by Lisa Hughey
She was pretty sure she’d seen a stain of blood on the floor near John but she couldn’t take the chance of taking her attention away from the entrance.
She’d only have seconds.
Big Guy number one was smart. He didn’t come rushing into the mine shaft. He moved cautiously but he was still dealing with his eyes adjusting to the dark interior when he came through the doorway. He held his weapon out, ready to fire. And she knew she had no choice.
Rissa’s breath caught. Bile rose, like it had at the range the other day. Her arms shook and tears pooled in her eyes.
She had to trust that John was taking care of the two women. Getting them out of harm’s way.
And as the guy came fully into the chamber, she knew she had to protect those women. They deserved everything. With a trembling finger, she aimed square at his chest. She breathed in jerkily.
Then exhaled and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 13
The suite was overrun with people.
Jack and Bliss were there. Connor and Ava. Shelley and Ric. Colin and Jess. Rissa’s boss Jillian Larsen had already been on her way to Vegas. She’d arrived right when all hell had broken loose. Rissa hadn’t had a chance to thank Jill for having the confidence in her that she hadn’t had in herself.
“Nice job.” Jack lifted his glass and toasted John and Rissa.
Rissa’s gaze shot to John. They literally hadn’t been alone since everything happened. She had some questions. The most important one was what the hell had he been thinking? But that would have to wait until they were alone.
Bliss smiled happily. “To John and Rissa.”
John and Rissa.
She liked the way that sounded way too much.
John lifted his glass of Johnny Walker Black and clinked it against his brother’s. Rissa ignored her glass and set it on the counter.
Ava’s smile was bittersweet.
Maria was with Sophia and Graciela. They were at the hospital getting checked out. And while their ordeal had just ended, the healing was going to take a long time.
“I was just along for the ride,” John demurred. “Rissa deserves the credit.”
A flush spread over Rissa’s cheeks, and embarrassment flooded her body. “It was teamwork,” she countered huskily. She caught his gaze and held.
“Tell us what went down.” That was Connor.
“John jammed Ortega in the back of the head with his crutch.” Rissa deflected.
But he was shaking his head. “While Rissa brought down Goon Two.”
“Then John disappeared.”
“I got the girls to crawl down the mine shaft so they were out of the way of the gunfire and any potential ricochet.”
“And left me alone.” She’d been terrified.
“I knew you could handle it.” John discreetly threaded his fingers with hers and squeezed. “Rissa took down Goon One and then used his phone to call Jack and the ambulance.”
In what was likely a miracle, the guy she shot had still been alive. Luckily she’d been able to stop him from dying.
John leaned in and whispered in her ear. “I didn’t want to stay on the sideline. But a good teammate recognizes every person’s strength and does what’s best for the team. I knew you would handle it.” And he’d let her. His faith in her filled her with a buoyant light. He believed in her.
Rissa replied, “Thank you.”
“Once it was safe, I held a weapon on the unconscious men until help arrived.”
Rissa’s stomach roiled. She’d had her hands pressing on Big Guy number one’s chest, holding his blood in his body, the scene reminding her so much of the last time.
Except, John had been right. She had handled it.
She’d come almost full circle. She hadn’t freaked out. She’d trusted her partner and he’d trusted her. It was everything she wanted. And yet, not enough. Not anymore.
Being with John, as a partner and as a lover, had reawakened her zest for life. She’d been living in shadows afraid to step into the light.
But his actions toward her were contradictory, strained. She wasn’t even sure he liked her, let alone—
“To partnership.” Her boss, Jillian, winked at Jack and lifted her glass.
There were more congratulatory toasts and back slapping and Rissa tried to fade into the background. Maybe she could just fade away and no one would notice.
John’s sense of accomplishment swelled as the accolades and compliments swirled around him and Rissa. Jack’s friend at LVPD was in heaven. They had Ortega cold on kidnapping. It was enough to hold him without bail while they executed the search warrants.
It was going to take a long time to sort out where all the women in that apartment building had been taken from. But there were several relief organizations who dealt with trafficked women on their way to Vegas to help.
“You certainly know how to throw an eventful pre-wedding vacation,” Shelley teased.
Bliss’s smile didn’t falter but John thought he detected a worried crinkle around her eyes. Jack needed to take care of things before the wedding.
“It’s late,” Jack said. “We should get out of your hair. Tomorrow you can move over to the Palazzo.”
As fast as they came, the crowd disappeared.
And Rissa and John were alone.
Rissa was moving around the suite, cleaning up glasses and generally avoiding him.
“Hey.” John stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. Maybe he’d misread last night.
Rissa turned and he saw her uncertainty, her longing.
Gazing into her eyes was like freefalling in a HALO jump from thirty thousand feet. Stomach dropped out, and his heart rate accelerated before settling into a steady, secure rhythm. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “You were magnificent.”
Rissa blushed. Then she set her sights on him. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I knew you could handle it.”
“What if you’d been wrong?” And oh yeah, there she was. The sweet blushing woman had morphed back into his very own ball buster.
Maybe it was because his mother died and until he’d met his siblings he’d been all alone in the world. But suddenly that craving for contact, for connection with another human being who was there just for him burned in his gut. He knew that was stupid. You couldn’t just order up a lover and girlfriend like a guy in line at McDonalds. But even if he had, never in a million years would he have ordered gorgeous with a side a bitchy and vulnerable.
He traced the strong, resolute line of Rissa’s jaw. “There she is.”
“What? There who is?”
“My BB.”
“What does that stand for?”
“You really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“Ball Buster.”
Rissa wrapped around him like boa constrictor and laughed. The sound shook her body and traveled from her to him. “I like it.”
He hugged her tight, one hand tunneled in her messy black hair, and he pressed his other palm flat against the smooth skin of her bare back. Her head burrowed in the crook of his neck, and her lips brushed the sensitive skin behind his ear.
A shiver worked its way over his spine.
This right here. He wanted this. He wanted what Jack and Bliss had. What Connor and Ava had. What Jess and Colin had. What Riley and Di had.
When he watched his siblings he could see the love like a physical bond between them and their significant others.
Who would have thought when he’d begun his journey to find his father and exact his revenge, that instead he’d find life? Find a family. Find a purpose. Find Rissa.
He’d gone from nothing to having it all.
He thought about his mother and her final request. She’d wanted him to find his father so he wouldn’t be all alone in the world. In a roundabout way, he’d fulfilled her wish even if it wasn’t quite what she’d had in mind.
Thanks, Mom.
He wrapped hi
s arms around Rissa and held her close.
He’d always figured he’d go for someone like his mother. Kind, generous, tough but sweet.
And yet, and yet, Rissa fit.
She fit him.
Epilogue: Jack and Bliss’s Wedding
The Rehearsal
Jack Stone paced the antechamber of the wedding chapel at the Palazzo.
The rehearsal for the wedding was about to start. But he was stuck in this small room, waiting and wondering if he was doing the right thing.
Organ music, some song Bliss had picked out, sounded in the background. It was the third song, and he might be imagining it but the organist started sounding just a little stressed. He knew how she felt. Maybe he’d rushed this. Maybe it wasn’t the right time.
He was never unsure of his actions. Ever. Not when he’d left Bliss the first time. Not when he’d quit the Navy to start Global Humanitarian Relief and Stone Consulting. He made a decision and never looked back. But right now he was considering not only looking but heading back.
“Jack, dude, chill out.” Ric Santana—one of his best friends, his commander when he’d been in the SEALs, and Jesus, it was seriously looking on track for Ric to become his stepfather if the past week was any indication—rolled his eyes at him.
Ric clapped his hand on Jack’s back and halted his nervous pacing. “It’s going to be okay.”
“How do you know?” Jack snarled. He knew he was being a dick but he couldn’t shake the thought that he’d made a horrible mistake.
“What’s the holdup?” Connor, his youngest brother, barged into the small room. “They’re ready to start.”
Con took one look at Jack’s face and skidded to a halt. “Second thoughts?”
“Fuck no,” Jack barked out. Of course he wasn’t having second thoughts about marrying Bliss. He was however having second thoughts about his surprise.
They should have just fucking eloped like Bliss wanted.
He should have told her—
“Con.” Riley, his other brother, the charming one who’d never met a situation or woman he couldn’t finesse, until he’d met Di said, “Shut up.”
Jack wanted to smile. Maybe Di’s cutthroat ways were rubbing off on smooth-talking Riley’s innate need to please.
“Wow, better rein in the charm or Di will never make an honest man out of you,” Con razzed Riley. Jack was happy to see that Connor was more at ease than ever with his brothers.
“Uh, yeah.” Riley smiled self-deprecatingly. “About that.”
Con, Ric, Shane, Jack, and Shelley, his stepmom, stopped. Paused. Waited.
“Di and I….” He put on his most sheepish face. “We got married last week.”
“What?” The entire room erupted in a cacophony of surprise and chorus of whys.
“Uh, yeah.” Riley flushed. “Di pretty much hates being the center of attention.”
But Riley didn’t. He thrived on that shit. That’s when Jack knew that Riley and Di were really in true love. Only the most precious of emotions would have gotten Ri to forgo the social fun and all the adulation of a wedding. Jack smiled. Happy for his brother. We really should have eloped.
Riley continued, “Turns out, the old man might have passed on his super sperm fertility to me.” Riley had always been religious about using contraception because he didn’t want to bring any unwanted children into the world like their asshole father.
Riley didn’t look upset though. He looked…fucking thrilled. Holy shit. Riley was going to be a daddy. Which meant Jack was going to be an uncle.
“That’s…awesome.” Happiness overshadowed his own worries for a second.
“You’re having a baby?” Shelley’s voice rose.
His stepmother was in the groom’s room because she was going to walk Jack down the aisle. Even though Shelley was only nine years older than Jack, she’d been mother to all four kids. Now five, because she’d already drawn John Pulaski, his newfound half-brother, into her sphere of influence.
Shel’s eyes were wild and not in a good way. “Oh my God, I’m going to be a grandmother?”
“Babe.” Ric rubbed his nose along her ear and whispered so that only Shelley and Jack could hear him. “You’ll be the sexiest grandmother in Monterey.”
Dear God, he was going to start bleeding from his ears.
“Cut that out, Enrique,” Jack snapped at his friend and glared at his stepmother. He had known Ric for years. Knew about his sexual exploits. He definitely did not want to have those pictures of Ric and Shelley in his mind.
At least Riley’s announcement had diverted everyone’s attention for a few minutes, while Jack had his mini freak-out.
“Yo, mate.” Colin Davies, his sister’s boyfriend and Jack’s buddy from the SAS, burst into the room. “What’s the hold-up? According to Jess, your bride is looking very anxious.”
Shit, shit, shit.
“You need to talk to her, bro,” Con said softly. “Ava told me she’s been getting more and more uptight this week. She knows something is going on.”
Fuck. He knew he needed to talk to her. But he was suddenly terrified.
John, his newest brother, stepped into the increasingly crowded little room and stood off to the side looking just a little bit shell-shocked. Jack would have been just as uncomfortable if this were his first Stone family rodeo. But in the past year, the chaos of having his entire family around had gotten more familiar. He loved the fact that he’d managed to pull it off. His entire family worked together and they all lived in Monterey. Sunday dinners at Shelley’s house. Vacation together this week. Although this had turned into more of a working vacation, between Shelley’s stalker issues and John’s adventures.
John’s gaze sought Jack’s and he nodded.
Jack had sent John on this particular mission because he’d trusted him not to blab the details. At the time Jack had asked his half-brother to help him out, John was the only one without a significant other who might let something slip to Bliss.
But after their mission this week, and the tension between the two of them last night after the rescue, it was clear to Jack that John and Rissa had gotten close. But Rissa hadn’t said word one to Bliss, so he figured John had kept his secret.
One that now he wasn’t sure was such a great idea. His stomach turned.
In fact, what if it was the worst idea he’d ever had?
Bliss Lee stared into the mirror in the bridal suite. Imagined tomorrow, the flowers, the dress, the reception, the fairy tale she hadn’t gotten the first time around. She’d been wrapped up in planning this event for the past few months. Not to mention transferring her work load and beginning the setup to open a West Coast Adams-Larsen office in Monterey.
It had seemed like the perfect solution to her and Jack’s logistics issues.
Jillian Larsen, her boss and friend, wanted to expand the business without headaches. So the two businesses were going to merge some facets, and Bliss would be in charge of the office in Monterey. All parts of her life were blending into a perfection that she hadn’t even had the imagination to consider.
She’d planned the wedding down to every last detail. She had the perfect, elegant wedding dress, not too princess-y for a second marriage, a sophisticated column of satin and very subtle lace. Her veil was a sweet confection of lace and tulle. She was wearing it tonight for the rehearsal.
She’d organized everything perfectly. But the one thing she’d couldn’t control was what was going on with the groom.
Her veil gently drifted around her face in a serene cloud. Too bad her stomach hadn’t gotten the memo.
Something was wrong.
Wrong with Jack, for sure. Wrong with her and Jack? That, she didn’t know.
She’d been feeling uneasy for a while and this past week in Vegas, the threats to Shelley and the mission to rescue Sophia and Graciela aside, she’d known something was off. What if she was making a big mistake?
Moisture threatened her perfect makeup.
&nbs
p; Years ago, Jack had left her. Their relationship had been solid, she’d thought. And then he’d decided to join the Navy. Within a month, he was gone and his departure had devastated her. And that had been the end. Until they’d met again last year.
Jillian Larsen, her boss and best friend, stared at her about to overflow eyes. “What’s wrong?”
A lump the size of her three-carat emerald engagement ring clogged her throat.
Bliss tried to smile but she was pretty sure it came off as a grimace. “What if he’s having second thoughts?”
Jill had heard all about Jack before they’d been reunited on the case to save Maria Torres. “Bliss,” Jill said helplessly, but she didn’t argue, because Jill had noticed it too.
Jack had been distant and MIA quite a few times over the past week. And when she’d questioned him, he’d blown her off, saying he’d been involved first in Shelley’s stalker problems and then John and Rissa’s investigation into the abducted girls.
And he’d been strangely quiet after the successful apprehension of the people responsible for their kidnapping and the rescue of the two missing women.
But Bliss knew there was more going on.
She distinctly remembered sitting in Jillian’s office and thinking that Jack wasn’t just a guy. He was the guy. The one who’d ruined her for all other guys.
“I don’t know if I can survive it again if he dumps me,” Bliss whispered. She didn’t want Ava, Connor’s girlfriend, or Jess, Jack’s sister, to overhear her.
“Come on,” Jillian cajoled. “He’s completely gone over you.”
He had been when they’d first gotten back together but, what if…what if he’d changed his mind? What if he’d suddenly realized that he didn’t want to get married? Or even stay together? He’d done it once before. It could happen again.
And it would devastate her.
“What’s going on?” Di Lundberg, Riley’s girlfriend, wasn’t the most outgoing of her newfound family but they’d formed an easy friendship over the past few months. Her fingers brushed over the cream tulle and pearls gently. “So beautiful. Need any help with the veil?”
