Page 64 of Guarding The Phoenix: Vol. 2

I put my hand on Axel’s chest, thrilled when I felt his heartbeat under my palm. It confirmed that I wasn’t dreaming. That he was here and was alive. “Axel, I’m okay.”

“No, you’re not.” He argued with a scowl, cataloging my bruises.

“Yes, I am. I need you to listen to me.”

Axel stilled, inhaled a deep breath and nodded. “Anything you need, Angel.”

“We need to go collect the key for the safe deposit box. I’m going. And no, you don’t have a say in this. I need to finish this and put the past to rest for me.”

Axel didn’t want me to go. It was in every line of his body. But he conceded with a slight nod. “Then let’s go get it. Then we’re getting you back to the ship and checked out by the medic.”

When I opened my mouth to argue, Axel silenced me. “I’m not trying to silence your independence, Angel. But we’ve been worried sick about you for days and we need to take care of you.”

His pride was damaged because Santos had gotten the upper hand. It wasn’t his fault, but I needed to bend, too. “The first step is helping me get that key.”

“Then what the hell are we waiting for?”

“Let me relay this to the ship commander, let him know about Santos and Blumfeld, and we can be on our way,” Gideon stated and stepped away for a minute. He rejoined us with a grin.

“What do you have up your sleeve?”

“Only that we’re going to take the easy route.” He nodded to the helicopter landing a short distance down the beach. “Chase figured we’d like a ride.”

Oh, thank god!

As much as I wanted to act like I could make the five-mile trek on foot, I didn’t know how long the adrenaline rush would last. It was already starting to wane now that I was safe. Not that I would admit it, or they would cart me off the island.

Chase landed and cut the engine. With Gideon and Axel bracketing me, while the mafia goons still alive were led away in handcuffs, we headed toward the chopper. Chase climbed out of the cockpit with a rakish grin as we approached.

“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes, beautiful? Gideon tells me you want to go collect that key with us.”

“Do you have a problem with that?”

“Not even in the slightest. Let’s get you inside and buckled in.” Chase corralled me into the back. Put a helmet on me and got me strapped in. Then he leaned down and stole a quick kiss. He pressed his forehead against mine. “So glad you’re okay.”

“Cut it out, Chase. We’ll have time for that later once we wrap this case up,” Gideon stated from the front.

“Duty calls,” Chase winked and climbed into the pilot seat.

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. His familiar antics lifted my spirits. And at the mention of what would happen later, my core clenched. Before any hanky panky the five of us needed to have a frank discussion. I doubted we would have free time like that on a Navy vessel though.

Then we would see if we had a future together. Considering I didn’t think I would ever see them again, I worried I was too greedy. That mayhap they wanted one final bang before moving on to their next case.

“What about Mateo?” I asked as the helicopter lifted off.

“Not to worry, beautiful. He’s on that yacht getting all the evidence on Santos’s entire crime organization. You’ll see him shortly,” Chase stated through the headset.

In minutes we hovered above a squat building in the middle of the island. It didn’t look like much, but then my husband had been a master at hiding things he didn’t want others to find. Chase set the helicopter down on the flat roof.

Then with their help, we climbed over the side of the building and approached the heavy steel door. Gideon waltzed up to the key code and punched in a few numbers. Then took my hand and placed it over the palm scanner. The door clicked and then swung open.

“How did you know the code?”

“It’s one of the things Mateo recovered before Santos blew the house up. Lucky for us Mateo’s got a brain like a steel trap. And he uploaded all the files from your husband’s server onto his cloud.”

We entered. Inside was a single room with a stairwell entrance and elevator. We took the elevator down to the other floor. It opened into what looked like a warehouse the size of a football field with artwork, jewels, statues and guns. There was enough firepower down here to overthrow Nassau if it came down to it. Off to the side was a series of computers and then cabinets with more passcode entry panels and thumbprint scans.

Gideon sauntered up to one in the middle. Typed in a code. The top drawer opened. And he withdrew a bronze key. He handed it over to me. “I think this belongs to you now. Whatever else is in that safe deposit box belongs to you, along with everything in here.”

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