Blood covered his hands. He looked at her. “Maisey?” He stretched out a hand toward her. Then he stumbled. Slipped on the wet dock. And fell. Before he hit the water, his head cracked into the bow of a bobbing boat.
Lightning streaked across the sky.
Odin rushed toward her. Scooped her into his arms. “Baby, baby, are you hurt?”
She looped an arm around his neck. “I have never, ever…” Her teeth were chattering. She was soaking wet. Her body kept shuddering. “Ever been so glad to see someone.”
He squeezed her in a grip so tight that she couldn’t breathe. “And I have never, ever been so scared in my entire life.” He buried his face in her wet hair. “Maisey.”
“Cops are right behind me!” A loud shout pierced the rain. Jinx’s voice. “Where the hell is Clay? Point me at that bastard and I will—holy fuck.”
Maisey pushed against Odin’s chest. She lifted her head so she could see Jinx—he was gaping at something in the water. She didn’t want to look, but she knew what he was probably seeing.
Clay’s body.
“He shouldn’t have taken Maisey,” Odin said simply.
Jinx shook his head. “No, and that’s a mistake he’ll never make again.”
***
“I don’t need an ambulance.” Maisey glared at Odin. “I need you.”
“You’re going to the hospital. You’re getting checked out.” And he was going to have a talk with the cops.
I killed him. If he had to do it all over again, Odin would change nothing.
She grabbed his hand before he could jump from the ambulance. “How did you know?”
Know that Maisey was in danger? Know that he was close to losing her?
“Pieces didn’t add up. Heather wouldn’t cop to the break-ins at your place. And Clay never called the cops after that mess that went down at his place last night.” Too many jagged pieces that hadn’t lined up.
“You saved my life.”
He pressed a hard kiss to her lips. “You are my life.” Then he pulled back. “You’re safe now. He won’t ever hurt you again.”
She sucked in a breath. Her gaze darted to the ambulance’s open rear doors. To the detective and the uniformed cops who waited. “Odin was defending himself. Saving me. Clay didn’t give him a choice. Clay attacked. Odin did nothing wrong.”
He’d killed a man. He’d known—as soon as he stepped foot on that dock—that he wouldn’t be letting Clay escape. Clay had been a dead man walking.
“I can back that up,” Jinx declared, voice ringing out. “I saw the whole thing.”
No, he hadn’t, but that wouldn’t stop Jinx.
“I need to give someone my statement,” Jinx added. “Tell you the whole sordid tale. Who wants to talk to me first?”
Odin glanced down at Maisey. She was safe. He brought her hand to his mouth. Kissed her knuckles. I didn’t lose her.
Because for a moment there, when he’d been on that freaking, rocking dock, and Clay had been between him and Maisey, all Odin had been able to hear in his head had been Ramsey’s damn voice.
Why do you get to be happy?
If anything had happened to Maisey, Odin knew he never would have been happy again. “I wouldn’t have stopped after a month,” he rasped.
Maisey stared up at him.
“Not one month. Not two. Not six. If I lost you, I would never stop looking.” Never.
She smiled at him. Her dimples winked. “I would never stop looking for you, either.”
He swallowed down the lump in his throat. “You’re gonna need to marry me.” So I can stay sane.
“I thought you’d never ask…”
“Never?” Jinx’s shocked voice. “I’m pretty sure he told me that you guys met just a few days ago. Days, people.”
Odin looked into Maisey’s eyes. “When you fit someone…” He deliberately used her words from before. “You just do.” Maisey fit him. She made him feel like he finally belonged somewhere. Not too big. Not hulking. Not awkward or out of place.
He belonged, with her.
Her smile stretched a little more.
He hoped that their kids would have her smile.
Epilogue
“So…” War sauntered into the office at Trouble for Hire. He had one hand shoved into his pocket. “What did I miss?”
Odin glanced up at him. “I’m engaged.”
War laughed. “Bullshit.”
Odin didn’t laugh.
War’s grin faded. “Are you for real?”
Jinx appeared behind him. “I know. I’m still in shock, too. Our little boy has grown up.”
They were both assholes, but also damn good friends.
“It’s the client, isn’t it?” War cocked his head. “The one you told me about on the phone? I get that you tracked down the killers—good job, bro—but you seriously managed to get her to want to marry you?”
“I can be charming.” Odin frowned at him. “You’re the one who told me that.”
“Yeah, but I was just lying to help your self-esteem!” War appeared dumbfounded. “I have to know everything. Let’s go downstairs and get a drink because this is a story that I have got to hear.”
War was such a gossip. The man always loved the nitty-gritty details. Odin began to rise, but his phone rang. It was the happy ring tone that he’d assigned to Maisey. He swiped his finger over the screen and put the phone to his ear. “Hey, baby,” he said by way of greeting.
“Baby?” War repeated, voice strangled.
“War’s back in town,” Odin continued after he flipped off his friend. “Want to come meet him? Because I swear, he is dying to meet you—” He broke off because Maisey was suddenly speaking quickly. No, frantically. “Maisey. Slow down.”
The two men who’d been ribbing him suddenly advanced toward his desk.
“Say it again, Maisey,” Odin urged her. “Slowly. Baby, I know you’re upset, take a breath.”
She did. And she explained again. Holy hell. “I’m on my way. I will meet you at the hospital.”
Maisey hung up before he could say more.
“What is it?” Jinx appeared to be nearly jumping over the desk. “Is Maisey hurt?”
Odin shook his head. “It’s not her.” He fired off a quick text. A text that he never thought he’d send.
A text to Ramsey. Meet me at Angel of Grace Hospital.
“What is happening?” War demanded.
Odin looked up. “Whitney Augustine has been found.”
“Maisey’s friend?” Jinx pounced on that. “The one Heather and Steve killed? They found her body?”
“Not exactly.” He finished his text to Ramsey.
Whitney is alive.
***
Ramsey shoved two security guards out of his way. “I want to see her! Now!” Ramsey bellowed.
Maisey ran into the hallway. She still couldn’t believe what was happening. It was a miracle. Whitney was back. Alive.
A third security guard was running at Ramsey, and Ramsey was pulling back his fist to punch the guy.
“Stop!” Maisey yelled.