Page 19 of Claimed By Lock

We stay tangled together after. His weight half on me, half beside me, one hand stroking slow lines up and down my spine.

"Josie."

"Hmm?"

"I'm going to handle Colt."

It doesn't feel like a threat. It feels like a promise.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm going to make sure he understands that coming near you would be the worst decision of his life."

"And if he doesn't listen?"

"He'll listen."

The certainty should scare me. This is what I ran from with Colt — violence, possessiveness.

But it's different. Colt wanted to control me. Lock wants to protect me. Colt used fear against me. Lock uses it as a shield.

"I trust you," I say.

He goes still. "Yeah?"

"I know this is fast. But I trust you."

He kisses me — soft, reverent.

"I'm not going to let you down," he says. "I promise."

I believe him.

"What happens now?" I ask.

"Now, you sleep. Tomorrow, I handle Colt. After that..." He kisses my head. "We figure out the rest."

I close my eyes and drift off, safe in his arms.

For the first time in months, I sleep through the night.

CHAPTER 5

LOCK

Ifind King in his office.

He's behind the desk, going through paperwork. He looks up when I knock on the doorframe, reads something in my face, and sets his pen down.

"Close the door."

I do. Then I stand there, figuring out how to say what I came to say.

"Colt broke into Josie's apartment last night." The words come out flat. Controlled. "He was waiting for her when she got home. Grabbed her arm. Threatened her. Told her there'd be consequences for being with me."

King doesn't react. Just watches me with those cold eyes that miss nothing.

"She's the one from the rally," he says.