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And kicks him square in the balls.

He goes down like a ton of bricks.

That’s my girl.

Arie

Pierce and I are standing in an empty office building across the street from the coffee shop where Danny told Cannizzo to meet him. As soon as we left Danny in the warehouse, moaning and crying like a baby, we went straight to the police station. It only took about two seconds for us to be ushered to the Major Crimes division, where a US District Attorney named Penny Elliot offered me total immunity if I testified against Angel for the kidnapping and assault. I was afraid at first, mostly that the Cannizzo’s would try and hurt me, or Chloe, or Pierce, but Miss Elliot assured me that I could return to New Zealand until the trial, so at least that made me feel safer.

Now, we are waiting here to watch Angel get arrested.

A handful of police officers and detectives surround us, and Penny Elliot stands by my side, with an earpiece planted firmly in her ear. She is dictating instructions to room full of men who are listening to her with rapt attention. I am kind of in awe of the power she commands; I’ve never seen a woman in control like that before. Even with her expensive business suit and shiny blonde hair and sky blue eyes that make her look like a model, there is something utterly authoritative about her. Everyone listens when she talks.

“Holtz, Markum, make sure you have the exits covered. Daniels confirmed that Cannizzo’s car just arrived, and he’s approaching the coffee shop. I don’t want him to have the opportunity to bolt. And make sure every procedure is covered thoroughly. I refuse to let some scumbag lawyer get him off on a goddamn technicality.”

I get the shivers listening to Penny talk. Pierce makes me feel safe as he puts his hand on the small of my back reassuringly, but I am convinced that Penny will keep us from harm in the long run. She seems thoroughly committed to taking Cannizzo down, and that makes me happier than anything that happened in the last month.

Suddenly, the room goes deathly quiet.

“Standby. Cannizzo is entering the coffee shop,” Penny says into her earpiece. Everything is silent for a moment, and then… All hell breaks loose. We can hear screaming and smashing and glass shattering from inside the shop, and Penny starts pacing. “Someone tell me what the hell is going on in there!”

Seconds later, two detectives walk out of the shop, Angel Cannizzo in front of them in handcuffs. Penny rushes outside, and we follow behind her. She crosses the street and gets right in Angel’s face.

“You’re going down, Cannizzo. You’re going to spend the rest of your life in federal prison, and I am going to make sure you never see the light of day, you piece of shit.”

Cannizzo scowls and Penny watches with dancing eyes as the detectives roughly shove him into a squad car. I hurry over to Penny and grab her arm.

“Is it over? Are we really safe?”

Penny crosses her arms with a smile. “For now? You bet. We’ll still have to go to trial, which means you will have to come back to the states to testify. But with his father in jail for a while longer, and your rock-solid testimony against him, along with all of the new evidence we’re uncovering thanks to your… whatever your boyfriend said to Danny Lorenzo, well. These dirtbags are going to be locked up for a long time. We may get to stamp out the Cannizzo crime family yet. And it’s all thanks to you, Arie. Just do me a favor, huh?”

“Yeah?” I respond, nervous she’s going to want me to confront Angel directly.

“Stay away from the OTB,” Penny says with a wink. Then she clicks off in her expensive high heels, chasing after the detectives and barking orders at them like a drill sergeant. I can’t help but grin as Pierce walks up next to me.

“Man, that woman is a bulldog. And not so hard on the eyes, either.”

I slug him in the arm. “Hey! Just because she’s blonde and brilliant and powerful and…”

Pierce sweeps me up in his arms, and gives me the sweetest, longest, most knee-buckling kiss I’ve ever experience in my entire life. When he pulls away, his eyes sparkle with the same old mischief that made me fall in love with him a thousand a years.

“Don’t you worry, princess. I only have eyes for one beautiful, brilliant, powerful woman, and she’s got sexy black hair and she’s standing right in front of me.”

Pierce pulls me back into a giant bear hug, and for the first time in a long time, I am purely and blissfully happy. Everything is right with the world…

Part Four

Arie

Six Months Later

I can’t believe the life I am living anymore. It feels like just yesterday that Chloe and I were crammed in a dumpy studio apartment in Alphabet City, and I was convinced that I was going to die, alone, without my baby by my side or anyone to care. Now? Now I’m living in Auckland in a gorgeous two-story penthouse with my little girl, our half-wolf/half-dog Daisy… and my husband.

My husband.

My husband, Pierce.

It still sounds so strange to say it out loud. Barely a day after Cannizzo was officially behind bars, James and Carol had invited all of us, Logan included, to join them at Martinelli’s to celebrate the end of my ordeal. We were drinking wine, eating their delicious pasta and chicken parmigiana, and talking about our upcoming move. Chloe was chewing happily on a breadstick, when suddenly she looked up at me and said,