“He’s on his way there now. And he’s heartbroken. He feels that he and Lisa should have stayed with you. He’s out of his mind with guilt.”
I’ll take care of that, I thought. Because, like Cutter, Tank owns no guilt when it comes to this.
“Would you do me a favor?”
“Right now, I’d do anything for you.”
“Then would you please call him and ask him to turn back? There’s no need for him to come here. This is over. Police are everywhere. And because of that, he won’t get through. The streets are blocked, so it’s a waste of his time. Tell him to go home to Lisa. Tell him that Rowe is behind many deaths. It’s all on record.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“He had Meredith killed,” I said flatly. “And Diana and Mike, as well as all of those people who either died or were wounded with them. He also killed Janice Jones.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Blackwell said. “I’m stunned.”
“He’s a fucking serial killer as far as I’m concerned.”
“And yet you escaped from him, didn’t you?”
“It wasn’t easy, but we did.”
“Why do I fear that you were the one who was most at risk?”
I didn’t answer her because I didn’t want her to know just how close I’d come to dying. But Blackwell was no fool. My silence spoke volumes.
“You fought him, didn’t you?”
“I did. I might have even shoved my wedding and engagement rings into his eye to try to stop him from killing me.”
“Always the fighter,” she said.
“When you’re born to abusive parents, you learn to be one,” I said.
“At some point, when you’re comfortable talking about this, will you tell me what happened tonight? How it played out?”
“I will.”
“But only when you’re ready.”
“With that son of a bitch dead, I’m already ready. You’ll find out tomorrow.”
“May that fire in you never die,” she said. “Because it’s what I admire most about you, Jennifer—the fact that you won’t go down without an effort—whatever that effort is. It always changes. It’s always different. But despite all that, you still have the courage to stand up to men such as Stephen Rowe.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kate and Ben leaving the foundation.
“I should go,” I said. “I just saw Kate and Ben step outside, and we haven’t seen them since any of this happened. Alex and I should speak with them. After that? Cutter is here with us, and he’s going to take us home.”
“Thank you for taking my call. I know that it’s mayhem there, but I was just so sick with worry over you two that I had to call. I don’t know what else to say other than I love you both.”
“And we love you,” I said to the woman who had become the mother I’d never had. “But there’s something else I need to say to you, Barbara.”
“What’s that?”
“Life is too short. I’ve learned that too many times. So, I need you to think long and hard about your situation with Marcus. Don’t destroy your life out of fear of being disappointed. Because that’s just cowardice, isn’t it? And you are no coward. Give Marcus a chance. If only for me, please give yourself a chance. Be the fighter that you recognize in me, and fight for your own happiness through him.”
Before she had the chance to answer me, I sent her Alex’s love, and disconnected the line. I handed the phone back to my husband and sank into his arms—grateful once again that we remained together. And that we were even more in love. I felt his arms close around me as I tucked my head firmly against his chest while he told me, over and over again in my year, how much he loved me.
EPILOGUE
One week later
Somewhere in Caribbean
“WHAT DO YOU THINK OF these?” Carlo said. “Think they’ll do the job?”
From behind her black sunglasses and her large, floppy white hat that covered much of her face, Gia looked up from her beach chair and watched her brother actually snap the elastic band on his white Speedos, which were bulging in ways that made her shake her head.
“I’m your sister,” she said. “Why would you do something like that? Even ask me questions like that?”
“Because you’re a woman.”
“Who happens to be your sister.”
“Whatever. Tell me how I look...”
“You look like a high-end call boy.”
“A call boy that’s about to get laid?”
“If that’s what you want, Carlo, I can’t imagine it not happening. In fact, whenever you’re on the hunt, when hasn’t it happened? But if you do find your dream woman for the day, just do it at her place, OK? Not at ours. Because that I won’t have.”
“You’re such a prude,” he said.
“Right,” she said. “That’s the very definition of me.”
He folded his arms across his defined, lightly hairy chest and looked down at her. They’d been there for six days and were now living in a lavish house she’d secured for them through Airbnb. The beach directly in front of their home was private—but just off to the right, there was public access and plenty of single women tossing themselves about in the water in ways that she considered wonton.
“You need to lighten up,” he said. “This trip is supposed to be about letting go of everything we just went through. It’s about us. Being free.” He cocked his head at her. “When was the last time you even got laid?” he asked.
That question cut too close to the bone. Gia had had a secret three-year relationship with a man that had ended in tragedy—only their Uncle Niccolo had known about it. It was so painful for her to discuss, she’d never shared it with anyone else—not even Carlo.
For a fleeting moment, Gia felt her heart sting at her loss, but since she refused to give herself away, her face remained expressionless.
No one deserves to know that I lost you, David, she thought. It’s too personal, and if Carlo knew, he would just ask too many questions that I don’t want to relive—or answer...
“Like I’m going to tell you,” she said.
“But I tell you everything.”
“Which is often more than I even want to know. You know, like about your sex life.” She waved her hand to the right. “Go and prosper, young man,” she said. “Because your sister is waiting for a call that will lead us to our next job.”
“You’ve been working on that for a few days,” he said. “Where do we stand with it at this point?”
“Today should end the negotiations,” she said. “In the next few hours, I plan on finalizing the deal, and then we’ll move forward with carrying it out.”
“So soon?”
“No, not so soon, so don’t get your Speedos in a bunch—as if they aren’t already. I’ve told them that we’re working on another job now, and that it will be at least two weeks before we finish it and are ready to work for them.” She patted the canvas bag at her side. “My phone is with me. I’m just waiting for them.”
“So, that means we can stay here for another two weeks?”
“Yes,” she sighed. “God only knows I wouldn’t want to ruin your chances of getting laid, Carlo. So go, leave me alone and live your life—just not in our house. And I mean that, Carlo. Don’t you dare bring some big-boobed bimbo back to our house.”
“I’ll take her at her place,” he said.
“How reassuring.” She lowered her glasses from her face and shot him a look. “You’re such a whore,” she said.
“I’m just good at what I do.”
“Then go and do whatever it is that you do,” she said dismissively. “I’m expecting a call.”
WHILE SHE WAITED FOR the call to come, she lowered her hat over her eyes and watched her brother walk away from her, his round ass bouncing behind him in material that should be outlawed. He could be a fool at times—especially when he had the chance to hunt down women as he did now—but she loved him deeply.
When he was horny—as he clearly was now—he was like a teenager. But when she needed for him to be clear-headed, smart, and on the job, he always came through for her, which was one of the reasons she’d decided to come here. She knew that he wanted to have his way with the women, and so what? Let him. One of the reasons she’d decided to come here was so that could easily happen. And when he was satiated? She knew that he’d be there to have her back when the next job began.
Just as he always has...
Since he’d been working for her, it always had been the same. Do the job, let him get laid, rinse, and repeat.
Gia had long accepted it.
When her phone rang an hour later, she steeled herself before dipping her hand into her bag and removing the phone.
“Yes?” she said when she answered it.
“The deal is done,” the man said on the other line.
“How done is done?” she asked.
“We’ve wired you the first two million into the account you gave us.”
“Then you already know that I’ll need to check on that.”
“It’s there. Check on it when we get off the phone.”
“I plan to.”
“Once you do, what happens next?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” she chuckled. “After we finish this job, what happens next are their deaths.”
New York City
One Week Later
IN THE TWO WEEKS THAT passed after that hellish night at the Stone Foundation, life started to return to normal for Alex and me.
To collect ourselves, each of us had taken a few days off from work before we returned to Wenn, and dived back into our jobs.
Our top priority was to replace Diana Crane and Mike Fine on the board of directors so that we could move forward with securing the deal with Rudman Cross. Despite the fact that we had many excellent contenders, Alex had nevertheless surprised me by putting my name forward for consideration, which the board was considering along with filling the remaining seat.
“You’ll get it,” he said after he broke the news to me. “Those people not only respect you, but they also love you. You’ll see. In a week or so, you’ll be a member of the board. Promise.”
“That’s a pretty certain promise,” I’d said.
“That’s because I know how you are revered, and also because I know my board. So, welcome to it, Mrs. Wenn. And frankly, it’s about time.”
Now, on a sunny Saturday morning, Alex woke before I did. When I felt him stir in the bed and press his naked body against mine, I roused and stifled a sigh.
The past two weeks had been so emotionally draining and physically grueling for each of us—what with work, dealing with answering the press’ questions about Stepen Rowe, and assisting the police in their investigation of him—we’d been too tired to do anything more than have dinner and a glass of wine when we returned home from work before deciding, out of sheer exhaustion alone, to just call it quits for the night and turn in.
For too long, making love hadn’t been in the cards for us.
But perhaps now it was...
“You smell like a memory,” he said against my ear.
I pressed myself against him, and closed my eyes with a smile. I’d wanted him for so long, but I hadn’t felt that I had the energy to give him everything I had—which he deserved. And I knew that he felt the same.
But this might be it. We might finally be able to fall back to who we were before Stephen Rowe slammed back into our lives.
“Is that so?” I asked, feeling his erection pulsing against me. “But what’s the memory?”
“How you taste,” he said in a low rumble as his hand slid down my back and stopped to cup my ass. “And how you feel when I’m inside of you. God, I’ve missed you, Jennifer.”
I turned and came face-to-face with him. His hair was messy and had fallen over his forehead. His stubble, as it was every morning before he trimmed it, was thick and beyond sexy. We stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment, and then Alex smiled the sort of mischievous smile that planted those deep dimples of his into his cheeks. I knew what was coming next, and my whole body ached for it. “I’ve missed you, too,” I said. “It’s been too long...”
“How about if we make up for that?”
“But Mr. Wenn...”
“How about if I take you right now?”
“Is this—well, I don’t know. Is this how I get a seat on the board?”
I saw him make a valiant effort to suppress a laugh when I said that, and with the exception of a grin, he succeeded. “Maybe,” he said. “It might also be how you get slapped across your ass.”
Oh, God—I was in for it. I could tell by the fire in his eyes. Often, Alex and I got wild when we made love, from him pressing my naked body against our bedroom windows for the world to see as he drove into me to a whole host of other adventures that had made even Lisa blush when I told her about them.
“You’re just a couple of freaks,” she’d said to me at one point.
“That we are!” I’d singsonged. “To keep the marriage fresh and alive, one must be willing to do cartwheels!”
“But with his cock in you?”
“We’re not that talented, Lisa,” I’d said. “I mean, what does that even look like? Us connected to each other while we pinwheel around our bedroom? Give me a break. And by the way, don’t you and Tank experiment?”
“Tank just goes all alpha on me.”
“What does that mean?”
“Uhh... kind of like what you’re saying to me now. Sometimes I feel as if we’re performing in Cirque du Soleil. Tank is a beast. I swear to God that man can lift me onto him with a mere finger.”
“Well, then,” I’d said to her. “By all means—always take the finger.”
“That sounds dirty.”
“It was meant to.”
But now it was Alex who was up to something dirty—I could feel it. I knew my man. It had been too long since we’d made love. He was about to make this morning especially memorable, and I knew that I was going to have to match him step for step.
Game on, baby!
When he dived beneath the sheets and covered his mouth over my sex—his tongue gently teasing me before it plunged into me—I grasped the bedspread on either side of me and let out a low, satisfied moan as I inched myself closer to him.
With a slowness that nearly undid me, he snaked his hands up to my breasts, and then cupped them for a long, sensuous moment before tweaking my nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. At first, he was gentle. But then he squeezed them so hard, I let out a primal gasp of delight.
“You’re in a mood,” I said.
His mouth was still against me when he spoke, and while I couldn’t understand a word of what he said, the vibrations of his voice against my clit made me wild with lust. He continued to drive me into the ether before he crawled on top of me and drove into me with one firm push.
And when he did, my breath caught in my throat.
“I’ve been wanting this,” he said as I looked into his heated eyes.
I wrapped my arms around him. Kissed him. Started to buck against him. I made it my duty to meet him thrust for thrust.
“So have I.”
Without giving him warning, I spun us around on the bed and sat on top of him while he was still inside of me. I placed my hands on his rock-solid chest, and leaned down to bite his own nipples, which made his head rear back into the pillow as a smile spread across his face. I ran my nipples along the stubble that peppered his face, which was nearly enough to do me in, before I allowed him to take one of my nipples into his mouth. He sucked on it and then I pulled sharply away from him, reached behind me, and grabbed his cock.
“It’s always a power game between you and me when it comes to sex, isn’t it?” he said.
“Well, it shouldn’t be just me receiving all of the pleasure,” I said. “That would seem rather un
fair.”
“I think it’s more than that,” he said.
“How much more?”
“In bed, you always want to be my equal.”
“Would you have it any other way?”
“Christ, no.”
“Good. Then, fuck me!”
“And we’re already at the dirty talk...”
“Are you serious? I’ve waited two weeks for this. Fuck me—unless you’re too tired to deliver...”
“You are so going to get it for that,” he said.
“I have all the energy in the world this morning. How about if we see if you do, stud...”
And he did. And it was fun. It was the best of us. There were times when we both giggled, laughed, cried out in ecstasy and took time to catch our breath. As we rolled around on the bed—and as he thrusted in and out of me—I became delirious. Then, Alex suddenly swept me into his arms and carried me over to the chair that was across the room and overlooked the city.
“We’ve never done it here,” he said as he bent me over the plush fabric.
We hadn’t closed the blinds the night before—and right now? All of New York spread before us. “Especially not in the light of day,” I said as he entered me again. “God only knows who’s watching...”
“Do you care?”
“What do you think? How about if you stop talking and just fuck me?”
He was so long and so thick, I had to close my eyes and bite through the sweet pain as he edged me closer and closer to climax. I felt so full, that I just gave myself over to him as his hands went to my nipples and he plunged into me.
“Alex,” I said as I grew close.
“Can’t take it anymore?”
His thrusts became longer and deeper.
No, frankly Mr. Wenn, I can’t take it anymore.
I buried my face into the chair’s lush fabric and screamed out in climax while Alex did the same behind me.
“Holy shit,” I said after he’d pulled out of me and carried me back to the bed. “That was amazing.”
“I love making love to you,” he said.
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