by Cynthia Eden
The sound of that car was getting closer. Keith didn’t appear at all worried.
“That’s my buyer. He’s bringing me so much money for you. He’ll take you away, and you won’t ever be seen again. I’ll vanish, as well. Who knows?” He smiled. “Maybe I’ll try some pleasure killing, too. Curt always told me that the rush was truly incredible.”
She had to run. There was an elevator waiting about thirty feet away. She could get there. Get the doors open—
“Ethan won’t ever find your body. Maybe he’ll think that you’re alive. Maybe he’ll hold out hope for a while. A month. A year. Maybe longer. But eventually, the truth will hit him.” Keith gave a brisk nod. “And you set this all in motion. You wrapped your hands around him, right on the street. You weren’t afraid of him. You wanted him. So plain to see. And I knew right then—Curt had his weapon. He could finally hurt you the way that he wanted.”
“H-how did you become my shrink?” It made no sense that she’d wound up with this sick bastard.
“Oh, you mean, why did Dr. Hendricks recommend me to you before she left town? I actually helped her to leave. You see, I discovered some of her secrets, too. An addiction in her past that she wanted to stay hidden. To keep my silence, she sent you my way.” He shrugged. “I told you, secrets really are my business.”
The car came around the curve, shooting off the ramp that led to their level in that garage, heading straight for them.
Keith turned toward the vehicle, a smile on his face.
And that was her moment. His distraction. Her opportunity. She turned and ran, going as fast as she could toward that elevator.
“No!” Keith bellowed.
She didn’t stop. She expected to feel another bullet hit her. So she started to zig and zag. Wasn’t the advice that you were supposed to go all serpentine? Because bullets followed a straight trajectory, but people didn’t have to?
Car doors slammed.
And—
Gunfire. Bullets booming and echoing around her.
But Keith had a silencer on his gun.
Her hand slammed into the elevator button.
She looked back, a desperate glance.
Keith was on the ground.
A woman—African American, with dark hair pulled back into a bun and a fierce glare on her delicate face—stood over Keith, her gun still trained on him.
But that woman wasn’t alone.
Ethan was there, and he was running toward Carly.
The elevator doors opened, but she didn’t move.
He found me.
“Move,” the woman standing over Keith barked, “and you will get a bullet between your eyes.”
Carly stumbled toward Ethan. He caught her and held tight. The sound of sirens reached her ears, safety—coming.
But I’m already safe. I’m with Ethan.
No, no—a buyer was coming. They were both still in danger. She shoved at his arms. “Keith had plans—another man was coming. To—to buy me and—”
“He’s already in custody. Cops caught him outside. He pulled up right when Detective Chestang and I did.”
Detective Chestang? The name was oddly familiar.
He threw a quick glance over his shoulder. “Faith is from D.C., but turns out she has a few friends on the Force in this area, too. Victor told us about the GPS tracker on his SUV, so it was easy for Faith and I to assemble a team and find Keith.”
He’d worked with the cops?
“I was scared,” Ethan confessed.
Cop cars swarmed behind him. Keith was still on the ground.
“He took you away from me.” Ethan’s hold tightened on her. “And I just had to get you back.”
She could feel the strong, fast beat of his heart against her. He held her so tightly, so close but… “It hurts,” Carly had to say.
He immediately let her go, then his gaze swept over her, locking on her blood-covered arm and shoulder, then coming back up to stare at her face—no her temple. Was her face as swollen as it felt? That gun butt to the head had hurt like hell.
Ethan scooped her into his arms and started running for the cops. Funny. Ethan, making that move. Going to the cops. If she didn’t watch it, he’d be a regular boy in blue soon.
“I’m okay,” she said, but she let her eyes close. She could do that now. Let the pain take over and just drift away. Ethan was there. Keith had been stopped.
He found me.
“No more, Carly. No more enemies coming out of the wood work. This shit has to stop.”
She heard another blast of a siren. Her eyes cracked open and she spied an ambulance rushing toward her, hurtling around the curve in that parking garage. “Easier said…than done.” Because soon, her story would be leaked even more. The FBI knew all about her past and with that Quincy death video being uncovered…anyone who wanted vengeance for Quincy’s kill would be looking her way. Would a line form? And what was she supposed to do then?
“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he said. His lips pressed to hers. “I’m done, baby. Done.”
He wasn’t. They weren’t. Ethan had plenty of enemies on his own. His enemies. Her enemies. How were they ever supposed to find a safe place? How were they supposed to have a future?
The one thing she wanted so badly. A chance. Hope.
It was being taken away.
A tear slid down her cheek as Ethan lowered her onto the gurney. They had to find a way out of this mess.
What way was there?
Ethan’s hand slid over her cheek. “Baby, I mean it. I’m done.”
Her lashes lifted. She saw the forms of two EMTs as they rushed around her, checking her wounds. Someone shone a really bright-ass light into her eyes.
Then she was being lifted again. Put into the back of the ambulance. Ethan started to follow, but an EMT put a hand on his chest and shoved him back.
Bad move.
Ethan looked at the guy. Just looked.
The EMT hurriedly moved away. “My bad. Family, right?”
No. Yes.
Ethan climbed in the ambulance. He caught her hand in his. “Right. Family. You always have been mine, baby. Always will be.”
The back doors shut. The ambulance lurched away.
***
The perp was laughing. That high-pitched, grating laughter was getting on Faith Chestang’s last nerve. She glared at the guy and thought—oh, but another shot would have been good.
She’d already fired two bullets at the guy. When she’d arrived on scene, he’d been aiming at Carly’s fleeing back. Ethan—acting in a seriously un-Ethan-like way—had jumped into the line of fire. Carly hadn’t glanced back, so she hadn’t seen him leap in front of Dr. Keith Nelson’s gun.
Faith had seen the move, though. And before Keith could take out Ethan, she’d fired.
I saved Ethan Barclay’s ass. Now he owes me. Plenty.
She’d call in her debt, too.
FBI agents and NYPD officers were everywhere. They all sure seemed pumped. Probably because they’d stopped a killer and arrested one of the FBI’s most wanted—drug lord named Henry Hastings, a fool who’d been outside, heading into that garage with a trunk full of money.
He came to kill Carly.
Seemed plenty of people were offering a price on Carly’s head.
That price would only vanish, once Carly was dead.
Luckily, Ethan had a plan to protect Carly. On their fast and frantic drive over, Ethan had told Faith all about that plan.
Some men would really do anything for love.
The stories she’d heard about Ethan were wrong. The guy did have a heart. It had just been buried deep, for a long time.
“So what the fuck is going to happen now?” Keith demanded. “You think you saved Carly Shay? The hits will just keep coming. They won’t stop—”
“Don’t worry about her. Worry about yourself.” She smiled at him. The EMTs were loading him into a second ambulance. “What do you think is going to happen to you? Do you reall
y think Ethan is going to let you get away with what you’ve done?”
Keith paled. “I’ve got…powerful friends…”
“So does Ethan. If I were you, I’d be praying right about now. Because you’re under arrest, doctor. You’re going to jail—or maybe hell. Guess they could be one and the same to you. And when you get there…I wonder how long you’ll stay alive? The last enemy that Ethan had…Daniel Duvato…he didn’t make it more than a few months…”
The EMT pushed on Keith’s wound. The man howled.
“Better get used to pain,” Faith advised him. “Something tells me that you’ll have a whole lot more of it coming your way.”
Two weeks later…
Chapter Twelve
“I’m not the type of man who runs from anything or anyone.”
Carly glanced over at Ethan. They were at his home in D.C. The last two weeks had pretty much been a whirlwind. She’d gotten stitched up at the hospital, she’d found out that Agent Victor Monroe had survived, and then…
Then she’d had to deal with the fallout.
She’d given a full statement to the FBI, with Sophie at her side. She’d admitted to killing Quincy, even though Sophie had said that technically…Ethan had dealt the killing blow.
Ethan hadn’t given a statement, but he had gone through several closed-door meetings with FBI Brass. He hadn’t wound up in jail after those meetings, but she was still afraid.
Worried their enemies would keep coming.
“I don’t run,” he said. “Not usually. But for you, baby, I’d do anything.”
He eased down onto the couch beside her. “The FBI has offered to set us up with new identities. New names, a new place. And one hell of a lot less looking over our shoulders for our enemies to come calling.”
Her breath caught. “You’d…do that?”
“I told you before…I’m done. Done with risking you. Done with anything that will put you in harm’s way. You want a new life? I can give it to you. Just say the word, and it will happen.”
Her heart raced too fast. “I do want a new life.”
He nodded. “Then we’ll leave tonight. You won’t need to ever be afraid again and—”
“I want a life with you. I don’t really care where we are. I just want you with me.”
His gaze searched hers.
“You aren’t the type of man to run,” Carly said.
“I am if it means keeping you safe.”
She had to know this. “How many others will come after us?”
“That drug lord Hastings was the last ally that Quincy had. Despite the bullshit Nelson was spouting, there are no other threats from that end. Hastings and Curtis were it, and they’ve been eliminated. Curtis is in the ground, and as for Hastings, the Feds discovered enough evidence in his car and on his laptop—fool had it with him in the trunk—to lock him away for the next fifty years.” He shrugged. “Maybe…I helped a bit with that discovery. I might have known where Hastings had hidden some secrets.”
She’d just bet that he had.
His fingers slid over her shoulder. She had a scar there, one still bright red. It would fade over time, but the memory would always be there. Death, coming too close.
“The life I’ve built isn’t an easy one. It’s built on danger and death and too many lies.” He nodded. “Maybe it’s time to move on. Maybe it’s time to find more. I’m sick of the betrayal. I want something…better. I want you.”
“You have me.”
He was quiet a moment, then Ethan said, “You told me before that you didn’t want to give up your life in NY.” He drew in a ragged breath. His fingers slid down her arm and his hand caught hers. Held tight. “I can make that happen. I can make it so that you can stay here. I just need some time. I can apply the right pressure, I can make the right deals, and every enemy will go away.”
She actually believed he could do that. She knew exactly how powerful he truly was. But… “I think I’d like for us to both start fresh. A clean slate.” They’d both paid enough for the past. “Can we really do that? Will the FBI let us?”
His smile was grim. “Oh, yeah, baby. They will. I have something that Agent Monroe wants very badly. I’ll give it to him, and in return, he’ll give us what we need.”
Her breath came faster. “Are you really going to be able to walk away from it all? I know just how much pull you have in D.C.” And leaving that kind of empire…
“Baby, I’ll take plenty of money with me. I’ll make sure you always have everything you ever want.”
He was all that she wanted. “Ethan—
“And don’t worry. You’ll still get to contact your step-sister. I guarantee it. You won’t lose Julianna. I can make that work.”
“But everything is about me.” Her hair slid over the couch as she shook her head. “What about you? When do you get what you want?”
He leaned toward her and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “Carly, I already have what I want. Everything I want,” he whispered. “And as long as you’re with me, that’s all I need.”
There was so much emotion in his eyes. So much love. Shining right there for her. The rest of the world might look at Ethan and see the big, bad wolf, but she saw the man she loved. The man who hadn’t given up on her.
Just as she hadn’t given up on him.
And now, it truly was their time. “When do we leave?”
He smiled. A drop dead gorgeous grin.
Ethan Barclay. Fucking dangerous and fucking sexy Ethan Barclay.
The man she’d love for the rest of her life.
***
“I’m supposed to let you walk away with a shit-load of cash and no charges pending against you?” Victor marched around his office, but the marching was a bit hesitant. Probably due to the still recovering injuries that the agent had.
Bullet wounds could be such a bitch.
“Why the hell…” Victor muttered. “Would I agree to a deal like that? Because I’m an idiot? Because I want to get demoted at the Bureau? I mean, yeah, okay, so I was a bit wrong about you and Carly and you weren’t the ones killing those guys in New York—”
“Tied Keith and Curtis to those disappearances, didn’t you?” But Ethan already knew the truth about those crimes. Carly had told him all, and he’d held her in her hospital bed as she’d cried for those men. Pawns in a deadly game.
Ethan was sick of pawns getting hurt. He was actually sick of so many fucking things. Violence. Death.
He was ready for a better life.
“Yes,” Victor gritted out. “We found concrete proof. In the shrink’s own office. The guy wrote down every detail about the crimes. About how he offered up the victims to Curtis. How Curtis stalked them and killed them.” His jaw clenched. “Even how he ditched the bodies.”
“Sounds like interesting reading.”
“The shrink is a psycho.”
“That the clinical term?”
Victor squinted at him. “You trying to be funny? Really? Now? This is the moment you pick?”
Ethan shrugged.
“Dr. Nelson got in with the mob—hell, with killers—back when he used to work at Falling Waters State Hospital, a place in upstate New York for criminals deemed…unstable. That’s when he made his connections and he started bartering secrets. Seems that Nelson had a very unhealthy fascination with the minds of murderers. Over time, he starting selling the secrets he learned.” Victor ran his hand over his face. “The jerkoff loved hearing about the brutal crimes, and he sure liked the money he got paid from those bastards.”
Ethan paced toward the window. “I’m guessing he’ll have plenty of time to talk with killers now.” He’ll be locked away with them.
“Will he?” Victor demanded.
Ethan looked back at him, making sure his expression appeared all calm and non-threatening.
“Will Dr. Nelson have lots of time to chat? Or will the guy wind up dead within the next few weeks, maybe months? Will someone…like you…give an order tha
t he’s to be punished for his crimes?”
Again, Ethan shrugged. “I guess that could happen.”
“I know you aren’t going to confess your plans to me.”
Hell, no, he wasn’t. Did he look like an idiot?
“But you could still pull strings, right?” Victor pushed. “Or maybe you’ve already pulled them. Set the guy’s death in motion because he hurt her.”
Ethan held his gaze. “Do you really think anyone would mourn for Keith Nelson? I’m sure the families of Tage Price, Josh Lavelle, and Ace Patton wouldn’t.”
“Don’t feed me that line. For you, it’s not about them. It’s about her. What he tried to do to her.”
Ethan paced toward the agent. “You haven’t ever been in love, have you?”
“Fuck, no.”
His lips almost twitched. “Love can change a man. Make him less of a monster.”
“So you’re saying you aren’t going to kill Nelson?”
No, he wasn’t saying that. But he was also thinking that rotting in prison might just be the punishment that drove the doc to the edge. Then over it. Some people have to suffer first, that way they can truly regret their sins. “Justice will come around to him, sooner or later. Of that, I have no doubt.” And he’d say nothing else. After all, he didn’t want to incriminate himself, not when he was still working this deal.
Victor crossed his arms over his chest, but then flinched at the move. Obviously, his wounds still pained him.
Ethan whistled. “I hope you can get back to fighting form soon. Zoe is going to need you.”
The faint lines near Victor’s eyes deepened. “What do you know?”
“I know Zoe’s friend Michelle recently vanished in Vegas…and Zoe rushed back to Sin City in order to save her.”
“What?”
“You really need to keep better track of your…assets,” Ethan said carefully. After all, if Zoe was tied up with the FBI, then she counted as one of their precious assets, didn’t she? “Don’t worry. I had a team intercept her. She’s currently waiting in a Vegas hotel for you, with twenty-four hour guard service. Those guards will stay there, with her, until they get a call from me saying that you are the man who will be taking over her protection.”