Rugger: The Huntress (The Grey List #3)

Chapter 8

EIGHT

“Three more hours,” Psalms promised as he plated the egg whites and toast.

I pondered on the next few hours, trying to see if leaving his home was truly necessary.

“And then you can allow work to swallow you up. I won’t complain– as long as we’re doing this in a way that works for us both.”

“Tell me more, because you’ve only been doing things in a way that works for you. Have you forgotten how many contracts you’ve cost me?” I asked, ready to hear what he had to say.

“I won’t apologize, but I will implore you to remember every dollar from those jobs belong to you.”

He had a point.

“There’s work waiting to be done, Gazelle.”

Psalms sat the breakfast he’d prepared in front of me. He didn’t round the table or take the seat at the head of the table. He pulled out the chair next to me and had a seat.

Personal space didn’t exist in his world. It was all I’d ever known. My sisters respected mine for the most part –everyone but Rome and sometimes Rather. However, getting acquainted with Psalms’ need to acquire the distance between us every chance he got was rather fruitful.

“I confiscated your devices.”

I nodded, biting into the toast. This was no secret for either of us.

“While you were sleeping, an assignment was posted.”

“Where is i– I need to confirm my participation.”

I stood on my feet, prepared to search every inch of his home until I located it. And, if I didn’t, Rather would be in her car and on the way within minutes to make sure he gave me the exact location.

“Sit down, love. Your participation has already been confirmed.”

“Good,” I responded, taking my seat. “Price tag?”

“Four hundred and fifty.”

My brow pulled closer together. “For one man?”

“Brothers. They’re responsible for smuggling undocumented immigrants into four different countries with promises of employment. They later find themselves in compromising positions and strange men in their hotel rooms with money and dick in their hands.

“Sex work becomes their way of life. While some adapt well and accept the conditions, others want out. However, they have no way of escaping, even with the money they’re making.”

“No passport. No connections. No knowledge of their location.”

“They don’t even speak the same language. They’re foreigners.”

“Six months to a year and a half for them to learn, adapt, and find their own way home.”

“They’re in shock for the first three months, so nine at minimum.”

I nodded, doing the math in my head.

“Then there’s establishing relationships and fostering connections they can trust.”

I was considering it all.

“And, imagine the connection you made going to the boss with your plans because you won’t service him any longer or because their freedom will never be revived if it happens to be a woman.”

“Making you start from ground zero.”

“It’s a never-ending cycle. Viscous and inhumane. They make a good penny. However, they stuck their nose in a pile of shit and scooped up the black sheep of the Ruso family. Freddrick is desperate to find his grandaughter and–”

“Interrogation?”

“The job has already been done and they have been freed.”

“By?”

“The Therapist.”

The cold, blank stare of Psalms said everything he wasn’t willing to. There were so many unspoken truths about us, our occupation, and our family. But, he made it perfectly clear he knew I was connected to the woman who’d likely tortured both men within an inch of their lives, making our jobs much easier.

“They’re still breathing?” Partly surprised, I questioned.

“Barely, but breathing.”

“So, four hundred and fifty?” I needed clarity.

“Each.”

The toast stopped mid-air. I’d heard Sonnie clearly, but the comprehension of it all slowed my movements.

“Then what are we waiting for?”

“Them to locate her and make the arrangements for their operations to end. Today.”

“Three more hours, huh?” I smiled, realizing those three hours would be needed because once I exited his doors, my studies would consume me.

Psalms had told me almost everything I needed to know about the brothers. They were vile, disgusting humans and there was a hefty price on their heads. Now, the contract itself, I needed to study as well as the plans I knew he had already designed.

“Um hmm.” He nodded, biting into the sandwich in his hands.

I took a bite of the egg whites he’d scrambled before piling them on top of one of my toasts.

“I have a plan.”

“I know,” I admitted, “I need it. And, I need you to understand I will not follow it if it doesn’t align with mine.”

“Understood.”

I bit into the toast and chewed slowly as I began running numbers in my head. The problems that appeared, I solved without hesitation. Curious eyes stared daggers into the side of my face. I turned to find that Psalms was uninterested in his meal and more intrigued with me.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” he sighed, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“I was wrong.”

He managed to clear his mouth before speaking again.

“About?”

“How well you lie.”

He chuckled with a nod and a shrug.

“Yeah, well– can’t always be right.”

“So, tell me. What is it?”

The snigger that followed the dropping of his head revealed parts of the unknown. His emotions were at bay. He was conflicted. His feelings and thoughts were all twisted. His stomach was knotty.

“Sonnie.”

“It’s nothing, Gazelle.”

I lowered my toast onto the plate and turned my body in his direction. I placed a palm under his chin and lifted his head until his eyes met mine.

“It’s something. It’s always something– to me. I don’t want to have to ask you again, Sonnie. What is it?”

He tucked the corner of his lip as he found the words to describe what was happening with him. In him.

“This is the first time a woman’s company has brought me peace and joy and contentment since my mother wished me a happy birthday just hours before her death.”

“And how does that make you feel?”

“Like I want to overdose.”

“But–” I sensed the hesitation.

“I’m learning that too much too fast isn’t for everyone.”

“Everyone, or not for me.”

He was referring to me and we both knew it.

“Not for you.”

I nodded.

“Still, it doesn’t keep me from as much of you as your boundaries will allow. It’s the compromise. That’s me meet–”

“Meeting me where I am.”

He nodded.

“Thank you,” I sighed, “Because I am trying.”

“Gazelle, you don’t have to tell me that. I already know. We’re one in the same. I’m lucky to be as close to you as I am right now. I don’t take that lightly.”

There was an internal battle I was fighting, but his handsome face made the struggle much easier. I was leaning into the feelings he produced within me instead of turning away from them. The trust I had was growing at a snail’s pace, but it was a sign that something within me was changing. Not forever. Not for anyone. For him .

On the eighth floor of the Payne & Prime Logistics Center, I sat with an extra pair of eyes against my face allowing my morning to replay in my head. Psalms had proposed a plethora of things, including he’d be the only man to enter my gates from this moment forward.

My salivating pussy wouldn’t allow me to deny him the opportunity. Neither would my itching trigger finger. He’d wipe out every contract the Triad sent my way if I did.

“Gave any more thought to my offer?”

Sonnie’s voice penetrated the communication device. My rhythmic heartbeat grew wildly with each word he spoke. I removed the binoculars and rested my back against the chair.

“Eyes open, Sonnie.”

“My eyes are open, love. So is my heart to the idea of you–”

I pulled skin from my bottom lip between my teeth and began gnawing. My cheeks flushed a deep, unsolicited brown. A chill crept up my spine but was met with the warmth of his voice.

“Targets in the elevator,” he informed me.

I sat the binoculars on the desk beside me and placed my right eye against the scope of my rifle. I prepared to engage.

“Second floor. Fourth floor. Sixth floor,” Sonnie announced the elevator’s movement. “Eighth f?—”

Pew . Broken glass sounded immediately after the silenced bullet was released.

Bingo . The first bullet ate through the center of Benji’s neck. Blood sprang from his neck at an alarming rate. By the time his hand made it to the wound, he’d already lost a pint. It didn’t matter how many hands tried, they wouldn’t be able to stop the blood flow and they wouldn’t be able to stop the inevitable. He was going to die and he was going to die within the next five seconds.

“ Gazelle! ” Sonnie called out to me, but I was too deep in my zone to be reached. Having him in my ear was like nails on a chalkboard.

Pew . A second bullet pierced the forehead of Bahaj, the younger brother.

His life ended instantly.

Pew . A third killed Nijeem, their first cousin.

Pew. A fourth killed the security, who was doing a poor job at securing his employers. The bruises on their distressed frames was evidence. From their posture and stale presence, it was obvious their visit to The Therapist had been a tumultuous one.

“Gaze–”

I didn’t wait for the elevator to clear. It was the plan Psalms had made when failing to realize I didn’t follow anyone’s plan but my own. Hopefully, the lesson had been a brief one because I didn’t have the energy or care to put the effort into teaching him again.

“For what it’s worth, so is mine.”

“Your wh–”

“My heart.”

I removed the device from my ear. Its presence was vexing and the man on the other line was distracting. It was because of him that I ended our mission prematurely. While he wanted to sit on our target, I wanted to sit on him. And, sitting in the chair until he gave me the green light was not going to work for me.

I tossed the bag on my back that held the contents of my rifle and the new set of binoculars Psalms had gifted me. Without haste, I made my way out of the door, into the hallway, and toward the stairwell.

I conquered four flights of stairs before sirens sounded in the distance. Fire, ambulance, and police were en route. Neither of them would be able to save a single person on the elevator. They’d all expired.

I pushed my way out of the smelly confinement and into the hallway of the first floor. The sirens were closer. My adrenaline spiked. Promises of Psalms’ bed led me through the hallway with the right side of my mouth curved upward.

Fuck .

I reached for the .38 on my hip, but was quickly compromised. My fingers smashed against my thigh before my shoulders slammed into the wooden door that burst open on impact.

“Ugh.”

The door closed and my hand was no longer at my thigh. My lips were no longer cruising through open air.

“Good job, Gazelle. Good fucking job, baby.”

My hands were occupied with Psalms’ girth. My lips were pressed against his as he praised the work I’d done. Though I didn’t need his reassurance, it tickled my heart and massaged my pussy through the leather pants pressed up against it. His words began fucking me long before I was able to free his dick from his briefs.

“You’re so fucking sexy in the field,” he whispered against my lips.

This wasn’t the definition of foreplay I’d learned, but I was wondering if I’d gotten the entire lesson. Suddenly, it felt as if I hadn’t or as if what I’d learned had been a lie. Sonnie had barely laid a hand on me and I was soaking.

His voice…

His scent…

His skill…

His praises…

Together they massaged parts of me that had me ready to burst at the seam.

Forcefully, Sonnie spun me around and placed my hands on the desk in front of me. I swallowed the saliva forming in droves. I desperately wanted him in my mouth. But, even more, I wanted him to fill me to the brim.

He disarmed me as he pulled my pants down to my ankles. Against my pussy, he tapped his hardness.

“Uhh.”

I buckled at the knees each time they collided. Anxiety crept through my body as I waited for his intrusion. More than I wanted my next assignment, I wanted my pussy to become his. A continuous kill is what I saw for the future of my feline.

“Fuuuuuuu– ck.”

Being the gentleman he was, he didn’t keep me waiting long. His dick parted my sea and claimed its island in a single stroke. The second one came fast and it came as hard as the first. The third forced me to grip the edge of the desk in front of me.

“Yessss–”

His hand gripped the back of my neck as his strokes intensified. I quickly lost count and got lost in the blissfulness of my pending orgasm.

“Shit,” Sonnie groaned behind me.

He slid in and out of me so effortlessly. The beauty of the moment produced copious amounts of my personal brand of lubrication. With each drive into me, my attraction to the man who was slowly unburying my burdened soul magnified.

The sound of our connection was poetic.

“Uhhh— uhh.”

He left no time to recover from the previous stroke before he was hitting me with another.

And another.

And another.

Until my toes curled in the Louboutin rider boots.

“I’m gonn– uh– I’m gonna cum.”

“You deserve to,” he whispered against my skin.

I came undone and he followed. My eruption was flamboyant. It was loud. And, it was grounding. Sonnie succumbed to his, with stiffened limbs and the weight of his body pressed against me.

“Fuck.”

Silently, we exited the logistics building. Flashing lights blinded us as we made our way to Sonnie’s ride for the night. The black sedan was low profile and perfect for the task.

In the passenger seat, I reclined my seat slightly for comfort. Soft R&B lulled me to a place where comfort had made a home. A yawn forced my lips apart.

I couldn’t remember a time in life when the mental load I carried daily didn’t threaten to keep me awake all night. I grew cheerful at the idea of laying next to Sonnie and falling fast asleep. He was an unprescribed sleep aid that I was growing dependent on.

We reached the first red light. The car came to a halt and so did my worries. Psalms’ hand lowered onto my thigh. Instinctively, I placed my hand on top of his. The eerie calm that came over me forced my eyes open. I removed my hand and placed it between my legs, unsure of what had come over me.

Sonnie reached over and wrapped his hand around my wrist. He freed it from my warmth and placed it on my thigh. On top of it, he laid his. He interlocked his fingers with mine, securing the bond.

My eyes searched for his. They were already on me. The red hues of the stop light brightened the right side of his face. He was a dream. He was beautiful inside out. His gentleness was magnetic, forcing me to search for those parts of me. The parts I’d traded for ammo and shooter’s guides as a young girl.

He lifted our hands to his lips and kissed mine. The changing of the light didn’t disrupt our moment. He didn’t allow it.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four times he pecked the back of my hand.

“It’s okay, Rugger,” he assured me, “With me, it’s okay. When it stops being okay or if it ever starts to hurt, you have my permission to end me because I have failed my mission.”

The water cascaded down my body. Equanimity encouraged me to close my eyes and allow the moment to have its way. Sonnie’s arms caressed me from below. The weight of his head reminded me he was near. My shoulder had become its resting place.

Just as we were, soundlessly, we remained until the rumbling of my stomach reminded us of the Chinese takeout that was scheduled to arrive at any minute. The moment was so surreal I wasn’t prepared for its ending.

“We should g–”

“I know,” I murmured. “ I know .”

The second his arms unraveled, I missed them already. I pushed the water from my eyes for a clearer view of Sonnie’s backside as he exited the shower. He returned with a towel. He’d secured one around his waist already.

“Here.”

He stepped inside and shut off the water. Like a baby, he swaddled me in the oversized towel. He swooped me up into his arms and carried me into the bedroom.

As I was lowered to the bed, I was greeted with a tub of shea butter, a pair of silk pajamas, and a pair of black slippers to match.

“You’ve been shopping?” I inquired as I dug into the shea butter.

Sonnie did the same. Together, we began coating our skin with the thick moisturizer.

“Just enough for you to feel comfortable when–”

“Visiting.”

“You’re no visitor, Gazelle. This space is as much of yours as it is mine. You’re the point of this purchase.”

“My key?” I toyed.

“I enjoy seeing you in your element. I find it hard to believe a key would be satisfying. Breaking and entering is more of your speed.”

“You know me so well.”

“Trying to get to know you even better,” he sighed.

“You will,” I replied, “We will.”

We were both getting to know a side of me that I had never explored or cared to reveal. I had little knowledge of its existence before Sonnie.

Ding dong .

The doorbell sounded in the distance. I sprang to my feet. Within a split second, I was armed and prepared for engagement.

“The food,” Sonnie reminded me, gripping his Glock.

He slid on a pair of pants that matched the black silk pants in my set.

Corny , I thought. The thrill of it all had my heart racing. I loved his thoughtfulness.

I watched as he made his way out of the bedroom. As quickly as he had, I slipped into my pajamas and followed, headed toward the window. The full view of the driveway and front door brought me comfort.

The delivery driver handed over the purchased food and headed back to the car waiting with the lights dimmed. He tossed his warmer in the passenger seat before backing out of the spiraling driveway. When his lights disappeared in the darkness, I sighed with relief.

“Smells good,” I confessed upon entering the kitchen.

Sonnie was deep in the bag, unfastening each box. One by one, he slid them under a stainless steel contraption that displayed the contents of each dish.

“Those are ready for consumption,” he explained, nodding toward the three boxes closest to me.

Bewilderment kept me grounded. I wasn’t sure where we were consuming our meal. Exhaustion wouldn’t allow me to sit upright in a dining chair but I wanted to respect Sonnie’s home.

“Where to?”

“There’s clean linen and cushions on the rug in front of the sofa. I didn’t have a chance to make the pallet. Because the television is down here, I figured we’d stay the night in the living room.”

“Television?” I asked with a scrunched nose and upturned top lip.

I hadn’t enjoyed television since I was a child. Most times, it felt like wasted opportunity to improve my latest design, sharpen my skills, or study my next assignment.

“That massive thing on the wall in there.”

“I’m aware of it. I– it’s been so long since I’ve sat down for the purpose of television entertainment.”

“Me too. That’s why there is only one in the entire home. It felt pointless until tonight.”

The idea of a sleepover with Psalms was convincing. I left him with the more daunting task and fled into the living room. There were two queen-sized mattress toppers still vacuum sealed in the plastic they had come in. I looked toward the kitchen, amused with his definition of cushions.

“What?” He shrugged.

“Nothing,” I laughed, cutting into the plastic with the scissors that were next to them on the floor.

I flattened the toppers and then stacked them before unfolding the linen. I hooked the fitted sheets at the very ends and layered the rest. The large pillows Sonnie had sat aside were perfect against the sofa, adding back support for us both until we were ready to lay down.

“Alright,” Psalms announced his presence, “One for you– one for me.”

He handed me a cold bottle of water.

“Thanks.”

He placed the large round eating tray in the center of the pallet and pointed the television remote directly at the screen. I busied myself with the boxes and bags stuffed with food as he settled on a film.

Rice.

Egg rolls.

Shrimp and broccoli.

Garlic noodles.

Sushi.

Crab rangoon.

More rice.

Orange chicken.

Teriyaki chicken.

My stomach roared at the sight of endless options. Just as Sonnie laid the remote on the couch behind us, I broke my chopsticks in half. He chose one of the forks he’d gotten from the kitchen. There were only two and they were both in front of us.

“Man on Fire?”

Pleased with his decision, I nodded in satisfaction.

“A classic,” he responded, “Denzel and Dakota–”

“What are you going to do–” I quoted Pita’s mother, Lisa.

“What I do best,” he replied, impersonating Denzel perfectly. “I’m going to kill ‘em. Anybody who was involved. Anybody who profited from it. Anybody who opens their eyes at me.”

“You kill ‘em all,” I whispered with a nod.

Silence preceded unfiltered, unrestricted laughter that burned my cheeks and reddened Sonnie’s skin. My hand fell onto his lap and my body naturally gravitated closer to his. I desperately needed to be near him, feeling him against my fingertips.

Over Chinese and Creasy, we communed. By the time our bellies were full, my head was against Psalm’s chest and his hands were massaging my scalp, luring me into a deep, peaceful slumber.