Cuckoo (Kindred Book 3) (21 page)

Her chest moved with the heaving weight of every panting breath. Brodie gave nothing away, just stood there absorbing her words for so long that she thought he might burst. For years, he’d accused Caine of being a nuisance and had ignored him because Caine had always been on his tail, even since the early years of their association when Caine idolized him.

“She’s in love with you,” Zara said, moving her palm to his cheek. “The reason she came to CI was to rekindle your romance. All this time… she’s been in love with you and using Caine as a stenographer. He sends her reports, pictures, anything she wants. In return, he gets sex… or at least sexual contact, and a pat on the head. He’s not obsessed with you. He’s obsessed with her.”

This was a lot to take in and she knew that, so she gave him some quiet time. Reading Brodie took work, and she used past experience with him to interpret what he was feeling. But there was no frame of reference this time. No way to judge his reactions to what she was saying because she’d taken what he assumed was a given fact and disproved it in one rush of conversation.

If Art was here, she could’ve taken the information to him, or they could’ve delivered it together to give Brodie some kind of support. At the moment, it was just her and she didn’t know what he needed.

“I’m sorry, beau,” she said, soothing him with a caress. “I’m sorry that I—”

He turned around so fast that she wobbled and fell to sit on her feet to prevent herself from tumbling off the bed. His hand rose to rub the nape of his neck, and she gave him some more time to process. She didn’t know what was more shocking to him, that Caine wasn’t the enemy they thought he was or that the ex-girlfriend he’d thought was a part of his past had never given up hope of reviving their romance.

When he did speak, his words were quiet but deliberate. “I brought her here because I thought it would force Caine’s hand. I thought he’d be angry. Thought he’d come for me and then I’d have the opportunity to end him.”

But eliminating Caine wouldn’t necessarily change anything. Cuckoo had plenty of friends and could manipulate men with her body, she’d asserted that before. Just one look at her would tell any rational person that Cuckoo had the goods to support her flirtations. Getting Caine out of the way would be getting rid of the devil they knew. Cuckoo’s next errand boy may not be as restrained as Caine had been.

“What are you thinking?” Zara asked when silence stood between them for more than a minute.

“That I have to get rid of the disease not the symptom,” he said and followed it with an exhale. “Art always told me Cuckoo was crazy.” Moving in a half circle as he said the more upbeat words, he fixated on her. “How the hell did you get her to tell you that?”

“I didn’t,” she said. “I didn’t go in with a game plan or anything. She asked me about Game Time. I told her I wouldn’t tell her anything and I could see that she was pissed. I guessed that she’d asked you and that you hadn’t told her about it either. It got to her that she couldn’t manipulate you into giving her what she wanted.”

“She’s good at that.”

“With other guys, sure. But you recognized her tricks, or you weren’t interested in taking advantage of her incentive. Whatever it was, it pissed her off, and it only got worse when I called it right. She told me you two were meant to be, that I was temporary and that she’d have you again. Then she went into the whole history lesson. She plans on asking you to kill Caine just as soon as you’re back together, by the way.”

He took a step toward the bed. “You didn’t—”

“Of course I didn’t believe her,” Zara said and stretched her arms toward him.

He came to her but sat on the bed instead of walking into her arms. Moving upward, he propped himself on the headboard and pulled her over between his thighs to hold her. Brodie wasn’t going to go into a speech about how this changed things because she wasn’t sure that it did. Caine had still been a bug in his ass for long enough that Brodie probably wanted rid of him even if he was innocent. Except now that they understood the extraneous circumstances, she felt a bit sorry for Caine.

Warmed by the embrace of the man she loved, she was pleased he had accepted the news without flipping out. It was a shock but didn’t change their lives. Caine would keep on following them and reporting for as long as Cuckoo needed him or until someone killed him.

Cuckoo was a problem, and Brodie had said he needed to take care of the disease. But the CEO was a woman Brodie had once been fond of. Zara didn’t know if sharing a bed with Raven exempted a person from facing Maverick’s wrath.

Caine had caused trouble in their lives, and she had no plans to become best friends with him now that she knew he was being manipulated. But Zara did feel awful for him, she pitied him, for being so in love with a crazy bitch who was using him for her own ends. He’d lost years of his life to her cause, and he had to believe there would be some reward for him at the end.

Maybe it was just habit now, he’d been doing it for so long that he didn’t know any other way to be. Still, it was sad and spoke volumes about the truth of Cuckoo’s character. Art had warned Zara about Cuckoo’s psychopathic tendencies, but her pathology ran much deeper than the enjoyment of watching Raven work. Cuckoo could torture a person for years, use and manipulate them, without any remorse. She was a piece of work.

The warmth of her love’s flesh was a comfort, and this piece of news made her appreciate the honesty of their relationship even more. “She’s been using him for years. She spoke about him like he was nothing, like he was a piece of shit. He has all this love for her, and yet she’s plotting to have him killed if her plan comes together.”

“She’s making him think it’s about revenge,” he said. Caressing her upper body, he brought his knees up to settle them on her, providing a reassuring cocoon. “That by chasing me around all over and harassing you that they’re punishing me for what I did, for ripping their relationship apart.”

“What they had wasn’t a relationship,” she said, tipping her chin up though she couldn’t see his face. “A relationship requires respect and compromise. She told me that the reason she hooked up with him in the first place was because she had heard he knew you. Caine probably doesn’t even know it.”

“He started out crazy,” Brodie said, wrapping both of his arms around her shoulders. “He was a regular pro at stalking me even before she came into the equation.”

When they were all younger and stupider. Chances were that Caine’s obsession with the sniper would’ve worn off when he found something else to worship. The trouble was, the next obsession in his life was Cuckoo, who commanded him to stalk the man he’d previously revered.

“But that was harmless, he was a pain, but he didn’t mean to hurt you. He just wanted to be in the club. She sought him out because he knew how to track you down. She didn’t go back to him for love, she went back to manipulate him.”

“Everybody has to be good at something.”

Slanting her body, she tried to peek up at him. “You better not be making excuses for her.”

To pacify, he ran a hand up and down her arm. “Not a chance,” he said, kissing her head. “We’ll have to take CI out from under her. She’s too close now, she could do real damage if—”

“Julian is tracking down Winter Chill.” Brodie’s breathless silence made her hurry to explain. “He appeared in Purdy’s while I was waiting for Kahlil. He doesn’t know he’s tracking it down, but he knows Grant’s accountant. He’ll have the records sent to me later. It might not turn anything up, but getting into the personal paperwork might be the way forward. Did you find out anything by following Kahlil?”

She ran her fingernails up and down his forearms that were crossed over her upper chest. “Turns out that beneath that tanned exterior, his blood runs Russian.”

“You’re kidding,” she said, pausing. “He went to meet Sikorski?”

“Yep,” Brodie said. “He’s a real sick bastard, maybe the worst sadist we’ve seen. But he doesn’t care where results come from. Kahlil probably went looking for him after he got booted by his last employer.”

“At least Kahlil hasn’t told anyone else about Game Time, Sikorski already knew. How come Kahlil’s old bodyguards are running Sikorski’s errands?”

“Kahlil probably employed those guys himself the first time, and when he got fired, he had no more need for them.”

“And somehow they ended up with Sikorski?”

“Yep,” he said. “Vermin like that work for whoever ponies up the green,” Brodie said. “We saw something else too.”

“Leatt,” she said, resting her arms over his. “He came to the meeting in Purdy’s.”

“We saw. What did he say?”

“That Kahlil recruited him while he worked for Sutcliffe and that they killed Grant because he’d served his purpose. They searched the compound for clues about Game Time ‘cause they weren’t sure we had it. When they were, they cooked up the latest deal. This is all one big mess. We can’t let them have Game Time, but we have to know. How are we going to figure all this out?”

“We always get answers,” he said. “Sometimes it takes time, but the truth doesn’t want to stay hidden.”

As her morning had proven. Brodie slid down the bed, taking her body with his, and she sat up just enough to reach the blanket he was hooking upward with his foot. Covering them both up, it was time for them to rest. Given all that they’d learned and the prospect of what could happen if they failed, sleep wasn’t going to be an easy get.

Caine wasn’t what they thought he was, neither was Cuckoo. Sikorski had hidden in the background and had risen up when all parties were at their weakest. Kahlil had a story that she was desperate to know because it would bring peace to the man she loved.

And then there was Winter Chill. They had to track down the Game Time production project or controlling the devices they had would mean nothing.

As she listened to Brodie drift off into slumber, she took stock and realized that she wasn’t afraid. She didn’t doubt the Kindred’s capability. The prospect of pain for Brodie kept her awake. Caine and Cuckoo were coming at him for something that had happened when he was a younger man, a less experienced man. He was still dealing with the loss of Art, and the reminder of the loss of his parents was the last thing he needed while he was finding his feet as the Kindred chief.

Brodie was under a lot of pressure to make the right decisions, to not screw up, and he’d feel the weight of Art’s teachings as though his uncle was there over his shoulder watching out for every mistake he might make.

All Zara could do was be here for him as a support, both in their work and in their bed, because saving the world from Game Time meant dealing with emotional issues that he’d sidelined for most of his life. It was all about to come out. It was all about to get real, and there was no assurance that this story would end well for any of them.

She was cooking in the kitchen, whipping up something to take over to the hotel when Brodie came in and propped both hands on the lower part of the kitchen island. Glancing over her shoulder, she waited for him to say something, but he didn’t.

“What?” she asked, sampling the sauce one more time before she turned off the heat and went to wash her hands.

“Your CI lawyer friend sent you a message,” he said.

Snatching the towel, she dried her hands on her journey to his side. “Well?”

“He came through. We’ll have to trawl through every transaction. Tuck’s gonna come back to start trying to figure it out. Your friend doesn’t know what we’re looking for, we have to find it ourselves. It might take a while, but we’ve got the info, that’s a great start. Your lawyer buddy saved us some legwork.”

Asking Julian had been a spur of the moment decision, one she was glad to have made. “See?” she said. Stretching her smile, she bounced up to sit on the counter. Holding onto his shoulder while Brodie took her hip and slid her to him, he settled between her parted thighs. “I told you it was a good idea.”

“I stand by what I said, the dude wants into your pants. He got the job done damn quick for a guy who’s just helping out,” he said.

“I’m sure a quick blow job will suffice,” she said, but when his expression became more deadpan, she shook her head and patted his chest. “I’m kidding.”

“Yeah, keep working on that sense of humor, ‘cause I think the guy likes his tongue in his head and his balls in his pants, which they won’t be if you open your mouth for his dick.”

She wasn’t the only one whose jokes missed their mark. When Brodie said things like that, she could never be sure if a laugh was the response he was looking for. Levering up to kiss him, she ran her hand over his hair. “You better let this grow again.” She missed being able to tangle her fingers in his hair.

“I will,” he groaned. “I know you hate it.”

“I don’t hate it. You look sexy and dangerous.”

“Which goes away when it’s longer?”

“No,” she said, wrapping her legs around his pelvis. “I just like to have something to hold onto when your head’s between my thighs.”

“Can’t say you’re not honest,” he said and kissed her before unhooking her legs from around him. “I have to get over to the hotel. I’m gonna help Tuck pack up. We don’t need to keep watching Kahlil if we know who he’s working for and with.”

“About that,” she said, coiling her leg around his thigh to prevent him from getting too far away.

“What?”

“There’s something that didn’t come up when we were talking before. This morning, before he left, he spoke into his cellphone like he was recording something. I think he might be a double agent, I don’t think Sikorski has him.”

“What did he say?” Brodie asked, intrigued enough to return to his previous position.

“The most important thing he said was that he had poison in his watch.”

Why it was there was another question and one that made her think he wasn’t being as compliant with Sikorski as they believed. Sikorski would bring money to the table, money that Kahlil probably didn’t have. But the Game Time deal he’d offered came with the promise of plenty of green. She couldn’t see Kahlil having those kind of private funds. He dressed well but had maintained a subordinate place in his previous organization. If he’d had the funds to go it alone, she’d guess he’d have tried it by now.

But carrying poison and claiming his aim was to eliminate a target suggested more than it being an undetectable defensive measure.

Possibilities flickered behind his eyes, and she was curious about her love’s conclusions. “Why would he say that?” Brodie asked. “Poison for him or someone else?”

“I’m going with someone else because he said if he got close enough, he would eliminate the threat or the target… something like that. I can’t remember which word he used.”

When his pondering concentration broke, her actions became Brodie’s focus. “And you tell me this after having sex with me and sleeping in my bed all day?”

“I’m telling you now,” she said. Telling him sooner would have caused him to take action, and he needed his rest. “I tried to call you about the poison as soon as he said it, but you didn’t pick up your phone.” For this, she gave his chest a shove. “Sometimes I do have important information. I don’t just call to ask what you want for dessert.”

“I guess that explains why you had a message from Thad about poison. Atta girl.”

Anticipating the possible need for an antidote impressed him, so she supposed that she was out of the doghouse for delaying giving him the news. “Just thinking ahead,” she said. “Except as it turns out, there isn’t one. So we will have to be careful.”

He frowned. “Yeah, I read that. He wrote a fucking essay, the toxin comes from fish or something, I don’t know.”

Zara poked his ribs. “How do you know I have a message from him?” Or from Julian for that matter.

Both men had messaged her private email account when she’d heard from them before finding Brodie in the bedroom. Julian wouldn’t even know how to contact a general Kindred address, he didn’t know the Kindred existed.

With a knowing look, she dropped the affront to smile. Tuck had said that Kadie acted pissed when he hacked her accounts, but she secretly wanted him to do it. Zara now got what he meant. It was sort of nice that Brodie was interested enough in her life to want to pry into what was going on. And she had nothing to hide from him, so he could read her messages as much as he wanted, just so long as she got to read his in return.

“Just watching your tail, baby,” he said, leaning down to kiss her shoulder. “Do you think he wants to take out Sikorski, or is it Leatt he’s planning on betraying? We’ll have to keep an eye on this one. The shit will hit the fan, someone’s getting a dose of that poison, either his partner or his banker.”

They would have to watch themselves, too, despite being lucky enough to have others looking out for them. Being part of a group gave them protection that the others wouldn’t have. She hadn’t seen Sikorski herself today, but she’d met him before. He traveled with others, bodyguards probably paid to take the bullet if one was shot his way. But honor among thieves tended to depend on who could offer the best benefits. Anyone could be working inside. She knew from experience that trusting an outsider with your secrets or your life could be the last mistake a person made.

“What do you think about Leatt?” she asked because she still couldn’t understand why he was allied with Kahlil.

“I don’t trust him. I never did,” he said. That could’ve had something to do with her sort of faux dating Leatt for a while. “But Leatt’s more of a follower than a leader. He didn’t come up with the plan, whatever the plan is. That might make him expendable. Psychopaths tend not to carry dead weight, and that’s what he’ll be to Sikorski. What does he have to offer that Sikorski might need?”

“We’d have said Kahlil was a follower given his history, and it turns out that losing his job is a helluva incentive.”

“He’s angry,” he said. “We can’t be sure of how many people he’s working with. Recording that message about eliminating the threat, that was for someone.”

“Leatt?”

He tilted his head, and his squint made her think he disagreed. “Maybe. But what bonds these guys? It’s a good idea to have backup, but far as we can tell there’s no blood or sentimental relationship. Kahlil could have a brother or family member in the background. Maybe not. But we’ve got to be ready for anything. I don’t want any surprises this time. Maybe we should keep running the stakeout, see who else shows up.” Drawing in a long breath, he ran his hand up to the back of his head and gripped her neck in the other. “Good thing I got some sleep today. It’s gonna be another long night.”

“I’ll pack up some of this food and we can—”

“You’re staying here tonight,” he said, picking up a tendril of her hair. “I have to focus, and having you there is too much of a temptation.”

“You’re not going alone,” she said, recalling how she’d felt that morning when he’d raced after Kahlil and that was during daylight. “You should always have backup. You just said so right there.”

“Tuck’s been on watch all day. I’m not asking him to stay there another night. That shitty place hurts a guy’s soul, trust me.”

“I’m not talking about Tuck, I’m talking about me. If I say no sex then we won’t have sex. Taxicab, there you go, now you’re not allowed to touch me.”

Her smile was meant to portray her confidence, but when he leaned back to eye her chest and opened his hands on her thighs to slide them up under her skirt, her resolve wavered. It grew weaker when his eyes narrowed, and he dipped down to rub the bruise on her neck with his stubble.

He parted his lips and the inhale of breath against her skin made her eyes close. She grew weak when he kissed her once. Tracing his lips higher, he kissed her again on the underside of her jaw and moved over to kiss her chin. With excruciating pace, he let his lips sink onto hers.

She opened her hands on his chest and lessened the circle of her legs around his hips enough that she could lock her ankles together behind him. Opening her mouth, she expected his tongue, instead he withdrew and brushed his lips over her cheekbone to the shell of her ear.

“I know how to make you beg for me, pretty baby. You blink those big brown eyes and get me hard, rubbing my fucktoy all over me, those hot tits and your smackable ass. You push my property, that body, into mine and you’ll make me want you. I can’t be close to your tight pussy without wanting it. I don’t even have to touch you, I know how to get you so wet you’ll be soaking through your panties. You’ll be dripping, begging me to fuck you, no safe word can stop you from wanting me. When you want it, pretty baby, you’ll get it from me, hard and fast and any other damn way I give it.”

Her dry lips came together and she swallowed. He was right, her insides were alive, her blood simmering to a boil. She wanted him. Her man. She wanted him now. Her breasts were so heavy they hurt. The rasp of material on her nipples made them burn, and the zing of torturous want shimmied from her clit to her brain, blanking all thoughts but one.

“I want you now,” she gasped and grabbed his belt, but he backed away out of her reach, leaving her panting.

He laughed, a deep, depraved chuckle that tormented her because it punctuated his power over her. “And that’s why you’re not coming with me,” he said, reaching over to skim her chin with a fingertip.

She didn’t want him to be right because she didn’t want him working alone. With a sigh, she surrendered to his wisdom. Going to their stakeout to back him up would only be useful if they both kept their mind on the job. When there was imminent danger, that was no problem. But alone in a bedroom all night, watching a man who’d probably sleep and only get up to pee, the temptation to take the risk would be too great.

Acknowledging that truth didn’t alleviate the weakness in her arms and the giddiness that was making it difficult for her to focus. The tingling need moistened her center in readiness for him, and she couldn’t be left hanging all night.

“Ok,” she said. “How about a webcam then?”

One corner of his lips curved high. “Nice,” he said in approval. “Then I can tease you all night long.”

“Without touching me.” Which was the point because he needed to keep his wits about him and his attention on Kahlil. Still, that solution didn’t scratch the itch of need that dampened her underwear just like he said his seduction would. “Ok… but you have to fuck me now… quick, I swear.”

Begging for his acquiesce, she worried he might refuse her. But he came back over and planted a hand on the counter on each side of her, forcing her to lean back. “No time for that,” he said. “I won’t be able to shower over there if I’m alone, and if I go over there reeking of you and sex… you’ll be the distraction I’m trying to fucking avoid. Do you think I don’t notice when my body stinks of yours?”

The distraction he didn’t want her to be. That could be why he’d showered before Tuck went to bed at the motel and why he’d let Tuck sleep beside her instead of taking the place himself. She knew what it was like to be horny in a room full of Kindred members and unable to satisfy herself. Sleeping beside her love was torture when she wasn’t allowed to play with him.

Instead of leaving her hanging as she feared he might, he grabbed her hips, yanked her to the edge of the counter, and winked before he crouched between her parted legs. He sank his mouth against her core. He licked and teased, tasting her drenched threshold with the tip of his tongue then sliding the stiff point up the center of her body’s seam to torment her clit.

His mouth was amazing, she’d known he loved to kiss from early in their relationship, and he loved cunnilingus almost as much. His mouth inspired ecstasy. Her legs crossed over each other and rested on his back as her fingers rasped through his hair. His thumbs slid between her folds, and he pinched her clit with a pad on either side, letting him roll and arouse the nub while his mouth went south to tongue her opening.

“God, I want to fuck this sweet cunt so bad,” he breathed the hot mumbled words on her, just a hairs width from her glistening flesh.

“Are you hard?” she whimpered, pushing his head back enough that she could look him in the eye, and the flash of black fire in his gaze made her groan and fall onto her back on the counter. “Oh, God, beau, don’t tell me that.” With her palms on her forehead, she ran her fingers through her hair.