CHAPTER FIFTY
Ava
J enna’s ex stands at the entrance to an alleyway. I saw his photo in her file, a beady-eyed man with a permanent scowl.
My gaze lingers to the left, Bourne is several yards away. Now would be the time to yell. But Jenna doesn’t have a Bourne. And this asshole just silently volunteered to be a punching bag for all the rage I feel today.
I lunge and push the guy back into the shadows, instincts to fight him myself kicking in. “Wanna try to hit me, Ted ?” I say, my tone cold and calculated.
He yanks me by my jacket, shoving me against a brick wall. “You think you can teach my Jenna to stand up to me? Fill her head with your garbage?”
“If by garbage you mean that it’s wrong for a man to beat her? Yeah,” I drawl with my fists clenched out of his gaze.
While I look casual and poised, I’m a hair away from striking this asshole in the throat and crushing his windpipe.
“Ava!” Bourne shouts from the sidewalk.
Ted freezes, and I put a finger up to my lips.
“He’s with me,” I whisper. “But I want you to get your ass beat by a woman.”
Ted waits for Bourne to pass us and laughs a low, ugly sound. “Try me, bitch.”
He swings wildly, but I sidestep his fist with a practiced move that sends his hand crashing into the brick wall.
“Bitch,” he groans, holding his already bleeding hand.
For a moment, I’m on that platform with Rand Miller and the fight I wanted to have seven years ago is today. I deliver a quick jab to Ted’s ribs. He coughs and stumbles back.
There’s plenty of room for me to run, but I’m breaking my own rule. Every second he’s here in this alley with me, he’s not hunting Jenna.
Shock crosses his face, and the anger there flares hot as his pain melts into pure rage. “You think you’re tough?” Ted spats, recovering faster than I expect.
He goes after me again, but I hook his leg out from under him. He hits the ground hard, but I learned a thing or two since BUD/S so I don’t go down with him.
“Get it through your head,” I say, keeping my voice steady, holding my fist-drawn stance. “Jenna is done with you, Ted.”
His expression twists into something ugly, his gaze settling on me with male hatred I didn’t even see in BUD/S. But I’m not facing a fellow SEAL candidate or a rival, who underneath deserves respect.
This prick convinced himself he owns Jenna and that gives him the right to hurt her.
Watching Ted squirm in pain, I step back and decide now it’s time to find Bourne. As I turn away, I’m grabbed from behind, Ted surging forward with a roar. He spins me around and his shoulder hits me square in the ribs, sending us both to the ground.
I fight to catch my breath, but he’s got me pinned.
With his face inches from mine, I choke on the rank smell of alcohol on his breath.
I knee him in the balls and he winces, but his hold on me stays strong. Guess that’s not the first time a chick did that while pinned. His balls must be knee-proof.
“You’re gonna pay for that, you—”
A shadow falls over us, and Ted’s grip on me suddenly loosens.
Bourne. I hate that I’m grateful to be rescued by my guard.
But Ted’s face is frozen in horror. Looking over his shoulder, expecting to see my finely dressed, suit-wearing bodyguard, I gasp.
Griffin stands there, his presence as dark and foreboding as a deadly storm in cargo pants, a black T-shirt, and a leather jacket.
“That’s my wife.” His voice is ice, each word a warning.
Ted scrambles off me, and I push myself to my full height. Griffin’s eyes, fierce and blazing, never leave Jenna’s ex.
“She’s... She’s poisoning my girlfriend against me,” the idiot argues.
Squinting like he can’t believe what he’s hearing, Griffin growls. Hands flexing and fingers itching to get around this guy’s throat, he says, “You think that gives you permission to hurt my wife ?”
Ted stupidly opens his mouth to agree. There’s nothing but the sound of Griffin’s fist meeting this guy’s jaw with a brutal, bone-crunching hit. Ted staggers, his brain not catching up. Griffin keeps going. Blow after blow is rained down on this scumbag, each one fiercer than the last.
The air is filled with grunts and the sickening thud of fists against flesh and bone.
“What the hell?” Bourne comes up behind me, tugging me. “Mrs. Quinlan. I need to get you to the car.”
“No,” Griffin roars, his bloody fist pointing to Bourne. “You both stay right there.”
Oh fuck, I put Bourne in danger. I’m tempted to tell him to run, but there’s no hiding from the mob. I should know.
Griffin pounds Ted until he’s only a wheezing, shivering mound of flesh with a death rattle whistling from his lungs. My husband stands up and turns around, his eyes on me for a minute, and then Bourne.
I whip around to my guard. “Go home. Not my house. Yours. I’ll handle this.”
“Mrs. Quinlan?”
“No,” Griffin barks.
“Leave, Bourne. My husband will protect me.” And I will protect you.
Bourne steps back, and relief floods me, seeing him disappear around the same corner I avoided earlier.
“Listen to me.” I grab my husband. “I... I did something stupid. I took this guy on. I hid from Bourne.”
“He called me, fucking frantic.” Griffin’s bloodied hands cup my face. “But I was already on my way here. We have to talk.”
My heart drops into my stomach. “We sure do.”
“First...” His gaze rakes up and down my body. “Are you all right?”
“I am,” I groan, my voice thick with emotion. “I’m okay. I would have been okay. I know what I’m doing. He had an edge for a minute.”
Griffin’s thumb brushes my heated cheek, the bone tender and possibly starting to bruise. “You shouldn’t have done this. Any of it.”
I shake his hand away. “Those women I teach don’t have bodyguards.”
“That’s admirable. But you’re my wife . And I just murdered someone who hurt you.”
I glance down. “He deserved it.”
“No doubt.” Griffin’s blue eyes, tempered with fiery rage, stay on me. “You came to the office this afternoon.”
“I sure did.” I fold my arms. “I didn’t stay because I didn’t want to end up in the morgue.”
His eyebrows pinch together. “What?”
“You told Kai Powers to get rid of me, and if he didn’t, Ares would be planning my funeral.”
He laughs a sickening cackle. “I was talking about my assistant.”
“Oh,” I whine softly. Jesus fucking Christ, that makes sense. “She didn’t let me into the office.”
“And for that, she was fired.” Griffin hikes up to me. “She’s gone. No one does that to you and sticks around. I sent that message, and if I had my way, Wren would be in the morgue.”
“I had these insane thoughts,” I confess, getting my breath back.
“That I’d be screwing my assistant?”
“It’s not unheard of, plenty of powerful mafia men—”
“Plenty of mafia men are not married to you.” He crashes his mouth on mine in a deep unnerving kiss.
I give in to it for a moment but then pull away. “Stop. Wait.”
“No. I won’t let this fester. But I have a confession, too. I knew there was a misunderstanding, and I waited to see what you’d do. If you’d fight for me.”
I close my eyes. “I didn’t. I ran.”
“Why?” He releases a heavy sigh when I don’t say anything. “Marriage is hard, huh?”
“Real ones,” I mutter, looking back at him.
“This is real for me, Ava.” He wraps his arms around me. “I didn’t expect it to be. But it is.”
I breathe in his familiar scent, letting it soothe the last shred of fear that lingers in my heart. In his arms, I feel safer and stronger than ever.
I let all of this settle into my chest.
Griffin is my everything. Husband. Protector. Lover. He’ll stand between me and anything, or anyone who threatens me. And I’d do the same for him, a thousand times over. If he’d give me the chance.
“What now?” I say, feeling better.
“Now, I have to clean this up.” He steps back and takes out a handkerchief to wipe his hands before he touches his phone. “And I don’t mean just get rid of the body and wipe out cameras. His whole existence has to be altered.”
“Good. He did terrible things to Jenna.” I say her name so Griffin understands she’s a person to me. Not a blind score to settle.
“He won’t hurt her again. But you can’t be taking matters into your own hands. I can’t eliminate every abuser, Ava.”
“You’re mad.”
“Damn right, I am!” Griffin barks out.
“You don’t trust me. You don’t believe I can defend myself.”
“I know you can defend yourself. I’ve seen it. But even the best and strongest can be taken down. All it takes is one mistake, one split second, and you’re dead. That’s what I know. That’s the first verse in my bible.”
“I can’t help these women unless I know the kind of danger they’re in.”
“You are helping them. I get you don’t want to be seen as a trophy wife, a hypocrite to women who have to fight off real attackers.”
I choke on a sudden sob, shocked at how he gets me. “How can you tell?”
“Because I know you. I’ve known you since day one. I saw right through you the minute I laid eyes on you. I know every desire in your heart and every soul you want to burn to the ground because you’re just like me.”
“We’re not exactly alike.” Something inside me breaks. “You’ve had your brothers with you this whole time. I’ve been alone. Private school. The Navy. Even surrounded by Brandon’s guards, I was alone.”
“That was then, this is now. You’re not an abandoned lion cub stuck in a cage anymore. I’m the one you can count on no matter what. Even if you don’t trust your guards, you should always rely on me . I’d move heaven and earth for you.”
“Griffin,” I mutter, feeling so stupid for what went through my head earlier.
He has fallen for me.
“Don’t ever think asking for help is weakness. I emphatically admit I need you. And our world needs you. For the sake of saving lives. To stop the bloodshed. You did that, Ava. I couldn’t do that.”
“ That’s a stretch for me to believe.” I cross my arms.
“Are you trying to prove something to yourself? Like you don’t need me?” The pain in his voice guts me. “I am your husband, twice over. I married you twice . I will always fight for you. Damn you, siren. Don’t you know how I feel about you? What it does to me that you will carelessly put yourself in danger?”
“I’m trying. With the guards. With you.”
“Even the strongest people have backup. I have Connor. Trace has Rhys because sometimes shit goes wrong.” He grabs my face. “Let me be your support, give me the honor, Lieutenant.” Him calling me by my old rank weakens me. “I’m your RAVEN team now. We are stronger together.”
“Griffin,” I squeak.
“Shhh.” He brings our mouths together again and punishes me with a fiery kiss, our tongues tangled and dancing. “You scared the hell out of me. Twice. Earlier today because you didn’t fight for me. And then just now, making me endure a phone call from your guard that you had vanished. I fucking flipped out.”
I take a breath and add gasoline to the fire. “I have something to tell you that will really make you flip out.”