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“My name stays out of everything,” he finally states. “And you owe me.”
“I owe you?”
“I haven’t decided yet, but I really am coming for you, old man.”
In all honesty, I don’t care what he wants from me. If he helps us find an end to this nightmare, I’ll give him anything he asks for. The only thing that matters to me is finding a way through this mess and giving Rosie the closure she deserves.
“I have a race to prepare for,” he nods, walking backwards. “Get Murph to sort shit out with the authorities.”
Turning on his heels, he walks away without a backwards glance. I’m shocked and relieved simultaneously by his cooperation. Maybe he isn’t such a bad guy. Asshole or not, there’s a good guy somewhere in there, and maybe I need to make the effort to get to know him more than simply competing against him relentlessly.
“You apologized,” Rosie whispers as we stand beside each other, watching Connor head out of the door.
I didn’t intend to, but I guess it felt right. Not just because I wanted him to help us nail the bitch. As important as it is to me, I’m also realizing that Connor is right—I didn’t care about people the way I should have until Rosie. Maybe if I had, we wouldn’t be where we are now.
“You didn’t have to do it,” she tells me, turning to stand in front of me with those big green eyes I adore gazing into.
Color is finally returning to her face. A light pink glow flushes her cheeks when I lean forward and pepper a kiss to the tip of her nose, my hands rounding her waist. The sight of that healthy blush eases the relentless vise in my chest a tad, especially when she smiles up at me.
“I promised she wouldn’t get away with hurting you, sweetheart. With Connor and Marion both corroborating that Natalya uses the same sedative she drugged you with, the police have to look into her.”
“Do you think that’s enough?”
“Maybe not enough to go all the way, but it’s a start. The authorities get their cause for suspicion and we let the lawyers do the rest. Main thing is that you can relax a little more and focus on feeling better.” I stroke over her cheeks, connecting the clusters of gorgeous freckles with my thumbnails.
Dad and Louise find us as I hold her close. My face is buried in her hair. Every breath I take is filled with her sweet scent, and for the first time in so long, it reminds me of home. The promise of being with people I love in a safe place where we can just be.
“Ready to go?” I ask and the beaming glance she gives me in reply, is the soothing balm I needed and can never live without.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The smell of coffee has me smiling as I walk into my open-plan living room and spy Brody putting my mug on the coffee table. I can’t stop the smile from stretching across my face, being back home with Brody, things are starting to feel like some sort of normal again. I can almost pretend the events from Mexico were just a bad dream.
The police issued a restraining order so Natalya has to stay away from Brody and I, which was a welcome relief, but I’m still so angry over what happened that sometimes I just want to scream. I want to ask her why she’d do something so reckless and stupid and what she thought she would get out of it because it sure as hell wouldn’t be Brody. If he didn’t like her before, he hates her now, and it’s why I’m relieved that she can never come near us again because I can’t be certain he wouldn’t hurt her if she could.
The idea of him losing his shit with her makes me more anxious than it should given how little she cared about the consequences of her actions. But then it would hurt him too, and that’s the part that I can’t bear. Just the thought of this mess ruining more than it already has, is enough to suffocate me. I love him too much to allow her actions to dull what we have or come between him and his ambitions.
Even if Brody was okay about missing the last race for me, I know that it killed him to watch the action from behind a screen. He may never admit it, but I know. I feel it in my bones, like a weight on my shoulders that I won’t be able to shake until I see him out on the track again. Unless he’s with me, that’s where he belongs.
“Nice shower?” Brody asks, pulling me from my thoughts as I collapse onto the couch with a contented sigh.
I throw my wet hair up into a messy ponytail and sink back into the cushions, watching as he stands over me with his eyes caressing my body. Until him I didn’t know it was possible for someone to love you through their gaze. But every glance of his is filled with nothing but burning affection, and I can’t get enough of it. I can’t get enough of him.
“Yeah, it’s nice to be home,” I admit as he sits beside me, lifting my legs up onto his lap. The normality of the gesture has me relaxing, pleased to be away from all the drama of the past couple weeks.
“I’ll remind you of that when we’re with Maggie and her crazy kids,” he teases and I playfully kick him.
“Oh please! You love those kids and they have you wrapped around their little fingers.”
“I plead the fifth,” he jokes, tickling my feet so that I yelp loudly as I try to wriggle my feet off his lap.
Before I can bat an eyelid, I’m underneath him on the couch. Completely mesmerized by his sinful smile as butterflies flutter wildly in my stomach. I watch as he slowly lowers his head, inching closer and closer with the hitch of my breath before his lips assault mine. Kissing me like he’s starved for my taste. The moment his tongue duels with mine, I moan, pulling him closer, desperate for more. He’s an addiction I never want to overcome. The thrill of his touch is all-consuming and I pray to God I never get used to it.
The loud ring of his phone has us pausing, before Brody reluctantly pulls back and glances at the table.
“It’s Chase,” he tells me, gently lifting himself off me as he answers the phone, placing it on speakerphone so I can hear the news his lawyer has for us. I wasn’t expecting him to call with an update on the case, and that he’s called so soon after the Mexican police handed the US authorities the case, has me on edge.
“You both there?” Chase asks, already used to being put on speakerphone when he calls us.
