by Lexi Blake
“We killed the rest. They tried to get here, but we got them. The area’s secure, and we called a bus,” Jake said.
An ambulance. Yes. They needed one of those. She held onto Alex. She noticed Jesse behind Jake, but it didn’t really register.
Sean moved into position, pulling Alex off her body. “Keep those fucking monsters off me.”
He put his hands over Alex’s heart and pressed down five times before covering Alex’s mouth and breathing in.
Eve scrambled up and prayed to the heavens.
Chapter Twenty
Dallas, TX
Eight weeks later
Sanctum looked more like a garden tonight than a dungeon, and the smell of jasmine permeated the whole club. Alex looked out over the space, a deep feeling of satisfaction in his soul. His second wedding was smaller than the first, but the people they loved surrounded them and that was all that mattered.
Eve laughed at something Grace said and Alex felt his whole body tighten. She was so beautiful she took his breath away. And she was his. A two-carat diamond sparkled on her left hand and there were more diamonds around her throat, a collar commemorating the trust and love and connection between them.
“Alex, this is the most beautiful wedding I’ve ever been to.” Serena looked lovely in her bridesmaid dress, but he knew that look in her eyes.
“I’m not letting you interview me, Serena.” He looked around for Adam or Jake. Serena had been like a dog with a bone since she’d found out the standoff with Michael Evans had taken place in an alligator pit. Apparently she thought it would make a great hook for a book.
“I just want to know how it felt, Alex. I could really use something like this for my next book. I need sights and sounds and smells and emotions.” She placed a hand over her ever-growing belly and sighed. “I would hope after all the help I gave you that you could just tell me a few facts.”
He thought about growling, but it was his wedding day and Serena had been helpful. “It was a mud pit filled with snapping alligators. It smelled like ass and not particularly clean ass. It smelled like ass that hadn’t been washed ever. As for emotions, well, I kind of didn’t want to get torn apart by alligators.”
Like Warren had been. He felt a fierce smile cross his face. When they’d drained the pit, his former partner had been in pieces. There was justice in the world.
Simon stepped up to the bar, looking perfect in his tailored tux. Alex could practically hear the unattached subs drooling, but Simon ignored them, preferring to frown affectionately at Serena. “You giving him hell again, love?”
Serena sighed. “He won’t talk about the gators. It makes me sad.”
Simon ordered a vodka tonic and shook his head. “He’s got PTSD.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “I don’t have PTSD. I’ve got regrets, though. The feds can link the fertilizer to Evans, and they have cell phone records of Warren calling Evans. But I can’t bring down Warren’s brother without witnesses.”
It was the only damn thing he regretted about the whole affair.
The senator had held a large press conference apologizing for his brother’s actions and accusing Warren of being the one who had the affair with Carmen Garcia. So far, everyone was buying it. The senator looked golden.
“He’s a weasel,” Serena said. “I’m not voting for him.”
Jake walked up, holding his hand out to his wife. “None of us will be voting for him. Adam is going to dig up the dirt. We just have to be patient. Now, dance with me, baby.”
He led Serena off, but Alex was still thinking about the problem of Senator Petty.
It was the only thing that had gone wrong. Well, maybe not the only thing.
“I also wish I knew where she went.” Alex took a long drag off his ridiculously expensive Scotch. Apparently nearly dying in an alligator-filled bog opened up the purse strings because he’d gotten several bottles of increasingly old Glenlivet as gifts. And the fifty-year from Ian was past heavenly.
“Are you talking about the Kristen girl?” Simon asked. He’d sent a lovely batch of alcohol to Alex’s new house. He would likely start a trend. A liquor bouquet.
“Yeah.” He couldn’t help but wonder where she’d gone. He’d woken up in the hospital, recovering from surgery, and one of the first things he’d felt was a deep gratitude because he could have been shot earlier in that day, before he’d had a chance to defend his wife. Kristen had made that happen. No matter why she’d done it, she’d saved Eve and that meant something to Alex. He’d asked about her just about everywhere he could and he’d gotten nowhere. She hadn’t been back to her condo.
“Well, I’m intrigued. I have to admit it,” Simon said. “Any girl who can wake up from major surgery, pull out her IVs, and walk out of the critical care unit is a female I’d like to meet. Not to mention the fact that she managed to avoid all the security cameras. We should seriously consider bringing her on the team. We need some females.”
Kristen was a loose end, and he hated loose ends.
Alex took a long drink. He glanced around Sanctum, feeling a deep sense of relief. This was his home. He might have screwed up by killing the only two people who could have exposed a conspiracy, but these people had his back. They were his family. “I don’t know about that. I think she might have had ties to Evans.”
God, he hoped he was proven wrong. It was a testament to how much he liked her that he really hoped he was fucking wrong.
“Alex, I told you that doesn’t fit my profile.” Eve walked up, and his heart damn near stopped. She was so fucking gorgeous in her leather miniskirt and bustier. She was wearing his collar…and his wedding ring. She was his everything. “Kristen was focused on living a good life, on doing what was right. She wasn’t insane. She knew right from wrong and Evans was wrong.”
Alex pulled his wife close. He had her back. Oh, sure, it had taken a couple of bullets to the chest, but she was in his arms and legally his, and he was fucking keeping her. His wife. His sub. His forever. “Sure, baby. If she comes back, I’ll welcome her with open arms.”
It wasn’t an untrue statement. He still had no idea why Kristen had done what she did. After the events of alligator road, as Alex called it, Kristen had disappeared from the world. He’d tried to find her, but had not an ounce of luck.
And Eve had been so disappointed that she couldn’t invite her to their second wedding.
If he did find out she was involved with Evans, he would do what he needed to in order to help Kristen get over her mental problems. He would support her because deep down, she was good.
Eve wrapped her arm around his waist. “I’m so happy to hear that because I know we’re going to find her. She needs a family. Like Jesse.”
Alex frowned, staring out at the dungeon Ryan had managed to turn into a dance floor. This was the second of two weddings he’d facilitated in his time here. Avery and Liam had been joined here as well. Jesse Murdoch was doing some sort of standing, jerk-every-now-and-then dance with one of the subs. He was still a puppy dog with really sharp, slightly rancid teeth. But he’d taken out everyone in that hanger and allowed Jake and Sean to save his life, so Jesse Murdoch was one of the team for now.
Oddly, Simon had taken a shine to the kid and was showing him the ropes. They were two outsiders, clinging to each other just a little.
“I just hope we can find a way to prove what Eddie did.” He’d known he would sacrifice justice to save his wife’s life, but damn, he wanted both. He looked over the club and wished Ian hadn’t walked out right after the marriage ceremony. He’d stayed just long enough to pass Alex the ring. Ian and Sean were his family. He needed to be stronger. He wouldn’t let Ian pull away anymore. He would be a pain in his ass until they were close as hell again. He and Ian and Sean. They had grown up together.
When the bullets had hit him, he’d found an odd calm. He’d known that Ian and Sean really would take care of his wife because they were family.
He’d realized that his love for Eve sp
anned more than a lifetime.
He’d known that his love for her was endless and so was he. More than death. More than life. His love for her would last beyond anything so simple as breathing. He would find her again and again. She was his destiny.
“Hey!” Adam ran up, a brilliant smile on his face. “I have good news and bad news.”
Serena and Jake were right there with him. Serena wrapped an arm around her man’s neck. “The good news is gooder than the bad news is bad. Yeah, I’m a totally awesome writer!”
Jake gave her a kiss on the cheek. “We’ve all been desperate. Every computer in our house has been focused on one thing.”
“No. Two things,” Adam said with a grin. “I found the proof. It’s why I sent Jake to Philly. Alex, this is our wedding present to you.”
Jake handed him a thumb drive. “That fucker Evans taped the meeting. It’s all here. Warren Petty agrees to give him free rein if he takes out Eddie’s mistress. It’s so simple. The minute this hits the tabloids, they’ll demand a DNA test on the samples the medical examiner took from Carmen’s fetus. He can’t run from this. He’s done, man. No White House. No more politics. It’s finished. Adam got a mystery e-mail that led us to where Evans hid the tape. We found it in a locker at an Amtrak station in Philadelphia. I have no idea who sent it to us, but he or she is a fucking angel.”
He squeezed Eve close. He couldn’t seem to help it. From the moment he’d woken up in the hospital to her lovely face, he hadn’t been able to let her go. He’d slept beside her that night, pulling on her until she’d given up and climbed into the hospital bed with him. He wouldn’t spend a night apart from her. She was his heaven. “Adam can’t run the source down?”
Adam frowned. “Whoever it is, he’s good. I mean damn good, and I’m not so sure it’s a ‘he.’ As a matter of fact, I wonder if it isn’t Kris because I found something else out. You remember how I’ve been looking into the whole thing where Liam’s security card was used?”
They’d discovered the break-in during the Evans case. Alex knew Ian had been pissed as shit and already fired the previous building security, but Adam and Jake had apparently kept to the case. Someone had stolen Liam’s card, duped it, gotten it back to him and infiltrated the building. “Sure. Did you finally get the video?”
Adam pulled up his laptop, flipping the lid open. “Yeah. And even more than that, I found out there was a complaint lodged that evening.”
Alex tightened his hold on Eve. She peered in, her arm around his waist. Her face briefly turned up, a little wink in her eyes. He knew her language.
I love you.
She’d saved him. In every way possible. She was his bridge to the real world. He kissed her cheek. “I love you, too, angel.”
He would do it all again. He would shoot Warren and take those damn bullets because he knew damn straight his sub would take care of business. His woman was fierce.
The video file began to run, showing the time and date stamp. He recognized the hallway that led to the copy room. A slight figure walked down the hall. It was easy to tell it was a woman. She had nice curves and long, dark hair flowed down her back. The image was black and white.
“The complaint was from the floor below us,” Adam said.
“The lawyers?” The law firm of Gledon, McCloud, and Johnson had the floor below them.
“The complaint was about music being played at a high volume,” Jake explained. “Apparently a couple of the younger lawyers stayed late that night, and they had some complaints about the volume we were cranking the music at. The building manager is scared of Ian, so we hadn’t actually received a reprimand. This person says we played Guns N’ Roses over and over for an hour.”
A shiver went up Alex’s spine. Guns N’ Roses? “Sweet Child O’ Mine?”
It was what Ian had played every year, once a year, on the anniversary of Charlotte’s death. He played that one song about a thousand times and drank his weight in Scotch until he passed out and then ignored the problem for another year. What was the chance that someone breaking into their building would be listening to the same song?
Adam looked up. “Yeah. They were annoyed that it was the same song. Over and over.”
Sometimes in an investigation, little things came together, seemingly random events that knitted into a greater tapestry, a complete picture that hadn’t been there before. As Alex watched the tape, the world coalesced into something he understood.
The dark-haired figure walked into the copier room, but not before she turned, looked at the camera and winked. She blew the camera a kiss before disappearing into the copy room.
Oh yes, and they are so totally helpful when you want to get information but you don’t want anyone to know you have it. Really, it’s awesome. So the hard drive on a copy machine actually takes a picture of everything the copy machine scans.
Kristen had been thrilled to tell him how she’d pulled information off the machine.
Kristen knew everything about him and Eve and all the members of McKay-Taggart Security Services.
She’d put herself in front of him, taking a bullet meant for him, because someone wanted him alive. Someone she wanted to please.
Here. She’d put her hand over his, covering her heart. Since the day I set eyes on him. He’s been here. Tell him I did good. Tell him I was good. I was good for him. I was good. He can have a thousand other women, but I was his only true wife.
Kristen was the woman on the tape. She came back out of the room, dancing a little as she stuffed a thumb drive into her uniform. She looked up and winked and smiled. Somehow that smile was beneficent, as though what she was about to do would help the whole world.
Why do I love such an asshole?
He’d thought the asshole was Evans, but there was no tie between Kristen White and Evans. In fact, there was no tie between the woman they thought was Kristen and the real Kristen White. Days after he’d been shot, Alex had gotten the report. Kristen White was a nice forty-two-year-old with two kids. She had retired from journalism a year before. Her husband ran a software development company. She didn’t have red hair, but she told the story of a woman who had helped her out of a problem with the Russian mob who fit the description. She’d called her an angel.
This is so much worse than the first time. First time, he was here.
Kristen was smart enough to fake her death, strong enough to come back from it.
Had she spent the last five years trying to find a way to get her husband back?
“Why would someone break into our place?” Adam asked. “That’s Kris. I can see it with my own eyes. Why would she do that?”
Because she wanted to make up for her crimes.
Because she wanted her man back and she needed information. She’d taken information on all of them and decided on a plan of attack—or in her case, a plan to protect and give. They were her present to Ian. Alex and Eve. By bringing them back together, giving them their chance at justice, she’d been trying to prove herself to Ian.
He pulled his cell phone, his heart racing.
He dialed Ian’s number. Ian’s world had crumbled five years before. Maybe tonight, he would get it back.
He held Eve’s hand as he waited for Ian to answer. Sometimes the universe was kind and a man got a second chance.
His heart filled with love. His second chance pressed her body against his.
All was fucking right with the world.
* * * *
Ian Taggart looked down at the screen of his computer, every cell in his body coming to life. He stared at it. Just a couple of lines that might mean the world. There he was. So fucking long he’d looked for Eli Nelson and there he was. At least he was pretty damn sure this was the line on the son of a bitch he’d been waiting for. Hoping for. Praying for.
No fucking way.
There was a little piece of him—the “glass was half-empty and very likely poisoned” part of him—that wondered if he wasn’t being optimistic. Those couple of lines o
f e-mail could be from anyone. He would know more when he had photographic proof, and the person in the e-mail had promised it would come. He should be patient, but that had never been his strong suit.
Kristen Priest. The e-mail had come from the same woman who had supposedly saved Alex’s life. Why hadn’t she used her real last name? It was White. Did she still consider herself undercover? Who the fuck was she and why couldn’t they get a line on her? She was a ghost, and Ian didn’t like ghosts.
This woman was playing an angle, but he would join the game if it meant finding Nelson.
Eli Nelson had nearly killed his sister-in-law. He’d had problems with Grace at first, but she was his blood now. She made his brother happy and she was his niece’s mother. No one got to hurt Grace. Or his brothers. Or his country. Eli Nelson had threatened them all.
And possibly had a hand in killing Ian’s wife. He was going down.
If Ian could just find the little fucker.
He’d become obsessed, and it wasn’t just about Nelson. It was about the turns his life was taking.
He’d walked out of his best friend’s reception because he couldn’t stand there and watch everyone. The music had been playing and he’d just known he couldn’t stay there. It was a pussy thing to do, but his whole team was happy and he was still aching over Charlotte—who was a manipulative liar and didn’t deserve him. Or anyone.
Fucking Russian mob princess who had the sweetest smile.
Except he’d wondered recently what it meant to be a Russian mob princess. What had her life been like? He’d seen her scars. How much had she suffered before she’d died?
He could still see her looking up at him as he entered her. She hadn’t been a virgin, but those kick-him-in-the-gonads eyes had opened up with wonder as he’d pressed his cock in for the first time. Fuck. He’d felt like a virgin when he’d made love to her.
It feels good. My Master, it feels so good. Please. Please teach me.
Teach her? She hadn’t been talking about sex. She’d been talking about life.