“Damien.”
“It’s Johnson. You can’t go to the meet.”
Damien frowned. “What are you talking about? We’re on the way.” Damien turned the corner and headed north toward Wellington. They weren’t more than an hour away.
“I tried to keep it under wraps, Damien. I only told the necessary people. But it got leaked. Someone told the ADA.”
Shit. That whole office was filthy. Mia might not believe it, but the ADA was just as evil as her old man. He gritted his teeth. They couldn’t run now. Not when he was so close to fulfilling all that Melanie worked for.
She died trying to bring the cartel down. He had to avenge that. If he was walking into a trap, so be it. He would keep Mia safe and blow the lid on the DA’s office. Melanie didn’t die for nothing. She couldn’t have.
His words came out short and clipped. “I can’t back out now. I’ve got to see it through.”
Mia’s voice cut through the dread. “What’s going on?”
Damien couldn’t look at her or she’d see the fear in his eyes. Instead, he kept talking to the detective. “What are they planning?”
The cop he had known since he was eight years old was silent for too long. Did they want him in jail? Mia, too?
At last, Rick sighed. “They aren’t planning on taking you alive.”
The bottom fell out of Damien’s heart. His hands clutched at the wheel and it took all his self-control not to whip the car around.
Mia twisted in the seat and reached for him, but he couldn’t face her. She couldn’t see the horror. The defeat.
Everything that had happened in the last month…The way she made him feel when she looked at him, when she kissed him, when she came calling his name…It had been worth it.
Rick started talking again and Damien tried to focus through the tears pricking his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Damien. Willows is dirty. He’s in with Marcelo’s crew just like Davenport. I tried to stop it, but it’s out of my control.” Rick tried to explain but all Damien heard was the end. “You have to run.”
Damien swallowed, but his tongue stuck in his throat. “That’s not an option.”
“Then I’ll be there. I’ll try and back you up.”
Damien’s grip on the steering wheel turned violent. The plastic groaned under the force of his hands. No one else was dying because of him. Not this way. “No. This isn’t your fight.” He swallowed. “Just promise me, Rick. After it all goes down, keep her safe. I don’t care about me. Do you understand?”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“You’re scaring me, Damien.” Mia’s hand landed on his arm like a fire brand. “Is everything all right?”
He tossed the phone into the cup holder and shrugged her off.
Nothing would ever be all right again. He turned to Mia. With her hair falling in her face and her big brown eyes trained on him, she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
He wanted to memorize every curve of her heart-shaped face and keep the warmth of her dark eyes tucked deep inside. Mia Davenport was the best thing to walk into his life. Too bad he would never get to find out if they had a future.
He tried to smile. He failed. “Everything’s fine. That was the cop I know. He said he can’t make it today, that’s all.”
She frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, of course.” He turned back to the road and took a deep breath. No matter how far he ran or what he did, he would never be free. Marcelo or the DA’s office or the police department—someone, somewhere would be after him.
Mia deserved so much more. She deserved someone worthy of her love. Not a beat-up man with blood on his hands. “No matter what happens today, I want you to know, these past few weeks have been some of the best of my life.”
Mia reached out and squeezed his thigh with her hand. “Don’t talk like that. This isn’t the end. It’s a new beginning.”
Damien nodded. It would be, for one of them.
A little while later, he pulled into the parking lot of the warehouse.
He had negotiated a site he knew well, but it wouldn’t matter. The place might be more his style, abandoned and empty and ready for some criminal action, but with Marcelo involved, it wouldn’t be a fair fight.
Mia reached for the door handle as he turned off the car, but he grabbed her arm. He slipped his hand behind her head and pulled her close.
Right there—that moment when their lips touched and Mia closed her eyes—it was the closest to heaven Damien would ever get.
He would never forget the taste of her lips. The smell of her hair. The way her eyelids fluttered shut and she shivered.