Deadly Surrender

by Reus, Katie

  Brister’s head snapped back but he barely stumbled. Instead he went into a bull stance and ran at Logan, clipping him right in the middle.

  Logan took the impact and rolled back onto the floor. As he did, he jabbed the guy hard with three quick punches right to the kidney. He needed to find the dropped pistol, but couldn’t pause long enough to look where it had fallen.

  As they tumbled to the ground, Brister groaned in raw agony at the blows. He rolled onto his side, trying to get away from Logan.

  Logan, still on the floor too, kicked out, slamming his boot into Brister’s stomach before jumping to his feet. This guy was staying down.

  “Freeze! Don’t you dare move!” Grace shouted above the now blaring alarm.

  Logan looked over at her, her hands trembling as she held a pistol on Brister, who was struggling to his feet.

  Logan didn’t waste any time, simply strode over to her and plucked the weapon from her hands, never taking his eyes off Brister. He trained the weapon on him. “Stay on the ground and get on your stomach,” he snapped. Then he said to Grace, “I’ve got some zip ties in my truck. Back seat in a duffel bag. Go grab them. Call the police.” They’d probably already been alerted because of the alarm but he wanted her to call them anyway.

  Moments later she was back with the zip ties, eyes a little dilated with shock.

  “Go back outside while I tie him up,” he said as he took the ties from her. He wanted her as far away from this madness as possible. Brister was on the ground, staring at him with murder in his eyes, but he was remaining still.

  “Should I turn off the alarm?”

  “Yes, now go.” He kept the weapon pinned on Brister as she disarmed it. In the following silence Logan strode toward his prisoner. “Move and you’ll make my decision to end you really easy,” he growled.

  Brister snarled in anger, but didn’t try to fight him as Logan quickly secured his hands behind his back. For good measure, he secured his ankles together as well. This guy wasn’t going anywhere. And Logan wasn’t moving from his side until the cops showed up.

  Thankfully sirens wailed in the distance, growing closer and closer.

  And Grace was safe. The woman he loved was okay.

  Until that moment, he thought he knew fear. Because he’d been afraid before overseas. Would have been stupid not to have a healthy dose of fear. And then in the desert with Grace he’d been worried.

  This… Hell. Grace had come so close to being shot. Killed.

  He was going to be having nightmares about today for a while.

  Chapter 24

  “I’m ready to go home.” Grace hoped she didn’t sound like she was whining. She was just exhausted, that being the understatement of the century. She was done with people trying to kill her and Logan.

  Logan, who’d taken her hand in his a while ago, simply squeezed her fingers. “We’ll get out of here soon enough.”

  Here being Hurley’s office, where they were currently holed up and waiting for the detective to return. The man had been in and out for the last couple hours even after they’d given their statements.

  “You don’t think they’re going to let him go or anything, do you?”

  Logan snorted. “No way. I think Hurley just wants to keep us updated with what’s going on. He’s dealing with a lot of shit right now.”

  Almost on cue, the detective stepped into his office and shut the door, his expression unreadable as he moved around his desk. But when he sat down with a sigh, he gave them a half-smile. “Thank you both for being patient. I wanted to tie up a few things before I let you go. I’m tired of seeing you guys in here, for your sakes. We still have a lot of things to figure out at this point, but Steven Brister got into the country using a private plane. Apparently that’s why his dad was down here in Vegas. He didn’t leave Montana to come after you. He came down here to stop his son.”

  Logan straightened slightly in his seat. “How did he even know his son was here?”

  “He told his dad what he was going to do in a roundabout way. Brister—senior—tried to stop him but his son told him he was going to ‘take care of things.’ I guess Steven had stopped in to see his mom after arriving from London. He thought she was overreacting to the abuse and tried to convince her to give his dad a second chance. I’m sure there are more details we’ll never be privy to but I talked to their daughter, Steven’s sister. She told him to leave their mom alone until he could get his head out of his ass. Apparently he didn’t take that well and decided to pay Logan a visit. Steven is in finance but he was in the army for four years, so he’s got a decent amount of training. And he definitely has the technical knowledge to have tracked your phone. Or hired someone to do it. We’re still figuring out all the details, but we’ve now got his laptop in custody and our tech guys are digging through it. All the bread crumbs are going to lead back to him. I’m sure of it.”

  “You really don’t think his dad was involved?”

  He shook his head. “No. I really don’t. He’s old-school, and the timeline doesn’t fit anyway. That was the thing that bothered me before. I mean technically he could’ve gotten here to attack you that first time, but there was just too small of a window from when he left and getting here. He’s back in Montana now in custody without bail. I don’t know what’s gonna happen to him and I don’t actually care. His son is under arrest for attempted murder. If it goes to trial, you guys will need to testify. That’s something else I wanted to talk to you about before I cut you loose.”

  “We’ll testify,” Grace said, even as Logan murmured the same.

  “I didn’t doubt that, but I still wanted to let you know it might be a possibility. He’s not getting off easy for this. He came after you on multiple occasions, stalking you, holding you at gunpoint—there are a whole list of crimes he’s going away for. And the prosecutor wants to take him down hard since this was so premeditated.”

  Grace simply nodded, finally feeling relief for the first time about the whole mess. They could go home, return to their lives. “Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me. I…I wish we’d caught him earlier. We pushed Austin Brister hard. But I should’ve seen this.”

  “How could you have seen this coming?” Logan asked as he stood, tugging Grace with him.

  She stood, grabbing her purse. “You guys found Austin Brister at a motel in Vegas after he cut his tracking anklet. Of course you assumed he was behind this,” Grace added. “We did too. We’re grateful the right person is locked up now. And we’re going home. Now. Unless you desperately need us for something, please don’t call,” she said gently. She wanted to sleep for twenty-four hours and not think about any of this, just lose herself in Logan.

  The detective gave her a real smile and rounded the desk to shake both their hands. “I hope you guys get some rest. And you’re free to return to your home. It’s not a crime scene.”

  “My place or yours?” Logan asked once they were out in the hallway. He tucked her tight against him, his big, warm body comforting.

  They could have died today, might never have had the chance at their happily ever after she now realized she deserved. “Either one is fine with me. As long as we go together.” She just wanted to be with Logan.

  “Let’s go to mine this time. And…I think we should move in with each other soon.”

  She looked up at him in surprise. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah. I’m going to be in your bed every night no matter what. So let’s make it official. I don’t care which house either. We’ll rent out the other one.”

  “Okay.”

  He nearly stumbled in surprise as they reached the exit. “That’s it?”

  “That’s it. Because I love you.” She’d been resisting Logan for too long. And she was done with that, done not going for what she wanted. Logan had shown her exactly who he was—a wonderful, honorable man—and that he loved her. She was going to hold on to him tight.

  Epilogue

  Logan stepped out onto his pat
io, smiling to see Grace stretched out on the lounge chair looking perfectly sexy and content. In jeans and a sweater, she was reading a book and was definitely in her happy place tonight.

  A month and a half had passed since Steven Brister had tried to kill them and they were finally back to normal. Brister had agreed to plea to slightly lesser charges instead of going through with a trial. Either way he was going to be in jail for a long time. And according to Wyatt, Heidi Brister had almost finalized the divorce. Supposedly Austin Brister was torn up about his son and was showing remorse for years of abuse against his wife but Logan didn’t buy it. The guy could live with his guilt. Brister senior was going to jail too, but it was a slap on the wrist compared to his son.

  All that was behind Logan and Grace now. He didn’t want to think about any of that ever again. He just wanted to live his life with the woman he loved.

  “Are you going to pass out on me right there?” he asked, champagne bottle in hand. He certainly hoped not, because he had plans for her.

  Laughing, she set her book down. “Maybe. I think that’s the best dinner you’ve ever cooked.”

  “Well, it’s Valentine’s Day. I wanted it to be special.”

  “Every day with you is special.” Standing, she crossed over to him and he drank in every inch of her.

  Yeah, he felt the exact same way. Which is why he was feeling nervous as hell about tonight. He’d cooked a huge spread of surf and turf for her and they’d just been lounging in front of the pool since then, talking and making out like teenagers until he’d started to clear all the dishes. She’d tried to help but he’d wanted her to relax while he got his head on straight.

  Soon enough he was going to take her back inside and make love to her until they both passed out. But he desperately needed to do something else first.

  “You feel like some champagne?” Damn, did he sound weird?

  “You don’t need to ask twice.” Despite the chill in the air, she had on a sexy red wraparound sweater that cut low, showing off all sorts of cleavage he wanted to bury his face against.

  Before popping the cork, he dipped his head down and brushed his mouth over hers even as he gently cupped one of her breasts through her sweater. He loved being able to touch her, kiss her, anytime he wanted. And he really loved when she initiated things. They’d been living together a month and a half, and about half of those mornings he woke up with her naked and on top of him.

  Very soon he hoped to be naked again.

  He’d gone back and forth all day, questioning himself on whether this was too soon, but he knew in his heart that Grace was it for him. And the last month and a half had been incredible. He felt like he’d been waiting for her his entire life.

  She plucked the champagne bottle from his hand. “I’ll open this. Last time you almost took out a window with the cork.”

  After she popped it open, he took over and started pouring glasses for them, then held one out to her. “To us.”

  She clinked glasses with him, a soft, happy smile on her face. God, he loved her. “To us.”

  Before he could second-guess himself, he went down on one knee.

  She blinked at him, her dark hair tumbling around her face. Staring, she set her glass on the table as he pulled out a jewelry box. He popped it open but before he could say another word, she shouted, “Yes!”

  Just like that, all the stupid tension inside him drained away. He fought back a laugh. “I want it official. Yes, you will marry me?”

  She cupped his cheeks with her soft hands and bent her head to kiss him all over as she laughed. “Yes, yes, yes.”

  More than satisfied, he slid the ring on her finger as he stood, then scooped her up into his arms. She let out a little yelp as he said, “Upstairs, or out here?”

  “Upstairs for sure. I don’t want to give our neighbors a show.”

  Grinning, he kissed her mouth hard as he hurried back inside. Hell, who cared about champagne? He had his future wife in his arms and she was everything.

  He was going to spend the next couple hours bringing her all the pleasure she deserved, marking the start of the rest of their lives together.

  Dear Readers,

  Thank you for reading Deadly Surrender! If you’d like to stay in touch with me and be the first to learn about new releases you can:

  • Sign up for my monthly newsletter at: www.katiereus.com

  • Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katiereusauthor

  • Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/katiereus

  • Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiereusauthor/

  Also, please consider leaving a review at one of your favorite online retailers. It’s a great way to help other readers discover new books and I appreciate all reviews.

  Happy reading,

  Katie

  Acknowledgments

  As always, a huge thank you to Kaylea Cross for your input in this book. I’m so grateful we’re friends and that you’re my critique partner. You keep me sane. I’m also incredibly grateful to my editor Julia, my assistant Sarah and cover designer Jaycee. You guys are simply wonderful! I’m also thankful to have such a wonderful, supportive family who makes this writing gig possible. And to all my readers—thank you!

  About the Author

  Katie Reus is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Red Stone Security series, the Deadly Ops series and the Redemption Harbor series. She fell in love with romance at a young age thanks to books she pilfered from her mom’s stash. Years later she loves reading romance almost as much as she loves writing it.

  However, she didn’t always know she wanted to be a writer. After changing majors many times, she finally graduated summa cum laude with a degree in psychology. Not long after that she discovered a new love. Writing. She now spends her days writing dark paranormal romance and sexy romantic suspense. If you would like to be notified of future releases, please visit her website: https://katiereus.com and join her newsletter.

  Complete Booklist

  Ancients Rising

  Ancient Protector

  Ancient Enemy

  Darkness Series

  Darkness Awakened

  Taste of Darkness

  Beyond the Darkness

  Hunted by Darkness

  Into the Darkness

  Saved by Darkness

  Guardian of Darkness

  Sentinel of Darkness

  A Very Dragon Christmas

  Darkness Rising

  Deadly Ops Series

  Targeted

  Bound to Danger

  Chasing Danger

  Shattered Duty

  Edge of Danger

  A Covert Affair

  Endgame Trilogy

  Bishop’s Knight

  Bishop’s Queen

  Bishop’s Endgame

  Moon Shifter Series

  Alpha Instinct

  Lover’s Instinct

  Primal Possession

  Mating Instinct

  His Untamed Desire

  Avenger’s Heat

  Hunter Reborn

  Protective Instinct

  Dark Protector

  A Mate for Christmas

  O’Connor Family Series

  Merry Christmas, Baby

  Tease Me, Baby

  It’s Me Again, Baby

  Mistletoe Me, Baby

  Red Stone Security Series®

  No One to Trust

  Danger Next Door

  Fatal Deception

  Miami, Mistletoe & Murder

  His to Protect

  Breaking Her Rules

  Protecting His Witness

  Sinful Seduction

  Under His Protection

  Deadly Fallout

  Sworn to Protect

  Secret Obsession

  Love Thy Enemy

  Dangerous Protector

  Lethal Game

  Redemption Harbor Series®

  Resurrection

  Savage Risi
ng

  Dangerous Witness

  Innocent Target

  Hunting Danger

  Covert Games

  Chasing Vengeance

  Sin City Series (the Serafina)

  First Surrender

  Sensual Surrender

  Sweetest Surrender

  Dangerous Surrender

  Deadly Surrender

  Verona Bay Series

  Dark Memento

  Deadly Past

  Linked books

  Retribution

  Tempting Danger

  Non-series Romantic Suspense

  Running from the Past

  Dangerous Secrets

  Killer Secrets

  Deadly Obsession

  Danger in Paradise

  His Secret Past

  Paranormal Romance

  Destined Mate

  Protector’s Mate

  A Jaguar’s Kiss

  Tempting the Jaguar

  Enemy Mine

  Heart of the Jaguar