Page 65 of Exacting Vengeance

“Baby, you’re driving me absolutely out of my mind,” he said gruffly, barely able to keep from pistoning hard and fast into her hot, wet warmth.

“Good,” she breathed, her breasts bobbing with her movements. “So, so good.” Her thighs tightened around his. Her nails dug into his arms.

When she licked her lower lip, he nearly came. The only things stopping him were his hands fisted tightly around the bedsheets. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to make her happy, to give her what she deserved, including those passionate moments that had been taken from her.

Her breaths came louder. She rocked faster against him, up and down, her inner walls squeezing him tighter. Finally, she arched her back and neck. “Oh!”

Watching her in the throes of a beautiful orgasm sent him spiraling downhill, his mind exploding and yet oddly peaceful, as if this was always the way it was meant to be. He gripped her buttocks, holding her tightly against him as he let go, his body spasming with the force of his release.

Breathing raggedly, he wrapped his arms around her back, feeling her heart hammering against his cheek. When their heartbeats slowed, he pulled her down on top of his chest. Strands of coppery hair trailed down his ribcage.

She sighed, snuggling closer and nuzzling his collarbone. The look on her face was so serenely beautiful he couldn’t imagine her not being here with him. She was filling the hole in his heart, the gaping one that had been gradually expanding over time. She’d barely been in his house for an hour, and already he was heading down the path of no return. To fall in love with Victoria would be a lifelong commitment.

The phone still clipped to his belt on the floor dinged with an incoming text. Two seconds later, his phone dinged with another tone. Something—or someone—had set off the driveway sensor. He rolled off the bed to snag the phone. The text was from Jack. Both his brothers and his boss had just pulled into the driveway.

What would his boss be doing at his house, let alone on a Sunday and with both his brothers? Something was wrong.

“Stay here,” he whispered, dropping a kiss on Victoria’s forehead, then quickly stepping into his jeans and tugging on his sweatshirt. “Everything’s okay.”

“Are you sure?” She sat up, using the sheet to cover her breasts.

“Yeah. It’s work.” Not bothering with shoes, he padded in his bare feet downstairs to the front door. Sure enough, through the small glass panes at the top of the door he watched his boss and brothers get out of Jack’s SUV. He opened the door and stepped aside to let them in. “To what do I owe the honor on a Sunday?” he asked his boss, then looked from Jack to Deke.

The look on Mike’s face—all their faces—was grim. Neither Jack nor Deke said a word, deferring to their boss.

“What’s wrong?” This impromptu visit on a weekend was so off, it pinged his bad-shit radar louder than a platoon of army tanks.

Mike looked around Kyle’s shoulder. “Is Victoria Kelly here?”

“She is.” While Victoria had been packing at her apartment, he’d notified his boss by phone where he was taking her, so he already knew she was here. He looked to his brothers for an inkling as to what was going on.

“My CI flew in today like he said he would.” Mike lowered his voice. “He and Nikolai Lebedev had a chat this morning over a bowl of caviar and shots of Beluga.” He paused, but kept flicking his gaze around Kyle’s shoulder. Whatever had brought them here had something to do with Victoria and something he didn’t want her to overhear.

“Is this about Yuri?” Kyle asked. “If that sonofabi⁠—

“It’s not about Yuri.” Mike shook his head, the look on his face darkening steadily. “This is about the accountant. We know who it is.” His boss’s gaze fixed on something behind Kyle.

He turned to find Victoria dressed and standing by the sofa at the bottom of the stairs, digging her nails into the seat cushion. “Honey, can you give us a few minutes?” He didn’t know how much she’d heard, but this was still confidential FBI business.

She stood rigid, if anything, gripping the cushion tighter. Rather than look at him, she seemed to be staring directly at his boss.

“Actually,” Mike said, “she can stay.”

“Mike?” He looked back to his boss, whose lips had twisted into a deep frown Kyle had only seen on rare occasions. “Are you sure you want to talk about this in front of⁠—”

Then it hit him. Why they were here. On a Sunday. Looking as if the sky was about to come crashing down.

If it were humanly possible and still be alive, he felt every ounce of blood drain from his veins into a river on the floor.

God, no. It can’t be.

Bits and pieces of evidence he’d cataloged into a mental report but never made the connection to, suddenly fit together like a horrific jigsaw puzzle.

The laptop he’d seen in Victoria and Yuri’s house the night he’d picked her up for the New Year’s Eve party—the one they hadn’t found when they’d executed a search warrant.

The framed photo of Victoria’s mother on the hallway table. That had been in the house, too. If Victoria had never returned to the house after he’d left her at the hospital, how could she still have that photo?

She couldn’t. Unless she’d gone back to retrieve it.