In a sudden flash of either stupidity or genius, Rio wasn’t sure quite which, he knew exactly what to do. The majority of the viral videos he’d watched through the years were either someone gets a surprise puppy or someone gets a surprise marriage proposal. And since he didn’t have any extra dogs on him right now...
“Little out of breath,” he continued, “Very sweaty, but... Head over heels in love.”
Yup. It was time to ramp up this fake boyfriend game and get his ass a fake fiancé. And maybe, just maybe, if he did this right and stalled long enough, the cavalry would arrive. Bob Taylor and Ella. Thomas King and the senior chief and his truckful of SEALs.
Rio held out his hand to Jon, gesturing for him to stand up and join him there in the center of the room. He wanted to get him as far as possible from that table of too much murderous testosterone, and this was a good way to get that to happen.
But Jon seemed a little shellshocked. He looked over at the oldest of the three men at his table, as if asking the man’s permission.
Fuck that shit. Rio moved toward Jon, because human nature made it hard to not take a hand that was being offered, especially when it was practically in your face. And sure enough, even though his moving closer made Old Guy and his minions bristle, Jon finally took Rio’s hand.
Rio hauled Casey’s brother up and out of his chair, nearly knocking the damn thing over as he pulled the man with him into the center of the room. “Jon, I know this is going to be a surprise, but...” Shit, shit, he not only had to sell this, he had to draw it out. He also had to make this sound like he’d actually put a little thought, a little preparation into the words coming out of his mouth. But okay. All right. This didn’t have to be hard.
Rio looked over at Casey.
He just had to pretend he was talking to her.
He took a deep breath, glancing at her again, because simple was a good place to start. “I love you so damn much.” Words he should’ve immediately said back to her, the moment she’d said them to him, instead of saying, Casey, Jesus, don’t and goddamnit in the seconds before she’d hung up on him.
Jon was smart enough to keep his mouth shut and just let Rio talk, even as Rio inched them farther away from the table of death.
“It takes my breath away,” Rio continued. “I know we haven’t known each other all that long, but in a very short time you’ve become my best friend, my lover, my entire fucking life. And I know it’ll sound crazy to a lot of people—not to my parents or my aunt and uncle because, you know, they pretty much did the same thing. Maybe it’s genetic, that sense of, well, total certainty. And, for the record, because I know you were wondering, everything I told you about my family and... well, everything I told you all those times we talked, it’s all true and...”
He glanced at Casey—he couldn’t help himself. She was wide-eyed and watching—and it was clear she knew damn well that his words were for her.
Rio forced himself to turn back to Jon. “But my point is that it doesn’t feel crazy to me—the fact that it happened so fast. That I knew, pretty much the moment I met you. That you’re it for me. You’re the love of my life. Hard stop. Fucking nothing makes sense without you. So. Will you marry me?”
Jon’s eyes widened as he looked at something over Rio’s shoulder, which was either really good or really bad, because in Rio’s line of sight the three men at the table all stood up.
In that heart-stopping instant, Rio braced to push Jon over towards Casey so he had the best possible chance to use his own body to shield them both as bullets started flying. But then he realized with a jolt that Old and his boys had gotten to their feet to leave. They were getting the hell out of there, moving swiftly toward the bar’s front door.
Because spilling out of the hallway from the back entrance was Ella and Chief Taylor and Senior Chief Becker and... Jesus, Chief Skelly was there with Mike Lee and Thomas King and holy shit, LT Donlon, too.
The SEALs were in a mix of BDUs and street clothes, but they looked exactly like what they were—badass operators with zero fucks to give.
Ella and Chief Taylor immediately went to surround Casey, pulling her towards the larger group, but the senior chief was clearly looking to Rio for direction.
“Oh, look, Jon,” Rio said as every cell in his body flooded with the hot rush of relief. “It’s the flash mob! Right on time!” He looked up at Casey’s brother, who had finally realized that these were the good guys come to save their asses, so his imminent death was far less imminent.
But Old Guy, probably Miller himself, had paused in the doorway to look back at them—this charade wasn’t over yet. “Say yes, motherfucker,” Rio whispered to Jon, because until they were all safely tucked into rooms at the Del he wasn’t going to relax. And maybe not even then, but that would be a good goddamned start.
“Yes,” Jon said, but his voice was thin. Faint.
Rio rolled his eyes as he threw his arms around his fake fiancé. “You might wanna sound just a little more enthusiastic,” he murmured into Jon’s ear before pulling back to give the dude a kiss as—yup—Old Guy finally went out the door. As he pulled back, he raised his voice to shout, “He said yes! Hooyah! Come on, guys, help me get him out to the parking lot in back! We’ll do the flash mob engagement dance out there! Let’s do this, let’s celebrate, let’s go!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“We are so having a long, long talk later,” Ella said as she tossed Chief Taylor the car keys that Casey had just surrendered to her. She opened the back door of her SUV, gesturing for Casey to climb in. “In which, if you are lucky and grovel adequately I might not quit.”
But Casey, who’d ended her live-stream back in the lounge with a short, “More details coming soon!” was not going anywhere without Rio. And when she hesitated to get into the SUV, Ella was not amused.
“I’m not an idiot,” Ella said, “We’re not going anywhere without him—or Jon for that matter. But you need to get into the vehicle. Now.”
Casey got in, shifting over so that Ella could pull up the seat that allowed entry to the third row, as yes! There came Rio out of the backdoor of the Infinity Lounge, surrounded by SEALs and making a beeline for her. He had Jon with him, and it was clear that his first priority was to get them into Ella’s car and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible, even as he loudly described the vehicles of the men who’d tried to grab him back at his apartment.
Black truck, broken grill. White van...
Ella immediately grabbed Jon and pulled him with her into that third row as a SEAL Chief named Wes Skelly took shotgun next to Bob Taylor, who already had the SUV’s motor running.
