Page 24 of Dan

“It’s as if I should be able to feel the outline of you in my body,” she smiled up at him. “The sting is gone now. It’s just very full.”

“Slow, baby, slow.” Rocking back and forth slowly at first, Dan was doing everything in his power to control his desires, but Finley wasn’t helping his case. Wiggling against him, she grabbed her own breasts, twisting the taut nipples, moaning with need.

“Shit, Fin, baby, you’re driving me crazy!”

“You’re driving me crazy,” she smiled. “Fair is fair.”

With surprising strength, Finley rolled him to his back, mounting him like a stallion. Leaning forward, she buried her tongue in his mouth, thrusting her hips up and down. Dan was so lost in the moment he forgot he hadn’t used a condom. When stars exploded, and they screamed with excitement and relief, he held her tightly to his body.

“We had no protection,” she said breathlessly.

“I know, I’m sorry. I remembered at the last minute,” said Dan. “It doesn’t matter for me, Fin. I want to have children with you. But I understand if you’re not ready for that yet.”

“What if they’re like me?” she asked, staring down at him. “What if they don’t understand emotions, or humor, or sarcasm?”

“Then we’ll teach them,” he said, pushing her hair from her face. He tucked the long strands behind her ears, kissing her passionately once again. “My whole family will teach them. They will be loved and cherished, just like I love and cherish you.”

“Then I’m okay having babies. As many as we can,” she smiled. She could feel his passion dripping from her body. Moaning, she rubbed against him. “You’re very good at this. Do you do it often?” Dan laughed, shaking his head.

“No. I have done it before, but I don’t do it often. I’ve never been the kind of man who sleeps with different women every night. That’s not how I was raised. I’ve always wanted one woman, Finley. Only one, and you are the one, baby.”

“I’m very glad to hear that,” she said, laying her head against his chest. “I’m not good with many emotions, but I definitely do well with showing anger.” Dan chuckled.

“Good to know.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Ryan, Sophia Ann, Paige, Alexandra, Code, Sly, and Tony gathered in one of the boardrooms with Finley after breakfast. Ryan had placed sticky notes on a whiteboard with written statements and facts about the case. On the table were documents about YZX and GAM and the many contracts they currently had with the government and smaller municipalities.

“YZX supplied chips to dozens of major dam structures and municipalities for their water treatment and supply plants,” said Alexandra. “Look. Hoover, Grand Coolee, Oroville, Fort Peck, Shasta, Garrison, they’re all here. Los Angeles County Water, Houston Water, and dozens more. They supplied microchips for the systems that run these dams and water systems.”

“Well, they won’t be able to manipulate them since I rewrote the codes on the backend. It would take them a while to figure out how to undo it, but they could, in theory,” said Finley.

“Let’s figure this out before they do,” said Ryan. “How does this relate to YZX wanting to do the chips for our guidance system?”

“None of this makes sense,” said Finley. “Even if the land flooded because of something they did, the U.S. wouldn’t just sign over the land to them. We have enough resources to build it back up and use the land. Also, I’ve been reading up on tsunamis and earthquakes. There is no way for them to predict the direction of the water other than toward land. It could have easily gone south, toward Mexico, Florida, or Cuba.”

“Then what were they really after?” asked Sophia Ann.

“Maybe it was always just the microchips for the guidance system,” said Finley. “Maybe, once they had the contract for that, they were hoping I could modify the chips.”

“That makes more sense,” said Ryan, nodding at the young woman. “Our systems have hundreds of fail-safes installed in them. It would take the average person months to get past them if the alarms weren’t set off on our end. But. You are not the average person.” Finley stared at her future father-in-law.

“I guess I’m not,” she said, frowning.

“Finley, that’s a good thing, honey,” said Ryan. “You’re going to help us figure this out and stop them. We need someone better than average, and that’s definitely you.”

“Wait a minute,” she frowned. “I’m not positive of where we are exactly, but aren’t we along the Gulf Coast?”

“We are,” nodded Ryan.

“Then maybe they were willing to kill millions of people just to get to you and the guidance system.” The others stared at her, then looked down at the evidence in front of them.

“No one knows exactly where we are,” said Ryan. “We have our stealth systems blocking any views from drones, satellites, that sort of thing. If they were desperate enough, maybe they thought this was their only way. Flood us out.”

“Who would be willing to kill millions just to get to G.R.I.P.?” asked Finley.

“Sweetie, it’s not just G.R.I.P. It’s everyone here, all of our men. Voodoo Guardians. Someone may be trying to flush, literally, everyone out into the open,” said Paige.

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