The Revenge by Tijan

Her hands still in the air. Red in the face. Her eyes wild and dilated.

I smiled back. “I knew you would.”

I stood, slow, so she could see my purpose.

She did, her hands starting to lower. Her eyes widened, and I heard the air catch in her throat. “What are you doing?” But she was excited. I heard that, too, a whisper at the end of her statement.

My grin turned wolfish. I went full force, knowing my eyes were smoldering and intense, and knowing how she reacted to that.

“You know what I’m doing.” A slow step toward her.

She was getting flustered, and her chest rose, holding. Her hands started fluttering in the air, and I didn’t think she knew she was doing that.

Another step to her. “I’ve been watching you do your thing all night, and most of the day. Do you realize how sexy you are?”

She was captivated, her eyes holding to mine, and I slowly reached for her.

She was coming down from a high.

I drew her chest to mine, my hand sliding under her shirt and up her back. She murmured to me on a sigh, “I found my mom, Kash.”

I bent down to her, my lips over hers. “You did.”

She smiled, a tear slipping from her eye. “I’m so happy right now.” Then a crease showed in her forehead. “It always goes away after. It can’t go away this time.” Her hand went to my arm, sliding up over my bicep. “I won’t come back this time if it goes away.”

That wouldn’t happen.

My lips touched hers, and I murmured back, “It’s not going anywhere. I won’t let it.”

No matter what I had to do.





FORTY-THREE

Bailey


“Are you insane?” I hissed at Kash, my mouth gaping.

After we closed everything down, I wiped any security feed of us and then cleaned everything up on the hardware. I had broken so many laws, and just thinking about a ballpark of them made my legs wobble.

He was on the phone, shirtless, and standing facing the windows.

I wasn’t actively listening to him until I heard the words wait, team, and swarming the house. Then I focused on what he was actually saying.

I shot up to my knees, and my mouth was still gaping as I listened while he was arguing with someone else on the phone about waiting to go in and get my mother. I’d heard enough to get my blood boiling by the time he finished the call.

He turned, saw me, and stopped in his tracks.

“Are you insane?” Here’s my hissing part. “I did not just hear what I heard.”

He took me in, his mouth closed, and his jaw firmed. His shoulders lifted and rolled back, and his chin went up.

Oh yeah.

We were going to fight.

He tossed his phone onto the couch before turning back to me and folding his arms over his chest, and I wasn’t distracted by how his muscles moved and shifted from that movement. Or how he looked all hot and moody. And my loins weren’t stirring.

Nope. Not happening.

I coughed, clearing my throat. “You did not just tell whoever was on that phone that you need time to go and get my mother, did you?!”

Because that would be absurd.

That was preposterous.

That was going to make my blood pressure go from a good sizzle to a boil to exploding the blood pressure cuffs off of me.

I’m sure steam was coming out of the top of my head.

And all the while, Kash lowered his head, his eyes on me, and he shifted his feet apart. Oh boy. He was taking a fighting stance. This was going to happen. We were going to fight about this.

I said it quietly, but clearly. He had to hear how serious I was. “I want my mother.”

“You’ll get your mother.” Almost as quietly, just as clearly, and he was locked in.

We were going to battle.

“I want her now.”

“You’ll get her.”

He didn’t say “now.” He needed to say “now.”

“Kash.” A warning from me.

“Bailey.” His eyes cooled.

“Kashton!” A low growl started in the back of my throat.

His shoulders rose and held. He was tightening up. “I do not want the authorities to get my brother. I want my brother. And I have a team that can do it, but it’s going to take time.”

“A team?” I remembered what he said last night. “How many more teams do you have?”

He blinked a little, like I’d thrown him with that question. He raked a hand over his head. “Like I said, I have one team helping with research, whatever that entails.”

Research. Whatever that entails.

Why did that not sound legal? Though I was not judging. At all. If I did, I might as well start sharing a cell with him.

“And I have a specialized team on my grandfather.”

My eyebrows skyrocketed up. “Are you kidding me?” More hissing from me. I shot to my feet, my voice rising. “You know where he is?”

He didn’t respond, not at first. Then a grudging nod. “I’ve known for a while.”

“Kash!”

His jaw tightened. “You have been in serious mourning. I’ve been doing everything I can to make sure I can move against my grandfather, but I can’t be stupid. I can’t go in without covering all my bases, and some of those bases are finding out if he has a death policy or not.”