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“You can’t what?”
“I can’t tell you to do it.”
His light-blue eyes were pleading with mine.
“I can’t have that on me.”
“Baby …” He pulled me into his arms and held me, using an unforgiving strength. One that I needed. “This isn’t on you. You don’t have to say anything.”
I was trying to piece this all together. What it would feel like to live without the constant fear of David. Where I wouldn’t have to worry about him hurting Brady or anyone else. Where we wouldn’t need security. Where I could live a life without having to be shadowed. Where I could walk into Brady’s plane and not wonder if David was hiding somewhere inside. Where I wouldn’t have to wonder what he was going to do next.
That was what I wanted and why I was going to end things with Brady.
But this … this wasn’t my plan.
This was unfathomable.
“Listen to me.” He pulled back so I could look into his eyes. “What I need to know is, if I call the person whose number is on that card, will you still love me?” His hands moved to the back of my neck, his thumbs pressed against the sides of my mouth, his eyes locked with mine.
He would do that for us.
For my protection.
For our safety.
So the two of us could start living in a way we deserved.
But, oh God, I knew what that meant.
I knew what that decision would ultimately do.
Could I live with that?
Could I stop it from eating at me?
Could I sleep at night, knowing I was a part of this?
But didn’t I deserve peace?
Love?
Freedom?
“Brady …” My head would have dropped if he wasn’t holding it. My stomach was rattling, churning, the emotion moving through me in steady bolts rather than sporadic waves.
“Will you be able to look at me as the man who protected you and not the man who had your ex-boyfriend killed?”
Brady was the first boyfriend I’d ever had who considered my feelings.
He was the first boyfriend who valued me, who cared what I thought of him, who showed that my feelings mattered.
I wasn’t just a piece of arm candy to him. I wasn’t someone he wanted to possess.
He was giving me a voice, and he was telling me to use it.
My eyes closed, and the wetness on my lids ran down my cheeks.
My heart throbbed.
