Sweet Seduction Shield (26 page)

The guy Pierce
had been talking to turned to see what had caught his attention and
said something I didn't have a chance of catching. We were still
physically too far away to hear and my eyes were all for Ryan, so
lip reading was out. Ryan chuckled, saying something in reply,
which made the other guy bark out a sound of laughter and then down
the rest of his drink.

By the time we
reached their corner he was saying, "I'll go grab another beer
then. Leave you to it."

Pierce didn't
take his eyes off me, just grunted an affirmative and nodded his
head.

"I'd wish you
luck," the guy said, his eyes flicking between Pierce and me. "But
I don't think you need it. Introduce me next time, eh?"

Pierce didn't
even offer a response, but thankfully the guy hadn't expected one.
He simply smiled and walked back inside the main building, leaving
me alone with Pierce. Huh? I glanced around, noticing Nick, Eva and
Kelly had stopped several feet back, keeping an eye on us, but
making a show of animated conversation capturing a few admiring
glances from various outdoor tables.

Ah, the decoy.
Or maybe I wasn't supposed to come straight over here?

My eyes darted
back to Pierce's, and caught him sweeping his own admiring glance
down my frame. By the time he made it back up to my face I was
actually blushing and couldn’t think of a thing to say.

Ryan didn't
have the same difficulty forming sentences and said, "Did you read
my note?"

"Not yet," I
managed to reply.

He huffed out
an amused sound and repeated under his breath, "Not yet."

Despite our
reasons for being here, mirth glinted in his eyes, making him look
relaxed and happy, completely at ease. And oh so bloody gorgeous. I
flexed my fingers, denying myself the desire to reach up and touch
his face.

"You look
beautiful," he suddenly offered, making my heart skip a beat for
entirely different reasons than it had been up until now. "I
couldn't stay away," he added, and the world around us dangerously
disappeared.

I realised, in
a distracted way, that Ryan gave me another emotion to use as a
shield. I wasn't thinking of the tattooed freak or Roan McLaren
giving directions like a puppet master behind locked cell bars. I
wasn't thinking of Rick's penmanship on every single sheet of paper
inside that fucking book. I wasn't thinking of all the things that
could possibly go wrong and what they could mean to Daisy and me.
Those thoughts were still present, but not overpowering.

Between me and
them I had something else. I had a shield. Not made of ice or
anger. But made of excitement and exhilaration. Of promise and
desire. Of heated looks and sexy smirks. Of the fervent need to
reach out and touch, just to see if we sparked when that
electricity ignited between us.

Detective Ryan
Pierce had cracked the ice, with a little help from his friends,
and replaced it with something so much warmer. So much better than
anything I could have ever thought to use as a shield.

"I really wish
you'd read the note, Marie," he said softly, intimately.

"Why? What did
it say?" I asked, unaware I'd taken a step closer.

He reached up
and brushed a strand of my hair behind my ear, his eyes scanning my
face. The heat from his palm melted me further as he wrapped it
around the base of my neck and pulled me an inch closer still.

He smiled, it
was so damn sexy. My lips parted and a breath of air rushed out, as
other parts of my body clenched tightly.

Ryan shook his
head, the smile widening, but a smattering of regret seeping into
his façade.

"I think I'll
let you discover that all on your own," he whispered, leaning his
face in towards mine.

My heart thundered in my chest like earlier, my pulse
flickering so rapidly,
again
, that I
could actually feel it at the base of my neck. But this was nothing
like my panic attack. Ryan was going to kiss me, right here in the
middle of a packed Police bar. Right in the middle of a dangerous
retrieval operation. Right now.

His lips
brushed softly against mine in an almost there movement. I leaned
closer, but he held me back with the gentle but firm grasp of his
palm around the back of my neck, denying me what I desired most. A
tragically disappointed sound slipped out, which I couldn't have
stopped.

His breath
left him in a rush, drawing my eyes to the swift rise and fall of
his chest. He was breathless too. My gaze lifted to the pulse on
the side of his neck and was rewarded with a hummingbird flutter
beneath his smooth skin. His thumb rubbed softly against my throat,
in a gesture that shouldn't have been intimate, but was.

I closed my
eyes, realising he wasn't going to truly kiss me, but equally aware
that he was fighting the desire to as well. Our bodies thrummed
with anticipation, a tight line zinging with the tension our
proximity brought. Oh dear God, how much longer could we go before
we both exploded with pent up desire? I wanted him so much. And
when I opened my eyes and stared into the deep pools of liquid
bronze of his, I knew without a doubt that he wanted me too.

It was going
to be explosive, when it happened. And I knew it was going to
happen. There was no way in hell Ryan and I couldn't take that next
step. Fuck the rules and propriety. Fuck his partner Harvey Stone
and the dangers existing in my life. I would have Ryan Pierce, and
he would have me. There was no denying that fact.

"You should
have read the note, Marie," he rasped.

"Fuck the
note," I replied, breathlessly, receiving a stunning grin from Ryan
in turn. "Kiss me."

"Tiger," he
chastised as though in pain. "Do what you came here to do and then
I promise, I'll kiss you until you beg me to stop."

Right. The
ledger. We were here for the ledger. Not for a make-out session in
the middle of a bar. I pulled back, received a growl of frustration
from Ryan, and flicked my gaze over my shoulder. Only to find we
were expertly blocked by Nick and his troop. Abi and Ben having now
joined their boss, and his two women for tonight; Eva and
Kelly.

I looked back
at Ryan, and saw him watching me with careful eyes. The lust was
still there, but controlled now. He'd revisit it when it was safe.
For now his concern, for what I was about to put myself through,
shone clearly on his face.

"You ready for
this, babe?"

Was I?

Yeah, you know
what? I was. It was time to put my past behind me, to say goodbye
to the man I'd once loved, but whom I hadn't for longer than I
realised until today. To start fresh, by finishing what I had
abandoned out of fear and necessity all those years ago.

To bury Roan
Fucking McLaren and all his evil accomplices.

And to do it
with a shield wrapped around my body and heart. A shield this man
before me had provided.

No more ice,
only the fire of passion.

"Yeah, I'm
ready, babe," I said back to him, receiving a blindingly beautiful
smile in return.

I was ready
for more than one thing this night. I was ready for my past to be
over, and my future with Ryan to begin.

"Where do you
need us?" Ryan asked, eyes scanning the environment of the Birdcage
courtyard, body still within reaching distance. He was keeping
close, but keeping his attention on our surroundings.

How different
would it have been if we were here for an actual drink?

Maybe one
day.

"It's behind
you," I answered, keeping my voice low so only he could hear. I
needn't have bothered, the patrons were all busy with their own
conversations or watching the spectacle that was Nick and his
team.

I glanced over
my shoulder and took in the overly intimate circle of Ben, Abi and
Kelly. My eyes bugging for a second as he seemed to be flirting
with both. The show was accompanied by the sultry sound of Eva
laughing, as Nick nuzzled her neck making her hat slide off. Not
for a second did I think Nick or Ben weren't aware of what everyone
else was doing in this courtyard. Hell, probably Abi and Eva were
multi-tasking as well. As for Kelly, well, she was just having a
blast.

I wondered if
that was why they had brought her, Kelly added a little
believability to the whole performance. Clearly at ease playing
this type of game for real.

My eyes came
back to Ryan's, his were dancing with laughter.

"I guess we're
covered?" I said in an effort to disguise my surprise. But then
ruined it by adding, "Are they always like this?"

Ryan laughed,
shaking his head. "No, but Nick is not above using people's talents
to their best advantage. Kelly has a talent for stealing the show.
Right now we want everyone's attention on them and not us. But we
better get a move on, this sort of thing can outlive its
welcome."

I nodded,
sucked in a deep breath and then stepped past Ryan to the corner
where the ledger was hidden. It was darker here, which was part of
the reason why I chose it all those years ago. Nothing much changed
at the Birdcage. My eyes scanned over the vicinity I knew the brick
to be in, but it had been a while, and for a moment I wasn't sure
if I could remember exactly which brick to dig out.

My heart rate
escalated, my mouth going a little dry in my ensuing panic. Ryan's
hand slipped around my waist and spread wide over my stomach,
hauling me back into his hard chest and frame.

"Breathe,
Marie. Just breathe. You can do this."

With a small
amount of pressure from his hand and arm around my body, he lowered
us into a crouch. Then his free hand presented me with a file. I'd
brought one too, but in my current state fishing it out of my
pocket was impossible. I reached out with shaking fingers and
clasped the tool he offered, almost dropping it as soon as the
weight registered in my palm.

For a moment I
did nothing. Just blindly stared at the sharp implement and the
sweat coating my skin. For so long I've hidden behind a shield of
confidence. You wouldn't know it to look at me now.

Images of my
daughter's beautiful, smiling, trusting face flashed before my
eyes. I'd thought I was protecting her by hiding this book. But I'd
brought danger right to our door. This was never going to end
unless I ended it. What lay inside that ledger would ensure no one
in McLaren's circle would see the light of day ever again.

One last deep
breath in.

One soft
caress of Ryan's hand over my hip.

I reached
forward and slipped the file between the edges of two bricks,
twisted the handle, then popped the brick free.

A gaping black
hole met our eyes. For a second it looked completely empty. Just
masonry dust and cobwebs. I gently placed the brick that had come
loose on the ground, my hand trembling with the effort. Then
inserted the file into the gap and tapped it from side to side,
searching for anything out of the ordinary. The idea of placing my
naked hand in that disturbingly dark and dirty hole was too much to
stomach right now. Thankfully it didn't take long for the ledger to
announce its presence. The hollow sound of bricks being tapped by
steel changed to a dull thud.

My breath
caught in my throat and I lifted my head to look at Ryan over my
shoulder.

"It's still
here," I whispered.

Ryan held my
gaze, deep autumnal browns mesmerising me, anchoring me to the
ground.

"Do you want
to do this, Marie?" he asked, although the question was really moot
now, because he could just reach forward and take it himself. But
still he asked, giving me one last chance at controlling the
outcome.

This time
pictures of my daughter did not compete for attention in my mind.
It was all Rick. And not just the end, where his lifeless body, so
pale, yet covered in red, lay crumpled on a bed of grass. But the
beginning, the promise, the fun and laughter and love. Through the
struggles and the still determined hope that we'd make a decent
life together. Until finally the moment he told me who his new job
was actually for.

I had loved
Richard Costello. I had loved him so much that I stayed, with the
stupid, idiotic hope of saving him from himself. But Roan McLaren
was more than I'd ever bargained for. And in the end it wasn't
himself that I had to save Rick from, but a drug lord with no
morals and the means to destroy people's worlds.

It was a war I
couldn't win then. But now?

I turned back
to look at the dark hole, then dropped the file on the ground and
reached in with my bare hand to clasp the ledger. It took a couple
of tugs to free it from its resting spot, and in places the plastic
covering I'd wrapped it in for protection tore as I pulled it free.
But after a few heart palpitating seconds I had the heavy, leather
bound tome in my quaking hands.

We both stared
at it. So innocuous looking. A blank dark brown, worn leather
cover, with curling, faded cream sheets of paper in between. The
edges were rubbed and bent slightly, the book a little out of shape
due to the copious photos Rick had been instructed to glue into
certain pages. I didn't unwrap it, or open it. I'd seen what was
inside this book. I'd forced myself to face what my husband had
done.

It wasn't
pretty. It was the stuff of nightmares. If I'd questioned the
treacherous danger we'd been in before, once I read that book I
knew our lives were over.

I slowly stood
to my full height, Ryan rising with me, his hand still branding a
hot mark on my hip. My eyes were on the ledger, so I didn't see his
face when I took a step away. Placing space between us that felt
cold and alien, and so very much unwanted. But I needed to do this
properly. I needed to do this for Daisy and me.