For two years, Ares Gallo has been ransacking the galaxy for the woman who meant everything to him. They trained together, killed together, loved together, but now, Anicka Dekker doesn't even know who he is. All she knows every time she meets the enigmatic, scarred stranger is that a part of her trusts him. An even larger part desires him. In any and every way she can have him. Ares wants his wife back. Despite the scars that have changed his appearance and the chronic pain that destroyed his career, he follows Anicka from planet to planet, finding her in seedy bars, stately palaces, and everywhere in between. Every time they have a few moments of pure bliss, his hope blooms that this time…things will be different. Then, STRIKE, the organization that wanted them dead, tears them apart, erasing Anicka's memories, and Ares has to start all over again. But even if she can't remember him, he's certain she'll recognize their bond. Sooner or later.

Across the Universe

“Better us than Sheeryn,” she said. “You have ammo left?”


“Think you can improve your aim and take her out?”


“There’s nothing to improve. I got exactly what I was aiming for the first time.”


She smiled. “I never pegged you for a guy who likes to toy with your target.”


“Because I’m not. Games are for people who could accept losing as an option.”


He couldn’t tell her that he’d lost everything already, that his entire life had been turned upside down and inside out, ripped apart in mere seconds, because then she would ask questions, and he wouldn’t be able to refrain from giving her the answers she sought. There was no way to answer Anicka without revealing too much, and this was neither the time nor the place to distract her from their immediate danger.


So he leaned in and satisfied the immediate burn with a long, deep breath of her salty skin. “Losers don’t get paid,” he murmured in her ear.


Chapter 16