by Maddie Wade
The girl nodded, and Mustique saw panic in her eyes, but it was shrouded with determination.
“Good girl.”
Taking her daughter’s hand, she stood and hurried toward their intended exit, putting herself between Leonie and any threat. Opening the door, she saw the hallway was clear, and, with their backs to the wall, they ran, stopping when they reached the entry to the kitchen. Mustique poked her head around the corner, and a bullet flew past her, hitting the wall behind them. A scream sounded, and Leonie hit the as Mustique returned fire at the man shooting at them. He went down, and she saw the body of one of their guards was on the floor behind him—most likely dead. How many assailants was she facing? Grabbing Leonie’s hand and pulling her to her feet, she whispered, “We’ve got to move.”
Pushing open the door, Mustique entered first and fired on the familiar man facing her, as she shoved the teen behind the kitchen island. She then crouched beside Leonie, her lungs expanding at the shock of seeing Ben Rensburg again.
“Marisol, come out. You don’t have backup, and nobody is coming to save you.”
Staying out of sight but trying to get a read on his position, she peeked around the island and saw his legs. He was moving toward the far edge of the island, trying to get behind them.
“What do you want, Ben?” She pushed Leonie to crawl silently back in the direction of the door they’d come through before trying to distract Ben from the girl’s presence. But she didn’t act fast enough, and as soon as Leonie moved, Ben jumped forward, grabbing her.
Mustique’s hands found nothing but air as she reached out to save her child. “No,” she screamed as Ben Rensburg wrapped his arm around Leonie’s neck and brought her close to his front.
Every thought in her head was tinted red as she saw the man she’d once loved, the sperm donor, hold a gun to her daughter’s head. In that second, she wanted to yell and throw herself at him, to bargain with the very devil to keep her safe. It took every ounce of training Roz had ever instilled in her to stay calm. It was the only emotion that would get them out of this situation in one piece, and, at this point, all she wanted was for Leonie to be safe and unharmed.
“Ben, don’t do this.”
He tilted his handsome head and assessed her. Even evil was attractive, and those who thought ugly always showed on the outside were fools. Ben was still a beautiful man, with thick blonde hair, smooth skin, intelligent brown eyes, and a body that had only improved with age. His current sneer was the only thing that detracted from the effects of his striking face. “Don’t do what, my sweet Sol?”
She had always hated that nickname but had tolerated it because she’d loved the man. “Don’t hurt her. Take me instead. Whatever you want, we can fix it.”
“Hurt her? Why would I hurt my own flesh and blood?”
Mustique’s gaze flittered to Leonie, and she saw the moment the girl realized what was happening. She silently willed Leonie to remain calm and quiet. “What do you want with her?”
“I want her to be my daughter again, of course.”
Mustique was livid. He’d tossed away any chance of them being a family, of her having a relationship with her daughter, and now he wanted to take her because he felt he could? No way was she going to let that happen. “You can’t just pick and choose when you want to be a parent, Ben. You gave her up to a new family. You broke my heart, tore her from me with such cruelty that I never recovered. She has a mother who loves her, and you have no right to do this.” She knew she was trying to negotiate with someone who would never understand the consequences of his actions, but she needed to buy them some time.
“You’re wrong, Sol. I never wanted to give her up, but my parents made me. You know what they were like.”
She couldn’t remember him being so whiny, and she wanted to smack the weakness from his pretty face. “I do remember, and I remember how you drugged me and left me on the side of the road while you let them give my child away. I loved her. She was all I had, except you, and you betrayed us both. We could’ve run away and been happy, but you were too weak and pathetic to stand up to your parents.”
Mustique saw him loosen his grip on their daughter as his anger flooded his face at her insult. “How dare you insult me? You were nothing, a nobody, until you met me.”
“And I’m still a nobody, and that’s how I like it.”
He pointed the gun at her then, and she felt a shred of relief the weapon was no longer on Leonie. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw a figure at the window behind Ben and her heart leaped with joy when she saw Ash’s face. His gun was aimed at Ben, but he shook his head to indicate he didn’t have a clear shot. She needed to get Leonie away from Ben.
“I was going to let you live, so our daughter would know her mother was alive and I wasn’t a killer, but you don’t deserve to breathe.”
Mustique wanted to roll her eyes at the sanctimonious prick, but instead, she looked at her daughter, hoping she would read her intent. “Leonie has a mother, and it’s not me. I gave birth to her, but Kate Craven raised her and loved her when I couldn’t. So whatever happens to me tonight, Leonie’s mother will live.” With her last word, she dropped her head to the floor and shouted, “Drop.”
Leonie took the hint and plummeted to the floor, Ben’s loosened hold allowing her to pull free. As she did, Mustique dove toward her daughter and Ash put a bullet in Ben Rensburg. His aim had been clean and accurate, and he’d ended Ben’s life in an instant. Her childhood sweetheart was dead before he hit the floor.
Ash rushed forward, holding his side and crashing to his knees beside her. “Are you okay?” he rasped.
Mustique held a trembling Leonie in one arm and touched her hand to Ash’s face. “I think that’s my question.”
“Just a flesh wound.”
His words were slurred and then he passed out, his body sliding to the floor with only Mustique to support him. She eased him down and, with a shaking hand, checked his pulse.
“Here.” Leonie offered her a dish towel, and she accepted it with a terse smile. Placing it over the bullet wound in his side, she held it there as they waited for the medics to arrive.
“Is he dead?” Mustique glanced up and saw Leonie staring at Ben.
“Yes, he is. I’m so sorry.”
“Is what he said true?”
Mustique fought tears as she heard the confusion and anguish in her daughter’s voice. “Yes. I never meant for you to find out.”
“I thought my birth mother never wanted me. I love my mom, but I always thought she couldn’t be bothered with a child.” Leonie was watching her, wanting answers Mustique tried to keep the man she loved from bleeding out onto the floor.
“How about you open the door for the police and ambulance, and once all this is settled and Ash is safe, I’ll answer all your questions.”
“Okay.” Her voice sounded so small, like that of a young child rather than the teenager she was.
It wasn’t long before the police and paramedics entered the room, and Mustique stepped aside and let them cuff her as they worked on Ash, her eyes never leaving his handsome face and beautiful soul. She wanted to go with him, but the police wouldn’t let her while they were still investigating what’d happened, and she couldn’t fight them in front of Leonie. The child had been through enough.
“Leonie,” Kate Craven called as she rushed into the house, Jake and Nick behind her.
“Mom.” Leonie burst into tears as her mother bundled her into her arms and held on, both crying.
Jake spoke with a police sergeant and showed his ID. Trident must have some serious pull with the local law enforcement, because moments later, Mustique was allowed to go with Ash in the ambulance.
All the way to the hospital, she held his hand as the paramedics worked on him. She blocked out words that meant she might lose him and prayed like she hadn’t prayed in fifteen years.. She wanted the chance to show him she could do this, that she could be the one for him. She knew now she loved him. From
the moment they’d met, she’d known he would be vital to her, and that was why she’d run.
Now, as she watched them inject his line with all sorts of drugs to keep him from dying, she cursed the wasted time. She would give anything to go back to that hallway and their first kiss, so many months ago, and embrace it instead of pushing him away.
“Don’t you dare die on me, Asher Thompson. I can’t do this without you.” A salty drop rolled down her cheek and fell onto the hand she held, mingling with the blood. Mustique swiped it away, not prepared to give in to her tears, knowing once she started, she wouldn’t stop. He’d fought to save her, to save Leonie, and, if God gave her a chance, she would spend eternity making sure Ash knew how much he meant to her.
An alarm on a monitor started to blare as the ambulance came to a jarring stop, and the doors were thrown open.
“He’s coding, get him into trauma bay one.” A female paramedic straddled his hips and performed chest compressions as they wheeled him away.
Mustique ran after them, not wanting to let the man she loved out of her sight for even a second, afraid she would lose him if she did. A nurse prevented her from following him into the trauma area.
“You can’t go in there.”
“I need to be with him.”
The nurse looked at her with sympathy. “I’m sorry, but they need to work on him. Why don’t you go to the registration desk and give them his information? I’ll find you when we have news?” The nurse gently directed her toward a closed door leading to the waiting room, and Mustique fought the urge to fight her, to claw and kick until she got to see him but knew it would do no good. She would hold it together for Ash, because what else could she do?
“Mustique?” She looked up and saw Daniel coming toward her looking worried, and that was when she lost it.
Epilogue 1
“The doctor said you need to take it easy,” Mustique lectured as Ash shifted her until she was sitting across his lap.
“She also said the exercise was good for me.”
Her frown showed her worry, and he relented. They’d come close to not having this moment or any other moments that followed. Ash knew it had almost gutted Mari, and he hated he’d put her through the grief and worry—regardless that it wasn’t his fault.
They were at the safe house which Ian Sawyer had kindly loaned them until they could find somewhere else to stay. Ian had called him a “shitlicker” for getting shot and then offered him the refuge in the next breath. The man was good through and through, not that Ian would admit it, but Angie had been the making of him.
She and some of her friends—Devon’s wife Kristen and a woman named Cassandra—along with Nick and Jake had been with Mustique consistently while he’d fought for his life, never leaving her alone with too much time to think. But it was Daniel, who had flown over from the UK after finding out from Will what they were up against, that had held her together when she broke.
He would never forget what his cousin or his friends had done for the woman he loved or for him, and he knew Mari wouldn’t either. The bonds she shared with Daniel and Megan had been cemented in stone these last few weeks. Roz, Mari’s boss, had also flown over for a few days, and he knew the two women had gone through an emotional discussion about Ben and Leonie.
He and Mari had spent hours talking about it. He’d an incredible amount of guilt he was dealing with for killing a man in front of his child, but as he and Mari talked, he came to realize there’d been no other option. Ben had been too unstable, and if Ash had announced his presence, it would likely have gotten someone killed, and he’d not been willing to take that chance. It was just something that would have to sit on his conscience, along with all the other things he’d done.
It’d come out later that Ben Rensburg had slipped into the US under the radar with an alias a few months earlier. He’d intended to get his daughter back all along. Apparently feeling guilty over what they’d done, his parents had left money for Leonie in a trust fund that Ben wanted access to. He’d used Hashemi and Hanley to help him set it up when after meeting the men in Morocco. They’d been pawns in his game too. With each man having their own agenda and not seeing the big picture, they’d failed to see Ben was using them.
Mustique was stroking his shoulders with the tips of her fingers, and his body tingled with desire for her. It didn’t matter that he was still recovering from surgery to remove his spleen, he wanted her. Aches and pains be damned.
“Mari, you’re not making this easy for me.”
“I’m sorry. I just… I want to be close to you.”
She tried to climb off his lap, and he stopped her. “Don’t ever be sorry for wanting me, sweetheart. I know I scared you, and I’m sorry.”
“So you should be—you scared the living daylights out of me.” Mari paused and leaned into him, careful of his healing wound. “But you also saved me; you saved us both. I still can’t believe you managed to stand with so much blood loss, let alone put a bullet in that man.”
“You are the kind of woman a man would give up everything for, Marisol.” Her head came up, and she caught his eyes, her own shimmering with wetness. “I love you, Mari. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
Tears began to slide silently down her cheeks, and her lip trembled. “I love you too, Ash. I was so scared I wouldn’t get the chance to tell you, and then in the hospital afterwards it seemed unfair to just drop that on you.”
“Silly girl, there is never a bad time to hear those words from you.”
She laid her head on his chest, seeming content just to be curled in his arms like a kitten. “How do we make this work?”
He hesitated at her question. He was on leave from the Navy until he fully recovered from his injuries. Ian Sawyer had made some calls, and his commanding officer had been informed Ash had been injured while babysitting with his girlfriend in a home invasion gone wrong. Senator Craven had confirmed the story. Ash knew his commander didn’t believe them, but he hadn’t asked questions, and Ash’s job was safe.
“Well, you work mostly in Europe, but you move around a lot, right?” He felt her nod against his chest.
“What if when I’m deployed, you work out of Britain or France or wherever, and when I’m home you take US assignments when possible? It’s not foolproof, and we may need to revise it, but I won’t be in the Navy forever, and my guess is you don’t want to do this when you’re eighty.”
The sweet sound of her laughter made his heart clench. He’d come so close to not having this time with her, and he would never take it for granted.
“What, you can’t see me in leather pants kicking ass when I’m an octogenarian?”
“I think you can do anything you put your mind too.” He kissed her soft lips, losing himself in the feel and taste of her, not caring about the pain or trials they may face. They were here, they were together, and that was all that mattered.
Epilogue 2
She stood at the back of the auditorium in the shadows, her hand clasped tight in her husband’s as they watched her daughter graduate high school. It was a moment she never thought she’d see and yet here she was. Tears slipped from her cheeks, and she felt Ash move in behind her, pulling her back to his front as mixed emotions poured from her.
“I never thought I’d get to see this.”
His hand traced the gentle curve of her belly where their child lay. In four months, she would become a mother for the second time, and she was terrified and excited. “She’s a wonderful, young lady, and you should be proud of what you’ve given her.” His warm words, whispered close to her ear as she watched Leonie throw the cap in the air with her fellow students, were as near to perfect as this day could get for her.
She and Leonie had talked, and she’d explained to the girl what had happened all those years ago. Her daughter had been confused and hurt, trying to process her feelings. Ultimately, Mustique had stepped back, allowing her real mom to help her through the trauma.
She’d been
surprised when a year after the attack, Kate Craven had reached out with a photograph of Leonie at her prom. Her lips curved as she remembered Ash’s reaction to the sight of a boy with his arm around Leonie.
Her husband was ridiculously overprotective, and she wouldn’t change a thing. After that had followed invitations to varying events Kate had included her in, all of which Mustique had attended in secret. Leonie was not ready to deal with her past and Mustique wouldn’t force it.
It was enough that Leonie was safe and happy, and she could watch from the side lines. Her job with Zenobi had evolved over the last couple of years, and now Ash was out of the Navy and working privately, he was home more. They split their time between the UK and the US, but with a child on the way, it was time to decide where they would lay down roots.
As she watched, her daughter looked in their direction and smiled as if she could see them standing in the shadows. Mustique returned the smile, her heart so full it felt like it would burst.
“She sees you,” Ash whispered against her skin, causing a delicious shiver to ripple over her.
Mustique and Ash stood together as the auditorium emptied out, and she spun around in his arms, placing a hand on his cheek. “I think she does.”
“Time to go home,” he said as he leaned in to kiss her.
“And where is that?”
“I think it’s in the UK. You’re happiest there, and we have so many friends and family in Hereford. I want that for our child.”
Her heart trilled in hope at his words. She’d wanted to settle in the UK but hadn’t wanted to tell him for fear of pushing him into something he didn’t want. “Are you sure? What about your parents?”
