Page 98 of Severed Rivalry
Disconnect.
Unknown numberstares back at me in my missed calls log.
With everything going on, it’s suspicious, and I remind myself to tell Sariah since she’s a goddess of all things tech.
There she is, sitting outside at a tourist trap café, perfectly oblivious to her beauty or to how many people check her out as they wander the shops.
I take her in. Her dark hair falls down her back and sunglasses cover her eyes. She wears a black long-sleeved tee with a puffy vest over the top in a slate gray. Colorado mountain chic.
And all mine.
She looks up from her phone and I know the moment she spots me because her smile goes wide and she lifts her sunglasses to her head.
I can’t stay away any longer and spectators be damned. I haven’t kissed her since the night we watchedHow to Train Your Dragonand that’s way too damn long for my liking.
Jumping the waist-high rail, I lift my palms to her face and drop my mouth to hers, hungry to taste her. She gasps and I take the opening, sliding my tongue into her mouth, caressing and dueling with hers. Her arms lift around my neck, and I press my cock to her belly.
Fuck lunch. Fuck everything.
I pull back, dropping my forehead to hers. “I want you. I’ve thought of nothing but tasting you for weeks.”
Her eyes light up and dance with mischief. “Is this when I should tell you I’m working from home the rest of the day?”
“Seriously? Let’s go.” I drop a few bills on the table, bounce over the rail again and lift her with me. Hand-in-hand, we run formy truck, her sweet laughter the soundtrack to the best lunch date that never was.
Sariah
We enter the parking lot, and both our phones go off in tandem with a group message.
Liam: FBI/DOJ coordinated raids took down 478 perps today around the country. They thanked Sariah publicly for the info that allowed them to take down one of the largest child pornography rings in history.
“Fuck.” Cian’s chin lifts to the sky.
“No.” My hand flies to cover my mouth.
Liam: Sariah, get to safety. Ci, where are you?
Me: Get to Renée’s middle school. I’m calling them now to release Renée to you. I’m on my way too. First one there, take her to?—
Where do I go?
Everything I worked for. All the hiding. All the moving.
And I blew it.
Blew it being a hero.
Blew it when my daughter is turning fourteen, and now we’re in the crosshairs of way too many villains.
My legs give out. But not before Cian catches me and picks me up, bridal style, and lifts me into the passenger seat of his truck, spending valuable seconds to buckle me in before rounding the bed and jumping behind the wheel.
He extends his phone. “Program in the school.”
I do as he asks, and the computer-generated voice fills the truck and I make the call I’ve been dreading.
When I disconnect, he dials Liam as soon as we leave the lot,while I text Renée.
Me: Liam Murphy is coming to get you. Please go with him.
