Dropping my left hand to my side, I spell out, “Gag. Vomit,” and hope Volkov doesn’t notice the movements—or understand what they mean. But he’s too preoccupied with what he’s about to do to Sloane.
“You are half a man, Mr. Harry Griffin. And while I clearly underestimated your skills and your background, nothing can make up for only having one arm.” Grinning, he angles the knife against her neck. Sloane makes a sound—it has to be a low wail for me to be able to hear even the faintest hint of it—and tears cascade down her cheeks. But then she starts to gag and choke, sucking her stomach in hard.
“You fucking bitch,” Volkov says with a sneer. His gaze trails to his captive for the briefest of moments.
“Now!” I shout. Sloane slams her head back, catching Volkov in the nose, and I fire. The knife jerks, but her move forced her up onto the balls of her feet, and the slice catches her close to her collar bone, safely away from any major arteries. He still has a hold on her, though, and they fall together, landing in the water with a massive splash.
No!
I toss the gun aside, racing for the end of the dock. Sloane kicks wildly, trying to stay afloat. I drop to my knees and grab her wrists with both hands to pull her up. It’s awkward as fuck, and we topple over together, me on my back with her on top of me, but she’s safe. In my arms.
Her bound hands slip over my head, and she holds on for dear life, her sobs loud enough even I can hear them. “You’re safe, sweetheart. He’ll never hurt you again.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Sloane
I’m cold. So cold. But I hold onto Griff and let myself break. I’m so out of it, so numb, I’m only dimly aware of him helping me sit up. But when he tries to get me to let go of him, I can’t.
“N-no, c-can’t…” I stammer.
“Sloane, I need to get this tape off your wrists. And check those cuts on your neck. Please, sweetheart.”
His voice sounds so strange. Like he can barely get the words out, and that startles me enough to let him guide my hands over his head. He unwinds the tape, and I wince as he reaches the last layer. My wrists are red and raw underneath, and the skin burns in stark contrast to the rest of my body.
Tugging at his tie with a grunt, he rips it from around his neck and presses it to my throat. “You’re still bleeding, but I don’t think he hit anything vital.” His voice cracks on his last word.
Hearing this strong, protective man close to losing it helps me focus, but the second I do, I feel everything. The pain in my ribs from where Dimitri kicked me. My swollen cheek, split lip, bruised hands, and my neck. Oh, God. My neck burns.
Sirens. I hear sirens. “Marina…” I whisper. Even talking hurts. Dimitri kept the flat of the knife pressed so hard to my windpipe, I could barely breathe, and now…it’s like someone punched me in the throat.
“Search and rescue are already out on the lake,” Griff says, still trying to stop the bleeding from the deepest cut by my collarbone. “They’ll find her, Sloane. I promise.”
“She…she needs an ambulance.” My entire body trembles, the panic attack hitting me so hard and fast, I can’t warn Griff before I’m wheezing and shoving at him, desperate to dislodge this boulder that feels like it just dropped onto the center of my chest.
“Sloane! Stay with me,” he murmurs softly, his hands framing my cheeks and forcing me to look into his eyes. “Ninety-one. Ninety. Eighty-nine. Eighty-eight. Count with me, baby.”
“Eigh-eighty-s-seven,” I manage, but can’t go any further. Eighty-six is stuck, playing on a loop in my head, and as desperate as I am to force the words from my lips, I can’t.
A strong arm wraps around my back, and Griff kisses me. He’s so warm. So solid and real. So alive. I’m alive. Dimitri…isn’t.
“Come back now,” he whispers against my mouth before kissing me again. This time, I part for him, letting the bold strokes of his tongue ground me, even though my split lip sends electric shocks of pain all the way to my chin. I don’t care. Pain means I’m still here. Still breathing. With the man I love kissing me.
Winding my arms around his waist, I hold on tight, losing myself to his warmth. We survived. He saved me, and we survived.
When he finally pulls back to look at me, I find so much love in his gaze, it brings fresh tears to my eyes.
“I thought I was going to lose you,” he whispers.
“I’m sorry.” Through my tears, I try to explain, but I don’t even know if he can understand me as emotional as I am. “I couldn’t tell you. The camera…he was listening. I didn’t have any time to think. Marina…he showed me Marina. Threatened to kill her if I didn’t… Told me to get outside…”
“Shh, sweetheart.” Griff touches a finger to my lips. “I saw the video. Ripper pulled it from your phone. I understand. You did everything right. Turning on my glasses, staying alive. Everything.”
Footsteps thud down the dock, and I tense, grabbing onto him with a whimper.
“It’s the police.” He pulls me into his lap and holds me close as six men burst into the boathouse.
“Griffin Hargrove?” one of them asks while another checks Anton for a pulse.
“This one’s dead,” the second officer says, and I release a shuddering breath.
“Yes. I’m Griff. Sloane needs medical attention. Who has contact with Search and Rescue?” He’s all business now, though he hasn’t moved or let go of me.
“I’ll call in now. I’m Officer Keller.” The first man into the boathouse kneels next to us. “You are quite fortunate, Mr. Hargrove. Dax Holloway vouched for you. My older brother worked with him a time or two in Afghanistan. Otherwise…we would have to take you in for this…mess.”
“I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he says, reaching up to tuck one of my wet curls behind my ear. “Because I’m alive, but more importantly, so is the woman I love.”
My heart belongs this man holding me, and if there weren’t so many people around, if I weren’t still so worried about Marina, I’d tell him exactly that and so much more. But for now, all I can do is rest my head on his shoulder and whisper, “I love you.”
Twelve hours later, a doctor emerges from behind a set of swinging doors. “Ms. Sanders? Mr. Hargrove?”
“Here,” I call, my voice hoarse. We’ve been at the hospital all night waiting for news on my best friend. When Search and Rescue found her, she was unconscious, and they lost her heartbeat twice in the ambulance.
Griff helps me to my feet, keeping his arm around my waist. My entire body aches. No broken bones, but three bruised ribs, a sprained wrist, and five deep cuts—three of which required sutures—have left me weak and unsteady. But Jacob, who refused to be admitted, despite his concussion, brought us food a couple of hours ago. I ate an entire serving of french fries and half a hamburger before my nerves took over and refused to let me take another bite.
“Ms. Marsh should make a full recovery. She lost approximately one third of her liver, but she was quite lucky. If anyone had pulled that knife out before we started surgery, there would have been nothing we could have done. She will have to stay here for at least a week, and I do not recommend she fly back to the United States for at least three weeks. But you can see her once the anesthesia wears off.”
My legs give out from relief, and only Griff’s arm keeps me upright. “Thank you,” I manage before I bury my face against his chest, crying softly.
“We’ll arrange for her to recover somewhere close by,” Griff says, and the way his voice rumbles under my ear settles me like nothing else can. “We’ll be staying in Zurich until she’s able to fly back to New York with us.”
“What?” My head snaps up, and I meet his gaze. “We’re staying?”
“She’s your best friend. Of course, we’re staying. She shouldn’t be alone.” Confusion creases his brow. “Did you really think—?”
“I don’t know what I thought,” I whisper.
“We’re going to get that vacation we deserve, sweetheart. And
you and Marina will have your girls’ time. Even if she’s confined to her bed for most of it. We’re safe. She’s safe. Everything else…we can figure out as we go. Together.”
Looking around for the doctor, I see him disappear through the swinging doors, and Jacob sinks down into a chair behind Griff, his head in his hands, muttering, “Thank fuck.”
Standing and under my own power, I run my fingers through Griff’s hair. “I love you. For so long I didn’t think I’d ever find another person I was willing to trust. To let in. It was too dangerous. But with you? It was so easy. You made me feel safe from the very first time we talked—even before I knew who you were. You saved my life. And now this? I don’t know what to say. How to tell you just how much you mean to me.”
“You don’t have to, Sloane.” He smiles, soft and gentle, his deep blue eyes locked on mine. “Because I feel the same way. You see me. All of me.” Griff shrugs his left shoulder. He took his prosthetic off hours ago, and it’s wrapped in his tux jacket on the chair next to Jacob. “All my flaws. All my damage. And you accept it. Even when I don’t.”
Leaning in, he claims my lips in a possessive, but tender kiss, and for the first time in forever, I know I have a future. One with an amazing, protective, and strong man who loves me despite my flaws, my history, and the lies I lived for so long.
We found one another, and whatever happens next, we’ll face it together.
Epilogue
Griff
Leaving the two-bedroom flat that’s been our home for the past three weeks was harder than I thought. So much healing took place there. Sloane tossed away all of her contact lenses, and told Marina everything. Including her former name.
She also switched up her anxiety meds. The dizzy spells scared the fuck out of me, but her tardive dyskinesia tics have faded dramatically, and more importantly, when her anxiety flares, she stays present. Talks to me. Lets me help her through the worst of it.
With Austin, Dax, Wren, and Ripper’s help, there’s now a paper trail showing her legal name change from Sophiana Lebdev to Sloane Sanders. I don’t know how they did it, but no one will question Sloane’s dual Russian and American citizenship now, and she can finally be whoever she wants to be.
In the spring, we’ll visit her mother and sisters, but for now, it’s enough that Wren was able to siphon off more than three million from Volkov’s bank accounts and distribute it to Sloane’s family.
Her mom and youngest sister are moving to Moscow, along with the oldest, Sasha, who left her abusive husband after more than twenty years of living in fear. Sloane’s third sister, Irina, loves the man she married, but soon, they plan on moving as well, so the whole family will be safe and never want for anything again.
The car service turns onto a quiet, tree-lined street, and Sloane grips my hand tightly. “You can’t see the house from the road, but park at the end of the cul-de-sac,” she says, leaning forward, a wide smile on her face.
As we walk under a green, leafy canopy, she pulls out her phone and shows me the screen.
Marina: My doctor cleared me to go back to work right after Christmas. Thank God. Any longer without something to do besides read, watch movies, and gossip, and I would have started to lose my mind. Miss you! Can’t wait for our spa week in February!
We stop at her front door, and Sloane digs in her purse and comes back with a small, rectangular box tied with a red ribbon. “Open it,” she says, smiling.
Cradling it in my left hand, I pull the string and lift the lid. A silver key on a Zurich, Switzerland keychain rests inside. “Sloane…”
“I loved spending the last month with you, Griff. Well, besides the bruises and worry over Marina and all the stress.” She laughs, but I can tell the memories of what we all went through will stay with her forever. “But that wasn’t…real life. Not exactly. This is. I want us to be together. Long term. Maybe even…” She lifts her gaze to mine, and her brown eyes hold so many emotions. Fear. Anticipation. Love. “Maybe forever. I don’t care if we stay in San Diego or move somewhere else, but for now…this is my home. And I want it to be yours too.”
Pulling her against me, I kiss her, loving how she fits perfectly in my arms. How she opens for me. I can feel the vibrations of her moan, and I want her naked. Just as soon as I figure out where her bedroom—our bedroom—is.
“I love you, sweetheart. Now and forever. My home is wherever you are and always will be.”
Hours later, with a fire burning in the hearth, Sloane curls against me on the sofa. Her breathing changed a few minutes ago, slowing when she finally fell asleep, and I stretch out my right arm to snag my phone from the side table.
“Griff,” Austin says when the call connects. His words scroll across my lenses, and I keep my voice to a whisper.
“Sloane’s asleep. We’re home. In San Diego. This can wait if you’re busy.”
“Mik’s making us a late dinner. I just got back from Texas an hour ago.”
“How is Connor?” Austin’s latest recruit just finished his first assignment, and from the updates Austin sent me, it wasn’t an easy one.
“Better than I expected. A hell of a lot better, actually.”
Stifling my laugh so I won’t wake Sloane, I press a kiss to the top of her head. “You have a knack, man. I don’t know how you do it, but you could advertise a whole other set of skills, you know.”
The word laughter appears on my lenses, and I continue. “Listen, I never thanked you properly for what you did for me. For Sloane. All of it.”
“We’re family,” he says. “That’s what we do.”
Family. The word rattles around in my head for so long, Austin asks if I’m still on the call.
“Yeah. I’m here. Just…processing.”
More laughter. “When Dax said those same words to me, I didn’t believe him. Not until I almost lost Mik and he and Ronan came through for both of us. I meant it, you know. Family is more than the people we’re related to by blood. So much more.”
He’s right. Sloane’s my family. And Austin. Dax and his team too. “Look, I won’t keep you. But what you said? ‘You’re the only one who can decide if she’s worth forever’?”
“I remember.”
Staring down at the woman sleeping against me, I marvel at how lucky we both were—and are—to have found one another. “She is, man. She absolutely is.”
Thank you for reading Rogue Officer. Griff’ refused to talk to me for a long time. The man was just in so much pain—mostly mental—from his injuries and the loss of everything he knew that he didn’t want to let me tell his story.
But once he opened up to me, it was like a dam broke. And suddenly, I couldn’t stop him.
I hope Griff and Sloane’s story left you with all the feels for both of them. You’ll see these two again. You know I can never quite leave my couples alone after they find their forevers. I always want to bring them back for cameos in other books.
My next release is Protecting His Target, Book 9 in the Away From Keyboard series. After that, you can read Connor’s story. Remember him? If not, I’ll refresh your memory. He was Q’s brother in Braving His Past. Connor has a lot to atone for, and you can read all about his redemption next year in Rogue Survivor.
Of course, you can feel free to preorder both Protecting His Target and Rogue Survivor now. It would certainly make me happy. But don’t worry. My Facebook group, page, and newsletter will give you plenty of reminders before those books go live.
Thank you again for reading. I know there are thousands of authors you have to choose from, and I’m honored every time you pick up a book of mine.
Love, Patricia
Also by Patricia D. Eddy
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On His Six
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Rogue Officer
Rogue Survivor
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Destined: A By the Fates Story
By the Fates, Fought
By the Fates, Fulfilled
In Blood
If you love hot Italian vampires and and a human who can hold her own against beings far stronger, then the In Blood series is for you.
Secrets in Blood
Revelations in Blood
Holidays and Heroes
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Mistletoe and Mochas
Love and Libations
Restrained
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Christmas Silks
All Tied Up For New Year’s
In His Collar
About the Author
Rogue Officer: A Protector Romantic Suspense Standalone (Gone Rogue) Page 26