Oxygen Deprived (Kilgore Fire Book 3) Read online

  “What happened to your hand?” I couldn’t help but ask as I was lifted up by Drew and carried like a sack of potatoes until I breached the doorway.

  The man’s wary eyes turned to me.

  “Don’t worry, I went to the hospital,” he ignored my question.

  “Funny,” Drew said as he placed me on my feet again. “I would’ve thought if you were there to actually see a doctor, they would’ve cut your ring off your finger, Sam.”

  I agreed, but chose not to voice my opinion out loud.

  The man looked freakin’ scary.

  His muscles bulged as he led the way down a narrow hallway.

  “I didn’t say I was visiting a doctor. I had just happened to be at a hospital for some other matter I had to attend to,” Sam muttered darkly.

  For some reason, I didn’t think the visit was friendly.

  Raphael followed behind me as I followed behind Drew, who stood shoulder to shoulder with Sam.

  I couldn’t help but compare the two as we walked, my eyes going to their builds.

  Drew was taller than Sam by at least three inches, but they looked incredibly close in age and coloring.

  They both had tattoos, Sam more than Drew.

  Drew’s bulk was heftier in his chest and legs, while Sam carried more muscle in his arms.

  Other than that, they could’ve passed as brothers.

  It was eerie, too.

  Sam took a left at the back of the hall, then we were yet again heading down another hallway, this one thankfully shorter than the previous.

  “Give me a minute, okay?” Sam stopped us. “She doesn’t know she was found.”

  Sam didn’t get his minute, though.

  The minute Sam pushed through, the little girl woke up with a wail.

  The mother, hearing the cry of her child, was barreling out of the room and heading straight for Raphael.

  Luckily, Raphael let the baby go without any problems, relinquishing her to her mother as the group watched the woman break down.

  She didn’t look good, and I started to worry about her strength as the woman’s legs trembled.

  Before she could fall, though, another man with a scarred face grabbed her arm and led her back into the room, pushing through the crowd to do so.

  Sam and Drew backed away, letting the man help her through, and then followed them into the office.

  Raphael and I stayed in the hallway, unsure of what to do.

  I didn’t want to butt into their private reunion, and apparently Raphael didn’t either.

  “Soooo…” I drawled. “You watch the neighborhood too?”

  He nodded.

  “Every damn day. But I have video cameras. I don’t use the binoculars like you do,” he winked.

  My mouth dropped open.

  “You can see me?” I asked in surprise.

  He nodded.

  “Wow,” I licked my lips. “So…did you see the woman down the block from us has a man that comes to her after her husband leaves for work every morning?”

  He nodded. “I also saw the woman across the street from me steal a package from her front porch while it was going on.”

  My mouth dropped open.

  “I must’ve missed that,” I told him. “What about that boy who keeps ding dong ditching everyone on the block?”

  Raphael smiled. “I scared the shit out of him the second time he tried to do it to me. He hasn’t been back to my house since.”

  I grinned.

  “Funny,” I said. “I shot him with my water gun and he hasn’t been back since, either.”

  “I know,” he said. “I watched.”

  I laughed, which got the attention of my man who seemed not to like that I was laughing with someone that wasn’t him. He opened the door and glared at Raphael.

  “Come in here,” he ordered. “The mother went back to a back bedroom.”

  I sighed and followed him in, coming to a halt just inside the entrance.

  “What is this place?” I whispered in awe.

  The man with the scar who’d helped the woman in earlier snorted.

  “You sound like a kid in a candy store,” he muttered. “We help abused women find new identities. Different job. New place. No danger.”

  I nodded, but still not quite comprehending exactly what they did until the man continued to explain further.

  “The women that we help are escaping abusive situations. An abusive husband or boyfriend, their parents. Hell, we’ve even had a few leaving cults. We bring them here, get them new identities, and then help them get to their new lives.”

  The man’s eyes moved to Raphael who was leaning nonchalantly against the door just inside the room.

  “But you know that already, don’t you Uniball?” The man said, directing that question to Raphael.

  Raphael didn’t react to the name. Not physically anyway.

  Oh, but you could tell he was pissed.

  “Why are you called Uniball?” Janie, the girl we’d almost hit on the way in earlier, asked from the doorway.

  Raphael looked down at the girl, then grinned.

  “Apparently, people think it’s funny to tease about someone being injured,” Raphael replied to the girl.

  “Janie,” scar face snapped. “What are you doing in here? You know better than to come in here.”

  “I told her to come in here,” Sam muttered. “Take this to your mom. I bought it for her birthday.”

  Janie took the present that Sam somehow produced from his pocket.

  It wasn’t big, per se, but it wasn’t small either.

  And it was wrapped in duct tape.

  How just like a man to do that.

  Janie smiled the sweetest smile I’d ever seen and turned and left just as fast as she’d come.

  Except she came back less than five seconds later, stopping in the doorway to stare up at Raphael.

  “You have pretty eyes, and I’m sorry that you only have one ball,” she said, then quickly turned and left without another word, not aware of the reaction her innocent comment got.

  I wasn’t sure what to say, but Raphael’s laughter had me breathing a sigh of relief.

  “At least I didn’t call you half-sack,” Scar face muttered.

  “Does anyone call you scar face, Max?” Raphael asked with deceptive calm. “’Cause, if not, I can definitely take care of that for you. Maybe give you a few matching ones.”

  I looked over at Raphael to see him with a knife the size of his forearm.

  “Alright, Rambo. Scar face,” I drawled. “Let’s go to our separate corners.”

  All the men in the room looked at me.

  “What?” I asked Drew, who happened to have the largest frown on his face.

  “Don’t you have any self-preservation?” Drew asked softly. “You’re in a room full of some dangerous men. I’m pretty sure any of them could kill you in about fifteen different ways with just their hands. Have some respect.”

  I laughed in his face.

  “There’s a difference,” I informed him. “If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t be half as outgoing and would probably still be waiting in the car. You’ll protect me, won’t you?”

  I meant it as a joke, but he obviously took it more seriously than that.

  “I’d try, baby. I’d likely get killed, but I sure as fuck would try,” he promised, whispering into my ear so only I could hear.

  The other men in the room found it humorous, though.

  From that moment on, however, I was distracted.

  He’d give his life to protect me?

  Did that mean I’d do the same?

  The longer I thought about it, the more I realized that what had started out as a fun little tryst to pass the time had turned into something much stronger and deeper than anything I’d ever felt before in my life.

  What I had with Danny didn’t hold a candle to what I felt for Drew.

  Ther
e was just no comparison.

  “So the man that stole the girl…” Sam started. “How’d you get him?”

  Raphael’s mouth tightened. “I’ve been working a case for months. A child sex trafficking ring that’s taken me through fifteen states and thirty different cities.”

  “And?” Scar Face barked.

  “And,” Raphael drawled. “I’ve been here for a while. Monitoring and regrouping. Using the city as a jumping off point to take me to the next drop when I had a call come in—presumably from someone you contacted the moment the kidnapping happened—telling me to be on the lookout. One of my contacts heard the word that I was searching for a girl, and then hooked me up with Darius who thought I was going to be able to help him unload the girl.”

  “Darius being the guy you shot in the head?” Scar Face guessed.

  Raphael nodded. “The one and the same.”

  “Why didn’t you kill the bastard?” Sam muttered.

  “Dead bodies don’t talk.” Raphael said calmly.

  A full body shiver took me over at the coldness that seeped into his voice.

  “Well, for once we’ll agree on something.” Scar Face muttered. “But after what Sam got out of him today, I don’t think we’ll need to worry about any more kidnapping or sex trafficking coming through the city of Kilgore. Jack uncovered three more men that you’d yet to find, and is currently sending the info we were able to procure to your office as we speak.”

  Raphael’s grin was mutinous.

  “Excellent.”

  I had the feeling that everything was excellent. Just not for the men that ever planned on kidnapping young children ever again.

  There was not a single doubt in my mind that these men standing around me would hunt down each and every man that they deemed responsible for the incident, and enjoy doling out punishment.

  “You okay?” Drew whispered.

  I turned my head to study him. “Never better.”

  Chapter 15

  With great power comes great electricity bill.

  -Fact of life

  Aspen

  The days after the ‘incident’, as I liked to call it, went by much faster than the ones before it.

  It’d been roughly three weeks since that night, and things between Drew and me had gone from together to together.

  There wasn’t a moment of the day that we weren’t spending together if he wasn’t working.

  Even if I was working, he was there.

  He may not be bothering me, but he was still there.

  “I need to go do some work for the blog,” I whispered. “And I have to try out a pot and a cat toilet thing today.”

  He continued the path he was keeping, letting his tongue trail up my spine.

  He’d just gotten finished licking me until I’d come, with little decorum, might I add.

  And now he was getting up to go out and meet PD for breakfast.

  Or brunch, seeing as it was now eleven in the morning.

  “You’re going to be late,” I whispered frantically.

  If he didn’t stop, he wouldn’t have the choice of whether to leave or not, he’d be staying and finishing me off before I allowed him to leave.

  It didn’t matter to Drew that PD was sitting at the restaurant waiting for him…and surprisingly it didn’t matter one shit to me either.

  “I’m not late. We’re meeting just up the road. It takes me five minutes,” he bit my ass cheek. “To get there. Five minutes,” he bit the other, holding on a little longer this time. “To get dressed. It’ll take me less than a minute,” he licked, starting with the top of my ass crack and moving up until his body was aligned with mine, his cock at my entrance. “So that gives me roughly fifteen minutes. Plenty of time to do what I want to do next.”

  I cracked slightly.

  “But I’m not dressed,” I whispered.

  He leaned back quickly, pushed me over onto my back, and was in between my legs in less than a breath.

  “I’ll be quick. I’ll use you and let you go,” he teased, licking my jaw.

  I gave up.

  How could I not?

  He had super powers in the ways of seduction. Telling the man the word “no” was nearly impossible.

  So I widened my legs, allowing him easier access to what he wanted.

  He placed his cock at my entrance, then slowly pushed inside, filling me and stealing my breath away all at once.

  “Jesus, you’re so tight,” he grunted, bringing his hands down to my thighs and pushing them up further.

  I moaned when his cock was finally seated all the way inside my pussy, the sheer feeling of rightness making my body relax, something I normally had to work at.

  It didn’t matter how many times he took me, each and every time Drew first entered me was a struggle at first.

  This time was no different.

  My eyes opened and his abs flexed as he pulled out.

  His cock was shimmering with my wetness, the entire length of him coated.

  “God,” he growled. “I like it when you get that look on your face.”

  My eyes went to his.

  “What look?” I panted slightly, biting my lip.

  “The look that says you want me to put my cock back inside you. The one where you’re so hungry for me to fill you that you’d do just about anything to get it there,” he rumbled.

  A sheen of sweat from his workout slicked his chest, and when he leaned forward, placing the entire length of himself back inside of me, the sweat met the side of my legs.

  “You’re wet,” I whispered.

  “So are you,” he pushed forward and pulled backwards, the sound of my arousal mingling with the sounds of our lovemaking.

  His hands moved down, pulling my legs up and over his shoulders, forcing him to go even deeper than he’d been before.

  “Jesus,” he hissed. “Every single time it surprises me that you can take me.”

  I wanted to reply, but his cock had stolen my ability to think coherently enough to form a reply, to concentrate on anything else but the feeling of him inside me.

  His head turned so his mouth could run along the inside of my ankle, his lips moving over the ankle monitor like it wasn’t even there.

  Then, as he usually did when we were in this position, his fingers hooked into the strap that held the monitor in place and held on as he started to really move.

  My breasts jiggled with each thrust, and I worried maybe I should hold onto them, but then he took care of that for me, leaning down just enough so he could grab each tip between his fingers and pinch.

  As usual, it didn’t take long before I was on the verge, something he seemed to always be aware of.

  Which explained why he started to slow.

  I screamed at him in anger.

  “Don’t stop!” I bellowed.

  He grinned, slowing down so much so that he had to let my breasts go to hold my legs up where he wanted them again.

  “What’s wrong?” He whispered gruffly, biting his lip as he leaned forward, taking my legs with him.

  I found myself smashed into the bed, the tops of my thighs touching the bed on either side of my chest.

  His cock moved so slowly that I was finding it hard to breathe.

  The anticipation of my orgasm had me holding my breath.

  I angled my hips, hoping the move would give me the relief I couldn’t quite find, and nearly came out of my skin when the tip of Drew’s cock dragged deliciously across the front wall of my pussy.

  “Shit,” I hissed, my body jumping in reaction.

  He growled.

  “Put your hips back where you had them,” he ordered.

  I did as he’d instructed, and shrieked when the next pass had my body convulsing.

  My orgasm poured over me, washing over me like a flash flood, something I’d never experienced before.

  And Drew had given me many, many orgasms before.
<
br />   In fact, he’d given me the best ones of my life, but this one. This one took the cake, for sure.

  I didn’t know if it was the way he’d gotten me there and then prolonged it. Or if it was because he’d found the perfect spot from an angle that I’d never felt before.

  Regardless, it was something that needed to be forever remembered.

  “Christ,” Drew groaned, his cock jerking inside of me.

  Then the warmth of his release flooded my pussy, and I closed my eyes in pure bliss at the feeling.

  I was on birth control now, after not one, but two mishaps.

  It’d been a struggle to get birth control when I couldn’t go out of the house, but after a note from Drew’s sister explaining the situation, they’d prescribed them to me.

  After I showed them the negative pregnancy test I’d been forced to take.

  “That one felt like it was yanked from my spine,” he breathed, letting my legs go one by one, then collapsing on top of me.

  I giggled, wrapping my arms around his neck, uncaring of the fact he was getting us both sweaty now.

  “You’re going to be late,” I whispered into his ear.

  He mumbled something, then pushed himself off me, leaving me in heap on the bed.

  “You’re gonna have to wash those sheets,” he said on a laugh, eyeing my butt. “Sorry about that.”

  I lifted a hand in an ‘I don’t care’ gesture, then let it fall back to the bed while he chuckled at my exhilaration.

  “Your blog?” He reminded me, drying himself off with a towel and tossing it to me.

  It hit my lower half, concealing me from his gaze.

  “What about it?” I asked, eyes closed.

  He full out laughed then.

  “Get up,” he said, tickling my foot.

  I shrieked, jerking my foot away and rolling out of pure reflex.

  “Ack!” I said, getting up onto my knees and scrambling off the bed, knowing damn good and well he’d keep at it until I got up.

  Once I was out of bed, he gathered me to him and slanted his mouth down over mine.

  “See you later, gator,” he rumbled sweetly, punctuating the statement with a small kiss to my forehead.

  I leaned up onto my tip toes, kissed his scruffy jaw, and replied.

  “After a while, crocodile.”