Chapter 43
“ A ll clear in back,” Ryan said over the mind comms.
“Roger that.” Kane stole from the shadows of the neighboring building to the rear door of the warehouse. Their simple plan to draw the Diablos out with gunfire proved to be a success. One by one, the hostiles positioned at the back had abandoned their positions to join the fight up front, leaving an unguarded infiltration point.
“The rear room you are entering has one heat signature. The room it leads into has two.”
Kane nodded to himself as he fired a V-Strike into the lock on the door handle. It took less than five seconds for the metal to melt. He could assume Beth and one of the Chavezes, or maybe a guard, were in the second room. They’d be stupid to leave her alone.
Unless she was dead.
No. His sugarplum was strong. She’d not only survived but flourished when most would have deteriorated into a shell of the person they used to be. Instead, she’d become the person he’d fallen head over combat boots for.
The tempo of the gunshots from the front of the building slowed but didn’t stop. If this had been any other mission, he wouldn’t have appreciated hiding outside while the others engaged with guns and V-Strikes, but he’d do whatever it took to achieve his goal.
Tell Beth he loved her.
Marry her.
Make supersmart babies.
If Ryan’s intel was correct, his new life plan of serving his country while he loved the most incredible woman in the world was only two rooms away.
He pushed the outer door open with his boot far enough to enter. A woman hung from the ceiling. The blinding light from above cast her in a flaming, distorted aura. His flesh-and-bone knee buckled. His super leg held him up.
No.
He ripped off his helmet. Nausea tore through his gut. Tears blurred his eyes as the wind whipped through the open door. The body shifted. Straight blonde hair, not brown curls, came into focus. He breathed again.
Evangeline.
He ran to her as an image of Jenna’s beaten, lifeless face morphed into Beth’s. For so long, he’d feared leaving someone behind if he died. He didn’t like the tables being turned.
He checked her pulse. It beat steady beneath his fingers. “Evangeline is bound and unconscious in the rear room. Heading into the second room. Status?”
Ryan confirmed there were still two heat signatures as Kane skirted around Evangeline and headed for the door. As he gripped the handle, Evangeline moaned behind him.
He spun and froze again.
A slim man in black held Evangeline by the throat. His knife pressed into the hollow of her neck. Kane didn’t need to ask how he’d evaded the thermal imaging. He recognized the head covering and tight clothes that cloaked heat signatures.
Kane itched to take him out with a V-Strike, but if Beth wasn’t in the room behind him, he needed him to talk. “Stop hiding like a pussy and tell me where the Black Widow is.”
The pussy pulled off the head covering. Dark hair spilled out in waves. “Why don’t you tell me about whatever it is you did last night at the safe house that nobody can explain?”
Kane didn’t answer. He just stared at a miniature, feminine Chavez. “You must be the other dead twin.”
“I’m very much alive, but if you hurt me, she’ll be dead.” She pressed the tip of her knife into Evangeline’s neck. Evangeline moaned but didn’t open her eyes.
Kane shook off the shock. “I don’t care about her.”
The female Chavez laughed. “But you do care about the cazampulga, and she’s on the other side of that door with my brother. Answer my questions and maybe I’ll?—”
Fire!
The V-Strike Kane aimed at her shoulder found its mark. She dropped her knife and howled in pain.
He spun to the door to the second room and lunged for it. As it swung open, another surprise rooted him to the ground.
Beth spun and kicked her stalker square in the gut. As he sailed across the room, she squeezed the trigger. The bullet plunged into the center of his forehead. She held her breath as the life left his eyes and he became number four.
“Beth.”
She spun to the voice that sounded sweeter than church bells.
Kane was here .
Alive.
Tears streaked down her cheeks as she drank in every living, breathing detail of the beautiful, lethal man she loved.
He slid over the desk as if he couldn’t waste precious seconds walking around it. Instead of pulling her to him, he gently cupped her cheeks and held her as if he’d never let her go. What she felt in her heart—fear, relief, respect, love—shone in his gaze.
“My God, Beth.” His lips brushed her temple. “That was incredible. Are you hurt?”
She tucked her injured arm under her breasts and gripped one of the biceps she loved so much with her good hand. “Yes, but I’ll be okay. I killed my stalker. He was Chavez’s brother and Henry Richardson?—”
He held up his hand to silence her. A moment later, he smiled. “Nic reported all hostiles are down, including the other Chavez. The FBI just arrived. The team is helping them sort the mess out.”
“Thank heavens.” All the emotions she’d struggled with the past two years—fear, tension, anger, despair—along with the freedom to love gathered behind her eyes. The onslaught pushed more tears over her lashes. “Can we go home and celebrate Christmas now? I have so much I want to tell you and so much to?—”
A shot peeled from behind her. Kane’s hand flew to the side of his head. She screamed his name as his eyes rolled back in their sockets. Another deafening shot from the same direction rent the air. She launched herself at Kane and dropped them to the ground.
“Oh, God.” More pleas streamed from her lips in torrents as she rolled off him. Blood peppered his face. She heard Chris shout over her screams. Heard a woman’s voice over the pounding of her heart, but Kane didn’t open his eyes. Sobbing harder, she clamped one hand over the blood and cupped his cheek with the other as her nightmare hurtled to reality.
More people rushed into the room, but she didn’t look away from the blood seeping through her fingers. Battling the panic seizing her rib cage and the organ beating erratically inside it, she begged the rational part of her brain to assure her it was only a flesh wound. The rational part was nowhere to be found.
No, she couldn’t do this again. Danny had been hard enough, but God, the thought of losing Kane ripped a hole in the heart he’d healed. “Please. Don’t die. You’re supposed to be invincible.” She pressed her palm harder to his wound.
Chris pried her hands away from Kane’s head.
She heard his words, but they didn’t register over her pleas. “Wake up, dammit, so I can yell at you about not wearing your freaking helmet.”
Someone tried to pull her away. She held tight to the man she loved and dropped her lips to his. “You are not number four. Do you hear me, cowboy? Not. Number. Four.”
The side of Kane’s head burned like he’d hugged a blowtorch, but he slogged through the fire toward the sound of Beth’s voice. Each desperate plea, each rise to her hysterical demand that he not be number four, brought him closer until his mouth stirred against hers.
“I hear ya, sugarplum.”
“Kane.” She bolted upright. Relief and a dozen other emotions he felt in his own heart shook her so hard her lips fought to form another word. She sniffed back tears as more flowed. “Thank God. I was so afraid you’d?—”
He gripped her cheeks in his hands. “Don’ t even say it.” He never wanted to hear her say number four again. “A flesh wound may hurt like hell, but not even a nuclear missile could take me away from you.”
Nothing would. Not a curse. Not his fears. Not any enemy the world might throw at them.
She swatted him lightly on the chest. “It could if you’re not wearing your helmet, asshole.”
His heart sang at her snark. Man, she was tough. And she was all his. “I only took it off because I thought you were the one hanging from the ceiling back there.” He wrapped his hand around her neck and pulled her to him. “Christ, Beth, I thought I’d lost you.” He’d also thought he’d understood the meaning of “no regrets.” Apparently, it took taking a bullet too close to his brain and the woman of his dreams begging him not to die to make him understand the true meaning. As he held her to his chest and absorbed every inch of the incredible woman he’d almost lost, he vowed never to forget this lesson. “No more wasting time, Beth. Got it? You’re mine and I’m yours.”
“ Dios Mio . Will you two just get a room?”
Beth lifted her head and swung it to the woman sandwiched between Nic and Linc. She pointed to the feminine-looking Chavez. “You must be my stalker’s twin.”
“I’m Valentina, the weak female, locked safely away from my family’s enemies.” She snorted. “That didn’t work out so well for Mama.” She cocked her head to a beefy body on the floor. “I saved your boyfriend’s ass from my cousin’s second bullet. He’s always been a crappy first shot, but for some reason, he gets the hang of it with the next one.”
Beth peered at Steroids. The bullet hole in his forehead matched the one she’d delivered to her stalker. “He’s your cousin?”
Valentina shrugged. “ Was my cousin a few times removed. That didn’t make him any less of a douchebag than my brothers.”
Nic snickered. “Are you sure we have to turn her in to the FBI? I like her.”
Of course, Nic liked the exotic sprite with a badass attitude.
Kane accepted a towel Chris pressed into his hand and sat up. “Thank you, Valentina.”
Beth helped ease him to a sitting position. “Yes. Thank you. You have no idea how much we appreciate what you did.”
“You’re welcome.”
Sincerity shone in her mischievous eyes as she linked one arm through Nic’s and the other through Linc’s. “Come on, boys. Take me to your leader so I can ask for asylum from my fucked-up familia .”
Chris laughed. “And Scarlett thinks dealing with Henry Richardson as a stepfather is tough.”
Valentina cursed. “That man is almost as evil as my mother.”
“No wonder you want to defect.” Chris patted Kane’s shoulder. “I’ll send in an EMT for you two.” As he rose from the floor, he pulled something out of his pocket and dropped it in Beth’s lap. “Based on the puddle of puke over there, which I’m guessing came from you, you’re going to need that.”
Beth looked down at the pack of spearmint gum as she brought her hand to her mouth. “Does my breath smell that bad?”
“Yeah, it does.” Kane leaned his head toward hers. “But I’m going to kiss you anyway.”
She put her hands between their faces. “Not yet.” She tore into the pack, stuffed a stick in her mouth, and chewed. A moment later, Kane claimed her lips. The mint, the tender way she held his face in her hands, careful not to touch any of his wounds but a whisper away if he needed her to soothe them, erased the aftertaste of his fears.
Beth pulled back. He tugged her back down to him, but she resisted. “Give me a second to stare into those eyes I plan to get lost in forever now that you’ve helped me find myself.” A smile reached her watery gaze. “I’m not a black widow. My curse is dead.”
“Thank fuck.” He swiped his finger over a patch of dried blood on her chin. “How did you kill it?”
“With the invincible love of a marvelously incredible superhero.”
He laughed. The rich sound rumbled through his body like a healing massage. “Well, sugarplum. I am all those things, but I’m not as invincible as I’d like to be.” He linked his fingers through hers. “Neither are you, but we’ll be okay. Together.” He kissed her lightly on the lips. “I heard there’s a midnight mass tonight, and I may have promised a kid named Madalynn she could be our flower girl. Want to have a Christmas wedding?”
She shook her head. “Seems like I’m going to have to be the sensible one in the relationship. You’re going to the hospital, and we are not getting married tonight.”
A newfound fear flamed the burning in his head. “Why the hell not? Gran says you’re the woman for me. She has a weird sixth sense about stuff like this, and she’s never wrong.”
Beth kissed him until his lips perked into a smile again. “I’ve been afraid to fall in love for two years because of my so-called curse. Now that I’ve killed and buried it, I don’t want to miss a thing about being in a relationship. I want the whole shebang. Besides, Scarlett and Chris need to get married. I can’t be the best maid of honor ever if I’m planning our wedding. In the meantime, you can ask me on dates, woo me with flowers, take me dancing, teach me to ride Holly Jolly, let me drive Gran’s Buick…”
He touched his fingers to her lips. “Don’t forget tell you each and every day how madly I’ve fallen in love with you.”
“Good, because I’m madly, deeply in love with you too.”
“No regrets, Beth. That’s how we live.”
She raised their linked hands and kissed their entwined fingers. “That’s how we live. Forever.”