by Penn Rivers
Chasing my demon. Chasing what had haunted me, terrorized me for so long.
Yeah, I was still running. But instead of running from, I was running to. And when I got there, god help him… I was going to tear him to shreds. He’d never come after Noah again. I’d make damn sure of it.
The last sob ripped from my throat as I skidded around the corner just behind Kane, coming out onto the sidewalk of the street. But what I saw, stopped me dead in my tracks.
We were too late.
Rafe was inside his Cadillac, and slammed the door shut just as Jake stumbled from the back exit, bloody and limping, but still closing in.
Kane charged forward. Sal too. All I could do was follow, and pray one of them got the bastard before he got that car started.
Too far. The car is too far.
They’d never make it.
Rafe was going to get away and we’d be right back where we started. I didn’t want to run anymore. Didn’t want to hide. I wouldn’t. This had to end now.
The click of the ignition, still so far away, sent a chill rolling up my spine. A second click, and the car started. But the engine only roared for a moment before my world was flipped on end by an ear-crushing…
BOOOOOM. Booooom.
The explosion pushed me backward, and the heat of it knocked the air from my lungs. Air I raked in, though it felt like sandpaper in my throat. But the four of us—Kane, Sal, Penelope, and I—were far enough away, the blast didn’t hurt us. Only shook us.
“Jake!” Penelope screamed, but I heard it like it was coming through a tunnel. “Fuck. Jake!”
Across the blacktop, I could see him. He was thrown from the blast, landing far enough away he wasn’t burning. But he’d been much closer to the car. I had no clue if he was okay. The idea that he might not be, ripped a scream from my throat. But it was swallowed up in the roar of my ears… or the flames… I couldn’t tell which.
Penelope ran forward. Sal and Kane too. While all I could do was stare at the burning ball of fire where Rafe’s Cadillac had just been. I blinked over and over, trying to make sense of things. Trying to tell myself this was real.
Rafe was gone.
So very gone.
I’d never have to run again.
I looked back to the apartments and saw mama running through the parking lot, Noah in her arms and terror in her eyes. She sank to her knees when she saw I was okay, and I must’ve let out another vicious scream because Noah turned to look my way.
Slamming my mouth shut, forcing myself to think of them, I held my hand up, to make him stay back, and turned away so he couldn’t see me cry.
My eyes caught on a figure across the street. A man, leaning against a light pole, with silver streaked hair and a beard, and a scowl that I’d become familiar with in the Champagne room when I stripped for him.
Hannibal.
He stared at me, his gaze calculating. He glanced from the fiery car to me, to my family, and back. I’d seen him near the car just minutes ago… assumed he was one of Rafe’s men. But I’d been wrong, hadn’t I? He would’ve been inside the car if he was one of his. Not standing watch while his boss burned.
No, he’d done this. Hell only knew why, but he’d set that explosion to kill Rafe.
My tears came faster, falling to the ground where I knelt. Relief like nothing I’d ever felt pounded through me like the gallop of a thousand horses. It made me weak from happiness. A prisoner with the weight of his chains finally off.
Freedom.
And I couldn’t even care that this man was probably a demon in his own right. To me, he was a savior.
“Thank you,” I called out, hoping like hell he’d hear me over the approaching sirens. “Thank you. My god. Thank you.”
He frowned hard, tilting his head so his eyes didn’t look quite so beady, so threatening. Finally he nodded, tossing me a quick salute before he slunk backward into the shadows of the surrounding buildings.
We would be safe. All of us. Noah and Mama. Kane and me. My friends from the club.
But Jake.
I scrambled forward, needing to see if he was okay. I couldn’t breathe right until I knew.
When I reached where he lay on the road, I pushed back Kane and Sal so I could see for myself. And what I saw had me feeling lighter than fucking air.
Jake smiled.
There he was, laughing—and subsequently hissing in pain—at something Penelope was saying. She had his head in her lap, holding his hand while they waited for the ambulance. His face was bloody from a fight, and his leg was cut, a vicious looking slice in his thigh that someone had tied up with a scrap of clothing.
Oh. Vanilla’s shirt.
They’d used her shirt, and now she was only in her bra and her skimpy skirt from earlier.
I breathed a sigh of relief, falling to my ass right there on the blacktop as police and firefighters came out of nowhere, spraying things and hollering. But all I could hear was the beat of my heart calming as Kane wrapped me in his arms, and Penelope’s banter as she kept wiping tears away.
We were okay. We were all okay.
I stared at the burning car.
All of us who mattered anyway.
Sound rushed back to my ears as my panic fell away, replaced with giddy relief as the adrenaline faded.
The tears wouldn’t stop, but neither would the smile so wide it hurt my face. I probably looked insane, but I couldn’t care.
“Fuckety hell,” Penelope said in a watery murmur. “It looks like you were right about the size of your balls, Jake.”
“Pretty fucking big, huh?” he wheezed, and Sal laughed.
She nodded. “Wrecking balls, I think you said.”
“Damn straight,” Kane agreed, hugging me so tight I could barely breathe. “Goddamn straight, Jake.”
“Noah,” I said, pushing away from Kane to get to my feet. I stumbled back to the parking lot, weaving past a stretcher and several uniformed officers.
When I spotted him and mama standing at the entrance, I ran, unsteady, right for them, wrapping my shaking arms around them both and squeezing hard enough Noah squirmed in my grasp.
But hell if I could let go now. Not now.
I felt Kane’s presence standing close by, and it hit me that I had everything I ever needed to be happy, with me, in that very moment.
I cried into mama’s shoulder and she rocked me like she had so many other times in my life.
“Is… is he gone, Mina?” she asked.
I nodded against her cheek. “It’s over. It’s finally over. We’re okay now, mama.”
Noah wriggled free of my hold, and I let my mom go to pick him up and smother him again, planting kisses all over his puffy cheeks.
“Mama…” His tiny voice shook, but he was the bravest little boy, because there wasn’t a tear in his eye. “There was a scary man in our house. He said mean things to Nana.”
“I know, baby. He’s gone now.”
“I don’t like him.”
I stared at the blaze the firefighters were getting under control.
“You don’t ever have to see that man again. Understand, Noah?”
He nodded, laying his head against my chest. Someday, I’d have to explain to him what his father was, and why he burned. But today wasn’t that day, and I was going to give him so many happy memories before it came, that he wouldn’t remember all the bad ones. They’d be a mere blip on his road of life.
His head popped up to look at Kane. “Did you get the bad guy with your Hulk muscles?”
“No,” Kane answered. “I think Jake did that.”
Noah frowned. “Jake helped Nana. He told me his name, and not to be scared. He has smaller muscles, Superman muscles, but he still beat the bad guy. So he’s a hero.”
“Yeah, buddy,” Kane agreed.
“You sent him.” Mama’s rattled voice brought my attention back to her. She stared so hard at Kane, but I couldn’t read her. “You sent him to help us. Didn’t you?”
Kane gave her a solemn nod.
“And this…” she gestured to the fire, “you did this.”
Kane frowned. “No. I only wish.”
“It was the man from the Champagne room,” I told him. “We saw him before Rafe ran for his car, when we were on our way in. And I saw him watching while it burned. He left before the police arrived. It was him. He ended this.”
“This was a setup,” Kane mused.
I thought back to the past few days, piecing details together.
The private dance. The way Hannibal seemed to hate me.
Rafe finding me when I’d been so careful.
The message he received at the club.
It was as if he’d been led to mama and Noah.
“He must have been after Rafe for his own reasons. I think he found me first, at the club. It’s why he seemed to hate me so much. He could have followed me that night, found where we lived. Then he used us for bait to get Rafe vulnerable so he could take him down. He must have known Rafe was trying to find me. It makes sense.”
Kane scowled. “I’ll find out who he was. Find out if he’s a threat.”
I shook my head. “He’s not. If he wanted to, he could have hurt us. He didn’t.”
“Don’t care, Gem,” he growled softly. “I’m making sure. I’ll check with Sal, check Rafe’s known associates. We’ll find out who this guy is. Gotta make you safe, understand?”
I nodded, letting him press a kiss to my forehead. I felt Noah’s arms leave my neck and move to wrap around Kane’s. I saw Kane’s eyes grow wide with surprise before they softened to something sweet and heartbreaking.
“I always knew you was a good guy,” Noah murmured, sleepily. “I am too. I’m just still small. But I’ll be like you one day. Or maybe like Jake. Gotta eat more green beans.”
I let him go and Kane curled his big arms around my son, holding him awkwardly. But the look on his face told me it would take an army to make him let go.
I pressed my lips together, desperate to keep my happy-sob inside.
Kane loved my boy. Like he loved me. Even if they didn’t know each other very well yet. Kane’s heart was so beautiful. So big. Big enough to love a mother who couldn’t love him right. Big enough to love me from afar, and watch over me, and help battle back my past. Big enough to love a son that wasn’t his, just because the kid needed all he could get.
I let out a tearful laugh.
Noah was going to be drowning in it. Exactly what I’d always wanted for him.
“I was wrong,” mama said, her serious gaze on Kane. “What I told you at the diner… I was wrong. My Mina does need you. You’re exactly what she needs. You make her strong instead of weak. You make her whole instead of broken.”
Kane pressed his big palm to the back of Noah’s head, and my boy closed his eyes, so tired.
“You got it wrong. She makes me that way,” Kane whispered, and mama smiled.
“You need each other. Exactly as it should be.”
He juggled Noah to one arm and tucked the other around me. My safe place. And I was his.
Mama was right. It was exactly as it should be.
Epilogue
KANAAN
“Harder!” Gemma groaned, one hand flying behind her head to grip the top of the bed while the other raked down my shoulder blade making me snarl against her heaving chest.
I obeyed, slamming into her hard enough her teeth rattled. Goddamn, what a delicious sound.
“Yessss,” she hissed, her pleasure-drunk gaze finding mine and locking on.
So beautiful. My girl was so damn beautiful.
In the past weeks since the explosion, I’d seen every one of her faults. Every failure, perceived and otherwise. And she’d seen mine. But she was still beautiful to me. Inside and out. And I could say that because I knew both parts of her equally now.
“Tell me,” I demanded, rocking into her and riding the edge of bliss like a damn daredevil about to free-dive off a mountain.
I needed to hear the words a lot, but she never seemed to tire of it. She grinned teasingly now, because she knew the moment I heard them, I’d spill myself inside her.
And goddamn it, Gemma was the most perfect tease. She’d worked me into a frenzy tonight.
“You first,” she purred.
I slowed my movements. Because no matter how many times I let the words loose into our world, no matter how often they eased from my lips, it stole my breath every damn time and made me fight to hide tears so my girl wouldn’t think I was weak.
What kind of man gets watery over three little words?
I let off a growl, feeling her pussy tighten around me. Too soon.
“Not yet, baby.”
I pulled out of her tight heat, and rising up on my knees, I grabbed her thighs, flipping her onto her stomach. Pushing her legs up so her ass was at the perfect angle, I palmed her cheeks and spread them so I could see every secret part of her.
Mine.
She’d given everything to me, and it made me feel superhuman strong. Made me feel invincible. Powerful, that I had things no other man had ever—or would ever—have. Just like she had parts of me no one would ever know. It made this thing we had between us seem fucking magical.
This kind of relationship was a unicorn among mustangs, I knew. But I didn’t give a shit if people didn’t understand it. All that mattered was that we did.
Fate. God. Whatever. I wasn’t beyond believing something had brought us together.
So I sent up a sincere thank-you.
“Mmm, Gemma. You have the sweetest fucking ass, baby.” I squeezed the globes, wringing a moan from her. “Don’t want you coming yet…” The literal only reason I wasn’t still buried deep in her pussy. “… but if I take your ass now, that will be the end of me.”
I rubbed my thumb over the tight rosebud, watching as it flicked tighter at my touch. I groaned as my cock responded in the same way.
Nope. I wouldn’t last if I put it in her tight, tight…
“Kane,” she moaned. “Please.”
I lined up my aching head at the opening of her slit, and pressed in slowly, mimicking the action with the tip of my thumb, filling both holes. Slow, slow… I knew what would make her feel good.
Gemma tossed her head back with a gasp. “Fuck,” she hissed, moving her hips in the sexiest fucking way imaginable.
I gripped her ass with my free hand to make her be still.
When I was in to the first knuckle, I left it there while I fucked her pussy softly, earning all her whimpered moans as I brought her closer and closer to release.
I was there. Right there. So ready I felt like my nuts would crack open if she didn’t come on me soon so I could give her mine.
I pushed in and back out, anchoring her with my thumb in her ass… in, and out.
“Gem…” I was losing it. All of my emotions were rolling right up my spine to collect in my groin, and I need to fucking say it… so I could hear her say it…
It was my addiction, this feeling, those words, her body, her heart. Just her.
I took her chin in my hand, turning her head so she could see me when I did it.
“I. Love. You. Gem.” There, I said it. And it put my heart in a vice just like it did every time. I bled feels for this woman.
But this time, I was going to tell her the rest. The part I usually repeated in my head.
“I love you so fucking much. And I want forever with you. I want Noah, and some babies, and an entire life just making and growing a family of our own. I want to wake to you every morning, and fall asleep to you every night. And I want to do it until we’re fucking ninety if we make it that far.”
I wasn’t sure how that would fit in with our family at the club, but if anyone could make it work, I knew we could.
I just needed her to say yes.
She pushed back into me, never breaking our gaze. The intensity between us shot to nuclear levels as her eyes filled with determination.
“I’m yours,�
�� she whispered, and I fucked her harder, ready to explode. “I love you. And forever isn’t even enough time. I want eternity.”
“You got it, Gem.” I rolled my hips. “You got me… and eternity.”
She jerked one last time, and I felt her body clench and unclench around me as her orgasm rippled through her. I pumped mine into her body, bucking hard as I held her chin and her gaze, giving her everything with my body and a look.
My girl had my soul.
It was simple as that.
And I’d have hers in return.
When we were both spent, I collapsed with her to the bed. Gemma curled her leg around my waist and rested her head on my chest where it heaved to catch my breath. I stared up at the ceiling feeling real fucking good about how my life was turning out.
Maybe good guys actually did finish first sometimes. After a shit-ton of twists and turns. Speedbumps and potholes.
I gave the ceiling a shit-eating grin. I’d removed the fan. Took that bastard down and set it out by the curb so the garbage man could haul it away. Gemma was right. I was moving on, and I didn’t need to go to war with my mind anymore.
I was healing. We were healing.
I kissed her head, and absorbed her soft little sigh, my thoughts in the clouds.
So much had happened in the weeks since the explosion.
Jake was stitched up and healing. He’d only taken one shift off, but I didn’t say anything. The guy seemed like he needed to work, so I let him. He was a good one. I’d trust him with anything now. And it wouldn’t be long before Marco gave him a nice little promotion for his loyalty. His bravery was also gaining him free access to the women of his choice. He wore them like arm candy, but I wasn’t sure he was really into the attention.
With Sal’s help, I’d made a valiant effort to track down the man from the Champagne room. In the end, I wasn’t able to put a name to the face. Rafe simply had too many enemies. And even some who posed as friends. There was no sign of the man who’d blown him to bits. But Gemma didn’t seem worried. She believed he was gone for good.
Gemma had moved her mother into a better apartment. Actually, it was her apartment, but she and Noah stayed with me whenever it was feasible. Which was most of the time. He loved the swing set out back, and liked to throw the ball for Trixie. We taped a Hot Wheels track in the carpet too for him.
