Page 41 of Driven By Impulse

Ash broke first, spilling cum across his fist, pumping until his vision narrowed and desire consumed him, and Nicco came a second later, swearing low and rough in Italian as he jerked.

And Ash knew he should have been thinking about that line in the sand, or the consequences of crossing it, or the woman upstairs who would know too much in an instant, but all he could focus on was where their cum had spilled on the shower floor, a sinful mess of need, and how much he knew that a single shower in the dark would never be enough for him.

Not when it came to his captain.

Chapter Sixteen

Hanna sipped her coffee and tried to follow along with what Jinx was saying on the other end of the phone. She couldn’t remember the last time she had gotten so many consecutive hours of sleep, but it was early, the sun barely breaking through the trees in the backyard, and Jinx seemed to have non-stop energy, talking so fast she felt like she was only catching every other word.

“Slow down, Jinx,” Ash said, settling into the stool next to Hanna. He was back in his usual getup, dark jeans and a T-shirt stretched a little too tight across the chest, and while she missed the sight of him in his tuxedo, it did something to Hanna to see the familiar Ash again. “Some of us were up late.”

The way he said that piqued Hanna’s curiosity, even if it was still earlier than she would have liked to be awake. She didn’t even remember falling asleep the night before. When she had woken in her own bed, shoes on the floor, earrings on the nightstand, she knew that Ash had been the one to carry her upstairs. But what had he gotten up to afterward that made the apples of his surprisingly full cheeks pink like that…?

“Right, yes.” Jinx slowed his words on the other end of the line. “Okay, so while we were out of range last night, the guys and I did some digging into what kind of leverage Grace might have had on Ralston. We know it had to be important enough for them to kidnap her, instead of just…” He paused, apparently realizing he was about to be very insensitive.

“They could have killed her,” Hanna said flatly. “I’ve been a cop a long time, Jinx. I know how these cases go.”

She could hear the apologetic smile when he spoke again. “Right, so whatever the information she stole was, it had to be important to them.”

Nicco settled on Hanna’s other side, and not for the first time, she felt boxed in by the size of the two men. She wasn’t a petite woman, not by any stretch, and yet, next to Ash and Nicco, she felt practically delicate.

“So have you figured out what it is?” Nicco asked, before taking a sip of his own coffee.

Jinx popped his bubblegum loudly on the other end of the line. “I think we did. I don’t know the specifics, which is why we still need to get into Iverson’s home office, see if we can’t figure out what Grace did, but I think it’s financial records. There are some wild discrepancies in how much Iverson is giving to Ralston and the church and how much the church is reporting on.”

“They’re laundering?” Hanna asked.

“Yes…” Jinx hedged. “But not in the way you would think. They’re reporting that Iverson’s company is giving them more than he is. Like, a lot more.”

“So that money…” Ash teased out.

Jinx picked up the thread. “Yeah, it’s coming from somewhere.”

Hanna swore under her breath. “Son of a bitch…”

Nicco and Ash both turned to her.

“You know something, Leone?” Nicco asked.

Hanna nodded. “I think I do. Bitterroot is like any small town that’s lost industry over the years. There’s always some kind of a drug issue at the outskirts, you know how it goes. But we’ve had it under control here for years. I’ve hired resource coordinators and addiction specialists through the sheriff’s department, and we have a program to prevent relapse, all the stuff you’re supposed to do. Two years ago…”

She thought back to the bust she had led, Frankie and Wyatt at her six, along with half-a-dozen local cops from different precincts. “We took out half the Iron Daggers’ operation.”

“Ah.” Ash leaned back in his chair. “Karter Vance.”

Hanna nodded. “Karter Vance.”

She turned to Nicco. “He’s the captain of the Iron Daggers MC, which is just about as different from your operation as it gets. Drugs, weapons, anything they can get their hands on. We never got them on any violent charges, but a dozen guys in the crew have been locked up for drug production and smuggling.”

“You think Vance is doing Ralston’s dirty work?” Jinx asked from the other side of the call.

Hanna nodded, before remembering that he couldn’t see her. “It’s…his style. He brings people down.”

“Han…” Ash reached out and took her hand, and Hanna let him. Such was the nature of a small town that the villains you knew in your past never truly left. She hated Ralston because of what had happened to Ash all those years ago, but also because she had seen the impact of such a leader on a town like Bitterroot, had seen the kind of damage it could do, and the people it could hurt, people like Grace Iverson.

She hated Karter Vance because the last time she had seen her sister had been on the back of his motorcycle.

“Jinx.” She shook her head and tried to focus. “I’d pay close attention to the movement of Vance’s crew down south. They’re not crossing the border, but I have the feeling they’re meeting up with people who are.”