by Kira Blakely
“Hello?!” I say, yelling and sobbing when he gives my hair a sharp tug.
“See?” He has the phone to his ear again, his hand falling away. He’s no longer crouching in front of me, his back facing me as he strides to the door. There he swivels and leans on the doorjamb, assuming his earlier position. “She’s alive.”
There’s a lengthy pause, and I fill it with my heavy breathing. Whatever peace I’d momentary found in my dreamless sleep, it’s gone. It definitely leaves when Jacques speaks again.
“Casimiro,” he says, his gaze finding mine. “Only a cockroach like you would survive. Kandahar couldn’t kill you either.” He shakes his head, ignoring my flopping mouth and widening eyes. It takes a moment, but I scream his name.
“Cas!”
Jacques winces, his eyes narrowing. With a stiff jaw, he steps out into the hall and whistles. He gestures with a sharp, two-fingered signal and we’re joined by one of his thugs.
This guy steps up, his heavy boots falling upon me. He roughly replaces the gag, my struggles barely waylaying him. Once it’s fitted, he stomps back to his corner, his rifle propped in front of him, gloved finger on the trigger.
“Yeah. That’s your girl,” he drawls into the phone. “She’s alive and kicking. I kept my promise. Now that you’re alive, I won’t need a middleman.” After a long pause, he grins. “I want you, remember? Alone. Just you and me. I couldn’t very well trust you to come along at the hotel, so here’s where to meet up with us.” Jacques rattles off the name of a familiar park.
“Oh, and don’t bother tracking this number. It’s a burner. I’m sure by now you’ve got signals pinging off a bunch of cell towers.” Jacques looks to me.
“And if you invite anyone else—police included—I’ll kill her, Cas. I don’t even care about going to jail. You alone. No one else, or her blood will be on your hands.” He chuckles, the sound more cold than evil. For the latter, he’d actually need to display human emotions. Jacques is a robot.
And that robotic detachment of his might kill me in the end.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jade
“Keep walking.” Jacques’s command prompts one of his thugs to shove me forward. I nearly lose my balance and crack my head open on the paved trail. “Careful,” Jacques warns. “Kill her and I kill you.”
His thugs are slightly more gentle with me after that.
We trudge along for what feels like hours.
Finally, Jacques gives the order for us to stop. “This should be the spot,” he says, his voice coming from behind. He steps up beside me, giving me the side-eye. “Better hope Cas is coming for you, Jade.”
I aim my glare for the ground, wishing I could rip the gag out of my mouth. Instead, I dig my teeth in, needing to relieve the vice-grip of anger over my temples. Tyler doesn’t help cool the rage gnawing away at me.
He pops up by Jacques’s side, his wary gaze taking me in. Steph is there too. She has a gun pointed at Tyler’s back.
“Felix is almost here, and his boys are still at the hotel.”
Jacques nods, a pleased smile spreading over his shuttered features. It almost looks real too, but there’s a cold façade to it. “I wouldn’t want to kill good men.” He looks at Tyler. “I can’t say the same for you, Wagner.”
“Come on, man, cut me some slack. I scoped the place for you. No way would you have been able to hack the casino’s security system so easily without me.” Tyler shakes his head, his ego melding with his high-pitched, whiny fear. “We had a deal.”
“You still owe me twenty grand.”
“And you’ll be a fucking millionaire, have hundred times that when you’re through with cleaning out house.”
Steph grinds the gun into Tyler’s spine. “Shut your fucking mouth.” She then turns her narrowed eyes at me, her black liner exaggerating her ferocity. “We can’t just let her go now, can we? She’s heard too much.”
I stiffen, afraid to move and barely breathing for fear she trains the gun on me. Because she knows I know they’re robbing the casino.
Jacques recovers first. “She’s off-limits. Touch one hair on her pretty head, and you won’t like me anymore, Steph.”
“Who said I liked you in the first place?” Steph scoffs. Still, she cools it with the black look my way.
Jacques tilts his head at Tyler, taking in his inside man. God. To think I dated Tyler—the smarmy, two-faced asshole. “Aren’t you going to try to bargain for your ex-girlfriend’s life? Maybe a trade, your blood for hers?”
Tyler avoids my eyes. “Give me a break. I’ve got a lifestyle to lead, man.”
“Well, now I know you really don’t have balls.” Jacques genuinely appears disgusted on my behalf. “Cut him a check for five grand and let him go, Steph.”
Steph scowls, digging in her gun until Tyler groans. She stops at Jacques’s sharp look. Tugging Tyler away with her, they leave us. We’re not alone long before Jacques’s phone rings.
“Perfect. We thought you’d left us out here on an ambush.” He hangs up and says, “Cas is here. Lucky you.”
I haven’t allowed myself to trust Jacques about Cas’s well-being until I see him.
Casimiro is being walked by two of Jacques’s armed men. They have their guns ready to take Cas out if he so much as makes a move contrary to what he must have planned with Jacques about this trade. Apparently I’m worth two million dollars.
I sag with relief when Cas tosses the duffel bag at him. “It’s all there,” he says, his eyes on me.
Crouching, Jacques opens the bag and flips through a stack of banknotes before nodding and closing the bag up.
One of his men hoists it up and he’s gone with the money.
“Let her go,” Cas says.
Jacques nods, stroking his beard. “It should have been you, buddy.”
“We’re not fucking ‘buddies.’” Cas doesn’t even bother looking at Jacques. All his attention is on me. “I held up my end of your deal. Have you shat on all your morals, Laverne?”
“Morals are what put me in this position in the first place,” Jacques retorts, his anger chopping his words. “I made the call to let you go with the intel as per protocol. A senior officer doesn’t abandon his juniors.” He snorts. “What I should have been doing was looking out for me.”
After a lengthy silence, Jacques drops his hand from thoughtfully stroking his beard. “But like you said, a deal’s a deal.” He steps behind me, freeing me of the manacles.
I’m not sticking around for him to get the ball gag. I rush to Cas, pulling the gag out myself.
I don’t stop until he has me in his arms, his heart drumming hard, filling my ear as I press my head closer to his chest. “I love you,” I whisper breathlessly, knowing he’s heard me when he goes rigid for a heartbeat before he wraps me closer.
“Let’s go,” he says, rousing me from my bliss. We’re alone when Cas walks me through the park. Jacques left as quietly as he’d entered our lives. It’s ironic given the shitstorm he’s stirred up, and the death and destruction and supreme drama he’s left in his wake.
Cas sits me on a park bench. It’s early April, the whisper of a breeze and woodland creatures rustling through the foliage. We’re not entirely alone.
“I’m sorry,” Cas starts, his voice choked. He draws me onto his lap, his hands cupping my cheeks. “Fuck, Jade. I failed you, didn’t I?”
I shake my head, speechless that he’d shouldered all of this on himself. It’s just like Cas to do it. He muscled his way back into my life, insisting to be my protector, and then he manages to get me to agree to the fake marriage to lure off Tyler and the Jacques-sized problem.
I’m brushing his lips, deepening our kiss, praying I can convey calm into him. It’s not your fault. Far from it, in fact. Cas really is my savior. My lips are wet from the tears, and I laugh an apology. I can’t imagine it’s too sexy kissing someone who’s crying.
“How did you get the money?” I ask, once I’ve wiped my cheeks with Ca
s’s help. His thumbs gently stop any more tracks of tears. “The two million he asked for… Cas, how?” I need to know he didn’t rob a freaking bank to save me. I need to be reassured that he wouldn’t be slapped with cuffs and shipped off to jail when we’ve only reunited.
“I sold the watch.” Cas’s eyes roam my face, searchingly. “I have friends who fronted me the money. Between Isaiah and me, we made things happen as fast as we could.” He grits his teeth then, baring them. “Obviously not quickly enough though.”
“I’m okay,” I say, still shaky from the experience, but slowly warming to the realization that I’m with Cas again. That he’s very much alive and crushing me to his chest. I wriggle on his lap, his rough cheek grazing mine. The wetness I feel on my neck and the soft, shuddery sigh hints at how deep this drama cut Cas.
He cries quietly, and I give him the time to do it, my support in my embrace.
His tears are dried and gone when Nolan finds us, leading the police. “Over here,” he says, running ahead. His sneakers slap the pavement coming to a brisk halt in front of us. His flashlight blinds me for a moment.
“Sorry,” he says sheepishly, lowering the killer beam and looking us over in the half-dark. “Are you two okay?”
“We’re fine,” Cas says gruffly. “Did you catch them?”
“Not Jacques.” There’s a heavy silence at Nolan’s report. “But we have his girlfriend, Stephanie Claire, and Tyler, too. As well as a dozen of their men, on top of the two that hurt Jade at the dealership. Jacques couldn’t have gone far. We’ll catch him.”
“It’s still a win,” Isaiah tells us later when we leave the park trail behind for the hotel.
Instead of starlight, we’re under the bright recessed lights of the Eveningstar’s multi-millionaire owner’s suite. We’re in Isaiah’s penthouse on the fourteenth, topmost floor. His elegantly-dressed wife hands me a hot chocolate, passing Nolan the beer he ordered. Jacques and Cas are enjoying brandy.
The sugar rush from the chocolate dams the shored fatigue. I’m no longer fighting to keep my eyes open and my ears perked for the conversation.
“Jacques didn’t clean out the casino as he hoped.” Isaiah snorts. “He barely skimmed the top, and our security system has been tightened tenfold. We’ll be keeping tabs on any subtle changes like the kind you’ve seen.”
“Tyler Wagner confessed everything—how he mapped out the casino and hotel for Jacques and Stephanie and their ghoulish team, as well as charting the route of the security team on his walks.”
Nolan pauses, eyeing Cas. “He also told us the oddities in the hotel’s accounts were an inside job. It’s one of your junior accountants, Cas. They were meant to throw us off, keep you busy from looking too deeply into the casino’s accounts and what they’d siphoned already—one downfall of keeping the two separate.”
Cas nods, but his gaze is far away, unseeing. I hate that he’s chosen to sit by Isaiah. I want nothing more than to lean on him, let him know he’s not alone in whatever darkness Jacques’s betrayal has unleashed.
“He made it easier for Jacques’s goons to hack our CCTV.” Nolan continues, listing all of my ex-boyfriend’s offenses, and all the reasons why I should be happy my judgment kept me from staying with Tyler.
The men lapse into a thoughtful silence, likely pondering where things went wrong in Jacques’s head, and how a good man, a good Marine was lost to them today.
It’s Cas who breaks the quiet.
“He never wanted the casino.” Cas raises his eyes from his glass, scouring the room until he meets my stare. “He wanted me.” Then he’s standing, downing the rest of his brandy, and setting his empty glass down on the coffee table. “Jade, can I talk to you?”
I stand on shaky legs, fearful of what has Cas so serious. It can’t be good. My hand skims over my belly. Cas’s gaze dips there when we take Isaiah’s offer to speak in his home office. Cas has the door shut, and he regards my stomach. “You’re not sick, are you?”
“No,” I say, biting my lip gently. It’s a hasty decision, but I stammer, “I have s-something to t-tell you too.”
“You first,” he says, taking my hands in his. He holds them up between us, his right thumb toying with my left ring finger, with the diamond stunner of my wedding band. “Tell me what I can do for you, Jade.”
You can love me, too.
The wish almost falls from my mouth but I stick to my script, to the soon-to-be-bigger problem growing inside of me. “I’m…”
Cas raises his brows, a frown marring his handsome face. “You’re?”
“Pregnant,” I finish on another breath, whooshing the confession out. It’s not my secret anymore; it’s our shared reality.
It’s amazing to watch the same range of emotions I felt two days ago flash across his features. He finally chooses a setting, and it makes my heart skip.
“It’s mine,” he says firmly, his certainty warming my heart.
He falls to both knees then, his eyes gleaming with unshed tears of happiness. Cas looks down to my belly, his big hands palming either side of its still-flat surface. “Our baby is in there.”
His awe entices a giggle from me. “I hope so. That is where babies usually grow.”
“Marry me.” Cas isn’t laughing, his eyes snapping up from my belly to meet my wide-eyed stare, his hands holding my stomach possessively. “Marry me, Jade.”
“Cas, I am married to you,” I say, knowing what he means and my knees knocking worse than when we were marrying as a ruse.
“I need to make it real. So, say yes. Fucking marry me again, babe.”
He stands swiftly, taking my hands in his, lifting my ring finger and kissing the brilliant round diamond. “Make me the happiest man alive.”
“And me the happiest woman,” I add, nodding. My eyes are watering now, too. I’m so freaking weepy, I have to blame the baby hormones.
Cas chuckles. “I can’t believe I got you knocked up.”
I arch a brow, my smile ever present now, my cheeks are hurting for its persistence. “I hope you didn’t plan it.”
He throws back his head, laughing. I have to join in. We kiss, our laughter mingling, our joy swelling and filling the room, brightening the dark wood paneling of Isaiah’s office. Wiping at his eyes, his voice hoarse from his laugh, Cas shakes his head. “Getting you pregnant on purpose? Tying you to me forever? Now that’d be crazy.”
I smile, sweet relief pouring through me. “Well, it’d be one more thing to add to this crazy week.”
“‘Crazy’ doesn’t define it,” Cas says, grinning. He kisses me again, his lips more tender this go round; even his embrace softens. He draws back, studying me. “But it’d be crazier if I didn’t fight for you—for us. I’d be stark raving nuts, a fucking lunatic, and fully certified, if I let you leave me without letting you know why I pulled you in here.”
He trails, leaving me with a mystery. “Oh? Do share.” I tease, worry slithering through my happy thoughts, threatening to rain all over my parade of joy.
“I only wanted to tell you…I love you.” Cas brushes my mouth, whispering, “I love you so much it blinded me, and I couldn’t see it until now, until you came back to me. I’m half a man without you. I had two months to realize that, and this last week confirmed as much: I’m only whole with you by my side, Jade.”
I cry then, sobbing so ugly I’m surprised Cas hangs around after the debacle of tears, his love shining down on me like a spotlight—a beacon bearing me home to him.
“Yeah, well,” I say, breathy from the tears, “I love you too, Casimiro.”
He dips me, taking my lips, stealing my heart. No, I gift it to him, and he gives me his. It’s a crazy way to end our week, though I can’t dream of a better beginning for us.
EPILOGUE
Cas
One month later
I’m wearing cake on my face, and carrying Jade out of the elevator, hurrying down the hall with her to our suite.
She’s laughing hard, tears streaking
down her cheeks. “Slow down,” she gasps, her mirth lightening her voice. She nuzzles my cheek, her tongue stroking out to lick some of the chocolate wedding cake from my face. Jade moans and my cock answers with a jerk.
It’s not soon enough that I have her spread out on the bed, my hands attacking the layers of my tuxedo.
“My great-aunt and uncle are going to think we’re crazy.”
“Nah, baby girl,” I drawl. “Your family was more excited at the prospects of being close to a casino. I believe your great-aunt and uncle were feeling luckier once I cleared the space for guests. They’ll be too busy gambling to be looking out for us. We snuck off at a perfect time.”
Jade grins, raising her arched black brows. “What about you? Are you feeling lucky tonight?”
I laugh. “Only if the beautiful lady smiles down on me.” Dragging my eyes over my wife’s curvy body, her dress’s shit-ton of ivory white material can’t mask her hourglass shape. I suck in my bottom lip, my teeth locking down on the flesh.
Popping my lip out, I say, “Not that luck has a place here. It has nothing to do with what’s gonna happen with us, babe.”
“So you say.” Jade smirks, turning to present her back. She gestures for me to get the buttons and ties of her wedding dress. Sweeping her long, sleek ponytail out of the way, she warns, “Don’t you dare rip or tear the buttons.”
“I’ll buy a new one,” I say.
She shoots me a glare. “And I want this one, so treat it nicely.” She’s attached to the confection of a dress. It is sexy as fuck, though I’m starting to hate its elaborate ties prolonging me from getting at her.
“Jade, you’re testing me.”
She laughs a silvery sound that arrows my heart. “Unwrap your present, husband of mine.”
I’m struggling to do as she wishes. Finally, with a patience I didn’t believe I possessed, I free her of the dress.
I work off my dress shirt, using it to wipe off the cake Jade hasn’t licked from my face. I can get more expensive clothing where that came from. I loosen the belt from my dress pants next, dropping them to the floor.