King (Great Wolves Motorcycle Club Book 10) Page 17

  Afterward, he held me close and we watched the stars come out. It was perfect and peaceful until Rusty started barking something fierce. I sat bolt upright and looked back at the house. Rusty paced back and forth on the deck.

  “What’s wrong with him?” I asked. “Why the hell won’t he just come down here?”

  King laughed. “Shit. I forgot to tell you. With all the excitement of the store opening, Marie and I neglected to tell you about your surprise.”

  “My surprise?”

  “A couple of days ago Beckett Finch called. It’s nothing serious, but he got a call from the Cleveland PD about Caleb’s personal effects. I told him we weren’t interested, but there was one thing I figured you’d want back.”

  My heart sank. How could he think I’d want anything to remind me of Caleb? Rusty went up on his hind legs and howled.

  “Shit,” King said. “She must have got out. I was going to surprise you at dinner. Come on.”

  King took me by the hand and led me up to the house. There, sitting on the deck railing with her tail waving behind her, was the real Theodosia. My beautiful orange tabby let out a languid yawn and stretched her back, oblivious to Rusty’s distress.

  I clamped my hands over my mouth and drew in a breath. “Are you serious?”

  “As a heart attack.”

  Theodosia purred when I went to her and rubbed her head against my chest. I cradled her against me and turned back toward Rusty. He wagged his tail, whined, and took a tentative step forward. His eyes seemed to say, “Well, if she’s all right with you, maybe she’s all right with me.” Theodosia didn’t seem to have an opinion one way or the other.

  “I don’t understand how they found her.”

  King shrugged. “I guess a neighbor had been taking care of her and finally reached out to try and find her owner. Lucky coincidence, I guess.”

  “I guess,” I said. Rusty finally got brave enough to come to me. He gave Theodosia a sniff and decided she wasn’t going to kill him. Theodosia looked like she hadn’t ruled it out, but the two of them reached a detente at least.

  I put her down and she scampered back into the house. “Thank you,” I said, and tears misted my eyes as King drew me into his arms again.

  “You don’t mind?”

  “Mind? It’s perfect. You gave me my life back, King. Every piece of it. You made me whole when I felt so broken.”

  He hooked a finger beneath my chin and his eyes glinted as he looked at me. “Baby, I wasn’t whole until you walked into my life. My heart didn’t start beating until that day you tried to kill me with a staple gun. I don’t regret a second of anything that’s happened because every bit of it led us to this very moment. I love you. Will you marry me?”

  As always, King Jackson took my breath away. We heard banging from inside the house as Theodosia must have knocked something over with her tail. Rusty went tearing off after her, barking wildly. Laughing, I turned back to King.

  “Of course I will. What took you so long to ask?”

  King’s mouth dropped, then he smiled. He pulled me in close and kissed me deeply as the stars and the surf bore witness.

  THE END

  A Message from Jayne Blue

  Thank you so much for riding along with King and Veronica. King was one of those secondary characters in another book that just reached out of my computer screen and grabbed hold of me, demanding his own story. I just hope I did him justice. Wouldn’t you know it, a few other characters in his story did the exact same thing.

  Up next, I’ve got some exciting news to share. If you loved the men of the Great Wolves M.C., you’re going to REALLY love the men of my brand new biker romance series, the Dark Saints M.C. While the Great Wolves finally found a way to go legit, the Dark Saints still relish the outlaw lifestyle and have no plans to change. They’re bold, dark and dangerous. These alpha male bikers will take you on a ride you won’t soon forget. So, come along with me to Port Azrael, Texas and let these bad boys heat up your ereaders and hold you close.

  The series kicks off with Dark Vow featuring Axel Hart. You might remember Axel from his smoldering appearance in King. Here’s a little preview of what’s in store…

  As club enforcer Axel Hart lives by one creed. Protect the club interests at all costs. When he’s asked to neutralize a material witness that could hurt a club ally, he doesn’t think twice about what that could mean.

  Until he lays eyes on her.

  Gorgeous Maya Ballard is the only eyewitness to a brutal crime. She believes the cops when they tell her they can keep her safe until she testifies. Then she runs headlong into Axel Hart. He oozes danger and sex appeal and every instinct in her tells her he’s trouble. But one tantalizing touch of his lips against hers sends Maya into a tailspin.

  For Axel, he knows he’s got to take Maya down. He just never counted on letting her get under his skin. Though it might bring the world crashing down around his ears, his feelings may be too strong to deny,

  Don’t Miss the first full length standalone book in the Dark Saints M.C. Series. Click here for more information about:

  Dark Vow

  By

  Jayne Blue

  Finally, we also haven’t seen the last of sexy sheriff Beckett Finch from King. I’m going back to Crystal Falls Texas when sheriff Finch gets his own book as part of my Tortured Heroes Series featuring alpha men in uniform. Don’t miss Edge. Click here for more information. If you’d like a taste of the Tortured Heroes, keep reading past my book list for a bonus excerpt of Marked featuring U.S. Marshal Ray Huckman.

  Be among the first to get notice, cover reveals, exclusive excerpts and links and first dibs on the release of other Jayne Blue titles by signing up for my Jayne Blue’s Newsletter. You’ll get a FREE EBOOK as a welcome gift just for signing. Your email will never be shared and you may unsubscribe anytime you’d like.

  If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review. Reviews help authors like me stay visible and help bring others to my work. Thank you so much.

  Want to be Facebook Friends? Visit me I’m on it all the time.

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  And Twitter is where I’m just kind of random. Hit me up. I love to connect and am pretty much a social media addict.

  Thank you so much for reading and connecting with me.

  Love you,

  Jayne Blue

  http://www.jayneblue.com/

  jayneblueauthor@gmail.com

  Books by Jayne Blue

  Great Wolves M.C. (Biker Romance Series)

  Dex

  Sly

  Colt

  Kellan

  Sawyer

  Brax

  Stone

  Ryder

  Nash

  King

  Dark Saints M.C. (Biker – Dark Romantic Suspense Series)

  Dark Vow

  Dark Temptation

  Dark Honor

  Dark Fury

  Dark Desire

  Dark Instinct

  Dark Seduction

  Dark Destiny

  Dark Oath

  Dark Redemption

  Tortured Heroes (Men in Uniform - Romantic Suspense Series)

  Vice

  Heat

  Marked

  Strike

  Ripper

  Edge

  Torrid Trilogy (Erotic Romance)

  Book One

  Book Two

  Book Three

  The Owned Series (Erotic Romance featuring call girl Nina Sharpe)

  Owned by the Playboy

  Owned by the Candidate

  Owned by the Spy

  Owned by the Prince

  Owned by the G-Man

  The Complete Series

  Hold Series (MMA Fighter Romance)

  Uncaged Series (MMA Fighter Romance)

  Ride

  Stripped

  Clinch

  Bonus Excerpt of Marked by Jayne Blue

  HUCK

  It’s a release. Like
good sex. Anyone who tells you differently is doing it wrong. Aim low, your mark will jump when you pull the trigger. Don’t close your eyes. Never close your eyes. Exhale. Squeeze. Pray.

  “You got a shot, Huck? Can you see him?” The breathless voice in my ear startled me. For a second I could have almost believed I was the only one in the world. Well, other than the scumbag I sighted. He didn’t know I could see him. I pressed my back against the hundred-year-old knotted oak tree in his ex-wife’s front yard. My earpiece squawked so loud I prayed it hadn’t given me away. Answering, even in a whisper, might. I tapped the com once hoping it would let Deputy Marshal Soles know I was listening but not in a position to answer more than that.

  A scream. I tightened my grip on my Glock and shifted my weight. From this vantage point I could see straight into the kitchen. A blur of movement. A shock of bottle-red hair. Ginny. That was her name. Ginny Kincaid. She had the misfortune of hitching her wagon to one sad sack of shit named Marvin Wayne. They popped him on felony drug possession or something. It didn’t really matter. What mattered is that he and his equally dip shitted cousin escaped federal custody two days ago. Wayne here signed a deal where he was about to flip and help bring down the number seven man on the FBI’s most wanted list. Wayne had it made. He would have walked. We could have kept him safe. Probably.

  Now, all bets were off.

  Ginny screamed again. Shit. She came into view. Marvin had one fist twisted in her Lucille Ball-red hair. I saw a flash of metal in his other hand. He gripped the gun under Ginny’s chin and shoved her toward the back door.

  Stay calm, Ginny. Just do what he says.

  Ginny had been smart up to this point. She’s the one who called the cops as soon as Marvin reached out to her. They were smart. They called in the Marshals Service and here I was. Ginny told them she had a gun in the house. Unfortunately, Marvin knew where she kept it and got to it first. The local boys set up a road block a half a mile out. Wayne wouldn’t get far no matter what happened in the next few seconds. The trouble was, I was pretty sure he blamed Ginny for his current jackpot. By the looks of his grayish skin and the tremble in his hands, he’d found the time to shoot up as well as arm himself.

  “Stay cool, Soles,” I whispered into the small mic looped around my neck. “I’ve got eyes on them.”

  “You stay cool,” Soles said back. “This is a capture. Not a kill.” I turned off the com.

  “They’re on their way, Marvin!” Ginny cried out as Marvin twisted her arm hard and started to force her down the back porch steps. He was headed for the Dodge Ram parked alongside Ginny’s pole barn. “How far do you think you’re going to get?” Ginny searched the yard. We’d promised her we’d get to her in time but right now she had no idea we were here. Terror drained the blood from her face as she half turned and met Marvin’s eyes. I saw the same thing in them that she did and it made my heart stop.

  Marvin was beyond panic. Beyond rage. The fresh drugs coursing through his veins chased away any chance I might have to reason with him. Ginny stumbled and fell forward on her hands and knees. I heard movement behind me. Deputy Soles’s voice came from behind me, not in my ear any longer.

  “You lying bitch.” Marvin half sobbed it. He raised Ginny’s pistol and pointed it at her head. Soles shouted, but Marvin couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t hear Ginny begging for her life. He couldn’t hear me either. A tiny tremor in his wrist caught my eye and made the decision clear. There was no more time.

  Breathe. Aim low. Squeeze. Pray.

  I didn’t hear the shot go off. I almost never do. Ginny did. In that split second she had to have thought it came from Marvin. I was already on the move as she rolled to the side and checked for wounds in her chest that weren’t there.

  “Goddammit, Huck!” Soles screamed from behind me. I got to Marvin and pressed my boot against his wrist where he still held Ginny’s gun. He looked up at me, eyes wide, not with terror but with a kind of cold shock. Blood frothed at the corner of his mouth and he clutched his chest where the wound gaped.

  He tried to say something but then his eyes rolled back. I saw the life leach out of him as he headed for the light that took him to heaven or hell or somewhere in between. Then it was done.

  Ginny came forward and wrapped herself around my waist. I smoothed her hair back and said something to her I can’t remember. In my mind’s eye I just saw those last few seconds replaying over and over. Breathe. Aim. Squeeze. Pray.

  Two Weeks Later

  I slid my aviator sunglasses up the bridge of my nose as I went down the concrete steps two at a time. I could hear Soles’s uneven breaths as he tried to catch up with me. He called my name. I gritted my teeth and took a beat, letting him close the distance. When he put his arm on my sleeve it took everything in me not to haul off and hit him. After two hours of interrogation by pencil-necked paper pushers who hadn’t worked in the field maybe their whole careers, I damn well didn’t need a lecture from someone who wanted to join their ranks.

  I looked down. Even with him standing a step above, I still had about four inches on Gary Soles. He was a good guy at heart. Truly. But he was two years from retirement and just wanted to spend it behind a desk. He had no business out there at Ginny’s farm that day and even he knew that.

  “It was a justified shooting; I told them that, Huck.”

  “Yeah? You sure you told them loud enough? Cuz that felt like a goddamn inquisition.”

  My time with the review board tasked with closing the file on the Marvin Wayne case wore me to a nub. The FBI and the US Attorney’s office weren’t happy. When Wayne’s lights went out, so did a huge chunk of their case against his supplier. But that wasn’t my problem. Ginny Kincaid’s life wasn’t worth the risk even if she herself had trouble believing it. The cold reality was, she’d likely end up with an equally shiftless loser before the year’s end, but at least she was still breathing and able to make her bad choices.

  “This was all just posturing,” Soles said. “You know that. Make the other agencies happy by rattling your cage and coming down on the Marshals Service so they don’t look bad. You saved that girl’s life.”

  I nodded. “Then I’m done talking about it.”

  Soles bit his bottom lip and ran a hand through what was left of his thinning brown hair. At a good thirty pounds overweight, he really didn’t belong out there chasing fugitives anymore. We both knew it. If I hadn’t been there at Ginny’s farmhouse, things might have ended very differently. The trouble was, I got the distinct feeling at least two other government agencies might have been okay with that.

  “Loomis wants to see you in his office,” Soles said at the tail end of an exhale.

  Terry Loomis was supervisor for the US Marshals Service, Eastern District of Michigan, and my boss. Terry’s management style was one I usually liked. He was hands off and fair. But the timing of this summons didn’t sit well with me. I got the impression Soles knew something I didn’t. His eyes darkened and he hadn’t yet stopped chewing on his bottom lip.

  “Well, thanks for the message,” I said. “And the warning I think is going to come with it. I can handle Terry.”

  Soles nodded. “It was a good shooting. It’s going to come out that way. Ginny Kincaid has her personal issues, but she made a compelling witness. She owes you her life. The board won’t forget that.”

  “Right,” I nodded. “Unless they decide Marvin Wayne’s was worth more.”

  “They won’t.” Soles patted me on the back. I let out a breath as he side-stepped past me and kept going down the stairs. I gripped the metal stair railing and steeled myself to head back up there. Better to get this shit over with Loomis quickly.

  Terry’s office was at the end of a long hallway and wasn’t private. Instead, he occupied the corner of a sort of bullpen with all of his deputies milling around. He was near the window with a delectable view of downtown Detroit. We used to have cubicles but Terry couldn’t stand them. One weekend he went on a rampage and had them all torn down
. It was just more reason I had for liking him. I hoped today wouldn’t chip away at that.

  I tapped my knuckles against the steel door frame to get his attention. The blue glare from Terry’s computer screen danced in his glasses. He gestured with his hand while not taking his eyes off the screen.

  “You done with the firing squad?” he asked.

  Shaking my head, I sat down in the chair opposite his desk and rested my ankle across the other knee. “For now. Soles seems to think it’s going to go our way.”

  Terry nodded, tossed his glasses on the desk and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Probably. But if you’re expecting to get a commendation out of this I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

  I barked out a laugh. “Well damn, Terry, I was really looking forward to one more useless piece of paper to line my bathroom drawers with.”

  Terry sat back in his oversized leather chair. It was the only expensive thing he had in here. I think the guy would have actually been happier working on a card table with paper crates instead of file cabinets.

  “Don’t joke, Huck,” he said. “I said it would go our way. That means on paper. But at the moment I’m getting damn sick of fielding angry phone calls from federal fatheads over this. They seem to think they had Guillermo Espinosa locked tight with Marvin Wayne’s testimony.”

  I shook my head. “Yeah. That’s gotta be bullshit. Wayne was nothing more than a two-bit thug.”

  “Maybe so, but bungling his capture is making for a perfect scapegoat, Huck.”

  I clenched my fists hard enough to nearly draw blood. “Nothing got bungled on my end, Terry.” I didn’t want to finish the remainder of that sentence. There was bungling all right, but it happened when Marvin Wayne escaped, not out at that farmhouse.