30. Rhett
Rhett
T he week after we return from New York, a wedge of tension I can’t shake starts to grow. I know Ana feels it too. She asks about the women at the gala a lot, and while we successfully saved those in the car being taken from the venue, we didn’t find them all.
Two of the jewelry items sold that night were unaccounted for.
A set of sapphire earrings and the ruby necklace that sold for far higher than anything else.
It keeps me on a sharp edge. I don’t like loose ends, unfinished business.
It leaves me itching and volatile with a want to hunt down Jacob Forthson as the event organizer.
Personally, my way. I want to kill that son of a bitch with the eyes he set on Ana, and when he grabbed her .
.. I almost lost my whole fucking composure right there.
I can’t stop replaying the moment of torment at seeing the monster from my past and slaying him.
He got off too fucking easily, and I don’t know what I would have done with him if Ana hadn’t been there.
She’s only caught a glimpse of what I am, and the fear won’t leave me that she’ll run if she keeps pushing to see more.
Maybe I want her to. I’m too much of a sick, selfish bastard to want to keep her, and the only way for her to be spared from the clutches of sin is to save herself.
I swipe my phone, picking up before Rix’s second ring.
“Tell me you have something,” I snap.
“Does Allie get this kind of aggressive reception?”
I don’t deign to answer.
“Didn’t think so. Listen, man, I don’t have anything good.
Like, it’s never good with the shit we do, but there’s nothing on where those two items went.
They definitely got sold—anonymous buyers, of course.
But then it’s like they vanished. Not even Allie can find a trace through her rich-people connections, and this is some high-value shit. ”
I remember the ruby necklace. The woman’s face.
We’ve scanned every missing-persons database and we can’t find her.
Someone who sold for millions, I would guess, to someone of high profile.
The sapphire earrings I don’t recall seeing at all at the casino, nor at the gala.
The women were each wearing replicas of what was sold on stage.
At the casino, those women walked around with them like fucking price tags that only those browsing for the gala auction knew about.
“Keep searching,” I grumble.
“Yes, boss.”
I hang up, trying to convince myself my bad feelings are irrational.
That they’re only because I’m terrified since Ana is now in the sights of someone as powerful and dangerous as Jacob Forthson.
I should have sniffed him out sooner, done better due diligence for that trip to New York, and made sure Ana never fucking set foot there.
I take deep breaths. I know better than anyone that when the damage is done there’s no gain in fixating on all that could have been prevented.
All I can do is make sure Ana stays safe, and that’s all that matters to me now.
I find Ana in the gym. She’s so damn sexy when she does her cool-down stretches.
Her face brightens when she sees me, and my chest fucking aches.
I never should have allowed her to worm her way into it, but now the beaten, cold, and broken thing that beats in me belongs to her.
There’s no getting it back, and I don’t care if she’s the one to end me once and for all.
“Hey, you,” she says as she jumps up. So preciously happy, but I know she hasn’t forgotten a thing about New York and it burdens her too. She tries to be our balance when I don’t have it in me to shed any light. Here she is, making sure the darkness can’t smother me.
“Here to get your ass kicked? I swear I’m getting there.”
I chuckle at that. She’s certainly advanced her combat skills since she started training with me. Ana absorbs everything like a sponge, and her determination to succeed in anything she puts her mind to is like fanning a fire I want to always burn in the heat of.
“I want to take you somewhere,” I say. “Can you be ready in an hour?”
She eyes me with teasing suspicion as she finishes a long drink of water. “Do I get a clue?”
“We’re going to see a friend of mine, but that’s not the best part.”
Her brow hooks, excitement skipping her step. “Intriguing. I’ll be ready in forty-five minutes then.”
When I spot the shoulder-length, wavy brown hair of my old friend, Xavier Laith, his bright grin breaks on me too. I’m not a very sentimental man—not anymore—but Xavier is the only fragment of my past life that remains, and it’ll always bring pain and gratitude to see him.
“It’s good to see you, man,” Xavier says as our hands meet and we pull in for an embrace. “Was beginning to think you’d forgotten eight years of bonding in the police and SWAT trenches together.”
“Never,” I say. My arm naturally curves around Ana. “This is Anastasia Kinsley.”
“Our future first daughter,” he muses.
I don’t respond to the suggestive side-eye he gives me.
Ana’s father won the presidency election last month.
The night filled their estate with so much press and so many politicians high with stress and anticipation.
She could hardly contain her own nerves with the suspense, and I distracted her most of the night, both of us curled up watching movies in the cinema room until the results came in.
I didn’t expect to be proud of President Kinsley, but Ana’s joy and his humble win that night made me see why she looked up to him so dearly.
“I was beginning to wonder if he’d made you up so he wouldn’t seem like such a loner,” Ana says.
Xavier chuckles. “He’s still a loner when he’s forgotten how to pick up the phone every once in a while. Not for illegal favors,” he mock-scolds.
“Ahh, so you’re to blame for the security breech,” Ana concludes.
For a second Xavier shifts nervously on his feet. “That bastard better get more years behind bars than me if he pisses you off enough to spill.”
“Your illicit activities are safe with me, Agent,” she teases.
Something possessive in me stirs with the way she addresses him. Technically, Xavier is the only real agent here, but I’ve grown to like the way she uses the title on me.
Ana surveys our surroundings. The compound out the back is where we head to, and she keeps patient, surprisingly.
Christmas is only a few short weeks away, and I figure now is the best time to present her with the idea that’s been probing my mind.
Xavier unlocks the back compound and then there’s no hiding where we are.
Slipping away from me with a small gasp, Ana skims her hand along the fences of the kennels as some of the dogs bark at the intrusion. The awe on her face is priceless.
“Shadow may be at the end of his working life, but he still has a lot of years left to give. I’m glad you called for this, even if not just to see me,” Xavier says, heading deeper through the kennels. “He’s a champ and he deserves a good, spoiled retirement.”
Ana follows after him, confusion furrowing her brow. When he stops at the end kennel, they stare at a stunning all-black German shepherd lying peacefully at the back of his stall. I watch Ana as she crouches and coaxes the dog to come over.
“He’s being retired? What happens to him now?” she says with a hint of sadness, poking her fingers through the fence.
Xavier finds the key he’s looking for and jams it into the kennel.
“He’s yours,” I say.
Her head whips up to me. “Mine? There’s no way my father will agree.”
“He already has.”
Her lips part in shock and she stands as the stall swings open, but the dog stays put.
“Come,” Xavier commands.
Shadow doesn’t miss a beat.
“Heel.”
The dog sits, peering up at him and waiting for the next instruction.
“I’m going to miss him. I’m not his handler, but he was one of our top dogs for many great years.”
Ana falls to her knees fully, calling the dog’s name, and with Xavier’s permission the dog relaxes, nuzzling into Ana like a bear.
She giggles, the most joyous sound in the world, hugging the beast. I don’t realize I’m smiling like an idiot watching their interaction until my gaze wanders up to find Xavier smirking at me.
“He’ll learn quickly who his new owner is,” Xavier explains. “If you guys have time, I’d like to run over some training with you for him so you know his commands and traits.”
Ana sniffs and I move like clockwork to her, crouching and scanning her face, not expecting the watery eyes.
“If you don’t want?—”
“Of course I do.” She cuts me off. “He’s perfect. I just didn’t expect it. And I have no idea how you convinced my father when I’ve been trying for years to even get a tiny thing.”
My fingers trail her spine over her jacket. “Shadow comes with the perk of being a big, scary police dog pretty much capable of replacing me for your protection.”
She leans into me with a laugh that’s a partial sigh of emotion.
“Plus, you said you wanted to get your own apartment when your father takes office. He’ll help your case with the added protection detail too.”
Ana sniffs again, looking at me like I’ve given her the world when I’m not even close to that yet.
A part of me wants to recoil at the thoughts slamming into me that come with so much terror and taunts that I’ll repeat the past. I want to swear to her, to myself, that we’ll have the time for me to give her everything she deserves and more, but that feels too fragile of a promise.
One I’ve broken with someone before. With Ana .
.. I won’t survive losing her even to seek vengeance.
I kiss the crown of her head. “Merry Christmas, Ana.”
“All right, you two, let’s get to work so we can grab dinner too. I’m starved,” Xavier says, clapping his gloved hands together.