by Hart, Taylor
Sweat ran down his face. “You never open the door!” Blaine thundered again.
Something crashed into the door behind Blaine, swinging it open wider. Antonio stepped into view, pointing a gun straight at Elena’s head. “Yes, Elena. You should never open the door.”
Chapter 24
Blaine cursed, dropping the body and pointing his gun at Antonio.
“Do it and she dies,” Antonio said.
Blaine thought of five ways he could get out of this situation, but none of them left him with one hundred percent results that Elena would live through it, so he held the gun up.
Antonio kept his eyes on Elena, but said over his shoulder, “Move fast. Tie the SEAL up first with those zip ties.”
The guys moved at him quickly and efficiently, taking his gun before they tied him up. Blaine recognized them as the security thugs from Sutton’s house yesterday. Dang it. They were all compromised. Blaine watched them work and wondered if they were ex-soldiers.
“You don’t want to do this, man,” Blaine said calmly. “Where’s the senator?”
Antonio let out a laugh. “You think this is about the senator? I needed to find you, and the senator served that purpose.” He glared at Blaine. “He gave me a reason to bring Elena here.”
Blaine suppressed a snarl. One thing at a time. “So where’s her father?”
Antonio sighed. “It’s a shame we had to break ties, because I’m quite fond of the old man. He was good to me, so I didn’t kill him. I had my men dump him off in some warehouse right after we took him. I’m surprised you and your SEAL friends haven’t found him yet.” He shrugged and turned to Elena. “See the incompetence?”
Elena glowered at him.
Gently, Antonio reached out and stroked the side of her face. “It’s always been about her. Everything I’ve done has been for you, Elena.” He tsked his tongue. “But you threw it away. You threw away our perfect life, don’t you see that? You forced me to take matters into my own hands.”
“What are you doing?” Elena’s voice was shaky. “This is ridiculous.”
Antonio let out a sardonic laugh. “You think I wanted any of this? Elena, this is your fault, but I’m fixing it.” He shook his head. “Because I always fix your mistakes.”
Her eyelids fluttered. “What are you even talking about?”
The men were holding Blaine in a standing position, even though his hands were tied behind his back and his ankles were slip-tied. He wracked his brain for a solution, but a crushing blow hit the center of his gut.
Antonio straightened from the kick, looking supremely self-satisfied.
“Stop! Antonio!” Elena yelled.
Blaine was breathless for a second, all the wind knocked out of him. “What the …?”
Antonio looked at Elena, a bloodthirsty glint in his eye. “You wouldn’t let go of him. You wouldn’t marry me and let go of this … this loser. So I have to do it.” Antonio turned to Blaine. “This clandestine team of yours was hard to track down. But once I realized I could use the old man to find you, it all fell into place.” He pulled back and hit Blaine across the face.
Pain pounded through Blaine’s head, and he tasted blood.
Antonio cackled. “I knew I’d have to eliminate you if I ever wanted to get you out of her system.”
Every part of Blaine was ready to rip this guy’s head off, but he kept his cool. “You’re a hero when two guys are holding me back and you have a gun on my girl.” Blaine spit the words out through the blood still oozing into his mouth. He knew he would kill this guy; before this day was through, he’d have his head.
Antonio slung another punch across his face, then stepped closer. “She’s not your girl. You should have stayed away from Elena—I told you that a long time ago. No, you come into my territory and mess with my woman.” He wagged a finger at Blaine. “I told you, she needs me.”
“Stop it, Antonio!” Elena yelled hysterically.
Antonio reared back to punch Blaine, using the hand holding his gun, but Blaine leveraged the guys holding him back, jumping and kicking Antonio hard with both legs.
Everything happened fast. Blaine took the guys behind him by their clothes and reached through and squeezed flesh as hard as he could. Turning, he slammed his head against idiot number one, who reeled back.
Elena screamed again, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw her trying to get free, shoving against the guy holding her.
Antonio threw himself at Blaine. Blaine landed facedown, both hands still behind his back, but he rammed his head back and heard the crack where his head connected with Antonio’s nose.
With a curse, Antonio floundered to put his whole body over him so Blaine couldn’t move. “Help me!” Antonio yelled at his guys, and they pinned Blaine down while he got off.
The whir of a chopper sounded through the air.
“Boss! We gotta go!” idiot one shouted at Antonio.
Antonio scrambled to get up, but Blaine used his legs to trip him. Swerving, he pulled his legs to the side and tripped the other two guys trying to walk over him.
Cursing ensued as Antonio yelled for them to go.
A kick connected to Blaine’s side and Blaine turned to see a gun pointed at his face.
“Stop!” Elena screamed.
“Get her out of here!” Antonio shouted back at the guys holding Elena.
The guys scampered out of the apartment, and Blaine could no longer wait for Maddox and Jace and Creed to get here and help tune these guys up. “Do it!” he yelled at Antonio. Even if he died, his friends would get Elena and keep her safe for this psycho.
“Boss!” idiot two yelled at him from just outside the door. “We have to go!”
Antonio still held the gun to Blaine’s head.
“Do it!” Blaine roared at him.
Idiot two reached in and grabbed Antonio’s shirt, dragging him toward the door. “We have to go now!”
Antonio got a shot off. “Die!”
The pain of a bullet hitting Blaine’s back didn’t feel good, but he had his bulletproof vest on. Blaine gasped.
“It’s done!” Antonio called out.
Blaine wheezed and rolled himself to his front. “Shouldn’t have missed, ’cause I won’t.”
Seconds later, the door flung open and Blaine was quickly hauled up and set free by Maddox and Creed.
“Let’s go!” Blaine moved to the door.
They all ran out with him and Jace called out, “What happened?”
“Shot me in the back like a coward! That’s what happened!” Frustrated, Blaine ran out of the safe house.
They ran for the helo Logan was still in. Jace handed him a gun, and they all hopped on.
“Where to, boss?” Logan called out.
Blaine whipped his phone out of his pocket.
“Do you know where they went?” Maddox demanded.
Creed pounded a gun strip into a machine gun and held it out for Blaine. “These dudes have to go down.”
Blaine pushed a couple of buttons and brought up the app that tracked her. “I fed her a tracking device last night. They are headed to the airport!” he called out to Logan.
Logan lifted the bird up. “I’m on it.”
Jace let out a roaring laugh. “You fed her a tracking device?”
Creed nodded, and Maddox laughed. “Good thinking.”
“Sutton’s idea, not mine,” said Blaine, grabbing a gun from his nightstand. “I’m just the chef.”
Chapter 25
“You killed him?” Elena sat slumped in the back of a black van. She broke into sobs. “He’s dead?” She stared at the man she had thought really loved her the past year. He’d zip-tied her hands behind her and she could feel the van whipping around in traffic. She never would have imagined Antonio would be doing this.
Antonio calmly pressed a blood-soaked cloth to his nose. “It’s over now.”
Every part of her trembled. “No. No. No. He can’t be dead.”
“He’s de
ad.” Antonio gave her a stern look. “I shot him. There’s no way he could survive that.”
Nausea punched her in the gut, and she leaned over and threw up all over Antonio’s feet.
“There, there.” His hands patted her head. He put the rag to her mouth, and she could smell blood. “It’s over, Elena. Time for us. Time for a new beginning.”
Trying to get her hands out of the zip ties, she felt like a trapped animal. She swiveled her head away from him. “No, it’s not!” Blaine couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t! “Why did you shoot him?”
Antonio shook his head, irritated. “Because you would never be over him if he were still alive, and it’s time for new beginnings.” He reached out and placed a hand on her cheek. “I left your father alive, because I knew you could never forgive me for that. But you have said yourself many times, you and your father don’t get along. He doesn’t understand you. Plus, it’s time to start our life together.”
With a growl, she spit in his face. “No!”
Antonio met her eyes, angry and determined. “Elena, I have tried to deny who I am the last ten years. But I need you to know I am the oldest son of Don Juarez, the largest cartel family in Mexico. I am the prodigal son. I have denied my heritage and tried to be something I am not. But I realized I can no longer deny who I am. I should have taken my rightful place among the cartels years ago.”
“What?” she breathed. “But you went to Yale. You …” Her thoughts flitted to all the things she knew about Antonio. “You love this country. You—”
“No, Elena, I love you.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her close to his face. She smelled sweat on his skin and saw feral desperation in his eyes. “I’ve loved you so much, and when I saw that I would never win you back after you met …” He didn’t say the name, only sneered. “I knew this was the only way. It might take time, but I realize now that true change only comes after sacrifice.” Gently, he leaned in, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “You’ll see that I’m giving up everything for you, for us.”
She jerked back. “No.”
“Ah, mi amor, I realized you like a man who is about action, who is about doing. You like your soldier. I’m taking action now, don’t you see that?”
Hate pounded through her as she stared into Antonio’s face. “No, Antonio. I will never love you.”
Antonio hit her with the back of his hand. She reeled, but he reached out and held her up. “You will have time to see things my way, where we’re going. You’ll have lots of time to realize the kind of man I am.”
Pain throbbed in her cheek. “Never.”
“Boss, we’re almost to the plane,” one of the guys called out.
Antonio met her gaze. “You’ll have time to realize that you’ll never say no to me again.” He let her go.
The van stopped, and the door was flung open by one of the thugs.
“Put your guns away,” he said to his men, putting his behind his back. With a knife, he undid her zip tie around her wrists.
Elena was blinded by the light as Antonio pulled her out of the van, and the other thug loomed next to her to cut off her escape. They were on the tarmac, and a plane had already been fired up. Elena tried to break away, but Antonio yanked on her hand, making her cry out in pain. The plane propellers were deafening as she and the men rushed toward it.
Out of nowhere, a helicopter descended, and Elena’s heart lifted. Could it be?
Antonio cursed, pausing on the stairs.
“Elena!”
Looking up, she saw Blaine descending out of the helicopter, on a black wire attached to him. Two guys were on the sides of the helicopter, guns pointed down. “Blaine!” she called.
The thug next to her pulled his gun and fired.
“Blaine!” Elena screamed, terrified they really might hit him.
Gunfire erupted all around them. The thug next to her grabbed his chest and then dropped away. She looked back and saw two more taken down.
“No!” Antonio yanked by the arm, pulling her the rest of the way up the stairs. “Go! Go!” he yelled out.
She heard a guy yelling in Spanish and she felt the plane start moving. The two guys that had been in the plane moved past them, pulling up the door.
Elena pushed to a standing position, her heart racing, she had to escape, but before she could Antonio pushed her down again. “No, mi amor, you’re coming.”
In her panic, she stumbled and writhed. Turning, she met Antonio’s eyes. “Let me go! Please!”
The barrel of his gun rose toward her head, and he gave her a stern look. “I’m sorry, but you stay down. It’s not safe.”
Elena had to get away! She had to! Through the plane windows she saw Blaine, flying toward the plane, still attached to that wire.
Then it all happened so fast. Blaine rammed into the plane, pulled back, shot through the glass, and hit Antonio directly in the head. Antonio’s face went blank, and his body sagged.
“No!” one of the men called out.
Elena watched Blaine as he swiveled and systematically shot the rest of the guys around her. Then he disappeared from view.
The pilot called out something in Spanish, and she heard glass crashing and felt the plane slow down.
Before she knew it, the door of the plane was coming down and Blaine barreled through the door. Their eyes met and it felt like time slowed down.
“Blaine!” she called out, unbelieving.
The next thing she knew, he was in front of her, throwing his gun to his back and pulling her into his arms. She felt his heart beating against hers, and the hardness of his muscles through his shirt.
“You okay?” he asked. His hands roved over her head, then her shoulders, and his eyes settled on hers.
“Yeah.” Tears streamed down her face in relief. She put her hands on his face, and all the emotions of the past year, all of the pain, all of the anger dissipated. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She let out a light laugh. “You’re not dead?”
He grunted and flashed her a wry smile. “I’m here, and I’m never leaving you again.”
She held him tight, like he was her anchor. “I love you.”
His hands pulled her tighter and moved up into her hair, cradling her head. “I love you, too.” He kissed her.
The moment went slow and all the memories of the beginning rushed through her. He deepened the kiss and she went weak in the knees, holding tighter to him. She was lost in the kiss, in this man, in everything he was and everything they could be together.
Pulling back, he kept her close, determination in his eyes. “I love you so much.”
Her heart soared. “I never stopped loving you.”
Blaine’s guys swarmed in, clapping and hollering and whooping. Blaine turned to them, grinning.
Elena laughed and clung to Blaine, noticing happiness on his face for the first time since Vegas. She sniffed. “I want to start over too.”
Blaine gently pressed his lips to her forehead and smiled at her. “Marry me.”
Her heart raced, and she nodded. “Yes.”
“Wait!” He held up his hand.
She laughed, and his buddies waited, all eyes on them.
Blaine reached into his gear and pulled the necklace out, offering it ring first. “This time, I won’t back out, I promise.”
She laughed. “We have witnesses.” And then she kissed him again.
Blaine laughed too, picking her up. All around them, his buddies cheered.
“You got the helicopter in the story for the grandkids,” Elena said with a grin. “I’ll give you that, Hammerton.”
Blaine laughed, and Elena knew this would be the best story ever.
Epilogue
Blaine stood on Sutton Smith’s beach and couldn’t believe how different things could be in ten days. Strike that. He did know how different his life could be in ten days, whether it was the first ten days he’d spent with Elena or the last ten before the wedding.
After rescuing Elena from Antonio, they’d called the NYPD a
nd told them to look in warehouses close to the restaurant for her father. They’d found him. His team had taken the jet with Elena to meet her father at the hospital.
Although her father suffered from dehydration, he was fine and had recovered quickly. Blaine and Elena had sat in the hospital with her father for a couple of days, talking about … everything.
Blaine stood on the edge of the shoreline, all his SEAL brothers lined up with him.
“I’m happy for you, man.” Jace said, standing next to him.
Blaine stared at the red carpet that led to the house, knowing this would be one of the all-time best days of his life. It already was. Warmth and happiness surged through him, and he blinked back tears.
“Don’t get soft on us,” Creed whispered, standing on the other side of him.
“Yeah,” Maddox agreed, poking him in the back.
Baron broke the line and joined them. “I don’t come all this way to see you blubber, Hammerton.”
“Who’s blubbering?” Logan joined them, wrapping his arms around Blaine and Maddox.
Blaine laughed. These guys were his family.
The wedding music changed, and Elena appeared in the doorway on her father’s arm. The guys fell back in line next to him. It was a small affair; they’d wanted it that way.
As she got closer, he felt himself overwhelmed. She wore a flowing white sundress. Her hair was wrapped up in a loose bun, with tendrils falling into her face. He thought of the first night he’d seen her in that gallery window. Of how he’d been unable to go anywhere, except to her.
Much like now. She was a beacon to him. She was everything. Watching the way her whole face lit up, he couldn’t wait to start their life together. Couldn’t wait to hold her for the rest of his life.
Once they’d reached him, she kissed her father gently on the cheek. Her father nodded and then winked at Blaine.
Taking her hand into his, Blaine couldn’t even focus on what Cannon was saying, on anything but her.
When it came time for him to say I do, he was so lost in her that he felt Jace nudge him. “I do,” he blurted.