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Darkness settled over me with each step toward the life I’d thought I could run from.
I’d make Harold regret ever messing with me.
THIRTY-FOUR
ALEC
Her silence worried me.
During the plane journey back she’d barely uttered a word, staring out of the window and tearing her paper napkin into her lap to a million pieces.
It was killing me. I’d thought hard about whether to just kidnap her. Drag her to a remote cottage somewhere and keep her in my arms until everything played out and passed at home. I wanted to protect her, to be there for her. But what could I do?
I toyed with the knife in my pocket, the metal warm beneath my fingers. It had cost me the phone I’d stolen to smuggle it through the airport. Thankfully, the young guy on the metal detectors had been open to bribery. It was one thing that had been with me for years. It had been there as part of my work, as protection, and as a threat. Usually, the touch of it by my side brought peace to me, but not anymore. What use was my knife if I couldn’t protect my girl with it?
The car pulled up outside of her mansion; her father standing on the steps with a furrowed brow.
Before she got out of the car, I reached over and took her fingers in my own, squeezing them firmly as she took a shaky breath.
‘You’ll be okay,’ I told her, trying to convince myself in the same breath.
She turned toward me, fixing those green eyes that had captured my soul. ‘Thank you for everything, Alec.’
‘For what? Taking you back here?’
‘No. For giving me a glimpse of how good it can be. I got to have everything I’ve ever craved for a little while, and I’m glad it happened. That we happened.’
I choked down the torrent of emotion that threatened to send me into a tailspin. I had to be strong for her.
‘You are everything I never knew I needed--‘
The wrenching of the car door cut me off mid-sentence, Logan peering inside the car as I dropped her fingers and cleared my throat. ‘Esther, you crazy fuck. I can’t believe you ran away. Props to you. Best get your ass inside, though. Dad is livid, and Harold’s on the warpath.’
He helped her out of the car as I followed a few paces behind, desperately trying to push my crumbled walls back into place around my heart. She’d obliterated them, and I needed their protection more than ever.
She’ll be okay.
She has to be okay.
Would I be?
I followed behind Logan and Esther, hyperaware of her every movement. The tremble of her fingers as she reached for the door, the turn of her head, checking where I was. The way she stiffened as Logan pulled her gently across the threshold.
The need to gather her up in my arms and run with her itched against my skin, my fingernails digging sharply into my palms as I tensed.
‘Esther!’ Maeve was on her within a few steps into the house, her arms wide as she threw them around her older sister. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’
Esther’s tense shoulders softened as she hugged her sister back, pulling her tight against her and breathing her in. ‘Missed you, too.’
‘I can’t believe you’re here. We were beginning to think you’d actually disappeared for good,’ Maeve said as the women separated, Logan smiling at them both.
Another shot of pain to the chest. Even after everything, she still belonged. Still had people desperate to see her, to know that she’s okay. I wanted to be part of her circle, her person. What awaited me on getting home? Nothing. Even my plants would be dead.
Logan came over to me and patted my back with a firm hand. ‘Thanks, pal. Sorry, she gave you such a runaround.’
‘She burnt down my car.’
‘Didn’t know she had it in her.’
