“Time to get ready,” he finally sighed quietly. “We leave here tomorrow night, Elizabeth. Grange returns in a week. You sure you want to do this?”
Oh, she was damned sure.
“I’m sure, Dash,” she promised him quietly. “I miss Cassie. I want it done and my daughter safe. I want it over.”
“Come on then.” He moved to his feet and pulled her up beside him. “Let’s go whip these boys into shape. We’ll let Simon’s Ladies take care of their lusts and then we’ll start planning. We’ll get him, baby, and then we’ll go home.”
Chapter Thirty-One
A week later Elizabeth was being dragged roughly into the house that had been rented in the small town she had run from two years before. Dash had a manacled grip on her wrist, his body was vibrating with fury and she wasn’t any less pissed.
Behind them, Simon and his Ladies trailed more slowly, as did several others of the group that amassed together. The rest were at logistical points around the Grange estate or working with the two guards that had been bribed from Grange’s service. She and Dash had been slipping through town, testing the determination of the men Grange had in place to catch her.
His orders to her had been precise. She knew when she slipped from the shadowed alley to be certain Grange wasn’t in the car they had been watching that he would be pissed. That he would, in no uncertain terms, let her know how displeased he was. But she hadn’t expected this. She had been so close. She had nearly been in the right position to check the identity of the two men when Dash had grabbed her, dragging her back into the alley and then to the car awaiting them on the other end. He had been chillingly silent, angrier than she had ever seen him.
“Dammit, Dash, stop dragging me around.” She tugged on his hold as he pulled her up the staircase. She was fighting tooth and nail, but it was follow him or be dragged. She wasn’t in the mood to incur any more bruises along the way.
Dash was madder than she had ever seen him. Stone-cold enraged rather than growling mad. His expression was savage, his lips pulled back in a silent snarl as he glanced back at her, his golden eyes glowing with liquid fire. She was almost trembling in fear.
When he reached their bedroom door, he opened it, jerked her inside and turned to close it with deadly silence. The snick of the lock turning caused her to flinch.
“I won’t be manhandled this way by you,” she charged him fiercely, trying to ignore the weakness in her knees as he faced her.
“Take your clothes off.”
“Why?” she snapped. “So you can show me my place? Under your body? I was safe, Dash.”
“You broke formation. You disobeyed orders. Do you know what I would have done to Jonsey, or Chase, or any of the others who so blatantly threatened not just the mission but also their own lives?”
His voice was deadly.
Elizabeth shook her head. “I was safe.”
“You were a fool. You were being tricked, Elizabeth. There was another vehicle pulling in no more than ten feet from you. You were nearly seen,” he told her quietly, the dark, harsh timber of his voice making her tremble.
“They wouldn’t have seen me,” she argued furiously. “I was being careful.”
“And if they had?” he asked her with deadly calm. “If they had managed to take you or, God forbid, just kill you and have it done with. What then?”
She blinked up at him, horror filling her. “They couldn’t,” she whispered. “I was hidden.”
“If you had moved forward so much as another inch, you would have been seen,” he said, his voice still throbbing with fury as he jerked his shirt over his head. “You risked my men, but even more, you risked my mate. Possibly my child, and everything we’ve planned for, Elizabeth. Now take off your clothes.”
“Why?” She backed away from him, the horror of what she had nearly done still vibrating through her.
“I’m sorry, Dash. I was being careful. I just thought…”
“I didn’t tell you to think on this mission unless it went to shit real fast,” he informed her coldly, his hand going to his pants. “Now take your f**king clothes off before I rip them off.”
“Not like this.” She shook her head desperately. “Not while you’re so mad at me, Dash.”
He stilled. “Mad at you?” Agony resonated in his voice now. “You think this is mad, Elizabeth? This isn’t mad, baby. If I were mad I’d be stripping the hide off your bones with every insult I could come up with. I’m not mad. You scared me out of ten years of my life. Now take those f**king clothes off.”
He didn’t stop undressing after casting her that first, incredulous look. Before her eyes, he dropped his weapons, his boots, his clothes, standing before her gloriously na**d and aroused. Adrenaline was still pumping through her body, fear and remnants of anger and a sudden excitement that shocked her. He was going to take her whether she wanted him to or not. Like a traitor her body heated, her pu**y clenching in hunger. She backed away from him.
“I don’t think so,” she snapped, her gaze flickering to the straining length of his c**k before going back to his face.
He smirked as he inhaled deeply. “I’m going to mount you and I’m going to show you who’s boss in this little endeavor, baby. A lesson you won’t soon forget. Now take your clothes off.”