My dad was in the same boat as me. He made deals with men who were interested in taking over his various operations, and when we were both done, what was left were several clubs and hotels and casinos that we would make sure remained successful—legally.
In exchange for working with the U.S. Attorney, he agreed to grant my father and me immunity. Turns out, while we might’ve had the local police in our pocket, the big dogs were slowly building a case on us. The U.S. Attorney shared that through their investigation of Logan, they became more than aware of our years of illegal activity. Maybe not right away, but eventually they would’ve taken us down. Before I agreed to work with them, I required his promise in writing, and he came through.
“Mr. Romero,” U.S. Attorney, Dan Wade, says, sauntering through the door and shaking my hand. “Are you ready to bring these pieces of shit down?”
While my dad goes home to make sure my mom and Nevaeh are safe, I spend the next several days going over the plan with the FBI. Bottom line, I needed to make Logan believe I was going to agree to sell Nevaeh. They had received intel he was holding several women for Felix and the transfer was going down in a few nights. All they needed was for me to get verbal confirmation and to lead them to where they were holding the women, so the arrests could be made.
Because Logan was desperate for Nevaeh, and not the sharpest tool in the shed, he agreed all too easily. When I showed up—with an FBI agent who was disguised to look like Nevaeh—they were right. Logan was there with Felix and the women they were preparing to ship overseas to sell.
Logan yelled and screamed, pissed I threw him under the bus, while Felix kept his mouth shut. He was a skinny Hispanic man in his forties, and I would always remember the amused look on his face when he locked eyes with me and winked. At the time I chalked it up to him being in denial, being cocky. I was too stuck on Nevaeh being safe to think about it any deeper than that. I believed the U.S. Attorney when he told me he had it in the bag.
I would later find out, though, that bag he was holding, had a huge hole in the bottom.
Nevaeh
The second Ethan is done telling me what he did to make me safe, I’m on him, needing to be close to him, needing to touch him and kiss him and make love to him. I’m in shock and awe at what he’s done for me, and not just risking everything to bring Logan and Felix down, but also legalizing his businesses. I’ve learned from being with Ethan, his love is shown through his actions. It’s easy to say the words, but Ethan shows me every day in some way or another how much he cares about me, how much I mean to him. He puts me first and loves me with his entire being.
At first, Ethan goes with the flow and I think he’s going to finally give in and give me what I want—all of him. He kisses me back and lets me remove his shirt and then his pants. But when I attempt to lower my pants, he stops in his place.
“Nevaeh,” he groans, knowing all too well where I’m heading. “No.” He kisses me softly, trying to lighten the blow, but it still hurts.
“Ethan, please,” I beg. “I love you and I want you to make love to me.”
“Not until marriage,” he argues, peppering kisses along the flesh of my collarbone.
“Aren’t you the one who told me there’s more to life than that list?” I say, throwing back the words he said to me last week when he joined me for a shower and I mentioned it was too bad we couldn’t consider it rain, so I could check off getting kissed in the rain. He laughed and told me if I keep living my life by that list, I’m going to miss all the amazing moments that aren’t on it.
Ethan chuckles. “Twisting my words isn’t going to make me change my mind.” He kisses my forehead. “Waiting to make love to you until marriage isn’t about your list. It’s about your beliefs. You’re letting your hormones take over, but I know you and I know after we make love, you will regret not waiting.”
“That’s not true.” I huff. “I could never regret making love to you. You’re my forever.”
Ethan’s brows rise to his forehead. “I’m your forever,” he repeats softly, as if he’s in shock I could really want to spend my life with him. I hate that he feels that way, that Kelsi and his mom leaving him has made him insecure. On the outside, he’s strong, but on the inside, he’s vulnerable.