Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
“She’s not dead,” Kane rasped as he locked his arms around Ronan’s waist and yanked him back.
And she wasn’t.
Luna had just twisted and heaved and lunged to the side and broken free of her abductor’s grip. Good fucking job, princess. She staggered briefly, and then she was running away from the creep. A creep who’d fallen to his knees because she’d managed to kick him in the groin and elbow him in the face during her escape.
She was running right for the waiting hangar. Running right for me. Only his dumbass friends were holding him back. What the hell was that about? And then?—
“I will fucking shoot you!” A bellow from the freaking pianist. Because that was the man who’d had her. The man who was now aiming a gun at her fleeing back.
Why was the place so deserted? The storm? Bullshit. Others should be out on the runway. Security personnel who’d been inside. This madness should not be going down.
Not unless someone wants the scene playing out this way.
“Let me go or die,” Ronan told his friends. Because if they thought he was just going to stand there and watch Luna get shot…
She’d stopped. Her back was to the piano player. Slowly, she turned toward him. “My husband…”
I’m right here, princess.
And he realized that Gray had drawn his weapon. He’d taken aim at the piano player.
“My husband is going to kick your ass,” she promised the fucking piano player. “Then he’ll probably wind up feeding you to the gators.”
The pilot had climbed from the plane. He was walking slowly behind the piano player. Cameron. Harris had told him the pianist was named Cameron.
“Shoot the prick,” Ronan ordered Gray. “Now.” Before the fool pianist pulled his trigger on Luna.
“We need him alive for the hand-off,” Gray groused. “He’s not going to shoot her. My guy said Marcus wants to handle her himself.”
His…guy? And then it made more sense. Gray and his schemes. Shit.
The pilot was almost right on top of Cameron. And the pilot was pulling out a weapon…
Cameron spun around. With zero hesitation, he just fired.
The pilot went down.
Gray’s hold slackened. Ronan flew from his friends and hurtled toward Luna even as Cameron laughed in the rain and turned back toward her with his gun aimed and up and—Ronan shoved her out of the way. She never saw him coming. He pushed her to safety and leapt at Cameron even as the sonofafucker was firing.
On the damn runway.
In a place that should have been so secure and safe.
With federal agents right there.
Ronan felt the bullet blaze over his arm. He didn’t care. He hit Cameron. The piano player fell back and landed onto the runway. Ronan sprang down at him. His fist slammed into Cameron’s face over and over again.
Cameron tried to swing up his gun.
Ronan caught it. Caught the guy’s fingers. Rammed them onto the hard runway and heard the bones snap. He smiled down at his howling prey. “Didn’t I warn that would happen if you touched her again?” Only this jerk had done more than touch her. He’d kidnapped Luna. Aimed a gun at her. Ronan was through holding back. He was sending this creep to hell.
“Ronan, stop!” Gray’s bellow. And, of course, killjoy that he was, Gray appeared like an avenging angel. He had his weapon up and pointed at Ronan.
Friends don’t do this shit.
“I need him alive,” Gray added. “You can finish whatever this is when I’m done with him, okay? But first, he has to take us to Marcus. End goal, man. End goal.”
Ronan felt a featherlight touch along his back. His head whipped around.
Luna stared at him.
He stared back at his end goal.
Without a word, he leapt to his feet and pulled her against him. His head lowered over hers. His body curled around hers.
And all the agents who’d been hiding around the airport finally sprang from their hiding spots.
Too little, too fucking late, assholes.
“I knew Luna was in the air shortly after the plane’s liftoff.” Gray sat behind some random desk in a random office at the small airport. “Didn’t quite understand why I was getting data telling me you were on the plane, too, but I guess that makes sense now, huh? She was wearing your watch.”
Ronan was sitting in the chair across from him. He had Luna on his lap. She’d tried to move—twice—and twice he’d hauled her right back into place. He couldn’t stop touching her. Not yet.
Luna raised her left wrist. “I borrowed the watch. Don’t even know why.” Her head turned. She stared straight at Ronan. “That’s a lie. I wanted a piece of you. I put on your watch because I was hurting.” She swallowed. “You left me.”
“I was protecting you.”
“How’d that work out?” she asked.
Fucking poorly.
“The pilot is going to be okay,” Gray rolled right on. “No worries. Save your concern.”
Ronan spared him a glance. “He was wearing a bullet-proof vest. Of course, he’s okay. He was one of your guys. You had him stationed on the island—as what? Backup in case I screwed things to hell?”
Gray shrugged. “I like to have agents in place in case of emergencies. I thought he’d help Tyler when you left, but then, he was approached by our piano playing asshat with an offer of fifty grand if he made an unscheduled departure from the island. Considering the hit that had been placed on you and the fact that Marcus ditched the surveillance crew that I’d had shadowing his steps, I thought my guy should take that flight and see what developed.”
“Cameron drugged me.” Luna shook her head. “Me and Esme and Tyler. How are they? Are they going to be all right?”
“Tyler and Esme are both currently pissed as hell, but they are recovering well. A doctor from the retreat is with them. You can rest easy on that score. They’ll be transported from the island as soon as the storm passes and taken to a local hospital for a complete evaluation. By then, of course, the exchange will have been made.”
The exchange. Ronan narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t want me killing Cameron because you want him to lead you to Marcus.”
A nod. “Your earlier suspicion was correct. Marcus is here, in Key West. If we catch him in the act…” His gaze dipped to Luna. “Then we catch him paying for an abduction, we get him for attempted murder…and maybe we even find his freaking trophies. In short, we nail him to the wall permanently.” His hands flattened on the desktop as he leaned forward. “We do all of that, and Luna gets her life back.”
“Maybe Luna doesn’t want to be risked like that,” Ronan snapped. “Maybe Luna?—”
“Maybe Luna doesn’t want you to be risked, but you didn’t give her a choice, did you?” Luna snapped right back.
It was in that moment that Ronan realized Luna wasn’t scared. She was hotly and completely furious. With him. “Uh, Luna…”
“Not a word did you say to me before you left! Not. One. Word.” Her eyes flashed. “You left while I swam!”
“I told Tyler what to say?—”
“You could have said something to me. As in, directly. You could have waited one whole minute and said, ‘Thanks for the great sex, Luna.’”
Gray coughed.
“‘Thanks for the great sex, but I’m off to do my job and we’re done, and maybe I’m putting a big old target on my back.’ Just FYI. You could have said all that.” The angry words erupted from her, rapid-fire.
His hold on her waist tightened. “I didn’t want to say goodbye.”
“So you left me swimming. Walked away and didn’t look back.”
“If I had looked back, I wouldn’t have been able to leave you.”
Their gazes clashed.
Gray coughed again. “So, um, there are a lot of agents involved, it’s a multi-agency partnership?—”
“Yeah, I saw them lurking around and doing jackshit while a gun was aimed at Luna!” He’d realized the place was a freaking Fed trap when he’d gone too easily through the airport. Plus, Kane had been shouting way too many orders for someone who was supposed to just be pulling free agent status. He’d have to hash things out with Kane soon enough. “Kane was involved in this mess with you. Tell me, are all my friends assholes?”
“Yes, we are.” Gray had finally stopped coughing. “But if you want to pick one friend to receive the most of your rage, pick me. I was the one pulling the strings.”
“Aren’t you always?” Ronan knew the man lived to scheme.
“Kane kept telling me this was all a mistake. He didn’t want to keep any secrets from you. But there wasn’t a ton of time for big reveals.” He released a long breath. “The Feds stationed here at the airport were waiting on my command. I get you’re pissed, but I made the best judgment calls I could. I have to stop this twisted freak. I’ve lost two agents trying to take down Marcus Aeros.” His voice was deadly serious.
Both Luna and Ronan studied Gray in silence.
“I have been working to bring him down for a long time.” His nostrils flared. “And, Luna, when you came to me, I already had people trying to gain access to his inner circle. I couldn’t move right away with your intel because I had to make sure they were safe. I am trying to get through his minefields with a minimum body count. Yes, I’ve kept secrets. From you both. Hell, I keep secrets from everyone. That’s what I do. That’s how I stop the monsters that most people will never, ever know about in this world.” The faint lines around his mouth seemed to deepen. “Marcus Aeros needs to be stopped. The people he’s killed? Their loved ones need closure. I don’t want him getting off on some damn technicality. I want him rotting in a cell for the rest of his life.”
“Funny. I want him rotting in the ground,” Ronan returned.
Gray leapt to his feet. “ Don’t forget who you really are, dammit! ”
Ronan knew exactly who he was. Maybe Gray was the one who had forgotten.
Once again, Luna tried to rise.
He just tightened his hold on her. “You’re not getting away.”
“You’re the one running, Ronan!”
“Not any fucking more.”
He felt her start of surprise. They’d get back to that issue in a moment, but, first, Gray needed to understand a few very important facts. “I’m not handing Luna off to anyone so they can deliver her to Marcus. Certainly not to that prick piano player.” Cameron would never touch her again.
“You broke his fingers.” Gray looked and sounded less than pleased.
“He deserved it.” Really? Was Gray gonna argue that point?
Oh, right. Gray was the uptight and upright FBI guy. He probably was gonna argue.
“Noted,” Gray said. Just that.
Ronan blinked.
“But I need to use the guy,” Gray added grimly “He is the one Marcus is expecting for Luna’s handoff.”
“Big fucking deal. Get him to give you the location of the meetup for Marcus, then swarm the place.”
“He won’t give up the data . Agents are trying, but he’s refusing to cooperate.”
Someone save him from good guys who couldn’t get shit done. “Give me five minutes alone with him, and I’ll have the address.” Ronan thought about what he’d just said and amended, “Nah, I only need two.”
“Ronan, I can’t let you attack a prisoner!”
“I won’t put a finger on him.” True story. “Scout’s honor.”
“You were never any kind of scout.”
Another true story. He hadn’t been. “That’s right, and Cameron knows exactly what your men are. They’re the scouts. The law-abiders. He knows they will keep him alive. He has no such certainty when it comes to me. He’s scared of me, and he should be, and I will make him talk.”
Gray considered Ronan’s words. Weighed them a little too long before he grudgingly nodded. But then he said, “A location isn’t enough. If I go in with sirens screaming, I won’t get the intel we need. The guy will instantly panic and split. He’s gonna have guards all around him. Probably at the perimeter of any building he’s using.”
Yeah, he would. Marcus would be a cautious prick.
“He’s expecting Luna to be delivered to him.” Gray’s gaze dipped to Luna. “He’ll have any guards demanding to see her. If they don’t see her, there will be no access to Marcus. He’ll get a warning that something is up. He’ll be in the wind. And?—”
“He’ll keep hits on me and Ronan,” Luna finished.
Another nod from Gray. “We don’t want Marcus walking?—”
“Then I’ll be given to him, exactly as promised,” Luna cut in to say. Why the hell did she have to sound so brave and determined? “His guards will see me. They’ll make sure I am sent straight to him. I can be wired or loaded down with whatever tech you need in order to get his confessions recorded. We’ll lock him away forever. Then I’ll be free.”
Free of me. “That’s not an operational plan,” Ronan growled. “Because maybe he sees you, and he shoots you on sight. Did you consider that option before you decided to risk yourself?”
She was staring straight at him again. “Then maybe I need a bulletproof vest.”
Maybe she needed a lot more than that. “Doesn’t help if you get a bullet to the brain.”
She flinched.
“Well, if you trade her…” Gray’s ever-so-careful words. “Then you can make sure she doesn’t get a bullet to the brain.”
Sonofa— “That was the master plan you were working on for the last few moments, huh?” He’d practically felt Gray’s mind spinning. “For me to take Luna in? For me to take the place of Cameron as the bastard selling her out?”
“I do think Marcus will be delighted to see you.” Gray lowered back into his chair. “Delighted or he’ll piss himself in fear. Whatever. But if you go in, you can protect her. You can get Marcus’s confession. You can end all of this for her. Give her life back to her.”
He wanted Luna to have a life. He also wanted a life with her. “I’m done.”
Luna sucked in a breath. And, fourth time—she tried to rise. He pulled her right back.
Seriously, what the fuck? “I’m not done with you, princess. I walked away once. Pretty sure if I try it again, I might as well cut out my own heart and toss it at your feet.”
Her hands rose to grab his shoulders and hold on tightly. “What are you saying?”
Oh, Ronan thought that he’d been pretty clear. But he’d try again. “Gray, I want out. I want to be clear of this life.” The words were for Gray, but he could not look away from Luna.
“Why?” Luna whispered.
“Because I think it’s time for some adventures.”
Her lower lip trembled.
His head leaned toward her. Right before his mouth pressed to hers, he confessed, “I love you, princess.”