All or Nothing

She turned back to Hillary, and realized the woman was smiling so brightly the news couldn’t be that bad.

Conrad said, “We’re ready. What’s the update?”

Hillary tapped speakerphone and Salvatore’s voice rumbled over the airwaves, “Authorities apprehended Zhutov’s hired assassin and given his confession and the photos he had on his cell phone, we’re certain you two were not the targets. You’re in the clear. Your cover is secure.”

Grinning, Conrad grabbed Jayne around the waist, lifted her from the chair and spun her around. Mimi barked, dancing around their feet. Laughing, Hillary put the phone to her ear and stepped back into the hotel suite.

Jayne grasped Conrad’s shoulders as he lowered her back to the ground again. “Oh, my God, that is amazing news.”

“Damn straight it is.” He hauled her to his chest, a sigh of relief rattling through him. “And Lord willing, the day’s about to get even better.”

Stepping back again, he pulled his hand out of his pocket, their wedding rings rested in his palm. “Jayne, I’ve loved you from the first time I saw you and will love you until I draw my last breath. Will you please do me the honor of wearing this ring?”

She placed her hand over his, their rings together in their clasped hands. “I’m all in. I want to be a part of your big, bold plans for the future, to help others in the clinic in Africa and build more clinics in other parts of the world. I accept you, as you are... I love you as you are.”

His hand slid into her hair, and he guided her mouth to his with a fierce tenderness that reached all the way to her soul.

The stakes had been high, but she knew a winning hand when she saw one.

Smoothly, Conrad slid on his wedding band and then he slipped hers back on her finger. Where it would stay put this time.

Because one pair, the two of them, had won it all.

Epilogue

Two months later

Coming home to his wife was one of life’s greatest pleasures.

Conrad parked the Land Cruiser beside the clinic where his wife worked. Their clinic, in Africa. He’d offered Jayne diamonds and a splashy jet-set lifestyle, but his wife had chosen a starkly majestic home in Africa, caring for the ill and orphaned in the area villages.

God, he loved her and her big, caring heart.

His eyes were drawn to her like a magnet to the purest, strongest steel. He found her on the playground with the kids, kicking the soccer ball, her hair flying around her.

She’d stepped in to help run the foundation that oversaw the clinic. In the two months since she’d relocated here, she’d already come up with plans and funding to add an official childcare center so when adults came for treatment they didn’t have to bring their kids inside where they could catch anything from pneumonia to a simple cold.

He’d tried to tell her she didn’t have to work this hard, but she’d only rolled her eyes and told him they could sneak away for an opera once a month—if he promised to be incredibly naughty before intermission. In spite of his efforts to pamper her, he’d discovered his wife had grown fiercely independent. The way she took charge, her visionary perspective, reminded him of Colonel Salvatore.

Zhutov was no longer even a remote threat. One morning a month ago, guards had found him dead in his bunk, smothered. Most likely by someone as payback for any one of his criminal acts over the years.

Life was balancing out.

Conrad started toward the soccer field. Now that the loose ends had been tied up this past week he’d spent at Interpol Headquarters in Lyon, France, he was free until the next assignment rolled around.

He liked coming home to her, here. He could manage his holdings from a distance with good managers in place, and he could jet over with his wife whenever she was ready to take in an opera.

Right now, though, he just wanted to have dinner with his wife. The soccer ball came flying in his direction, and he booted it back into play. Jayne waved, smiling as she jogged toward him.

“Welcome home,” she called, throwing her arms around his neck.

He caught her, spinning her around under the warm African sun. Already, she whispered about her plans for making love in the shower before supper and how good it would be to sleep next to him again.

And he had to agree, his insomnia was now a thing of the past. Everything was better with her in his life. He knew, in his wife’s arms, he’d finally come home.