Strong Enough(93)

“I have Gerard to thank for introducing me to this lovely woman’s work,” Julienne says.

“Obviously he had a good eye,” Jasper says mildly.

“Did you know him?”

“Not really. We only met once.”

“A pity we couldn’t all be here tonight. I have a feeling business will be very good,” she says, winking at me.

“I’m sure he hated to miss it,” I add.

Gerard sold his house and moved to Italy within a month of Jasper and me moving out. Jasper wanted to choose a place that was more to his liking. In other words, some place that no one could find us until my father finds out who’s behind Napalm.

In the last four months, he’s been able to uncover a few details about Napalm. It’s a covert operation, not sanctioned by the government, that appears to lead right to a senatorial committee. Every day he gets one step closer to putting an end to all this so we can go home. He’s got Rogan in the wings, waiting for another name, another connection so that he can work his own sources. Until then, we’re making a home where we can. With each other. We’re healing more and more, learning to love and be loved. Jasper is putting his old life and all its nightmares behind him and reaching for a future with me. He even grieved the loss of his mother, shedding a single tear that I caught before it could touch the ground. With each day, we’re growing closer together and farther from the pain of the past.

Jasper mentions one of my newest pieces, effectively bringing me back to the present. Under the table, he takes my hand and squeezes it. He’s always attuned to me, always sensitive to my moods and my thoughts, it seems.

They finally get around to making me an offer that makes my head spin. I feel giddy and light, my laugh sounding more and more like Julienne’s champagne-soaked one. But my bubbles come from within. This news makes an already wonderful day perfect.

My mind reels as I think about the other news I got, news that Jasper has yet to find out about. I’ll be telling him later, when we’re alone. Until then, every time I think about that little plastic tube that’s in the trashcan back at our new place here in Paris, I feel giddy. It read positive this morning. The pink plus appeared almost immediately. I knew it would. Something in my gut, something in my heart told me that it would.

Jasper will be thrilled. He tries to act nonchalant about me getting pregnant, but he’s as disappointed as I am when the test reads negative. So tonight, we’ll be celebrating more than one dream coming true. After a lifetime of tough blows and bad dreams, I want Jasper to have his every heart’s desire, starting with our baby. If it’s within my power to make him happy, I’ll do it. I’d do anything for him. And he’d do anything for me. That’s why I don’t worry about tomorrow. As long as I’ve got Jasper, I’ll be more than okay. I’ll be perfect.





Turn the page for a special excerpt from the next Tall, Dark, and Dangerous novel by M. Leighton

TOUGH ENOUGH

Coming soon from Berkley Books!





PROLOGUE


Katie



Two years ago

Something is prodding me to wake up. Like an insistent finger poking my shoulder and someone whispering, “Wake up, wake up, wake up.”

But I don’t want to. I only want to hide. Hide from the light, hide from the world, hide from reality. I turn deeper into unconsciousness, but there’s no rest for me there.

Wake up, wake up, wake up.

A dull pain begins to spread down my left side and sounds that were a distant backdrop only moments before come closer, closer, closer. One by one, I can make them out.

Sirens.

Metallic clattering.

Strange voices.

Screaming. Awful screaming.

It sounds so familiar, that scream. That voice, although I can’t figure out why. The answer is fuzzy, like the face that swirls behind my eyes.

Distorted. Mocking. Cruel.

It’s Calvin.

Panic swells within me, forcing me toward wakefulness. I don’t want to go, don’t want to wake. I claw and scratch. I dig in with my heels, with my hands, but nothing can stop my ascent.

Agony rushes in. It steals my breath and sweeps over me like flames, licking at my skin, turning the air to napalm.

More screaming, only this time I recognize the voice. I know it. I’ve listened to it my whole life.

It’s mine.

And then I remember.

Just before the blackness welcomes me back.

I rouse again, despite a gut instinct that tells me not to.

I wake to harsh voices, shouted commands and muffled road noise.

The face is still there, still there behind my eyes. Taunting me, haunting me. Satisfied.

Horrific pain radiates from the left side of my body. It sears its way across my nerves, gaining strength, gaining momentum until I can’t fight the blackness.