Behind Your Back, стр. 53

How in the hell did I get so lucky to be with her?

“If I knew you were going to like it so much, I would have put it in sooner,” she says, pulling the straps of the dress over her shoulders and letting it drop to the floor. She quickly shimmies out of her bra and panties and she’s gloriously naked. I don’t know if I’ve ever been this turned on in my life. I want her so much it’s painful.

“I do like it. Very much,” I say as she comes forward and starts to strip me. I was able to pop the flash drive in my car so I don’t have to worry about her discovering it. Cash will pick it up while we’re doing this. It’s a good system we’ve got going on.

Once I’m naked she kisses me so hard that I can feel the metal of the piercing and it’s like throwing a match to a drum of gasoline.

I fuck her harder than I ever have before. It’s savage and desperate and I’m afraid it’s going to kill both of us. But she’s right there with me, biting, pulling, begging. We ravage each other and when it’s over we’re both covered in bites and scratches and I know if I had longer hair, I’d be missing a few chunks. Somehow we’ve ended up on the floor and she starts to laugh.

“What was that?” I shake my head, and even that simple movement is too much effort after all the energy I just let out.

“I have no idea,” I say. Every time we’re together feels significant. I chalk it up to the fact that our sexual encounters are limited, but I don’t know if that’s entirely it.

“Me neither,” she says, and I turn my head to meet her eyes. This time she’s the one who looks worried.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. She swallows and closes her eyes, as if she can’t bear to look at me. She looks up at the ceiling and forces a smile.

“Nothing. I’m just tired.”

I want to ask her more about it, but I’m also exhausted. We fall asleep on her floor, wrapped in her sheets and each other’s arms.

Twenty-Seven

“We’ve hit the mother lode,” Cash says with glee the next night. The guys have all congregated to go through the information on the flash drive and sort through the first few hours of surveillance. It’s helpful that there are so many of us because it makes searching through hours of boring video from several different angles go a lot faster.

“Here’s everything. Financial records, contact info. It’s like he wanted us to find it,” Cash says with a laugh. “These guys with money think they’re so untouchable that they don’t even bother to protect themselves.”

“Is it enough for blackmail?” I ask and Cash nods eagerly. He seems to have completely recovered from his alcohol-induced breakdown and bounced back to his cheerful self. I’m glad because I don’t really know how to handle a morose Cash.

“Abso-fucking-lutely. We don’t even need the video. This is more than enough.” Perfect.

“I got something,” Row says, taking his headphones off and snapping his fingers to get our attention. He, Hardy, Track and Baz are all set up with laptops and headphones, going through the surveillance.

The rest of us stop what we’re doing and pay attention as Row pulls out the headphones and turns the volume full up.

It’s a phone call between Beaumont and someone else and if we didn’t already have the financial records, that would be enough for us to have him right where we want him.

We all listen as Beaumont lays out his plan to shift a bunch of his money to offshore accounts to avoid taxes, his plans to skirt EPA regulations and pay off politicians. All in one phone call.

“You know who he’s talking to?” I ask Row.

“It’s one of his business partners, Clint Hardwicke.” The two of them were thick as thieves, which they actually were. Dirty, dirty, dirty.

“Go ahead and copy the most important parts and we’ll start amassing a file.” We never confronted our marks in person. Too risky. But once we had enough in a file, we sent it to them and laid out our demands: Let us keep the money we’ve already taken and we won’t release the file. Works like a charm.

In another hour or so, we have a good file started. It’s in our best interest to amass as much data as possible, so we’re going to wait a few more days and get some more video and hopefully more documents and records from his computer. We need to show that his dirty deeds have been ongoing and widespread.

Two weeks. Less than that, actually. I leave the meeting and head back to Saige’s. I told her about Leo on Sunday and she insisted that I bring him with me now, so I pick him up on my way. As soon as I walk into her place, she’s all over him and he’s all over her. It’s hard to tell who loves the other more. I’ve never heard him purr so much.

“I think he’s giving me a run for my money,” I say as we sit on the couch and watch a stupid movie as Leo sleeps in Saige’s lap.

“Well, he’s a little bit easier to cuddle than you are, but I’d always end up as the big spoon, so.” I know she’s joking, so I just shake my head at her.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Whatever,” she says, sticking her tongue out at me. I want to bite it. She’s taken to wearing her nose ring when we’re alone and I have to say I love it. I’ve taken a few pictures of her on my phone when she wasn’t looking and I’m going to transfer them when I get a new one in California. We’re not supposed to leave anything or take anything with us, but I’m going to take a few bits of Saige with me. I can’t just erase her from my life. I just can’t.

Leo ends up sleeping between us that night.

“He’s so sweet, I don’t want to move him,” Saige whispers, stroking his ears. He stretches out and I can tell he’s relishing all the attention.

“Cockblocker,” I say, glaring at him. He just yawns and moves closer to Saige.

She chuckles and keeps petting him.

I wake in the middle of the night and I feel like I can’t breathe. I sit up and look around. Saige is beside me, Leo between sitting up us and looking at me with big eyes as if I’ve disturbed his sleep.

Saige is sound asleep, so I get out of bed as quietly as I can and go to the bathroom to get a glass of water. My skin feels uncomfortable and I can’t seem to get a deep breath. I have no idea why. I wasn’t having a particularly bad dream. I have those sometimes, especially when I think about my mother before I go to bed.

I come back to bed and see Leo has taken my spot. I shove him over and grab hold of Saige. I need something to hold onto because I feel like I’m falling apart.

“Are you okay?” Saige asks me the next morning. I know I look like shit because I didn’t get any sleep last night even after I grabbed hold of Saige and held onto her like she was a life preserver.

“Yeah, just didn’t sleep well. I feel off,” I say, which is an understatement. I can’t really describe it, other than that.

Saige reaches her hand up and puts it on my forehead like my mother used to do.

“You feel a little warm. Maybe you’re coming down with something.” I shake my head because it’s not my body that’s sick. It’s my mind.

“Maybe you should stay home. I only have a two classes today and I can come back and take care of you.” As appealing as the idea is, I need to go to work.

“Will you wear a sexy nursing outfit anyway?” I ask. She smacks my shoulder and then goes to fill Leo’s water dish. He’s wrapping himself around her legs and meowing like he’s being horribly neglected.

“We’ll see. But take it easy. I’ve been worried about you.” She won’t need to worry for much longer. I put a smile on my face and put both hands on her ass to haul her to me for a kiss.

“I’m fine. Just busy with work. I’ll see you tonight.” I grab my briefcase and she waves goodbye to me as Leo begs for attention. For a second I allow myself to imagine that I could do this every day. That this would be my routine, giving Saige a kiss and going off to work.