Impossible Odds: Rescue Team Nine (Book 3)

Chapter 32

Cloey

"Is that what they tell in your training, honey?"

I missed the opening comment, lost in my thoughts, but the way Wildcat's hopping from one foot to the other, her red hair, bears its name well.

"Do you take pride in being a jackass?"

He looks amused. Wildcat does not. "It's part of my charm."

"You mean women actually want to sleep with you?" She sounds doubtful.

"I haven't had any complaints. I bet I couldn't say the same for you."

I'd love to hear her response, but while they engage in their verbal warfare, I take that opportunity to slip down the stairs and between the two hedges growing alongside Ambrose's apartment. I miss her. I miss holding her hand and swinging her on her favorite swing. I miss singing with her during bath time and playing tickle monster at bedtime. The information Les gives us will help us, and at the same time, it's stuff I've already guessed. I want his ass to stay in jail, so we need the takedown of this latest shipment. He wants me dead, and I've made up my mind I'm going to give him the opportunity to do it. Bait. That's what he needs. Arms surround me from behind, and I stiffen until I smell his scent and know who it is. Twisting in his arms, I let myself cry.

"I miss her, Dice."

Kissing the top of my head, he tightens his hold on me.

"I know, Darling, I know."

I pull back long enough to look him in the eye. He meets my gaze head-on until he doesn't like what he sees in them.

"No."

His answer is firm. I knew it was coming, but it kicks me in the stomach. Kissing me roughly on the lips, he makes me look at him again.

"I will not lose you, Cloey. Not again. I was an idiot, a fucked-up idiot, and I'm going to live the rest of my life making it up to you, but I will not let him take you."

"He doesn't have to take me, Dice. Use me as bait. Let him come after me again."

He shakes his head.

"And watch you get a bullet in the head. No way."

Reaching up, I hold his face with my hands.

"You're right. You walked away, but I didn't trust you either. If I had, you would have known about Felicity sooner. I'm in all the way now, Dice, whether I get hurt or not. This is me showing you that I trust you. I know you won't let anything happen to me. I trust you."

The light in his eyes changes, and I know he understands. I'm putting my life in his hands, in the hands of his team. I'm doing it for our daughter and us. There's no warning when his lips crash into mine. There's a need in the way he picks me up and carries me. It's a hungry need, and I feel it, too. I don't remember returning to his room or how he got us there without falling. All that's left is the scorching heat he's making me feel and the desire to feel alive.