Page 80 of Too Broken to Love

Hudson forced his trigger finger not to squeeze. “Do you mean she’ll be good as new after being locked up for days, weeks, in international waters? That reasoning is about as stupid as you standing here and…”

He caught Tessa’s gaze. Fear and fury radiated from every pore.

Good. He needed her ready to fight.

He let a smile carve his lips and prayed the cockiness pissed her off enough to understand the message he couldn’t say out loud.

Pumping up the arrogance, he slid his focus to the enforcer. “Well, your plan to deliver her as good as new is about as ridiculous as you thinking you’re going to take off with what’s mine.”

Tessa’s eyes popped, outrage flaring through her fear. “What’s yours? I’m still mad at you for⁠—”

The enforcer jammed the gun harder into her cheek. “Both of you shut the fuck up.”

“No, you shut up.” She craned her neck as far as she could and looked at the enforcer. “I’m not his, or anyone’s property.”

“I don’t know about that.” Hudson edged closer. “Once you become my wife…”

Her inhale this time wasn’t born from pain. Her mouth dropped open. She picked up her jaw just as quickly. “Your wife? Are you seriously asking me to marry you while this guy holds me hostage?”

“I don’t have time for this shit.” The enforcer tightened his hold. “Tell your boyfriend to get the fuck out of here, or I’ll shoot him.”

Hudson shrugged. “You can try, but as soon as you move that gun from her face and aim at me, I’ll pull the trigger. I can promise you I’m quicker, and I don’t miss.”

“You missed before.”

“No, I didn’t. Let her go, and you can run away before the cops get here.” As if on cue, sirens blared in the distance. “I’ll give you a head start while I get down on one knee and properly ask the most incredible woman I’ve ever met to marry me.”

The enforcer darted his gaze in the direction of the sirens.

Tessa jammed her elbow into her captor. “Go, you dumbass. I don’t want a bunch of cops swarming around while he proposes.”

Sweat poured from the enforcer’s hairline and into his eyes. He blinked once. Twice. The sirens grew closer. He raised his elbow to wipe the sweat.

Hudson held his breath as the gun cleared Tessa’s face. “Duck.”

Tessa pitched her body to the side. Hudson lined up his sight with the enforcer’s exposed shoulder and pulled the trigger. Tessa hit the ground and rolled as the bullet slammed into the smuggler’s flesh.

Sirens clanged with the shockwaves as the enforcer lunged at Hudson. They both went down on the hard dirt. Hudson lost his grip on his gun. The enforcer landed on top of him and cocked his uninjured arm. Pain shot down Hudson’s wrist and up into his gunshot wound as he flipped the enforcer underneath him and straddled his thighs. “Time to quit, asshole.”

A burgundy shoe slammed onto the enforcer’s chest. Hudson followed the line of Tessa’s ankle up her bruised body to her beautiful, black-and-blue face. The click of a bullet loading the chamber cut through the sirens. The words Hudson couldn’t wait to say slid out as moonlight lit her up like a fiery goddess with a gun.

“I love you so much, little thief.”

Someone yelled their names, but all he heard was the sound of his heart beating in time with the wild beauty standing above him. “You look like a bonfire. Hot, dangerous, and impossible to resist.”

She laughed and sniffed at the same time as two police officers rushed toward them. “I am dangerous with a gun.” She pressed her heel harder into the enforcer’s chest. “I’ve never seen a bonfire. Will you build one on the beach for me someday?”

“I’ll light up the whole coastline for you, every day for the rest of your life, little thief.”

She handed the gun to a police officer as Hudson rose. She was in his arms before his feet hit solid ground.

Gently, as if the tough woman who’d just held a smuggler at gunpoint might break, he placed a hand on her ribs. “You’re hurt.”

“It doesn’t hurt as much as thinking I’d lost you.” She cupped his face in her hands as a crowd gathered around them. “I love you so much, Dr. Hudson Langley. Thank you for finding me.”

“Always.” He brushed his lips against hers and smiled against her mouth. “Pop left you to me and I have no intention of letting you go.”

She pulled her head back. Her breath caught on a laugh. “Shit, that hurts, and you’re not wrong. You do own my heart.”