Page 93 of Run

“You aren’t being tortured. That part of your day is over. Now you’re being rescued. By the man you’re going to marry.” He came back around to the front of the chair and scooped her up into his arms. Cradling her to him as a groom would when carrying his bride over their threshold.

Stupid custom. She’d never understood it.

“Could you two hurry up and get your arses out of here?” Abasi said. “I need a private word with Cutter.”

“He’s all yours,” David said as they headed to the door.

“Abasi,” Elle called out. “I’d better see you again—big brother.”

She saw his shoulders tense at the term of endearment before they walked out of the torture room. Elle didn’t avert her gaze from the sight of Tommy lying on the floor. She wanted to see him, wanted to know he truly was gone.

“Is he absolutely, for certain, dead?” she asked David.

“Shot him in the heart.”

“That’s impossible.” Elle snuggled into him, letting him carry the weight of her thoughts as well as her body. “Tommy didn’t have a heart.”

“Clear up here,” Harvard called from the top of the stairs. “I see you didn’t wait for us before you started having fun.” He motioned to Tommy’s body. “Never were any good at sharing.”

“And you always managed to turn up just as the work was over,” David said. “Is there anybody still standing?”

“A few, but Joe has them trussed up like Thanksgiving turkeys.” Harvard smiled at Elle. “Good to see you made it.”

She tried to smile back but it was proving difficult. “Someone will have sent for more soldiers, we’re not safe yet.”

“Don’t worry,” David said. “The team will protect us until we get out of here.”

“What team?” Her head was filled with fog.

“Our team,” he said.

“I heard that,” Harvard called. “Should I tell Callum you’re on board?”

“Smug bastard,” David answered.

As he held her even tighter, emotional exhaustion got the better of her, and she fell asleep, knowing she was safe in David’s arms.

35

It had been almost a month since the day Tommy kidnapped her, and in that time, David had barely touched her. Sure, he slept beside her at night and was caring and attentive during the day, but there was a distance between them that Elle didn’t understand. She wasn’t sure if he found the bruises Tommy left on her repulsive—although, they’d mostly gone now. Or if the whole experience had brought back old memories that he couldn’t shake. Or, maybe, he really just wasn’tthatinto her.

That’s why she’d decided it was time to seduce her man. And to do it, she’d called in help. She’d asked Megan to shop for her. Unfortunately, she hadn’t made it clear when Megan needed to turn up with her purchases. For all Elle knew, she’d gotten sidetracked and followed something shiny to her doom.

While the rest of the team had gone to their various homes after Tommy was killed, Elle and David remained holed up in the safe house, mainly to avoid the many government agencies who wanted to ask her questions. As far as she was concerned, she’d given them all the answers they needed. Her testimony, together with the data from the hard drive, was more than they needed to bring down the James Syndicate. Tommy James had stolen enough of her life; he wasn’t getting any more. He wasn’t getting it all the way he had with Marcus.

Elle had spent much of the past month mourning her brother. Not the man he’d become, but the boy who’d sacrificed everything for her. The boy who’d loved animals and dreamed of becoming a vet. The boy who’d sneaked her ice cream and told her bedtime stories. Her heart would always ache for that boy, the brother she’d loved so very much. The Marcus she’d known before Tommy twisted him.

She’d also spent a lot of time wondering about Abasi. After that day at the house, he’d disappeared, and there was no trace of him anywhere. All he’d left behind was the body of the man who’d killed his best friend. The police had found Cutter pinned to the wall of Tommy’s study with his own knives. After one had been used to cut his throat. Out of all the stupid things occupying Elle’s mind, one of the dumbest was why Abasi had moved upstairs to kill Cutter. Why not just do it in the torture room? If he ever surfaced again, she planned on asking him about it.

As for the rest of the team, Megan recovered from her mild concussion and was pleased to hear the laptop she’d chosen had saved the day. Of course, it didn’t make up for missing a gunfight. Rachel, meanwhile, had made it her life mission to ruin Tessa Sharp—who’d tried to escape to Europe but had been picked up by Interpol. To achieve her goal, Rachel had joined forces with her darker-skinned doppelgänger. It was scary watching Ms. Patel and Rachel together. Elle kept waiting for one of them to explode purely because nature couldn’t allow them both to occupy the same general space at the same time. So far, it hadn’t happened, but fingers crossed…

Despite Tessa being charged with several offenses and facing a lengthy prison sentence, Rachel didn’t deem it punishment enough. She was currently suing the ex-police officer for everything she could think of while giving copious interviews to the media about the officer’s betrayal. By the time she was done, Tessa Sharp’s name, reputation, and everything she held dear would be gone.

Of course, Rachel’s mission to destroy the cop wasn’t just because she’d betrayed the team. She was doing it for Ryan. It was her way of coping.

Elle placed a palm against her roiling stomach as it spasmed with the ache she associated with Ryan. They all had their different ways of coping with what’d happened to him. Elle’s was currently denial. One day, she’d deal with it. But…not yet.

Spotting Megan on the path up to the house, Elle swung the door open.