“You can have the empire, the outfit, whatever fucked up name you want to call it. Take it all. I renounce my place as the Boss. It’s all yours. You just leave her alone. Raven and I, we will steer well clear of everything. It’s all yours.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“You can believe what you want to,” Carlos said. “I’ll call Drago right now, but you’ve got to loosen that rope and you’ve got to let Raven come to me.”
“How do I know you’re being serious?” Marchetti asked.
Carlos dialed Drago and pressed the button on speaker.
“Carlos, what is going on? Where is Marchetti?”
“Marchetti and I are coming to an arrangement.”
The rope loosened around Raven’s throat. “Do it,” Marchetti said.
“No, Carlos, don’t.” Her voice sounded broken. “Don’t let him win. Don’t let that son of a bitch win.”
“Drago, can you hear me?” Carlos asked.
“Yes, loud and clear.”
He prayed his cell phone didn’t make any fucked-up noise as he turned from speakerphone, to silent, and then off.
“I denounce my title. I’m no longer the Boss. That role now goes to Marchetti.” It wasn’t as easy as that. Marchetti knew it. Drago also knew some shit was going down.
“Carlos!”
Marchetti shoved Raven toward Carlos, and the knife he’d been holding was dropped. In its place was a gun.
Carlos immediately pulled her behind him.
Raven would see the guns he had stashed, and she did.
He felt her pull one out of his pants.
“You’re pathetic. Allowing a woman to rule your life. You should do what I do, fucking strangle them as they’re sucking your dick,” Marchetti said. “Garofalo knew what sluts are good for. You, you’re weak.”
“No, I’m not weak. I’m in love. Raven is fucking mine. She has always been mine, and I will give everything for her, even the club, and I’ll even allow her to kill men who dare to threaten me.”
Marchetti didn’t see it coming.
Raven pointed the gun and shot. A single bullet to the head.
Marchetti wasn’t laughing. He fell to the ground, in a heap on the floor.
Carlos turned to Raven, cupped her face, and tilted her head back. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Her voice was croaky.
He touched her throat, and she winced. “Fucking bastard.” He went to storm over to Marchetti, but Raven caught hold of him, pulling him close and wrapping her arms around him.
“I love you too,” she said.
He wrapped his arms around her, pressing his face against her neck and breathing her in.
“I’m here,” she said.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Raven. Not anything.” He couldn’t live with himself. “You have to stay alive.”
“And so do you,” she said. “You’ve got to stay alive.”
“Forgive me,” Carlos said. “Forgive me for not knowing how to keep you. For making that stupid, fucked-up agreement with Smokey. For hurting you. I promise I won’t do anything like that again. I won’t hurt you. I won’t break you. I love you. I love you so fucking much.”
“I forgive you, Carlos. If you ever do something like that again, I’m going to break your balls,” she said.
“Good. If I do, I deserve to have them broken. Smashed, crushed, and shattered. That job, I leave to you.” He held her tightly, not wanting to let her go. Loving her so damn much.
This was how Smokey and his boys found them. Carlos didn’t let her go.
“Are you okay?” Smokey asked.
“We’re fine,” Carlos said.
Raven smiled up at him. “Yeah, we’re fine.”
“They killed him,” Hunter said, going toward the body and giving it a kick. “Good shot.”
“That was on Raven,” Carlos said.
“You two work out your shit?” Smokey asked.
“Yeah, we’ve worked it out.” Carlos cleared his throat. “So, I guess this is as good a time as any.” He kept hold of Raven’s hand as he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the ring he’d been keeping on him for this moment.
“Carlos, what are you doing?”
“What I should have done first. Raven, will you marry me?”
The club was around them. He was pouring his heart out to her.
Carlos stared into her shocked eyes, and he hoped that he had the element of surprise. She was pregnant with his child. But that wasn’t why he wanted to marry her. No, he wanted to be with Raven, always.
“Yes,” she said. “A million times yes.”
He got to his feet as Raven wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him close.
She turned to Smokey. “Will you walk me down the aisle?”
“Gladly.”
Carlos pressed his face against her neck, breathing her in.
Chapter Twenty-One
Four months later
Carlos’s driver pulled up outside the house, and Raven tensed up. This was the first time coming back here in well over ten years. Smokey and Carlos hadn’t pestered her to get therapy, but she knew they worried about her.
She had given both men her revolver. It was in their possession. She owned other guns, but none that she used in quite the same way.