Chapter 37
Hudson bit his tongue so hard it bled as he saw a body roll out of the van. Without waiting for the SUV to stop, he yanked open the door and jumped out. His feet hit the pavement. He absorbed the impact and rolled.
He tapped on the earpiece the General had given him as he lurched to his feet. “Going after Tessa. Secure the van.”
Without waiting for a response, he raced toward a tall, broad figure running in the direction of the body. It had to be Tessa who’d rolled out of the vehicle. The piece-of-shit smugglers wouldn’t run after Frank. He was disposable. The woman he loved was not.
Hudson cursed as the smuggler disappeared down the dark embankment into the trees. Tires screeched behind him.
“The van is fleeing,” the General said in his ear. “Taking pursuit.”
“Go. I got this.” Running at an angle, Hudson charged down the hill. The feral rush sharpened him into a weapon with one purpose—reaching Tessa.
The clouds shifted, as if the unharnessed power coursing through his body tore a hole in the sky. A sliver of moonlight caught the smuggler as he careened down the hill toward the tree line. Hudson raised his weapon again and fired.
The smuggler’s body jerked. The man grunted and grabbed his upper arm. Pitching forward, he disappeared behind a picnic table.
A gunshot jolted the gangly branches above Tessa. Reverberations shuddered down the trunk she’d crashed into and fractured through her prone body. The faint scent of bourbon slid into the cracks and gathered in her nostrils.
Hudson.
She opened her mouth to scream his name, to yell at him to forget about her, but no air moved in or out of her lungs.
Hudson had come.
He’d found her.
Risked his life because he truly loved her.
No, no, no—
Her breath jammed further down her body.
Breathe. Breathe. Bre—
A shuddering inhale tore open her lungs. She snapped her gaze up the hill just as Shadow barreled toward her, his twisted features flashing in the moonlight.
He slammed into her, smashing her against the tree again.
The fear she’d locked in a cage exploded from its prison.
Frank wasn’t the only threat trying to steal the beauty in her life anymore.
The father she hated and feared, yet still loved, had somehow become her hero in this nightmare game where the villains were real and ruthless and where everyone she loved was a player.
Shadow hauled her up by the hair. Her voice returned on a whimper as she clawed and screamed until her lungs burned. Through the darkness and fear swirling in her vision, she caught sight of her superhero.
“Hudson.” Her voice cracked as Shadow raised his weapon. “Run.”
Pain knifed through Hudson’s bicep as Tessa’s warning tore through the gunshot’s boom. The bullet didn’t stop him.
Didn’t hurt him.
Didn’t break him.
But realizing the reason Tessa had taken the ring off hit him harder than a bullet.
The woman he’d fallen completely and hopelessly in love with had just screamed at him to leave her with a human trafficker. He didn’t know what threat she was protecting him from, but, fuck, if her selfless actions didn’t piss him off and make his heart burst at the same time.
Weapon steady, unlike his pulse, he forced himself to slow down and assess Tessa’s condition.
The barrel of a gun pressed against a knotted bruise on her temple.
Fear burned in her eyes like wildfire. Mascara-saturated tears trailed down to an angry bruise on her cheek almost as dark as her burgundy gown.
Rage flamed in his own cheeks and spread to his hand holding the gun. “Let her go.”
Tessa shook her head. “You shouldn’t have come, Hudson. They said if you showed up and ruined their plans again, they’d blow up the mansion with everyone in it.”
Like hell they would. Hudson tapped on his earpiece. “Get everyone out of the house and sweep for explosives.”
Ragged relief tore from Tessa’s throat. Her ruined gown clung to her trembling frame.
Dirt clumped to her scratched bare knee.
The subtle lift to her torso and her shallow breaths suggested her ribs were as damaged as his.
Yet despite all the pain and fear she’d endured tonight, she’d not only sacrificed herself for him, but for everyone he loved.
And she thought he was the superhero.
He didn’t have to force a chuckle into the words he knew would give her something else to focus on besides the gun to her head and her worry for him. “I appreciate that you protected me, but that’s not the way this relationship works, little thief. I do the protecting.”
The fear in Tessa’s frenzied gaze shifted. “What?”
The enforcer spat blood on the ground. “Shut up, you two.” More blood dripped from the corner of his lower lip.
Pieces of grass clung to his chin and dammed up the flow, but nothing stopped the bullet hole in the arm clamped around Tessa’s waist from darkening his black T-shirt with a crimson stain.
“I wasn’t talking to you, asshole.” Hudson held his aim and inched closer. “I’m talking to my woman.”
The enforcer shifted the gun to Tessa’s bruised cheek. “Don’t come any closer, or I’ll kill her.”
Tessa’s harsh cry pierced Hudson’s heart. He halted his advance.
Dammit. He’d shot to incapacitate, not kill, so they could get information about the smuggling operation.
Now his finger pulsed against the trigger.
He could take the enforcer out as easily as he could have snapped Nathaniel’s neck, but Tessa already had nightmares.
He couldn’t add more fuel to her trauma.
Watching him kill a man—and he’d have to go for the fatal shot to ensure she didn’t get hurt—might irrevocably break something inside her too. He’d never forgive himself if he caused her more pain.
He pulled air into his nose, slow and steady.
Tessa’s rose scent redirected his brutal thoughts, but he didn’t ease his finger from the trigger.
Instead of squeezing, he harnessed his fury and switched tactics like he’d done in the car with Nathaniel.
Except this time, the caring doctor who had coaxed out information wasn’t on duty.
“You won’t kill her.” He held back a chuckle as the enforcer’s eye twitched.
He’d meant for his tight, sardonic tone to be taken as a statement of absolute fact and a dire-level warning.
“Damaged goods won’t fetch a high price from your buyers.
And based on our intel, the punishment for delivering compromised cargo is steep.
Deadly steep if the product isn’t delivered at all. ”
“There’s plenty of time for her to heal before being delivered.”
Hudson forced his trigger finger not to squeeze. “Do you mean she’ll be good as new after being locked up for days, weeks, in international waters? That reasoning is about as stupid as you standing here and…”
He caught Tessa’s gaze. Fear and fury radiated from every pore.
Good. He needed her ready to fight.
He let a smile carve his lips and prayed the cockiness pissed her off enough to understand the message he couldn’t say out loud.
Pumping up the arrogance, he slid his focus to the enforcer. “Well, your plan to deliver her as good as new is about as ridiculous as you thinking you’re going to take off with what’s mine.”
Tessa’s eyes popped, outrage flaring through her fear. “What’s yours? I’m still mad at you for—”
The enforcer jammed the gun harder into her cheek. “Both of you shut the fuck up.”
“No, you shut up.” She craned her neck as far as she could and looked at the enforcer. “I’m not his, or anyone’s property.”
“I don’t know about that.” Hudson edged closer. “Once you become my wife…”
Her inhale this time wasn’t born from pain. Her mouth dropped open. She picked up her jaw just as quickly. “Your wife? Are you seriously asking me to marry you while this guy holds me hostage?”
“I don’t have time for this shit.” The enforcer tightened his hold. “Tell your boyfriend to get the fuck out of here, or I’ll shoot him.”
Hudson shrugged. “You can try, but as soon as you move that gun from her face and aim at me, I’ll pull the trigger. I can promise you I’m quicker, and I don’t miss.”
“You missed before.”
“No, I didn’t. Let her go, and you can run away before the cops get here.” As if on cue, sirens blared in the distance. “I’ll give you a head start while I get down on one knee and properly ask the most incredible woman I’ve ever met to marry me.”
The enforcer darted his gaze in the direction of the sirens.
Tessa jammed her elbow into her captor. “Go, you dumbass. I don’t want a bunch of cops swarming around while he proposes.”
Sweat poured from the enforcer’s hairline and into his eyes. He blinked once. Twice. The sirens grew closer. He raised his elbow to wipe the sweat.
Hudson held his breath as the gun cleared Tessa’s face. “Duck.”
Tessa pitched her body to the side. Hudson lined up his sight with the enforcer’s exposed shoulder and pulled the trigger. Tessa hit the ground and rolled as the bullet slammed into the smuggler’s flesh.
Sirens clanged with the shockwaves as the enforcer lunged at Hudson.
They both went down on the hard dirt. Hudson lost his grip on his gun.
The enforcer landed on top of him and cocked his uninjured arm.
Pain shot down Hudson’s wrist and up into his gunshot wound as he flipped the enforcer underneath him and straddled his thighs. “Time to quit, asshole.”
A burgundy shoe slammed onto the enforcer’s chest. Hudson followed the line of Tessa’s ankle up her bruised body to her beautiful, black-and-blue face.
The click of a bullet loading the chamber cut through the sirens.
The words Hudson couldn’t wait to say slid out as moonlight lit her up like a fiery goddess with a gun.
“I love you so much, little thief.”
Someone yelled their names, but all he heard was the sound of his heart beating in time with the wild beauty standing above him. “You look like a bonfire. Hot, dangerous, and impossible to resist.”
She laughed and sniffed at the same time as two police officers rushed toward them. “I am dangerous with a gun.” She pressed her heel harder into the enforcer’s chest. “I’ve never seen a bonfire. Will you build one on the beach for me someday?”
“I’ll light up the whole coastline for you, every day for the rest of your life, little thief.”
She handed the gun to a police officer as Hudson rose. She was in his arms before his feet hit solid ground.
Gently, as if the tough woman who’d just held a smuggler at gunpoint might break, he placed a hand on her ribs. “You’re hurt.”
“It doesn’t hurt as much as thinking I’d lost you.” She cupped his face in her hands as a crowd gathered around them. “I love you so much, Dr. Hudson Langley. Thank you for finding me.”
“Always.” He brushed his lips against hers and smiled against her mouth. “Pop left you to me and I have no intention of letting you go.”
She pulled her head back. Her breath caught on a laugh. “Shit, that hurts, and you’re not wrong. You do own my heart.”
“Oh yeah?” He dropped to his knees and placed a kiss on her stomach. “I can think of a few other parts of your body I own. I plan to spend forever worshipping them if you’ll have me.”
She grazed her teeth across her lower lip. “Is that your proposal?”
A throat cleared next to them.
Hudson whipped his head to Malcolm. “Can’t you see we’re busy?”
“Um, in case you two haven’t noticed, half of D.C.’s police force and the FBI are watching.” He looked at Tessa. “Tell Hudson you’ll spend the rest of your life worshipping him too so these people can do their jobs.”
She laughed again as tears filled her eyes. “I already do worship him, and plan to for the rest of my life. In our home. On our beach.”
“For the rest of our lives.” Hudson rose and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sure Pop is insufferably pleased to hear that.”
She rose on her toes and brushed a kiss over his lips. “Sounds perfect, but we need to add wherever life takes us to the ‘rest of our lives’ part.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She took his hand and placed it on her cheek. “Because wherever you go, Hudson, I go.”