Aequitas, Hope Anika [android pdf ebook reader .TXT] 📗
- Author: Hope Anika
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She broke away abruptly and reared back. “No, we don’t!”
She tried to step away, but Cian’s hold on her tightened.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” he growled.
“The wedding!” She gripped his shirt and shook him. A small laugh escaped her. “So far, it’s a disaster. We have to go help.”
“Do we now?” he asked, relaxing. “I’ve many skills. What’s necessary?”
Honor eyed him with a calculation that made the hair at his nape suddenly bristle in warning.
“How are you at baking?” she asked.
Dear Honor—
I have thought about what you said. And I remember the fight over the doll. But the rest…perhaps someday. I do not know.
My father says I must try. Even though you would make him a monster, he tells me you are family, and it is wrong of me to blame you for what happened that night. You were a child. You had no choice.
Neither of us did. So I am willing to try.
But I warn you, if you attack or harm my father in any way, you will learn the worst of me quickly. I will not tolerate any interference in that relationship, and that is something you must accept if this is to work.
I leave for Damascus tomorrow. Perhaps, if you come to Tallinn, we can meet when I return.
I have given this note to your fiancé, who has promised to deliver it. I can only hope he has done so. I wonder if you can see the irony of your concern over my father, when your man is so very dangerous himself.
Be careful with him. I hope to see you soon.
Your sister, Anna
Honor swallowed hard against the emotion that sat in her throat like a thick, sodden lump. She couldn’t seem to swallow it down, even though it had been over an hour since she’d read Hannah—Anna’s—letter. Even though Cian sat beside her, his hand warm and strong and possessive around hers. Even though—so far—Sam and Lucia’s wedding was coming off without a hitch.
They sat outside Sam’s cabin, the sun shining down brightly from above, the faint breeze scented by carnations and lilies. The crowd had finally sat down in the rows of metal folding chairs, and Sam and Ben and Alexander stood at the makeshift altar in freshly pressed pale blue shirts and black pants. Ben was shimmying—dancing—and Alexander watched the crowd tensely, stiff beneath the hand Sam had on his shoulder. And Sam…
Sam looked ecstatic.
Honor was so happy for him, she was nearly bursting.
Cian slid her a sideways look, his brows arched. He wore a sleek steel-gray suit and dark, blood red silk shirt. He was beautiful.
“Happy?” he murmured and lifted her hand to press a gentle kiss against it.
“Aye,” she whispered. Happy. Something that, before today, had only occurred in her fantasies.
And reality had blown them to dust.
“Good,” Cian said. “I plan on keeping you that way.”
He smiled that roguish smile, and her heart leapt. She hadn’t told him of Aequitas’ demise, or the plan currently percolating in her brain. That could wait. Today was about Sam and Lucia, about moving forward and leaping.
Because Honor had finally realized that was what everything was about. Rolling the dice, to hell with the consequences. Living. Instead of just existing.
No matter her fears.
There were no guarantees Sam and Lucia would live happily ever after, and Honor was a realist. She understood there was no “ever after” for anyone. There was only here and now, this moment, and it was meant to be sipped from and savored. Faith, she thought, a concept she’d only ever attributed to a God she didn’t worship. But faith was about trust, not idolatry, about belief, not ritual.
And in the end, it simply didn’t matter what became of anything. Worrying about tomorrow only sullied today, and today…
Today was a wonderful day.
THE END
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For a sneak peek at Sam and Lucia’s story, The Getaway, keep reading…
Lucia Sanchez has stolen two children. Two children who don’t belong to her; two children she will do anything to save. Driven by a bloody past and determined to change an ignoble future, Lucia will make any sacrifice necessary to be certain history doesn’t repeat itself. She has given everything she ever was, everything she would ever become, and nothing will stop her from completing her mission.
U.S. Deputy Marshal Sam Steele is tired. Tired of chasing fugitives and protecting turncoats. Tired of breathing. When he’s drawn into the kidnapping plot of a woman he has no desire to help, it’s just one more nail in his coffin. But duty calls, and Sam knows his duty. When the plea of a close friend makes it impossible to walk away, Sam must make a choice—to follow the rules and play it safe, or to follow his heart and risk everything.
She will give everything to win; he wants only to keep them alive. Thrust together in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Sam and Lucia must set aside the desire and distrust that flares between them and work together if they want to free two children from a sickening legacy and out-maneuver a man who will hunt them to the ends of the earth…
“He’s going to kill you.”
Lucia Sanchez said nothing.
“Did you hear me? You’re dead.”
Her gaze flickered to the rearview mirror. The boy sat in the middle of the Nova’s sagging back seat, his features schooled into the remote mask she’d come to expect. Pale green eyes stabbed into hers, as hard and opaque as the jade they resembled.
“I am not afraid to die,” she told him softly.
“Everyone is afraid to die.”
How dismissive he sounded. How callous. It never failed to appall her.
“Even the ones who pull the trigger themselves,” he added cruelly, purely for spite.
A direct, piercing hit, but Lucia didn’t flinch. The boy was like a shark in bloody waters; any weakness would be devoured. No matter the chaos that churned within her, she must be unwavering. Steadfast. And so she only turned her gaze back to the hypnotic, dotted line of freeway. The vibration of the uneven pavement made the steering wheel shudder in her hands, an echo of her fiercely pounding, terrified and angry heart.
Thud-thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
Be calm, she told herself. Destiny is not for the weak. But deep within, she knew better. Deep within—ay, yai, yai, chica, what have you done? Muy estupido! You should have waited, should have planned, you will pay—they will pay—and now there is no going back—because four
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