Figured. “You’ll get him, Lance.” She forced a smile.
“Damn straight,” Lance said, glancing over toward Mabel. “We have techs combing through his life right now.”
“If you don’t get him, I will,” Jared said lowly.
Lance blinked. “I did not hear that.” He turned to cross to Mabel, sliding an arm over her shoulders.
“They make a nice couple,” Olivia mused, the color back in her pretty face.
Chalton sighed. “Do you think Benny knows about the house?”
Jared winced. “No. We’re still alive.”
Ronni glanced from one to the other. “Will your uncle really try to kill you?”
“Yes,” they both answered.
“Well, that’s unacceptable,” she said, drawing the blanket around her aching body. “There has to be some way to appease him.”
Jared ducked and lifted her into his arms, surrounding her with the sense of safety. Of security. Of something hot. “We’ll figure something out. If nothing else, he’ll want us breathing until we track down Ginny and the Benjamin file she stole.”
Ronni settled against his chest, feeling safe for the first time in way too long. “The what?”
“File that holds all the information on our real and personal property. Bank codes, security codes…all tons of codes.” Jared made his way up the stairs to their bedroom, his steps sure and steady. “We have hard copies of the files, so that’s not the problem.”
Ronni snuggled into his neck. “What’s the problem?”
“Ginny, or whoever she’s working for, can steal from us.” He nudged the door open.
Ronni sighed, closing her eyes. “So you’re loaded?”
“I do all right,” he murmured. “Kept a lot of the bounty from my pirate days and then invested it.”
Figured. Ronni grinned. “I knew there was more to Ginny than what we saw.”
“I guess. I think Theo figured that out, too.” Jared placed her on the bed and kicked the door shut. “That was a great shot you made earlier. Thanks for keeping me from being shot in the head.”
She smiled and reached for him, cupping his whiskered jaw. “I kind of like your head.”
“I love yours.” He dropped to his knees, his hands on her thighs. “Though I should tell you that I love you. Everything about you. Am I’m so thankful fate brought us together.”
Her heart heated and rolled right over. “You believe in fate?”
He shrugged. “Have to. You’re too perfect, we’re too good together, to just have been a fluke.” He brushed her hair away from her face. “I’ll spend eternity loving you, baby. Keeping you safe. And happy.”
She already was. “I love you, too. You’re everything I never knew I needed.”
He grinned then. “Amen to that.”
* * * *
