Hot Secrets (Tall, Dark & Deadly #1)(57)

Jonathan walked to Sharon and came up behind her. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

“Getting you ready for you big day,” he said, pressing the gun into her hand. ”You’re going to shoot her yourself.”

“No. No, I can’t do it.”

“You will,” he said, stepping back from her and pointing another gun at her head. “You’ll shoot her or I’ll shoot you both.”

“What?” Sharon screeched. “What are you doing?”

“Insurance, sweetheart,” he said. “When you get to the White House you’re going to get my sister pardoned or the world will know you murdered your stepdaughter.”

He stepped backwards to the camera and she turned to him. “Turn around!” he shouted, cocking his gun. She started to shake and cry.

All Lauren could think of was how much she wished she’d told Royce how much she loved him, how alone Julie would be. How alone her father would be. “Don’t do this, Sharon,” Lauren said. “You have a gun just like him. Shoot him. Shoot him and I won’t say a word about this.”

Sharon whirled on Lauren, holding up the gun. “Shut up! Shut up! You are always talking.” She cocked the gun.

Lauren squeezed her eyes shut and started to pray. Royce was going to blame himself, he was going to let it eat him alive. She didn’t want that. She didn’t… The sound of bullets rang out and she braced herself for impact, but nothing happened. Suddenly, Sharon was on the ground and so was Wilkins, and Royce was kneeling in front of her, his hands on her face.

“You’re okay. You’re okay, baby.”

“Is she?”

“Dead,” he said. “Yes.”

Lauren burst into tears, shaking worse now than ever. Royce untied her and picked her up and she curled into him, not wanting to see Sharon’s body. The sound of sirens erupted outside the building, as they exited what seemed to be a warehouse.

She had no concept of time, of when the chaos calmed and the EMS crew, reluctantly released her. She knew though, that they had tried to convince her to go to the hospital to be treated for shock.

They walked to the van and paused by the passenger door. “I have to tell my father,” she said.

“We’ll do it together.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“You don’t ever have to do anything alone again,” he promised. “I’m here and I swear to you, Lauren, I will never again let you down like I did tonight.”

She flung her arms around him. “You didn’t let me down. You saved my life. I love you. I don’t know if I’ve really truly told you how much. I didn’t tell my mother enough. I was a teenager, and it wasn’t cool and then she was just gone. Tonight I almost died and my last thought was how much I wished I had told you how much you’ve changed my life, how much you mean to me.”

“I love you, too, baby, more than you know. If you’d have died in there, I would have died with you.” He ran his hand down her hair. “Let’s go talk to your father. We’ll get through the bad, and we’ll make the good together.”





Epilogue





A month after Lauren had sat in that wooden chair, certain she was going to die, she stood in a pink silk robe on a Paris balcony looking out over the city, appreciating life more than ever. The moon was full, the stars twinkling in a fairy tale vision of perfection.

She had two weeks of heaven here with Royce, and then she’d start her new job with Mark and Lindsey. Her father was retiring from government to run his own firm, and had fired Brad, though Roger was still around. Apparently, her father had been being blackmailed, though she’d never found out about what. Just that he now knew that Sharon had been involved, and perhaps, though she wasn’t certain, Brad as well.

Royce walked up behind her and slid his arms around her. “It’s beautiful,” he said, staring out at it with her.

“Yes,” she sighed. “I’m so glad we did this.”

“Me too, baby,” he said, and turned her to face him. “And I can’t think of a better time or place to have a talk.”

She laughed and turned in his arms. “Not the talk again.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “The talk.” His expression turned serious, and he added, “I can’t go on like this, Lauren.”

There was something so intense about him that her heart skipped a beat. “What does that mean?”

“It means I want things to change between us.” He bent down on his knee and took her hand, before presenting a black velvet box and flipping the lid open. “Forever, baby. Either you want me forever or you don’t.”

A gorgeous white diamond twinkled as brightly as the stars and her lips lifted in a smile. “On one condition. You still have to work on the bossy thing.”

“You like the bossy thing.”

“Sometimes,” she admitted, and then bent down and kissed him. “Forever.” He scooped her up in his true alpha glory, and took her to bed, where he excelled at being deliciously bossy.





THE END