Anything. Everything. He just wanted to carry her out of there.
“We,” Ali said very definitely, “are not a mistake.”
He blinked. Then remembered…the first time they’d hooked up, she’d said what they were doing was a mistake. At the time, he’d agreed.
Of course, he’d been lying…
“We are great,” Ali told him. “When we are together, the world makes a lot more sense to me.”
That was fucking sweet. His head bent toward her.
“Jeez, man,” War’s disgruntled voice boomed. “Get a room. How many times do I have to tell you? Keep your personal shit personal.”
When Jinx glanced over Ali’s shoulder, he saw that his buddy was smiling. Jinx scooped Ali into his arms, and her laugh truly was music to his ears. “Get a room. Right. On it.” He hesitated. “Do you happen to know which nearby hospital room is empty right now?”
Horror flashed on War’s face. “Jinx.”
“Kidding,” Jinx assured him.
Well, mostly, he had been.
***
“What do you mean…this house is yours?”
Ali seemed stunned as she held the sheet over her world-class breasts.
Jinx pouted as he glanced at the sheet. Why was she blocking his view?
“Jinx. Focus here.”
He had been focusing.
“When you just said… ‘by the way, the house is mine’ what exactly did you mean?”
“I said the wrong thing.” He yanked his eyes up. “I meant the house is ours. If you want it to be. If you hate it, we can get something else.”
“This place is a freaking mansion, Jinx.”
“Um…” He let his index finger slide down her shoulder and edge carefully toward the top of the sheet.
“How did you get the house?”
“Did some favors for a guy. He offered to pay cash, but I mean, that would have been a lot of cash. Then I saw this house, and I had this vision of you on the beach. Of us watching the sunset. I thought, Ali would love it here. So I took the house instead of the cash.”
Her mouth hung open.
“That a yes?” Jinx asked. “Or no?”
Her mouth snapped closed. Her eyes immediately narrowed. “What is the question, again?”
He should do this properly. Jinx stopped tugging on the sheet. He slid from the bed. He had boxers on, so at least he wasn’t doing this routine totally nude. He pulled a small box from the nightstand. Opened the box and took a knee near the bed.
“Where did you get that?” Ali seemed to be choking.
“A jewelry store.”
“When did you get that?”
If he told her the truth, would it terrify her?
“Jinx!”
“I got it right after I got the house. If you came back into my life, I wanted to make sure I was ready for you. No screwing up this time.”
She started to speak, but a little squeak emerged.
He stayed on his knee. “Will you marry me?”
Her gaze lifted from the ring to meet his stare.
“Will you marry me,” this was the most important moment of his life, “and make me the luckiest guy in the world?”
“Yes.”
Shit, had she just said—“Yes?”
“Yes!”
He shot to his feet and jumped back into the bed with her. He took her mouth and kissed her with all of the desire, need, and love that churned through him.
She said yes.
She said yes!
He couldn’t ever remember being so happy.
And he would never, ever let anyone take away his happiness. Whatever he had to do…
He would protect Ali.
Protect her and love her…for the rest of his life.
***
“You could have gotten your fool-ass killed.”
Jinx didn’t jump or dramatically whirl around when that low voice came out of the darkness. It was the middle of the night. He’d slipped from bed because he wanted something to drink, but he was hardly surprised to find an unexpected visitor in his kitchen.
He was just surprised that Ramsey hadn’t shown up sooner.
Jinx hit the lights and turned to see Ramsey sitting on a barstool. “I think I need to change my alarm codes.”
Ramsey merely lifted one eyebrow. “That’s your response?”
“That and…you are invited to the wedding.”
Ramsey almost fell off the stool. “What wedding?”
“Mine and Ali’s.” Yeah, he had to lead with this news. “She said yes, and I’m thinking she’ll probably want a beach wedding. Maybe something at sunset. It will be awesome. You will be there.”
“We don’t want people to know about my connection to you. We don’t want—”
“Screw other people.” On this, he was dead serious. “You’re my brother, and you will be at my wedding.” Jinx stalked toward him. “I don’t care if this town is terrified of you or what kind of big, bad reputation you have—you are my brother. I want you there.”
Ramsey looked away. “I’m a criminal. The Feds want to take me down—”
“There is no case against you.”
Ramsey glanced back at him.
“You know it, and I know it. So do War and Odin, by the way. The scene with the agents storming your place? That was just for show. Imari told me that there is no actual evidence against you. Guess you’ve just been too careful over the years.” Ramsey made no response to that statement, so Jinx added, “No one is going to come along and haul you off to jail.”
“It’s not the cops and Feds I worry about. I have plenty of other enemies out there who—”
“You’re not alone,” Jinx cut in. “Stop acting like you are. You’ve got threats out there? Then let me help you. Let Odin, War, and Ali—let all of us. Because if there is one thing I’ve learned, the world is fucking frigid place when you are alone.”
Ramsey shoved from the stool. “Just wanted to check on you. I’ll see myself out.” He marched away.
“It wasn’t just Landon.” Ramsey knew exactly who Landon was. Jinx revealed, “Turns out, his old boss was pretty crooked, too. He’s been taken into custody as well. Ali is safe. Her case is closed.” He waited just a moment and added, “That means that Trouble for Hire will be looking for new clients…”
“Good luck finding them.” Ramsey threw up his hand and didn’t look back.
“Actually…” Jinx just could not resist saying this part. Could not. “I think we already have one lined up. She wanted to see Odin recently, but we were busy tying up things for Ali. No worries, though. I heard she booked a new appointment. Whitney Augustine will be in for her meeting tomorrow.”
Ramsey jerked to a stop. Then he spun around. “Why the hell would Whitney be coming to Trouble for Hire?”
“Seriously?” Jinx squinted at him. “We’re amazing. Why wouldn’t she come see us?”
Ramsey growled.
“And, of course, there’s the fact that the poor woman lost a ton of her memory. Can you imagine what it must be like for her? How scared and uncertain she must be? She survived two crazy killers trying to murder her, but in the process of that truly epic survival experience, she lost the memory of six months of her life. She doesn’t know what happened during that time. If she made friends, lost friends, if she had a lover…if she got her heart broken…”