I don’t remember arriving at Yanni’s place. Didn’t even remember stepping out of the truck. Reality didn’t click in until my boots hit the porch and I knew I was steps away from Starlet. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to protect her—even if Barnes and his inner circle were dead.

In the moments leading up to the gunplay, I’d sent up silent prayers, asking Reina to guide me in the decisions I was about to make. I’d lost her because I’d gotten clumsy. I couldn’t make the same mistake with Starlet. I wouldn’t make that same mistake. My child was going to be born healthy, and his mother would live to help raise him.

I paused outside the door as the full knowledge of our situation sank in. I wasn’t absolutely sure she was carrying my child, but it didn’t matter—she needed a man in her life and the baby would need a father.

Before the inquisitions had gotten started at the warehouse, I had excused myself.

“I’ve got to check in on Starlet,” I said to Yanni.

“Why?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously. “Isn’t she in safekeeping?”

“That might be so, but just in case this isn’t the end of things, I’d feel better if she were in my line-of-sight.”

“Believe me, Starlet is going to be all right. We need to get through these reports, finish up the photography, and then you can go.”

“No, I need to go now. Besides, Red is the only one of us who fired off anything. And everything I know, you know. You don’t need me here.”

“I do need you here and, like I said, Starlet will be okay.” She pointed a finger in my direction. “This is your job—doting on some woman can wait.”

My jaw muscles tensed. She was acting like a spoiled brat, and I’d about had my fill. “The last time I waited,” I growled, “my wife died. You do remember Reina, don’t you?”

Her expression softened. “Is this what that’s about? Why you’re running behind Starlet? Look, we’ll talk about this later.” She closed the gap between us and lowered her voice. “You’re acting like Starlet is her all over again. The difference between the two of them is that Reina was your wife, and she was carrying your child.”

I looked her square in the eyes before speaking. “Well, she might not be my wife, but there’s a great possibility she’s carrying my child.”

With that, I spun around and walked out of the warehouse. Now, as I stood on the threshold of what could represent the beginning of a new life for me and Starlet, it came clear to me the steps I’d have to take to ensure her safety from here on out.

I pressed the handle and entered the house. Everything was quiet with the exception of soft music drifting down from upstairs. I bounded up the stairs two at a time, hesitating on the last leg when I realized I’d forgotten to change my shirt.

The hell with it, I thought. I’m back and I’m alive, and the woman I want to share my life with is on the other side of the door. With that, I pushed through the door and rushed over to Starlet. Her face changed from one of fear to outright happiness.

“Baby, it’s all over,” I whispered as I pulled her into my arms. The feeling that came over me was one that couldn’t be explained. It was one I’d felt a long time ago. One I thought I’d never feel again.

Starlet pulled back momentarily, her face wet with tears. “When you say over, does that mean we no longer have to worry about being kidnapped, blown to pieces or murdered?”

I ran my fingers through her hair, wiping stray strands from her forehead. “That’s exactly what I mean,” I said, pulling her closer to me. I stared up at the ceiling and mouthed a silent thank you to the spirit of my first wife.

It was like she was giving me the chance to do it again and, this time, get it right. Just for a moment, as I held Starlet more tightly, I got lost in the first time I’d held Reina, the first time I’d kissed her. But then, it got all scrambled because I remembered the last time I’d seen her and the fact that there wasn’t anything or anyone to kiss.

At the time, I’d been working undercover, for the past year, in a smuggling operation. We were just about to wrap things up and bring a murderous kingpin down, when Reina told me she was pregnant. A former detective, she had recently resigned and decided to go back to school to hone her first loves—painting and graphic design.

“I’m going to get out from under,” I’d promised her. “We’re going to raise this baby proper.”

From that point on, my heart wasn’t in my work. Every extra moment I got was spent thinking about how, before long, I’d have a real family. Not that Reina wasn’t family, but a baby would make it complete.

So, I was highly disappointed when I was told the evidence we’d gathered wasn’t enough, that we’d have to stick it out a little while longer. That also meant I couldn’t go home to my wife every night, unless I snuck in under the cover of darkness.

Then, one day, the unthinkable happened. Our suspect caught wind of the infiltration, and everybody’s ass within his organization was on the line. I didn’t give it a second thought when he ordered me to place tails on the other men. Being young in the game, it also didn’t dawn on me why he wasn’t holding me to the same suspicions.

Days later, things seemed to be dying down. Since I hadn’t seen or talked to Reina because of the heated situation, I decided to drop in that night. The moment I arrived, I knew something was amiss.

My heart pounded loudly as I unlocked and opened the backdoor leading into the garage. I didn’t hear a peep, and none of the lights had been on in the house when I’d cruised by moment’s earlier. Reina’s car was parked in its usual spot. I comforted myself with the fact that she might just have not been feeling well and had turned in early.

The moment I walked into the house I knew my life would never be the same. I held my breath against the terrible, but familiar odor that wafted through the house. A dark object laying across the kitchen floor caught my attention.

I flicked on the lights and stumbled backwards, gasping for air, at what I saw next. Reina’s tortured body lay twisted at an unnatural angle on the floor. Blood had dried around her form, and her clothes appeared half-ripped from her body. Her glassy eyes looked out to nowhere. A note, written in what appeared to be her blood, was pinned to the towel they’d used to gag her.

“DID YOU REALLY THINK I WAS THAT DUMB?” it read.

I’d rocked back and forth, suspended between a state of disbelief and one of absolute rage. I resolved to hunt down that bastard and make him pay. And I did—with Yanni’s help. But despite the momentary peace putting a bullet through his skull had given me, nothing could give me back my real peace, my life, my wife and my child.

“Alex?” Starlet mumbled, jerking me back to the present.

“Yeah?”

“You’re suffocating me.”