Unfinished Hero 03 Raid (35 page)

“If you have something to say to
—
” I began.

“If you want me to lead them to your man, then yeah, I’ll talk direct to him. If you
want them to keep their focus on my brother, then you’ll tell Miller everything I
said.”

Before I could reply, he was up and gone.

I blinked after him.

Then I looked around and saw the half-full
café, most everyone concentrating on their food or conversation
.
Rachelle was nowhere to be seen, probably in the kitchen.

I wondered if anyone saw him
,
but they didn’t appear to. No one was paying attention.

I pulled out my phone and had my head down, fingers moving on it to call Raid when
the bell over the door went.

I jumped and looked up to see Raiden smiling at me and coming my way.

He rounded the table, bent into me, swept my hair back and kissed my neck. Then he
stayed there to run his nose up the skin, which made that skin tingle, but in a good
way this time.

He continued to stay there when he whispered in my ear, “Love it when my girl’s perfume
is fresh. Hey, baby.”

“Hey,” I replied.

His hand went out of my hair and he rounded the table, shouting, “Rache! Beer and
get a move on with two specials. Hanna and I are running late!”

“Keep your pants on!” was shouted from the kitchen.

“Lose some coin if you don’t hustle. We can get a slice from down the street!” Raid
yelled.

“Two specials coming up!” was returned.

Luckily, Rachelle owned the café
,
so the Millers acting like, well, what I was coming to know as the Millers worked
it.

Raid settled opposite me and he barely got his behind in the chair when I announced,
“One minute ago, a well-dressed man I’ve never seen in my life sat right where you
are and told me to tell you to tell Knight that he’s not being careful enough. A person
named Nair isn’t going to give up and Knight has to do something permanent to get
him to give up.”

Raid, his eyes locked on me, froze. The air around him froze. In fact, the entire
café froze as he stared at me.

Then I felt eyes on me because the menace rolling off Raiden was so immense, we were
capturing attention even though no words were being said.

In other words, I wasn’t the only one who could feel it
,
and it was so strong this was not a surprise.

Then he whispered in his sinister way, “Come again?”

I repeated myself.

Raiden leaned slightly toward me. “You’re tellin’ me that motherfucker walked right
up to my woman in my sister’s fuckin’ place, sat down across from you and gave you
a message for me?”

I hesitated due to the rumbling, scary quality of his voice that I had never heard
before and the ominous blaze burning in his eyes that I had never seen before
,
then I leaned in and replied, “Yes.”

He sat back. “Jesus Christ. I’m gonna fuckin’ kill that guy.”

“Dude, what is
up?
” Rachelle asked, hitting our table right before a beer bottle hit the tabletop.

There it was. Other people felt his vibe.

“Lose yourself, Rache,” Raid ordered.

“Bro, you look tweaked. I
—
” she began.

Raiden’s head tipped back and he cut his eyes to her.

I wasn’t getting his look
,
but I still shivered.

“Bottom of my heart
,
but get the fuck outta here, babe.”

She bit her lip, gave wide eyes to me and wisely skedaddled.

Raiden looked at me and I wished Rachelle was back.

“You see him again, you tell him that he needs to find an alternate conduit for communication
with his brother. It is not you. And you finish with telling him if you see him again
after that, I will find him, rip his head off and shove it up his ass.”

Cripes!

“Raid
—
”

“You got that?” he cut me off to ask.

Now was
clearly
not one of those times to backtalk
,
so I nodded but sallied forth cautiously, “Yes, sweetheart, I got that
,
but what’s going on?”

He sucked in breath then grabbed his beer and sucked some back before he put it back
on the table and again leaned into me.

“I told you about my buddy Knight having problems. A man named Drake Nair is that
problem. Nair keeps fuckin’ with him. First, Nair approached Knight’s woman, Anya,
sharin’ some things it was not his to share. That didn’t have the desired effect.
Second, Knight has a variety of people under his protection and Nair had some of them
hurt. When Knight shut that down, Nair found the guy I’m hunting, who got some of
his soldiers to infiltrate some of Knight’s dealings, found some weak links
,
and by that I mean ex-junkies. He reintroduced them to ice, got them hooked so Knight
had to clean that shit out of his business and also expend the effort to get the junkies
clean again.”

Holy Moses.

Drake Nair sounded like a world-class jerk.

I wondered what Knight did to inspire this animosity
,
but I didn’t get a chance to ask. Raiden was still talking.

“Knight is not unaware that Nair was a nuisance that, through demonstrated tenacity,
has grown into an enemy who is a genuine threat. Nick is Knight’s brother
,
and Nick is a wildcard.”

He quit speaking so I finally had the chance to get a question in.

“If he’s Knight’s brother, why doesn’t he just talk to his brother?”

“Nick Sebring was a pain in the ass that got off on ridin’ his brother’s coattails,
copious amounts of pussy and cocaine. Nick’s Dad hauled him to Hawaii
and
supposedly cleaned up his act
. H
e came back to Denver and since then his behavior has been random. Then he dropped
off the grid
,
only to reappear randomly
,
and in not good ways
,
with really bad people only to drop straight off again. Although he’s thrown time,
energy and money at this question, Knight still has no clue what his brother was up
to.”

“Well, obviously Nick has his brother’s back if he goes out of his way to warn him
of trouble,” I noted.

“Babe, wildcard,” Raid replied.

“Sorry?” I asked.

“You play with wildcards, you got one in your hand. Golden. Your opponent gets one,
you’re fucked.”

“Oh,” I said.

“With the company he’s been keeping, Nick warning his brother does not mean we have
him in our hand. Since he’s a wildcard, it could mean anything.”

That made sense
,
so I said, “Okay.”

“Bottom line, you do not give this guy any time except to tell him what I told you.
Once you relay that message, you get the fuck away and call me. If you see him again
after that, you just get the fuck away, around people and you call me immediately.”

This sounded like a good plan I was totally down with.

“Okay.”

“Now I need to call Knight. Food comes, start without me.”

Instead of repeating my “okay”, I nodded.

He got up and moved toward the front door.

I took a sip of wine
,
but paid attention this time to my surroundings and spent a good amount of effort
getting my heartbeat to regulate.

Rachelle came out with the food.

“All okay?” she asked.

I gave her a grin I hope didn’t look fake. “Yep.”

Her eyes narrowed on my grin before
, w
ith experience dealing with things Raiden Miller, she wisely let it go and said, “After
you eat that, you can build shrines to my brilliance. Enjoy the movies with my brother.”

Then she was off.

I started eating and at the same time creating shrines to her brilliance in my head.

Then Raid came back and started eating.

Without another word about it, we went about our evening as if my brief visit from
Nick Sebring didn’t happen.

* * * * *

“More,” Raiden’s gruff voice ordered.

On my knees, booty in the air, face in the bed, I gave him more, surging back as he
powered in.

Amazing.

“That’s it. So fuckin’ wild,” he growled
.

I whimpered as it started to wash over me and when I reared back to find it, he pulled
away.

I was about to protest when he commanded, “Back. Spread.”

I rolled to my back, spread. He bent over me, gathered me in his arms, lifted me up
and
rammed
me down on his cock.

I cried out, my hands going to his lush hair, both of them fisting as his hips thrust
up.

“Hold on,” he told me unnecessarily.

We did this a lot. It was always a wild ride.

I knew to hold on.

“Finger to your clit, baby, give it to me,” he demanded.

He was ready and he wanted me to be there with him.

I did what he said
,
and two seconds later I shoved my face into his neck and sunk my teeth into his skin.

He grunted then groaned, surged up so hard and deep, I nearly bucked off and he came
with me.

Half a minute later, he murmured, “Give me the glide, honey.”

I knew what he wanted and started gliding up and down on his cock, my lips and tongue
moving over his skin.

“Taste blood?” he asked quietly.

“No,” I whispered into his neck.

“Next time.”

I smiled then slid my lips to under his ear. “Talked to your Mom at the café today.”

“Her pussy’s workin’ my dick and she talks to me about my Mom,” he muttered, I slid
down, lifted my head and looked at him, grinning.

“And Rachelle’” I added. “So,” I started conversationally, “no one has ever called
you Raiden but me?”

“Raiden is a silly-ass romance novel hero’s name my Mom came up with to torture me,”
he replied.

I stifled a giggle and remarked, “And Raid isn’t silly?”

He smiled. “Raid’s a badass’s name.”

He was not wrong.

I brushed my lips against his and mumbled, “I see.”

“Love you, Hanna.”

He said that to me now. Not frequently, but he said it.

But the way he said it right then made my head came up an inch and I glued my eyes
to his.

“I love you too, honey,” I whispered.

“Nothin’ ever touches you,” he declared and I knew.

He was still thinking about Nick Sebring.

“I’m okay,” I assured him.

“My work doesn’t touch you.”

“Honey,” I wound my arms and him. “I’m okay.”

“Knight was about as unhappy as I was you were approached. He’s got a woman, she’s
his world. He gets where I’m at. You won’t see Nick again.”

I nodded
,
but my belly fluttered.

I was his world.

He bent his head and kissed my chest before he tipped it back again. “You want me
to clean you up or are you feelin’ energetic?”

Since it was just him and me and always would be
,
plus the fact I was on birth control, we’d discussed it and he’d dispensed with the
condoms.

Gratifyingly.

“I’m feeling energetic,” I told him.

“Then climb off
,
but I’m feeling energetic
,
too
,
so we go to bed naked. If I want you in the night, all-access.”

I slid off but I did it shivering.

I started to move
,
but Raiden brought me back with an arm around my waist so I was pressed to his front.
His other hand slid between my legs. Sensitive, my body melted into his, my hands
settled on his shoulders, my eyes slid half-shut and my lips parted.

“Fuck me,” he murmured, his beautiful eyes moving over my face. “Just wanted a quick
reminder of that sweet pussy
,
and one look at your face, now I gotta finger fuck it to make you come again.”

He most certainly did.

I started breathing heavily and my fingers clutched his shoulders.

“Face in my neck, hold on and let me give it to you, baby,” he ordered. “And this
time, I’m gonna make you mark me.”

His words made my hips twitch. I held on, pressed close and let him give it to me.