Page 73 of Ravaged With You

It’s what I need, too, and that’s something I hadn’t realized until we fully opened up to each other. He’s been my best friend for about half my life. Now, he’s so much more.

“What?” he asks, flashing me a grin as he glances sideways at me.

“Just thinking about how happy I am. We’re chasing a killer who’s using us to find a stash of diamonds, our lives are in danger, and the cops think I killed my husband who was one of my best friends. And despite all of that, I’ve never been happier.”

He takes my hand. “Oh, baby. Me, too. And when this is over...”

“What?” I urge.

“I haven’t decided. But we’re going away somewhere, just us. Someplace where I can take you out at night and show you off. Someplace with the kind of clubs that require secret passwords. Someplace with fancy hotels where I can keep you all to myself. We’re going to make up for lost time, Jo.” He raises his brows, his lips twitching as he adds, “I hope you have the stamina.”

I laugh. “Try me.”

“Oh, believe me, I intend to.”

I’m about to say he can pull over and try to tire me out right there by the side of this empty Malibu side road when his phone rings, the display showing that it’s Mario.

“Got news?” Red asks in lieu of a hello.

“The news is that I’m a bona fide genius,” Mario says. “We couldn’t clean up that reflection at all, and nothing else was popping from the interior security cams. Caught her a couple of times, but always with her head down. Woman was careful, I’ll give her that. But I figured there must have been a time they were seen together outside, even if they were being careful. So I’ve had a team scouring CCTV footage from an ATM across the street. And bingo, bingo, we won the freaking lottery.”

“How so?” I ask.

“She had her head down there, too, but there was a wreck not that long ago. Someone smashed full-speed into someone else. And when they did, our gal reacted. Lifted her head. Put it down fast again, but we managed to capture a freeze frame. And it’s a pretty damn clean image. Enough that we can start running it through the system.”

“Send it,” Red says, something harsh and unfamiliar in his voice. He maneuvers the car onto the shoulder, then kills the engine. “I need to see her face.”

“Red, you know it can’t possibly be—,” I begin but he shoots me such a hard, bitter look, that I silence myself. He’ll know I’m right soon enough. He told me how she died in the explosion. Whoever this woman is, I’m certain she’s not a ghost.

“Sending now,” Mario says, this time shooting it to Red’s phone since I hadn’t shoved my tablet into my tiny cocktail bag.

I watch as Red opens the file, and my heart flips I see his face go completely pale.

It is her. Somehow it’s the woman. His tormentor. The bitch who tried to break him.

And, as I watch the horror spread over his face, I wonder if this time she’s managed to do exactly that.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“She’s alive. How the hell is she alive?”

He’d voiced the question aloud, but it didn’t sound like his voice. Hell, this didn’t feel like his life. How could any of this be real?

“She?” Mario’s voice startles him from his thoughts. “You know this woman?”

“Yes,” Jo begins. “She’s—”

But he didn’t let her finish. He reached over and disconnected the call. “This isn’t happening.”

“Yes,” Jo said, “it is. Red, look at me. You can handle this. You’re strong enough to handle anything.”

“I need to think. We’re almost to Stark’s. I’ll drop you there. You’ll want to see Abby.” His voice sounded dead, but it didn’t matter. He just had to make it through this second, then this minute, then this hour. Do that, and maybe he could think clearly. Could come up with a plan. Could figure out what had gone wrong. How she’d survived.

And what the fuck she wanted with him now.

He sank back in the driver’s seat, realization hitting him with the force of a sledgehammer and shattering his heart to pieces.

“This is about me. All of it. Mel’s death. Your attack. This bullshit race to find the diamonds. Even his affair. It’s all about me.” He turned in the seat to meet Jo’s eyes, knowing she must despise him for this. “She came for me. She’s playing cat and mouse, and everyone I care about has been ensnared in her trap.” His heart pounded in his chest as bile rose in his throat. Oh, God. He was going to be sick.