Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
He’d driven through the darkness. Snaked along the old road until he reached the boat storage facility. Guards were stationed at the high, chain-link fence that started at the edge of the property. He’d expected the guards. They were waiting just as Cameron had described.
Cameron had been so very helpful with his information. He’d just needed the right motivation in order to be a real team player.
Ronan slowed the car. Rolled down the window.
“What do you want?” A burly guard. Hair wet from the earlier rain. A cigarette dangling from his fingers.
“Got a delivery.”
The man poked his head in the car. “Don’t see a delivery.”
“That’s because she’s in the trunk.”
A cold smile. A nod. Then, “Show me.”
How about I kick you in the dick instead? But, no, that wasn’t part of the plan. Ronan reached down and popped the trunk. “Go see for yourself.”
Grunting, the burly guard did just that, leaving a wave of cigarette smoke in his wake. He strode to the back of the car. Laughed. Then slammed the lid closed once again before coming back to Ronan’s side.
“Boss is inside. Things are ready for the woman.”
So this prick knew that Luna was to be tortured and killed, and he had no problem with those plans. Not him and not the silent guy who stood just a few feet away. Good to know. Ronan hoped the Feds locked their asses away and that they never saw the light of day again.
The silent guy pushed open the chain-link gate. It rolled on wheels, screeching.
Ronan drove along the narrow path, pulling right in front of a two-story boat storage facility. Lights shone from inside the cavernous warehouse, and he eased the vehicle past the open doors, parking right inside. Ronan killed the engine.
When he exited the car, he had the hoodie up on his borrowed sweatshirt. He wore jeans, and his gun was tucked into the waistband, hidden right under the thick shirt. Another gun was strapped to his ankle. That one was hidden beneath the left leg of his jeans. He also had two listening devices strategically placed on his body. Two because Gray believed in being thorough.
Three figures moved toward him. Two were big, rough-looking men. Tattoos on their necks. One with a scraggly beard. The other with a thinning hairline and eyebrow piercings. Between those two men? Marcus Aeros.
In the freaking flesh.
And Marcus was staring at Ronan with absolute horror on his face.
Ronan smiled at him. “So, I heard you wanted to see me.”
“Shoot him!” Marcus screamed.
His two guards fumbled for their guns. “Why would you want to do that?” Ronan asked. “Especially when I brought your target to you.”
“ Stop!” A roar from Marcus.
Shoot. Stop. Make up your mind, Marcus.
The men stared in confusion.
“You’re a fucking idiot,” Marcus told him. Then he laughed. “Don’t shoot him. I want to play.” He shoved the man with the thinning hair and eyebrow piercings. “Go search him. Take away every weapon he has.”
Ronan stepped away from the car. “Is this any way for a businessman to act?”
“Businessman, my ass,” Marcus threw back. “You killed my cousin.”
“Well, in my defense, he was trying to kill me. I get annoyed when people do that shit. Lethally annoyed.”
The goon who’d been sidling toward him stilled.
In the next breath, Ronan had his gun out. And aimed right at Marcus. “I can kill you before they can shoot me.” Not bragging. Just stating a fact. “But I didn’t come here to kill you. I came here to do business.”
“You lied!” Marcus heaved forward. “You said you killed Luna Black! You didn’t!”
“Ah, that’s right. You hired me to kill her.”
“Damn straight, I fucking did!”
Confess, confess, confess.
“Only you didn’t do the job. I got word that she was still alive. Pretending to be your wife or some shit.” He laughed. “I put hits on you both. Don’t know why your fool ass is here or what happened to Cameron, but I am sure as hell gonna enjoy what comes next.” His grin stretched from ear to ear. “You are going to beg me for death before I am done with you.”
Doubtful. “I don’t typically beg for anything.”
“You will,” Marcus assured him. “They all beg. By the time I’m done cutting them, by the time I throw them in the waters I’ve already chummed, people beg! They bleed and they beg, and they don’t come up from the water. That’s gonna be you. A watery freaking grave. You and that bitch.”
Oh, now why did you have to call her that? “I was trying to have a civilized conversation.”
“Uh, boss?” It was the hulking goon. The one who was nervously eyeing the car. “Is there a woman in the trunk? Should we get her out?”
“Yes.” A decisive nod from Marcus. “Get her out. Let’s play.”
No one is playing with Luna. “I’m sorry, but there seems to be confusion here. See, I wasn’t paid for killing Luna Black. So Luna Black is still living.” He kept his weapon up and aimed at Marcus. “And no one else will be killing Luna, either. Not until I get my payment.”
Marcus gaped at him. “Are you serious? That’s why you’re here tonight? You came for your money?”
“I’m here tonight for three reasons.” His gun never wavered as he talked his ass off—and got Marcus to keep right on confessing. The Feds had damn well better be getting every word. “Reason one, I want my money.”
Marcus grunted. “You didn’t kill her! You don’t get paid unless Luna Black is dead!”
“Reason two, your dumbass took out a hit on me. On me. No one calls in a hitman on the hitman and just gets away with that crap.”
Marcus backed up a step. “What in the hell else was I supposed to do? You knew I had sent Kurt after you. Not like you were gonna let me live?—”
“Reason three, I needed a confession.”
Marcus shook his head. “What?”
“Confession. It’s good for the soul. And you just made yours.” A rather perfect one. “Ready to rot in jail?”
“Shoot him!” Marcus screamed as he seemed to realize that, yep, he’d just confessed his crimes, and this night was not going to end as he’d hoped.
But before the jerk guards could fire at him, Ronan pulled the trigger on his weapon. One bullet hit the goon on the left. A fast shot to the shoulder. The other took out the man on the right. A leg shot that had him falling to the ground and howling in pain.
Marcus didn’t fight. He turned and ran like the coward he was. Ronan wanted to give chase but…
I’m not leaving Luna in the trunk.
He rushed to the back. Had the lid open and Luna—her cuffs were already off. She jumped out with a gun gripped in her slightly shaking hands. “Only shoot bad guys,” he directed as he steadied her on her feet.
Her eyes were huge.
“For the record, I’m not one of them.” Not any longer. “Stay the hell behind me. Let’s go.” Because Marcus wasn’t getting away.
They raced through the boat storage warehouse. He paused just long enough to kick the weapons away from the wounded goons. Then he was going through the maze of boats with Luna right on his heels. Faster and faster. They looped around corners. Ducked under boats.
He caught the movement of a shadow up ahead. He heard shouts from behind him and figured the FBI was taking care of Marcus’s men. They would have swarmed the facility after hearing Marcus’s confession.
Down, down you go.
Marcus wouldn’t escape justice.
He wouldn’t escape?—
A boat engine growled to life. The back door of the warehouse hung open, and Ronan flew through it. Luna was with him every step of the way.
Marcus had jumped into a thirty-foot sports yacht. The fucking idiot had forgotten to untie one of the ropes that bound the boat to the dock. The engine was roaring, the water was foaming, and the wood on the dock began to groan and heave as it fought the pressure from the rope and boat.
Ronan didn’t slow down. He rushed forward and jumped onto the boat. He grabbed for Marcus and spun the bastard around, but when he spun Marcus, the sonofafucker sliced at him with a big-ass fishing knife.
The blade sliced right across Ronan’s left arm, cutting far deeper than it should have.
“You’re gonna chum the waters,” Marcus yelled at him as he slashed again with the giant fishing knife. This time, the slash was across Ronan’s right forearm as he tried to block the attack. The gun dropped from Ronan’s fingers as the knife kept coming at him. Marcus raged, “You sonofabitch, you’re gonna chum?—”
“Ronan!” Luna yelled. He heard her feet slam into the deck as she jumped onto the boat.
He didn’t look back. He did raise his hands to grab that bloody knife. Why were pricks always stabbing at him? Adding new scars to his collection? Ronan grabbed the knife.
He heard wood shattering. The boat bounced. Surged forward.
“Ronan!” Luna’s desperate voice. So close. “Ronan, I have a gun. I can take the shot!”
Unnecessary. Because he twisted that knife and shoved it into Marcus’s throat. Marcus couldn’t even scream.
“How about you chum the waters?” Ronan asked.
Free of the dock, the boat hurtled forward because Marcus had set it at full speed. The sudden burst of speed had Marcus tumbling into Ronan. They collided hard. Ronan shoved the bastard away, but Marcus hit the side of the boat. He was clawing at the knife, eyes horrified as blood poured from the wound. In the next breath, Marcus toppled over the side of the boat.
Ronan grabbed for the wheel. Stopped the boat as he yanked out the key. He whirled for Luna and tossed the key her way. “Princess, I need to?—”
She’d slipped and fallen on the boat’s deck. Luna was struggling to rise.
“Freeze!” A shout from the dock. “FBI agent!”
Ronan reached for Luna.
And the shadowy FBI agent fired. The trigger-happy sonofafucker fired. The bullet slammed into Ronan’s chest. One bullet. Another.
His mouth opened in a bellow. The sound echoed around him.
He stumbled back. Hit the side of the boat.
And, just like Marcus, he toppled over and fell toward the waves.
“No!” Luna’s scream was the last sound he heard before the water covered him.
Luna dropped her gun. She jumped into the water. Ronan had been hit. He’d gone beneath the waves. She was not leaving him there.
The water was icy when she pierced the surface. She sank deep because it pulled greedily at her. Her arms shoved frantically at her sides, and her feet kicked. The bulletproof vest she wore seemed to weigh her the hell down and she wanted it off, but she was too busy looking for Ronan. Searching desperately in the dark. But she couldn’t see. Too murky and black. Not like the crystal-clear waters they’d had before when they swam in the picture-perfect spring.
This water was dark like a grave. A watery grave. She was not going to leave Ronan in the grave.
Something grabbed her. A hand. It closed around her shoulder, and relieved, so eager, she spun around to see?—
A diver. A diver was right in front of her. Bubbles drifted past Luna’s face. The diver held a flashlight, shining it upward.
Luna tugged against the diver’s hold. Her lungs were burning. But the diver didn’t let go. The diver kicked and propelled them upward, and they broke the surface of the water. As soon as she pulled in a gulp of air, Luna cried, “Ronan!” The waves hit her.
Voices rose and fell.
More lights. So many more lights. From the dock. From the water. The agents were already everywhere. She spun in the water, searching, desperate. “Ronan!”
Luna was still screaming his name when she was hauled onto a rescue boat.
The body was pulled out of the water. Bagged. Loaded onto a gurney. The Feds fanned out and searched the facility. They also kept sweeping the water.
The waves were strong. The currents powerful.
“He could have been dragged out.” Grayson’s solemn voice.
The EMT near Luna put a blanket around her shoulders. The blanket did little to chase the chill from her body.
“We’ll keep searching,” Grayson assured Luna.
The body they’d recovered was being wheeled by her. Her gaze slowly followed its progress.
“Marcus Aeros will never hurt anyone else again. Even before his death, Ronan got him dead to rights with the confession. He was either going to jail or going to hell.” Grayson ran a hand over his face. “Guess hell decided to claim him.”
Ronan had sent him to hell. “Ronan was bleeding when he went into the water.”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to keep searching the water.”
“Yes.” Low.
The EMT moved away. The body had been loaded into the back of a black van.
She pulled in a breath. “Who fired the shots at him?”
“The agent…misunderstood the situation. Thought that Ronan was going to attack you.”
Her head turned toward him. “Who fired the shots?” Agents milled around them. So many eyes and ears.
And no Ronan. No dangerous, intense Ronan.
“You get your life back, Luna. This time tomorrow, you’ll be sleeping in your own bed.”
Alone.
“You can have those adventures Ronan said you wanted. Guy told me that you had big adventure dreams.”
Tears slid down her cheeks. “They pulled me out of the water.”
“You were kicking and screaming the whole time.”
Yes. “I didn’t want to leave him.”
He reached for her hand. Squeezed it. “Sometimes, we don’t have a choice.”
Ronan, I love you. She broke. Right then and there, with the FBI agents watching her. With EMTs and local cops milling around. Luna put her hands over her eyes, and she cried for the man she already knew was dead.
Ronan Walker. Hitman. Temporary Husband.
The love of her life.
“She knows,” Ronan said. He had to keep saying those words. His sorry ass had been dragged out of the water by one of the divers that Gray had strategically positioned near the dock. That was Gray, always thinking ahead.
He was being stitched up by Kane. Mostly stitched. Someone was doing a piss-poor job of stopping the blood flow. That someone was Kane.
“She knows,” Ronan said again because Luna had understood exactly how his story would end. There had never been any chance that Ronan Walker would walk out of this final scene alive. One of the many reasons he’d insisted on playing the story this particular way. He’d needed a public death. “She knows but she is seriously a fantastic actress.” Consider him impressed.
Luna was crying. Her shoulders shaking. Gray awkwardly attempted to comfort her. A few big slaps on her back. Then Luna threw her arms around him, dislodging the blanket that had been placed around her shoulders, and she held him tightly.
“Could be an adrenaline crash, too,” Kane noted as he poked again with a needle. “The woman has been through a whole?—”
Ronan’s head turned. He stared at Kane.
“She’s a fantastic actress,” Kane agreed. “Probably should get an Oscar or some shit like that. Breathtaking. Believable. Amazing.”
Ronan nodded. Damn straight.
“Though I didn’t realize she’d be jumping in the water after you…” Kane mused. “That was taking things to a whole other level. Guess she went full method actress or something?”
He hadn’t known she would go in the water, either. An unexpected Luna twist.
His head turned toward Luna. He wanted to go to her right then. To be the one holding her. But…
Ronan Walker had to die.
So he was damn well going to the grave. In this case, it would be a watery grave.
His jaw hardened. “See you soon, princess. See you very soon.”