“I love you, Pixie girl.”

My heart explodes and I smile up at my father.

“I love you too, Dad.”

Things are finally coming together for good.

It’s about time.

Three Months Later

“Keep your eyes closed, Quinn,” Tazen orders, with his hands over my eyes.

“You know I hate surprises, Taz. Where are you taking me?”

He chuckles. “It’s a surprise, remember? If I tell you, I think that might just destroy that.”

“You’re probably right.” I laugh.

“Just keep walking forward.”

“Did you buy me a pony?”

He laughs. “A pony? Woman, don’t insult yourself.”

I giggle. “Okay, a truck?”

He chuckles. “That’s more like it, but no. I got you something much better.”

“It’s not my birthday.”

“No,” he says, his voice dipping low. “So can you imagine what you’ll get for that?”

My cheeks heat and I grind my ass against him as we walk.

“Enough of that,” he murmurs into my ear.

“Why? Will you get hard in front of the surprise?”

He nips my earlobe. “Too late for that.”

Oh boy.

“All right,” he says, making me stop. “Are you ready for this?”

“I don’t know.”

“You are.”

He takes his hands from my eyes and I blink to get my bearings. I see my old team, as well as Tazen’s guys, and my dad all standing around a covered car. My heart starts pounding as I stare at it. It couldn’t be … could it? Tazen surely hasn’t managed to finish my car without me. I mean sure, I’ve been so busy at work I haven’t even checked on it in his garage but …

“Quinn,” he says, turning to me. “I’ve been wanting to fix things for you since the day I bought this garage, but I have never been able to figure out a way to do that. I took something from you, and I wanted to give it back.”

“Tazen,” I say gently. “You didn’t take anything, you made it better.”

“Just let me finish,” he says softly.

I nod.

“You loved that garage for what it represented in your life. It was your mom, and your dad, and everything beautiful that you had left.”

Tears spring to my eyes.

“So, with your dad’s help, your old crew and my crew, we managed to finish your car for you.”

I swallow the lump forming in my throat. “Tazen,” I rasp.

“But before I show you, I have some other news to share.”

Oh gosh.

“The first is that I’ve given everyone in your old crew a job in the garage. We need more men with the workloads we’ve taken on.”

A tear leaks out and I take his hand, bringing it to my mouth and kissing it, rasping, “Thank you, honey.”

“The second piece of news, is that your dad also has a job. He’s working as head of the new mechanical team, which is your guys.”

He gave my dad a job. Oh God, he gave my dad a job.

“Taz,” I croak.

“Now, for the best part. I thought about so many ways I could make this car true to you, but in the end there was really only one way that could happen. So, Quinn baby, this is your car, it’s your family, and it’s all your memories right back where it belongs.”

He nods and everyone pulls the cover off the car. As it slowly appears before me, my tears go from drops, to a waterfall. My heart burns. My throat clogs up and I let out a loud, piercing sob. The car, which was originally orange, has been fully repainted. It’s now purple, which was my mom’s favorite color in the world. That’s not the best part, though. No, it’s not even close.

The best part is the pictures that have been incorporated into the paint, and then glossed over. Pictures of my childhood, pictures of my family, pictures of everything that was once amazing in my life. My sobbing turns into thick, heavy crying when my eyes move to the hood of the car and there, in perfect bold letters are two words, two words that have always meant the world to me.

Pixie Wheels.

I spin and throw my arms around Tazen, clutching him and sobbing loudly. He holds me tight, and then he leans down to my ear and whispers, “I can’t give you back your mom or the past, but I can give you back every beautiful memory you’ve ever had.”

I lean up and I kiss him, I kiss him with such ferocity my throat burns, my lips ache and my heart feels like it’s bursting with love.

“I love you, Tazen Watts.”

He swipes a tear away with his thumb. “And I love you, angel.”

I look back to the car, filled with all my happy places and then I smile at each person in the room, because they’ve all come to mean so much to me. I never had many friends, never had any family, and now I have it all because of one incredible man.

“You asked me if I had a car that I loved enough I always wanted to keep,” Tazen says, tucking me into his side.

“I did,” I croak.

“Well, I finally found it. This is it, Quinn. This is that car for me. It’s the best thing I’ve ever built and it’s like that because of you. You brought passion back into my garage, you brought pride but most of all you brought spirit. You gave us back exactly what we needed.”

“My mom would be so proud of this car, of me, of Dad, of all of this.”

Tazen squeezes me close. “Angel, she would have been proud of you no matter what.”

“Thank you, Tazen,” I say, looking up at him.

“For what?”

I smile, and it’s the purest, most real smile I’ve given in a long, long time.

“For bringing back everything beautiful.”

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HARD TO FORGET

PROLOGUE

The rain is cold against my skin, each drop sinking in slowly, as if torturing me. My hair is plastered to my face and I’m furiously blinking back the droplets that insist on invading my eye space. My clothes are soaked and I can feel the chill right down to my bones. My shoes squish every time my feet hit the pavement, which is a lot.

Considering I’m running.

It’s barely past five a.m. and yet here I am, pounding the pavement. Most people think I’m crazy—the truth is I probably am. I’m twenty-eight years old and instead of acting like most normal girls, I’m out training for my job. A job I’ve studied for and fought for since the day I left high school—it’s been nothing but a constant battle, especially considering it wasn’t always what I planned on doing.

I’m a bodyguard.

Well, I’m trying to be. I have a job, I have a boss, I have a team, and it took a good long time for them to accept that I could do the job as well as them. I was constantly battling against the other members, proving my worth, and it seemed no matter what I did, they just didn’t think I had what it takes. It took me a solid two and a half years to earn even a snippet of respect.

Lucky me.

The man running beside me both loves and hates me. I’ve come to this conclusion on my own because he can’t seem to decide which one it is. One moment he’s barking orders at me, and then he’s staring at my breasts longingly. It’s alarming and kind of flattering all at once. Still, he trains with me every single day and I’m grateful for that.

I hate running alone.

When I got out of school, I was going to join the armed forces, it was something I’d always wanted to do. I can’t say there was an exact reason for it, but sometimes you feel you are just born to do something. Then came the test that changed my life. Turns out you have to have exceptional eyesight to join the forces. Mine was shit, and eye surgery improved it a bit, but not enough to make the cut.

Originally, I was crushed, and for months I couldn’t figure out what to do. It was something I’d planned from day one, and to have it taken from me seemed almost cruel. Then there was a day when I was out with my uncle, and we saw a drive-by shooting. A man, dressed all in black, single-handedly saved a person’s life. Turns out that person had hired him to do just that. My passion was reborn. I could do it. I could still protect and serve.