“You ladies about ready to roll? I swear Jared’s going to wait about another five seconds before he comes up here himself and—”
He doesn’t get to finish, and I’m giggling hysterically when Jared shoves him out of the way, stalks to me, and hoists me into his arms.
“You’re taking too long, woman. Let’s go get married so we can have that honeymoon.”
The others are giggling and I hear a few choice words from Jace that he isn’t getting to walk me down the aisle as Jared takes the stairs at almost a run and bursts into the back yard to the chorus of male cheers and a few backslaps that have me rolling my eyes.
Ronny is right, they are all Neanderthals.
He carries me all the way to the altar and only releases me long enough to bend and fix my dress before pulling me against his chest and signalling for the judge to begin.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of the good Lord Almighty to witness the joining of Jared and Paulette…”
I hear the words and see nothing but Jared and know that all he sees is me at this very moment. There’s a lot of laughter and cheering when the poor man finally pronounces us man and wife, and my husband kisses me so sinfully that I hear the judge clear his throat a few times before just giving up and joining Pop and the others.
“I’m yours now, Cupcake,” he whispers, kissing me again.
“And I’m yours,” I whisper back against his lips, loving the way he always knows what to say to make my heart melt.
“Come on, you pussy, let us get in there for a second to welcome our little sister into the family,” Jace grumbles and I giggle when he pulls me away from Jared and into a bear hug that has my husband snarling violently.
Wyatt’s grinning when he does the same, and I feel a twinge when he leans down and whispers into my ear.
“Good choice, honeydew.”
“I know,” I whisper back, loving that he’s as happy about this all as I am.
Jared soon has me back and all to himself when everyone starts trailing into the house for the feast of delicious food that Mama spent all morning preparing for us.
This may not be the big society wedding my own mother always envisioned, but I feel so blessed right now that I honestly cannot imagine anything else than the fairy-tale wedding I’m lucky enough to have got.
It’s so perfect that when Jared takes my hand and starts pulling me away from the house, I’m confused and a little put out to be missing the food.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he says cryptically and I hold my tongue as we walk hand in hand to the very edge of that massive property, only to see a picturesque little cottage nestled beneath a copse of oak trees.
“Oh wow.”
“I know. I knew it was perfect for my little fairy-chaser the minute Pop brought me down here to show me the renovations,” he says and I almost have an orgasm when he swings the door open to reveal a space filled with flowers, food, and a large bed with white silk sheets and large fluffy pillows scattered all over the surface.
“Jared.”
He comes up behind me and wraps me up in his arms, pulling me back into his chest to settle his lips on that tender spot just beneath my ear.
“I’m so happy right now, Mrs. Lane. I could die right this minute and not regret a moment of the last two weeks. You are everything I never let myself hope for, and I swear to you I will spend the rest of my days showing you how much you mean to me.”
His words are so serious and loving that I shiver and find myself leaking like a damn faucet.
“You know, two weeks ago I was so scared I couldn’t do anything else but run and hope that Jerry and his cronies wouldn’t be too close behind me. I was so ready to just leave everything behind and not exist anymore.” His arms tighten and I feel him stiffen behind me in anger and it makes me smile.
He hates when I get upset, and while I don’t want a single thing to ruin the perfect day we’ve had so far, I want him to know everything I feel. It’s only fair, since I know with every breath he takes exactly how he feels about me.
“Baby.”
“No, let me finish. I ran, but I was so broken at the thought of never seeing you again or hearing your voice. It hurt like hell, Sugar, and I was almost relieved when they caught me and dragged me back. And then…well, I prayed for death and I even wanted to die in that alley because I thought you would never forgive me, and that meant my life was over.”
“Cupcake,” he says, turning me swiftly and pulling me to his chest with a groan.
“I’m so glad it was you who found me and you who saved me, Jared, because it has always been you and it always will be. I’ll love you every single day of my life, no matter what happens, and I’ll even love you after because not even death can stop what I feel for you.”
He groans again and takes my mouth in an urgent kiss that is more than just the show of desire. I feel him flood me with pure love as he kisses me harshly, and it’s everything I could have ever dreamed to have, and more than I ever thought I deserved.
***
I come awake with a hand over my mouth and so much weight pinning me down that I’m struggling and thrashing wildly before the scent of my husband’s cologne reaching my nose and I freeze.
Jared is over me and covering my body protectively as he scans the room and tilts his head as it listening for whatever sound must have woken him.
I hear a faint scrape and the merest rustle of leaves and think it’s ridiculous to even pay attention, but I feel him tense further and grit his teeth before his blue eyes meet mine in the darkness.
“Put my shirt on. Quietly.”
I nod and roll to the floor, grabbing his shirt and buttoning it up quickly before he grabs me and pulls me behind him, stopping every few feet to check the windows and around the furniture.
I know my husband, and if he’s going SEAL on me in the middle of the night, not even a full day into our honeymoon, something is very wrong.
I hear that almost silent scraping again and I feel him tense before stopping in front of a wall and pushing slowly. The panel comes away with an almost silent hiss and he pushes me inside and closes it behind us, sealing us into the pitch-black enclosure.
The kiss I get when he wrenches me into his chest is desperate and greedy and wild and I can tell that it’s his way of proving to himself that I’m okay and that whoever is lurking in the shadows hasn’t gotten to me.
I go to whisper, but he places a finger over my lips and pulls me along behind him. I have no clue where we are right now, but I have to say that I’m grateful for the quick escape.
We walk a little ways in silence before he pushes me through another door and pulls in something above our heads, illuminating what looks like a dirt tunnel that’s narrow and so low, I see that Jared is bent and almost touching the walls on each side with his broad shoulders.
“Baby, listen to me, and listen very well. I want you to run. Keep following this tunnel till you get to the end. Punch four, seven, nine, twelve into the panel you’ll find there. You’ll come out just beneath the kitchen, in the basement. Get to Miah and Jace and tell them there are people on the property.”
“No, please. Come with me,” I plead, feeling my body start to shake as real fear hits my bloodstream and my limbs start shaking in that terrible way I’ve come to dread.
My vision starts winking when Jared shakes his head and I realize he intends to stay here and go back out there by himself.
“Shh, take deep breaths and do what I say, Cupcake. Get Miah and Jace and tell the others to initiate emergency procedures, okay? I’ll be right back before you know it.”
I’m ready to start falling apart when he kisses me deeply and shoves me away in the opposite direction, hissing at me to run, to save the family before anyone gets to the house.
I have no choice when the light goes off and plunges the tunnel back into darkness and I start running, stumbling against the dirt walls and scrapin
g my legs painfully as I try to negotiate the space as fast as my legs will carry me.
I’m practically sobbing by the time I run face-first into what feels like a solid steel door, but I find the strength deep inside to pull myself together and start searching for the keypad Jared told me about.
It feels like hours instead of seconds when I feel the little square box scrape my fingers and I wince when I rip it open and slice my finger along the sharp edges of the cover.
Light bursts out and my bloody finger slips and skitters over the digits before the lock releases with a click and the door opens with a sibilant hiss.
I don’t pause to check the house for intruders or even look left and right. I just run up the stairs at a sprint and fall into Miah’s room with a desperate cry.
He’s up and over me so fast that I rear back in fright before clutching at him as my breath wheezes out.
“Jared. Tunnel. Intruders,” I get out, choking as the attack tries to grab hold of me.
Miah curses and grabs Clari before snagging my arm and dragging me towards the other side of the house at a run. Clari and I are both flung none too gently into Jace’s room, and then the commotion really starts.
Jace and Wyatt are both up now, and I hear Mama and Pop and a sleepy Josh join the party as the men start throwing on clothes and leave without another word.
Pop springs into action and starts punching codes into a secret panel that he pulls from Jace’s closet, and before we know it there are steel shutters coming down over the windows and a large steel panel comes out of the wall to cover the door.
We’re sealed in together and all terrified when the first round of gunfire starts exploding through the air and I hear Ellie crooning softly to Al as Clari hugs Josh tightly to her and covers his ears just before my vision finally blinks out and I collapse with a shudder.
I don’t want to be a widow before I wake from this.
Chapter Fifteen
Jared
The rage I feel at just the thought of some animal that close to my baby while she slept has me vibrating before I hit the panel leading back into the cottage.
Now that Paulie is safe and I know my brothers are on the way, I feel that cool, emotionless haze settle over me. I’m in combat mode right now and I almost pity the idiots foolish enough to dare try this move when I slide back into the darkened cottage and hit the kitchen silently, sliding a long knife from the butcher’s block before melting into the shadows.
The sound that woke me was a footstep, and it pisses me off that I could have missed it if not for the gravel that Miah had delivered just yesterday to complete the renovations.
Whoever this is is a pro, I can tell because I haven’t heard another scrape or sound since pushing myself into the corner to wait for their entry.
If they were already inside, I think I’d know it. I’d feel it on the air and just have a feeling if someone else were invading my territory. It sounds strange but SEALs are like animals. We can smell and sense our enemies the same way a lion or wolf scents their prey.
I know the exact moment the fool slides the door open without so much as a squeak, and I almost laugh thinking that that’s why he’s taking so long.
He oiled the door first to make as little noise as possible.
I know what he’ll see when he gets to the bed, since I took a few seconds while Paulie threw my shirt on to arrange the pillows and sheets just to fool him.
It’s almost laughable when I see the shadow slide into the room on near silent feet and aim his gun straight at the pillow that would have been cradling my wife’s head.
He pulls the trigger without a blink before repeating the process on the other side. The silencer is nothing but a hiss in the still air, and I take those precious few seconds to throttle down the rage his actions have wrought and stalk him slowly.
I was just going to hurt him a little before calling the cops and giving them one of their own back, but after knowing that he came here specifically for Cupcake, all bets are off.
When he moves over to the bed and lifts the sheet back I make my move, grabbing him in a choke hold as my knife slides against his carotid artery.
“Who sent you to kill my wife?”
He jerks and tries to break free, his movements quick and more experienced than one would expect form such a heavy-footed asshole, but I know what I’m doing and it would take a fucking miracle for this piece of shit to break free of me.
“Fuck you.”
The pressure I put on his windpipe has him strangling and choking for air and I hold it a few seconds longer than I should, tempted to just end him and start going after the others I know are lurking outside.
“I said, who sent you?”
This voice, this icy shadow, is the persona I have to adopt when on a mission. I’m grateful for it because I’m so angry right now that without it I could get myself killed.
“Fu—”
“I’d answer him if I were you, fuck stick. He’s a straight-up killer, and if you don’t tell him, he’ll just off you now and go ask someone else,” I hear Jace snarl as my brothers come out of the tunnel and stand at my back.
The asshole struggles some more before finally stilling and slumping in defeat.
“She did.”
I know before I ask the next question who she is, but I want him to say it.
“Who?”
“Cleo.”
What I do to him is a mercy and I drop his corpse to the floor with no regret whatsoever.
“Ronny.”
“I know, bro. Bronx has her and Case is on his way. Let’s go hunting, shall we?” Miah growls and I smile rabidly, almost relieved that it wasn’t Lynn this time.
Paulie is going to have a fit when she hears about this, and I’m pretty damn sure that Cleo will be lucky to have me holding Paulie back when my baby’s temper explodes.
We all split off and melt out of the cottage and into the shadows, Miah and Wyatt breaking off together, while I feel Jace at my back, as always, my partner in crime.
The first shots echo through the night just before I hear the first screams, and I share a look with Jace before we both break into a dead run.
“No way, man. Miah and Wyatt are not winning this one.”
“Truer words, brother. Let’s catch up.”
It takes no less than twenty minutes or so to disarm and, in some instances, kill some of the scum lurking on the estate. By the time the security has done its last checks, I’m so pumped up and running on adrenaline that I hesitate to go anywhere near the house and my woman.
“Yo, come take a look at this piece of shit,” Miah growls and I walk over to see a dark-haired kid in his early twenties crying like a baby as Miah stands over him.
“Don’t kill me, mister, I’m begging you. My pa made me do this. I don’t even know how to shoot a gun,” he cries, shaking so violently that Miah snarls and puts a hand to his shoulder to keep him from sagging to the ground.
The kid is full of shit, I can see it from a mile away, and I shake my head when Wyatt joins us and groans at the poor performance.
“Give it up, you idiot. We can smell your lies. What the hell was your mission?”
He keeps going for the Oscar when Miah loses his patience and hits him upside the head with enough force to send him sprawling to the dirt.
“We said cut the fucking shit, kid.”
That mask drops and I feel my blood turn to ice when a look of pure hatred covers the kid’s face.
This is why we do this job, I think, looking into the kid’s hate-filled eyes and knowing that if he’d managed to get to the house, he wouldn’t have hesitated in his mission.
“You idiots think this will end everything?” he sneers and I see Miah stiffen. “This is just the beginning. We’re going to wipe your family and her off the grid, and then we’re going to take over the world. It’s time for a new order and—”
“Oh shut the hell up, you little pissant. We don’t give a shit about your rah-rah
speech or how you feel. I asked you a question, kid, and if you’re man enough to try and come into the home where my family sleeps, you can answer the Goddamned question. Now. Who. Sent. You,” Wyatt grits through his teeth, looking so menacing that even I pitty the kid when he rears back and starts shaking for real this time.
“Cleo. Cleo.”
“Good. Now what was your mission?”
“Please don’t hurt me.”
“Answer the question,” he snaps and I’m pretty sure the kid just pissed his pants when the ammonia stench of urine fills the air.
“The chick and the baby. We were supposed to off Hayes’s daughter and snatch the baby,” he sobs and I see Wyatt go stone cold before Miah steps between them and pushes Wyatt back.
“Go to your family, Wyatt. We got this.”
I see the struggle in him and I can’t say I blame him. I’m pissed about Paulie being a target, but I can’t imagine Wyatt’s rage right now at the idea of one of these animals putting hands on his kid.
Wyatt gives the kid a last, lethal look before turning and jogging to the house.
“Christ. This is such fucking bullshit,” Jace snarls and I second that with a nod when Case runs up, followed by Bronx and an openly crying Ronny.
“Please tell me this big idiot isn’t telling the truth,” she pleads as Bronx pulls her into his chest and tries to soothe her.
“It’s true, Ron. Cleo’s back and with Lynn on the lamb…”
Her shoulders sag and I wince when she practically crawls up Bronx as if she’s trying to get all the way inside the man.
“Shh, love, you know your man won’t let nobody touch you. We’re all gonna stay right here for the meanwhile and hunker down while we figure out a plan. Ain’t we?” he snarls, giving me a deadly glare.
“Sure, ah, we should go inside and get her to Paulie.”
Huh. For all Ronny’s bravado and snide comments, I really pity the woman because she’s not just terrified of Cleo, she’s hysterical with fear.
Whatever they’ve done to this woman, whatever she’s suffered, I make myself the promise that I’ll welcome her into the family and at least try to help her live a life free of the fear I can smell coming off her.
JARED (Lane Brothers Book 4) Page 13