“Ty!” I scream and run to him.
He’s tied to a chair, and I grab his face and lift his head. “Baby,” he groans, the medication still in his system.
“Ty! Wake up. Wake up!”
Rico grabs me and forcefully pushes me into a chair then ties me to it with abrasive rope. My skin is already becoming raw, and the more I move, the worse the pain is.
“Now, we wait,” Rico states, lighting a cigar and straddling a chair.
“Wait for what?” I ask.
“For you to choose.”
“Choose what?”
Rico looks at Neil. “You didn’t tell her?”
He shakes his head with a twisted smile on his face. “No. I thought you’d like to do the honors.”
Rico laughs, and God, it’s so evil. My gut churns, and I prepare myself for what he’s going to say.
“You’re aware there is a hefty reward out for your man here, right?”
I don’t dignify his question with a response. Instead, I look away from him.
“Well, I’m giving you the option to save his life.”
He has my attention now, so I look at him again. “What?”
Rico nods at me. “Your baby. Or your man. Your choice.”
Chapter 22
Ty
Everything is still blurry and so foggy. I’m aware I’m in a chair. My hands and ankles are tied. I can sense bodies around me, but I don’t want them to know I’m awake until I have more strength back. Purposely, I take large breaths as I open my eyes and look at my feet.
Jessa whimpers, and it takes everything in me not to let her know I’m awake yet. That I’ll save her somehow. That I’ll die to get her out of this mess—my fucking mess.
As my mind clears, I replay the events in my head. Neil. I knew that fucker was no good. Had a bad feeling about him from the beginning. Didn’t think he’d be so much of a prick as to involve Jessa. I’m fuckin’ pissed at myself for letting him in.
“Have you made your decision yet, sweetheart?” Rico—I know that fuckin’ voice.
“Fuck you.”
“I’m not really into pregnant chicks.” He laughs, and I finally look up.
Jessa’s tied to a chair just like I am, and the red marks around her wrists and ankles piss me off even further. “Let her go,” I demand.
All three heads whip in my direction, and Jessa cries my name. I avoid looking at her face because if I look into her eyes, it’ll weaken me. And I need to be strong right now.
“Ah, there’s my boy!” Rico walks over to me and pats me on the back. “I was beginning to worry you’d never join us.”
“Let her go.”
“But, you see, I can’t do that. Not until she makes her decision.”
I ignore what he just said. “Let her go.”
“Jessa, you made your choice yet?” Neil asks.
“Fuck you!”
“Aren’t you curious what choice she has to make, Tyler?” Rico squats in front of me. “I’ll deliver the five mil to Neil here and call off the hit when she decides.”
I grind my teeth together. “What?”
“You or the baby.” He laughs, and I finally bring my eyes to Jessa.
Hers are leaking tears, and I zero in on a cut on her cheek, rage boiling inside me like I’ve never felt before. She doesn’t say a word, but she doesn’t need to.
“Me,” I tell Rico.
“No! Ty, no!” Jessa screams and pushes around in her chair, but Neil puts his hand on the back of it to steady her.
“Sit still, bitch. Damn.”
“I need to hear her say it.” Rico sits back down in a chair and puffs on a cigar.
I glare at him. “Word gets spread far and wide that she’s off the radar. She’s not to be touched. The baby doesn’t exist to you.”
“Fine,” he agrees.
“I need your word.”
“You just got it.” He narrows his eyes.
He’s not like Marco. Never was. In all the years that I worked with him, his word was as solid as steel. He didn’t get off on hurting people; he just wanted money.
I nod then turn to my woman. “Jessa, listen to me.”
“No! No, no, no,” she chants.
“Baby, listen to me!”
She shakes her head but stops calling out.
“I told you I’d do whatever it took. Tell them.”
“No! You can’t make me pick. I won’t do it.” Her cry becomes more incoherent, and I worry she’ll hurt herself or the baby. My baby, my little girl. The one I’ll never get to meet or hold.
“Dammit, Rico! Just fuckin’ let her go!” I scream. “Take me!”
He stands and grabs the SIG from the table then tosses the bag to Neil. “Count it.”
Neil leaves Jessa’s chair, and while he’s rummaging through the bag of money, Jessa and I stare at each other.
I love you
, I mouth to her. She doesn’t respond, but I know how she feels about me. She’s not the one who hid it. She was always open and honest. I was the coward who was too afraid to admit I fell in love with her when I was sixteen years old in history class.
“Call off the hit,” I demand. “I need to hear you say the words. I need to know they’re safe.” Rico begins to speak, but I cut him off. “It’s the least you can do.” I’d beg him if he wanted, but he nods and produces a cell from inside his suit pocket. Pretentious asshole.
He dials a number and holds the phone to his ear. “Target acquired. Yes. It’s done. Call it off.” Once he slides the phone back, he steps closer to me and raises the gun to my head. “Any last words to your woman?”
I ignore him and continue to look at Jessa. Her tears have stopped, and she just stares at me. I tell her I love her again silently. “Close your eyes, baby.”
She shudders, tells me she loves me, and then closes her eyes.
I swallow then nod, telling Rico to do it. That I’m prepared. The safety clicks off, and the cold metal touches my scalp.
* * *
Jessa
I don’t want the last memory I have of him to be of his head blown up in front of me, so I close my eyes and focus on our memories. The first time I saw him. The first time he kissed me. How when we made love, it was so beautiful; it was two souls coming together.
I’ve tried to be strong, but I’m not. I’m not made for this. Murder and money. I just want to go back home. I want to go home with Ty.
A single gunshot rings out, temporarily deafening me. I jump as tears pour out of my closed eyes.
“Fuck, man. You okay?” I don’t recognize that voice.
“Took you fuckin’ long enough, asshole.” Ty.
I whip my head up and see Rico untying Ty. Neil’s lifeless body is on the floor a few feet from Ty. Another man I don’t recognize with a badge around his neck is tucking a gun away in a shoulder holster. He walks over to me, and I flinch when he begins untying the ropes binding me.
“Ty?”
His hands are freed, and he reaches for one of his tied legs while Rico does the other.
“What the hell is going on?” I yell. I thought I was confused before, but now I’m wondering if I’m seeing things.
Ty’s finally freed, and he rushes to me, untying the ropes at warp speed until I’m unbound. He lifts me up and presses my face into his neck. “Fuck, baby. Fuck. Are you okay?”
“What happened? What is happening?”
“Let’s get outta here,” the man with the badge says.
Ty nods at him and carries me outside, burying his face in my hair.
“I’m undercover, remember,” he whispers against my head.
Multiple police cars are waiting with their lights flashing, and as soon as we’re all out of the building, they begin wrapping the perimeter with police tape. The high noon sun blazes down on me, and when Ty sets me in the backseat of an SUV with dark tinted windows, he doesn’t waste a second, pulling me into his arms.
Rico gets into the front seat, and I tighten my grip on Ty.
“Jessa, this is Jay, my boss.” He nods at the driver. “And Rico, here, is Jay’s boss.”
“What?”
“I should talk to your brother about playing a part in his next movie, huh?” he jokes.
“Not fucking funny.”
“Sorry, baby. Sorry. It’s too soon.” Ty begins to explain that Rico is the mastermind behind putting Marco in the dirt. Apparently, Rico’s been undercover longer than Ty has, and in order to help take down the drug and prostitution ring, he did the unthinkable and went against his family of lifelong gangsters.
Jay had been keeping tabs on the house and everything, of course, and when Neil’s behavior started to become suspicious, Jay did some digging and found out through Rico that Neil had contacted him about the hit. He also found out that Neil had been dirty for years. Used his dog to steal drugs, and Ty mentioned all sorts of other police jargon that I didn’t understand.
Jay trailed Neil and figured out what he was doing but had to let him follow through with the kidnapping since it was the only way to catch him.
“So what does this all mean then?” I ask. “I don’t understand why, if Rico is one of the good guys, why he held me back when … when Marco—”
“Darlin’, I didn’t have a choice,” Rico speaks up. “If I gave up my cover, we’d both be dead. I was outnumbered, and we had so much at play. I know that was awful for you; it was horrible for me to be a part of it, but I knew what would happen if I didn’t. I tried to be as gentle as I could.”
“Why did it take you three days then? If you were all working together, why did it take three days to find me?”
“I knew the whole time,” Jay chimes in. “But if we came in guns a blazin’ after an hour, Marco would know something was up.”
“Fuckin’ bastards.” Ty huffs out a breath. “I had no clue either, baby. You motherfuckers haven’t heard the last from me about it, either.”
“If we told you, you’d have rushed in—”
“Fuck yeah, I woulda. She’s pregnant, Jay. Do you know what he’s fuckin’ capable of? What he coulda done to her? Jesus.”
The last thing we need right now is a fight, so I try to defuse the situation. “It’s okay,” I tell Ty. “They were doing what was best.”
“It wasn’t what was best for you.”
“You’re what’s best for me, and I have you now, right?”
He kisses the top of my head. “Yeah, baby.”
“So see, it all worked out.”
“Didn’t expect you to be the strong one here,” Rico jokes.
“Women are superior to men.” I laugh. “Weren’t you there that day, though?” I ask him. “Weren’t you shot?”
“No, I made myself scarce with an errand when I knew they’d be coming.”
“So let me get this straight.” I sit up, but Ty immediately wraps an arm around my shoulder and pulls me close. “Rico is a good guy. Works undercover.”
Everyone nods, but Rico chimes in, “This was my last job, though. I need a fuckin’ vacation.” The guys chuckle like what happened in there wasn’t highly, highly messed up. Like epic proportions messed up.
“Ty is a good guy. Works undercover.” Again, nods all around. “Jay is a good guy, not undercover.” They nod again. “Neil. Thought he was a good guy, but turns out he wasn’t.”
“Yup.” Everyone grunts, disappointment heavy in the air. Hell, I’m disappointed and heartbroken. He was somebody I had in my home, somebody I trusted.
“I don’t understand how he could … I thought he cared about me.”
“Money is a nasty thing, Jessa. It changes people. Makes them greedy, always wanting more. Changes people into someone evil.”
“How could I have been so blind, though?”
Jay clears his throat. “He wasn’t always a bad man.” His jealousy of the fact that Neil was the one who comforted me at one point is still a hard topic for us. He hates that I leaned on Neil, and that he wasn’t there. Hell, I hated it too, but everything happens for a reason, I guess.
“It still hurts,” I whisper.
“I know, babe.” Ty rubs his hand up and down my arm.
Still needing to get to the bottom of everything that happened, I continue my questioning. “What about the five million dollars for killing you?”
Rico’s the one to speak now. “It’s over. Despite what you guys thought … Sorry, Ty,”—he pauses—“I meant to tell you this earlier, but I just found out. Marco didn’t spread it as far as we thought.”
Ty laughs. “How can a man so fucking stupid be so smart?”
“What?” I ask, confused.
“He knew people would try to kill him to get the five mil, so he kept it hush-hush,” Ty states, somehow figuring it out before I can even process what’s happening.
“What about the guy at the hospital?”
“I knew Ty’d take him out, so I sent him,” Rico says. “He ran a dog fighting ring, so I figure you’d appreciate that.” He looks at me and winks.
“Oh my God, I’m in the middle of a freaking movie. Or is this a reality show?”
The guys laugh, and Ty kisses my cheek. “You’re adorable.”
“One last thing. Because nobody else knows that Rico, who is now in charge of this criminal ring, is undercover, everything for us is over, right?” I ask, hopeful the nightmare is done, and I can start living my dream.
“Yep, for us it is.” Ty kisses the top of my head. “It’s all over, baby. I’m done with this undercover shit. I’m ready to live a normal life.”
“Thank God.” I rest my cheek on his shoulder and breathe a sigh of relief that I’ve been holding since I was sixteen years old.
After being checked out at the hospital, I’m discharged and go visit with my family right away. Ty briefed me on what I could and couldn’t say, but since I was okay, they didn’t ask too many questions. I introduced Ty as my boyfriend, and he snorted at that.
“I’m not a boy. I’m your man.”
“Sorry, guys,” I said, loud enough to get everyone’s attention. “Ty’s not my boyfriend, he’s my manfriend.”
As they all laughed, he pulled me to him and chuckled into my ear. “You make me laugh, Jessa.”
“You make me happy, Ty. So happy.”
His arm tightens, and when I pull back and look into his eyes, they sparkle. “Same, baby. Same.”
We head to the kitchen, and my mom sets out some cheese and crackers. I sip on a bottle of water, and Ty drinks a beer.
My dad clears his throat. “Wanna watch the game?”
Shit, if Dad wants to talk to him alone, that’s not good. Ty doesn’t need to feel like shit for something he couldn’t control.
My eyes widen as Ty nods. He leans over and kisses me gently. “It’ll be all good, baby.” Then he follows Dad to the living room.
“He’ll be fine, Jessa. Stop worrying.”
“But I don’t want Dad to give him some stupid interrogation speech.”