Page 12 of Stolen Salvation

Charlie’s head shot up to look at Noah, who was gritting his jaw.

“Let me go. With our history, we’re more likely to pull off the intimacy of a married couple.”

Duchess eyed him and then her. “You sure about this, Bish?”

Noah dipped his head. “Yes. We can fake it for a small time. Just don’t give her a gun and I should be fine.”

His joke made the team laugh, but for Charlie, her gut twisted with defeat. He’d never forgive her, and she had to stop hoping for a miracle. Getting her sister back was her priority now and should always be. Noah forgiving her was a lost cause.

His eyes moved over her as if he could sense every thought in her head. His lips pursed as if he was about to say something, but he looked away with a frown instead.

“Okay. Watchdog, get me backgrounds in the digital universe for these two. Work up a background with a few fertility companies and job histories etcetera. In a few days Duchess, Hurricane, Bishop, and Charlie will head to Leeds. Lotus and Bein, you check out the Birmingham site, and Val and I will check London. Snow and Reaper will stay here with Titan and help Watchdog work through any links to Cradle. If it’s there, find it. I think this is the tip of the iceberg and we can’t have this continue.”

Chapter 5

Having Charlie in his space felt weird, but right in a way that made him angry. Her hand brushed over the fabric of his couch as she walked around his living space. The apartment had light laminate wood flooring in a pale oak, pale green paint on the walls in the main living area, and white cabinets in the open-plan kitchen. The cream couch faced a glass coffee table and a fifty-two-inch tv that he rarely watched.

“This place is lovely.”

“Thanks.”

The awkwardness he felt was strange, but he didn’t know how to act. He knew how his body was reacting, he wanted her, he always had. From the first day they’d met she’d had an allure that he’d never been able to resist. Now, though, it warred with a deep wariness of her, along with an anger and bitterness that overrode his feelings of desire—almost.

Charlie was tall, nearly five feet eight in her bare feet, slim, but with a round ass that drove him wild, and breasts that made his mouth water. Rosey-skinned with long honey-blonde hair, she was like his perfect woman wrapped in a delicious package and she’d never seemed aware of just how beautiful she was. Her blue eyes had a hint of green when she was aroused, so expressive and alive, watched him now with the same wariness he felt.

“This is awkward, right?”

Noah laughed. Trust Charlie to cut straight to the heart of the matter. “Yeah, I guess more than I thought it would be.”

She walked toward him, and it took everything in him not to sweep her into his arms as he’d done so many times before and kiss the little scar at the back of her ear which made her shiver.

“Tell me about the team. They seem to be a close bunch.”

Noah relaxed, his friends were a safe topic. Moving to sit on the couch, he watched her take the opposite end, turning towards him and twisting her leg beneath her as she leaned against the arm of the couch.

“What do you want to know?”

Charlie tucked her hands in her sleeves, something she’d always done when she was nervous and the feeling made him want to fix it for her as he’d always done, but she wasn’t his to protect now.

“I want to know what you can tell me.”

“Well, Bein is solid. He’s Scottish Royalty and I mean that in a literal sense. He’s getting married to Aoife next year and she’s training to be a nurse. Snow is a former jewel thief and married to a judge and they have Fleur, who’s their niece and they’re raising.”

“Wow, a jewel thief and a judge. That’s like a romance movie.”

“Yeah, it started more like a thriller but they got there in the end and are so ridiculously happy it’s vomit inducing.” He smiled thinking of them and the future they had before them, even as the envy that he no longer had it stirred under his rib cage. “You know Reaper’s story as you were there for that.”

“I still can’t believe he got himself a Princess.”

“He deserves it. He’s one of the best men I know.”

“Oh, I wasn’t suggesting otherwise.”

Noah stood, feeling antsy again. The setting, similar to so many of their Friday nights, was making him forget what she’d done, and he couldn’t allow himself to soften towards her. “Have you eaten?”

Charlie shook her head and he wondered how she managed to stay alive. She was shit at looking after herself. She was great at looking after other people, but she always put herself last. “I can make you some eggs and bacon. You still like Tabasco on your eggs?”

Standing, she followed him to the kitchen and leaned against the island. “I certainly do.”