Chapter Twenty-Two
Wade Cooper
“Stop yanking my hair!” Her sonorous laughter follows right after as she pulls away from me a bit on the sofa.
“I’m not pulling it. I’m only playing with my wife’s hair, you’re just too unromantic to sit still.” I tap her nose playfully as she scrunches her face.
“Well, okay, Mr. Romantic. How many times have I told you I’m not a fan of someone touching my hair?” She returns to my embrace, and I move my hands to her silky blonde hair again but this time, she tries to sit still.
“I’m not just anyone, darling. I’m your husband.” I planted a small kiss on her head, and she snuggled further into my arms.
Then I’m staring at her in shock as I see her shoot one of my men before fighting off another. My feet are unable to move as I watch with horror. No, this can’t be happening. It can’t be her.
Rylie turns to me and for a second, I wish I saw the tiniest amount of regret in her eyes so I can be consoled by her guilt but her usually warm and loving brown eyes are filled with nothing but dread and hatred.
She raises her gun and I feel a bullet piercing my shoulder which makes me fall to my knees. I hear people calling my name but I’m unable to process anything other than the fact that my heart tearing into a million pieces hurts even more than the wound on my shoulder.
She could have easily shot me in the chest or head and killed me, but she aimed directly for my shoulder. Somehow, I hated her more for that.
“Ava!” I burst into the house frantically as I see police officers all around the place. My heart drops as the image of Ava’s lifeless body holding DJ tightly fills my head. Please don’t tell me—
“Wade!” I hear her relieved voice and I rush into the living room, past the policemen to see her on the sofa, clutching a frightened DJ in her arms. Frightened but unharmed.
“Ava, are you okay? Is he hurt anywhere? Where’s the bomb? Has it been deactivated?” I ask all at once and Ava frowns, clearly not understanding what I was trying to say.
“D-DJ is fine, Wade. And what bomb? There’s no bomb.”
I frown at her words. But Daniel definitely said—
“Hey!” I call one of the men who is looking around the house, and he rushes towards me .
“How did the boy arrive here? Have you all done a routine check? All threats of life eliminated?” I ask and he nods his head.
“The boy arrived in a taxi, all alone, and the driver only said he found the boy in the middle of nowhere with this address on a piece of paper pinned to his shirt, so he brought him here. We took his statement, and he was let go. There was no harm to the kid, he seemed shaken up, but the medics already declared him fine.” He explains.
“Son of a—” I cursed under my breath, realizing that Daniel had tricked me. He lured me away from there so he would be able to carry out the deal successfully. And Jordan—
“Pick up the damn phone, Marcus!” I hiss as I dial Marcus’s number.
“Wade, is everything all right?” Ava moves towards me but for the first time, I don’t answer her concerns.
“Yo, Wade. I got your message. We’re currently on our way there—”
“Send just a car to the container and turn the rest back now! Head to the location I’ll send you immediately!” I haphazardly type out an address, but my fingers pause when I remember something.
A ship. The layout of a ship was on the desk amidst the guns and drugs. I know where I’ve seen that layout before. Arden is a bastard. No wonder he wanted me to leave this case, the fucking military is behind this organization.
Daniel was only trying to play with my mind when he got a text from the same address we raided five years ago. I changed the location and sent them how to get to the Port instead. “Move there now!” I hung up the call before I ran out of the house .
“Wade!” Ava calls from behind me and I turn back to see her standing by the door as she stares at me longingly. “Be safe.” She says and even though I feel she had something more to say, I simply nod and get into my car before driving away.
I know that Jordan will be in danger, but I needed to get there first. I trust the police to handle Daniel for me.
The next scene happened fast. I got to the ship minutes before the police began their raid. Even though the ship was owned by military personnel as I suspected, we were able to break in and capture those involved in the illicit business.
Daniel had tried to escape by attacking Jordan, but Jordan was able to handle him and hold him down until the police arrived.
“Great job, Cooper.” Marcus comes to stand next to me as we watch the police take the drug dealers into custody. “You finally cracked the case you’ve been obsessed with for years.”
I sigh and pain shoots through my shoulder to remind me that I’m not as immortal as I thought. “Thanks.” I wince even though the word congratulations puts a sour taste in my mouth.
“You should get that wound checked out. An infected one is worse than a fresh one.” He thumps my back before heading to his car.
My phone rings and I see it’s Arden calling. “Hey, Coops.” His hoarse voice greets me over the phone.
“Hey, Arden.” I say with a tinge of sarcasm .
“I called to congratulate you. I see you lived up to your stubbornness and solved one of your biggest cases.” Arden says with a sick chuckle following.
I was right. Arden’s signature was all over this. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he didn’t know what was going on in his ship as it was easy for those guys to bribe the pilots to run their business in from dungeons, but seeing how swiftly he called me as we rounded up the dealers after the raid, he was definitely in on it.
“I told you, Arden. I would never back down from the case.” I grit, wanting to smack his face and see his pain.
Five years ago, and now. He knew everything. Possibly he might have even planted Rylie to get into my head when he saw how invested I was in his little side business. How hadn’t I suspected him even for a second?
“You really did say so. Anyway, you can still ring me when you’re finally interested in taking up my offer.”
“So I can be your little sniffing dog? I’d rather not, Arden. You can take your offer and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.” I hung up before moving to my car.
I pray for Ava’s sake that this is the end of this gruesome case.
* * * *
“Wade.” Ava rushes to hug me as I enter the house at night after driving back with a sore shoulder and a bruised face. “Oh, God, I thought you were never going to come back.” She rests her forehead on my chest and breathes out slowly .
“I will always come back to you, no matter what.” I ran my thumb over her lips. “Where’s DJ?”
“Asleep, I thought he would have a hard time falling asleep, but he slept like a lamb. The police advised me to take him to a therapist to ensure what happened doesn’t affect his mental state, so we’ll be going to tomorrow.”
“Good. That’s very good.” I smiled and instantly regretted it when a sharp pain shot up my jaw.
“Gosh, your face is…” Ava trails off as she looks at me.
“A beautiful mess? I know.” I wince again as my shirt grazes the wound on my shoulder.
“Come, let me fix you up.” Ava takes me to her room and orders me to shower so she can clean my wounds. I take a deep and thorough bath, careful not to apply too much pressure on the wound.
Ava helps me with my clothes and after changing, she bandages my injuries with her forehead creased in worry.
We climb into bed right after, basking in each other’s warmth and the calm aftermath of the drama that has been in our lives for the past months.
“Do you know why I decided to name my son Daniel?” Ava says quietly in the dark and I can faintly see her eyes staring at me.
“Probably not because you wanted him to be like his jerk of a father?” I mutter and Ava chuckles lightly .
“Of course not. I named him Daniel not because of him, but because of my mother’s first love.”
“Ooh, I’m intrigued.” I nuzzle closer to hear what she has to say.
“After my father left us, my mother hardly ever talked about him or any other man in particular, until one night. I was young, maybe twelve, thirteen? And that was the first time I saw my mother drinking. Then, she told me about the man who made her believe in love. Daniel.” Ava smiles.
“He was the son of the richest farmer in the countryside where my mother grew up, but she said he was the sweetest, gentlest, and kindest person you could ever meet. They were paired together for an assignment in school and that’s how they fell in love.”
“A little cliche, I should say.” I huff and Ava laughs.
“Yes, but it was the most beautiful experience for my mother. She described their love as a dandelion puff. White, pure, and light. But two years later, Daniel went to the city to further his studies and never came back. She wrote him letters, but she was too scared to send them, believing he would want nothing to do with a country girl. Despite that, her love for him burned in her chest for so long even after she had me and that was everything she held onto then.”
“I saw how her eyes sparkled when she spoke about how he used to make her smile with his silly jokes or how much of a gentleman he was to her, the opposite of my father. It should have been horrible for a little girl to listen to her mother talk about loving another man other than her father but for me, Daniel became the epitome of love.” Her voice shakes at the end, and I took her hand .
“So, when I got the chance to meet my own Daniel, I thought it would be just the same as my mother, or even more beautiful but I was so wrong. Sometimes, I wonder if that’s why I tried so hard to make our relationship work, because I believed that ‘Daniel’ was love. I also wonder what would have happened if my mother had sent those letters. Would Daniel have replied? Would he have come back for her? Maybe the reason my mother never remarried after my father was because somewhere in her heart, she was still waiting for her Daniel to return.”
I scoot closer and place a chaste kiss on her lips before pulling back by a millimeter. Our eyes meet in the dark and I know there’s no way I’m letting go of this woman.
“From now on, I will be your very own Daniel.” I uttered and a wide smile spread across her face.