Page 83 of Smoke and Shadows
“You didn’t tape your fists?” Marissa asked quietly.
“Did at first,” Viktor replied, not looking at her, but the muscle tic on his jaw revealed the simmering emotion underneath his calm. “Felt better without them.”
Marissa inhaled sharply. “Viktor—”
“Owen Reed is deploying a chemical weapon in the next few days.”
“Do we know where?”
“Neither Fletcher nor Tyrell knew the location—”
“They could’ve been holding out for a deal—”
“Believe me, I know when they haven’t got anything else to offer—”
“You shouldn’t have—”
“What? Killed them?” Viktor cut her off. His eyes seared into hers, and they were shooting out sparks of fury. “They begged me to end their lives.”
“What?”
“After I made certain they wouldn’t be capable of hurting another woman ever again.”
“Oh, God!” Marissa whispered in horror as the reality of what Viktor had done sank in.
“Know this, Marissa, any man who touches you is as good as dead,” Viktor said before turning away and walking back to the outhouse.
Viktor wason the phone with Manning, who had gone to the supposed rendezvous point Garett Fletcher gave up, but the Guardian found nothing other than an abandoned truck. No canisters and no Owen Reed. He sent the second team of Guardians back to DC, bearing the cell phones and hard drives they had retrieved from the Fletcher residence. The “cleaners” also did a sweep of the house to find any traces of the nerve gas, but came up empty.
The rest of them continued on to Charleston, WV to regroup. Stark was in his room extrapolating different routes that Reed could have taken. The end game was definitely Washington DC, but a test canister was going to be released along the way.
All through this, Viktor kept a watchful eye on Marissa. She was online with Allison Guthrie, working on a way to transfer all of Fletcher's assets to Sheila. There was a momentwhen Viktor thought he had lost her again, the time he exited the house with blood on his hands—literally. But he saw no other way out of this. He couldn’t let Fletcher and Tyrell get away with what they had done. He already had no patience for abusers of women, but rapists? Zero tolerance. After what he’d seen his mother go through, he’d be damned if he’d let the men who dared lay their filthy hands on Marissa live. He was tensely waiting for Marissa to turn away from him and call him a cold-blooded killer again. But her eyes, though filled with horror, had shown understanding. On their way to Charleston, she melted into his arms, seeking comfort and solace that made him even more fiercely protective of her.
He was watchful of those unguarded moments when the trauma of the day might hit her. Marissa was a strong woman, and she had seen a lot of shit in her job, but she was still only human. And he was thankful as fuck they had arrived in time to prevent those bastards from violating her. But his mind was still reeling from the “what ifs,” and that only made his blood boil over even though the perpetrators were cold in the ground.
He watched her end the call with her analyst and cast a furtive glance at him, her eyes widening when she realized he was watching her intently.
Her eyes softened as she rose, walking over to stand in front of him. His arms wrapped around her and pulled her closer. He tilted his head slightly to gaze into her eyes, resisting the urge to ask her if she was okay. He’d already asked her three times, and knowing Marissa, she’d probably knock him over the head with her laptop if he asked a fourth time.
“You’ve altered the papers?” Viktor asked.
“Yes.” She was swaying languidly from side to side, her belly rubbing against his chest. Freshly showered and wearing only a robe, Marissa’s movements loosened the sash, giving him a glimpse of her breasts. Viktor ignored the stirring in his groin. “Sheila will receive a letter from a lawyer stating thatFletcher had to leave for good and was sorry for causing her all the pain these past few years. The bar is hers and so is the house. Tyrell had no real partnership in the bar after all. Has AGS released Candy?”
Viktor nodded. “She’s been told to stay away from Fletcher's Bar. We’re sweetening the deal, giving her an incentive to move elsewhere. We told her that Fletcher was wanted on drug charges, and if she didn’t want to be caught up in the dragnet, she should stay away.”
“At least she’ll leave Sheila alone. The woman has suffered enough.” She sighed, then added, “All because of love.”
“Hey, don’t say it that way.”Shit. He should shut up. Marissa narrowed her eyes at him. He looked away and said, “We’ve lost track of Reed. He abandoned his truck.”
Marissa gripped his chin and forced him to look up at her. She lowered her head and kissed him, sinking down to straddle him, rocking against his hardness. He could feel the heat of her core creating delicious friction against his cock.
He tore his lips away. “Don’t. You’re not ready.”
“Shut up and kiss me,” Marissa demanded, smashing her lips against him once more and dipping her tongue into his mouth, swirling it provocatively.
Thinking was hard when all the blood had drained to his dick, but somehow he managed to pull away from her again to say more firmly, “It’s too soon, sweetheart. Don’t do this.”
Her eyes flared with determination, leaving him helpless to what she did next. She dropped to her knees and unzipped his cargos.