“Yes. Your father.”
“I didn’t shoot that fucker. He didn’t need a surgeon. Where is my father now?”
“Still with Tag.”
“Of course, he is,” I say flatly. “I should go pull him out by his damn ear. What else?”
“If your father’s working with Tag, Tag knows you searched the general’s office.”
“Tag doesn’t give a fuck what we do as long as this ends his way. And as for my father, of course, he’s working for Tag. Where do you see an ‘if’ to any of this?”
“You tell me,” Adam says. “Would Tag blackmail your father?”
My lips press together, my way of holding back choice words, before I settle on a simple, “I doubt he’d have to.”
“What are you going to do?” Adam asks. “Or should I say, what are we going to do?”
“I alone am going back inside to get naked with Candace and play Twister. Or maybe Operation with my tongue. I’d invite you, but you’re not invited.” I turn to walk away.
“Damn it, Savage,” he bites out. “Stop.”
I pause and cut him a stare. “If I go get my father, I’ll kill everyone in that house. It’s not that time yet. I get it. I’m not stupid.”
“We have eyes on the house. We need some time to make sure we know how many and who is involved. Don’t go after Tag yet or without me.”
“I’ll think about it,” I say, but I’ve already thought about it and Tag and my father are as personal as it can get for me. They’re my problems. They’re mine to deal with.
Feeling the dark pulse of something long-suppressed rising to my surface, something my father stirs inside of me, I end our conversation without another word. I walk back to the house and shut the door solidly behind me, an act meant to leave Adam and that dark pulse in the garage. Candace is waiting on me, standing in the entryway, her long dark hair in a sexy disarray. Her sweet ass now draped in a pink robe, the thin silk teasing her nipples and now my cock. I shut the door behind me.
“What happened?” she asks, her brow furrowed, her tone apprehensive.
I close the space between us and pull her close, stroking her hair from her face, inhaling her sweet scent. The feel of her, the smell of her, a balm that soothes the wound that is my father’s eternal presence in my life. “Nothing that just happened was important,” I say, “but you are.” My mouth closes down on hers, that dark pulse still present, and the only way I know to vanish it is with her. Or vodka, which apparently also leads back to her.
She resists for all of ten seconds before she slides her arms around me and sinks into the kiss. It takes me all of about thirty seconds and I have her on the counter, with me buried inside her, driving as deep and hard as I can. She’s right there with me, grabbing the sink and lifting into my thrusts. Her robe drapes open, her breasts exposed, mine for the taking. She’s mine, and that’s what all of this is about. She’s mine to protect and I fucked up when I opened my mouth to Tag. I spoke her name. I put her in danger.
I catch her hair with my fingers, her mouth with my mouth, and I get lost in the taste and feel of her. It’s the pulse of my body, not my emotions. Of the edge of arousal that is now a full-blown blast.
Candace gasps into my mouth. “Rick,” she murmurs. “Rick.” And then she’s shuddering in my arms, her sex spasming around my cock and that’s all she wrote. I’m there with her, my body jerking with my release.
It’s over too soon, and I set her back down on the counter, my eyes finding hers, and what is left of that dark pulse, evaporates. I stayed away from her to protect her from that part of me. It seems, she’s the one who protects everyone else from that part of me. Except for Tag and Gabriel. They’re dead. I just haven’t made it happen yet.
CHAPTER NINE
Savage
Candace’s hand settles on my face. “You want to talk about what just happened?”
“Want to fuck again?” I counter.
“Not even you, Rick Savage, are capable of that,” she chides.
“Is that a challenge? Because you know, I’m still inside you. Not a good time to underestimate me.”
“I’m just stating facts,” she assures me. “You need half an hour. I need a lot longer,” she adds, “and no, I’m not talking about sex. I’m talking about it with you. Talk to me, Rick. You used to talk to me. You used to let me inside.”
She’s right. I did, but what was inside me back then was rainbows and unicorns compared to now. But I did tell her that I was going to try to scare her away and hope to fail. I meant it. I need to know she can handle what I’ve become, and clearly, based on current events, cannot unbecome. “Grab my neck,” I order.