Page 39

Damn she’s beautiful when she’s all fired up. High-octane adrenaline must be pumping through her veins. There’s no way she’s thinking clearly.

"Saving your life." I holster the Glock and drop the Sig beside the unconscious man at my feet. "Again."

"I didn't ask you to save me."

"You didn't have to."

She looks at the men on the ground. Blood pools under the knife man, dark and spreading, mixing with rainwater until the puddle turns a murky pink. Her face goes pale. Her throat works on a swallow.

"Are they dead?"

"One of them. The other two will wish they were when they wake up."

Her gaze cuts back to me and the raw, wounded anger blazing in those green eyes carves through every layer of armor I've spent a long damn time building. She's looking at me with blood on the ground and bodies at my feet, and she's not running. She's standing in the rain in my shirt with her fists clenched and her chin up. She is the bravest person I have ever known.

"Don't you dare look at me like that, Thane Cross."

I take a step in her direction. "Like what?"

Her nostrils flare. "Like you love me."

The words hit harder than any bullet I've taken. My chest constricts. The muscles in my throat lock around the truth I've been choking on for days. Since our first night together. The rain is cold, the alley stinks of blood and garbage, and the woman in front of me is shaking from cold, fear, and adrenaline.

This is the least romantic moment in the history of the human race, and I have never been more certain of anything.

"I do love you."

Her fists tighten. Her jaw trembles. She shakes her head like she can dispel my words. "Don't," she tries, but we both know there’s no heat to her words.

I step closer, shortening the distance between us. "I love you, Neve. I loved you in that bar before I knew your name. I loved you in my bed when you called me Daddy and broke me open in ways I will never recover from. I loved you in the safehouse when you cracked eggs in my kitchen and made fun of my lack of cooking skills and smelled like flour even though your bakery was ten miles away."

She holds her hands up when I get close enough to touch her. "Stop."

"I took that contract so no other runner could. I signed my name on your death warrant and then I burned every bridge I've built in twenty years because losing my career, my safety, my life, all of it is nothing next to losing you. The bar was real. Every second since has been real. I should have told you the truth the moment you opened your bakery door and let me in. I know that. I chose wrong because I was afraid you would run, and I was right because you did, and I deserve every second of your fury."

Her eyes glisten. Tears mix with rain on her cheeks and her chin quivers, but she does not look away.

"You were paid to kill me." Her voice is barely a whisper. “But that is not what I am pissed about. I was never scared of you. I am furious because you couldn't find it in you to tell me the truth. I’ve lived with liars. I refuse to do that anymore.”

"I get that now.” I move a clump of wet hair from her cheek and stroke my thumb down the round slope.

"And a baby?”

“True with every fiber of my being.” It starts raining harder now. Water slides down our faces and soaks us to the core. I slip my jacket off and place it around her trembling shoulders. She grips the sides and tucks into the warmth.

"And so is everything else. The bar was before the contract," I continue, holding her gaze because if I look away now I lose her forever. "I searched for you for a week. Tore this city apart trying to find the green-eyed girl who wrecked me in one night. When your photograph crossed Sapphire's table, I wanted to burn Genesis to the ground. Instead I signed the contract because the alternative was watching a stranger collect ten point five million for putting you in the dirt."

Her lips part. Fresh tears spill, mixing with the rain. She wraps her arms around herself and the motion is so small, so self-protective, that my hands ache with the need to reach for her.

I don't. She told me not to touch her and I will honor that until she tells me otherwise, even if it kills me.

"Everything I am is wrong for you. I know that. I've killed people, Neve. Lots of them. For money, for loyalty, for a code I followed because it was easier than opening myself up to people. I fear the power of love. I’ve seen it rip my father’s heart out day after day when my mother was alive. She tortured him, cheated on him and then overdosed. All the while, he only tried to love her.”

“I would never do that.”

“I know. The second I held you in my arms I knew you were worth everything. I understood how love can ruin and heal. When I saw you in the bar smelling like vanilla and warm apples, for the first time in twenty years I wanted to be alive."

"Thane." Her voice trembles around my name. Wonder swims in the depths of her irises.