SOAR (The Indigo Lounge Series Book 4) (22 page)

When
her need clawed through her, she moved her hips.

He
met her thrusts, slammed her repeatedly into the bed. One hand drifted down her
side, seeking her tattoo. When he found it, he caressed the words.

He
gritted his jaw, and clamped a hand around her throat. “I won’t let him break
us, Leia. I won’t lose you. I won’t.”

TWENTY-SIX

Noah’s
eyes popped open a second before his phone beeped. Silencing it before it woke
Leia, he read the message.

Terrace.
Now.

Tugging
on his jeans, he didn’t bother to speculate on how his PI had gotten inside his
condo. But he fully planned on tripling his security ASAP. Right after he tore
a few heads off at the concierge desk in the morning.

Paddy
sat in one of the deck chairs, cradling a glass of bourbon.

Noah
took a seat across from him. The sky above was an inky black with a smattering
of stars.

“Since
you’ve helped yourself to my expensive booze, I’m assuming you have news?”

“You
assume correctly. The cops actually came through. They found the delivery guy.
Traffic cameras caught the idiot parking his motorcycle in an alley two blocks
over. The plates were registered in his name.”

The
red rage threatened again. “We know who sent him?”

“He
said some guy paid him two hundred bucks to deliver the package. He’s been
taken in for questioning. I have a friend at the precinct. We should have a
description of whoever sent the package by morning.”

“And
if it’s Willoughby?”

“Then
it’s good news. It means he’s still in Florida and easier to track. It’s likely
he has very little cash and can’t really go anywhere without the payday he was
expecting. Unless…”

“Unless?”
Noah demanded.

Paddy
knocked back the rest of the drink and set the glass down. “The other thing you
asked for. I have some info on that too. There’s definitely a connection.”

Noah
tensed
. Snyder.
“Yes?”

“That
name you gave me? He didn’t always go by that name.”

“What?”

“Who
didn’t go by what name?”

They
both turned around.

Leia
was leaning against the
door,
her arms folded crossed
her midriff. She’d put on his Vassar T-shirt and her skirt from earlier but her
hair was tousled and her mouth was red and swollen from the greedy kisses he’d
demanded from her. He’d kissed her for a straight hour after they’d made love,
and yet his need was as intense and insatiable as ever.

He
held out a hand and she joined him, perching on his lap. His fingers drifted
over her ear and she relaxed against him.

“You
know much about Snyder’s history, specifically when he met your dad?” Paddy
asked.

She
sat up. “Warren? My dad met him in college, I think. They were roommates.”

“Your
dad went to Yale, right?” he probed.

She
nodded and glanced at Noah. “What’s this about?”

His
gut churned. Despite what Warren had done, he knew Leia still held out a tiny
hope that the
man
who’d taken care of her after she’d
lost her family, was redeemable. Noah had a feeling his suspicion that Snyder’s
actions hadn’t been selfless right from the start was about to be confirmed.

Paddy
stood and paced the terrace. “Snyder was a freshman at McGill University in
Montreal two years before he transferred as a sophomore to Yale.”

Noah’s
nape tingled. “Are you saying you don’t know where he disappeared to for a
whole year?”

“Oh,
we know where he went. He was living on a farm in Montana with a family with
the last name of Willoughby.”

Leia
paled. She swayed in his arms. Noah caught her before she slipped off his lap.

“Oh
God.
Ohgodohgodohgod
,” she whispered.

He
pressed a hard kiss to her mouth, swallowed her horrified words. “
Shhh
, baby, it’s going to be okay. We know what we’re
dealing with now so—”

“Do
we?” Her face creased with pain. “He fooled us all. My dad, my mom…he brought
that…that monster into our lives, and he sat back and watched him destroy my
family.” Her eyes widened into large, tormented pools. “Oh God, what if he was
responsible for my dad…Warren was on the boat when the accident happened.”

Noah
tilted her face to his. “If he was, we’ll find out. I give you my word.”

Paddy
cleared his throat. “Without evidence or Willoughby’s corroboration, we won’t
have anything concrete against Snyder.”

Pain
ripped at his insides when her eyes filled with tears. Tucking her head against
his chest, he looked over at Paddy. “Then find the asshole. Now!”

The
older man gave a
message-received
nod and silently retreated.

Leia
burst into tears.

His
insides shredded at the sound of her sobs. Knowing she needed the release
didn’t make it any easier. He held her until her sobs turned to sniffles.
Picking her up, he undressed them both and stepped into the heated tub with
her. He cradled her in his arms until the sun rose and she woke from a light
doze.

He
suffered through watching her eyes cloud over as memory returned. Cupping her
jaw, he stared down at her. “Do I have your permission to destroy the
motherfucker now?” he rasped.

Her
eyes lost a shade of distress and her jaw flexed against his fingers. “You find
the deepest, darkest pit and I’ll bring the shovel.”

***

Paddy
called just after midday. The description given by the delivery guy matched
Stephen Willoughby. The detective, probably wanting to prove Paddy wrong for
the incompetent dig, went at the case like a dog with a bone.

Not
that Noah minded.

He
had Tim and Harry on the case too, getting them to use their software to scour
traffic camera footage within a ten-mile radius of the condo.

After
this was all over, he was going to make those boys richer than their wildest
dreams.

For
the thousandth time, his gaze drifted to the sofa in his study where Leia was
sleeping. His chest expanded at the sight of her relaxed faced and softly
parted lips.

He
loved her.

Fuck,
he loved her so
much,
he didn’t know how his body
wasn’t consuming itself with the force of his feelings.

After
this was over…

He
laughed under his breath. Yeah, after this was over he was going to do a hell
of a lot of things. Starting with taking steps to make Leia Michaels
permanently his.

Until
then, he had two assholes to wrangle down.

Sucking
in a deep breath, he clawed both hands through his hair,
then
tensed when his phone rang. Looking at the screen, he cursed under his breath.

Ashley.

He’d
signed her up with a private OBGYN and the private chef she’d insisted she
needed to maintain a healthy diet during the pregnancy. Beyond that, they
communicated strictly by email because the sound of her voice filled him with
loathing. And he was paranoid enough to imagine his unborn child could be
adversely affected by hearing the anger he couldn’t control every time he spoke
to his ex-fiancé.

“I
thought we agreed on a precise means of communication that did not involve me
speaking to you?”

“Please
don’t be mean, Noah. I just…just wanted to hear your voice.”

He
swallowed his angry retort and took another breath. “Is everything all right?”

“With
me or the baby?”

“Take
the question at face value and answer it.”

“We’re
both fine.”

“In
that case, there’s nothing to talk about—”

“Wait!”

“What?”

“I
have an appointment tomorrow. Will you come with me?”

He
frowned. The OBGYN had sent him a schedule of everything
expectant parents
needed to do before the birth. He had nothing in his diary for tomorrow. “Is it
routine?”

“No,
but I felt a fluttering this morning and I want to check that everything is
fine.”

His
boulder slammed into his chest. “Define fluttering,” he ground out. He hadn’t
asked for this baby, but he couldn’t dismiss the protectiveness he felt toward
it.

“I
don’t know…a fluttering.”

“You
have a degree from Cornell, Ashley, and if you weren’t telling one of your many
lies, I believe your dad wasted a lot of money to send you to some fancy
bullshit finishing school in Switzerland. Find the words.”

A moment of silence.
“Maybe it’s nothing.”

A
needle of guilt pierced him, perversely making him angrier. “I’ll call the
doctor, tell her to swing by the condo.” He paid enough for Dr. Franklin to
make house calls.

“Thank
you, Noah, I knew you—”

He
hung up and threw the phone down. Dragging a hand over his face, he looked up
to find Leia watching him.

They
hadn’t talked about Ashley or the baby since she’d moved in. His heart hammered
as her eyes stayed on him.

“I’m
sorry you had to hear that,” he murmured, gauging her reaction. “That woman
drives me to the fucking edge.”

Without
responding, she pushed aside the light blanket he’d thrown over her and stood.
Expecting her to come to him, his eyes widened when she caught the hem of the
short cream jersey dress and pulled it over her head.

No
bra.

No
panties.

His
heart leapt into his throat.
Leia’s body.
The ultimate
distraction, panacea and paradise rolled into one. He stood and walked around
to perch on the edge of his desk. His groin was already hard enough to cause
him severe distress, but he stopped himself from reaching for her. He wanted to
savor her, drown in the feeling thundering through him.

“Leia…”

She
traced her fingers down her midriff to the top of her thighs. His breath
stalled,
then
rushed out when she slid her fingers
into her pussy. “If you come over here, I’ll drive you to the edge, but in a
good way.”

His
clothes came off in seconds.

Driving
into her, he shuddered. “God, Leia…you make me…I feel…”

Her
wet fingers drifted to his lips. “I know, baby,” she whispered. “You don’t need
to find the words. This is our language. Express yourself.”

***

Tim
and Harry’s traffic tracking program picked up Stephen Willoughby, returning to
a seedy motel in South Beach, just before eight p.m. that evening. After
congratulating them on a job well done, Noah left them hi-fiving each other and
called Paddy.

“Call
me once you confirm it’s him,” Noah instructed. “What I have to share with him
won’t take too long.” Five minutes alone with the guy was all he needed.

“Understood.”

He
went into the bedroom.

Leia
was packing her clothes away in the space he’d provided in his closet. She
hadn’t put up a fight when he’d had her stuff removed from her condo to his,
thank God. Crossing to his side, he swapped his jeans and white T-shirt for a
black turtleneck and black cargo pants. Leia’s eyes widened when he opened a
drawer and pulled out black leather gloves.

“Are
we going out? And why do you need gloves—?” Her breath stalled. “You’ve
found him?”

He
gave a curt nod. “Paddy has a man stationed downstairs. He’ll come up and stay
with you until I come back—”

“No
way. I’m coming with you.”

“Hell
no. I don’t want you anywhere near that shithead.”

She
walked up to him and stared him in the eye. “I need this, Noah. You want me to
be able to put all this behind me one day, I need to bring my shovel.”

And
there was his fucking conundrum. He loved her so desperately he didn’t want her
harmed in any way, but he loved her
because
of that steely determination
and unquenchable fire which blazed through her.

“Okay,
you can come, but you remain at my side at all fucking times. Understood?”

A solemn nod.
“Yes, Noah.”

He
caught her nape and stamped his possession with a kiss. He watched her dress in
tight black leather pants, a grey turtleneck and thigh-high boots. She was
securing her hair in a ponytail, when his phone beeped.

He
read the message with a satisfied nod. “Let’s go.”

The
motel
was
two streets south of
Collins Avenue
. Noah parked his Maserati in front
of a
closed dry cleaners
and handed his keys to one of Paddy’s men.

“Room
332.” The guy nodded at the two-story building across the street.

Noah
grabbed Leia’s arm and led her to the motel.

Paddy
was waiting and opened the door. They walked in, and Noah stopped in front of
the guy seated on the only chair in the room.