by Melody Anne
“We’re scanning for bombs to see if he’s speaking the truth,” Bill spoke into his headpiece. Ace didn’t tear his gaze away from Nestor.
“Because I’ve had my fun with you. Now I’m bored with it,” Nestor replied.
“I’m pretty sick of it myself,” Ace told him. He picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip, loving the flare of anger in Nestor’s eyes. The man wanted Ace afraid and cowering. That wasn’t going to happen.
“How is your little woman doing?” Nestor asked, a smirk on his lips.
Ace’s legs twitched with the need to jump on the man and pound his face. But that was what Nestor was trying to get him to do. He was too professional to sink to this man’s level.
“She’s made a full recovery,” Ace said then forced a smile onto his lips. “How’s your brother doing?” He said it with such a deadpan expression, it took a moment for the words to process with his enemy.
He got exactly the reaction he’d expected. Nestor took a menacing step forward, only halting when his goon held out a hand and said something in a foreign language.
“You are a very stupid fool,” Nestor said through clenched teeth. “To speak of my brother, whom you so ruthlessly killed.”
“He got what he deserved,” Ace told him.
“We can’t confirm any bombs, Ace. Give it a few more moments,” Bill said, knowing Ace would want an update on that situation.
“He trusted you instead of his own flesh and blood. He paid for that, but I am a better brother, and I have gotten his revenge for him,” Nestor bragged.
“Really?” Ace taunted. “What exactly have you done?” He smirked at Nestor again, fueling the rage that the criminal was barely managing to control.
“I got to your family,” Nestor said. “And I made you run like the coward you are.”
Ace hated that he was right. “We do a lot of things we might not normally do to protect the ones we love,” Ace said. “But this ends today.”
“Yes, it certainly does,” Nestor said. He stood behind his goon and pulled out a weapon.
Ace had been prepared for this moment, but he was still shocked when the first bullet flew. Nestor’s goon’s eyes widened before he dropped to his knees and then fell to the ground. His agents had shot at Nestor and missed.
That gave Nestor time to fire his own shot. Ace dived out of the way, but not quickly enough. A bullet buried itself in Ace’s leg, making him unable to stay on his feet. He quickly moved behind a wall, realizing his mistake immediately.
“You’re out of my sight,” Maverick thundered into his ear.
Before Ace could turn, Nestor was on top of him, the tip of his gun pressed against Ace’s temple. How in the hell had things gone wrong this quickly?
“I know you have men here, Ace, but so do I,” Nestor said with a laugh.
That’s when Ace heard yelling over his coms and Bill’s furious voice telling the men to get back. Ace smiled at Nestor, not allowing him to see that anything was wrong.
“You can’t win this, Nestor, whether I live or die,” Ace told him.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Your death will be a statement to the world not to ever mess with my family again. After you die, I will finish the job of killing off your woman and your brothers. An eye for an eye,” Nestor said gleefully as his gun pushed deeper against Ace’s temple.
“You’re not getting out of here alive,” Ace said.
He reached for his blade tucked in at his side. He couldn’t get to his gun, but he could stab this bastard with no problem. He just had to keep the man and his ego talking.
“I win this, you worthless grunt,” Nestor said.
The click of his gun cocking sent a shot straight to Ace’s heart. He knew he had only the briefest of moments to get this guy off him. And he didn’t think anyone was going to be able to step in and assist.
Getting his elbow loose, he jammed it up into Nestor’s throat, making the man drop his gun as he sputtered, trying to catch his breath. Ace threw the man off him and reached for Nestor’s dropped gun.
The older man was obviously used to torture, though, because he recovered remarkably well, rage boiling over in his eyes as he kicked the gun away from both of them and pulled out a deadly looking knife.
He slashed out, and Ace managed to block him, but he still couldn’t get to his feet. The bullet in his leg had numbed the limb, and he was losing more blood by the second. He had to get control of this situation fast, or he was going to pass out and Nestor would get his victory.
Nestor circled, his blade in his hand. “I am going to enjoy this,” he said, not underestimating Ace this time. “I wish I had more time to make this nice and slow, but you are going to die.”
“Come on, Nestor. What are you waiting for?” Ace taunted him. “Are you really afraid of a man on the ground?”
His words did the trick. Nestor lunged at him again, and Ace pulled out his knife at the last second, thrusting it upward. Nestor’s eyes bulged out in pain and shock as Ace’s weapon made contact with his stomach.
But Nestor got the last laugh, though, as his knife sank into Ace’s already ravaged body. Darkness overtook Ace. The injuries were just too great. He heard voices in the distance, but it was all fading fast.
“Ace!” someone shouted. It sounded like Mav. Maybe he was speaking to him through his earpiece. At the moment, he didn’t know what reality was. “Hold on, brother. The ambulance is on the way.”
“Nestor?” he managed to squeak out.
“The bastard is alive, and he will pay. We have him,” Bill said. They were both there. Nestor had been captured.
Ace attempted to nod, but he couldn’t even manage that. He allowed the blackness to finally take him under. This was over. It was all over. His family was safe—Dakota was safe. That was all that mattered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Ace was having déjà vu when he awoke to the sound of hospital monitors and the smell of antiseptic. This time, though, he wasn’t worried about his safety. This time he knew his family would be there, and Dakota couldn’t be far away.
He didn’t hesitate to open his eyes. His head was pounding, but he blinked away the blurriness of his vision as he tried to focus on who was in the room with him. He was pleased when he saw his uncle Sherman, his mother, and his brothers. He wasn’t happy when he didn’t find who he truly wanted to be there.
“Where’s Dakota?” he asked.
“We’re happy to see you too,” Sherman said with a half smile.
“Where is she?” he repeated.
“She’s in the room next to you, just as grumpy as you are,” Cooper told him.
“Take me to her,” he demanded.
“You have been shot multiple times, stabbed, and you have lost a lot of blood. You shouldn’t be going anywhere,” Nick said.
“You can either help me or I’m ripping out lines again,” he threatened.
Cooper sighed as he stood up and pressed the call button. A woman came in, thankfully not the nurse he’d threatened a month earlier. Ace almost felt bad about how he’d behaved then.
“We need a wheelchair,” Cooper told the nurse.
“He can’t go anywhere,” she said.
“I’m going,” Ace told her. She looked at Ace and rolled her eyes.
“I’ve heard about you,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
“At least your reputation is preceding you,” Maverick told him with a laugh.
The nurse returned several moments later with a wheelchair, and then Nick and Cooper helped Ace move from the bed to the contraption while the nurse moved his IV bags to the hanger on the chair. She grumbled about stupid, stubborn patients, but at least she was doing what he wanted.
“You’re all set,” she told him. Then she turned and walked from the room. Ace’s body was at least numb from whatever they’d been giving him. But the move from bed to chair had exhausted him. He was having a hard time even holding his head up.
“Take me to her
,” he told his brother.
Cooper didn’t say a word as he began wheeling Ace from his room, then moved a door down and pushed Ace inside. Dakota looked over from where she sat up in her bed, her eyes bloodshot.
“You’re okay?” she asked, a tear falling. “I should kick your ass for making me worry about you so much.”
“I’m sorry,” Ace said, thinking he might be saying that to her quite often. He didn’t know how he’d gotten lucky enough to have her, but now that he did, he vowed he wasn’t going to ever let her go again.
“It looks like the bad guys did all the ass kicking already,” she said, another tear falling.
Cooper pushed him to her bed, and Ace reached for her, not feeling better until her beautiful fingers rested in the palm of his hand.
“You can do it again when I’m back to full health,” he assured her.
She smiled at him, and it was more vibrant than the rays of the sun. He didn’t need painkillers; he just needed her.
“He’s gone, Dakota. There’s no more danger,” he assured her.
“And you were a fool to go after him in your condition,” she told him.
“I know,” he agreed. “I promise not to do anything like that again.”
“You can’t promise that in your line of work,” she told him. “And I would never ask you to change.”
“You don’t have to. I’m telling Bill I quit as soon as I see him,” Ace promised.
“Don’t do that for me,” she insisted.
“I’m doing it for me, for you, and for our child,” he told her as he reached down and rubbed her flat stomach. “I want to be with my family.”
She didn’t try to stop her tears from falling as she looked at him with what appeared to be hope.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to ask me to change who I am, so I certainly wouldn’t ask it of anyone else, especially someone I love,” she said quietly.
The warmth in Ace’s heart was overflowing as she admitted her feelings to him. He might have been shot at, stabbed, and kicked around, but none of that mattered anymore. Because it had all ended well, and now he was home—right where he belonged.
“I think I’m going to become a full-time flight instructor,” he said with a chuckle.
“Oh, really?” she said, a grin on her lips. “Your only student better be me. I know what you do in those planes.”
Ace wanted so badly to kiss her, but he couldn’t lean forward.
“Come down here, closer,” he told her.
Dakota instantly lowered the bed, and he laid his head next to hers and carefully took her lips with his.
“I adore you, Dakota Forbes, and you will be my one and only the rest of my life. You don’t have to worry about that,” he said.
“I might hold you to that, Ace Armstrong,” she said.
“Good. You can do so every single day that you’re my wife.”
She smiled at him again before grabbing his face and kissing him with a bit more steam this time. They didn’t stop until Cooper cleared his throat.
Ace turned and looked at his brother. “Help me up into this bed and then get out,” he said.
Cooper rolled his eyes. “I think that should be the last thing on your mind,” Cooper said.
“I just want to hold my future wife,” Ace said.
Cooper laughed, but he finally did help his brother. The second Ace was in bed beside Dakota, holding her curled up in his arms, everything was right in the world. Cooper walked from the room, and Ace realized he was no longer in a hurry to get anywhere—he was exactly where he belonged.
EPILOGUE
Looking into the mirror, Dakota couldn’t quit grinning, though her cheeks now hurt from doing it all day long. Today was the day. Today she had married the man she couldn’t live without. He was not only her hero and protector; he had saved her as much as she had saved him.
He’d wanted to marry her that day at the hospital, but not only had she insisted on having her fairy-tale wedding, but her mother would have beaten Ace alive if he’d deprived her of an extravagant wedding celebration. Dakota was her only daughter, and Juliana had dreamed of this day for her daughter’s entire life.
And so far, it was more perfect than Dakota could have ever imagined. Her brothers had put Ace through hell for risking her life, but with time, they’d seen how much Ace loved her and how much she loved him, so they’d loosened up—a little.
The wedding had been planned in three months. Ace had been a mess the entire time. She didn’t know why. They hadn’t spent a single night apart until last night, when his brothers and her new sisters-in-law had insisted on giving them parties. They’d both been assured it was bad luck for the bride and groom to be together the night before the wedding. Both she and Ace had pouted mightily at that, but they’d had good times in spite of it. Still, when she’d met him at the end of the aisle, she felt as if she hadn’t seen him in years instead of a measly eighteen hours.
The wedding had been a blur. She’d been lost in Ace’s eyes the entire time, except when she’d shed some tears when her father had walked her down the aisle, his eyes growing misty. She’d never once in her life seen her larger-than-life father shed a tear. She knew how much he loved her, but it filled her with so much joy to see him so happy for her, and yet so sad to be letting her go. She’d held him extra tight before he’d released her to Ace. Before stepping away from the couple, Lucian had warned Ace never to hurt Dakota. Ace had promised he never would.
They’d cut their cake and laughed as the speeches were made. She’d never wanted it to end. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. She did have her wedding night to look forward to. She’d insisted on waiting a day to leave for their honeymoon. That was, until Ace had assured her they were traveling in a private jet—with a bedroom.
Now Dakota was changed into her traveling outfit, and she’d been away from Ace for too long. She rose from the bench in the bathroom and walked back out, spotting him right away where he spoke with his brother Mav.
She was more than grateful the two of them had cleared the air. Mav had been suspicious of Ace for a while after his return, and only Dakota knew how much that had broken Ace’s heart, though he felt he deserved it. But things were back to normal with them.
And though Ace had insisted on still training her in her flying lessons, she was absolutely his only student. He’d opened his own detective agency, and he was already swamped with work. He said she could be the pilot of the family now, though he did still have to go up and let off some steam in his private plane at least twice a week when the weather permitted. Washington had too many rainy days, he often complained. She’d offered to move anywhere he wanted, but he’d said he had been away from home for too long. She was more than grateful to stay where she had her family and her best friend nearby, and where Ace had his brothers. They would never be alone.
Ace spotted her and broke away from his brother midsentence, which made Mav laugh, his merriment carrying over to Dakota through the crowds of people there to celebrate their day.
“I missed you,” he told her as he pulled her tight and led her to the dance floor. One look at the band was all it took for them to begin a slow song.
Dakota rested comfortably in her husband’s arms. He swayed with her, and her heart was so full, she felt as if it would explode. That’s when she noticed that Sherman and Joseph had made themselves very comfortable with her father over at a corner table, their heads bent together.
Dakota laughed with joy, and Ace pulled back to look at her, a questioning gleam in his eyes.
“What is going through that brilliant mind of yours?” he asked her.
“Look over in the corner,” she said, turning his head. It took him a minute to focus on her father and his uncle and Joseph.
“What?” he asked without a clue.
“Oh, I think my brothers are in for some trouble,” she said with another merry laugh.
Ace’s eyes widened before he sought out her brothers. There was sympa
thy in his expression.
“Are you thinking married life isn’t for everyone?” she asked with another laugh.
“Not at all. I don’t know why I was so afraid of it,” he said. “But I’ve heard rumors about my uncle Sherman and his best friend, Joseph Anderson. I have to say, I’m feeling a bit of pity for your brothers.”
“They are stubborn fools, and it’s about time they get knocked down a few pegs,” she countered.
“Are you planning on helping?” Ace asked her.
“Most definitely,” she said with glee.
Then Ace kissed her like she’d been waiting for him to do the entire night. All thoughts of her unfortunate brothers evaporated as she melted into the arms of the man she refused to live another day without.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This is always the hardest part for me to write, because there are hundreds of people who help me, influence me, and make it possible for me to succeed. I can’t do this alone, and I never would want to. Being an author is a privilege that I will never take for granted. There are still days I don’t want to blink for fear that it will all have been nothing more than a dream. Then I wake up, come to my computer, and realize it’s real, that I’m living this dream of a life.
First off, thank you so much to my fans. Thank you for believing in me and my stories, for sharing my love of writing, for sharing your experiences with me, and for always being there. I love to talk with you, meet you, and share our lives together. I am nothing without you, and that is something I will never forget.
Thank you to my amazing editors. Again, this process can’t be done alone. I don’t want to write the same story over and over again. I don’t want to repeat myself, or get lazy in my writing. I love to be challenged, and I love having people I trust help me through the process. I lucked out with getting Lauren, who doesn’t allow me to be lazy, but is one of the most positive people I’ve met and always makes me feel good about my writing before pushing me to do it the best way possible. I also lucked out with Maria, who is a positive force of energy whom I enjoy talking with, and who makes me feel like I can always be better. Thank you to my entire Montlake team. Not one person has been less than positive, encouraging, and engaging. I look forward to conferences where we get to laugh, talk business, and also have a lot of fun. They have also learned I much prefer a fun country bar to a five-star restaurant any day of the week—time to slip on the yoga pants and go dance instead of worrying about what fork to use with each new plate.
