There’s a chance we won’t come back for a while, but I’m not sure if there’s anything worth coming back for. Finding out Dom isn’t the man I thought he was has shattered the very foundation I’ve built my life upon. The five of us men created Ford Security together so we could help those in need, but somehow it seems as if Dom has become what we protect people from.
EPILOGUE
ELLA
I left my old life behind because it was never the life I wanted anyways. There was no one holding me down, nobody important that I needed to stick behind for. For better or worse, there was only two people in my life: Kara and Luke.
Kara was understanding about why I wanted to start my life over… again. And I promised she could come see us any time she wanted and I have no doubt she’s going to take me up on that offer. She and her husband are renting my home while they sell their first home and before buying their second. Apparently, their little family is about to grow by two—twins.
But Luke… He saved me in every way I think I could ever be saved. He saved me from my past and showed me that I still had a future worth fighting for. We took every penny out of my checking and savings accounts and fled to Mexico. I’m still able to work out here since my job has always been one I’ve performed in the confines of my own home.
We changed our names for the time being at his request. He’s been vague at best about why, but I know it has something to do with someone he trusted. I’m not going to press for answers right away though because I know that sometimes we need to allow our secrets to simmer before we’re comfortable enough to open about them.
He says that maybe someday we can go back, but I’m not sure if I want to. I’ve got everything I need right here in this hotel room. All that’s back in Los Angeles, at least for the time being, are memories I wish to stay in the graveyard of nightmares. Two men that I thought I cared about turned out to be monsters, and now they’re both dead. It’s like in a split second, memories were torn from my mind and tainted forever.
Rick and David Matheson were important people to me when I was growing up, and now they’re nothing but a painful memory. But Luke… he has a way of making me forget about everything.
It’s just him and I, and it’s a typical Tuesday afternoon. We stayed up late the night before and have stayed in bed all morning. There’s a tray of strawberries on the nightstand with a bowl of whipped cream to dip them in. I’m cuddled up next to him, my head lying on his bare chest as we listen to the crashing of the waves on the beach outside our window.
A warm breeze blows through white curtains and caresses my bare body. It’s been three months and I still haven’t come close to being tired of this new life we’ve created for ourselves. He’s my calm, my steady. He’s my knight in shining armor, and I am his queen.
I love him like the days are long and the nights are short. I could never say that before, given that we were only together for three days and it didn’t quite feel right. But I felt it in my heart, felt it in my soul, felt it in my very bones. The idea that I could love him someday when I had never loved anyone before seemed crazy to me. Love was a foreign idea, one I didn’t exactly understand.
I understand it now, and it took being in a foreign land to grasp it. I spent my entire life changing and evolving. I spent my entire life unsure of where I fit in so I carved a place out for myself, and then I evolved again. Ella Gold was my way of shutting the door on my past, but Luke constantly reminds me that both versions of Ella are one in the same.
And though he calls me by my most recent name in public—Ella King—he calls me simply babe in the quietest of moments.
He calmly combs his fingers through my hair, caressing me in slow, quiet strokes that threaten to put me back to sleep. I break away from his touch and spin sideways so that I’m able to grab a strawberry from the tray. I dip it down into the whipped cream and then take a bite.
He cocks his head to me and drops his lips into a sexy pout, so I feed him the rest of the strawberry. After he’s done chewing, he smiles warmly and pulls me closer to him.
He kisses me every night and he kisses me every morning. He kisses me a thousand times in between and I never grow tired of his affection. I’ve basically turned into a huge sap. If Ella Stone was an afraid and confused girl, and Ella Gold was an ice-cold, emotionless queen, then Ella King is something caught in between the two shadows of my past.
I drop my head back down onto his chest and stare longingly out the window. I stare at the never-ending blue sky without a cloud in sight, and then stare even further out. On the other side of the sea is the place I used to call home. Someday, I’ll go back there, but today’s not that day.
“What are you looking at?” Luke questions softly and pulls me even closer into his muscular arms.
“I’m just looking.”
“That sounds thrilling,” he chuckles under his breath. “Do you see anything amazing?”
“Yeah.” I push myself up and lean on my elbows so that I can stare into his blue eyes that linger like the ocean at high tide. “I see you.”
“You’re so cute.” He rolls his eyes and scoffs. “What do you really see?”
“I see a tall man with dark hair.” I kick one leg over his torso and move to straddle him. I push one hand through his hair, it’s longer now than it was before. “I see a sexy, funny man.”
He offers me a sly wink. “I have a feeling you’re talking about me.”
“I see a man who makes me feel safe.” I drop my head and kiss him softly on the forehead. “I see a man who makes me feel like the queen of the world.” I kiss him on the neck and then trail down to plant another on his collarbone. “But most of all, I see the man that I love.”
He grabs me by both cheeks and holds my head above his. From beneath me, his eyes tangle with mine and I swear this has to be a dream. “That’s good that you love me, because this man loves you, too.” He reaches an arm behind my back and holds me steady as he rolls on top of me. His hair falls from his face and dips against my head.
I reach up and push his hair out of his face, and with him on top of me, looking at me just like that, I think to myself that I’m the luckiest damn girl in the world.
Fight me on that.
BOOK THREE: Training Day
PROLOGUE
ZANE
SIX MONTHS AGO
There’s a gun trained on my head and I know the man holding it is one hell of a shooter. He’s the type of man who grew up with guns. They were as much his childhood as playing outside, riding bicycles and playing with Lego bricks. Seth Grimm is a bad man and I’m regretting ever getting involved with him.
He cackles, a sly grin hitching across his lips as he steps carefully towards us. My twin brother stands at my side. He’s calmer than me, which is the exact opposite of the way this usually plays out. I’m usually the calmer one, the one who’s able to think on his feet. Not today.
We’ve been in many situations before but this feels different. This feels like it could really be the end. My life doesn’t flash before my eyes like they always say it does. In fact, it’s never quite been that way. I’ve seen death up close and personal and I’ve never had the experience of watching my life play in my mind like some kind of film strip stuck on repeat.
Instead I’m shaking scared and frozen, almost numb. That’s the way it always seems to go. I’ve always found a way out of death’s throes. I’ve always survived to see another day, but yeah, something about this day feels different.
The man before me, with silver hair and deep, dark eyes that elicits images of the darkest nights, just might be the one to finally end me after all these damn years. He steps even closer still until the cold barrel of the gun is pressed squarely against my lobe. As a self-defense mechanism or something, my eyes draw to a close and it’s almost like I take a slight step forward so that the gun digs into my flesh. I’m walking right towards my fate.
It’s better me than my brother, but I’m only fooling myself by preten
ding this isn’t the end for both of us. I wince my eyes tighter if that’s even possible, just waiting for the loud bang, the explosion of gunpowder and metal. I’ve heard that when someone takes a bullet to the brain they don’t ever feel a thing. Hell, I’ve heard that the person on the receiving end of death sentences like this don’t even know they’re dead until they find themselves at the pearly gates.
I wonder if a man like me will ever see the sunnier side of heaven. I’ve done good in this life but I’ve also taken lives. Thou shall not commit murder; I think it goes something like that. Even in the name of protecting people, I wonder if my one-way ticket to hell has already been stamped.
There’s a loud scream that pierces through my ears. It’s not quite the explosion I’ve always had in mind. In fact, it doesn’t seem like someone is shooting a bullet into my brain. Not even close.
“Seth!” a woman screams and I immediately recognize the voice. It’s his daughter, the equally deadly and beautiful daughter of the man before me. With long, sleek black hair and deep-set hazel eyes, she’s an absolute beauty fitting of her name—Lola Grimm. “This ends right here today. Right now.”
I cock my eyes sideways to get a glimpse of her to my left. She steps towards her father with a pained look on her face and swollen eyes that are bloodshot red. In her hand, she holds a gun steadily aimed at her own father.
“Don’t you have any respect?” Seth grits his teeth, directing his indignation towards his daughter while keeping the gun aimed squarely at my temple. “I’m your father and it’s about time you start calling me that.”
“I can’t abide by that, not when you’re acting like a monster.”
“That’s hilarious,” he chuckles maniacally and takes two careful steps backwards, and then another step so that he’s far enough away from me where I won’t have the opportunity to do something stupid. “You enjoy the perks of my hard work every day. You’re a spoiled little brat and you need to put that gun down and get the hell out of here.”
“Or what, Seth?”
“Stop calling me that.” He rushes backwards and spins his arm so that he’s now aiming his gun at his own daughter. “I have given you everything in this life and I can take it away just as quickly.”
She swallows harshly and exhales. “You mean like you did with my mother?”
“Your mother was sick.” He shakes the gun as his voice cuts in and out. It’s like he’s swallowing gravel and I’ve never seen him this way. I’ve never seen him vulnerable. “And me putting that bullet through her brain was the most humane thing I could have done for her.”
“How?” She chokes on the tears streaming down her face. “How can you stand there right in front of me and say that?”
He shakes his head gently and scoffs under his breath. “I’ve spent my entire life protecting you, but if you can’t get out of your own way then I’ll have to take matters into my own hands.”
“Let these men go,” she demands, her finger dancing along the trigger. “They have nothing to do with this.”
“No, you’re wrong.” His eyes dart back to me and my brother. “They have everything to do with this. Maybe they didn’t before, but things have changed now. They have inserted themselves into the family business and if they walk out of here alive, they will be taking with them all the family secrets and I’m not about to let that happen.”
“I’m not giving you that choice… Dad.”
The words seem to stop him in his tracks. There’s a silent reckoning passing over his evil eyes. Somewhere deep inside him, there lies the remnants of humanity he once possessed before he became the man he is today.
I swallow and wet my lips, knowing that if I speak, I could be signing my own death sentence once again. But I also know that maybe I can at least save one of us; maybe somehow I can still save Zach. I raise my hands into the air, gesturing that in the moment, I’m harmless.
“Seth,” I begin, but he cuts me off.
“Shut up,” he demands as he races back towards me and pushes the cold metal back against my forehead. “Say another word and I’ll blow your brains out the back of your head.” His eyes shift sideways to Zach as a curious smile hitches across dry lips. “Or better yet, I’ll kill your brother first…” He spins the gun sideways so that it’s pressed against Zach’s cheek, leaving an imprint. “The last thing you’ll ever see is your brother’s blood painted against the wall right before his cold body collapses to the floor.”
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Seth’s arm drops sideways, his gun clattering to the floor immediately after. His head drops and he stares down at the bullet holes ripped into his torso. Blood begins to seep through his white collared shirt. He stumbles backwards, groans out in a combination of shock and pain and then he finally stumbles to the floor.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Lola staring blankly ahead. She’s cold and calculated and it’s like there’s nobody behind her dark eyes. This is the exact moment Lola loses her soul, and I’m just hoping that somehow she can become something other than who her father turned out to be.
That’s also none of my business.
She swallows dryly as her father bleeds out on the floor and then cocks her eyes to me. Hollow and empty, I know she’ll spend the rest of her life knowing that she took her own father’s life and that’ll weigh heavily on her soul.
“We have to get out of here,” she says lowly, dropping the gun to her side. “There’s a bomb that’s set to blow any minute now.”
“That’s all I need to know,” Zach exclaims from beside me and steps backwards. He grabs onto my arm and pulls me backwards. “Zane, come on!”
I take one last look at Seth Grimm lying on the floor. This is the fate he deserved, but I still can’t help but to feel the slightest pang of empathy in the deepest part of my gut. He spent his entire life ruining lives and yet I can’t bring myself to rejoice in his imminent death.
I finally spin on my feet just as Zach pushes the steel door of the warehouse open. He’s racing down the hall, his boots stomping against the flooding hallway. I’m right behind him, water splashing over my ankles and soaking my leg. From behind me, I hear Lola following immediately after.
I told you she’s stone cold, leaving her father behind like that after peppering him with three lethal bullets to the stomach. I guess she’s had to become an ice princess to survive in her father’s world.
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel as Zach pushes the exterior door open and sunshine barrels into the long, narrow hallway almost blinding me. I can feel the hot summer sun burning against me just as I race outside onto the gravel lot. I pivot on my feet and turn to hold the door open for Lola, but she’s not coming.
She stops dead in her tracks and cocks her head over her shoulder and then looks back to me. She nods gently, nodding only to herself like she’s coming to terms with what she’s done and what she’s about to do. She slowly turns in place until she’s facing the very door she left her father behind. And then she begins a slow, leisurely crawl back into the warehouse to seal her fate.
I want to save her. I want to run back into the building and try to reason with her, but I know there’s not enough time. Like she said, there’s a bomb planted and it’s about to blow. I let go of the door and it swings shut, landing with a loud thud of steel against metal.
I turn back to Zach and race forward towards our Jeep that’s been parked outside since we first went inside three days ago. And just as we’re about to reach the jeep, the building behind us explodes. The bomb within destroying the entire building and sending shrapnel hurling through the air. The pressure of the blast sends me barreling forward, my face mashing against the jagged rocks. My hand rises to clutch at the wounds situated just beneath my left breast. It was just yesterday that Seth Grimm was torturing me, slicing a hot knife through my bare flesh.
Zach kicks against the gravel as he reaches down to guide me to my feet. He throws one arm over my shoulder and assists me into the passenger
side of the jeep. The hot sun beams against my skin, and with the exception of the fire roaring in the near distance, it’s just about as quiet as I’ve ever heard it on this side of the city. I swear I can hear the birds singing in the trees, but they’re singing a quiet tune.
I try to enjoy the moment, try to enjoy the fact that I’ve lived to see another day, but it’s not quite that simple…
Seth Grimm is gone from this world, but his legacy remains intact. There are a hundred different goons all looking to take his spot at the top of the food chain. They’ll come looking for us when they find out what happened. I pass Zach a quick glance and see it in his eyes, see that he’s thinking the same thing I am.
He’s thinking that it’s time to run and I couldn’t agree more. We need to get out of this city before the sun sets. Hell, we need to get out of this country and off this continent. We need to get as far away from this disaster as humanly possible and wait until the heat wears off before we come back.
That’s the thing about people like Seth Grimm and his associates. They’re always at odds with someone. Right now, that someone is me and Zach. Give it enough time and they’ll have a new number one enemy. That’s what I’m hoping, at least.
“What are we going to tell Dom and the boys?” I question Zach as the tires beneath us peel out against gravel, kicking rocks into the air behind us.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to tell them everything.”
“We’ll just tell them enough, then?” I look to him with a pained expression. “Tell them that we’re leaving.”
“That we’re going deep undercover.”
“And that we don’t know when we’ll be back, which is the truth,” I say, continuing his sentence and his thoughts. What they say about twins is true. We always know what’s on the other’s mind. We always know what they’re thinking, sometimes before they even know themselves.
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