Romancing the Alpha: An Action-Adventure Romance Boxed Set (116 page)

Mer winced and tried to hide it. “I thought he was considering winding up the business,” she said, keeping her voice carefully neutral.

“I was gonna wait to talk to you about this.” I looked at my wife, her pretty face drawn tight. The playful splash of freckles across her nose contrasted with the worried look in her eyes. “John’s decided he’s not ready to retire yet. But we’re going to be really careful about the cases we take from now on. I don’t want you to be worried. Hopefully, they’re going to be mostly domestic. Easy stuff.”

“Matthew, nothing you’ve done has ever been easy.”

She had a point. Back when I was in the Navy, I’d been shot—twice. Since I’d been with John’s company, I’d been all over the world, chasing bad guys. I’d been injured many times. It was dangerous, adrenaline-surging work—and I loved it. On top of that, John paid me very well. Mer and I could never have afforded our own home, our own security system, and private school for our son if I’d had a different job. We lived comfortably off my income.

“Honey, we’ve been over this. Again and again. If I change jobs, everything changes. No more house, no more private school, no more you staying home with the baby. We’d both be back to work full time, not making enough to ever get ahead. You know that, right?”

“I know that. And I love what you’ve been able to do for our family—but I love you more. If you aren’t safe, my world doesn’t make sense.” She paused for a beat and looked up at me. “And my world doesn’t make sense most of the time.”

I pulled her to me, leaning down and kissing her pale-blond hair. She started to pull back. “We have to get going,” she mumbled. “We have to get the kids to my parents’.”

“I’m not letting go until you calm down,” I said and crushed her to me.

“I’m calm,” she said. It came out muffled against my chest.

“What’s that?” I asked playfully and held her tighter.

“I’m calm. And I love you,” she said.

“Good. And I love you, too.” I slowly let her go. “Finish up with your stuff. I’m gonna get the kids ready.”

“Matthew,” she said as I was about to go through the door. “It’s okay, but it’s not okay.”

I should have been expecting that. I sighed. “I know.”

“But?” she asked, because when it came to my job I always had a
but
.

“
But
I need to take care of my family.”

“You can’t take care of us if you aren’t alive,” she said.

“I know,” I said. Her words cut me. “I torture myself about it every day.”

I headed down the hall to my kids, so I could wake them up and snuggle their little bodies close to mine. And torture myself about my job some more.

LIBERTY

“Honey? There was something I forgot to ask you at the house.” I paused for a beat. “Why’d you pack so many guns? I thought this was going to be a relaxing trip.”

“I relax more when I know I’m well prepared. For any situation,” John said. He leaned back in his airplane seat and smiled at me. “That’s why I packed Advil. I wasn’t sure if you were going to drive me crazy about the Minnesota assignment. I packed it so I’d be prepared.”

“Ha ha,” I said. “But seriously—is this place safe? I have to admit, I was a little surprised you wanted to vacation in Mexico.” We were midair, en route to Cancun International Airport. Once we landed, we were going to meet Matthew and Meredith and take a car to Chichen Itza, where our resort was located. I’d travelled through various parts of Mexico, but this would be my first visit to the ancient city and its Mayan ruins. But the fact that John had wanted to come back to this country, so beautiful but so full of danger, had shocked me. His daughter, Catherine, had been imprisoned in Mexico for years. We’d had to come and rescue her from a cartel not that long ago.

Mexico still gave me the willies. Sometimes his daughter Catherine did, too.

“I can’t hold a grudge against an entire country,” John said calmly. “Besides, I know the guy who owns the resort. Leo. And Leo owes me big time.”

“Matthew’s right: you always know a guy,” I said and laughed.

“It’s one of my many talents.” He grabbed my hand and laced his fingers through mine. “I’m looking forward to showing you many more of them this week.”

“I’m looking forward to that, too,” I said, grinning at him. We’d been married for a little over a year, but we were still giddy like newlyweds. “But tell me about this Leo character. Is he American? Was he a client?”

“Yes and yes,” John said. “I did a job for him a long time ago. A couple of jobs, actually. Leo’s a good guy, but he’s a little on the optimistic side. He planned a few projects that didn’t do as well as he’d hoped. Then he borrowed money from the wrong people. Which was why he needed my services.”

“How did you help him?” I asked, pretty sure I didn’t want to know.

“I kept his enemies at bay and kept him alive while he found the money to pay back his more… anxious investors,” John said and shrugged. “No big deal.”

“Did he pay
you
?” I asked.

“Never did,” John said. “That’s why I get free vacations for life. So enjoy yourself while we’re down here. Leo owes me. A lot.”

“That’s one assignment I can’t screw up,” I said, laughing.

“It’s all part of my master plan,” John said.

“So…are the guns to protect Leo? Or to protect us
from
Leo?”

“The guns are just in case,” John said smoothly. “I don’t need a gun to keep Leo in line. No one knows where he is anymore. The fact that I do is insurance enough.”

“Okay,” I said. “But it’s always more complicated with you than it seems. You know that, right?”

“Right. I know that,” John said and squeezed my hand. “That’s ’cause I need to keep you on your toes. Otherwise, you’ll keep trying to run things.”

“I
am
running things,” I said under my breath.

“What was that, babe?”

“Nothing. Babe,” I said and smiled at him innocently.

MATTHEW

“You sure they’re going to be okay with the kids?” I asked an hour later. We’d just left them with her parents, and Mer had just finished wiping the tears from her face.

Now that she had calmed down, I felt like it was my turn to get upset. Since we’d become parents, I’d noticed that we did that a lot. We took turns getting upset (or angry or overwhelmed or sleep deprived) so that we kept the scales balanced, at least most of the time.

I considered that to be a win on the parenthood front.

“You’re asking me that
now
?” She looked over at me from the small compact she was looking in while she fixed her makeup, smeared from crying. We were headed toward Miami airport, leaving Wes and Lily behind. She had a picture of the kids in her lap, their little faces smiling and looking up at us. My stomach clenched just looking at it. I already missed them.

“I just feel bad, leaving the little guys.”

“Do you want to go back to get them?” she asked. She sounded as though she half-hoped I would say yes.

I paused for a second. “It’s actually kind of nice and quiet,” I said, grinning. “I think I’m gonna be all right. They’ll have a ball with your parents anyway, right?”

“Right,” she said, laughing at me. Her phone buzzed with a text. “Perfect timing—my mom says they’re fine. And to go have fun.”

“Then we should,” I said, putting one hand on her thigh and maneuvering in and out of traffic. “Sit back and relax, Mer. Matthew’s here. I’m gonna take care of everything.”

With that, I floored her minivan and headed to the airport.

“You are definitely the hottest man I’ve ever seen driving a minivan.”

“Duh,” I said and flexed my bicep as I clutched the wheel. “When I drive, it’s the man-van. Ain’t no shame in it.” I got back into the passing lane.

“Maybe there should be a little shame,” Mer said and giggled.

I grinned. I loved it when my wife laughed. “You know I’m shameless,” I said. “That’s part of what makes me so awesome.”

***

“Do you mean it?” she asked me later, on the plane. She was staring at me in disbelief.

“Yes,” I said, and I could feel my jaw clenching. “I swore to you the day I married you that I’d put you first. And you’ve made it clear this is what you want.”

“Not if it’s going to make you miserable,” she said, backpedaling. “What would you
do
?”

I remember Liberty asking me this same question, not that long ago.

“She would love it if I were a lawyer or something,” I said and laughed. “But seeing as I barely graduated high school, that’s not in the cards. She’s always supported me, though. We’ve been together forever. It’s just different when you have kids. The idea of Daddy getting shot at seems a lot scarier. It’s worse for her, and for me.”

“So, what’re you going to do?” Liberty asked. She sounded as if she couldn’t quite picture me sitting behind a desk.

“I can’t go back to the real world,” I said. “It’s been too long. Maybe someday I could be a cop or something. At least then I’d be closer to home. But as long as John wants me, I’m with him. He takes care of me…plus, I like what I do. I get paid to work out and beat the crap out of bad guys. That rules, you know?”

Beating the crap out of bad guys
did
rule.

But I loved my wife more.

“I could work as a contractor,” I said now and shrugged. “I can lift things. I can probably do demolition. I would probably rule at demolition.”

“You’d be making minimum wage—maybe,” Mer said. “And there might not be that much work. The housing market’s pretty flat in Miami right now.”

I wasn’t sure why she was arguing with me. This was what she’d been hoping to hear for a long time.

“I could be a cop,” I suggested.

“That’s just as dangerous,” she said, shaking her head.

“I’ll figure it out,” I said, even though I had no idea how I was going to figure it out. “I’m going to do what’s best for my family. If I have to go to school at night so I can get a better job down the road, fine. It’s worth it.”

She looked over at me. “Do you mean it?” she asked again. It sounded as if she was afraid to believe me.

I squeezed her hand. “I mean it.”

“I know you love your job
,
” she said with a huge sigh. “The thing is, I don’t want you to be miserable. But I don’t want you to be dead, either.”

“Fair enough,” I said and put my large pile of doubts aside with a thud.

***

As promised, no one in Miami or Cancun airport security batted an eye at us. I was pretty smug as I grabbed Mer’s hand and we headed through the humid terminal at Cancun International Airport. “I guess I could have brought all my guns,” I chided.

“You have one,” she said. “That should be all you need.”

“I had to bring it,” I said. “It would be like leaving one of my nuts at home. You wouldn’t want that, would you?” I laughed, and Mer just shook her head at me. “On the upside, there’s a car to take us to the resort.”

“Of course there is,” she said. “Trust me, I’m not complaining. It beats the hell out of my filthy minivan.”

There was a guy at the airport holding up a sign for us. He led us to a white Mercedes SUV idling on the side of the road.

“Is it just us?” I asked the driver.

“No, sir. The rest of your party is on their way. They made a stop at the bar first.”

“Awesome,” I said and hopped in. Mer followed me and sighed in relief at the cool interior. Florida was hot, but the Mexican sun seemed to have a special power to it. Once we’d cooled off, I pulled her to me and put my arm around her. When I was home, it was like I was making up for lost time; I had to touch her every second we were together.

I leaned down and kissed her, hard. “I love you,” I said.

The car door flew open. “Well, I love you, too,” a man’s voice said.

I pulled back quickly and grimaced at my boss. “John—I told you. I don’t feel that way about you, man. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

“I know you have real feelings for me. But it’s okay if you feel it’s necessary to keep hiding them,” John said. He elegantly folded his tall, muscled body up and slid into the SUV.

“Meredith,” he said to her and smiled. “It’s lovely to see you. I hope you don’t mind the bromance. Your husband started it when he wouldn’t stop following me from country to country.”

“Hi, John,” she said, and I could tell she was uncomfortable. Not about the bromance—but about the fact that it was about to come to an end. Knowing Mer, she was probably feeling guilty as hell that I was about to hand in my resignation.

Liberty climbed into the car next, her dirty-blond curls piled up into a bun on top of her head. She sat down and breathed a huge sigh of relief to be out of the heat. “It’s so freaking hot,” she said, wiping the sweat off her face. When she was finally done, her face broke into a huge grin. “Matthew! Mer! I am so happy to see you guys! In air conditioning!” The driver closed the door behind her, and Liberty gave us both sweaty hugs. Liberty was younger than me by a few years. From the moment I’d met her, I’d felt like her big brother. She needed protecting, trust me—she managed to get herself into real trouble on a regular basis.

“Hey, Lib,” I said, “you ready to actually take a vacation? No shooting?”

She pushed her sweaty curls up from her forehead. “Do we even know how to
do
that?”

John and I looked at each other for a beat. “Nah,” we said in unison. Liberty laughed, and Meredith shook her head at us.

John had told me recently that Liberty was being a royal pain in the ass about continuing the business. She’d made a rule that she had to go on every assignment—that’s one of the reasons John had been considering winding things up.

But he’d changed his mind.

And now I’d gone and changed mine.

I watched as the flat Mexican countryside flew by. It was about a two-hour drive from Cancun to Chichen Itza, our final destination. It was an ancient Mayan city, with ruins and temples that made it one of the biggest tourist destinations in Mexico. But John had told me that the resort we were headed to was secluded, a remote oasis in the midst of the crowds seeking to witness one of the new seven wonders of the world.