, taking savage pleasure in the thought of weeding out her uncle’s precious MC. Even if she could turn her back on the only thing she’d ever done right in her life, there was no guarantee Cade would follow her. That he’d forgive her for risking his life for the sake of her case.

That she’d forgive herself.

“I can’t.” Her breath shuddered out of her, but she knew she had to be firm. She lifted her face and met his gaze. “This case is more important than just me and Cade. How many people have been hurt by this club? How many people have bled or died because of it? No, keeping me embedded is the best chance we’ve ever had of getting them out of this town. Of making them pay for what they’ve done.” Red Dog’s recompense had already begun, trapped in that solitary cell, with nothing but four walls to think about for the rest of his grizzled, empty life. Frank, on the other hand, deserved even worse.

“You’re not responsible for what they’ve done.”

She knew that. In her head and probably in those deep parts of her heart where her father’s voice still whispered, she knew. But everyone she grew up with held her accountable by association, from the first time she walked into Marketta to when she drove out thirty minutes ago under the careful watch of Eleanora Blaver, who’d lived above the library for forty years.

Those hated looks had chased her all her life. They drove her to leave town and to do something decent with herself. What began as a vengeful career plan to be a police officer had led her down a winding road to what she’d hoped would be redemption. Through the academy and getting her nerve to apply for the agency, past the training in Quantico and all the psychological testing she was sure she would fail. Always, no matter the case or the challenge, the blame had clung to her shoulders. And now…

Now it wouldn’t let go.

She looked up at Rick, despising how helpless she felt against it. “If I leave now, I will be.”

His shoulders dropped and she knew he wasn’t going to argue anymore. That was probably the reason he’d taken the job in the sheriff’s office when he came home and saw how bad it had all gotten. Once you knew, you couldn’t walk away and do nothing. Not if you wanted to keep the pieces of your self-respect together.

Her heart, she reminded herself, was never part of the equation.

Chapter Eight

Cade might have missed her if the roar of her motorcycle hadn’t woken him from the light doze he’d been enjoying while parked in the shade of the hillside. That or the alert from the radar gun would have gotten his attention. One hundred ten miles per hour really upset those things.

It only took a second for him to turn the engine and tear off after her, but Trina rode a white and blue Ducati crotch-rocket that ripped up the road like a jet and left him choking on her dust. It was at least three minutes before he even began to catch up.

Swearing, he maneuvered the tight curves of the road. He nearly fishtailed twice and damn near drifted off the side of the cliff. He saw when she finally registered the siren, her head turning briefly in her helmet to look over her shoulder. When she disappeared behind yet another bend of the old highway, he wondered if she would leave him behind or if she would stop to see him.

Mooning like a goddamned teenager…

If it didn’t take all his concentration to control the cruiser, he’d have slapped himself. But he did allow himself a relieved breath when five seconds passed without her coming back into view on the next mountain curve. Five, then ten. Accepting that she must have pulled over to wait for him, he turned off the siren and slowed his speed, taking the last few bends at a less breakneck pace.

He finally found her, leaning against her bike in a turnout. He pulled into the unpaved makeshift cul-de-sac, eyes narrowing at her angry stance. Helmet off, white leather jacket open, arms crossed over her breasts. Those damn tight jeans of hers, denim cupping her the way he wanted to. Even from his seat behind the wheel, he could see the blazing rage in her eyes. Her luscious mouth, usually so inviting, was hardened to a flat line. The real giveaway was the rapidly tapping foot that had her practically vibrating in place while she waited for him to step out.

Just fixin’ for a fight, as his mother used to say.

He took his time opening the door, letting the metal creak slowly into a squeal before falling open of its own volition. It was a pace he kept on his way out of the car, too, watching her eyes narrow as he dragged out the inevitable explosion. He knew exactly when it would come, too. The exact instant the door slammed, the
wham
echoing off the mountainside around them. It might as well have been a pistol shot.

“What the
hell
did you think you were doing?” She sprang away from her bike, striding toward him like a hurricane. Both her hands landed on his chest and she shoved hard enough to almost move him. “Still trying to get yourself killed?”

“Me?
I’m
not the one driving like a maniac.”

“You were all over the fucking road!” She seemed to realize she wasn’t going to move him, but she didn’t give up shoving at his chest.

He closed his hands around her wrists. “You want to stop doing that.”

Those flashing eyes narrowed. “No, Evigan. I really don’t.” Another shove, this time with her body. “You make me so…fucking…
angry!”

“Feeling’s mutual, sweetheart.”

“No, it’s not, you unfeeling bastard.” Of all the things she could have said, that one hit bone. Because she knew, knew exactly how much he felt. How the waves of every emotion and sensation slammed over his head, drowning his thoughts. His control.

Nothing battered him more than the feelings he should never have developed for her.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he finally demanded. “I’d have followed anyone who was speeding like you were. You scared the shit out of me.”

She blinked, as if reason had just occurred to her, but in a flash, she was back to pushing at him. “Bullshit. You didn’t want anything to do with me, remember? Now I’m supposed to suddenly believe you care?”

“I’m not the one who ran for it, Trina. That was you.” She used him. Pure and simple. Attributing her with emotions she never claimed had been
his
mistake.

“I came back.”

“I was smarter by then.”

Her struggles to get her hands free started all over again, only angrier. Solid shin blows landing hard enough to make him grunt, but he didn’t let her go. He turned them toward the front of the car. There was a satisfying metallic thud when the backs of her thighs bumped into the front fender of his cruiser.

He crowded her further, slamming his hands on either side of her and forcing her to lean back as he towered over her. “You’re going to calm the fuck down so we can talk about this like adults.”

“Talk about what?” she demanded snidely. “Last I checked, you didn’t
want
to talk to me.”

The hurt in her voice tore at him like acid. “I didn’t want to be your pity fuck, and I sure as shit didn’t want to arrest you after you’d been in my bed. That doesn’t mean I wanted you to run out and get yourself killed riding like an idiot.”

“That’s not it and you know it. You just didn’t want to bend your goddamned principles enough to keep sleeping with a woman you think is beneath you. Well, you know what, Officer Holier-Than-Thou? Fuck you. Fuck you and the high horse you rode in on.”

The urge to shake her strung every muscle tight. “My principles are all I’ve got left. And they’re the only things keeping me from showing you exactly what I do when I find a woman like you
beneath
me.”

“Oh really? Prove it.” Before he realized what she meant, she leaned enough to unbalance him, letting her back take her weight and lifting her legs to wrap tight around his hips.

God, the smell of her, so close and so feminine, the feel of her supple body pressed up against him again, her pussy all but clasping the searing edge of his cock. The fact that she was in those fucking tight jeans and he was still wearing his gun belt—the damn thing shoved up by her clasping thighs—meant absolutely nothing. All it would take was a millisecond’s slip and he’d be devouring her. Again. Taking her mouth like it belonged to him and ripping at her clothes until he could drown himself in her every sensation anew.

He wouldn’t be gentle. Hell, he wouldn’t even be good. It had been too long and he was too damned hungry. No, he couldn’t let her get to him. Couldn’t let her have her way, because it was clear on her face what she was doing.

Pushing. Always pushing.

“See? You have me exactly where you say you want me and you still won’t take me.”

“This isn’t about what
I
want.” He didn’t care if his voice was little more than a growl. “This is about you using sex to keep secrets from me.” He nodded at the small gasp that escaped her, swearing when his hips were grinding against her and unable to stop the harsh, satisfying movements.

If she was going to make him hurt with need, she was damn well going to feel the same.

“Every time I get close to figuring out what it is you’re really after, you go straight for my balls. I may want you until I feel like I’m on fire, but I’m not goddamned stupid.”

His hands shook, even now clenching into fists on the hot metal of the car hood, trying desperately to grab some control when what he really wanted was to bury his fingers in her hair and take her mouth in every way possible. He closed his eyes, straining for patience, for a sense that wasn’t filled with her.

And just like that, without even realizing his mistake, he lost the fight.

Her mouth slammed into his, open, wet, and determined.

One taste of her, the flavor of her against his tongue again, and it was over.

They crashed down over the hood, mouths fused, struggling to get impossibly closer. She shoved at his coat, he yanked her up higher onto the car. When she hissed at the heated metal beneath her, he helped her get the jacket off so he could shove it beneath her.

They clung roughly, pulling at each other, tugging at clothes. Her fingers speared into his hair, demanding even as a feminine growl of pleasure emanated from her throat. Like a purr…

The sound of it snapped him from his attempts to unbutton her jeans, reality seeping into his desire-soaked brain. He lifted himself from her, trying to catch his breath. “I-I don’t have anything.”

She rose up after him, her mouth hot against the skin of his throat. God, was that her teeth? His erection hardened painfully.

“Oh, now that’s not true…”

“Condom,” he ground out, closing his eyes at the sensations drowning his underused touch receptors. Even through their clothes, her body pressed against his was nearly cause for overload.

She finally stopped twisting him around her fingers long enough to pant against his ear. “Bike pack. Left side.”

Dammit, she nibbled on his neck for sure that time.

He straightened and she squirmed out from beneath him to roll off the car. He turned with her, watching her run to her bike. She rifled into her pack, but he stopped paying attention. The ache in his cock remained as insistent as ever even as his muddy conscience grew louder by the second.

What the hell are you doing?

She
’
s lying to you.

Again.

But then she turned, the heat in her eyes as she stared at him searing through and through.

No longer angry, she moved like a prowling cat toward willing prey. “Damn. I took too long and your brain kicked back in.”

“It never completely shut off.”

She nodded thoughtfully, still coming closer. No hesitation at all, she sidled close, her hands immediately going to his gun belt. His hand landed on hers, though he made no effort to stop her from sliding the thick leather from the loop. The heavy belt slipped off, Trina carefully lowering it to the ground. God help him, she stayed there, her hands sliding up his thighs, only stopping on either side of the erection neither of them could ignore. “I could help you with this.”

Firm fingers slid over him, drawing his eyes shut with nearly forgotten bliss. “I
want
to help you with it.”

“You want to hide from something,” he argued, willing his hips to pull away from her maddening strokes.

“Yes, I do. But you’re the only one I want to hide with.” Steady hands undid the button on his pants, smoothly pulling the zipper over him.

He looked down at her through shuttered lids. This wasn’t a battle he could win, not fighting both of them. He wanted her too much and she had the stubborn stare of a woman who wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She curled her fingers over the elastic of his underwear and he knew if he was going to stop her, it had to be now.

Instead he watched her drag the black fabric down until his cock sprang free. Then he watched her slide her lips over the head and take him inside. He shuddered, trying to draw in a breath, but air didn’t come in. Not when she wrapped her tongue around the underside of him and breathed him in instead. Wet heat enveloped him, throbbing around him as her cheeks hollowed to suck as much as she could take. It was almost more than he could bear.

Until she pulled back, releasing him.

She smiled, so much sin on those wet lips, her cheeks pink while her eyes glowed. Then she did it all over again.

His elbows hit the hood of the car, his head falling back because she fisted her hand at the base and pumped against her own stroking mouth. Her hand disappeared, but before he could complain, she pushed him deeper, until he slid into the tight sheath of her throat.

Pleasure sharp as pain shot through him, made him grit his teeth to grapple for control. He almost found it, almost, until she made that sound. That purr… Only instead of simply tantalizing, it rumbled all around him. Rippling up his length, intensifying when she began to pump him in and out.

His hips jerked and the world went white, the feel of her smile falling with him into oblivion.

…

Trina licked her lips. There was something so satisfying about seeing a man as powerful as Cade Evigan splayed back, utterly at her mercy. She was right about to take him in again, just to hear him moan, when his hand suddenly dove into her hair. She looked up, finding her gaze caught by his blazing stare, her head held so firmly she couldn’t have moved if she wanted to.

Suddenly, mercy didn’t seem like quite the right word.

“You about done playing down there?”

Her mouth went dry as he rolled himself back to standing. That beautiful cock went back into his underwear while he efficiently zipped up again. Zipped, but not buttoned.

“Get up.”

She followed the command without thought, her insides shivering with an anticipation she didn’t understand. Cade’s jaw was cut like granite, his expression almost merciless. Control radiated off him like an icy wind, but she was hotter than ever just looking at him. He stepped back, never taking his gaze off her face. Not giving her a single clue what he meant to do.

“Hands on the car.”

For just a second, she stared. It was all she could do.

He stared back, gaze like stone. “
Now
, Trina.”

“You want to
role-play
?” Not what usually worked for her—she liked hard and fast, thank you very much, but if that was what he needed, she could probably swing the damsel-under-arrest without much trouble.

“No,” he growled as she shrugged. “I want you to get your goddamn hands on the car so I don’t have to worry about them while I fuck you blind.”

“Oh. Well, when you put it like that.” She was still turning when he crashed into her from behind, pushing her down over the side of the car. Heat radiated off him, especially where his fingers tangled in her hair. His grip wasn’t gentle, but oh god, it felt good. Almost as good as his hand palming her ass before squeezing one cheek nearly tight enough to hurt.

“I should spank this ass until you tell me what you’re hiding.”

Her lids fluttered shut. Damn if she wasn’t wishing he’d do exactly that. She even lifted into his grip, unable to keep from offering it to him.

“I should, but I won’t. You pushed me too far.” Before she could complain about who was pushing whom, his body pinned her to the car and his hand came around her waist, plucking at the button on her jeans. Her zipper came down with a jerk and then his hand snaked in under her panties to the heart of her.