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Talia felt a stab of pain deep in her heart, regret filling her with guilt and despair for everything she was willingly putting them through. “I can’t right now. I have something important I’m working on here.”
“More important than us?” he asked, his tone changing. Tucker was upset, and rightfully so. She’d basically just told him that her work trumped all.
“There is no us,” she said, deliberately being cold. If he got too close now, if she allowed him to open the door and step through it, everything up till now would be for nothing.
“That’s bullshit, and you know it.”
“It’s not. I can’t be with you right now.”
“I know I screwed up, Talia. I’m man enough to admit that, and I want to make it up to you. We were happy, weren’t we?”
“Yes,” she admitted, unable to lie about that. She’d never felt more alive or had so much purpose than when she’d taken a chance on him. Her, an FBI detective, and him a biker with an ax to grind. Such an unlikely pair, and yet they’d fit together like puzzle pieces.
“Then why are you running from this? Come home and let’s fix it, together.”
“Like I said, I have to do something here, then…” She hesitated, not wanting to make promises she couldn’t keep. There was no telling how this case was going to go. There was still a very real possibility that she would lose him completely once everything came to light.
“Then what?” he asked hopefully.
“Then maybe,” she finished.
“Maybe…” he drawled, trying the word on for size. “I can work with maybe. At least it’s not no.”
Glancing at the clock, Talia realized she had less than an hour until she was supposed to meet with her partner and together they were to meet with their informant. Depending on what she had to say, they would decide how to move forward. She was praying for significant progress.
“Tucker, I have to go.”
“Have to or want to?”
“Have to,” she said, allowing the regret she felt to enter her voice. He needed to know that she was in pain too. She needed him to wait for her.
“Okay, sugar. You go handle your business. I got some of my own to tend to, too. But, darlin’? Next time I call, you better answer. No more silent treatment, hear?”
Talia couldn’t stop the spread of her smile. Had he been standing in front of her, she knew that warning would have come with the threat of a solid spanking, whether with his hand or a paddle or some other tool of his choosing, and it excited her. She missed everything about him—his rough hands, his strong, sure, confident touch, the way he commanded her body as if he alone knew the passcode.Please, God, let there still be a future for them.
“Okay, Tuck,” she promised, her voice soft. She needed to get off the phone before her emotions betrayed her. She refused to cry. Not today. Not tomorrow. Only when she was standing in front of him again would she allow herself to feel it all, to unleash it all. Only then would she allow herself to crumble, because Tucker Abrams would never let her fall.
“Love you, sugar,” he said, and before Talia had a second to consider whether or not she’d say it back, he ended the call.
Staring at the phone in her head, she allowed herself exactly one minute to breathe and calm her frayed nerves. Then Talia got up, put on her shoes, and walked out the door.
***
These meetings sucked, but when you got the kind of deal she was offered, you didn’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter.
Rena sat in the passenger seat of the blacked-out Cadillac, one agent on her left occupying the driver’s seat, and one in the back, hovering over her shoulder and hanging on every word. Both were armed, and she was certain they hadn’t come alone.
The Feds were sneaky like that. They always had a Plan B to a Plan A and a Plan C to a Plan B. The moment she’d signed on with them to do this gig, she’d basically signed her rights away.
Not that she was losing much. She wasn’t a free agent with or without them, but with any luck, after all was said and done, she would have a clean record and a clear path ahead. It would be the first time ever in her life that she wouldn’t have to look over her shoulder, worry about her next step, or have her past dogging her every move.
Being a felon had a way of ruining every good thing you tried to do in life. She couldn’t even get a decent job or apartment because she’d gotten into so much trouble.
It was just that trouble was so easy to find, and she enjoyed the adrenaline rush a little too much to quit.
But she was an adult now, and she wasn’t getting any younger. There came a point in everyone’s life that living off the land, constantly being on the move, and generally leading a nomadic life got old and tiring. It still made her shudder to think it, but she kinda wanted to be like her big sister, who had a stable life with actual things to her name—things that were worth something. Even if she didn’t have a lot, at least she had a little.
It was far more than Rena had to show for her years.
