by Amy McKinley
“He’s on the third level. Parked,” Chris reported.
“It’s a trap,” Jack warned.
“I’m going in.” I had to risk it. After all those years of hiding from Hugo, who had hijacked my innocence and my youth and had sold me to the devil, it would end there. That day. It would be a fight to the death, his or mine. One of us wouldn’t leave alive. “Block off the stairwells.”
“I’ll go too,” Kara said.
“No.” I rested my palm on the side of her face, my thumb rubbing back and forth across her soft skin. I bent and kissed her slowly, savoring a single moment with her. “If something happens, Lily will need you.”
“I’ve had worse missions.” Sparks shot from her gaze and appeared to be passion mixed with defiance. “It’s my decision.”
Goddammit. “I know it is, but I’m asking you to stay back. Hugo is my uncle. I need to end this. If you’re there and anything happens to me… I just can’t, Kara. He knows there’s something between us, and he’ll exploit that.”
A second ticked by. Then another. Finally, she nodded. “Be safe.” Her hand covered mine and squeezed it.
I wanted more. I drew her close and brushed my lips over hers. Desire exploded in my veins and I deepened the kiss, promising her with my touch that I would return. In the back of my mind, the ticking clock echoed, and I broke our kiss. Our gazes held, and I cupped the side of her face one last time before we parted. The guys had moved out of the car and set up by the ramp leading down, the stairwell, and the elevator. There was no way out.
“I’ll be on your six,” Jack said, his tone suggesting it was nonnegotiable.
I didn’t argue. If I had, they all would have gone with me, and that defeated how I wanted the whole thing to end. The anger inside from what my uncle had done was a deadly bomb waiting to explode. It was clear that Jack planned to stop me from killing Hugo and would ensure I was safe. Kara would understand, and I didn’t think she would stop me.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the apparent restraint Jack’s presence meant, but there wasn’t time to analyze it. He was our unofficial leader, and he was looking out for me. All the guys were. That’s just what we did.
With one last look, Kara got into position near the exit ramp.
My team would stop Hugo or anyone working with him from leaving. No matter what, it was the end for him. I regained control of my spiraling anticipation and made my way up the dim, gray ramp with absolute focus.
The parking garage was silent. I crept forward, scanning the parked cars and around the dingy concrete floors for signs of him. We’d left the armored car two stories below. It had only taken a small amount of time to drop the council members off in the safe house location with the FBI, so we’d arrived shortly after him.
I sensed him first—a blur of motion to my left. My instincts took over, and I ducked. His swing narrowly missed my head. In a sweep, he knocked my gun to the floor with a clatter.
I struck hard and fast. Two punches landed before he separated, putting space between us. A thin trickle of blood trailed from his nose. I held my ground, waiting for his next move.
“I’m going to gut you just like your father,” Hugo growled.
What the actual hell? “He died in a car accident.” Engaging was a mistake, but I couldn’t stop myself. I’d had my suspicions that there was more to what had happened to my parents. That he’d killed them wasn’t a shock.
We circled each other but held back from striking. I had to know. As soon as he spilled his brand of verbal poison, I would end him.
“Your mom died on impact.”
“Shut up.” I couldn’t... Pain from her loss when I was young sliced my heart. I wanted him to stop talking, dredging up the past.
“Not your dad.”
A red haze of fury coated my sight. I lunged, my fist barreling into the side of his face. Hugo’s head knocked back. After spitting a mouthful of blood onto the cement, he advanced.
We traded blows, broke apart, then met in a fury of kicks, punches, and martial-arts maneuvers. When I was young, I hadn’t stood a chance. There was a point when we would have been evenly matched. Not anymore. I’d learned more. He fought dirty, but so did I.
“Why?” I clipped out between the hit I delivered to his chest. I weaved to the side as he kicked my leg.
“Why what?” Hugo’s sick grin taunted me. “Why did I kill my brother and your mother?” He laughed.
I smashed my fist into his face, enjoying the blood that sprayed from his mouth.
He laughed. “Your father wanted out.” Hugo evaded my foot. “That couldn’t happen. Luckily, you would be his replacement.”
“No. They never brought me to Jamal.” It had to be a lie. Even as I said it, memories of sparring with my dad in our backyard flooded my mind. Had he been training me? Was it in case I would need to defend myself if there was trouble, or was he prepping me for initiation into the Dark Wings?
My vision blurred as he got in a solid hit to my temple. I switched tactics and pummeled his face then gut. When he struck back, I spun out of his way. The urge to destroy him was riding me hard. I held back. I had to hear what he had to say even if it wasn’t what I wanted.
Hugo wiped a hand across his left eye, clearing some of the blood. “Your mom got to him, convinced him you could have a different life from what you were born to become, if only he left the mercenary group.”
“That’s where you came in,” I clipped out.
“It is. We couldn’t lose the influence, the position we had with the Dark Wings.” Hugo’s fist slammed into my gut. “Upon your parents’ deaths, I owned you. Still do.”
I was done. There was nothing more he could say. I unleashed my need to make him pay for everything he’d stripped away from me. My fists hammered into him with relentless speed and force. He staggered back and dropped to one knee. I kept it up. Blood sprayed from his head. He swayed, his face a mass of contusions and swelling.
Five minutes passed, then ten as we exchanged blows. Then I had him on his back, my knife at his throat. My hand shook with the need to sever his carotid artery. He was responsible for my parents’ deaths, my stolen childhood, and untold suffering, and I wanted him to die.
Jack brought me back. “We still need answers from him.”
He kneeled beside me, his gun pressed against Hugo’s temple. Kara’s hand rested against my back. Her touch, her support, sent a jolt through me. The awareness her presence brought leashed my blind fury to a manageable degree. It eased the red haze and allowed rational thoughts to return. Hugo couldn’t live, but Jack was right. We did need answers.
Hugo chuckled. I pressed the blade of my knife harder against the side of his throat. “Search him.” I issued the command to Jack or Kara—it didn’t matter. Hugo wasn’t going anywhere. He wouldn’t leave that parking garage.
Kara’s hands were a flurry of motion as she ran them over him, delving into pockets and coming up empty… until she didn’t.
Kara opened a small box, flashed the remaining drones, then closed it. “Here, Jack.” She handed him the box.
She shifted and caught my gaze. Hugo witnessed the look we shared—he saw death in our eyes.
Jack moved his gun from Hugo’s temple and used both hands to open the box. “We got ’em!”
“All of them?” I had to make sure before I made my next move.
“Yes,” Jack confirmed with a nod and a look in his eyes that told me I was free to do what I needed to do.
My distraction was enough for Hugo to act. He knocked Jack’s gun away and shoved my arm with the blade. I let him. I wanted this. It would have been too easy the other way. My only concern was Kara and my team. But it was he and I, the way it always should have been.
He swept his leg and got me off him. He struggled to his feet, but I was too fast. The sound of rubber-soled shoes pounded the cement as my teammates rushed to help. But I wouldn’t need it. Not today or ever again.
Quickly and efficiently, I sl
iced the side of Hugo’s neck then flipped him to the ground. Leaning over him, I planted a knee in his chest and whispered, “You have thirty seconds until you bleed out.” I’d severed his carotid artery. “No one here will help you.” Hugo’s eyes went flat. He wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone ever again.
Both Jack and Kara remained quiet. I sensed rather than heard the rest of my team fan around us. “Fifteen seconds.” We could have sent him to jail—he would have been convicted. The terrorist act alone would have cost him his freedom, but there was always that chance he could reach us from behind bars. I couldn’t risk it. Kara understood. My team would too.
As his heart pumped for the last time, the blood flow from the side of his neck all but stopping, I stood. My teammates met my gaze without judgment. In silence, we left Hugo lying there and headed back to the SUV. Someone called it in. The body would be picked up.
Kara cleared her throat, and all eyes shifted to her. “We have one threat left.”
She wasn’t wrong. “Ahmed,” I said. Something needed to be done. Murmurs echoed in the parking garage as the guys agreed.
“That council…” Kara continued. “Would they put it to a vote if they knew who, in addition to the president, hired Hugo?”
“We have evidence in the form of emails between Hugo and Ahmed on the flash drive,” Chris confirmed.
A blinding smile curved her lips. “Then let’s make it happen.”
I laughed. He would get what was coming to him. The council would see to it.
It was finally over. I wrapped my arms around Kara, grateful for her presence. Her touch reminded me what mattered most—her and Lily.
Epilogue
Kara
One Month Later
Sunlight reflected off the ocean. I couldn’t believe I was in Maine with Keegan and Lily. The view was as beautiful as Lily’s infectious peals of laughter as Samir and David chased her along the shoreline. A brisk wind followed after them, swirling both Lily’s and my long hair. I tucked several wayward strands behind my ear as goose bumps danced along my exposed arms.
“Are you cold?” Keegan’s baritone sent a pulse of awareness through me, and I nodded.
He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to him so my back rested against his solid chest. My heart swelled at the sight of our daughter before us.
“She’s happy.” His chin rested on my head. “I talked to Liam this morning.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off Lily. When we lived in Ahmed’s house, she’d been guarded and quiet whenever we ventured past the door to our wing. I wished she’d never seen some of the things she had. “What did you talk to Liam about?”
“Building. Right now, I have a place in California.”
I stilled in his arms, afraid to read into what he may or may not be telling me. “That’s where you went to live after you escaped the Dark Wings?”
“Mm hm. I have an apartment there. I hadn’t planned to move anywhere else, not until you and Lily came here. There’s land here for me if I want to do something with it.”
I turned in his embrace so I could look into his green eyes. As I shifted, he loosened his hold enough so that we faced each other. My palms rested flat on his chest, and I waited, not daring to breathe.
“I’d like you and Lily to live with me, for us to be a real family.”
I blinked back the sudden moisture in my eyes. My throat tightened with emotion. I managed a small nod before resting my forehead against him, struggling to regain control. I’d always loved Keegan. I wanted, burned for him. We’d had a few stolen hours together in his tiny room in a mercenary camp, that night in Washington, DC, and in Maine. He was my dream then and could be my future too.
With Samir settled and officially with the love of his life and living at David’s house, we were free to follow our hearts. The divorce would go through eventually. It was a formality, as Samir and I had been married only in name, but we were as true to one another as best friends who’d lived through hell could be. I would always be grateful to him. But I wanted the dream—the guy, the kids, and the home. Not only that, but Keegan’s team was an extended family, one that was right there, and we could—
“What’s wrong?” Keegan tilted my head so I met his gaze.
I shrugged because there was nothing wrong. Everything was so very right, and that alone scared me.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Ankara.” He closed the distance between us and brushed his lips over mine.
My eyelids fluttered down, and I lost myself to how he made me feel, how he always had and would. My skin heated. With practiced ease, his skillful mouth parted mine, and I lost myself in the heat and passion he elicited every damn time he touched me.
We stood on a beach beneath the cliffs that held Liam and Liv’s farm, but everything faded from my consciousness as he explored my mouth. With a will of their own, my hands roamed over his chest and broad shoulders. Then I buried them in his long hair, which curled in loops around my fingers, its softness only adding to my heightened senses.
An excited squeal penetrated the island we’d created for the two of us through touch. Lily’s obvious excitement brought reality back, and I laughed as I felt his lips curve into a smile. With reluctance, we eased apart enough for me to settle against him, my cheek to his chest. His strong hand cupped the back of my head, and I snuggled closer.
“What’re you thinking?” The deep rumble of his voice echoed under my palms.
I swallowed back the sudden lump in my throat before answering. “That I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
“Mama!” Lily yelled behind me.
“Give us a second, Princess,” Keegan said to Lily, his commanding voice gentle. “Then we’ll build sandcastles.”
The sound of the waves crashing was familiar and soothing. Not only that, but it was beautiful there. Even though the weather was very different than Venezuela, there was no place I would rather have been than anywhere with Keegan and Lily. “What exactly are you saying about the land here?” I had to know without a shadow of a doubt that my daughter and I were wanted in the way I’d hoped.
“It’s always been mine, if I wanted it. Liam has acres, and we all purchased more for our business. The space is here for us to build on. Most of my crew lives here, and someday, the rest may follow. You like Liv, Mari, and Stella, right?”
“I do.” They’d been so welcoming. The guys too.
“Living here, we’d have a built-in extended family with people who care about us, who we can rely on and trust.”
I tightened my arms around his waist. “I want that more than anything.”
Keegan
I ran my fingers through Kara’s long, dark hair. I could feel her holding back. We were starting over, and I didn’t want any secrets between us. “But?”
“I don’t want to put them at risk. What if—”
God, I loved that woman. She worried about my crew, my family, the ones who’d proven themselves worthy, with whom I held a bond stronger than blood. “What if nothing. Jamal is dead. You don’t owe the Dark Wings, should a new leader rise up. And anyway, they owned me until I was sixteen. I only had a few weeks left before I escaped. My debt to them is paid. One month shy will not be enough for them to come here, and I doubt the new leader would want to take us on, knowing we killed Jamal.”
She grinned. “You did make your point well to both Jamal and Hugo.”
“Better believe it.” Hugo was a bad memory, as was Jamal. Our mission was complete. George Hammond had been proven innocent regarding the true nature and intended use of the six prototype drones that were made in his company’s former Venezuelan plant. There were other technicalities he was being held accountable for, but they weren’t of concern to us.
None of that mattered to me. Kara and my daughter did. The ring I’d bought late the day before was upstairs in our temporary room in Liam and Liv’s home. I had plans to ensure she and Lily were citizens, were mine. That too would happen. For the t
ime being, I wanted to make sure that living there with me was what she wanted too.
There were extenuating circumstances, and I couldn’t take anything from her. She was too important to me. If she wanted to wait to live together, to get married, I would. “We could build a house for the three of us, unless you’d rather live on your own for a while. Living under Ahmed’s—”
Her fingers rested on my lips, stealing my words. “Shh.” A blinding smile curved her lips, and her amber eyes shone with a breathtaking light. “I want that. The house. The life. You…”
Desire exploded at her words, and I crushed her to me, my mouth covering hers. Time lost all meaning again until Lily’s shrieks filled the air. I released her lips with a tug on the bottom one with my teeth. My forehead rested on hers. “I’d give you the world. You only have to ask.”
“There is one thing.”
“Name it.”
A small smile curved her swollen lips. “A brother or sister for Lily. Maybe not right away—”
I gave her a squeeze as my heart threatened to explode from happiness. “Yes.” Threading her fingers with mine, I tugged her with me as we made our way down the beach to where Lily was chasing her other dad with a handful of sand. Never in a million years would I have thought that mission would have resulted in such a euphoric end.
Lily, a small carbon copy of her mother whose eyes looked just like mine, stopped when we got closer. She flashed a big, toothy grin, and the world made sense. I would have gone through everything in my past again if it meant I could have the two of them.
Keegan
Two Months Later
Ambient light cast a warm glow on the overflowing room, and the smell of the feast before us made my mouth water. The swell of voices ebbed and flowed in the dining room as food was passed from one member of my family to the next. Kara sat next to me at Liv and Liam’s table with Lily chatting animatedly to Samir, who was on her other side, along with his boyfriend, David, who was next to him.
