by Marie Carnay
The drink she’d thrown at him dissuaded him of that notion.
Since then, Steven Willows had been cold and distant. Professional. When he had agreed last year to work with her law school’s Innocence project, she had been pleasantly surprised.
When he had offered to look into cases her professor flagged, she’d been impressed.
It had been three years since that first night and never once had he tried to make another move. Did he finally see her as an equal? Was he a good guy or as dirty as her father?
Mia didn’t know.
They stopped at the elevators and waited for the doors to open. If she could get Steven to listen to Damien’s story, maybe it would all work out.
Maybe her baby would have a father who saw his kid at more than just prison visits.
She squeezed Damien’s hand as the elevator dinged. All she could do was hope.
20
DAMIEN
In a few hours, he would be a free man. The cops would have the information on Marcelo and Mia’s father and Damien would be inking a deal to save Mia and himself.
If it all didn’t go to shit.
He fingered the locket hanging from his neck. It was the only connection he still had to his sister. He’d stopped wearing it around Mia so he didn’t have to answer hard questions, but now he needed Melanie close.
Mia squeezed his hand and he glanced back at her. Ever since the mall, she’d been distant and withdrawn. The fire that burned inside her was so damn bright, but she’d put a lid on it. Damien wanted it back. He wanted to prove to her that he could be a trustworthy man.
Whatever happened at the meeting, he would protect her. They slid into the car and Damien started the engine. As they pulled out onto the road, his phone buzzed.
“Damien.”
“It’s Johnson. You can’t go to the meet.”
Damien frowned. “What are you talking about? We’re on the way.” Damien turned the corner and headed north toward Wellington. They weren’t more than an hour away.
“I tried to keep it under wraps, Damien. I only told the necessary people. But it got leaked. Someone told the ADA.”
Shit. That whole office was filthy. Mia might not believe it, but the ADA was just as evil as her old man. He gritted his teeth. They couldn’t run now. Not when he was so close to fulfilling all that Melanie worked for.
She died trying to bring the cartel down. He had to avenge that. If he was walking into a trap, so be it. He would keep Mia safe and blow the lid on the DA’s office. Melanie didn’t die for nothing. She couldn’t have.
His words came out short and clipped. “I can’t back out now. I’ve got to see it through.”
Mia’s voice cut through the dread. “What’s going on?”
Damien couldn’t look at her or she’d see the fear in his eyes. Instead, he kept talking to the detective. “What are they planning?”
The cop he had known since he was eight years old was silent for too long. Did they want him in jail? Mia, too?
At last, Rick sighed. “They aren’t planning on taking you alive.”
The bottom fell out of Damien’s heart. His hands clutched at the wheel and it took all his self-control not to whip the car around.
Mia twisted in the seat and reached for him, but he couldn’t face her. She couldn’t see the horror. The defeat.
Everything that had happened in the last month…The way she made him feel when she looked at him, when she kissed him, when she came calling his name…It had been worth it.
Rick started talking again and Damien tried to focus through the tears pricking his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Damien. Willows is dirty. He’s in with Marcelo’s crew just like Davenport. I tried to stop it, but it’s out of my control.” Rick tried to explain but all Damien heard was the end. “You have to run.”
Damien swallowed, but his tongue stuck in his throat. “That’s not an option.”
“Then I’ll be there. I’ll try and back you up.”
Damien’s grip on the steering wheel turned violent. The plastic groaned under the force of his hands. No one else was dying because of him. Not this way. “No. This isn’t your fight.” He swallowed. “Just promise me, Rick. After it all goes down, keep her safe. I don’t care about me. Do you understand?”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“You’re scaring me, Damien.” Mia’s hand landed on his arm like a fire brand. “Is everything all right?”
He tossed the phone into the cup holder and shrugged her off.
Nothing would ever be all right again. He turned to Mia. With her hair falling in her face and her big brown eyes trained on him, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
He wanted to memorize every curve of her heart-shaped face and keep the warmth of her dark eyes tucked deep inside. Mia Davenport was the best thing to walk into his life. Too bad he would never get to find out if they had a future.
He tried to smile. He failed. “Everything’s fine. That was the cop I know. He said he can’t make it today, that’s all.”
She frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, of course.” He turned back to the road and took a deep breath. No matter how far he ran or what he did, he would never be free. Marcelo or the DA’s office or the police department—someone, somewhere would be after him.
Mia deserved so much more. She deserved someone worthy of her love. Not a beat-up man with blood on his hands. “No matter what happens today, I want you to know, these past few weeks have been some of the best of my life.”
Mia reached out and squeezed his thigh with her hand. “Don’t talk like that. This isn’t the end. It’s a new beginning.”
Damien nodded. It would be, for one of them.
A little while later, he pulled into the parking lot of the warehouse.
He had negotiated a site he knew well, but it wouldn’t matter. The place might be more his style, abandoned and empty and ready for some criminal action, but with Marcelo involved, it wouldn’t be a fair fight.
Mia reached for the door handle as he turned off the car, but he grabbed her arm. He slipped his hand behind her head and pulled her close.
Right there—that moment when their lips touched and Mia closed her eyes—it was the closest to heaven Damien would ever get.
He would never forget the taste of her lips. The smell of her hair. The way her eyelids fluttered shut and she shivered.
It ended all too soon.
He motioned toward the building. “Time to go.”
21
MIA
Ever since the phone call, Damien had been acting strange. He had tried to brush it off, but whatever the man said had rattled him.
Now they were walking hand-in-hand into a warehouse just like the one he’d saved her from all those nights ago. Damien pulled the door open and as Mia walked inside, the hair on her neck stood on end. Something wasn’t right.
Damien gripped her hand tighter.
Her eyes wouldn’t adjust to the dim light. She squinted. Her heart beat faster.
She squeezed Damien’s hand.
“Well, well. If it isn’t little miss goody-two-shoes. Tell me, how’d you end up with a bottom-feeder like him? Going slumming?”
She rubbed her eyes and the room finally came into focus. Oh, no. All of the fears she’d shoved down rose to the surface like scum on a pond. “What are you doing here?”
The Assistant District Attorney leaned on a metal support beam like he’d been to abandoned warehouses a million times. “I always come to the important collars. Helps with the prosecution.”
Mia’s throat closed and she gasped for air. Prosecution? She looked at the two cops standing beside him and shook her head. “Damien’s here to make a deal, not be arrested.” She wanted to say, like we talked about, but she couldn’t. She hadn’t been able to tell Damien.
He didn’t know the ADA was only there because of her.
“Don’t play the dumb, innocent card with me, Mia. I know
that good girl routine is just an act. Beneath your daddy’s money and your mother’s good looks, you’re nothing but a two-bit whore.”
“Don’t you dare call her a whore.” Damien’s voice turned dark. Gritty.
Mia clasped her free hand around the one already wrapped around Damien’s. She willed her strength into him. Hers and the baby’s.
“Oh, isn’t that sweet? Showing some moral support before we take him down.” The ADA pushed off the beam and stepped toward them. When she’d met him all those years ago, he’d been cocky. A bit arrogant. But he knew when to quit.
Not anymore. The sneer on his face said he’d tasted too much power to ever back down. He came too close and Mia took a step back. Damien’s hand was the only thing keeping her within the man’s reach.
“Don’t you dare touch her.” As soon as the words left Damien’s mouth, one of the cops raised a gun.
The pistol pointed straight at Damien’s chest and Mia threw up her hand in alarm. “No! Put that down! He’s here to make a deal!”
“That’s right. I spoke with Detective Richard Johnson. This was supposed to be me and the cops. No lawyers.”
The ADA shrugged. “What can I say? News travels fast.” He turned to Mia and a pile of concrete wedged in her throat. “Thanks to your pretty little girlfriend, we were able to make it to the party on time. Isn’t that right, Mia?”
Oh, God. It was all going sideways. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Her fingers trembled in Damien’s hand. When she made that call, she had been scared for her life, her future, what would happen if Marcelo got his hands on her. Now she was terrified she had made a huge mistake. One that would cost Damien everything, even being a father.
She turned to him. “It’s not what you think.”
Doubt crept into his eyes. He narrowed them as he looked at her. “What is he talking about?” The question hung in the air between them and Mia didn’t know how to answer.
“Normally I don’t get in the middle of domestic spats but…”
“Shut up, Steven.” Mia squeezed Damien’s hand. God, he was so handsome. Stormy gray eyes, hard-set jaw. If only she could rewind and make different choices. She would run with him forever.
But it was too late for all of that.
She exhaled. “Remember when we went to the mall?”
He nodded.
“I wandered by a police substation and our mug shots were on the board out front. We were wanted, Damien. They were looking for us. I thought…If I could get you to come in…If you could make a deal…Then it might all be over. Marcelo would go to jail, the cartel would get broken up.”
Damien jerked his hand out of hers. “So you called the DA’s office? You were the snitch?”
Mia shook her head. “No! I am not a snitch!” She pointed at the ADA. “He said he’d make a deal. I’ve got his text right here.” She fished her phone out of her pocket. “If you talk, you can get probation. No jail time. All I had to do was set up the meet.”
Damien took a step back. “You know he’s a liar, Mia. How could you? How could you rat me out?”
The look on his face was worse than a knife to the heart. She had to get him to understand. “They’re going to give you a deal. You’re going to get everything you wanted. You won’t have to run anymore. Tell him, Steven.”
She turned to the man, but his expression made her shiver. How had she ever thought he was an honest lawyer?
The ADA tilted his head to look down his nose at the pair of them. “I don’t make deals with scum like Damien Rogers, sweetheart. I have bigger balls than that.”
Her mouth fell open in shock and the ADA laughed. The sound made her ill.
“I’ve made all the deals I’ll ever need. You really shouldn’t have turned me down all those years ago. By now, you’d be married to the man about to take your father’s place.”
Mia shook her head. “You’ll never win the election. Not once people find out what you’ve done.”
“Don’t tell me you’re that stupid.”
Mia turned to Damien. He stared at her like she was the last one in on the joke. “What is he talking about?”
“He’s in bed with Marcelo. He’s as dirty as your father ever was.”
No. Mia shook her head. “That can’t be true.”
“I’d like to think I’m better than your father, actually. He never could stomach the grittier details.”
This can’t be happening. This whole town can’t be corrupt. “What about all those cases you helped with? What about all the wrongful convictions your office overturned?”
“You really think those people were innocent?” He snorted. “Half of them were pawns in Marcelo’s racket. Our office only assisted if we could use it to make a deal with the cartel. I scratch your back and you scratch mine.”
Mia staggered backward. Everything she believed in and worked for was a lie. All the people she helped, all the convictions she helped overturn, and for what?
Damien had been right all along.
She clutched at her belly. She sold out the only man who’d ever seen the real her. She sent her baby’s father to his doom. Mia looked up at the ADA with tears in her eyes. “Why do all of this? What’s in it for you?”
“I thought it was obvious. Marcelo’s guaranteed me enough votes to be District Attorney.”
“You’re willing to deal with the devil for a job?”
Steven stepped forward and his dark eyes sparkled with hate and something worse. Greed. “Not just any job. The District Attorney of the biggest county in the state. Think about the power I’ll wield. The respect.”
Oh my God. Mia had read him all wrong. She thought he was different than her father…That he had morals. She should have known. Anyone who worked with George Davenport had to be dirty. The man didn’t have a good bone in his body.
She turned to Damien and opened her mouth to say something, anything, when the pair of men in blue dragged him away from her.
“No!” His hand slipped out of hers and she rushed forward.
Steven grabbed her wrist and yanked her back. “I thought at first that we’d spare you. Let you go outside and wait until it was all over. But now…Now I’m going to enjoy watching your face.”
The cop on Damien’s right pulled out his billy club. It slammed into the back of Damien’s knees and he fell to the ground.
“No! Stop it!” Mia screamed, but the cop ignored her.
The next strike hit him square in the jaw. Blood splattered onto the concrete.
The cop to his left let go and Damien sagged to all fours. When the boot hit his stomach, he didn’t even flinch.
“Steel-toed boots can be a real bitch.”
The ADA’s words set something off inside her. Mia yanked on her wrist and Steven’s grip slipped.
It couldn’t go this way. She wasn’t watching her baby’s father die like a dog at the hands of a dirty son of a bitch.
As the ADA reached out to grab her other hand, she struck. Her foot slammed into his crotch with every ounce of her strength behind it and he staggered backward. She rushed forward and kicked him again. He fell to his knees.
“Damien!” Mia screamed as she spun toward him. “Get up and fight, damn it! I’m pregnant!”
22
DAMIEN
Mia’s words hit him harder than any boot to the gut.
“I’m pregnant, Damien. Please, get up!” She raced toward him and all the rage he’d kept at bay exploded.
She’s pregnant with my child.
It’s all he could see. All he could think. He had to protect her and that baby if it was the last thing he did. Letting a pair of dirty cops beat him into submission wouldn’t make that happen.
Something inside him clicked. The world slowed down. The ringing in his head from the billy club blow turned into a hum. He could do this. He could shut it all down.
Adrenaline and love mixed together inside him and pumped through his veins. He wasn’t a superhero, but
he would damn well put on a good show.
Mia screamed at the cops on either side of him, waving her arms as she ran at them. The piece of shit ADA lay on the floor, clutching the family jewels and howling.
There had never been a better time to be a bad, bad man. As the cop to his right held up his hand to stop Mia from coming closer, Damien struck. His leg swung out in a vicious arc and before the cop knew what had happened, his body slammed into the ground and his head followed.
The asshole was knocked out cold. Damien lunged over his body as the other cop snapped to attention.
Before the other cop could reach him, he snatched the billy club from the floor.
Game. On.
The cop would be no match for him. Didn’t matter whether he had a gun or not. This wasn’t Damien’s first life or death fight. Now he had more than himself to worry about.
He stole a glance at Mia. She stood out of harm’s way, her head swiveling back and forth between him and the ADA.
“Watch him, Mia! Make sure he doesn’t move!”
She nodded and Damien backed up in a crouch, swinging the billy club wide. The cop pulled out his gun.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“Yeah, watch me.”
“I’ve got better things to do.” Damien rushed the cop as he fumbled with his gun. It went off as he slammed into the burly man’s chest. They both fell to the ground and the gun clattered to the floor.
The first punch was always the sweetest. His fist slammed into the cop’s jaw with a sickening crunch. He could do this all day.
“Damien!”
Mia shouted as the ADA staggered to his feet. Too bad. He grabbed the club in both hands and swung. The wood slammed into the cop’s temple and that was it. Lights out.
Damien pushed himself up to stand and picked up the gun from the floor. He pointed it straight at the ADA.
“Not another step.”
The ADA was hunched over, half clutching at his dick, but he managed to sneer anyway. “You won’t get away with this.”
