Page 57 of Deadly Business

“Babe, I don’t store anything good on my laptop.”

I narrowed my eyes at his words. He’d said them before, but then why were people so interested in getting it from him? And why go to all that trouble wiping a laptop he loved so much that he named it Mercedes if he stored nothing good on it?

“My men and Ridge’s are combing the woods now, but so far there’s been no sign of the Grandmaster, Bernard, Hulk, or the unidentified man with the Grandmaster in the woods,” the detective said, filling in the missing gaps.

“They’re not Voldemort, Anderson. We can say their legal names,” Ridge said, his words joking as if they were best friends. It didn’t seem like these two were on grand terms, yet they had a rapport.

The detective glared back at him. “I’m sure the FBI will have questions for both of you. Be prepared and don’t leave town.”

Corbin removed his hand from my hip and put both up in a defensive gesture. “We wouldn’t dream of it.”

Ridge and Anderson stepped away. They leaned in toward each other as if they were having a whispered argument as they left us alone at the conference room table where we’d been talking.

When it was the two of us, I turned again until I straddled Corbin. Something poked me from his pants, but I didn’t have time to comment on it then. “I’m still confused. What happened to the data?”

He tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear and stared at me as if I was the most precious thing in the entire world. His arms wrapped around my back, securing me closer as the bulge in his pants grew, but we both ignored it.

“After I broke the encryption, I downloaded the files to my secure server and sent a copy to Spencer on Ridge’s team, just in case something happened to me. I wanted to make sure they had something to use against the Grandmaster. For your safety. That’s why the download took so long. That and the crappy internet. I built a safety net for you.”

I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder. The few hours of sleep from the night before felt like a lifetime ago, and exhaustion pulled my eyelids. “So, it’s over?”

He tensed, and when I looked up at him, he stared at me with something unreadable in his expression. It was weird, a look I’d never seen Corbin wear.

“Let’s hope they catch the Grandmaster and the other men working for him. Plus, someone has to recover the thumb drive from the woods. I only gave them a roundabout area to its location.”

“Oh,” I said, nuzzling my head against his. So maybe it wasn’t safe for the two of us yet.

Corbin squeezed me tightly, and I picked a piece of grass off the back of his collar from where he rolled on the ground, wrestling with Thumbs to save me. “But I got you, babe. You’ll always be safe with me.”

“I trust you,” I said, and I did. It may not have been the most traditional beginning to a relationship, but the things that happened between Corbin and me during the last week cemented us into forever. We were permanent, and Corbin would keep me safe and at his side.

“We’ll deal with the FBI and then take a long ass vacation. Just you, me, and the beach.”

As soon as Corbin finished his sentence, as if the fear of being alone called him from the woodwork, Cyrus stepped into the room. “Bro, I always miss all the fun.”

EPILOGUE

Corbin

One week later

Hazel stuck the straw between her lips and then gave it a hearty suck to pull up the thick milkshake. Her cheeks hollowed out, and I groaned, doing my best to keep it quiet. But from the way she looked at me, I did a shit job of it.

“What?” she asked, opening her lips and letting the straw fall from them as her tongue licked the remaining milkshake.

I shook my head, the only movement possible for me right then. “Nothing.” No way would I admit to her how watching her eat the extra thick milkshake at Pelican Bay’s diner gave me all the fantasies of having her lips wrapped around my dick.

We hadn’t gotten to the depraved point in our relationship, but once the FBI finished asking questions and closed the case, I’d fly us both to a distant warm beach where we could do nothing but fuck for two weeks. Then we’d come back and deal with life.

The government had Thumbs to prosecute, and they were building a case against All American Bank, the Grandmaster, and Jack Beamer. The company CEO had a rough future in prison to look forward to once his sex trafficking status made its way to the rest of the population—something I’d make sure happened on his first day in a cell. I hoped it wouldn’t take the justice system long so we could put this past us and move on to better times in life.

If I didn’t find out what her lips felt like wrapped around my cock and her suction power after that milkshake porn show, I’d combust. It wasn’t good for a man’s health to be teased so much.

Hazel’s eyes widened, and I couldn’t take my gaze off her lips. “Oh,” she said, finally understanding my issues.

“Oh, is right.” I wouldn’t be able to leave the booth for another five minutes with the way my dick tented my jeans. “Why don’t you order fries or something?”

“I did eye those slices of cake as we walked in. But I really shouldn’t,” she said, looking at her waist as she laid her hand on her stomach.

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