by Meghan March
I look to Holly and she shakes her head. She didn’t tell him. But I’m going to. Because at this point, I have no idea what else to do.
I’m attempting to wipe the tears from my eyes when I reply to my brother. “How about no one dies today.”
“What the hell happened?” Creighton’s voice leaves no room for anything but the truth.
“Do you remember Tracey?”
Confusion creases my brother’s brow, and I start from the beginning, spilling everything.
When I finish, Holly is staring at me, looking even more shocked than she did earlier today, and Creighton’s expression is unreadable.
“I think I just wrote a new song in my head. Am I the most terrible sister-in-law in the world if I tell you to keep talking, but I need to write it down quick?”
It seems impossible, but I grunt out a laugh. “No, go right ahead. If you need to write the number-one single to your new album, I Killed a Hitman to Save my Girl and then Left Her for Three Years without Telling Her What Happened, feel free.”
Holly shoots me a smile that looks a little sad, but grabs a pen off the counter and a leather notebook. Creighton is still watching me.
Another thought hits me and I freeze. “Oh my God, did you know?”
Creighton shakes his head slowly. “No. But there’s something missing in this explanation.”
“What?”
“How the fuck Dom knew the ins and outs of that deal, and apparently everything I’ve ever done. He has someone on the inside, and there’s only one person who would know that much. I just never thought he’d betray me.”
Everything inside me goes cold.
“Cannon?” I whisper.
“No way.” This comes from Holly.
Creighton grabs his phone and calls his second-in-command. “Get to my place. Now.” He hangs up without waiting for a response.
We all wait in the most painfully awkward silence of our lives. Holly keeps scribbling, and Creighton and I just stare at each other.
“What do I do? About Cav?”
Creighton’s jaw tenses and his lips flatten into a thin line. He doesn’t speak for several moments as he works out the answer in his head.
“I can’t decide if I want to kill him or welcome him to the family,” he finally says.
“What?”
“How can I fault the man for doing whatever was necessary to keep you safe? Especially when I didn’t even realize there was a threat?” Creighton looks meaningfully at Holly. “I’d kill for her—without hesitation or a second thought. If he loves you half as much as I love her, then I understand his reasoning.”
I freeze in shock for several beats. “Are you serious?”
Creighton meets my gaze. “As serious as murder. Now you have to decide whether you can live with it. Life isn’t black and white, Greer. He protected you, and a dangerous man went to prison. What you do from here is up to you.”
This isn’t the response I expected from my brother. I thought he’d be chairing the railroad Cav out of town and preferably to prison committee.
A long sigh escapes my lips, and I press into both pounding temples with three fingers each. “I can’t believe you’d leave a decision like this in my hands. All I’ve done is fuck up one thing after another.”
My brother’s expression turns even more serious. “If you think I’ve made all the right decisions, then I’m afraid you’ve got me on the wrong pedestal. You’re a smart woman, Greer. All this shit with Cav just tells me one thing—you’ve got no common sense when it comes to him because you’re so damn in love with him. How can I judge you for that? Whatever decision you make needs to be the right one for you. We’ll support you, no matter what.”
A knock on the door sounds before I can respond.
Cannon.
Creighton lets him in, and Holly and I glance at each other nervously. My brother doesn’t wait long enough for Cannon to step into the living room before he fires his question off.
“How long have you been feeding information to Dominic Casso about me, my family, and my businesses?”
Cannon’s eyes widen for only a fraction of a second before he recovers his composure. I expect a denial, but when he opens his mouth, it’s the truth that comes out.
“Since a year after you hired me.”
Oh my God.
Creighton’s fists clench; otherwise there’s no sign of emotion from him. “Why?”
“Because you’re my family, and I’d do anything to protect you, even make a deal with the devil.”
His words sound so much like Cav’s, I’m taken aback. I’d do anything to protect you.
“Are you still giving him information?” Creighton’s tone would make an infantry quake with fear.
“Yes.”
My brother’s jaw muscle ticks while he absorbs the answer. “You’re fired.”
Cannon’s face drains of color. “Crey—”
“I can’t have a leak in my own house. Not from you. Not to him.”
Cannon’s nostrils flare as he crosses his arms. “I’m not going to apologize. I did the right thing. He has connections you can’t imagine. We never would’ve gotten this far without—”
The words of doom. No one should ever intimate that my brother didn’t get to where he is on his own. I think Creighton believes he could part the Red Sea à la Moses through sheer force of will.
“I don’t want to hear it. Get out.”
Cannon’s mouth clamps shut. “If that’s what you want.” The words are spoken low from between gritted teeth.
Creighton nods, and Cannon turns to head for the door. He pauses before he leaves the room. “Don’t be as shortsighted as your brother.”
Right then, I know he’s aware of what Cav did to protect me. He probably relayed the information. My mind races with the possibilities.
What the hell am I going to do now?
We all hear the door shut, and Creighton looks like he’s going to crack molars with how hard his jaw is clenched. Holly, who had already dropped her pen, crosses the room to wrap her arms around him. “I’m so sorry.”
Clutching my bag tighter to my side, I head for the door. “I’m going to go work this out. I’m sorry too, Crey. I wish . . .”
I want to say I wish I’d never met Cav, but I can’t make the words come out. Because they’re not true. Because I love him.
But can I forgive him?
I’ve searched the city for her. Every place I think she might go. I don’t even know why I thought she might come here, but I got a ticket before they closed and rode the elevator up.
The Top of the Rock.
The place she waited for me for hours before giving up on me showing. What she doesn’t know is that I did come. I came to tell her good-bye, but I couldn’t say the words to her face. I was a coward.
I can still picture her . . .
The skirt of Greer’s black dress flapped in the wind. It was May, but still cold. She’d asked to meet me here, and I knew she wanted to use tonight to forget everything that had happened these last few days.
She stared out over the city, the city she might as well be a princess of. I knew before that I had no business being part of her life, other than as the man who watched over her and kept her out of harm’s way. Somehow, in those long hours of keeping watch, I felt like I knew her. But I was wrong. I didn’t know Greer until the day she sat down at my table and threw my world off-balance. I didn’t fall in love with her until she stole my heart out from under my guard.
I would lie, cheat, and kill for this woman. And I had. I would do anything to protect her.
Even cut myself out of her life.
My meeting with Dom this afternoon had sealed it. I was banished from the family for carrying out a hit without sanction. He gave me a deadline—be out of the city by midnight. As much as I wanted to ask Greer to run with me, I couldn’t do it. The future ahead of her was too bright for her to be dragged down into my mess of a life. But somehow, I would becom
e a better man for her. One that would deserve her. I would find a way.
I knew tonight was good-bye. I also knew if I stood in front of her, I wouldn’t be able to get the words out. I knew from watching her that she’d reserved a room at a hotel a few blocks away. She was a woman on a mission—she wanted to erase her sorrow with passion.
On any other day, I would have let her use me any way she needed, but I had blood on my hands, and I couldn’t taint her with that.
So, tonight I was proving I was a better man than I’d thought. I was letting her go.
“Good-bye, Greer.”
My words were lost on the wind, and she didn’t turn around until I was already out of sight.
Today I’m standing in the same place, staring at the same woman, but my intent is completely different. I’m not leaving without her. She’s mine, and I’ll fight heaven and hell to keep her. The sins of the past may not stay buried where they belong, but I refuse to let them rule our future.
No man will ever love her as much as I do.
“Greer.” I say her name but it’s lost on the wind, just like my good-bye three years ago.
I cross the roof, the noise of the city dying away as my focus narrows to her. She turns, pushes off the railing, and freezes when she sees me. Her dark eyes go wide as I stride toward her, stopping a foot away.
“What are you—”
I wrap my arms around her and haul her against me. “I can’t let you go this time.”
She tugs her arms free from where they’re trapped between us, and for the length of a heartbeat, I fear she’s going to push me away.
But she doesn’t.
She wraps them around my neck and clings to me.
“I can’t let you go either. Last time I didn’t have a choice, but this time I do. I love you. I don’t care what you did, because I know you did it for me.”
Thank fuck.
I crush my mouth against hers, taking her lips, and Greer’s fingers curl around my nape, pulling me closer. For long moments, there’s nothing and no one but us.
Until we hear the clapping.
I grudgingly release Greer, lowering her to her feet as I scan the crowd of onlookers that has formed. There are only a dozen or so, but their phones are out, and I know this is going to be all over YouTube within minutes.
“Are you rehearsing for a movie? Because I want to see that one,” a lady calls out.
Greer presses her face into my chest, but her laugh sneaks up between us. “If they only knew,” she whispered. “If they only knew.”
I look down as she releases her grip on me. “You ready to go home, baby?”
“Where’s home, exactly?”
It’s just one more thing we need to work out . . . but I go with my gut.
“The Hollywood Hills. I think you were born to be a California girl.”
Greer slips her hand into mine. “Then take me home, Cav.”
A year later
I’m just leaving Starbucks, iced coffee in hand, when a woman asks me, “So, are you going to say yes?”
It’s Hollywood. I’ve gotten used to being recognized, but people mostly leave me alone.
“Excuse me?” I pause at her table.
“Are you going to say yes?” This time she holds up her iPad, and I see the text of an ad on a popular gossip site.
“May I?” I ask before snatching it out of her hands when she nods. The ad was posted only minutes ago.
Desperately seeking gorgeous, caring, perfect woman with a huge heart to make an honest man out of me and give Hollywood a happily-ever-after like it has never seen before.
I’ve got a big . . . ring, just sayin’.
GREER KARAS—WILL YOU MARRY ME?
He didn’t. He did.
That man. That man.
I hand her back the iPad. The grin on my face can’t be wiped off to save my life. Some things are permanent. Apparently, like me and Cav.
“I think I owe him the answer first, don’t you?”
Her smile and shrug are well meaning, and she holds out a Sharpie and a napkin. “Could I have your autograph?”
Shifting my purse, I set my iced coffee down and sign my name, and then grab another napkin and quickly draw something for myself before folding it up and sliding it in my purse.
When I moved in with Cav a year ago, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Never in a million years did I expect to be standing on the red carpet of a movie I was in, with Cav accompanying me to the premiere.
He asked me to help him run lines one night, and I got into it so much that he started bugging me to talk to his agent about auditioning for a role. I scoffed at the idea. Scoffed. Greer Karas was no actress.
But I was wrong.
I might not be starring in any big movies like Cav, but I’m having more fun with work than I ever thought possible.
And now it’s time to get home and talk to that man of mine.
I think I’m hearing things when the knock comes at the door. I’ve been waiting for a frigging hour for Greer to see the ad and come home.
No one knocks on our front door because of the gate . . .
I grab the box from the counter, hop off my stool, and slide across the wood floor in my hurry to get to the foyer. Six feet from the door, I slow.
This is it. The only time I’m ever going to ask a woman to marry me—well, other than in the ad I posted this afternoon.
Closing the remaining distance to the door, I unlock it and pull it open.
Greer stands there, holding a heart drawn on a napkin in black marker. “It’s not huge, but it’s the best I could manage under the circumstances.”
“I love you, Greer.” The feeling hasn’t dimmed in the time we’ve spent together, only grown. “I love you so damn much.” I drop to a knee. “I’ve been thinking about this for four years. What I would do. What I would need to say to convince you to say yes.”
It’s not smooth or polished, but the words are raw honesty.
“All you had to say is exactly what you did. I love you too, so much that sometimes I feel like there’s nothing else holding the pieces of me together. This has been yours since before I even realized you stole it.” She holds out the napkin.
I lift the box I’m holding. “I think this is a fair trade.”
Flipping the top open, I wait for her reaction. It is big, but it’s not a diamond. It’s tanzanite, which I read is a thousand times rarer than diamonds. It seems perfectly fitting for the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.
Greer’s eyes go wide when she sees the brilliant blue stone surrounded by diamonds.
“How long have you had that?”
It’s not a question I was expecting, but I tell her the truth. I always tell Greer the truth.
“Eleven months.”
“Are you serious?”
“I bought it after you moved in. In case you were wondering, I never planned to let you leave.”
“Why did you wait so damn long?”
“Your brother. Jerk-off wouldn’t give his blessing until he saw I could make you happy for a year.”
As much as it pisses me off, I understand his protectiveness. I’ve won his respect—grudgingly.
“You actually waited? For Crey’s blessing?” Greer’s tone is incredulous.
“He’s family. I wasn’t going to piss him off for the rest of our lives. He matters to you, Greer. So that means he matters to me.”
“I love you. You didn’t need his blessing—I never would’ve cared.”
Even though Greer says that, I know it’s important to her. Greer’s uncle’s death was ruled to be natural causes until her aunt’s body was found a week later at the family house in the Hamptons with a suicide note admitting to poisoning her husband “like he’d poisoned everything else in his life.” The autopsy techs still haven’t figured out what kind of poison Greer’s aunt used or whether she’d been mentally unstable when she’d done it, but the case is considered closed.
In
that same week, Stephen Cardelli was found dead in the showers at Rikers for no apparent reason. Dom swore he knew nothing about it, and I hadn’t pushed it.
Regardless, that means the last remaining family Greer has is her brother. My brother.
Creighton and I had words about that too. Over a beer. Like actual brothers. We’ll never be as close as he and Greer are, but he doesn’t want me on the opposite side of the country from his sister anymore.
Last night, I got an e-mail from him.
Better make an honest woman out of my sister pretty fucking soon. No man will ever be good enough for her, but you’re damn close.
Today is exactly one year from the day I stood at Greer’s door to answer her ad. It seemed the perfect time to do what I wish I could have done years ago.
“So, is that a yes?” I ask, still kneeling at her feet.
“That’s a hell yes.” Greer laughs and holds out her hand.
I breathe a sigh of relief and slip the ring onto her finger before I rise.
Greer bites her lip, staring down at the ring before looking back up at me. “So, are you going to let me in?”
Backing into the house, I move so Greer can shut the door behind us. She wraps her hands around my shoulders and turns me so my back presses against it.
“If we’re going to stick to the script . . . I think we both know what happens next,” she whispers.
“Damn right, we do.”
The End
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Also by Meghan March