Courting Trouble: Running with the Devil Book 6

by Jasmin Quinn

  Then a black four door sedan rolled into the marina. Headlights flashed over the group, fighting for prominence with the rising sun. This wasn’t good.

  Hugo went for his gun, so did Anto. Jackman drew his too. The car stopped up about 10 feet from the group. Dark vehicle, dark windows. Short driver. Then the back door opened and a woman stepped out. Olivia! Fuck!

  Hugo almost fell over he was so relieved. She stood for a minute, small and tired-looking as she gazed around at the group, a grim set to her mouth. She pinned each man with her baby blues, Anto, Hugo, Jackman, then landed on Tony and locked on. Hugo’s heart plummeted as she strode towards her husband. He barely registered Marisol and the female driver step out of the car. Barely registered Anto’s angry bark, “Marisol!”

  Blondie walked right past Hugo and straight up to her husband. When she got to him, she stopped a foot in front and reared back with her fist and punched him solid in the face as hard as she could. She stepped away, bending over, holding her hand, her face creasing in pain as she watched the sonofabitch crumble to the ground. Then she turned to Jackman, stepped up to him and delivered a resounding slap across his face with her left hand. To Jackman’s credit he stood there and took it. “Quit fucking with my life,” she said in a low cool voice.

  She turned to Hugo and settled her eyes on him. He wasn’t sure if she was setting up to punch him too, so he tensed. She was crying openly as she walked up to him. “You’re a fucking jackass,” she said and fell into his arms. He closed them around her, pulled her in nice and close to his body, hugged her tight. Relief, gratitude, love swept him away. He had Blondie back. Not only did he have her back, but she came back to him, which was even better than him having to chase her down and make her come back.

  Everything about everything was validated. This was the woman for him. He had her, almost lost her and realized what a huge fucking hole that would leave in his life. He was never going to let her go again even if he had to handcuff her to him.

  But not all was well with the world.

  Anto was raging at Marisol and the other woman, the driver. Marisol was obviously pissed too, her back straight, her eyes narrowed, her lips pursed. He was talking a little loudly about her being out without a guard and her pointing to the little dark-haired woman who was looking straight ahead, keeping her posture rigid, trying not to get drawn into the discussion.

  Marisol was talking low to Anto, not giving him an inch. It was marvelous to watch. And everyone was watching. Hugo, who was hugging Olivia to him, was so relieved that Marisol brought her back to him that he thought about buying her the biggest diamond necklace he could find. Jackman, who seemed highly curious of Anto’s woman, was watching the scene with interest, and Olivia, who was still crying and clinging to Hugo, might have gone to intervene if Hugo had not tightened his grip.

  No one was watching Tony West. West had a bead on Jackman, reached over and grabbed Jackman’s pistol as he held it barrel end to the ground. So fast, aiming at Jackman, who had no time to react. But the little chauffeur, who was trying to keep a professional distance from her master and mistress, saw what was going down, snapped her gun out of her left-side shoulder holster and shot the errant husband. One bullet, dead centre in his forehead.

  Everyone turned. Tony West was a body on the ground. Katerina stood holding her gun, her eyes wide, her face pale. then she lowered it with a shaking hand, and fell back against the car, sliding down it until her ass hit the ground. Marisol crouched down beside her, wrapped her arms around her shoulders, talking to her. Comforting her. Anto looked shocked as he crouched down too and pried the gun out of the woman’s hand.

  Jackman looked from Anthony to Marisol’s driver and said, “Fuck.” He leaned down and retrieved his gun. As he holstered it, he felt Tony’s neck for a pulse, looked at Hugo and shook his head. Of course, he was dead. No one survived a bullet to the middle of the forehead. Anto came toward them.

  “We gotta clear out.”

  Jackman and Anto manhandled Tony’s body into Jackman’s trunk. Jackman got in his car and moved out without a single glance back. Marisol helped the hysterical brown-haired woman into the back seat of the car. Anto took the driver’s seat and then peeled out. Hugo took one look at Olivia, who was blue in the lips and shaking like a Grey Goose vodka martini, picked her up in his arms and carried her to his boat. There might have been a shot, there might even be a little blood. But there was no body and there was no crime scene.

  On the boat, he stripped off Olivia’s clothes. Every single piece of them and shoved her into the shower. Then he stripped and stepped in with her. He could hear the sirens in the distance, the wails of the police cars. He figured they might start knocking on boats and he formulated a response as he helped Olivia wash her hair. She was shaking bad now, crying, holding on to him. He understood. She’d just witnessed a man dying. And not just any man. Her husband.

  He soaped her body, rinsed her off, then washed himself down good and clean, toweled them both off and put them to bed.

  The sun was coming up in Vancouver.

  Olivia’s dead husband was finally dead, Jackman was heading back to the rock he climbed out from under, Anto and Marisol had a shitload of problems, but all was right in his world. He had Blondie back. He got back the life he didn’t know he wanted a week ago. He wrapped her in his big arms, pulled her close to him, kissed her like she was the only woman on earth because to Hugo she was. Eight hours later, when he woke up, she was still there in his arms, sleeping like an angel.

  CHAPTER 59

  Olivia woke up sometime during the morning. She was clean, warm, safe in Hugo’s arms. She almost started crying again she was so relieved. Last night was a blur and for a while she thought she’d never see Hugo again.

  But Katerina found the marina, the right marina. First try. Smart woman. They pulled up to the men. It was crazy, how did these men not get caught? They were all there – the four of them, talking to each other in loud voices in a public parking lot. Anyone could see. Maybe Canada was different from the United States. Maybe Canadians slept more soundly than Americans.

  When she’d stepped from the vehicle, all eyes were on her. She looked carefully at each man. Anto first, who’s face registered shock, then anger as Marisol joined Olivia by the side of the car. Then Hugo’s eyes, full of love, relief, gratitude. She caught the tail-end of hurt when her eyes drifted past his to Dimi’s eyes. They looked surprised too, but warm, friendly enough that she knew he wasn’t a threat to her. Then to Tony, her dead husband. She pinned him with her eyes, stared into his soul and saw a fucking faithless traitor. His eyes were filled with expectation. She remembered that look from when they were married. Anytime he wanted something from her, that’s how he’d look at her. With every expectation that she grant him whatever fucking wish he had.

  Her anger buoyed her as something inside her snapped. She strode toward him, her eyes glued to his. His face was a mess. Someone had hit him repeatedly. She hoped Hugo had gotten in a few good licks. As she got within a couple of feet of him, he cracked a smile and she lost it, decking him so hard the pain shot through the bones in her hand and up her arm. But the sonofabitch crumpled to her feet and she knew that even Anto, who’d been yapping at Marisol and Katerina, stopped to witness her belt her husband. Then she turned to Dimi. He’d taken her away from Hugo, not once, but twice. Tried to send her back to Jack Creed. Thought she’d go willingly.

  She’d wanted to punch him too, but her hand hurt so fucking much. She did the next best thing and slapped him a good left-handed one across the face. He took it, nodded at her. His expression never wavered though. It told her they were even. It was gonna have to do. One left-handed slap for his assholeishness. It felt good enough. She could let it go.

  Then she’d turned to Hugo, who hadn’t moved since she showed up. She saw his face, his expression of love, regret, a little fear, probably not of her, but of what she just did to Jackman. She started falling apart as she approached him. When she
reached him, he opened his arms and she crumbled into him. He crushed her to him, wrapped her in his big strong embrace, and held her like he was never going to let her go.

  Anto was mad though and everyone was still tense. Olivia wanted to say something, help defend Marisol, but she was so fucking tired, so fucking relieved. She hoped Mari was right about Anto, that he wouldn’t hurt her. But everyone was distracted and Tony grabbed Dimi’s gun. That’s what got him killed. Katerina was the only one not looking at Anto and Marisol. She shot Tony. She saved Dimi’s life.

  Then it was over, everyone cleared out. Hugo took her to the boat, showered her off and put her to bed, keeping his arms around her, keeping her safe in his embrace. She fell asleep in them twice.

  CHAPTER 60

  Marisol and Anto were having their first serious fight and Marisol discovered that she was ill-equipped to handle Anto’s temper. He was raging. At her, at Katerina. She tried to come to the little Russian woman’s defense, but he blocked her every time she opened her mouth.

  When they got back to the condo building, Anto sent Katerina to her room like she was a misbehaved child. “Stay there,” he bellowed. “And don’t come out until I come and get you!” He grabbed Marisol by the upper arm and hauled her along as if he thought she might not follow.

  They had barely stepped inside their suite when he turned to her, wrapped one of his hands into her hair and the other around her throat shoving her up against the wall and pushing his hard body into hers. It shocked her into silence.

  “You don’t ever put yourself in harm’s way, do you understand?” He yanked her hair back so that he could stare into her face.

  Her eyes burned and she couldn’t find her way to answer him.

  He gave her hair a hard pull. “Do you understand me, Marisol?” His face was furious and the timbre of his loud voice, jarring.

  Through the tears, she said, “Are you going to hit me, Anto?”

  She could see it in his eyes that her words shocked him. He dropped his hands like he’d just brushed up against a hot stove and stepped back a foot. “I would never hit you.” His voice was softer now, still angry, but cooler. Like he was pissed that she would even think that of him.

  Marisol raised a hand to her neck, massaging it. “I feel like I’m in harm’s way right now.” Her voice was shaking, she tried to toughen it up, but couldn’t dig deep enough. “Am I, Anto? Should I be afraid of you?”

  He groaned, pressed his body into her, but this time he embraced her, drawing his arms around her in a crushing hug. “I love you, Marisol. The idea of losing you fucks with me.”

  “I know what that feels like, Anto.” Marisol’s voice was a little muffled as she settled against Anto’s chest. “Because every time you walk out that door, I die a little.” Then she brought her hands to his chest and gave him a shove. “I called you. You weren’t picking up. It went to voicemail.” A fresh round of tears as she looked into his face. “I thought something had happened to you and since I couldn’t find you, I figured I may as well be useful. Olivia needed me.”

  “I need you, Marisol.” He was hearing her but not quite willing to concede. “You’re mine. It was the agreement when you came to me. You don’t cross lines and get involved in my shit.”

  “Fuck, Anto, I’m not a naïve little girl. I’m already knee deep in your shit.” Marisol was quaking inside. Anto wasn’t going to like her words. “If something happened to you, what do you think would happen to me?”

  She was right. He slammed a fist into the wall beside her head making her jump even though she knew it was coming. “Shut the fuck up, Marisol. No one will ever touch you.”

  “You’re lying to yourself and me when you say that. You know if Rusya knew what happened tonight, he’d kill us both.”

  Anto crushed his lips to Marisol’s, hard, angry, invading her mouth with his tongue. Losing his reason. “No,” he said as he pulled back. He was denying what he knew was true. He kissed her again, taking her deeper than before. She brought her arms to his neck, wrapped them around him, pulling him closer. Anto angry was still Anto and she couldn’t resist him.

  He yanked her skirt up to her waist and tore her panties off like they were crepe paper. She gave a little cry at the brutality of it, but he was beyond hearing. He undid his jeans, pulled himself out, guided his thick erect cock into her as he picked up her legs. She wrapped them around him and crossed her ankles at the back, pulling him into her as deep as she could. Then she let him fuck her. It wasn’t the first time this had happened. It was what he needed to do when he was afraid. The only thing that made Anto afraid was losing Marisol. The only way he could overcome the fear was to savage her.

  And all Marisol could do was hang on to him and let him take her with him to his dark place.

  CHAPTER 61

  Olivia was wearing a T-shirt of Hugo’s. It’s all she had left because he’d stuffed every stick of her clothes into a garbage bag and threw it out. Except her boots. He loved those fucking boots on her. He didn’t know why he got rid of her clothes, except he did. It was time to start over. He had Olivia, her husband was dead.

  They sat together on the bridge deck drinking beer. She was curled into him, keeping as close to him as she could without crawling inside. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight either. At first, they said nothing, just held onto each other, clinging like they were falling through space.

  Then he said the stuff he needed to say. “Olivia, I should have told you about paying your debt. I’m sorry for not doing it earlier. But you have to know, it was never about the money. It was always about you.”

  She looked up into his face, ran a hand over his jawline, feeling his whiskers. “I missed you so much. I thought you might not come for me.”

  “I was coming for you. As soon as I was done with Jackman, I was coming for you.”

  “Thanks for saying that, Hugo.” She said it in a funny way, like she wasn’t sure she trusted what he was saying.

  So he said, “Olivia, let’s get married.” He touched the sapphire ring on her finger.

  She bit her bottom lip and was quiet.

  Hugo thought he was making some progress. At least this time she didn’t say no. “Liv?”

  “Why, Hugo?” This time she didn’t fall to her knees laughing. This time she didn’t sit out in front of the chapel, pale in the face, talking him out of it. This time the only thing she said was why.

  He grinned. Pulled her to her feet and led her to the master stateroom. He dropped his shorts, pulled her shirt off and tossed her on the bed. Then he tossed himself on her. He brought his hands to her head, cradled it as he kissed her lips. Softly at first, then couldn’t stop himself from taking her hard. His cock was responding to her nearness, thought everything about what Hugo was doing was a good idea. He had to get the right words out before he got completely distracted.

  “I love you, Blondie. It was the worst feeling in the world when I came back here and you were gone. At first, I thought you left me, because I’m such an ass. But then I realized you wouldn’t. You’re not the kind of woman who would walk out on a man without telling him to his face you were leaving.”

  He kissed her lips long and hard, ran his hand down her waist, savouring the softness of her skin. She let out a little breath and it settled right on his mouth.

  “That’s one of the things I love about you. I’m the luckiest man in the world that I got you. Even if this was the last day I got to have you, it would still be better than not ever having you.”

  Olivia wrapped her arms around Hugo’s neck. Kissed him solid on the lips. “I came back for that reason. Like you said, I’m the kind of woman who tells a man what she needs to say, straight to his face.”

  Hugo stiffened for a second, but then Olivia moved her lips to his ear and whispered, “Yes. I’ll marry you.”

  He smiled, nuzzled her neck. “Do you love me, Blondie?”

  Olivia grinned, her smile twice as wide as he’d ever seen. “Oh yeah, I do,
Hugo. I love you like crazy.”

  She was happy, he was happy, his cock was happy. It was going to be the best day of his life so far. He wasn’t wrong.

  EPILOGUE

  Alot had to happen before Olivia and Hugo could get the boat on the water.

  First, Hugo wanted to give Olivia room to grieve for Tony if that’s what she needed. But she said she didn’t. She did her grieving two years ago and all she could feel towards her dead husband was anger, betrayal and a little pity.

  Then Marisol had to forgive Anto for being such an ass. After she did that, she had to talk him into letting Katerina be her bodyguard. The first was easy, she had a soft heart and loved the Russian thug even if he was a little rough with her. It’s not like her body ever said no.

  The second was a little more of a challenge, but she persuaded him to give it a chance on a trial basis. Anto had a long talk with Katerina about his expectations. Reminded her who the boss was. She nodded her head all serious-like and agreed with everything he said. Katerina already knew who her boss was, and the woman had red hair.

  Next Anto had to forgive Olivia for getting Marisol involved in the shit that was her life because Olivia needed a maid of honor and someone to help her pick out a classy wedding dress for the ceremony. Hugo needed Anto to be his best man. It was a little weird for all of them, having couple friends. They had to agree that they wouldn’t try to kill each other (literally), would refrain from trading secrets for money (also literally) and would rescue each other from being kidnapped, extorted or lost in Vancouver without a car (also… well, okay, that one could only be taken literally).

  It helped Anto forgive Olivia when the four made a pact to honour the three rules. After all, Marisol and Anto were just being good friends when Mari rescued Olivia from the airport and Anto was helping Hugo rescue Olivia from being kidnaped.