Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34926 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34926 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 116(@300wpm)
“No, Chase. You gave me exactly what we both needed, and I love you for it.”
“I love you so fuckin’ much, Cotton,” I confessed. “Hurt so much with it I can’t imagine my life without you.”
“Me neither.” I could feel her smile against my shoulder. “We should probably head back. If anyone happened to’ve heard us, they’d be in for a shock when they came to investigate.”
I barked out a laugh. “That they would, baby. That they would.”
“You ready for this?” She pulled back to look at me, cupping my face with her small hand.
“I’m ready, baby. Didn’t realize how much I needed this until I was fuckin’ the shit outa you and couldn’t figure out how it’d started.” I grinned at her, and she pulled me in for a soft kiss.
“Thank you, Chase. For taking a chance on me.”
“Honey, I never gave two shits about your past other than to need to know what motherfucker I needed to kill. I knew you were a battered woman. Just thought it was a man rather than your experiences in prison. Knew there was something different about you when you had Butch by the balls. Wanted you right then. Wanted you before but the way you handled yourself with that lot gave me a hard-on.”
“You’re turned-on when I get aggressive.” She grinned.
“Oh, yeah, baby. Won’t deny that.”
We dressed and headed back to the compound. I knew whatever I found there was going to shed light on everything that had happened since Cotton’s car wreck. The only question was the degree of beating the fucker in the interrogation room got.
Chapter Nine
Chase
Getting Cotton into the club’s interrogation room wasn’t as easy as I’d first thought it would be.
“Out of the question,” Cain said sternly, his arms over his chest and a haunted look in his eyes, though he tried to hide it. “I’m not lettin’ one of our women in this room again as long as I live.” He poked a finger in Chase’s chest. “You know better than to ask me that fuckin’ question!”
“I have no intention of letting her be here for all of it, but she wants to look this guy in the eyes. I think she deserves that much.”
Cain shook his head. “I’ll take a fuckin’ picture of him to see if she can identify the bastard, but she’s not setting one foot inside that room.”
“It’s OK, Chase,” she said, hanging on to my arm and rubbing it in a soothing rhythm. “I can wait in the common room until you’re done.”
“I’m not goin’ in there without you, Cotton. If you don’t go, I’m not goin’ either. You give me the sanity to keep me from slittin’ the motherfucker’s throat on sight.”
She smiled up at me. It wasn’t a pretty smile. It was positively vicious. “Who says I’d give you that pleasure? Anyone’s slitting his throat, it will be me.”
“Which is exactly why she’s not goin’ in there,” Cain said with a satisfied nod. Like I’d just proven his point.
“Prez?” Cliff opened the door to the interrogation room just wide enough to slip outside before closing it again. “Sorry to interrupt, but Data and Zora found something you need to see.” Zora was Data’s woman, and she was every bit as good on the computer as he was.
Cliff led the way to what Data liked to call his command center. There were monitors all over the fucking place and most of them I couldn’t make out for shit. Some of them were camera feeds, but others had a steady stream of data flowing down the screen. And, of course, there was one screen dedicated to Leather Goddesses of Phobos.
“What’cha got?” Cain asked as we walked through the door.
Data glanced at Cotton, nodding in her direction. “Uh, we have a situation.”
“Don’t we always,” Cain muttered. “What the fuck is it this time.”
“That man we brought in? The one we’re about to question? Turns out he’s a judge.” Data met Cotton’s gaze. “The one whose son raped and murdered your sister.”
“Judge Blakley.” Cotton’s words were a mere whisper. Like she’d seen a ghost.
I owed Data a steak dinner for the way he’d phrased that. He hadn’t said the one whose son Cotton had killed. He’d turned it around to highlight the crimes the man’s kid had committed first. Cotton was still. Other than the hardening of her facial features, she didn’t say anything.
“Mother fuck,” Cain swore. “Can I not catch a break today?”
“Also,” Data continued. This time he grinned slightly before schooling his feathers. “We caught Butch and his buddies snooping around the fence. After Daniel told us he’d found the hole in the fence, Bohannon set up a patrol of sorts. Got the prospects doing cursory checks at odd intervals. Caught the three of ’em about an hour ago. Great timing, huh?”