Zeke

“They found a cell phone, looks like he was colluding with some guy named Robert Grant. They hit Sunny’s together. Kyle broke in and Robert was driving the getaway car. Going by their texts, Robert was the one that found the place, knew they’d score big,” Jude said.

I’d gone to Sunny’s house, but she hadn’t been there. I’d also driven by her shop, but it was all locked up. I’d tried texting and calling—no reply. I’d also tried her sister. Nothing there, either. Sunny could just be avoiding me, she told me to stay away, but honestly, I was starting to seriously worried. “Do they know anything about this other guy? Any leads on where he could be?”

“He doesn’t have a previous record, and he’s moved on from his last known address.”

“Fuck.” I thrust a hand through my hair. “I need to find Sunny.”

“Still nothing back from her?” Van asked.

“Nothing.” I pulled my keys from my pocket. “I’m going to her sister’s. She hasn’t been replying to my messages, but maybe she’s there.”

I was across town and banging on Julia’s door twenty minutes later.

No answer. I banged again, but there was no sound of footsteps. No low hum of a TV.

I shoved my fingers through my hair and stared that the door. Fuck this. I was done waiting. Right now, I had nothing to go on. No way to find Sunny, and I was getting desperate. I pulled my lock picks from my wallet and had the door open in less than a minute. I strode in, headed for the alarm system to disable it, but it wasn’t tuned on. Julia knew better than that. This didn’t give me a good feeling.

The living room and kitchen were empty. There was a laptop on the counter. Maybe they’d gone away or something, I wouldn’t blame Sunny if she wanted to leave town, get the hell away from me. I opened it, hoping it wasn’t password protected. Neco was the go-to guy for shit like this, but I wanted to get into her email. If they’d gone away there could be flight or accommodation information.

I waited for the laptop to boot up . . .

Someone whimpered.

I spun around and headed toward the sound. The bedroom. Pulling my gun from the back of my jeans, I pushed the door open. Shit. “Julia . . .”

She was on the bed, bound and badly beaten. I rushed over and gently pulled the gag away from her mouth and started on the rope around her wrists. “Who did this?”

Tears were streaking down her face. “Bobby, my ex. Oh God, Sunny . . .”

Oh fuck. Please God, no. “Where is she?”

“He . . . he found out she was pregnant and . . .” She sobbed. “He lost it. Sunny . . . she left everything to me in her will. She’s got no one else and Bobby . . . he freaked out. H-he’d said stuff to me when he was high, b-but I never believed him. He hurt me, but I never thought he’d be capable of that.” She grabbed at the front of my shirt. “I never believed him. Now it’s too late.”

She was hysterical and it was taking everything in me not to shake the shit out of her and make her tell me where they were. “You need to tell me what’s going on, Julia. Where is she, where’s Sunny?”

She was clawing at me. “Help her. Help her!” she screamed.

“Julia,” I barked. “You need to calm down, or I can’t help her. I need you to tell me where she is.”

She sucked in a shaky breath, a sob bursting past her lips. “Bobby, he took my phone, he texted Sunny and told her I needed to talk to her. I wouldn’t do it, and he . . . he got angry. I tried to stop him. I tried.”

Bobby.

“What’s Bobby’s full name?” I gritted out. “His last name, is it Grant?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Robert Grant.”

Fuck. “Where was he meeting her?”

She managed to get it out past her sobs.

I gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze. “What’s he going to do, Julia?”

She started shaking, so hard her teeth were chattering. “He’s going to kill her, so I get her money . . . then he’ll kill me, too.”

I shot to my feet and called Van. He was closer to Sunny than me, and I hoped like fuck he got there before it was too late. Then I called Ruby; it was her day off, so she was in the building. She agreed to stay with Julia, then I got the hell out of there.

Sunny needed me. Which meant I couldn’t let the fear trying to take over win.

I got into my car and hit Van’s number again as I tore out into the street. “How far away are you?”

“Ten minutes, max,” he said.

“What if we’re too late? What if it’s too late?” I choked down the line.

“It won’t be,” he said.

We both knew he had no way of knowing that. She could already be gone.

“Fuck.” I gripped the steering wheel so tight my fingers ached.

“You need to keep it tight, brother,” Van said down the line. “You’ll be no help to her if you can’t keep it together.”

“This is Sunny,” I bit out.

Van was silent a beat. “I’ve got a lock on her phone’s GPS. They’re still at the shop. Five minutes away now,” Van said.

Thank fuck. “I’m right behind you.”

We disconnected and then I did something I hadn’t done in over a year. I prayed.

Let Sunny be okay.

Please don’t let me be too late.

Sunny

I was still in the back room when I heard the key rattle in the door at the front of the shop.

“I’m back here, Julia,” I called.

I looked up when she was at the door . . .

Only it wasn’t Julia.

It was Bobby.

Fear sliced through me, and I opened my mouth to tell him to get the hell out, when he charged me and . . . attacked.

He knocked me to the floor, his hits striking hard and fast. I managed to curl in a ball, crying out in pain and trying my best to protect the baby.

He was breathing hard when he finally stopped, pushing away from me. “Why are you doing this?” I forced out through the pain.

He spat on the ground beside me. “I’ve been wanting to do that for a fucking long time.” Then he said no more, securing my wrists and ankles with rope and tying me to the leg of the table.

My body throbbed from his fists. If he’d hurt my baby . . .

Vomit tried to rise in my throat, but I choked it back down. “What do you want from me?”

He watched me, and his anger and hatred for me filled the room. I wasn’t getting out of here unless Bobby decided to release me, and . . . oh God, I couldn’t see that happening.

“Don’t worry, Sunny, it’ll all be over soon.”

He walked out of the room and I listened to his retreating steps, wincing as I pulled against the ropes around my wrists. I needed to get out of here, I needed to get away before he came back, then I could get to the hospital, I could get help. I pulled at the ropes again and a desperate sob escaped. How was I going to get away? He’d tied me tight, so tight I was quickly losing feeling in my feet and hands.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the shop again and I froze. He was back already, and I was terrified of what came next.

Bobby walked back in. He was carrying a gas can.

My fear skyrocketed to the point I felt dizzy from it.

I shrank back. “What are you going to . . .” A shadow moved over the floor by the door. Someone was out there. My eyes shot to Bobby, but he’d seen my reaction and descended on me, grabbed my hair, and held the gun to my head.

“I know you’re there. Show yourself, or I hurt her,” Bobby called out.

Van stepped into the open doorway. His eyes came straight to me. “You okay, sweetheart?”

I bit back a sob. “I’m sorry,” I said. Because of me now Van was in danger as well.

He shook his head. “Don’t need to be, Sunny.” Van took another step into the room. “Why don’t you put down that gun, huh, Bobby?”

Bobby tugged my head back hard. “You make another move and I’ll blow her fucking brains out.”

Van froze, hands coming up, palms out.

“Put your gun on the floor and kick it to me,” Bobby said.

Van did as he asked, expression hard as stone.

“Looks like you won’t be dying alone,” Bobby said to me. He waved his gun at Van. “Sit down, asshole, take those cuffs from your pocket, and put them on.”

Van did as he was told, seemingly unfazed. “Zeke’s on the way,” he muttered under his breath when he sat down by me. “It’s going to be all right, Sunny.”

“Okay,” Bobby said, drawing our attention back to him. He picked up the gas can and walked back toward us. Van jumped to his feet again, but Bobby aimed the gun back at me. “Sit the fuck back down.”

Van growled, nostrils flaring. “No matter what happens here today,” Van said, voice cold, deadly. “She dies, you die. I want that to sink in.”

“I’m the one with the gun,” Bobby said.

“You’re stupider than you look if you think that’s going to save you.”

Bobby started to look uneasy. “I said, sit the fuck back down.”

Van held his eyes for a beat then started to lower himself back to the floor.

Bobby took the opportunity to take a cheap shot while Van had his hands cuffed, and hit him on the side of the head with the butt of his gun. I screamed, and Van growled again, listing to the side momentarily. Blood instantly started oozing from a cut on the side of his head.

That wouldn’t stop Van, I knew that much, but with the gun pointed at me again there wasn’t much he could do. Bobby’s hands were shaking as he lifted the gas can and splashed gas on and around us.

I gasped, a sob choking me, and Van cursed.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could make this quick,” Bobby said. “But it needs to look like an accident. Someone finds you with bullet holes from my gun, it could get tricky for me. This way there’ll be no evidence.”

Van said Zeke was on the way, but I was starting to think he wouldn’t get here in time. That we were going to burn alive.

“Why are you doing this?” I whispered.

“I owe a lot of bad people a lot of money.” He was sweating, shaking harder now. “If I don’t pay them, I’ll end up chopped into tiny pieces and buried in cement somewhere.”

“What about Julia? You kill me, it will hurt her. You say you love her, but you’ll do this to her?”

“I have no choice!” he roared, his voice echoing around the room. “I’ve lost her anyway. I found the key to your house in Julia’s bag, your security code on her phone. I took a chance, tried to get what I needed to keep my head above water. You’d stopped giving us money.” He cursed. “It wasn’t enough, things were past desperate. So I decided to hit your place again, but without Kyle. I couldn’t afford to give him a cut, but your asshole boyfriend showed up before I could bust through the window.” His fingers curled into a fist. “When Julia found out what I did, that I was behind your robbery, she lost it.” He gritted his teeth. “She was going to call the cops, I couldn’t let her do that.” His face clouded over. “I’d hoped we could work things out, but now . . . you’re right . . .”

It was him, behind the robbery.

He shook his head. “She’ll never forgive me, not after this . . .”

He was going to kill Julia, too.

“You don’t want to do this,” I said.

“I have to . . .” He started breathing heavily, then leaned over and threw up.

“You don’t have the stomach for this,” Van said, voice sounding stronger. “You’re not a killer, Bobby. You don’t have to do this. Let me help you. I can help you.”

Bobby dragged his sleeve across his mouth. “It’s too late. I have to . . .”

“Drop the gun.”

I spun toward Zeke’s voice. He stood at the door, gun aimed on Bobby.

Bobby moved fast, but I managed to scramble back out of his reach, so he aimed his gun at Van. “Get up,” he said.

Van did as he was told, still bleeding from the side of the head. Bobby moved behind him, pressing the gun hard against his back.

“This whole place is going up,” Bobby said. “And I’m not going to be here when it happens . . .”

“Drop the gun,” Zeke said again, voice stone cold.

Bobby produced a lighter and shook his head, eyes wild, desperate. “It’s either her or me. She needs to die . . .”

Zeke looked directly at Van. “Sorry, brother.”

Van cursed, nodded, and gritted his teeth.

Zeke fired.

I screamed. The deafening sound of the gun blasted through the small room, making my ears ring.

Then both Van and Bobby went down hard.

Zeke shot them. He shot both of them.

Shoving his gun back in his jeans, Zeke rushed to me, untying me. “Okay, Sunny?”

“Y-yes.”

He handed me his phone. “Call an ambulance, Sunshine. Quickly now.” Then he was over by Van, pulling off his shirt and holding it over the bullet wound in his friend’s side.

I did as Zeke said and rushed over to them. Bobby was lying on his back, eyes open, unmoving. Van on the other hand was leaning into Zeke and cursing a blue streak.

“I haven’t been shot in a while,” he gritted out. “I forgot how much it fucking hurts.”

“You’ll live,” Zeke muttered.

I stared down at them in disbelief, then I started shaking, uncontrollably.

Zeke reached for me. “Sit down. You’re going into shock.”

I thought he might be right. Black dots started dancing in front of my eyes and I sank to my butt. “I don’t . . . I’m feeling kind of . . .” I heard sirens in the distance. “Faint.” I wasn’t sure if I said that part out loud or not.

Then everything went black.

* * *

I woke slowly, blinking the heaviness from my eyes. I was in a hospital room. I worked that out right away. Gas wasn’t burning my nostrils anymore, so I knew I’d also been washed. My body ached everywhere.

The baby.

I started to struggle and realized someone was holding me. I looked down. I was sitting in a bed, but someone had pulled me into their lap. I stilled and tilted my head back, though I didn’t need to look to know who it was. Zeke was looking down, eyes on me.

“You’re okay, Sunshine. You’re okay now.”

His hold was gentle, warm, comforting. “The baby,” I whispered.

He brushed my hair back from my face. “The baby’s fine, darlin’.”

I felt a tear streak down my cheek.

Zeke swiped it away with his thumb. “You’re battered and bruised, but our peanut will be just fine.”

I blinked up at him, the tenderness I heard in his voice taking me by surprise. “Our peanut is actually the size of a bell pepper.”

He swiped another tear from my face. “Yeah?”

I started to nod, then it rushed back, what happened in that warehouse. “Van. Is he going to be okay?”

Zeke dipped his chin. “He’ll be sore and he lost some blood, but he’ll be okay.”

“What about Julia? Did Bobby hurt her?”

“She’ll be okay, too.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. “She wanted me to give you this.”

“My mother’s bracelet.” I stared down at it stunned.

“Bobby’s gambling problem was out of control. After he blew through Julia’s money, he started borrowing from people, forcing her to come to you and ask for more. She did what he asked because she was terrified of him. She’d been to your place, watched you enter the security code, memorized it, came back while you were at work. She took the bracelet, a few other things that she pawned, some cash, but she couldn’t bring myself to sell that.” He motioned to the bracelet. “She was afraid she’d lose you if she told you what Bobby did, afraid of what he’d do to her, to you.” He shook his head. “But she never thought he’d try and kill you.”

Bobby had been a despicable human being, and I believed that she was terrified. Maybe I should be angry, but I couldn’t hold this against her, not now, not after everything we’d both been through to get to this point.

His fingers toyed with my hair, his gaze moving over me, over my face. I never wanted him to stop. I wanted to stay right here, in his arms forever. “I can’t believe you shot Van,” I said, and there was no mistaking the disbelief in my voice for anything else.

“I wasn’t going to lose you,” he said. “If I hadn’t shot him, I would have lost you both.” Another brush of his fingers through my hair. “And Van trusted me not to shoot anything important.”

I should make him put me down. I couldn’t allow myself to depend on him, even if he had just saved my life. “You did the right thing.” I forced myself to lift my head, to meet his stare. “Thank you, for saving me.”

“Don’t fucking thank me, Sunny . . .”

I rested my hand on his chest. “Zeke, I’m okay now, thanks to you. You don’t need to stay. I know you feel responsible for me, but you don’t need to . . .”

He cupped the side of my face, silencing me. “I will always feel responsible for you, Sunny.”

God, I hated that. I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me. “Zeke, please . . .”

“Look at me,” he growled. “I need you to look at me and listen to what I’m saying.”

I didn’t want to, but I forced myself to do as he asked. I owed him that after what he’d done for me.

“I feel a lot of things for you,” he said, eyes now fierce.

I changed my mind. I couldn’t listen to this, hear him tell me that he cared . . . just not enough. “Please . . . don’t . . .”

He held me in place more firmly. “I feel protective as hell. Possessive, too,” he said, talking right over me. “Shit, I hate the idea of another man even looking at you.”

I stilled and bit my lip, on the verge of begging him to stop talking. I couldn’t take it, not again. He may still be attracted to me, but that wasn’t enough, not anymore.

“I also have this feeling.” He grabbed my hand and held it against his chest. “Right here. When you’re with me, it feels so damn big I can barely breathe, and when you’re gone, it hurts, aches so bad I don’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t recognize it at first, didn’t want to . . . darlin’, I was afraid to.” He slid this thumb below my bottom lip. “Can you tell me what that is, Sunshine?”

My eyes started to sting and I bit my lip.

I shook my head. Too afraid to hope.

His thumb did another sweep, this time my cheek. “I love you, Sunny. I was too damn scared to admit it even to myself, but I’ve loved you since you sat beside me in that bar, since you shone your light on me and chased away the shadows.”

More tears slid down my face. “You love me?”

“More than anything,” he said, voice rough. “I was scared, so damn scared. I didn’t want to let you down. There are things, things that happened during my last deployment that I’ve struggled to get past.” Another swipe of his fingers over my cheek. “You found your way in, Sunny, past all the guilt and self-loathing and it fucking terrified me. I didn’t deserve happiness, and that’s what you were making me feel. I didn’t know how to deal with it. Honestly, I’m still struggling with it.”

“Something bad happened?” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Will you tell me?” I knew from the moment I met him there was something he was struggling with; it was impossible to miss. He loved me, and I loved him. I’d do whatever it took to help him through this, whatever it was. For that, I needed him to share it with me.

He let out shaky breath, and I saw how hard this was for him. “There . . . there was this kid . . .” He slid his fingers up the back of my neck, into my hair. “This kid, he hung around us all the time, we’d kick a ball around with him if we were at a loose end, stuff like that. This one day, I was up on a rooftop, covering our guys on patrol, when I saw the kid approach. Everything in me knew something was wrong, the way he was walking, acting. My instincts were screaming at me to do something. But he was this cute, funny kid we’d gotten to know. I couldn’t pull the trigger when I needed to. That kid, he had explosives strapped to him. I hesitated . . . and because of that, two of my men, a child, were killed.”

I didn’t know what to say, what he described was horrifying. I clung to him tighter.

“Both of those men had families, wives, kids. I’ve been on a road to self-destruction since I came back, and that night, the night I met you . . .” He cupped my face, tilting my head back so our eyes met. “Sunny, you saved my life. I was ready to go out, run headlong into whatever would help me end the way I felt. Then you, with your vanilla scent, and your wild blond hair, and that fucking smile . . . you talked to me like I wasn’t the monster I saw myself as, you stopped me. And you kept on stopping me. As long as I knew I had you waiting for me, I had a reason to get through another day. You did that, darlin’. You saved me.”

I cupped his face, my heart breaking for him. Nothing I could say would change what he’d been through, the way he felt, so I said, “I love you so much, Zeke. I’m here for you, baby. Whatever you need, I’m here for you.”

He pressed his forehead to mine, his rough curse vibrating through me. “I want this, Sunny, I want us. I want you, and our baby,” he said gruffly. “You gave me something to fight for, and I’ll never be able to repay you for that.”

The man was killing me. But he wasn’t the only one whose life had been altered the day I sat on that bar stool. “I stopped believing there was a happy-ever-after for me a long time ago,” I said. “I’ve been let down so many times in my life, been so alone. I may have brightened your world, Zeke Stanton, but you did the same for me. I’d say that makes us even.”

He groaned deep and pulled me in tight. “Thank God you found me.”

I tilted my head back and smiled up at him. “We found each other.”