Operation Ball N' Chain (Cottonwood Falls Book 11) Read online

  “It’s not even been one night,” she murmured.

  “Are you saying you weren’t missing me?” He pushed one hand down below the waistband of her boxers. “Nothing else but these? Damn you woman, you’re going to kill me.” Sucking on the side of her neck, he pushed two fingers between her swollen lips up into her pussy.

  “Oh God,” she whimpered, arching into his touch.

  “Shhh.”

  His thumb on her clit, he rotated it while he drove his fingers back and forth deep in her core. He slid his other arm under her and angled his hand, so she could suck on his fingers. While it helped, it wasn’t close to what she wanted.

  She gripped his cock in his jeans and squeezed. He nipped her neck in return. Deftly she undid his zipper and took hold of the warm shaft in her hand. Her man loved going commando and right now, she had never been so pleased about that. His groan was music to her ears.

  “Quiet, Grey,” she uttered around his fingers. “The last thing I want is for my mother to come in here because you are making too much noise.”

  “Me? How about you?”

  He added another finger to her slit and she bit her lip to keep her cry of pleasure contained.

  She shifted on the mattress and froze when it squeaked. No way it would take his hard strokes without screeching the raw metal to the world. Her mother would definitely be in the room at all that ruckus. Fisting his dick, she flexed her grip around him once more.

  “Off the bed,” she said on a gasp as he made her come.

  “Whatever my princess desires.”

  “Don’t forget what I’m holding,” she warned as he pulled his fingers from her body.

  “I’d never forget.” He slipped her to the floor and followed, covering her with his larger form. “Plus, I love your touch. Want a blanket?”

  “I don’t care about that, I want you, inside me.”

  Without another word, Grey took down her boxers and settled between her thighs, pushing inside her with a smooth motion. She buried her face into his shoulder to muffle her cry of pleasure.

  He stretched her out beneath him and gave her what she needed. Him in every way possible including the most intimate allowed. Deep into the night and on into the early morning he made love to her. Both intense and gentle.

  When she woke the next morning, she noticed two things. One, she was in bed cocooned nicely in the bedding instead of on the floor and two, she was alone. Well, three things and the third was that she’d never heard him leave.

  Stretching her body, she smiled at the aches even as she sat. With a yawn, she got up and made her bed before swiping some clothing and taking a quick shower. Her mom was fixing breakfast downstairs when she walked by the kitchen.

  “You need to eat, Sarah.”

  “I was going to grab something on my way to see Grey.”

  Her mother narrowed her eyes and pointed to the table. “You don’t have time to go see him. We have other things to take care of today. I hear from Mrs. Carole that you haven’t even made a decision on what type of cake you want. I thought you wanted the cream cake with the orange flavored frosting.”

  It truly was too early in the morning to have such a headache. It was looming and she feared it wouldn’t be able to be stopped. Even so, she made her way to the table and took a seat, her eyes skipping over to the empty seat that used to hold Chase most mornings. Then the other one that had been her brother’s before he wasn’t part of the family anymore.

  Without looking at her mother, she cleared her throat. Time to set some ground rules. “I don’t now nor have I ever liked orange flavor so, no, that’s not the one I want and I’ll take Grey with me to figure it out. This is his day and mine.”

  “Mrs. Carole is meeting us in less than an hour. Eat and be ready to go.” Mrs. Mallery set the plate down in front of her with more force than necessary.

  A throbbing began at the back of her neck and she rubbed it while she did as her mother bade. Before the day was over, she would figure out one way or another a way to get her mother off her back. Her phone buzzed and she reached for it to stare at the screen. Grey.

  Swiping her finger over the screen she read his text and smiled.

  Good morning my love. Can’t wait to see you.

  Sarah finished her food and leaned back to reply.

  Sorry, spending the day with my mother. Not sure when I will be free. I’m fighting orange frosting.

  After she hit send, she stood and took her plate to the kitchen sink and cleaned up what was left so her mother didn’t have to do it later. No matter how pissed she may be, and she was, about how the wedding was coming along, she wouldn’t ever leave dirty dishes in her mother’s sink. That was not how she’d been raised and it didn’t matter she was a grown ass woman who’d been to every continent on earth and who’d battled all kinds of evil, that bit of insane foolishness was a fight she wasn’t ever picking.

  “I’m waiting, Sarah.”

  “Couldn’t possibly have that now could we,” she muttered, drying her hands off. “On my way,” she said in a much louder voice. She met her mother outside the door and forced a smile on her face. “Ready.”

  Her mother skimmed her with a cool look, one finely plucked eyebrow raising slightly. “See that you fix your face before you get to Mrs. Carole’s. She’s wanting to make this day perfect for you.”

  “Yes ma’am,” she replied, choking back her instinctive reply.

  This was going to be the day from hell. One hour later and the text on her phone confirmed it.

  Been called up. I have to head out with TPS. I wish I could have said goodbye and kissed you once more but we’re on a time table. Never forget I love you, Sarah Mallery, and how much. You’re not just any Marine, you’re MY Marine.

  “And what do you think, Sarah?”

  She blinked and looked at the two women who waited for an answer from her. “I think I need a minute. Grey has to leave unexpectedly and he’s not sure when he’s going to be back.”

  Sarah pushed away from the table and walked across the room, doing her best not to scream in frustration. It wasn’t that he had to leave, she got that. It was that she should have been with him when he was recalled and been able to say a proper farewell. However, that had been taken from her because of her mother and the goddamn need to make this wedding day all about her wants.

  She growled low in her throat and gripped the phone in anger.

  “Sarah?” Her mother stepped up beside her, face drawn with concern.

  “Give me a moment,” she rumbled. “Please.” That final word was like pulling teeth.

  “Everything okay?”

  “I don’t know, I had to be here for dress fittings and cake tastings so I. Don’t. Know.”

  “Are you saying this is my fault?”

  “His leaving? Don’t be absurd, you don’t have any control over when he is called away. What is, however, is this. Because you demanded I do this with you instead of spending my time with Grey as I’d wanted I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

  She walked away from her mother’s pained expression. Right now, there wasn’t any goodwill left in her.

  Come back soon. Keep your head on a swivel. Be safe. I love you.

  A day from hell didn’t even begin to cover it, from there it only got worse.

  Chapter Three

  Grey punched the heavy bag seconds before delivering a back-spinning kick to the worn material. This is getting insane. I can’t even spend time alone with my wife and now I’ve been sent away to handle something for Tungsten. Not that I mind having the work but damn it all, I am supposed to be planning a wedding with Sarah. I can’t do that from this far away.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Not even close, Jeb,” he said delivering another combination of punches and kicks before wiping the sweat off his brow. Facing the man who’d just walked in the room, he crossed his arms. “What’s up? Time to go?”

  The man shrugged, an easy ripple of movement. “Nope
, Cade’s not gotten back to us yet. I just came to see how you were doing.”

  Staring at the man, he sighed. This personal exchange wouldn’t have happened if he were still in the Navy. Ross “Jeb” Connelly was enlisted and he had been an officer. These kinds of interactions rarely happened.

  Sure, if they’d been on the same SEAL Team there would have been a bit different relationship, but the man wouldn’t have walked up and asked him how he was doing. He liked that the other members of Tungsten felt he had become part of the family enough to ask.

  “I should be fine but I’m not.” He began unwrapping his hands. “I’m getting married in a month and I’ve not been around for most of this planning. Hell, I don’t even know if I’m going to have a wedding when I get home, much less if I will have a wife.”

  “I thought you and Sarah were already hitched,” he said in his low drawl.

  Grey nodded, thinking back to his asinine decision to go along with this. “We are but her mother thought she should have a big wedding so the town could participate.” He shook his head realizing even more the error of his judgement in agreeing to this insanity. “And so the news could be broken about us and we’re not living in sin any longer.”

  Jeb laughed. “I remember that from small towns. Think she’s going to call off the wedding?”

  Unease hit him square in the gut. “I think she may be serving me with divorce papers, and this time not taking no for an answer until I sign them. When I left, she and her mother weren’t seeing eye to eye on anything. From the lack of communication from her I’m thinking it’s either that or she’s planning some kind of mission to castrate me.”

  More laughter. “Why would she want to do that?”

  “Because I was the one who said we should go along with the wedding instead of taking her side.”

  “Oh yeah, you’re fucked. And not in a good way.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He wadded up the trashed wrapping. “Appreciate it.”

  “Anytime. Come on, grubs on. It’s going to be a long night.”

  He followed him from the room and saw the guys he was here with, Merlin and Maverick setting the table and dishing up the food.

  Grey enjoyed a good deal of ribbing from them all once Jeb relayed the circumstance, he currently found himself in. Not much after that, Cade returned, and Grey got ready for his part of the op. It was going to be his job to break in and steal the information the man they were working on bringing down had on his computer in his office. The asshole was into trafficking young children to sate the sadistic and disgusting sexual needs of predators. Yeah, he was going down but given his proclivity and the men who he supplied, the law had been looking the other way. That was going to stop as soon as he got what they needed.

  Baby Boy was still out there, watching over the house to relay any pertinent information needed. They’d had eyes on him for the past week.

  He finished his food and climbed in the passenger side of the truck. Maverick slipped behind the wheel and took him to his drop-off point. The quiet Native American didn’t speak and Grey was grateful, he was putting his mindset on his mission.

  After he hopped out, Grey tugged on the black skull cap he wore. Scouting the area, he hopped over the back wall, keeping to the shadows once more as he avoided the security cameras posted around. On the off chance that their tech guy, Ethan, hadn’t hacked all the feeds, he didn’t need to give an advanced warning. He adjusted his gloves and snuck up to the back where the second story window was left unlocked.

  With an easy jump, Grey hauled himself up and in. Crouched low on the floor, he scanned the room with his NVG’s. Alone in the room, he pushed to his feet and went to the wall panel where the file he was taking was kept. Grey pushed his NVG’s off and held them in his left hand.

  Exposing the key pad, he punched in the needed and leaned forward to allow the eye scanner to run over his contact designed to read identical to Richard Pullimen’s optics, the man who lived in this house.

  The square panel slid soundlessly into the wall, showing him stacks of money, some gold items and the drive he was after.

  “Tango is inbound, bastard is home early. Get out of there.” Baby Boy’s tone was calm and matter of fact.

  He clicked his mike once, not bothering to give a verbal reply, confident they would understand his affirmative. Taking the drive, he secured it against his leg, in a pouch that hid any tracking signal it may emit. Just in case.

  “In the garage, he will be there in moments. I don’t see your ass heading out of that window.”

  He smiled and made his way out, ensuring the panel had slid soundlessly shut behind him. “Didn’t know you were that interested in my ass.”

  “Only one I’m drawn to is that of my wife, but I don’t want to tell yours you were shot pussyfooting around.”

  He scanned the ground and jumped landing with a tuck and roll. “Out, heading for the wall now.” Grey ran. “See my ass now?”

  “Yep, oh wait, my bad, that’s your face.” Baby Boy’s tone had a bit of humor in it, despite the seriousness of the situation.

  “Suck this,” he said as he bounded up for the top of the wall to haul himself over.

  “As soon as you find it. I’ve heard that’s a common complaint of your wife, she can’t find your puny little dick.”

  With a soft thud, he landed in a crouch. Two swift glances up and down the street before he jogged off into the night. “I’ll show you a little dick,” he said as he slowed to duck in the shadow of another tree as a slow-moving car went by.

  “I’ll be there in five,” Maverick’s low tone came over the comm. “That is unless you two would like to be left alone for a while to discuss your tiny dicks. Something, I might add, my wife never complains about because I don’t have a puny dick.”

  “Just come get me,” Grey replied.

  While it hadn’t been his most dangerous mission by a long shot, it was one of his most important. Any slimy fuck who would exploit children like that, deserved a long stay in a jail in a country that didn’t exactly have the rules like they had in the States.

  He’d done his part now it was up to the rest of Tungsten Protective Services to make the news public and serve this fuck with what he deserved. For him, he was heading home to make sure he still had a wife.

  αβ

  “Did you find the location?”

  The man asking the question never paused in fucking the girl he had secured to his bed. She lay spread-eagle, all limbs extended and secured to the thick posts on the frame. Eyes closed, dried tear tacks were on her skin.

  “We did, señor. I have a group of men that can be there in less than twenty-four hours.”

  Holding the gaze of the man he spoke with, the boss thrust hard and deep into the soft body beneath him. “What are you waiting for? Want to watch me cum inside her?”

  His subordinate hardly blinked. “I didn’t know if you wished for them to go, or me to take up another group and handle this, señor.”

  “You know the men up there, their failure is yours. I don’t care who does it, I want it handled.”

  “I give you my word.” He turned on his heel and walked out of the room without a look back.

  The man gripped the chin of the female beneath him. “And here I was going to share you with him. Either way, more fun for us to have, alone.” He fucked her hard until those brown eyes watched him once again. Only then did he reach for the knife that lay beside his bed, the razor sharp blade that always lay beside his bed.

  Chapter Four

  “You’ve pretty much become the face of Bridezilla.”

  Sarah swore a litany that would have her mother trying to put her on bread and water for a week at the very least and tossed the Coke can with a snarl before her at the guy sitting across the table from her. He snatched the cylinder out of the air without even looking at it before he crushed it with ease and no strain.

  “Don’t try to take it out on me, you’re the one who’s
terrorizing the entire town of Cottonwood Falls.” Censure lined his tone.

  “Army training or not, Chase Ellery, I’ll still kick your ass.”

  Her best friend from childhood and basically her brother snorted, leaned back, and crossed his arms. “Pretty sure I can hold my own over a highly emotional female Marine.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you implying that—”

  “I’m not implying anything,” he interrupted, tone hard and without any yield or give. “I’m stating it flat out. You’ve been behaving like a bitch.” A shrug. “Still are.”

  “Explain to me again why I like you?”

  “Because I don’t bullshit you. When you act like an ass, I call you on the carpet about it.”

  She wanted to kick him in the shins like she did when they were young kids and he wouldn’t let her have her way. “I’m not acting like an ass.”

  He cocked a dark brow at her, and she sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment.

  “It’s my mother, she’s making this about her. It’s supposed to be my day.”

  “And now we’re whining,” he commented offhandedly, reaching for her glass that held the Coke from the can she’d chucked at him. Chase took a large drink and put it back before her.

  She opened her mouth only to shut it again. Sarah had no comeback to that for he was absolutely correct. She’d been horrible.

  Head on the table, she moaned in embarrassment. “I’m a fucking Marine and I was acting no better than any of those fucking pussies who make a horrible spectacle of their wedding planning. And the day.”

  “That’s why you have me.” He pushed up from the booth seat, she moved her head to watch him. “Make it better before no one here wants to come to your wedding.” Chase walked off without a look back.

  Sarah finished eating ignoring everyone in there watching her as if she had a lit fuse and they weren’t sure when it would reach the explosive, paid for her lunch and stepped outside to find her mother there, expression as black as she’d ever seen it.

  Mrs. Mallery flicked an imaginary piece of lint off her floral dress. “I told you to deal with Mrs. Carole but you’ve not done that. And Cassandra said you didn’t stop by for any alterations to the dress I chose.”