49
ETHAN
“I want a babymoon.” Aurora’s soft voice resonates in my mind, the memory of us snuggled in bed unexpectedly emerging.
The sun streamed through the sheer curtains, casting rays of light across the hardwood while leaving us in its shadow. Jax was in the gym, putting in an early morning workout, but I was too content to get up just yet.
“Like a light-up moon that hangs in the nursery?” I kiss her forehead and weave my fingers through her long, thick hair. “Order one, and we’ll get it installed.”
“No.” She giggled and gazed at me with those wicked eyes. “Like a honeymoon. A vacation you take before the baby is born to spend time together.”
I mentally checked dates but couldn’t find availability for a vacation until February. I doubted she’d want to travel during her last month of pregnancy.
“I’m not sure we have time for that, baby girl. We can plan something for this summer. We’ll take EJ; we have plenty of help.”
“Okay,” she whispered and kissed my chest.
I heard the disappointment in her tone and ignored it, shrugging it off as part of our chaotic lives. I made it up to her with my lips and tongue, but I swear on everything holy, if we make it through this night, I’m taking her on a damn babymoon.
Jax falls to his knees beside me, burying his face in my shoulder, sobbing silently. His arm wraps around the front of me, fingers gripping my neck desperately while his other hand holds the phone in his lap.
I press my head to his. “Be strong for me, just a little longer. Channel that hurt and fear into anger.”
He clenches and unclenches his jaw, the muscle furrowing against my clammy skin.
“Come on, baby. I need you to keep us safe. After this, we’ll go wherever you wanna go. You wanna go to New York? We’ll go to New York. No one will ever hurt us again. I promise you.”
“Units are four minutes out. Several more headed to the house,” Reece adds, his eyes half-lidded.
“This was premeditated. Hugo knew you wouldn’t allow him to threaten Aurora.
Maybe he was following you. Maybe he came here to cause a distraction, to draw me out, hoping to get Aurora alone.
She’s their insurance policy—the only way to disrupt the investigation.
You just happened to be here, and they took their shot.
Either way, they were going to do something .
It was only a matter of time. We all put protections in place, and they won’t expect the twins or Charlie to defend her. ”
There’s a puddle of blood underneath him, and his left arm, the one between us, lies limp.
He tried to stand when we connected to the home security app and heard the commotion.
Blood dripped steadily from his fingers, and he lost his balance, grabbing the metal shelving before he lowered himself back to the floor.
Jax lifts his head to give him a pained glare. “What if this is your partner’s doing?”
“My partner armed the twins. Would he do that if he was involved?” Reece sucks in a labored breath. “Would your father’s fan club need to break windows if Charlie was on their side? No, he’d be letting them in the front door.”
“Where is he then?” Jax snaps, despair sharp in his tone.
“Take a breath. I saved his life. He’ll save mine.” Reece’s lids droop, and his words become a mumble.
I adjust my posture, coming up on my knees to apply more pressure to his upper chest and relieve my aching shoulders.
“I don’t give a fuck what he does, as long as he kills them all.
” On the outside, I’m vacant, my voice emotionless.
I can’t say I’m numb—far from it. Rage and wrath have suppressed empathy and rationality.
I want what’s mine, and I want this night to be over.
I don’t give a fuck about anything or anyone else. “Every. Single. One.”
The pop of a gunshot brings our attention back to the screen, where it’s split between the security room and Reece’s hallway. It’s grainy in the dim light, and everything moves faster than I can comprehend.
Outside the security room, a masked man dressed in all black aims at the keypad.
Jax trembles against me. “That room is supposed to be impenetrable, fire and smokeproof.”
Another pop .
I hold my breath.
Nothing. The door remains intact.
Another pop . A fine mist bursts from the intruder’s head, and he crumbles in a heap on the floor.
Fuck.
Desi enters the frame with his gun drawn, turns toward Reece’s bedroom, and fires again. They must be approaching from the beach, breaking in through multiple points at the back of the house.
There’s no way the neighbors can’t hear this. There’s no way the security company hasn’t dispatched the police.
“You did good,” I tell Jax, my words sluggish and distant.
I don’t recognize my own voice. I’m trapped in a hellscape, my mind flashing to an alternative time when I was helpless, a little boy waking up in a roach-infested apartment to another day without food and my mother passed out on the itchy couch.
I vividly remember the fabric. It was covered in rough, abrasive lint balls. Alone, I’d pick at them for hours, but they’d never come off. The threads were bare, and the yellow, spongy cushion pushed through the holes. It smelled of mold and stale cigarette smoke.
Dirt is stuck between my feet and the plywood from where the linoleum is torn and jabbing at my soft soles. I peer down at the drooling woman whose job it is to care for me, and I swear, when I get older, I’ll never be powerless again.
Now I’m the caregiver, and what’s mine is trembling beside me, bleeding out beneath me, defending my home, and hiding under a desk with my baby inside her.
“Never again.”
Jax’s bloodshot emerald eyes meet mine.
“Never again do you do something without telling me.”
His eyes well up with tears.
“Never again do you take sole responsibility for defending our family. That’s our job. The three of us work together, communicate better. Do you understand?”
He nods then tilts his head, his ears catching a beeping sound. “The door,” he whispers.
“Hit the lights,” Reece croaks, pushing himself into a seated position.
“They’re motion sensors.” Jax scrambles to his feet, snags the bat, and races toward the rear of the garage.
I wipe my bloodied hands on my pants and follow. Fuck, my arms don’t want to cooperate, my muscles stiff and my head throbbing.
I nearly trip on a hockey stick and grab it as a weapon. How fitting.
The door creeps open, and Jax hides behind it, bat raised over his shoulder. Black leather-gloved hands clutching a gun appear first, and I press myself against the wall next to Jax.
He lifts his foot and boots the door. Smart . It bounces off the person with a resounding thud.
They attempt to shoulder their way in, but Jax repeats the action in quick succession— kick, kick, kick, kick —until the individual stumbles forward, collapsing and dropping the gun.
I slide it blindly behind me. Maybe I should’ve snatched it, but in all honesty, I’ve never shot a gun.
Jax goes to town, swinging the bat over his head so fast, it blurs in the air. “My wife says hello,” he grunts.
With every lift of the bat, blood spatters on the white wall beside me, droplets landing on my cheek and bare chest.
Holy. Fuck.And I thought he had a powerful slap shot…
Movement in the doorway catches my attention. Another motherfucker. Another gun. When will this nightmare end?
“Get down!” Reece shouts as someone else yells, “Drop your weapons!”
I release the hockey stick and get to my knees. What the fuck else am I supposed to do? I’m pretty much useless.
Jax keeps swinging, pulverizing the face and skull of a bald man whose jaw is slack, his teeth strewn across the floor. Are those dentures? Is that an eyeball lying there?
A gunshot resonates through the building. I grab Jax by the belt, yank him down to the floor, and shield him with my body.
SWAT rushes in, screaming their demands. From his knees, Reece asserts authority, and officers hurry to his aid. He says his scapula is fractured along with his humerus; he can’t move his arm. He tells them we were protecting him.
Jax gasps for breath underneath me, his tense body shaking, his haunted eyes staring at Hugo’s lifeless body.
I sit back on my haunches, draw him into my arms, and brush the sweaty hair from his forehead. “It’s over, baby. He’ll never touch you again. It’s over.”