“Maybe we can work? Talk about awkward situations. Here I just asked her to meet my mom…”
He punched him.
“Hey! Hands are not for hitting!”
That made them all laugh.
Then Dakota pulled out his phone so they could update the rest of their team.
“Let’s call the happy couple,” he said.
After dialing, Zayn answered on the second ring.
“Yo. S’up?”
“Are you two okay?” he asked first.
“Yeah, we’re about back to my place. What’s going on?” he inquired.
“I wanted to update you on what we found, and to warn you.”
“What?”
“Stella’s father will be gunning for you.”
“Oh, I know. I was listening outside the door.”
“Is Stella listening to our conversation?”
“Nope. Bluetooth. Ear.”
He told the man what he’d learned about the ‘nanny’ and the push to be a wife.
“Ahhh, secrets.”
It was clear while she wasn’t listening, that she was right there. Zayn was trying to protect his woman.
“You need to get some space. What we’re going to tell you isn’t going to be pleasant.”
Zayn got it.
“I’m pulling up to our home now.”
They were glad.
“About HIM…,” Zayn asked.
Dakota knew who he was talking about.
“That’s always a sign that where there’s smoke...”
He knew what he was saying.
“Yeah, fire,” Zayn said, to prove he understood what the man was saying.
Danforth Harrington was dangerous.
He got it.
“We have your back,” Dakota said. “Rogue pretty much scared the shit out of the man.”
“Again, I heard everything. Brah, thank you for having my back. Both of you.”
“You’re welcome. I don’t like people pushing my friends around.”
Zayn didn’t either, and whether he liked it or not, they’d built this connection.
He was going to miss this makeshift family when he and Stella left to part ways. Zayn liked having her protected by more than himself.
Then it was time to tell him the really bad part. Dakota hoped he wasn’t going to lose it while behind the wheel of his ride.
“Last night, we found one of the men who hurt your wife’s sister.”
There was silence.
“Where is he? I need one of you to come here and watch Stella. I have a human to dismantle.”
They heard her object, but they didn’t doubt that he’d do it too.
Well, they had bad news for the man.
He’d already had his run in with Dakota.
“His name was Sebastian Henson.”
“WAS?”
“Yeah,” Dakota offered. “He met an untimely death when he fell into a pit with some alligators.”
Zayn let that sink in.
“How did he fall into the pit?” Zayn asked for clarification. He wasn’t above finding what was left, shit kicking him around the city, and returning him to the creatures that snacked on him.
“We found out that he fed Maia to them, and I figured…it felt right,” Dakota offered.
Again, there was more silence.
“You did it? Or did Rogue?”
“Oh, this was not me,” Rogue said. “I would have let Sarah play with him some first. He died too fast for my tastes.”
Sarah grinned.
Dakota pointed at her and shook his head.
‘Spoilsport,’ she mouthed.
“Dakota, thank you for that. I appreciate what you did for me. I won’t forget it.”
That one action spoke volumes to a killer. Someone was watching his back, and in his world, that was everything. If you had a family, and they were trustworthy, you had a chance at a much longer life.
“This is between us.”
Somehow, they didn’t think it was about the killing, but that Maia had a bad end—worse than being shot.
They got it.
Their lips were sealed.
Stella wouldn’t hear it from them.
“Anything else?” he asked, “while I’m home and have some privacy? Now’s the time to tell me.”
He must have reached his hidey-hole and escaped his wife to have their conversation.
“Well, since we haven’t really talked, we wanted to tell you that we found where Maia was kept. She signed the wall with ‘wife’.”
“Well, then we’ve found where Stella had been, and we’ve found their mother, but now where the hell is Mercedes?”
They told him what they’d learned from the man’s brother, and it wasn’t good.
Their prospects were slim.
“Well, shit. If they’ve already transported her…”
“Yeah, you can say that again.”
Finding Mercedes wasn’t going to be as easy as they’d originally hoped. If the abductors were moving her, their chances of her turning up alive…
It was slim to none.
“I don’t want you to tell Stella anything,” he said. “She’s struggling. My wife is putting on a tough façade, but I can see she’s hurting. She knows she’s not going to see her sister ever again.”
“We’ll say nothing until we can’t keep it back, Zayn. Something is going on, and it’s all pointing at her father.”
“I hate his fucking guts.”
“Gee, really?” Rogue teased.
“Yes, because now my wife wants me to teach her our business.”
There was silence.
That said it all.
“And are you going to do it?” Dakota asked.
He didn’t want to, but he had no choice. This was about life or death.
“When I’m away, who’s going to protect her? If we have children, they will be targeted because of my choices. Who will keep them safe? I’ll need her to be able to do it.”
He didn’t hesitate.
“I will make sure she’s safe, and any children you have too,” Rogue stated. “I base out of New Orleans and have a hidey-hole here. If you need me to watch Stella when this is all over, I’m in.”
That touched him.
“You can always call us too,” Dakota stated.
“Aren’t you going back?” he asked. “Isn’t Mr. US Marshal going back to the badge?”
He thought about how he’d hung his badge on their pathetic Christmas tree.
Dakota laughed.
Yeah, that bridge was burned.
“After what I did? Yeah, I can’t do it. I don’t know what I’ll do, but it won’t be behind a badge. I’ve already given that one up.”
They got it.
With each kill, you slipped further from the line, even when you were technically the good guy.
“I think you two should lay low, stay in, and give Stella’s father some time to cool down,” Dakota offered.
“What about the Blackhawks?” Zayn asked. “If we all quit…”
He got it.
Then he told them what he suspected. “We weren’t picked because they wanted us to help Harrington. I think they wanted us to run head first into his illegal dealings and take him down.”
“It made sense.”
“He’s a tricky bastard,” Zayn stated. “Blackhawk pulled one over on us.”
“Nah, he knew the truth,” Sarah stated.
“What?” Zayn and Rogue asked.
“He knew we’d be relentless. He likely knew that this was connected to Zayn’s guy. He said he’d give us the intel for our own cases, and we thought he meant the envelopes. He and Marcus are leading us down that path, and in the process, they are handling some bad guys. The feds can only play within the law,” Dakota stated.
“And we can play outside it,” Rogue said. “That’s genius.”
Yeah, Ethan Blackhawk was smart—if anything.
“So, we finish it. We have to,” Sarah stated.
“It’s tied to Zayn’s sister. We don’t let up. I’d be willing to bet that it will lead us right into Rogue’s issue, and then to Bonnie.”
God!
Dakota hoped so.
“So, we follow it to the end,” Dakota stated.
“I’m in,” Zayn said. “I have your backs.”
Rogue was in too. “I’m in. I’m insulted that he called us low-lives. He should talk.”
That pissed them off too.
“We handle Danforth Harrington and take the path to the end,” Dakota stated. “Who knows where it will lead? Sarah likes an adventure.”
“You know I’m in! Let’s nail his ass to the wall.”
Zayn laughed.
He was amazed that in four days, he’d found love, a wife, and family.
“For the record, he’s going to be pissed. Harrington will be going hard to find me. It seems that my wife transferred her whole trust fund into my account.”
Then he told them the rest.
“All his cash assets?”
“Yeah.”
“Who does that?” Rogue asked.
“Well, someone who wants to be able to screw his wife over. In a divorce, that money is technically Stella’s. Maia wouldn’t be able to touch it, and the day Maia was out of his life…”
Yeah, he was a sick bastard.
That had explained why Stella had temporarily lived and why Danforth wanted that wedding annulled.
Stella had a new beneficiary, and maybe, just maybe, his plan was going to Hell in a handbasket.
“Are you guys beginning to get a clearer picture of my new father-in-law?” Zayn asked.
Yeah, and it wasn’t a pretty one.
At all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Tuesday Evening
W hen he came out of the spare room that he’d made into a gym, he found his wife resting on the couch. Stella was staring at the ceiling, and he knew she wouldn’t be thinking about anything good at this point.
He saw that look before.
His wife…she was troubled.
“Hey, sexy lady. Have some space for a sweaty husband?” Zayn asked, heading her way.
When she heard his voice, she glanced over. “Sure do. I was just thinking.”
“About?”
“Using a gun.”
“On who?”
That made her laugh. “Not on any one particular, but I just realized that I don’t know how to do that, or hold one. I’ve led a sheltered life.”
That wasn’t a bad thing.
There were days he wished he’d never picked one up in the name of vengeance.
He’d seen too many bad things, and he didn’t relish the idea that his wife would see the shitty side of humanity. People tended to be assholes once you got past the outside façade.
Few people surprised him.
Then again, the people he’d been thrown into this mess with were good men, and he was lucky.
But Stella…
She was almost a full-fledged doctor.
“Will you teach me?” she asked.
He hesitated.
“What?”
“I don’t like that you’re on the cusp of becoming a monster like me.”
There.
He said it.
“Zayn! You’re not a monster.”
He stared at her.
“Well, okay, you are a beast in bed, but that’s every woman’s fantasy, so don’t change that. I’ll be angry.”
He started laughing. “Before you, no one amused me. For some straight-laced doctor, you’re funny.”
“I don’t want to be a doctor.”
“What do you want to be?”
“A mother and wife.”
His heart kicked.
“Stella, we have to talk about that.”
“If you bring up the word ‘annulment’ I’m going to cry,” she warned. “Don’t bail on me now.”
NEVER.
He’d never let her go.
“Stella, I’m not going to offer that up. In fact, I can prove I’m a monster.”
“How?”
“If you try to leave, I’ll stop you. If you find someone else, I’ll end them. I’m not letting you go. You’re mine—as in for the rest of our lives. I’ll make you happy, but I’ll keep you caged.”
She didn’t mind.
For the first time, she felt safe.
“Okay. Do these cages have kinky leather gear? I can work a catsuit.”
“Jesus, I have that in my head and I want to go shopping right now.”
She laughed.
“I don’t think we should have kids.”
He dropped that bomb and she stared at him.
“Oh.”
“Hear me out.”
“No. I get it.”
“Do you?”
“You think I’ll leave them, too, like my mother,” she said, her eyes filling with tears.
He was horrified.
“NO! Oh, Christ! No, Stella, baby, no! Please don’t cry! It makes me want to do irrational things like hurt the person who made you cry. I can’t hurt me.”
She wiped her eyes.
“Then why?”
“The people who I hunt are sick. My last job was a big score to take down some drug dealer.”
“For the government?” she asked.
“Ehhhhh…not our government—per say. If word got out that I had kids…”
Now she got it.
“They’d be targets.”
Thank God she was smart.
“What if they never found out?” she asked.
“Then they’d be safe.”
“And we’d have a life of laughter and love. We’d have babies to cuddle, and a family to love.”
She had a point.
“You can’t live life by the what ifs, Zayn. You have to live it to the fullest.”
“You’re infuriatingly smart and wise.”
She laughed.
“Well, I’m about to get more irritating.”
“How?”
“Teach me to defend myself and our future. I need you to help me. I’ve led a sheltered life, Zayn. There’s a lot I don’t know.”
“Like?”
“How to cook.”
“That’s right. You can’t cook. Well, the deal is off. I want my ring back,” he teased.
She stared at him and began crying.
Jesus!
He hadn’t expected that.
“Oh, shit! Stella, I was kidding! We were joking! I don’t want the ring back! I love you!”
She kept crying.
“My mother is dead, and the woman who raised me, who became my mother, is dead, and my sister is still missing. They’re going to kill her.”
Well, at least this wasn’t about what he said, but that didn’t make it any better.
He hated seeing her cry.
This was why he didn’t want anyone telling her that Mercedes was already being moved as a sex slave to some sick fuck.
This. Right. Here.
His poor wife.
“Oh, sweetness,” he said, pulling her into his lap. “I’m so sorry.”
She clung to him.
The tears continued.
It looked like the wall she’d built to be strong and hold back all of her fears and sorrow was crumbling.
“I usually am stronger than this. I’m sorry. It’s been a bad month for me,” she admitted. “You’re my only solace.”
He lifted her chin. “Don’t you apologize to me or anyone else. You’re fine now, Stella. You were abducted but they aren’t taking you again.”
Yeah, especially since he pictured her being passed between men and drugged up to be malleable as she was raped.
NO.
FREAKING.
WAY!
She sobbed more.
“It was so damn hard being in that room, abused, scared, and knowing I was dead. I didn’t expect to leave,” she whispered. “I began hoping he’d kill me. I began taunting him so
I wouldn’t have to prolong the torture.”
He could only imagine. “Well, I have you, and no one is taking my wife.”
“I’m so afraid all the time.”
Yeah, and she hid it well.
“I’ll teach you to shoot,” he offered. “Reach behind that pillow, and you’ll find a gun.”
She stared at him. “Is that safe?”
“Why do you think I only have sex in our bed?”
It made her laugh.
She did what he asked, and she held it carefully. Unfortunately, she also held it pointing at him with her finger ON the trigger.
“Uh, okay. Lesson one is that you never point that at anyone unless you absolutely want to pull the trigger. Guns are dangerous.”
She did what he said, pointing the nine-millimeter at the table.
“Okay, pull the slide back to see if there’s a bullet in the chamber.”
He pointed and she did what he asked.
“There is.”
“Okay, close the slide, and don’t touch the trigger. You’re locked and loaded. At this point, all you have to do is click off the safety,” he said as he showed her how.
“Now it’s ready?”
“Yes. That’s a nine-millimeter. It’ll stop someone if you hit them mid-body.”
“How do I aim?”
“Well, here’s the beauty of this. If someone, say my size, is coming at you. Point it at their neck. That’s going to hit mid-body, and you get the end result you want.”
That helped her relax. She could just point and shoot.
“Don’t aim for the head or arms and legs. You will NOT hit them. When you’re pulling that trigger, it’s either to save your life, take a life, or slow someone down.”
“Okay.”
He reached over and took the gun. Then he popped the magazine and discharged the one in the chamber into his hand.
Stella watched as he popped all the bullets out of the clip-y thing.
“What are you doing?”
“I want you to get used to carrying one. While I’m not a big fan of tucking one into your pants, it’s not loaded. If it ever is loaded, that’s the last case scenario. I’ve known men who have shot themselves in the ass and junk.”
She giggled.
“That is not even funny. No one wants to be ball-less or have a second asshole.”
She laughed even more.
She couldn’t help herself.
Stella didn’t doubt he was doing it on purpose because she’d been upset.
“I see your point,” she stated.
“We’ll get you a license to carry, and then a holster to carry a smaller weapon in. This gun is way too big for you.”
Atonement: The Hunter Mercenary Series (Book One) Page 35
