Madness Ends by Beth D. Carter Page B

Harleys pull up in front of the motel room. But the bike circled around back, and she waited for a moment before she went back to pacing. Questions slammed into her head as worry settled in her chest. She hadn’t missed the fact that only Boone had returned. A few moments later, he entered the room holding a duffel bag that he tossed on the bed. He closed the door quickly behind him, then he turned off the light. He slid her a grim look as he moved to the window. He pushed the curtain aside only wide enough to peek out of the side. Unease slithered down Kaiya’s back.
    She tugged on Boone’s arm and when he looked at her, she signed her questions. “What’s wrong? Where’s Gabby?”
    “We were shot at,” he said. “I think they wanted to tail us.”
    He resumed looking out the window. It didn’t escape her notice that he hadn’t answered her second question. A few minutes later, he went to the door and opened it. Gabby walked in, then they locked the door tightly.
    Kaiya’s heart thundered, and she quickly ran to him and threw her arms around him. He hugged her back, but that wasn’t what she wanted. She shoved him far enough away to run her hands over him, then she switch to Boone and did the same thing to him. She wanted to make sure they weren’t hurt.
    “We’re fine,” Gabby signed, understanding her actions.
    After a few more minutes of looking out the window, Boone relaxed enough to leave his surveillance. He turned on the nightstand light before reaching for the duffel bag. He unzipped it and flipped it over. Ten stacks of one hundred dollar bills, each labeled with a band denoting the amount as ten thousand, tumbled onto the bed. Kaiya’s mouth fell open. She had expected money, but if this locker had a hundred thousand dollars and there were two more keys, then Cipher had been a very busy accountant.
    “I thought there’d be more,” Gabby signed.
    She stared at him in surprise. “More?”
    He shrugged. “I thought Cipher would’ve been greedier.”
    “Skimming money takes a deft sleight of hand.” She gestured to the cash on the bed. “From what I’ve learned of Shepard, he wasn’t too trusting. He was probably studying those books too.”
    “That’s club money,” Boone said.
    She nodded and scooped up the ten stacks to set them on the table. Kaiya hurried through to her own room and grabbed her laptop. She had to sacrifice clothing to bring this along, but she needed her accounting program to plug in the new variables to Cipher’s little code. She had no idea what she would discover, or if his code meant anything at all, but her gut told her that Cipher wouldn’t go to all this trouble for a simple Dear Diary.
    Sometime later, a hand touched her shoulder and she looked up. Gabby stood at her side. “You’ve been at this for an hour.”
    Surprised, she looked at her computer and saw that he was correct. She straightened, her cramped muscles protesting the sudden stretching.
    “I’m sorry,” she signed. “I didn’t realize how late it was.”
    He held out his hand to her. “Come. It’s time you relaxed.”
    “He’s hiding something. I know it.”
    “I believe you,” he said. “But you need a break.”
    The unmistakable bulge of his cock rubbed against her hip. Heat flared through her, and her gaze flew to his. Arousal turned his honey-colored eyes dark. Gabby circled around behind her, and the heat from his body caused little shocks of awareness to ripple over her skin. Her heart pounded with excitement, butterflies danced through her belly, and her pussy clenched in anticipation. He settled his hands on her hips, and her nerve endings jumped to attention—waiting. Slowly, he gripped the bottom of her tank top and slid it up. She didn’t stop him. Up her abdomen and torso, the material caught on her breasts for a moment before plunging over them. Her tits jiggled a little from the force. He pulled her shirt over her head and let it fall to the floor.
    Boone watched