Raw Redemption Read online

  She’d started by working through the need. Getting as far ahead as possible on Caine’s list, just in case he dropped by to check. Truthfully, it would be no sweat delivering what Caine wanted by tomorrow. Her father had always demanded she keep their dealings on paper, paranoid about hard drives being confiscated or hacked, but he hadn’t made that specification this time around. Ailish was inputting the data with one hand into a spreadsheet, which performed most of the calculations for her, speeding the process along considerably. She was already much further ahead than Caine would expect by this point.

  With that assurance in mind, she picked up her cereal spoon without breaking the staring contest. “I need to go out. To pick up some things from the drugstore.”

  Since she’d anticipated Caine’s amusement at her request, Ailish didn’t even flinch when his laughter filled the dining room. “You’ve gained a sense of humor, too? Will wonders never cease?”

  “I’ve always had a sense of humor.” She dipped the spoon into her bowl, nudging the golden-brown flakes into tiny islands. “Maybe we just don’t think the same things are funny.”

  Her father inclined his head, as if to agree. “I always found your little attempts to run away funny, so you’re probably right.” He scratched his chin absently. “Henrik says he found you in Michigan, living in a cabin. How long do you really think you could have pulled that off?”

  Ailish’s throat felt tight. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, you have no survival skills.” He flattened a palm on the table and leaned forward. “Not like me. You’re nothing like me. You don’t know how to start with nothing and turn it into paper. Money. You would have been returning home in another week. Maybe I should have just waited. It would have been even more satisfying than pulling you out of a trunk.”

  “I would have starved first.” Another echoing laugh left Caine, but Ailish spoke through it. “If I have no survival skills, it’s because I wasn’t allowed to learn any. You’re not a father, you’re a prison warden.”

  Henrik walked into the dining room with that sentiment still hanging in the air. Just inside the arched entry, he stopped, his expression one of boredom. As if hearing that a man had kept his daughter imprisoned meant exactly nothing. Same shit, different day. It was a convincing act. One that she envied. On the tail of hearing her father claim she had no survival skills, doubt trickled in. She’d gone undercover knowing the score, yet she was doing a horrible job of coping. Keeping up a pretense while being confronted with her past confinement.

  Pull it together.

  As Henrik moved through the dining room toward the coffeepot, Ailish picked up her glass of orange juice and took a healthy sip. “Am I allowed to leave the house today, or not? There are things I need.” Her pulse tripped over itself. “Or are you even going to keep me around long enough to need anything?”

  The energy in the dining room had been tense before her statement. Now? It pulsed with renewed life. Caine wiped his mouth with a napkin and laid it down carefully. “You want to go out?” He tipped his head in Henrik’s direction. “You take Vance, there. You try to run and he feels the need to put you in another trunk? I might take a little longer to open it next time.”

  She kept her features schooled, but any remaining connection she’d once felt for her father severed in two, lancing her in the sides as it toppled. “Fine,” she managed, ordering her hands to stop shaking. “I’m used to being escorted around Chicago by your henchmen. It’ll be just like old times.”

  “Now that’s where you’re wrong. The old times have come and gone. You’d do well to remember that.” Caine winked at her. “You have a job to complete. Don’t be long. Or we’ll have a problem.”

  As ashamed as she was to admit defeat in the battle of words with Caine, Ailish had to leave the dining room. It was one thing to have suspicions that your father found you dispensable, but being presented with a confirmation instilled a new kind of fear, so different from the fear of being confined. Fear for her life.

  Ailish took the stairs two at a time to her room. There, she let her robe drop to the floor and changed into a modest light pink sundress. She slid her feet into a pair of white flats and began to pace. She couldn’t appear too overeager to get out of the house with Henrik, but waiting was brutal. Like running out of air with an oxygen tank just within your reach. When half an hour had passed, Ailish opened her desk drawer and peeled her emergency fifty-dollar bill off the inside frame, where she’d taped it months earlier. She tucked it into her bra and went downstairs.

  Henrik leaned against the foyer wall, holding the folded Chicago Tribune in one hand, a mug of coffee in the other. When he caught sight of her at the top of the stairs, he sighed and set both objects down on a nearby console table, heading out the front door without another word.

  “Where do you need to go?” Henrik asked, once they’d both climbed into the vehicle. And although his tone was long-suffering, he laid a finger briefly to his lips, reminding her of what she’d already suspected. Between the time they’d arrived yesterday and now, her father could have had the car wired.

  “The drugstore.”

  As they pulled through the gate and out onto the road, Ailish couldn’t help but stare at Henrik’s large hands on the steering wheel, watching the leather glide through his fists and remembering the way they’d treated her backside the night before. Firm, biting, but somehow…affectionate. As if he enjoyed spanking her—a lot—but cared more about satisfying something inside her. Without any conscious thought, Ailish shifted in the seat, loving the twinge of pain wrought by the friction.

  Henrik shook his head without looking at Ailish. His eyes were in the rearview mirror constantly. Checking to see if they were being followed? The realization pushed a frisson of alarm leapfrogging through her thickening blood, but it was snuffed out when Henrik reached over and squeezed her thigh. On cue, Ailish’s head fell back on the seat, her hand covering his touch. She silently begged him to move higher, to explore beneath her dress, but he clenched his jaw and focused on the road. By the time the chain drugstore finally came into view, Ailish had become embarrassingly wet between legs, soaking through her panties. Just from that big, rough hand warming her leg. God.

  Scenery rushed past in a blur on either side of the car, but they were in a secluded world, restricted though they were. Even Ailish’s breathing had to be regulated, and it was obvious Henrik made the same conscious effort, although the frequency with which he shifted in the driver’s seat told its own tale.

  When they reached the parking lot, Ailish expected Henrik to park somewhere near the entrance, but he surprised her by rounding the huge strip mall. Driving past the Dumpsters to an alley lined with back entrances for each business. He pulled the car parallel with the wall—Ailish’s door only a few feet from the cinder block barrier—before shutting off the engine and climbing out. She could see him striding around the back, mouth set in a purposeful line. Hard. Commanding. But nothing prepared her for Henrik to throw open the passenger side door and haul her out, not even allowing her feet to touch the ground before she was wedged up against the car’s side, aligning her with every ripped, devastating inch of him.

  “Goddamn, Lish.” His hips jolted her up the car’s exterior. “I’m hard up for a fuck between your pretty thighs, but we have no time. No time.”

  She framed Henrik’s face with her hands, bringing him forward, close to her mouth. Right there. “I don’t understand.”

  “What? What don’t you understand?”

  Her tongue brushed his bottom lip. “How I can be less angry with you…after you spanked me. And left. I should want to kill you.”

  “No, baby.” He ground their hips together. “You don’t want that. Don’t say that to me when I just heard your father threaten you, dammit. I’m barely holding on here. I almost strangled him.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” What was she apologizing for? What she’d said? Or…everything? Pushing him away. Teasing him. She d
idn’t know. Only knew just then, in that filthy alley, she wasn’t scared. He was comfort. Salvation. Although the dress was cut modestly, his proximity had swelled her breasts over the neckline, and she thrust them up for his perusal. “Please. I need something.”

  He made a sound halfway between a growl and a moan. “We need to talk. I shouldn’t be touching you when there are so many questions between us.”

  Yes. She wanted to talk. Wanted everything explained from the moment she’d approached him in the park until now. It was getting more and more difficult to pretend she could survive without that information. But another more significant part of her didn’t want to know. Didn’t want to find out how her path had been dictated, when all along, she’d thought she was setting her own course. With their mouths pressed together, Ailish locked her ankles at the small of Henrik’s back and slid her core up and down his distended fly. “We have time for me to take care of that. Don’t we?”

  Defeat crumpled his expression for a beat before hunger rushed in. Different from usual, more extreme. Depraved. “This alley is patrolled regularly, Ailish. I’ve patrolled it myself. You know why?”

  “Why?”

  “Men bring women back here.” He fit his erection into the notch of her thighs and bounced her. One, two, three. “To perform certain acts. You following me? I’d never let you go down on your knees in this place.” He dragged his tongue up the side of her neck. “Much as I need you to service my hungry cock, I would rather go without coming for a year.”

  The crude speech she’d come to crave elicited a breath-stealing squeeze in her loins. But she disregarded most of it and focused on much as I need you. Need. So much need. “If someone comes down the alley, we’ll hear them. And I’ll stop.”

  His big hand framed her jaw, applying pressure until her mouth popped open. “And I’m just supposed to pull out after you’ve taken me down the throat, is that right?” He shoved his thumb between Ailish’s lips, pressed down on her tongue to keep her mouth open. “Once I hear those sweet little sucking noises you make, I’m staying in until the job is over. I would rather shoot whoever comes down this alley than stop before I come in your mouth. Is that clear enough?”

  She was burning from the inside out. Couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t in pain from lack of Henrik. Inside her. Touching her. Speaking from just above her mouth like a master. Every ounce of her femininity screamed toward the hand cradling her jaw, savoring the single connection like a lifeline. “Please. I’ll do it so well. I remember the vein…what you like. I’ll make sure it doesn’t take long.”

  “No.” His hand turned punishing on her jaw, and the pressure echoed between her legs, so severely Ailish whimpered. “God, I fucked you twice before we went in. Didn’t I?” Henrik moved his mouth against her ear, licking, raking his stubble side to side on her sensitive flesh. “You’re never going to give me a chance to sleep, are you? I can see you now, climbing on top of your man at all hours, begging to dry me out again. Know what I think?” His hand dropped from Ailish’s face to her breasts, where he squeezed without mercy. “I think your pussy is sweet as fuck, but a little selfish for what I got. Isn’t that right?”

  “Yes.” Ailish gasped when Henrik stepped back, enough for her to slide down the car, her feet meeting the ground. She braced her palms against the warm exterior, afraid to move as his hand vanished beneath the hem of her dress, blunt-tipped fingers slipped down the front of her underwear. When the pads of two fingers smoothed over her clit, Ailish arched with a muffled scream. “Oh my God.”

  His mouth moved in her hair, his arousal pressing against her hip. Need to touch. But when she tried to cup his erection, he jerked his hips back with a warning sound. “No, no, Lish,” he rasped. “You’ll give it up again later when I’m not watching for the police or worrying for your life. Remember this. I’m getting you off now, but later? When you take my hard-on deep, I’m going to make sure you feel the payback in your stomach.”

  Her nod was jerky against his shoulder, her thighs moving restlessly on either side of his hand. “Okay, yes, please, oh God.”

  “Couldn’t even make it a couple days, could you?” His fingers were relentless on her clit, rubbing without gentleness one minute, plucking the nub of flesh between thick knuckles the next. Two fingers dipped into her clenching center, Henrik groaning in her ear at the tightening and releasing of her female flesh. He must have sensed she was closing in on her orgasm, because the pleasuring touch at her breasts vanished and a hand clamped over her mouth. “Sweet, sexy, selfish girl, all for me. I’m going to get back inside this pussy soon, Ailish. Soon.”

  “Soon. Yes. Please.” She didn’t recognize her own voice, the words she released into his palm as her body went through a dizzying round of spasms.

  Moments later, his fingers slipped out of her satisfied flesh, trailing dampness up and down her thigh. “You better?”

  “Yes,” Ailish managed, collapsing against his chest.

  “Good,” he breathed out, planted a kiss in her hair. One, then another. “Now we’re going to have a conversation.”

  ...

  Henrik needed every minute that Ailish spent in the drugstore to calm himself down. After he’d driven around to the main entrance, he’d escorted Ailish into the store, bought a disposable phone for the call he needed to make, then left her in the store alone, as a sign of trust. He planned to talk to her when she emerged. Only. Talk. God, if he got his hands on her again, they would scandalize an entire parking lot full of customers.

  More pressing than his mounting male urges, he’d witnessed Ailish’s apprehension at the word “conversation” and thought he knew why. Getting them back on the same page was imperative, because time was running short. Caine’s threat to Ailish this morning meant they moved tonight, and it meant they moved as a team, whether he liked it or not. She had just as much skin in the game as he did. Could make her own decisions. If he wanted another chance with Ailish, he’d have to accept that. Remember it for the future.

  He leaned against he front bumper of his stolen, more-than-likely bugged car and called Derek. The captain answered on the second ring.

  “Captain Tyler.”

  “It’s Vance. I’ve only got a few minutes.”

  A chair creaked in the background. “Better talk, then.”

  Henrik’s crack of laughter held no humor. “You have nerve, I’ll give you that. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to remind you why this is my last case with the squad.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “We need to move tonight.”

  Scratching sounded down the line. A pen moving on paper. “What do you need from me?”

  “Backup. Ready to come in locked and loaded, if we need it. If me and Ailish manage to get out without alerting anyone, we’ll need transport waiting along the south side of the property. I want medical outside, waiting. Just in case.” It got more difficult to inhale, the more he talked about the danger Ailish would be in. “Caine is volatile. Especially when it comes to Ailish. I don’t think he plans to…” He held the phone away from his face as he breathed through his nose. “He doesn’t plan for her to see past tomorrow morning.”

  Silence. “She assured me that wasn’t the case. That he was protective. I wouldn’t have sent her in there otherwise.”

  “Yeah? Well, she sees good things in people. Sometimes when it’s not really there.” Frustration burned in his sternum. “Why do you think she gave me a chance?”

  The sound of a plastic bag dropping to the ground had Henrik whirling around, reaching for his gun. Ailish stood between two parked cars, watching him with wide eyes, her mouth parted. As if she’d heard him. But he couldn’t find the wherewithal to care, because God, she was so beautiful against such a mundane backdrop. Sun shone down on her head, making the red glow like gold dipped in wine. The universe kept conspiring to take her away, and he resented it. Hated it for introducing him to the embodiment of happiness and then trying to snatch it back.

  With a serious e
ffort, Henrik turned away and braced his hands on the car’s roof. “There’s a safe in the basement office. Ailish has the combination. She’s in it.” He dropped his voice. “Just make sure she gets out. No matter what it takes.”

  “Consider it done.” Derek said nothing for a few beats. “It might be impossible for you to trust my word right now, but I’ll say this anyway. When she walked into the squad room, she became one of our own. I don’t take that responsibility lightly.”

  Henrik’s spine went rigid. “She’s my responsibility.”

  “Yes, she is.” Even through the phone, Henrik sensed Derek wanted to say something more, but the captain cleared his throat instead. “Let’s end this tonight.”

  Henrik disconnected the line. “We have to get ba—”

  Ailish wrapped her arms around him from behind. Fresh scent colored the air around him and he sucked it in, sucked it in like a starving man. Her embrace—whatever the reason for it—restored his equilibrium. Allowed his chest to expand for the first time in days.

  “You okay?” he asked gruffly, looking over his shoulder but only seeing the top of her head. “Lish. Give me your face.”

  When she lifted her head, Henrik swore the answer to every question he’d ever asked in his life was right there dancing in her eyes. She dropped her arms and—in a move that swelled his heart—she wedged herself between him and the car. Not a sexual maneuver, just an I-want-to-tuck-in-here maneuver. “Thank you for saying what you did. About me seeing the good in people.” She laid her head on his chest. “I saw good in you when you arrived on the porch of my cabin. And I still see it. No matter what.”

  He rested his chin on the crown of her head. “I’m not going to lie, I’d love to be facing tonight without you. You have no idea.” He knew she had a lifelong vendetta to settle, but that didn’t change anything. Didn’t make her any less of a liability. To his heart. His sanity. “I can’t concentrate with you here. All I can see is that knife your father stabbed into the desk. What he said to you this morning. I thought it was over before it started, Ailish. When he brought us into that office, I almost killed him for nicking your wrist. You don’t have any idea what it cost me to stand there while you bled. What it cost me to hear him threaten your life.”