Page 100 of Bourbon and Proof

“Griz!” Shuffling in a panic, I try to get up, seeing enough to know he was just shot in the leg. “Griz—Fuck.” I turn back to Wheeler. “Don’t.”

“There was approximately $200 million in assets,” Wheeler says, completely unaffected. “You’re a smart man, Atticus. I know you can easily make an offshore transfer with a simple call to your bank.”

Griz bellows, “Fuck you, Wheeler!”

“Quiet.” I raise my voice while keeping my eyes locked on Wheeler’s.

My grandfather keeps going, though. “Don’t you fucking give him a goddamn dime, Atticus, or so help me?—”

“Shut up, Griz!” I watch as he tilts his head back, eyes squeezed shut as he deals with the pain of being shot. If we’re lucky, the bullet went right through.

Wheeler turns on his boot heel and taps the barrel of his gun into Hawk’s chest, who’s now standing right behind him. “You’re already in over your head, Chief. You plan on coming out of this with yours and your brother’s lives still intact, then you’re going to need to get rid of them once I have what I need.”

This time, I flinch at the sound of another firework sounding off. It lights the sky just enough for me to look farther out into the space that was just blanketed with darkness. I do a double take. Then another one shoots high, and as soon as it claps and explodes, scattering like white rain in the sky, I see her.Hadley. My fucking wife, racing like the wind on the back of her white horse, like a goddamn knight. Thank fuck, she’s alive. With her head down along the side of Lady’s neck, and not slowing, she’s headed in a direct path, right for us.

Just as both Hawk and Wheeler hear the hooves of her horse, turning toward her, a series of things happen in succession.She’s the perfect diversion. Hawk hauls himself and his brother away enough so that Wheeler is shoved and almost trampled by her horse. She doesn’t slow until she starts to turn. The horse is barely coming down from a trot before she launches herself off its back and is running straight to me.

“Ace,” Seraphine calls out.“Down!”

Seconds later, the whirring sound of two bullets coming from a silencer hit Wheeler. One in the hand, forcing away his weapon and the other blowing out his knee, taking him down. He screams as he hits the ground. Presh comes from the corner of the house, moving straight for Griz, whose eyes are still thankfully open, chest still rising and falling steadily.

“Ace!” Hadley calls out, arms pumping fast with her eyes locked on mine.

“I’m here, baby,” I say as adrenaline courses through my veins, mixing with relief that she’s okay. I rock myself forward once more with enough force and leverage to finally snap these zip ties.

As soon as Hadley reaches me, she sits right on my lap. Our arms wrap around each other just before our lips collide in a kiss fueled by the fear we’ve just experienced. A short cry bursts from her lips as she pulls back to catch her breath, my forehead resting against hers when she frames my face in her hands.

“I thought you were—” The words cut off as my voice cracks, and she kisses me again.

“Nope.” She shakes her head. “You’re not getting out of this marriage that easily,” she says through a watery laugh. As she peppers kisses along my jaw, my chest burns with the emotions crashing into me.

The moment I saw her car explode, I stopped breathing. My life has been intertwined with hers for so long, before she kissed me or looked at me the way she is right now. I don’t believe in anything resembling religion, but there’s somethingthat’s woven itself around me and this woman in a way that’s bigger than both of us. Coincidence and misfortune, sure. But reverence and appreciation for getting to love her is something I feel deep in the marrow of my bones.

“I kind of like the idea of you tied up. Should have left those ties on.” She makes me chuckle, even with tears streaking down her beautiful face. “Maybe later, yeah?” Kissing me once more, she shifts off of my lap, just as Seraphine approaches.

“Let's get you on your feet, Foxx,” Seraphine says as she flips open her pocket knife. With a quick swipe, she cuts the ties at my feet and helps me stand, my wife getting up with me. “Nothing like the women riding in to save your ass, huh?”

But just as I let out a laugh, Hadley gasps as Wheeler yanks her arm and pulls her against him. With her back to his front, his arm is looped around her neck, his hand nearly blown off as he holds her tightly in a headlock by the crook of his elbow. She cries out as he digs his gun into her side with his other hand.

I step forward without thinking, my gaze on Hadley’s terrified expression, but Seraphine armbars me, holding me back. The action nearly has me feral, until she steps in front of me slightly, and I see the gun tucked into the waistband of her pants. She knows I’ll have a better chance of grabbing it without being seen than she will.

“You really—” He breathes hard, spit drooling from his mouth as he limps, trying to pull her farther from me. “Made a mess of this, pumpkin.”

Hadley’s eyes water as she tries to gain her footing from being pulled back, her bare feet slipping, unable to gain any traction. Digging her fingers into his arm, she tries to hit the mangled flesh. “I’m not your pumpkin.”

Wheeler tuts, like her words mean nothing to him.

I’ve never wanted to kill him more than I do at this moment. I’m seconds away from tearing that arm right off his body. “Take your hands off my wife.”

“Not yet,” Seraphine grits out quietly.

“My name is Mrs. Hadley Foxx,” my wife seethes in a strained voice and through a clenched jaw, just as Hawk comes to his full height behind Wheeler. It has my nerves ratcheting even higher, until I see the look of disdain on his face, aimed right at the same man I’m staring at.

The cocked gun Wheeler holds digs into Hadley’s ribs and his mangled hand turns up, his arm tightening around her neck even more, which has her eyes widening and body straining. Even if Hawk makes a move to protect her from Wheeler, there’s no guarantee his gun won’t go off.

“Hadley, look at me,” I shout to her.

“Shut up, Foxx,” Wheeler hisses, along with other scathing words, but instead of letting them sink in, I lock eyes with her and shuffle for one important thing that she’ll understand.

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