Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I’ll give you two minutes with Cameron. Two,” Gray stressed. “But you can’t leave a mark on him.”
No marks would be necessary.
“I’ll get things arranged.” Gray stalked out of the small office. Shut the door behind him. And, finally, Ronan could be alone with Luna. His Luna. His?—
“What in the hell, Ronan?” Her fingers bit harder into his shoulders. “Now you say you love me? Now? When we’re about to go out and have some intense face-off with the man who wants us both dead? You choose now as your moment?”
She was so freaking beautiful. Her hair was still wet from the rain. Her clothes slightly damp. She glared at him. Her eyes shot fire. And all he wanted to do was hold her and never let go.
After I permanently eliminate all the threats to her.
“Ronan!”
“Sorry. Got lost in your eyes.”
Those eyes shot even hotter sparks at him. “Don’t you dare try to charm me right now. You left me. I thought I’d never see you again. I’ve been drugged. Kidnapped. And now you’re saying that you love me? I’m supposed to believe you?”
Hell, yes, she was. “I loved you when I left.” It had been one of the reasons he left. “I wanted you to have the life you craved. Wanted you to sing and shine on a stage. Or get back in the classroom with your kids if that was the choice you wanted. Nothing should stop you from living.” She’d been stopped too much in her life. “That was one thing I could do. Eliminate the threat to you.” It was precisely what he would do.
But he’d realized—when he saw that prick carrying her across the runway—that the only way to be absolutely sure Luna was protected for the rest of her days and nights…well, she’d need a bodyguard. Someone with a very personal and vested interest in keeping that hot body of hers safe. She needs me.
Gray would have to pull off a miracle for him, though. Too many people hated Ronan Walker.
So I might just have to become someone else. For her, he would. “I love you,” Ronan said the words again. The first confession had felt rusty. Stilted. This flowed more. “I love you.” Certainty. He started to smile.
A tear slid down her cheek.
His smile died. “Luna?”
“I love you, and I don’t want you in danger.”
“I can handle danger.”
“Yes, you say that, but when I was on the island and you were gone, I kept imagining you getting shot. I imagined you dying because you were out there fighting my battles!”
There was no other battle he’d rather fight. “I’m not dying.” Not when he had a life waiting for him. “Can’t say the same about Marcus.”
Her eyes widened. “Ronan?—”
His mouth went to her ear. “James,” he rasped.
“What?”
“That’s my real name.” James Ronan Turner.
A knock on the door. “You have two minutes with Cameron!” Gray fired out. “Hurry! We’ve got to get moving! Marcus will get spooked if Luna isn’t delivered soon.”
Luna swallowed. “You’re going to be with me for this big showdown scene.”
“Every step of the way.”
Her gaze searched his. “You love me?”
“With every bit of my dark, dark heart.”
Her right hand let go of his shoulder and rose to press against his cheek. “I love you with every bit of mine, too.” She kissed him. Soft and sweet.
He kissed her. Hard. Demanding. Deep.
“Ronan!” Gray threw open the door. He glowered when he saw them, basically mouth to mouth. “Seriously?”
Yes, seriously. Always. But he let go of Luna. She rose to stand beside him. Her hands twisted. He stood and towered over her. “How many kids shall we have?”
Her eyes widened.
“Think about it. I’m good with zero, if that’s what you want. If you want twelve, I’m good with that, too.” Then, whistling, he turned away and headed for the door.
Gray stared at him as if he’d never met Ronan in his life. Total stranger. “Who are you?” Gray demanded as Ronan passed him.
“Your time will come,” Ronan warned him. Ronan could pinpoint the exact instant when his own world had realigned. It had been when Luna was pulled from the damn plane, and he’d thought that she was dead.
Everything had stopped.
If she had been dead, he would have made that runway into a freaking bloodbath. “Take me to Cameron.”
Gray led him through the twists and turns in the terminal. Two stuffy Feds waited near a closed door. Gray opened that unassuming door. Waved Ronan inside.
Ronan strolled in with a smile on his face. Cameron was cuffed to a chair. His face was battered to hell and back. Honestly, why was Gray so worried about him hurting the guy in this little interrogation scene? Who would notice a wee bit more damage? But, a promise was a promise so…
“Give them privacy,” Gray barked to the guard-slash-agent who’d been stationed with Cameron. The guard immediately filed out. So did Gray. The clicking of the door as it shut seemed overly loud.
Cameron smirked. Or smirked as much as he could with that bruised and swollen face of his. “I’m not telling you jack, ” he spat.
Ronan eliminated the distance between them. When he was right in front of Cameron, he tilted his head down. He eyed his prey. “How are those fingers feeling?” he asked, voice pleasant.
“You fucking broke them!”
“Yes, I did. You touched something you shouldn’t have touched. But, I was thinking about it…and I think I’ve come up with a fun idea for us.” He pulled out his knife. No one had bothered to pat him down. Their mistake. Or, had it been a mistake? Gray knew him well, after all. “Did you know that Marcus once asked me to cut off one of Luna’s fingers in order to prove that she was actually dead?”
Cameron licked his lips. “What the hell are you doing with that knife?”
“I’m planning to cut off one of your broken fingers,” he explained, slowly and patiently. “Actually, I’m not going to stop with just one. I will cut them all off. Each time you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’ll cut off another finger.”
Cameron’s eyes were the size of saucers. “You can’t do that shit! You’re a?—”
Ronan tapped the knife to his chin. “What am I? A cop? Nope. A Fed? Nope again. A hitman? Ding, ding, ding.” He lifted his left wrist and turned it so that Cameron had to see the striking snake. “You know what this symbol means. It’s what tipped you off about me. You know that I might have cut some deals with the Feds in order to save my ass, but you also know that I don’t give a shit about their rules. They actually like that, truth be told. They need someone to break rules while they keep their precious hands clean.”
Cameron gulped.
“Me? I don’t mind some blood. I’m also feeling particularly pissed because you drugged my friends and my wife, and, FYI, no one does that shit and gets to walk away. So, which finger should we start with?” He lowered the knife.
“No, no— no!”
When the screaming started, Gray straightened his shoulders. He also moved to stand in front of the door because the green agents looked so shaky and uncertain. Why did he keep getting the new recruits? Such a pain in his ass. “Go scout the area,” he told them. “Check for threats.” Go do some other damn thing.
“Sir, there is screaming.”
“I hear it.”
“We should investigate?—”
The screaming stopped.
He stared at them. Then shooed them away. “The area needs scouting, remember?”
“He can’t hurt a prisoner!”
Oh, right. Fine. Someone needed to peek inside. Obligingly, Gray swung open the door.
Ronan stood by the prisoner. No weapons in his hand. In fact, his hands were crossed over his chest. Ronan smiled innocently. Or, he probably thought it was an innocent smile. Gray let the agents look, then he closed the door again. “Satisfied?”
They trotted off even as Kane sidled up. Kane peered at the closed door, then at Gray. He sucked in the side of his cheek and finally asked, “How pissed at us is he?”
“Probably a fifteen.”
“On a scale of one to twenty?” Kane nodded. “I’ll take that.”
“On a scale of one to five.”
Kane flinched. “He’s gonna try and kill us while we sleep then, huh? This is on you, man. I warned you not to keep secrets from him but then you fucking blasted your way past me, and now I’m the bad guy, too, and?—”
“Secrets are a pain in the ass. Sometimes, though, you have to keep them.” Soon enough, there was one secret in particular that he would have to reveal to Kane. A few bits of new intel had been giving him cause for concern. Currently, the situation was still under control, but the more Gray learned, the more worried he became. The worry he felt centered around a witness who had once gotten extremely close to the so-called Heartless Kane Harte.
So-called…because Kane actually did have a heart. He’d just given it to a woman long ago and then let her walk away. Or perhaps, let hadn’t really been part of the equation. When Anastasia had entered witness protection, she’d been taken from Kane.
Perhaps he should go ahead and give Kane a heads up about the new developments that seemed to be happening with her. Not like he wanted two of his best friends both pissed at the same time. Dealing with a furious Ronan was hard enough. Dealing with a rage-filled Ronan and Kane? That could be a nightmare situation. “So, Kane, you need to?—”
The door opened. “Got the meeting address. Got the meeting time. Let’s roll.” Ronan was completely cool. No, more like ice.
Gray peered around him to assess the prisoner.
Cameron was crying.
“What did you do?” Gray wanted to know. “And is it going to bite me in the ass?” Though he had already started to think that maybe he needed a change from the FBI. So many suffocating rules all the time were annoying the hell out of him.
And there is so much darkness growing in me.
“Didn’t have to do a thing. He was happy to talk with me. We were in the same gang once upon a time. Brotherhood and all that.”
“He’s a fucking psycho!” Cameron shouted. “He’s the one who belongs in handcuffs!”
Ronan winked at Gray. “I’m a psycho who knows where Marcus Aeros is lurking. Let’s get the party moving.” He stepped forward. Then stopped. “By the way, there is a price for tonight’s work, Gray. I’m not doing this shit for free.”
Oh, he’d never doubted that he would owe a debt.
“When I said I wanted out, I meant it. I will not be separated from Luna again. Make that happen.”
Sure. He’d just wave his hand and make a miracle happen. No big deal. He’d turn a hitman into an upstanding member of society in a blink. No sweat.
Ronan had already passed him.
“You needed to tell me something?” Kane asked.
Yeah, he did. But… “Hold the thought?” Because maybe he should put out one fire at a time. If he told Kane now, Kane might run straight for Anastasia. Such a move could prove unnecessary at this time. Better wait longer and see what additional developments occurred. And, hell, Gray could use his backup. He trusted Kane a thousand times more than he trusted any FBI agent. He was well aware that this night’s mission could explode in his face. And if things were going to explode, Kane was always exceedingly good at handling the fire.
Plus, if he needed to work a miracle for Ronan, Kane was just the man to help with that particular job.
She stood in front of the open trunk. Her hands were cuffed. A knife was strapped to her ankle. A taser hidden in the pouch of her borrowed sweatsuit. And?—
“A gun is right here,” Ronan told her. He pointed just behind the left taillight. “You remember how to get out of the cuffs?”
Luna nodded. She’d had to prove—three times—that she could get out of the trick cuffs. A quiet and very watchful Kane had provided the cuffs.
“I’ll be driving the car. I’ll be with you every second.” A promise from Ronan.
They were outside of the airport. The rain had let up, but every now and then, a rumble would roll through the air. The lightning was in the distance now. And they had a killer to go see.
“Luna…” He pulled her close. “I can face him alone. You don’t need to do this.”
A point he kept making, but she shook her head. “You got Cameron to give you all the instructions for the trade-off. I’m supposed to be in the trunk on arrival.” The car they were using had been waiting at the airport just for Cameron. Marcus and his guards would be expecting this particular vehicle. “The guards will check to see if I’m there. If I’m not inside, you won’t get past them.” She had to go with him.
He needed her to end the nightmare.
“I just want you safe,” Ronan said.
“I am safe with you.” Even locked in a trunk. Though it was not exactly ideal. Far from it, in fact.
But…she’d run on her own for weeks. She wasn’t alone any longer.
She had Ronan.
He had her.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “What’s the first adventure you want to have when this is over?”
“Let’s watch the sunrise together.”
“Done.”
Her eyes squeezed closed. “Now put me in the trunk.”
His body tensed. But he did it. He lifted her up. Settled her inside the rather spacious trunk. If, you know, a trunk could be spacious. She looked up at him as she curled on her left side.
“It’s the second time I’ve done this to you,” Ronan said. His voice had gone extra gruff. “Second and final.”
“At least I’m conscious this time.” Speaking of conscious, she’d spoken briefly with Esme. Her new friend had been enraged about the drugging incident. Luna had the feeling that Esme might be getting some payback of her own against Cameron very soon.
Ronan’s hand rose and curled over the trunk’s open lid. “You’re going to be fine, Luna.”
She nodded. “So are you.”
His jaw hardened. “I love you.”
Then he shut the trunk.
Darkness filled the interior.
I love you, too.