by Cynthia Eden
The rain hammered them.
Clay’s hands fumbled. He seemed to be reaching for something.
Another syringe? If he stabbed Odin with whatever he’d given to Maisey, Odin would be helpless. “Odin, don’t let him inject you!” Maisey cried. She surged to her feet.
Odin grabbed Clay’s wrist. Yanked something from him. Threw it into the churning water.
“Stay back, Maisey,” Odin yelled.
Maisey froze.
Clay and Odin were facing off. Their fists were clenched. Their bodies tight with fury.
“I warned you,” Odin said, his voice echoing like the thunder. “I told you that I would make you vanish. You never should have touched her.” He bent low. Pulled something from his boot.
“Odin?” she whispered.
“You shouldn’t have touched her!” Clay screamed back. “You should never have been in the picture! I had plans for Maisey. She was going to be mine! She wasn’t like the others. She would have been true—”
“No.” Maisey’s voice. Cutting through the storm.
Clay wrenched his head to look back at her.
“I would have never been with you.” Was that why he’d moved next door? Because she’d been his next target?
“You would have,” he shouted back. “Or you would be dead.” Then he focused back on Odin. “Your fault. You are in the way. Your damn fault!” He ran at Odin. Uncontrolled. Frantic. He didn’t even stop to look. He just launched forward—
And ran straight into the knife that Odin held.
Maisey shuddered.
“Guess this will help to—what did you call it?—chum you up, bastard,” Odin twisted the knife. Yanked it up. When he pulled it out, Clay took one step back. His hands flew up to touch his chest as he half-turned toward Maisey.
Blood covered his hands. He looked at her. “Maisey?” He stretched out a hand toward her. Then he stumbled. Slipped on the wet dock. And fell. Before he hit the water, his head cracked into the bow of a bobbing boat.
Lightning streaked across the sky.
Odin rushed toward her. Scooped her into his arms. “Baby, baby, are you hurt?”
She looped an arm around his neck. “I have never, ever…” Her teeth were chattering. She was soaking wet. Her body kept shuddering. “Ever been so glad to see someone.”
He squeezed her in a grip so tight that she couldn’t breathe. “And I have never, ever been so scared in my entire life.” He buried his face in her wet hair. “Maisey.”
“Cops are right behind me!” A loud shout pierced the rain. Jinx’s voice. “Where the hell is Clay? Point me at that bastard and I will—holy fuck.”
Maisey pushed against Odin’s chest. She lifted her head so she could see Jinx—he was gaping at something in the water. She didn’t want to look, but she knew what he was probably seeing.
Clay’s body.
“He shouldn’t have taken Maisey,” Odin said simply.
Jinx shook his head. “No, and that’s a mistake he’ll never make again.”
***
“I don’t need an ambulance.” Maisey glared at Odin. “I need you.”
“You’re going to the hospital. You’re getting checked out.” And he was going to have a talk with the cops.
I killed him. If he had to do it all over again, Odin would change nothing.
She grabbed his hand before he could jump from the ambulance. “How did you know?”
Know that Maisey was in danger? Know that he was close to losing her?
“Pieces didn’t add up. Heather wouldn’t cop to the break-ins at your place. And Clay never called the cops after that mess that went down at his place last night.” Too many jagged pieces that hadn’t lined up.
“You saved my life.”
He pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “You are my life.” Then he pulled back. “You’re safe now. He won’t ever hurt you again.”
She sucked in a breath. Her gaze darted to the ambulance’s open rear doors. To the detective and the uniformed cops who waited. “Odin was defending himself. Saving me. Clay didn’t give him a choice. Clay attacked. Odin did nothing wrong.”
He’d killed a man. He’d known—as soon as he stepped foot on that dock—that he wouldn’t be letting Clay escape. Clay had been a dead man walking.
“I can back that up,” Jinx declared, voice ringing out. “I saw the whole thing.”
No, he hadn’t, but that wouldn’t stop Jinx.
“I need to give someone my statement,” Jinx added. “Tell you the whole sordid tale. Who wants to talk to me first?”
Odin glanced down at Maisey. She was safe. He brought her hand to his mouth. Kissed her knuckles. I didn’t lose her.
Because for a moment there, when he’d been on that freaking, rocking dock, and Clay had been between him and Maisey, all Odin had been able to hear in his head had been Ramsey’s damn voice.
Why do you get to be happy?
If anything had happened to Maisey, Odin knew he never would have been happy again. “I wouldn’t have stopped after a month,” he rasped.
Maisey stared up at him.
“Not one month. Not two. Not six. If I lost you, I would never stop looking.” Never.
She smiled at him. Her dimples winked. “I would never stop looking for you, either.”
He swallowed down the lump in his throat. “You’re gonna need to marry me.” So I can stay sane.
“I thought you’d never ask…”
“Never?” Jinx’s shocked voice. “I’m pretty sure he told me that you guys met just a few days ago. Days, people.”
Odin looked into Maisey’s eyes. “When you fit someone…” He deliberately used her words from before. “You just do.” Maisey fit him. She made him feel like he finally belonged somewhere. Not too big. Not hulking. Not awkward or out of place.
He belonged, with her.
Her smile stretched a little more.
He hoped that their kids would have her smile.
Epilogue
“So…” War sauntered into the office at Trouble for Hire. He had one hand shoved into his pocket. “What did I miss?”
Odin glanced up at him. “I’m engaged.”
War laughed. “Bullshit.”
Odin didn’t laugh.
War’s grin faded. “Are you for real?”
Jinx appeared behind him. “I know. I’m still in shock, too. Our little boy has grown up.”
They were both assholes, but also damn good friends.
“It’s the client, isn’t it?” War cocked his head. “The one you told me about on the phone? I get that you tracked down the killers—good job, bro—but you seriously managed to get her to want to marry you?”
“I can be charming.” Odin frowned at him. “You’re the one who told me that.”
“Yeah, but I was just lying to help your self-esteem!” War appeared dumbfounded. “I have to know everything. Let’s go downstairs and get a drink because this is a story that I have got to hear.”
War was such a gossip. The man always loved the nitty-gritty details. Odin began to rise, but his phone rang. It was the happy ring tone that he’d assigned to Maisey. He swiped his finger over the screen and put the phone to his ear. “Hey, baby,” he said by way of greeting.
“Baby?” War repeated, voice strangled.
“War’s back in town,” Odin continued after he flipped off his friend. “Want to come meet him? Because I swear, he is dying to meet you—” He broke off because Maisey was suddenly speaking quickly. No, frantically. “Maisey. Slow down.”
The two men who’d been ribbing him suddenly advanced toward his desk.
“Say it again, Maisey,” Odin urged her. “Slowly. Baby, I know you’re upset, take a breath.”
She did. And she explained again. Holy hell. “I’m on my way. I will meet you at the hospital.”
Maisey hung up before he could say more.
“What is it?” Jinx appeared to be nearly jumping over the desk. “Is Maisey hurt?”
/> Odin shook his head. “It’s not her.” He fired off a quick text. A text that he never thought he’d send.
A text to Ramsey. Meet me at Angel of Grace Hospital.
“What is happening?” War demanded.
Odin looked up. “Whitney Augustine has been found.”
“Maisey’s friend?” Jinx pounced on that. “The one Heather and Steve killed? They found her body?”
“Not exactly.” He finished his text to Ramsey.
Whitney is alive.
***
Ramsey shoved two security guards out of his way. “I want to see her! Now!” Ramsey bellowed.
Maisey ran into the hallway. She still couldn’t believe what was happening. It was a miracle. Whitney was back. Alive.
A third security guard was running at Ramsey, and Ramsey was pulling back his fist to punch the guy.
“Stop!” Maisey yelled.
Ramsey froze. The guard scrambled to retreat as he called for more backup.
Maisey rushed toward Ramsey before the scene could deteriorate even more.
He grabbed her shoulders. “Is it her? Is it really Whitney?”
“Yes.” There was so much to say. So much she still didn’t understand. “She was pulled from the water by some fishermen. They were based out of Louisiana, not here, and that’s where they took her.”
A deep furrow tunneled between his eyes. “Why didn’t they take her to the cops?”
“They did, in Louisiana. But she didn’t know who she was. Her prints weren’t in any system.”
“Didn’t know who she was—what the hell?”
“When Heather was describing the attack on Whitney, she told me they hit her on the head. The docs are examining her now, and Whitney said she was examined before. There are signs of severe trauma. The swelling has gone down substantially, and she started to remember who she was…”
He broke away from her. She knew he’d just caught sight of Whitney in the exam room behind her.
“No! Wait!” Maisey called.
He wasn’t waiting.
Footsteps rushed toward her. When she saw Odin, relief filled her. He pulled her into his arms, and she drew in a steadying breath. She always felt safe when Odin was close. “Ramsey beat you here.” She’d asked Odin to contact him, but Maisey wished Ramsey had just held on so she could tell him exactly what was happening. “I didn’t get to explain everything.” She pulled away, but made sure to hold Odin’s hand as she tugged him toward the hospital room. “Most of her memory is back, and the doctors say that is a great sign, but she doesn’t remember everything.” Actually, what Whitney didn’t remember…
Was the last six months of her life before the attack.
Maisey and Odin hurried into the hospital room.
“You can’t be here,” the nurse was telling Ramsey. “The patient needs rest, and unless you are family—”
“I am her fucking family,” he snapped as he leaned over the bed. His fingers were shaking as he reached for Whitney. “Sweetheart?”
Her head turned toward him. Her green eyes were full of confusion.
“I missed you,” he breathed.
She blinked. “I’m sorry.” Her head tilted. “Do I know you?”
He jerked back as if he’d been stabbed.
“She doesn’t remember,” Maisey rushed to say. “That’s what I was trying to explain. Whitney has no memory of the six months before her attack.”
His head turned. He stared at Maisey. “Those were my months.”
She knew that. She could feel his pain.
Whitney fisted the sheets. “I don’t…am I supposed to know you?”
He looked at her again. The torment on his face was clear to see. After a long moment, he pushed away from the bed. “No. No, I’m no one that you should know.” Then he turned and walked out of the hospital room.
***
Odin followed Ramsey to the parking garage. “What the hell are you doing?”
“For the first time in my life, the right thing.”
Odin grabbed his arm. Spun him around. “The woman you love is in a hospital bed. You’re leaving her. Maybe I’m just slow today, but I don’t quite get how that is the right thing.”
“She was too good for me.” His voice was savage. “She should never have crossed my path. Now, she doesn’t know that she did. She can be safe. My world won’t touch her.”
“You have a chance here. You can be happy.”
Ramsey stared back at him.
“You asked me once why I got to be happy. You want the answer?”
“I want you to take your hand off me—”
“Because I’m willing to fight for my happiness. I will fight, I will steal, I will kill. I will do anything to make sure that I get to have Maisey at the end of the day. You want to be happy? Then stop being a coward. Do whatever the hell you need to do in order to protect the woman in that hospital bed.” He shoved Ramsey away. “You just got a miracle. Those don’t happen often.” With that, he marched away.
Jinx waited until Odin was in the elevator, then he let out a long, low whistle as he stepped away from the stone column in the parking garage. “Someone just put you in your place.”
Ramsey’s hands fisted. “I am not in the mood for your shit right now.”
Jinx took his time sidling from the shadows. War had already gone upstairs—he was no doubt in a rush to meet Maisey and find out what in the hell was going on. Jinx, though, he had a pretty good idea what was happening… “Your lady love is back from the dead.”
“I told you to stay away from me. Warned you not to come close—”
Jinx threw an arm around Ramsey’s shoulder. “But you’re my brother, Ram.” No humor filled his voice. Not this time. Because he wasn’t kidding. He was dead serious. “And you need me right now.”
The reason he’d been in Ramsey’s the night Odin had found him? He’d been paying a visit to his older brother. The brother no one knew about.
“I’m doing the right thing,” Ramsey rumbled.
Jinx shook his head. “After the life you’ve led, why the hell would you want to start doing what’s right at this point? Makes no sense to me.”
Ramsey’s brows flew up.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.” This time, he did. “I’ll hang around town. I’ll help you out.”
“I don’t want your help,” Ramsey snarled.
“Of course, you do. Everyone wants my help. Haven’t you heard? I’m freaking amazing.”
“Jinx…”
“One day, you’ll thank me for what’s going to happen next.”
“I doubt that.”
Jinx smiled. “How about you just wait and see…?”
***
“She’s alive.” Maisey stared out at the blue waves of water. “I’ve got Whitney back.” It was a miracle that still had her head spinning.
Odin’s hands wrapped around her waist. He pulled her up against the strong warmth of his body.
“She’s scared and she’s lost,” Maisey continued, “but she’s back.”
“And you’re going to help her.” His breath blew lightly over her ear.
Maisey could feel a tear sliding over her cheek. But—it was a happy tear. She still couldn’t believe it. “I am going to help her.” Maisey turned in his arms. Stared into Odin’s beautiful eyes. “We’re going to help her.” Because she wasn’t alone any longer. She had Odin. They were a team.
She searched his eyes. “Thank you for taking my case.”
He smiled at her. She loved his smiles. So rare and so beautiful. “Maisey…” He said her name as if it were a caress. “Thank you for changing my whole damn life.”
He bent his head and kissed her.
The End
Ready for more trouble? Jinx is coming your way in…JINX, YOU’RE IT.
Jinx, You’re It
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cynthia Eden brings a red-hot tale of second chance romance between two unlikely lovers.
Life is too short not to have one hell of a good time.
Jinx lives for his good times. With a ready smile and quick joke, his charm carries him through most rough situations. And when his grin doesn’t work, he just uses the down and dirty skills he acquired working Special Forces to get the job done. Life is easy, his luck is perfect, and nothing will slow him down. Except maybe…her.
It was a one-night stand she should forget.
Allison “Ali” Carter does not have time for handsome playboys—not even the ones with killer blue eyes and abs that last for days. Sure, she might have given in just one time and let her desire for Jinx take over, but she is not about to repeat that mistake, no matter how great the night was. She’s down on the Gulf Coast for a week of sun and relaxation. Jinx isn’t part of the plan.
Until he is the only plan.
Trouble has followed Ali down to the coast. On her last classified mission, she acquired a most dangerous stalker. The kind of guy that you can’t ditch, no matter how hard you try. The kind of guy who can scare a woman to death. And to help Ali deal with him? A most unlikely hero offers up his services.
He wants his second chance.
When Ali walked away from Jinx, it shouldn’t have hurt. He should have forgotten her and moved on. But since that fateful night, she’s been in his head. Been tormenting his dreams. So when she appears in his PI office and she’s in danger? Jinx immediately leaps into action. He’ll show Ali that he’s more than just a fast grin. This time, it’s not about being lucky. This time, it’s about protecting Ali and maybe, just maybe…winning her heart.
Author’s Note: Jinx is about to get lucky. He’s getting a second chance with the woman who slipped through his fingers, and he isn’t about to let her vanish again. Ali thinks he doesn’t take life seriously, and she may just be right. But, when it comes to Ali’s safety, Jinx will go all in to prove that he’s the man she needs. Danger doesn’t scare him. Behind his grin, he’s ice cold and willing to do whatever it takes to protect the one woman who slipped past his guard. Action, romance, danger, and fun are waiting in JINX, YOU’RE IT. (Stand-alone read, guaranteed happy ending!)
Learn more about JINX, YOU’RE IT.