“Angel.” He kisses me again. “My Valentine.” Another kiss. “Wife.”
My lips smile against his. “Welcome home, Husband.”
He smiles back. “Merry Christmas.”
“It’s starting to feel like it.” I shift my leg.
Dom groans and pulls back. “I want nothing more than to fuck you in the back seat. But I promised myself we’d have a family holiday.”
His words hit me right in the center of the chest. “I would like that.”
He presses his forehead against mine for one long breath before he climbs back out.
“Alright. Then let’s go have a family holiday.” His tone is salty, and I can’t help my laugh when he slams the door and circles around the hood.
The engine has been running this whole time, keeping the heat on. So Dom just buckles his seat belt, then puts it in drive, and we pull away from the little airport.
“This isn’t the same airport we used when we went to Colorado.” I point out the obvious as we turn out of the main gates onto the quiet street.
“We keep our locations random, not using the same airport two times in a row. But it’s just a precaution. All my flights and planes are registered under real names that have nothing to do with me.”
There’s a blacked-out SUV that matches ours right in front of us and a pair of those all-black cars about a hundred yards ahead of them.
“Are these guys going to your mom’s too?” I gesture out the windshield. “I thought it was just us?”
The airfield stretches out on our right, on my side. And on Dom’s side is some sort of industrial complex. Large, low buildings that look unoccupied for the holiday. We must’ve been the only people at the airport because the roads are empty.
“They’ll drive with us there, then break off.”
I’ve gotten so used to having someone drive us around that it feels weird to be alone in a vehicle with Dominic. And I hate that it makes me feel a little nervous to not have extra security on hand. Apparently I’ve gotten too used to the chauffeured, bodyguard lifestyle.
The brake lights of the two cars illuminate in the snow as they approach a stop sign.
I almost snicker at them stopping. Bunch of law-breaking gangsters stopping for street signs when no one is around.
To hide my smile, I look out my window.
The ground drops down about ten feet into a ditch, and I can see the top curve of a large culvert running beneath the road.
I’m suddenly reminded of a time when I was a kid; I wandered into a small one next to a park, and a toad jumped onto my foot.
It scared the crap out of me, but it’s a fun memory. A happy one.
I want more of those.
Bracing myself to talk to Dominic, telling myself to be brave, I turn to my husband.
And our world explodes.
CHAPTER 76
Dom
Everything rolls.
Upside down. Right side up. Upside down.
The crunching glass and bending metal sound quiet. Too quiet. Muted compared to the explosion that went off under the road.
The vehicle stops, the passenger side crunching against the ground a dozen yards away from where we started.
I don’t wait.
Don’t check for wounds.
I just grip the handle above my driver-side door with my left hand and undo my seat belt with my right while bracing my knee against the center console so I don’t crash down on top of Val.
“Valentine!” I shout.
My voice echoes in the small space, and I have to blink to clear my vision.
She’s slumped against her door, the muddy ground of the drainage ditch pressed against her window.
Keeping hold of the handle, I swing my legs free and stretch down until I’m standing on her doorframe, my back to the windshield, covering my wife.
“Val!” I shout louder, panic infusing my voice.
And then she moves.
Her hand lifts.
“I-I’m okay,” she croaks, but I hear it.
She’s not okay.
Only, there’s no time to do this right.
“Come on, Angel.” It’s hard to maneuver in a vehicle tipped on its side, but I manage to crouch down and undo the belt that saved her life. “We gotta move.”
My hands reach her shoulders just as the automatic gunfire starts.
The sound of heavy metal slamming into the underside of our SUV peppers the air.
Valentine scrambles up, and I stay crouched over her as she climbs between the seats toward the back.
A round hits the windshield. Followed by a dozen more.
I had enough time to see the vehicle in front of us get totally fucked up in the explosion before we rolled off the road. They’re out of the game. And I have no idea what condition the other two cars are in.