as he releases more of his inner hell by means of pleasure.
The heat that pours into me stings but it signals my own climax. I cry out and give in to the bliss he saturates me with.
This has to be love.
Thirty minutes later, we’re sufficiently cleansed—after an almost too hot shower—and are curled up in his bed this time.
“You’re the sun on the horizon. I ache for you,” he says in a soft, pained voice, his eyes falling to my lips. “I don’t get it, Bay. If I think hard enough about it, I start obsessing over something crazy; tainted meat or airborne bacteria. It consumes me. But all it takes is looking at you and the storms that rage inside of me suddenly dissipate.”
He runs a tender thumb along my cheek and I shiver with delight.
“All I care about is you, woman. You’re my peace.”
“Then make love to me again, Warren. Take me over and over again until we become one.”
And he does.
Three times in fact.
Three more towels and three more showers later, I’m exhausted but happy. He holds me in his strong arms and I melt at his touch. Nothing else exists with War. Just us.
“Still no response?” War calls out from the kitchen.
I stretch my long legs out and wince in pain. Every muscle aches this morning. Yawning, I set my laptop on the table and turn to watch him. His back is turned as he cuts vegetables for breakfast. “Nothing. It’s so weird. Dad can be a jerk sometimes but it’s strange for Mom to not ever respond. She isn’t one to get mad or hold grudges. It makes no sense. Do you think something happened to her? Do you think Gabe did something to them?” A shudder wracks through me at the possibility.
He walks from the kitchen into the living room and regards me with a frown. “The money keeps getting withdrawn according to my research. I don’t understand why they aren’t speaking to you.” I wonder about his methods of research but seeing how he flies through screens on the computer, I can bet they’re illegal means of obtaining information.
“How much have you been sending them? I’m not going to leave you no matter what, so you may as well tell me.”
He lets out a rush of air and darts his gaze to the ocean. “Only fifty thousand a day.”
I blink at him and wait for him to laugh. To tell me he’s joking. But he doesn’t.
“Wait,” I say carefully, “you said you were sending them a little at a time.”
He nods and heads back for the kitchen. “That is a little.”
Considering Dad only made forty-seven thousand in a year, I’d say his wire transfers are more than a little. Jumping up from my seat, I hurry into the kitchen after him. “War, that is not a little. That is ridiculous. You let me scream and yell at you—bribe you with my body. All along you were sending outrageous sums. Mom should have been more than able to afford a liver transplant. Why aren’t they responding to me?”
He stalks over to me and draws me to him. I’ll never tire of his comforting presence. I inhale him and lean my forehead on his chest.
“I don’t know. I didn’t want to tell you but I’ve been all over the Internet searching for a trail on them. What they’re doing. Everything seems normal. Debit card is being used. Bills are getting paid. And my transfers are being withdrawn. I’m not sure what’s going on but everything appears to be business as usual there. I’ll keep checking into it though.”
I nod as he pulls away and continues making our food but my mind is still flitting through a million what-ifs. The worst what-if is…what if they’re dead?
That thought is unbearable and I won’t give voice to it. Instead, I’ll focus on my time with War and together we’ll figure out a way to expose Gabe. Then, I’ll sort out making amends with my parents.
This will work.
War is my happily ever after.
Two months later…
THAT MOTHERFUCKER IS smart. It’s as if he knows I’m tracking his ass. Dad and I have been working to find evidence against the White Collar Trade I’d bought Baylee from and have even passed along the information to Detective Stark who asked me a billion more questions I didn’t know the answers to. I still cringe thinking about my reasoning and stupidity for acquiring Baylee in the first place. But, I will never be