Doctor Hero by Madison Faye
Chapter Nine
Jack
She pushesme out through a side door, and we book it for the parking garage. Up one level, we get to her car, and I slide in as she starts the engine. I turn and look at this woman who I barely know, and yet know better than anyone I’ve ever met—this woman who’s a stranger and yet the love of my life.
The woman who’s going to be my future, and my everything.
I look at her, and I grin as I start to yank the bandages off.
“What?” she says shyly, glancing at me as we pull away from the garage.
“You,” I grin. “Just, you.”
She blushes, biting her lip in this way that makes me want her even more.
“My bag?”
She nods. “From the trunk of the wrecked car? Got it.” She snorts. “I mean, was it that important to get a duffle bag full of shoes, jeans, and t-shirts?”
I smile. “Yep.”
She’ll know soon enough.
We head to Aria’s apartment first for her passport and as much as she can pack in five minutes. Then we roar to the airport, the traffic low this time of night, and we get there in great timing. While I was picking at my damn Jell-O, I used my phone to grab last minute tickets, which cost me a small fortune, but it’s fine.
Believe me, it’s fine.
“Jack, how are you…” she frowns as pull into the long term parking lot, and I grin.
“How am I going to get on that plane?”
She turns, nodding quietly. “I mean, that detective said the FBI—”
“Do you trust me?”
Her eyes lock with mine, fire sparks between us, and she doesn’t even hesitate.
“Yes,” she whispers.
I smile. “Then let’s get out of here.”
I grab my bag in one hand, her hand in the other, and we race inside the departure’s terminal. I march us over to the ticketing window, and Aria’s jaw drops when I ask about upgrading to first class.
“Jack—”
“We, uh, we do actually have two available!” the airline worker smiles brightly. “They, well, they’re a three-thousand-dollar upgrade from your current seats.” She winces. “Each.”
“Great, book it.”
She blinks and smiles before she starts typing away on her keyboard, and Aria tugs on my hand.
“Jack, how—”
“Actually,” I growl, turning so only Aria can hear me. “For this flight, it’s Winston.”
She arches a brow, but before she can open that pretty mouth and ask, I’ve turned back to the airline employee. “And that’ll be cash, if that’s okay?”
She blinks in surprise. “Oh, uh, yes! That would be fine, Mr—”
“Churchill.”
“Oh you’re fucking kidding me,” Aria groans next to me, and I have to hold back the chuckle.
I smile at the airline employee and slide her Aria’s passport and my fake one, along with six thousand in cash from my pocket.
“Okay! Well, you’re all set then! Enjoy your trip!”
I smile, thank her, grab Aria’s hand, and then we’re off. Security is a breeze—I mean this isn’t the first time I’ve walked through an airport under a fake name, even if I’m not usually carrying what I’m carrying in the lining of my duffel. It feels like we don’t stop moving until we’re right in front of the gate with the boarding call going out over the intercom.
It’s there that I stop, taking both her hands in mine as she turns to face me.
“You’re sure about this,” I growl, my eyes burning into hers.
“Too late now, isn’t it?” she giggles jokingly, smiling at me.
But I frown, shaking my head. “No, Aria, it’s—”
“I’m sure,” she hisses. “Jack, I’ve never been more fucking sure of anything in my life.”
She steps into me, her hand goes to my cheek, and she leans up on her toes to kiss me softly. I growl, and my arms circle her as I dip her low and kiss her like a damn queen right there at the gate.
“There wasn’t anything more for me here,” she says quietly, pulling away. “And working with this organization sounds amazing, and whatever we have there, we’ll make do—”
She frowns as I start to chuckle.
“What’s so funny?”
I grin and kiss her slowly again before I pull back.
“Make do?” I wink at her. “Baby, I didn’t just leave the mob with two holes in me.”
She frowns. “What else—”
“This.”
I glance around, unzip my duffle bag, and then slip my hand along the inside seam for the hidden catch. I find it, pull it open, and then unzip the hidden plastic zipper there. I open the lining up, grin, and then turn the bag so that Aria can see. Her jaw drops as her hand flies to her mouth, her eyes wide in shock.
“What the fuck is that?”
“That’s twenty million of Victor Lombardo’s ill-gotten gains.”
Her face goes pink, her eyes bulging as she looks up at me in disbelief.
“What?”
“It’s twenty million, baby,” I say quietly with a shrug. “Figured we could live pretty damn well on about a million in Vietnam for the rest of our lives.”
“And the other nineteen?”
I grin. “Want to open a hospital?”
She stares at me, her chest rising and falling, her pretty lips in an o-shape.
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Completely,” I growl before I pull her close. The loudspeaker announces boarding one more time, and I look into her eyes as I lean in close.
“I love you, Aria Linetti,” I growl. “And I want to steal you away to paradise, keep you there forever, marry you, and live my whole life with you in my arms. If that even sounds a little okay to you, then I’d love if you—”
“I love you too,” she gasps, hugging me so tight and leaning up to crush her lips to mine. “I don’t even know you, and I know this is insane, but I love you.”
Fire roars through me as I hold her in my arms and kiss her like she’s mine.
Because she is—now, and forever.
We get on that flight, we leave our old lives behind, and I know it’s going to be okay. Of course it is—I’ve got twenty million cash in a suitcase, a brand new life ahead of me, and the woman I love in my arms.
