“How did you get off the boat?” I ask as my mind begins to clear.
“Fucking Frank. I swear he doesn’t listen, but this time, I’m glad he ignored my order. He knew who I was meeting with and insisted he follow us in another boat. I told him, ‘Absolutely not,’ because I didn’t want the guys I was with to see him and get spooked, but lucky for me, he ignored me.” He pauses and runs a hand down my cheek. “When we got out into the open seas, the guys jumped ship, leaving me alone on the yacht. I called for Mayday but knew something was up, so I took off all my clothes and got into the water right before the boat exploded. A few minutes after that happened, Frank pulled up on a small boat, looking smug. I told him then that no one could know I’m alive. Their stupid plan to kill me, and Frank’s ignoring my order, gave me the perfect opportunity to finally clean up a situation that has been needing my attention for a while,” he says carefully.
“You have to come back to me when this is over. I need you to be there when our little man is born so that you can give him his name,” I say as tears fill my eyes.
“I’ll be here for that,” he promises, and his hips begin to rotate as he rocks in and out of me slowly.
He drops his forehead to mine until we both come together, my orgasm hitting me slowly as the feeling spreads through my body, making my whole being feel heavy and causing my eyes to close right before I hear Kai whisper, “I love you.” I mumble the words back to him, and then I feel him button my shirt up and cover me up. I feel something slide onto my finger before I can no longer stay conscious.
When I wake up in the morning, the night before comes back to me, and tears begin to fill my eyes when I don’t see Kai with me. But then I become aware of the wetness between my legs and I pull his shirt away from my chest, seeing that he left love bites around my nipples. I lie back down and pray that he comes back to me soon.
I roll over and begin to tuck my hand under my cheek when I notice that the ring I have on now has a band that wasn’t there before tucked close to it. This one is the same gold as the original, but all around the band are round diamonds. I slip the ring off my finger and hold it up to look at it, but then an inscription on the inside catches my attention.
M & K ~ This is our story.
Tears fill my eyes as I slip the ring back in place. He is right. This is our story, and our story is just beginning.
Chapter 17
Sniper
Kai
I get off the flight and fight my way towards the exit. I haven’t flown commercial in years and had forgotten what a pain in the ass it is. I knew that, if I was going to get to Vegas unrecognized, I would need to make a few changes.
The first change was shaving my hair completely off and trading my suits for jeans and tees so that I matched the appearance of my new ID. The second was flying like any other middle-class citizen.
I had to make sure everyone I knew still believed that I’m dead. Growing up, I learned early on that, if an opportunity presented itself, you needed to take it immediately, so that’s exactly what I did yesterday.
“So, how are we going in?” Frank asks, pulling a pair of dark shades over his eyes.
I look at him and wonder once again how the fuck he convinced me to let him come. “I told you you’re staying at the hotel,” I mutter, walking outside into the hot Las Vegas sun.
“I saved you yesterday,” he reminds me for the hundredth time, and I grind my teeth together in annoyance.
He did save me. He also unknowingly helped me orchestrate the perfect plan, one that, until the ship I had been on blew up, making everyone believe I was dead, would never have been possible. Paulie Jr. had no idea that the idiots he’d sent to kill me were going to be the ones who helped me pull off his death.
“You’re not coming,” I say as I look around for Sven.
“You’re going to let some guy you don’t really know help you do this, but not the man who has been with you your whole life?” He shakes his head, muttering under his breath something about how my mom should have raised me better.
I ignore him and keep walking. Then I spot Sven posted up next to a small sports car.
“What’s up, man? How have you been?” Sven greets us as soon as we’re near.
“Good. How are things?” I shake his hand and place my small bag in the back seat. Then I lean the seat forward so that Uncle Frank can get in.
“You have got to be shitting me,” Uncle Frank complains, looking at the seat then back at me.
“Sorry, man. My assistant is using my other car, so I had to bring this,” Sven apologizes as my uncle stuffs himself into the small back seat then gripes when I put the front seat back in position so I can get in.
“Just ignore him,” I tell Sven once we’re all in the car.
“We still have some time to kill, so I figured we could all go to my house and get the details worked out before doing what you came here for,” Sven says.
I nod then ask him about his club, which is close to the area of downtown that Paulie Sr. has recently started running drugs out of.
He tells me that the drugs have recently begun seeping into his club and a few women who have gone to the club have been roofied. When he went to the cops, he had a dead body and a note telling him to shut his mouth show up on his front step.
When we pull up at his house, I’m slightly taken aback by the normalcy of the area and home. I know that Sven has money, and a lot of it, so the fact that he’s living in a neighborhood has me raising a brow.
“I have a penthouse but have recently been staying here,” he mutters, shutting down the car.
I get out as well then lean the seat forward so Frank can get out before grabbing my bag from the back seat and following Sven up the front steps and into the house.