Page 52 of Raven's Mark
"Yes," she gasps. "God, yes."
I release her throat and grab her hips with both hands, fingers digging in, and fuck her harder. The sound of skin against skin fills the room, punctuated by her broken moans and my rough breathing.
"Soon, you're going to walk into that street and let them take you." My voice is low, vicious. "You're going to let them put theirhands on you, and I'm going to have to watch it happen and do nothing until the time is right."
"Jesse—"
"So right now, you're mine. Every inch of you belongs to me, and I'm going to make damn sure you remember that when they touch you."
I pull out and flip her onto her back before she can protest, hooking one of her legs over my shoulder and driving back into her at an angle that makes her scream. Her hands claw at the sheets, her knuckles white, and I lean down to bite the tendon of her neck, leaving a mark she'll see tomorrow.
"Open your eyes." It's not a request. "Look at me while I fuck you."
She drags her gaze to mine, and the vulnerability there, the trust, makes something twist in my chest. She doesn't know about the shadow assets. She doesn't know I've already arranged insurance behind her back. She just trusts me to get her through this. It makes me want to fuck her harder, claim her more completely, make her mine in a way that leaves no room for doubt.
I reach between us and find her clit, circling it with my thumb while my cock drives into her relentlessly. "Come for me. Right now. I want to feel you shatter."
Her orgasm hits like a freight train, her entire body going rigid as she clenches around me so hard it borders on painful. She cries out my name, her nails raking down my back, and the combination of pain and pleasure pushes me over the edge.
I bury myself as deep as I can go and come with a sound that's half growl, half groan, spilling inside her while she's still shaking through the aftershocks. The feeling of marking her, claiming her, filling her up while knowing I'm lying to her about the backup plan, creates a dark satisfaction I don't want to examine too closely.
I stay inside her until my breathing slows, then pull out carefully and collapse onto the mattress beside her. She curls into my side immediately, her head on my chest, one leg thrown over mine.
"That was..." She trails off, searching for words.
"Necessary." I wrap my arm around her, holding her against me. "You needed to know I'm not letting you go without a fight."
"I know." Her voice is quiet, already drowsy. "I know."
Within minutes, her breathing evens out and she's asleep. I lie awake, feeling the weight of her against me, her breath warm on my chest. Soon, she'll walk into that street believing I trust her judgment, believing the team is her only backup.
She's wrong. Keeping her alive is the only job that matters, and I don't trust a single plan to do it. Operations like this fail from the variables nobody saw coming. The shadow team is my failsafe against every one of them.
Carmichael's people are already moving into position. When the cartel takes her, when they move her to wherever they're coordinating from, she'll think she's alone with nothing but trackers.
But I'll have shooters in play, contingency plans layered beneath contingency plans.
I tighten my arm around her and feel her shift closer in her sleep, trusting and unaware.
She's going to be furious.
But she'll be alive when it's done, and I can live with her hating me for that.
15
RAVEN
The cabin smells like coffee and gun oil when I pad into the kitchen. Jesse is already at the island with maps and satellite imagery spread across the granite, a laptop open beside a mug that's been refilled at least twice based on the ring stains darkening the counter beside it. He doesn't look up when I enter. He shifts the laptop so I can see the screen as I pour coffee and take the stool beside him.
"Rook's in position on the western ridge." He taps the map with two fingers. "Torque and Hawk left an hour ago to run the perimeter on the active staging points. Knox and Beckett are doing counter-surveillance sweeps along the main access roads."
"Where’s Cipher?"
"At Rimrock. Running signal intercepts on cartel comm channels and monitoring the sheriff's office network in real time." Jesse straightens, rolling the stiffness from his shoulders in a way that tells me he's been sitting in that position since well before sunrise. "He flagged increased radio chatter overnight. The cartel is still searching for you after the safe house, but they haven't narrowed down our location." He sets his mug down and looks at me directly. "Torque has the transmitters and drone ready. Knox confirmed the cartel's watchers are still rotatingthrough town on their regular schedule. Everything's in position. We move tomorrow."
Tomorrow.
The word settles into the quiet kitchen and stays there.
