Page 102 of His Deadly Lies

“Trust me, sweetheart. Whatever it takes to show you I’m here, I’m willing to do.”

She glances toward the chair where we’d found Alice. “What happened to our journalist?”

“Ricardo has her, safe. She stinks to high fucking heaven, and she’s got a few bruises, but a shower and time will heal those things,” I reply.

Edward clears his throat. “If you two are done tongue-fucking each other like teenagers, we’ve got a mess to clean up and a business to get back on track.”

“Papa!” Mia turns to her father, surprised, and tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. Not before I catch a glimpse of her blush.

Balestra’s pissed as he nudges Hector’s already cooling body with the toe of his food. “We’re going to have to reach out and absorb whatever people of his we can. Whatever people his fucking no good pussy of a son didn’t ruin…” He trails off.

Mia’s gasp is the only alert I get. Another man rushes us, and I push Mia out of the way, rounding and grabbing the knife from my holster. I slice at him low, going for the gut, and he doesn't even have a chance to fire before the blade is buried in his side. The man drops to his knees with a low moan, and I yank the blade out, slashing it across his throat.

“Too slow, asshole,” I say above the gargles.

I see Mia’s pale face, and the pain rushes back to me. Fucking rude. She cracks her eyes open, her face dotted with blood the same way Hector’s shirt had been.

“Baby, I’m sorry—”

She holds up a hand, cutting me off, and swipes her hand through the blood. Something cold in her eyes until she meets mine. “We’ll kill them all if we have to,” she admits in an undertone. “Don’t apologize for that. Just take me home, Carter.”

Her bloody hand is laced with mine a second later, and I don’t dare turn my head to Edward.

We leave him and the men behind to clean up the mess and take care of the bodies. For me, there is only Mia. Only the love for her in my heart. I swing her up into my arms despite my wound and walk out of the house, carrying her off to whatever ending people like us get.

EPILOGUE: MIA

Sunlight gleams down on white sand, echoed by a nearly perfect blue sky. Out across the turquoise water, boats bob. Palm trees sway in the breeze, which makes the hot day more bearable.

It’s picture-perfect, and a part of me scoffs at the cliche of it all.

Still, you don’t turn your nose up at paradise. You don’t take your happily ever after and look for flaws.

Even if this scene from a movie is my actual life, and it’s kind of ridiculous how perfect it is.

Rather than nitpicking, I force myself to relax, to ease the tension in my muscles, breath by breath until something loosens.

I deserve this.

After everything we’ve been through, I deserve this. We deserve this.

The private island has been in my family for the past ten years since Papa got a wild hair up his ass and decided we needed a place to get away from the chaos of the lakeshore. It’s not as large as some in this chain in the western Caribbean, but when you’ve got an entire goddamn island, who needs it to be large? You just need the escape.

Except I’ve finally built a life I don’t need to escape from, and the gold engagement band around my left ring finger isn’t quite as heavy as I thought it would be. Guess that all comes down to the man who will wear its twin one day, stalking across the sand toward me and not quite able to shake the predatory way he moves.

Not even on our honeymoon.

“Have I told you how delicious you look in white?” Carter begins once he’s within earshot.

He hands off the tall frosted glass of something the color of strawberries, and I hold eye contact, tongue darting out to drag the straw between my lips.

“You like?” I purchased the bikini on a whim, even though it barely covers any portion of me. Hoping against hope he would enjoy the view.

Carter growls, which is exactly the answer I hoped for.

He leans down to press his lips against mine, tasting of the same heady combination as the drink. He pauses only a moment before reaching around to his back pocket and pulling out a phone.

“Hell no. Carter, if you’re going to check on things while we're here, I swear to god, I’ll throw your cell in the ocean,” I warn. “And you with it.”

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