“Are you sure?” Eve asked.
“They have video footage of the purchase. It’s him.”
“Shit,” Eve breathed.
“He also double-crossed Omega,” Jake added. “That op five years ago went to hell because of him. He was working with the cartel.”
“She freaked out,” Olivia said quickly. “I think she was having second thoughts.”
Eve grabbed her phone from the counter beside her. “She went to talk to McKnight. I didn’t try to stop her. I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t . . . Shit.”
No, not just shit. Holy motherfucking shit.
“Where?” Jake demanded.
Eve shook her head, then talked rapidly into her phone. “Zane? No, we’ve got a problem. Gather the guys.”
“Outside,” Olivia said to Jake. “She went somewhere outside. I don’t know where though.”
Dusk was transitioning to dark. Jake’s adrenaline shot up. They only had a few minutes before it would be pitch-black outside and he’d never find her. Jake twisted for the door.
Hamilton’s eyes hardened to cool blue stones. “I’m going with you.”
Jake pushed past Marley’s brother. “Just don’t get in my way.”
Hand gripping the train of her dress so it wouldn’t get dirty, Marley paced the length of the small bridge and shivered in the cold. The creek rippled beneath the wood slats below her heels, and darkness slid over the copse of trees surrounding the bridge. A twig cracked off to her right, and she turned to look, anxious to talk to Gray, then exhaled a long breath when she realized it was just a bird moving in the branches.
She shivered, rubbed her free hand over the opposite bare arm, and wished she’d thought far enough ahead to grab a coat. Wished she’d thought through agreeing to marry the man so she wouldn’t be out here in the first place. She paced back in the other direction. Knew he was going to be pissed when she called things off, but hoped—no, prayed—he’d see it for what it was—the best decision in the long run for both of them.
She caught sight of him approaching from the direction of the house, wearing a dark suit. Her feet slowed their frantic pacing. She swallowed hard and waited while he crossed the bridge.
“Wow,” he said, his gaze sliding over her dress. “You look beautiful.”
She steeled her nerves. She wasn’t there for compliments. She wasn’t there for anything but to call an end to this madness before she made things worse.
“Gray, I can’t marry you.”
His shoulders tensed. “I know you’re nervous but—”
“No, it’s not nerves,” she said quickly. “It’s not. It’s . . .” Shit. She needed to tell him the truth. It wasn’t fair to go on pretending anymore. And after everything he’d been through, he deserved the truth, if nothing else. “I was crazy about you once. But I always knew something wasn’t right between us. I don’t even know how to describe it now. It was just a feeling. Something that told me our relationship wasn’t built on anything solid. Maybe it was my father’s interference, or maybe it was just the fact I was too young. I don’t know. I just knew before you even left that we were never going to work in the long run.”
“I’m different now. I told you that. I’m—”
“I know. And maybe if I’d met the man you are now back then, maybe things would be different. But the truth is, Gray, I’m not the same girl I was five years ago, either. I don’t want the same things I wanted then. And marrying you now just because I’m trying to make my father happy or because I feel guilty about what happened to you isn’t the answer.”
His jaw ticked beneath his freshly shaved skin, and his features hardened. “Is this about Ryder?”
“No,” she breathed. “This isn’t about Jake. This is about a split-second decision I made that was the wrong one. Admit it, Gray, you know I’m right. You haven’t even once said you love me.”
“You know how I feel about you.”
“If you can’t say it, then it means it’s not important enough to matter.”
And didn’t she know that all too well with Jake?
Pushing that thought aside, she took a step toward him, desperate to make him understand, and reached for his hand. “I care about you. I do. And I want you to be happy. But I’m not in love with you anymore. And marrying you . . .” She shook her head. “It’s not right. You deserve a woman who loves you with all her heart.”
His eyes narrowed and held on hers. “You’re right. I do.” His hand twisted around, capturing her by the wrist. He pressed his fingers against her skin until pain shot up her arm. “But first I deserve retribution.”
Her mouth fell open. She tried to pry her wrist free of his viselike grip. “Gray, I—”
He jerked her hard against him. She stumbled, let go of the train of her dress, and fell into his rock-hard chest. “And you’re gonna get it for me.”
He dragged her across the bridge, into the trees, and up the hill. Her heels sank into the soft ground as she tried to catch up, her dress dragging along the dirt and patches of snow, hindering her movement. Rage twisted his features. A rage she hadn’t expected or anticipated. “Gray, what the hell are you doing? Let go. You’re hurting me.”
“Don’t worry, Freckles,” he sneered. “This won’t take long. It does throw a wrench in my plans to take your fucking money, but the end result will still be the same. And plan A was always my first choice anyway. If your friend Ryder hadn’t showed up in Colombia with you, your father would already be suffering like he deserves.”
He stopped on the side of the barn up the hill, swung her around so her back was to his front, slapped his hand over her mouth, and jerked her head back against his shoulder. In her ear, he hissed, “Don’t make a sound or I’ll snap your fucking neck.”
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed. Seconds later, in a calm voice, he said, “Mason? Yeah, it’s Gray. We’ve got a slight problem. Marlene’s got cold feet. I’m trying to talk some sense into her, but she’s making crazy threats about bolting. Yeah,” he said after several seconds. “I know exactly how she can be.”
Marley tried to pry his hands away from her mouth and screamed, but the sound came out muffled and he only pressed his hand harder against her face, cutting off her oxygen.
“Would you?” Gray went on. “That would be great. I’m sure all she needs is a little reassurance from her father. We’re in the barn. Okay, I’ll keep her here until you arrive.”
He clicked End on the phone, then released his hold. Marley stumbled forward, the heel of her dress catching in the long train. Fabric tore. She fell against the building and turned back.
His eyes were hard, menacing pools of simmering charcoal. His features twisted until she almost didn’t recognize him. In a moment of clarity she realized this was not the same man she’d rescued in the jungle. This was one who wanted her dead.
“You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that,” he growled.
Fear rushed down her spine. Fear and a burst of adrenaline that told her to run.
She pushed her legs forward and darted to the right. He stepped in her path, grabbed her by the shoulders, and hurled her back into the side of the barn. “Where do you think you’re going?”
She bounced off the side of the barn. Pain ricocheted up her side. She pushed herself upright. Before she could find her footing in the mud around the barn, he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into the building through a side door.
“We’re not done, Freckles.” He pushed her hard, hurling her against a tractor in the middle of the building. A burn sliced across her arm. Her cheek and shoulder hit the machinery, and then she tumbled to the ground. “Oh, we’re not close to being done. Before this night is over, your father’s going to wish he’d never met me.”
Gun drawn, Jake rushed outside and stopped in the middle of the sloping lawn, scanning the yard
and the trees beyond. Dusk was turning to dark quicker than he’d anticipated. A gray haze seemed to settle over everything. He looked through the trees into the darkness beyond, searching for Marley. She had to be out here. She had to be. She—
“Look.” Hamilton tapped his arm and pointed past the trees to the hillside rising beyond. “There.”
Jake’s gaze swung that direction, and he squinted as he watched a shadowy figure appear from beyond the trees and disappear into the old barn three hundred yards away.
“That look like Mason to you?” Hamilton asked.
“Yeah.” Apprehension slid down Jake’s spine. “And there’s no reason for him to be heading to the barn when he’s supposed to be hosting a wedding.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Hamilton answered.
They jogged through the trees, across the creek, and up the hill toward the barn. As they drew close, Jake slowed his steps and checked the ground so he didn’t step on anything that snapped, then held a finger over his lips.
Hamilton nodded, gripped his Sig in both hands, and tipped his head toward the front of the barn. They both moved toward the closed main doors carefully, then pressed their backs against the wood and listened.
“Calm down,” Mason said in a panicked voice. “Just tell me what you want. Son, there’s no reason for this.”
“Don’t come any closer,” McKnight growled. Marley yelped, and Jake’s adrenaline shot sky-high because he couldn’t see what was going on. “You did this. You took everything from me that mattered. You left me there to rot.”
“I made a mistake,” Mason said frantically. “I made a mistake that’s haunted me ever since. But this isn’t the answer.”
“You don’t have a fucking clue about the answer,” McKnight yelled. “Because of you I lost my money. I lost my dignity. I lost five years in a Colombian shithole filled with rats and filth you can’t even imagine up here in your cushy mansion.”
“I know,” Mason said quickly. “I know, and I want to make it all up to you. Put the gun down and let Marley go. We’ll figure it all out. We’ll make it right.”
Jake’s pulse roared, and fear shot through every inch of his body. He glanced at Hamilton, pointed toward the front doors, then tipped his head to the side of the building. Hamilton nodded in silent agreement, slid his weapon into the back waistband of his slacks, and stood upright.
“No,” McKnight said in a dead voice. “The only thing that’s going to make it right is for you to suffer the way I did. For you to lose everything you care about. That’s what she’s for.”
Jake’s heart rate spiked. He sprinted around the back of the building and prayed Hamilton could distract them long enough for him to get in position.
He found a back door, quietly pulled it open, and slinked inside. Darkness made it hard to see, but he picked his way around farm equipment and focused on the light coming from the main room. Voices echoed. He slipped out of the back room and stepped behind a towering column of hay bales. Through the crack he could see McKnight, holding Marley in front of him as a shield, a gun pointed right at her head. Past them, her father stood with his hands at his sides, his face frantic, while Hamilton held his hands up in a nonconfrontational way and reasoned with McKnight to let her go.
“No one wins here if you shoot her, McKnight,” Hamilton said. “But if you let her go, you can walk away from this. No harm, no foul.”
“Fuck you,” McKnight growled, his voice higher, the menace in his words even stronger. He pulled Marley back a step with him. “If you’re here it means someone else knows.”
“No one knows,” Hamilton said quickly. “I came looking for Mason, wondering what the delay was on the ceremony. No one else knows. No one has to know. Let her go and you can walk out of here a free man. But if you don’t listen to me, I guarantee this isn’t going to end well.”
“You can have anything you want,” Mason added. “Money, transportation. You name it, it’s yours. Just don’t hurt her.”
Hamilton was a good negotiator. Jake had to hand it to the man. He was keeping McKnight distracted.
Focusing on the gun in McKnight’s hand, Jake thought through options. The gun was angled in front of his body, pointed down at Marley’s head. Jake could shoot the fucker in the back of the head, but if McKnight’s trigger finger pushed down in reflex, Marley would be dead before McKnight even hit the ground. That meant he needed to distract the man long enough for her to get away.
He slid his Glock into the waistband at his back, crept out from behind the hay bales, and inched forward. Hamilton was still pleading with McKnight to let her go. This close, Jake could see and hear Marley struggling against McKnight’s hold. Stepping up behind McKnight, Jake said, “Hey.”
His voice caught McKnight off guard. McKnight swiveled his head to look behind him. The momentum pulled his gun hand up and away from Marley’s head, just enough so it wasn’t pointed right at her skull, but it was still too close.
Jake closed his hand around McKnight’s wrist, jerked the gun farther away from Marley, and yelled, “Run!”
She shoved her elbow back into McKnight’s ribs. He grunted, doubled forward, but grabbed on to Marley’s hair. She shrieked, reached up to try to pry his hand loose. Jake twisted McKnight’s gun arm behind his back, forcing his momentum around. The movement gave Marley the chance she needed, and she tore free of his grip and then stumbled forward. Hamilton caught her and pushed her toward her father. Voices echoed in the barn. Jake tried to wrestle McKnight to the ground, but a left hook slammed into his jaw, then McKnight roared and shoved him back into the stack of hay bales.
Jake didn’t let go of McKnight’s arm or the gun in his hand. They both went over. Hamilton shouted. Marley screamed. Footsteps echoed close as Jake and McKnight rolled across the dusty floor of the barn and wrestled for control of the gun. From the corner of his eye, Jake saw Hamilton’s gun pointed right at him and McKnight, but he knew Hamilton couldn’t get off a shot. McKnight was weaving all around, grappling like a street fighter. Jake’s fingers wrapped around McKnight’s on the handle of the gun. He struggled to twist the weapon away. McKnight shoved him over and slammed him into a tractor tire. Pain raced up Jake’s spine. The gun caught between their hands went off. The gunshot rang out through the barn. Followed by a second.
Jake wasn’t sure who’d been hit, but there was blood. Everywhere there was blood. He yanked his arm back. McKnight let go of the weapon, slumped against the barn floor. Pushing himself up and back, Jake scrambled to his butt, the gun in one hand, the other pressing against his chest, his arm, his stomach, searching for a wound, looking for the source of all that blood.
“Jake!” Marley rushed to his side. She dropped to her knees. Her hands gripped his shoulders. Her eyes were wide ovals in her face as her gaze raced over his bloody shirt. “Are you hit? Oh God. Where?” She pushed her hands against his chest, his belly, his arms. “Where is it?”
“It’s not me.” He let go of the gun and gripped her hands when he realized she was doing the same thing he’d just done. “Marley, it’s not me.”
She froze. At her back, Hamilton stood over McKnight’s lifeless body and muttered, “Fucking bastard. I told you it wasn’t going to end well.”
Her father moved up, saw McKnight, and stilled. “Dammit.”
Marley’s eyes slid closed. A plethora of emotions rushed over her bruised and dirt-streaked face. Then her shoulders slumped and she fell back on her heels.
Jake scrambled forward, caught her in his arms, and pulled her close. Her hands gripped his biceps as if he were her last lifeline. Her shoulders shook against him and her face pressed against his throat.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered, pulling her closer, needing her heat and warmth to shove aside all the fear and anxiety still vibrating inside him. “I’ve got you.”
She held on for only a moment, not nearly long enough to sat
isfy him, then sniffled and pushed out of his arms. “I’m fine. I’m okay, Jake. You don’t have to . . .”
Her gaze drifted up. She spotted her brother, then quickly pushed to her feet. “Ronan.”
“You’re good, Marley.” Hamilton hugged her tight. “It’s over.”
They embraced for several seconds, and then she moved for her father.
Mason’s arms closed around his daughter. Against her, he whispered, “I’m sorry, pumpkin. I was wrong about him. So, so wrong. I thought I was helping. I thought he could make you happy. Forgive me. I’m so sorry.”
Voices echoed from the front of the barn. Jake didn’t have to look to know that his team was finally there—Eve, Zane, Landon, Mick, and Raleigh. Because he was too focused on Marley being consoled by her father.
Too focused on the fact he should be the one holding her close.
“The cut’s not deep,” the EMT said as he placed butterfly bandages across the wound on Marley’s upper arm. “You’re not going to need stitches. Shouldn’t even scar.”
“Thanks.” Seated on the back of the open ambulance, her feet hanging down to dangle in the shredded train of her dress, Marley pulled the blanket back up over her shoulder and shivered in the cool night air. “That’s one positive in all this, I guess.”
The EMT, a young kid who looked to be no more than twenty-two, flicked a grin her way and grabbed a couple bandages and gauze pads. “I’m gonna check on the other guy. Be right back.”
He headed into the main house where Jake was still talking to the police. Picturing Jake covered in all that blood sent fear coursing through Marley’s body all over again. She drew a deep breath to beat it back, then glanced over her father’s front drive and the emergency vehicles dotting the turnaround.
Most of the wedding guests had left, and the majority of the ones who remained were either family, her father’s Omega employees, or the crew from Aegis, helping the police put the puzzle pieces of Gray’s plan back together. People like Ronan and Jake and her dad, who were used to this kind of chaos. People who dealt with the fallout of an op gone right—or wrong—fairly regularly. People like her.