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He leans back to meet my gaze. “You don’t believe me?” His brow teases upward, and the corners of his lips quirk. “Hmm … I guess I’ll have to show you again, then.” Without warning, he grazes his fingers up my shirt again, while he traces a path up my inner thigh with his other hand. Instead of kissing my neck again, though, he watches me.
My lips part to tell him to stop, because it seems like I should want him to, but no words leave my lips.
“You can tell me to stop,” he whispers as his fingers near the edge of my panties.
I want to tell him to stop—I swear I do—but the words won’t come out.
West whispers something incoherent before he suddenly pulls his fingers away from my panties.
What in the hell? Why is he stopping?
Why do I care?
I get distracted as he starts sucking on my neck again and rubbing me between my legs.
“Ohmygod,” the words rush out of me while I grip the edge of the seat. “West.” Then I come apart again, for the second time in only minutes.
Seriously, is that even normal? To have two orgasms in less than two minutes?
West chuckles, his breath warm against my skin. “It is, and the fact that you have to question that means the guys you’ve been with have been doing it all wrong.”
Oh, my hell, did I just say that aloud!
My lips part to retract my statement, but instead, I just let out a loud breath.
“Well, either that or you haven’t been with anyone.” West leans back, searches my eyes, then grins. “Yeah, it’s definitely the latter.”
My mortification simmers to anger. “Why? Because I’m so hideous?”
He shakes his head without missing a beat. “Not at all.” He traces a finger down my cheekbone. “You’re gorgeous all the time. But when you’re like this, your cheeks flushed, a content look in your eyes …” He bites down on his lip then whispers, “Beautiful.”
I have no damn clue what to say to any of this. Never in a million years would I have thought I’d be in this situation. Then again, up until today, I never would’ve thought Masie and Blaine would hook up and stab me in the back, and then some person would jack my car as part of a twisted game. A game I still don’t know the point to. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like what just happened. I did like it. A lot, a lot. So much so, I want to do it again.
Which is why I’ll never do it again. Because liking and loving things only leads to heartache.
“What are you thinking about?” West asks, his voice soft and slightly unsure—completely unlike West. “You’re not upset, are you?” When I don’t answer right away, he curses. “Fuck, I knew I shouldn’t have done that. Not when you’re hurting.”
My lips part to tell him that’s not what’s wrong. “I—”
His phone ringing cuts me off.
He frowns when he catches sight of the screen, then answers with a grumbled, “Hello?” He doesn’t say much, his eyes fixed on me. “Yeah …” He pauses, and then the color drains from his face. “Wait. What?” Then his eyes snap wide, but he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at something over my shoulder.
I turn around to see what he’s looking at, when the door flies open and I fall out of the car, smacking my face on the concrete.
I hear West curse, and then a door slam.
My ears ring and my vision spots. “Goddammit, that hurt,” I grumble, clutching my head.
“Did you find your clue yet?” a deep, male, and familiar voice asks.
I glance up, and through the darkness, I make out a shadow of a figure looming over me.
“Who are you?” I ask as I start to get up.
“Your new best friend,” they say, then grab my arm.
I reach up with my fist balled. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me, you perv …” The words fade from my lips as a needle sinks into my arm.
And everything goes black.
Too Distracted
West
“I can’t believe I let this happen,” I say as I cross my arms. “This is all my fault.”
“Will you chill out?” Steel, my friend and team member of the organization, shakes his head as he slumps back in the sofa. “It wasn’t your fault, so quit whining about it.”
“Yes, it is.” I continue pacing. “I should’ve noticed the mark on the card Alexis had. I should’ve realized it was Hacker Hearts Anonymous.” I’m not talking about the mark printed on the car, either. I’m referring to the watermark in the center of the card.
I only realized there was one after Alexis and I were attacked and I held the card up to a light. I should’ve noticed it before then, though I was too distracted with Alexis … Kissing her … Touching her …
“I fucked up,” I mutter, rubbing my hand across my forehead.
“We all fuck up,” Ellis says, typing on his phone. “It’s part of the job, and deep down, I think you know that. You’re just stressed out because it was Alexis who was attacked.”
“She wasn’t just attacked.” I sink down onto the corner of the coffee table. “Hacker Hearts Anonymous sent her a message. They were after her, not me.”
Ellis glances up at me. “Are you sure, though? I mean, why would one of the most notorious hackers in the world go after some random girl from Honeyton?”
“I don’t know, but I need to find out.” I glance at my cracked bedroom door where Alexis is sleeping off the drugs the guy injected in her.
Thankfully, the drug was a mild sedative and won’t have any long- or short-term effects, other than Alexis being sleepy for a bit. I still beat the shit out of the guy who doped her up, to the point where he was barely conscious.
“I need to get some answers before she wakes up,” I say. “I know she’s going to have a lot of questions.”
“What about the guy who injected her?” Ellis asks. “We can question him when he comes to.”
Steel cracks his knuckles. “Yeah, I’m definitely up for a little questioning.”
“No, I want to do it.” I flick a glance at the door to my cage room, where the guy is currently sleeping off me beating his ass.
Every team has access to a cage room so we can lock up and interrogate people when needed. Of course, we have to have probable cause, which we definitely have right now. Although, Steel pushes the limits of probable all the time.
“It might take some time to get the truth out of him,” Ellis says. “if he works for Hacker Hearts Anonymous.”
I blow out a stressed breath. “Yeah, I know.”
“What’re you going to do until then?” he asks. “I mean, what’re you going to do with Alexis?”
I shrug. “I’m going to keep her safe.”
And I fully mean my words. Whether Alexis realizes it or not, if Hacker Hearts Anonymous are after her, she’s in some serious danger.
And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her. Not just from Hacker Hearts Anonymous, but from everything.
As I turn to head to the cage to interrogate the guy who injected Alexis with the drug, my phone rings from inside my pocket with an incoming call from an unknown number. Unknown numbers are usually from the organization, so I answer.
“Hello?”
“Hey,” the caller replies, his voice recognizable.
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“Benton? What’s up man?” I say and Ellis and Steel shoot me a shocked look.
We haven’t heard from Benton or any of his other team members in quite a while, ever since we formed our own group and no longer were officially part of the Bad Boy Rebels (yeah, I know it’s a silly name, but we can’t seem to get rid of it). We didn’t leave the group because we were pissed off or anything—although, some of the guys are still pissed off at us for leaving. We just decided that Steel, Ellis, and I worked better together, just the three of us. But we do have a lot of people occasionally work with us when we need extra help with a case.
“I actually need to ask you for a favor,” Benton says, shocking me.
“Okay,” I reply, confused, since Benton rarely asks for favors.
“It’s about your friend Alexis Baker,” he explains. “She might be in trouble.”
“I know,” I tell him. “She actually is… Or was in trouble already. But she’s at my place right now and safe.”
“Let me guess, Hacker Hearts Anonymous?” Benton says.
“Yep, they tried to attack her about an hour ago,” I tell him. “But how did you know that?”
“I got an anonymous tip. I’m not sure who sent it, but Zhara and I have been trying to get ahold of Alexis all day to warn her,” he says. “And you. But you’re a really hard person to track down.”
“So are you,” I point out. “All organization members are.”
“Yeah, I know.” He sounds tired. “It just sucks when there’s an emergency.”
“Yeah, it definitely does.” I pause. “Wait, what’re you doing with Zhara Baker? She’s not part of the organization… Is she?” Because that’d shock the shit out of me even more than what happened today.
“Yes and no.” He sighs again. “Look, I can’t really get into the details over the phone, but I just want to make sure that Alexis is okay and being taken care of.”
“She’s fine,” I assure him. “And I plan on keeping an eye on her until I can figure out what’s going on with Hacker Hearts Anonymous.”
“Good, that’s a fucking relief,” he says. “Zhara’s been really worried.”
“So she knows a lot about what’s going on?” I ask, sinking down onto the armrest of the sofa.
