Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
“What happened to the singing telegram business?”
Luna glanced up from her desk. All of her students had cleared out, and she’d just been finishing the final details on the programs for Friday night’s events. She hadn’t even heard her door open.
But Grayson stood there. His hands were shoved into the pockets of his black pants. His eyes were on her.
Luna exhaled. “That business was a little too high risk for me. I came back to teaching.” For a time.
“Heard that you had some offers to sing at clubs in Miami and Key West.” He ambled closer to her. “Harris Croft and his wife told me—just two days ago—that they were hoping you’d change your mind and come work for them.”
She shut her laptop, pushed back her chair, and rose to her feet. “I’m afraid Key West holds too many painful memories for me.” The school day was over. She should get going. Head back to her empty home.
Two months. Two months had passed since that last, terrible night.
Two months that had left her heart broken.
“Understood.” He stopped in front of her desk. “We found the trophies.”
Her brows lowered.
“Marcus’s? We’ve kept the details from the media because we’re still trying to ID all the vics. But I searched all the boats that Marcus owned. Found pay dirt at one docked in Pensacola Beach. In the bedroom of his yacht, I discovered his mementos. Realized I should search all his boats because of his damn obsession with chumming waters. Figured he must have killed plenty of his enemies out at sea, and I was right.”
Her stomach rolled.
“Wanted to give you that news personally. Wanted to check on you and…” An exhale. “I actually wanted to hire you.”
He could not be serious. “Excuse me?”
Grayson reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. “I’ve got this friend…A real melancholy asshole—uh, I mean guy. He lost the only woman he’s ever loved, and he just hasn’t been the same since she left his life.”
Her fingers were shaking when she reached for the card.
James Turner.
An address was neatly printed beneath his name.
“Thought he could use a little sunshine. You know, of the singing telegram variety. I can promise, you won’t witness a murder if you stop by his place.”
She dragged her gaze off the card and up to Grayson’s face.
“Though you might just come face to face with a dead man.” A murmur from him. “The choice is yours, though. Maybe you don’t want the job. Maybe you changed your mind in the last two months. Maybe it was the heat of the moment and adrenaline and a thousand other things making you feel the way you did.”
Luna shook her head.
“Is that a no? You don’t want the job? Completely understood.” He reached for the card.
She snatched it back. “I think I can handle one final job.”
“This friend…he may be leaving town fairly soon. He has plans to open a night club. He’ll probably need a top-notch singer for a place like that, though. If you’ve got any ideas on who he can hire, be sure to tell him.” A faint smile curved his lips. “Tell him that he’s one lucky bastard, too. Fresh starts and second chances are hard to come by.” With that, Grayson turned and walked away.
He hadn’t even reached the door when she blew past him.
“Luna?”
She didn’t stop. How could she? She had a very important job to do.
She might not come.
Ronan stared through the massive window and out at the night. A temporary home. A condo in a high-rise that belonged to a friend, of sorts.
She might not come. Two months had passed. He’d thought about her every single day, but maybe Luna had changed her mind. Maybe she’d decided she didn’t really love a grumpy asshole who knew too much about death. Maybe she’d already found some other lucky bastard who wasn’t so well acquainted with darkness.
His jaw ached because he’d clenched it so tightly.
She might not come. Her feelings could have changed. She wasn’t living in fear any longer. Maybe the adrenaline and terror had been driving her before.
Maybe she’d started having adventures with someone else.
Maybe…
There was a knock at his door. Hesitant.
His eyes squeezed shut. Relief made him dizzy. But…what if that wasn’t Luna? What if it was just Gray, telling Ronan that he was shit out of luck?
His eyes opened, and he whirled to lurch for the door. Surely, Gray would have just called with that bit of news, right?
He unlocked the door. Grabbed the knob. Hauled the door open.
A swarm of red balloons immediately slapped him in the face. He batted them away, desperate to see?—
“Hi.”
Luna.
She smiled shyly at him. “I heard that you need a pick-me-up.”
Warmth flashed from his chest through his whole body. He felt a wide, wild grin curving his lips, and he grabbed for her. Ronan picked her up and kissed her and held her as tightly as he could even as the balloons bobbed and weaved around him. He kicked the door shut. Some of the balloons stayed outside. Some remained in the condo. “You got me balloons,” he rasped against her delectable mouth. No one had ever given him a balloon. Hell, come to think of it, he didn’t think he’d been given any gifts at all since his mother had died.
No, not true. Luna is the best gift of all.
“You got me my life back,” she said. Her arms were around him. Holding him just as fiercely as he held her. “I missed you.”
He’d craved her. How the hell was he supposed to sleep at night if she wasn’t sprawled on top of him? The answer…he hadn’t slept. Every night, he’d been restless because he needed her.
Now he had her.
He would not be letting go. “You jumped in the water.”
“You were only supposed to fake die. But you were actually bleeding when you went overboard. I was worried. I panicked. Lost my sanity for a moment.” Another kiss. “Don’t dare fake die on me again.”
They were done with that. Both of them. “Didn’t know how it would go down.” He truly hadn’t. “Just knew that after I told Gray I wanted out…” He had to stop talking and kiss her again. “He’d take me out. Others would see it. My death would be witnessed.” Several of Marcus’s thugs had been blasting the story of Ronan’s death through the jail grapevine by the next day.
Ronan had warned Luna that his “death” would be coming. No way had he wanted her to think he’d be leaving her.
No more ever walking away without a goodbye again. Lesson learned.
“The rubber bullets came in a flash,” he added. He strongly suspected that Gray might have been the one to fire. “But when they hit, I knew I could go overboard.” He had. Kane had been in the water with a diver, and they’d swept his ass away from the boat.
He hadn’t seen Kane much in the last two months. Something that worried the hell out of him. But, then again, he had been declared a dead man so…
Ronan pulled back.
His eyes darted over Luna. Somehow, she’d grown even more beautiful. “You didn’t change your mind?” Gruff.
“About what?”
A deep breath. “About loving me.”
A negative shake of her head.
His shoulders rolled back as he lost the weight that had been dragging him under.
But then Luna’s gaze swept over him. She frowned and reached for his left wrist. She turned it over. “A new tat?”
Yes. A moon, one surrounded by dark clouds.
“I’ve got this woman I love,” he said, probably sounding awkward as hell. “Thought she might like it.”
A delighted smile curled her lips. “You got a tattoo for me?”
“I covered up something I hated with something I loved.”
Her gaze lifted. Her smile was still on her precious lips.
“I love you, Luna. I always will.” A pause. “Ready to have some adventures with me?”
“I think a sunrise is waiting for us.” Soft.
“I think a whole life is waiting for us.” Ronan was gone. He was ready to be James. Ready for anything and everything that she wanted them to experience together. His job? From this moment forward, his job was to make her dreams come true. To love and protect Luna for the rest of her life.
Done.
She threw her arms around him again and kissed him so sweetly. She pushed away the dark and brought the light back into his life. And he knew with complete certainty that Luna was far more than a target.
She was life.
His life.
Turned out, he was the lucky bastard who would spend his days and nights with Luna.
Some days, it paid to be bad.
“Guess what?” Luna whispered as she gave his lower lip a sexy little nip. “I brought handcuffs.”
Laughter boomed from him. So did desire. He scooped her into his arms, batted away more balloons—hell, some of them were heart-shaped, freaking adorable—and he carried her toward the bedroom. He had lots and lots of plans for Luna.
Some of those plans would definitely involve the cuffs.
And the engagement ring that he had tucked away in his pocket…An engagement ring that he’d be giving her when they watched the next sunrise together.