Manhattan Stark Century Hotel with the girls. It’s the day after our adventure, and though Christmas is officially two days away, today is our celebration. And in a weird way, we have to thank Aubert and his crazy scheme. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have been in mortal peril, and our friends and family wouldn’t have hurried to Manhattan to share a few precious days with us.
Our assumptions had been right. It had been Aubert’s insurance scam, and he was the one who had hired the team. The dead woman had frequented Aubert’s bed and had learned about the plot. He’d offered to cut her in, then made sure that Malone knew to take her out. To be honest, as criminal schemes go, it wasn’t bad. But not good enough to keep my husband from figuring it out.
“I’d say you acquitted yourself pretty well,” Ryan says to Jackson, his arm around my life-long BFF, Jamie. “You’re practically one of the team.”
“Don’t tell my wife,” Damien teases. “She only wants me leaping tall blogs in a single bound metaphorically.”
“Which you do so well,” Dallas says. He’s on the floor with Mystery and Jane. I look around for Jackson and Sylvia and find them in the kitchen, getting snacks for their kids. Even Red is here. We’ve become fast friends since the ordeal, though I like to think we would have under any circumstances. He’s a solid guy, and Damien and I are both looking forward to getting to know him even better when we’re back in LA. Ryan’s already dropped about a million hints about how Red should join Stark Security.
Now Red laughs as he pours his own brand of gin and whiskey into glasses for the adults, along with a juice concoction for the kids. And for me, since alcohol is out for the next six months at least.
I sigh as I look around, soaking up the friendship, the love, the life. And in looking, I think about what we could have lost. How close we came to losing each other forever. Then I take Damien’s arm and tug him to the side. “We’ll be back,” I say. “I just need to borrow my husband for a moment.”
“Anything wrong?” he asks as I lead him onto the balcony.
“Nope,” I say. “I was just thinking.”
He cups my face, then kisses me. “Were you?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“About what?”
“I was wondering why you didn’t tell Ryan that you’re going to be more active now at Stark Security.”
His brow furrows. “I’m not.”
“No? Why not?”
It’s clear that I’m confusing him, but he answers simply enough. “Because I already have a job. And a family,” he adds, resting his hand on my small baby bump.
“You do. But I know you. And while I don’t want you jumping out of planes into gun battles, I do know that this compels you. You started Stark Security for a reason, but others implement it.”
“I hire good people in all my divisions, and they hire good people. Engineers. Chemists. Designers. Marketing. You name it. I’m good, but I’ll tell you a secret. I’m not that good. It’s the same with Stark Security. I staffed it well. It’s fulfilling my vision.”
“And you want to get your hands dirty.”
“Maybe. But sometimes you can’t get what you want.”
“That’s not what you said when you were going after me.”
“Ah, the arrogance of youth,” he says.
I laugh. “Yeah, well, the arrogance part is true.”
He grins. “Nikki—”
I shush him with a finger. “If you truly don’t want to, then don’t. If you have other reasons that compel you to stay on the sidelines, then I am all for that. But if the reason you’re not pushing into a more active role is because you think the idea of you in the field frightens me, well, it does. But the world frightens me. You know that better than anyone, and you know why.”
I draw a breath and go on. “I’ve always known that you can do whatever you put your mind to. But yesterday—well, now I think that you won’t be living up to who you really are if you stand back. I’m not saying I want you out every night chasing down the bad guys, but if you want to get more involved, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ve seen what you can do, and you amaze me.”
“Nikki, sweetheart, do you have any idea how much it means to hear you say that?”
“So you’re going to do it?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “But when I