Page 66 of Ravens
The things he fucking says.
“Show me how badly you want it.” He rams into me, and I shake, shouting as my hips roll rhythmically with the release.
He curses, slamming into me again over and over as he comes apart, chest heaving with a rumble of relief as his movements begin to slow, and then he stops, still breathing heavily.
My head hangs off the bed as I focus on my breathing, but he lifts it, bringing my lips to his.
“Stay,” he murmurs.
And I know he doesn’t mean in his bed tonight.
Thirty-Two
The morning is awkward, or I am anyway.
I passed out in York’s bed with him last night. It was a tight squeeze, but that’s not the issue. The issue is that I’m not convinced no one overheard us last night. They may have been drunk, but there is no way any of them werethatdrunk. No one has said anything, of course, but we weren’t the first up, so obviously someone wasn’t intoxicated enough to require extra sleep . . . and if that’s true, then someone heard something. To say nothing of the empty sofa bed this morning.
By almost noon, everyone has had enough food and coffee to ward off the headaches and nausea, so we get down to business.
“All right.” William rubs his brow and rolls out a piece of paper. “Let’s go over this.”
The blueprints are smoothed and held down with coffee mugs as he leans his elbows on the table. I’ve never asked and always just assumed that York was in charge, but the more I watchthem, the more I think . . . William is the one in command. It makes sense, since he is the one that took on the Raven contract and York was the one sent on the side mission for me.
It also makes sense why York seems to protect him. He stopped me from getting into it with him the other night. He punched William for shooting me, but he didn’t kill him . . . I guess expecting him to kill anyone for my benefit is a wild ask.
I lean back and look at him for what feels like the first time. How did I miss something that important?
“Essentially, we’re all a distraction to buy August time to get in the building and upload the virus,” William clarifies.
“No, I’m notuploadinga virus; I’m plugging in a drive and hightailing. The upload is on an automated timer.” August shakes his head. “Not even I have the balls to sit there and attempt a hack.”
“Whatever.” William rolls his eyes. “Tripoli and I will be up high, here and here, to provide cover fire if required.” He points to two of the X’s. “Carter will be getting the party started with an explosion here.” He points to another mark just down the street. “And York will have his back while he’s prepping.”
“I don’t need to go far,” August cuts in. “I just need to plug in the device at the security desk and get out. The upload will be on a ten-minute delay, so they don’t lock down with me inside.”
Scanning the paper again, I realize this isn’t the Agency building. “What is this place?”
“Black site,” William offers. “Few know about it, so it’s under-manned bycomparison.”
“Same computer network though,” August adds.
“Carter and I will be nearby to pick up August when he exits the building,” York says, drawing his finger along the route they’ll drive. “Everyone will be on comms at all times, which means hot mics, so careful what you say.” His eyes drift to mine, but I shake my head and point at the map.
“This won’t work.” I point to the roads around the building. “They will shut all of this down as soon as that bomb goes off. August will be lucky to get out of the building, let alone off-site. If he does, he’ll have to hike to get outside of the perimeter they create, on foot, before you can pick him up; they aren’t just going to let someone stroll away after an explosion.”
“It’s the best we can do on short notice with limited resources,” William says through gritted teeth as he pushes his knuckles into the table.
“Then we shouldn’t do it.” I shrug. “Not today.”
“We’ve got a deadline to achieve this. If we don’t meet it, backup will be sent to enforce the objective,” York says and runs the palm of his hand over his short hair. I’ve never seen him do that before. “The last thing I want now is more people getting involved in this.”
“Yeah,” Carter scoffs. “Cause this little Raven is going to get snatched up.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I furrow my brow.
“Nothing. It was just a joke,” he says, not meeting my eyes.
My ass. I clench my jaw for a second and then realize I haven’t had a phone in my hand in a while. “What’s the date today?”
