“Come on, let’s see what you can do.”

  Robin pulls Grace in closer, wrapping an arm around her waist, and they watch as Robin’s old police buddies dance with their dates.

  “You’re going to miss them, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, I am. As much as I tried to fight it, I became attached to them. They’re good people. It’s good being back at the bureau though. ”

  “I love having you back at work.”

  Grace kisses her cheek, and then lays her head on Robin’s shoulder.

  “Wow, you both look amazing.”

  Sandra walks up wearing a pretty form fitting white dress that makes her medium brown skin glow richer, and a bright smile on her face. She leans in to hug Robin and Grace, and then introduces her husband, Kevin.

  “What do you want to drink, babe?”

  “A martini, thanks.” Kevin smiles, and nods as he starts to approach the bar, but then stops and faces Robin and Grace. “Oh, uh, do you want a drink?”

  “White wine for both of us would be great, thank you.”

  He gives Grace a small smile and nod, and he goes to the bar. Sandra hops forward to loop her arm through Robin’s to watch the dancers.

  “Who’s the babe Jones is dancing with?”

  “He introduced her as a ‘good friend’ from his old precinct. Her name is Evonne Saunders and she might be transferred to your precinct to replace one of us. He brought her so she can get to know all of you, just in case.”

  “It would be nice to get another woman in the precinct. Since you left, there’s only three of us now. I hope the other replacement doesn’t have a womanizer type personality that Brooks had. It’s been nice not having that asshole around the station, and not just because he became a terrorist.”

  “I think Dobrowsky is going to be very critical of whoever he gets as replacements. He doesn’t want to risk his term as captain being tarnished again. How has he been lately? Is he still drinking and smoking in the office?”

  “Actually, he’s trying to quit smoking. He’s been wearing patches and chewing gum like crazy, but I haven’t seen him light up at work in weeks. I haven’t seen him drink at work either.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Yeah, he’s been more levelheaded lately. But enough about him. How are things with you? I haven’t seen you in weeks and I’m not happy about it. You better not become a stranger now that you’re back at the FBI. We need to hang out.”

  Robin laughs and wraps an arm around Sandra’s shoulders, pulling her into a small hug.

  “We can do that. Now that we have George Harvey and all of his recruiters locked up, we should have a little bit more time to hang out. This case and processing each of these arrests will take years, but the most urgent work is done.”

  “Good. I’m going to hold you to that.”

  “Here you go, babe.”

  Kevin hands Sandra a martini, and then passes Robin and Grace their glasses of wine before reaching over to the bar to get his glass of beer.

  “Have you eaten yet?”

  “No, we haven’t.” Sandra smiles and tugs on Robin’s sleeve. “Come on, let’s get some food.”

  While Robin holds their plates, Grace balances their wine glasses in one hand, and with the other, she dishes up tossed salad, sliced pot roast with gravy, roasted potatoes, green bean almandine, and dinner rolls.

  Robin sets a plate down at a large round table, pulls the chair out for Grace, and then sits down next to her.

  “This food is much better than they normally serve at these. They should hold the annual ball here every year.” Sandra smiles at Kevin and nods as she swallows. “Yeah, this is good.”

  “Hey, save us seats.” Eric squeezes Robin’s shoulder as he and Evonne walk by. “Ok.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Grace yanks Robin inside the house by her tie with a seductive grin on her face, and as soon as she closes the door, she shoves Robin against the door and starts kissing her. Robin inhales deeply as arousal floods her body, and glides her hands over Grace’s small round ass, squeezing both cheeks through her cool satin dress. Grace moans into Robin’s mouth, and pulls her forward, leading Robin up the stairs to their bedroom.

  As they reach the foot of their bed, with their lips still locked in a passionate tumbling of lashing and sucking lips and tongues, Robin pulls Grace’s dress up. Grace releases her mouth just long enough to allow Robin to pull it off over her head. Robin quickly pulls Grace’s bra off, lifts Grace to wrap her legs around her, and lays her down on the center of their bed. She pins Grace’s hands above her head and looks down at her with a loving smile.

  “I had a wonderful time with you tonight.”

  Before Grace can respond, Robin engages her in another passionate kiss. She trails soft kisses around her jawbone, and down the side of her neck, gently sucking and nipping her soft light almond cream skin.

  Robin paints her affection down both sides of Grace’s neck, across both shoulders, and down her chest. While placing a hand on the side of her breast, holding its weight in her palm, Robin envelops her wife’s hardened nipple, flicking, nibbling, and sucking the nerves into an array of sensations that sends Grace’s heat rising, her breathing to increase, and her body to rise against Robin.

  Grace grabs the back of her head, holding her close while Robin spends a long time on both breasts, her stomach, and her hips. As Robin scoots down the bed to lay between her thighs, Grace lifts her hips, allowing Robin to pull her panties off. Robin runs her hands up Grace’s thighs, pushing them up into the air and spreading her wide. Grace releases a moan of anticipation, and Robin smiles up at her wife. She hooks Grace’s legs over her shoulders, and dives between her thighs.

  While her heels dig into Robin’s back, her hips rise against Robin’s face, and she releases a loud moaning scream of pleasure. She grabs Robin’s head and pulls her in harder while thrusting her hips against Robin’s face.

  “Oh, fuck, yes! Robin, oh, fuck! Oh, baby, I love you. Oh, god.” Robin smiles against her wife’s arousal slicked folds, and latches on hard to her clit. “Fuck!”

  Her body jerks and spasms uncontrollably as her orgasm sends her crashing over the edge with a loud scream of pleasure. She places a weak and shaking hand on Robin’s head, encouraging her to stop.

  “Oh, shit, baby, come here.”

  Robin climbs up to lay next to Grace, and Grace rolls over to lay on Robin’s chest. While she tries to catch her breath, and with a clumsy hand, she works on unbuttoning Robin’s shirt.

  “Shit, you wore me out.”

  Robin laughs and kisses Grace’s head. She takes Grace’s hand, ending its labored attempt to get her shirt off, and gives it a kiss before just holding it on her chest.

  “What are you doing? I want to love on you. ”

  “Babe, you’re about to pass out.” Grace hums against her neck and kisses her warm copper skin. “I want to love on you though. Get naked.”

  Grace pats Robin’s chest as she rolls off of her, inhaling deeply. Robin bends down and gives her a soft kiss on her lips, and Grace smiles, pulling her down into a full mouth kiss.

  “Get naked.”

  “Ok, babe.”

  Grace rolls over onto her side and watches Robin strip down. Robin hangs her tux and Grace’s dress and puts the rest of their garments in the laundry hamper. As she turns back to the bed, she releases a small quiet laugh. Grace’s eyes are closed and her lips are curled into a sleepy grin.

  Robin jogs downstairs, locks the front door, sets the security alarm, and grabs two glasses of water. After setting the waters on the nightstands, she uses the bathroom, brushes her teeth, and then quietly slips under the covers. She gently tugs on the covers, encouraging Grace to shift enough that she can pull them out from under her naked body, then pulls them up to cover her wife. With a deep sigh, Grace lays her head on Robin’s chest, and wraps an arm around her, holding her ribs, and drapes a leg over Robin’s.

  “Night, baby.” Robin kisses Grace’s head, and whispers, “Goodnight, my love.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Robin walks into the dining room with two large steaming mugs of coffee, and Grace quickly moves some papers around so Robin can set them down. Grace takes a sip and releases a deep sigh of relief.

  “I think I found something that might crack open George Harvey. Take a look at this report he wrote on a mission he ordered in Syria.”

  Robin accepts the stack of papers and reads the highlighted sections.

  “Wait, so he was the one who really ordered Bollinger to shoot up that village?”

  “Yeah and take a look at this.”

  Grace hands her another report for a mission in Iraq, with a similar situation, but the sergeant refused because he didn’t trust the intel. He was suspended, and another sergeant was sent to fulfil the mission. After the strike, and the site was assessed, the mission was classified as an accidental attack on civilians due to bad intel.

  “This guy was another recruiter. Harvey created them. He fucked up their heads on purpose by ordering them to do horrendous things so they’d grow to hate the system.”

  “Yeah, and I’ve found a similar case for each of the eight recruiters. None of these guys knew who exactly was giving the orders because it was classified, so they never even realized they were being groomed by the same guy who later posed as their ally.”

  “Man, this guy is really twisted. No wonder we haven’t been able to get him to talk. He is a true expert on manipulation tactics.”

  Grace nods as she leans back with her hot coffee cradled against her chest, and says, “Yeah, none of our normal tricks are going to work. We really need to think this through before we go in there again. He’s been grooming these guys for years, just waiting to put this plan into motion, so it’s going to take a lot more effort to break him. He’s had a long time to learn how to hide who he really is and what his goals are. We have to force him to accidentally drop his mask and fully embrace his true nature.”

  “So, what exactly makes a guy like Harvey – a decorated and respected army captain – decide to seek control of a nation through chaos, instead of the polls? Why didn’t he just run for the presidency if he wanted to take control?”

  “But did he really want control, or did he just want the chaos? I think his issue is that he hated to see the chaos ending. If you look at the areas he ordered attacks, they were in peaceful and stable regions. He was attempting to spread the war beyond the controlled and centralized areas.”

  “But the chaos isn’t ending. We’re still at war and probably will be for a long time. He is a captain leading from the battlefield and is literally living in the belly of the beast, so why would he feel it’s necessary to spread the war further?”

  “The American people are tired of being at war and have started to become bitter towards the military. Maybe he saw the end coming and wanted to take revenge on the American people for not appreciating the military more. ”

  Robin tosses the reports back down on the table and grabs her own coffee while releasing an exhale of frustration.

  “That seems to be the common feeling of all of the recruits – they want revenge for not being appreciated.”

  Grace nods and takes a deep breath.

  “We do seem to keep circling back to that. I haven’t found anything in his file about missing out on a promotion or being disciplined for anything. He appears to have risen through the ranks effortlessly. So, as far as we can tell, he shouldn’t have any personal grudge against his superiors for not recognizing him for being a good solider and leader.”

  “Can his grudge really just be about not wanting the war to end?”

  “Maybe. But he could have also taken it very personal to see his troops mistreated and taken for granted.”

  “Maybe that’s our angle to get him to talk. We have to trash his soldiers. We have to show him how displeased the American people are towards the military now.”

  “Well, painting him as a terrorist didn’t seem to work. But painting him as a decorated soldier the American people have turned against might actually work – if that’s how he views himself.” Grace stands up and stretches her back and neck before adding, “You know, why the hell didn’t someone pick up on his devious plans sooner? I mean, if he was ordering attacks on civilians, why the hell didn’t that raise a flag to his superiors? Why didn’t someone question why he was ordering so many attacks based off of bad intel? And why the hell weren’t they trying to track down where the bad intel was coming from to flushing it out?”

  “It definitely causes a nagging feeling in the gut that this goes even higher. Harvey may not be the tip of the iceberg. ”

  Grace exhales hard and runs her fingers through her hair before bending down to kiss Robin on the lips, and to take her empty coffee mug.

  “Maybe not. Do you want another cup?”

  “Please. Maybe add a shot of something strong to it.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  Grace goes back to the kitchen to refill their mugs and adds a shot of Irish cream and some Irish whiskey to both mugs. She gives them a stir, takes a sip to sample its taste, and smiles around the sip as she swallows.

  “Here, babe.”

  “Thanks. I think we should get Intelligence to work on piecing together some audio from the news broadcasts of the American people’s outrage over this. It might be a good way to agitate him so we can get inside his head.”

  “We could…”

  The telephone rings, so Grace goes to the kitchen to grab the cordless off of the wall.

  “Hello?”

  “It’s Hodgins. Get your other half.”

  Grace rushes back to Robin’s side and puts the phone on speaker.

  “We’re all together. What’s going on?”

  “George Harvey is dead.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?!”

  Robin throws a huge stack of papers across the dining room, and Grace slumps down into a chair next to her, looking completely overwhelmed.

  “Harvey, didn’t have wounds or signs of a struggle. A full toxicology and autopsy report should be available by the end of the day to tell us how he died. Listen, if he was assassinated, we’re royally screwed. For one, it will prove he wasn’t the only master mind behind all of it. But worst of all, it means we’ll probably never solve this beyond what we know right now. For someone to be able to get into a maximum security federal prison undetected is pretty much impossible. Especially when Harvey was under constant surveillance with human guards and multiple cameras. He literally didn’t get to even take a shit without being watched. He never left his cell unless for interrogation. I have Intelligence scrubbing the footage for possible tampering of the cameras, but they’re not finding anything so far. Anyway, instead of working on your interrogation plan, just work on a report for what you believe was making him tick and compile the evidence to support the stories we’ve learned from the recruiters. I’ll be in touch later with the cause of his death.”

  He doesn’t wait for an answer or give them a chance to ask any questions before he hangs up. Grace and Robin lean forward with their fingers pressed to their temples, rubbing out frustration headaches.

  “This is unbelievable. All of that fucking time and work going through box after box of paperwork, and all we get to do is write a fucking report.”

  “I know. I really felt like we might actually have a chance at breaking him. Let’s just put all of this away. I’m done for today. We need to wait to see how he died so we know if we need to be looking for an accomplice hidden in these files.”

  Robin nods and starts gathering the papers and stacking them in neat piles.

  “I’m looking forward to that vacation in a few weeks even more now. I can’t wait to lounge out on a beach with you sipping on fruity girly drinks.” Grace releases a small laugh and nods in agreement. “Yeah, I can’t wait to get you in a bikini.”

  “You, uh, want to maybe get me naked in a bubble bath right now? ”

  Grace’s face spreads into a wide happy smile as she stands up and tugs on Robin’s hand.

  “Let’s go.”

  Coming Soon…

  The Dancing Wolf Series

  Book 6 – Family Growing Pains

  Having to travel east for a dance performance has everyone on edge because of Symone’s father’s threat to kill Kayla if he ever sees her. A huge gathering with friends and family to celebrate the birth of their twins will bring new friendships, new career opportunities, plans to bring the tribes closer, and new tensions. While trying to manage the joys and pains of their hectic schedules, and prepare for another addition to the family, tragedy will hit the family hard.

  The Brooke and Hannah Series

  Book 2 – Upon a Snow Fall

  With their hearts set on marriage and children in the near future, Brooke and Hannah will have to first deal with the fallout from learning Brooke’s mother has terminal cancer. As if opening Pandora’s box, Brooke will deal with one painful blow after another, and discover a hidden secret from her past. Major opportunities and career changes will affect both of them while they pursue starting a photography business together. An invitation out of town will gain them a couple new friends and promising futures of love and support. While riding out the many ups and downs, will Brooke and Hannah finally learn whether or not Hannah’s friend is a murderer?

  Amy is a lesbian romance author.

  Connect with Amy on Twitter @Amy_DeMeritt and on Facebook @AuthorAmyDeMeritt and find out about book updates at www.AmyDeMeritt.com

  Other works by Amy DeMerit t

  Keeper of My Heart

  Four years ago, Riley was only an intern at the zoo she is a keeper at now. She fell in love with her mentor, and after a three-year relationship, her heart was left broken. She vowed never to allow love into her heart again and she coped in ways that would only send her spiraling down the self-loathing whirlpool. A year later, the tables have turned. Riley is now the mentor and has to take on an intern. With one smile from a sweet innocent face, Riley’s resolve to never love again starts to crumble. While learning how to love again, and forgive herself for her indiscretions, Riley has to find closure with her past so she can move on and finally be happy.