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“I was protecting you. Jesus, Holly, I was consumed by you and I didn’t know why. I was told to stay away, and I kept coming back again and again. I never should have been anywhere near you. I risked the lives of hundreds of women and children, compromising my entire case and decades of work for my own damn personal needs. My entire life has been about my career. I was a little boy that wanted to be a superhero. I wanted to make a difference in the world. You were my coincidence, the exception to the rule when I lived by the damn book. Do you think I planned to fall in love with the daughter of a mafia boss?”
The words caught me off guard as I finally released the feelings that had been boiling just below the surface for weeks. They hung between us, in the silence of the dark tunnel, as I felt her taut wrist relax and the pulse in the vein just below my fingers thump a steady rhythm.
???
Holly
One word. Reid spoke one word that broke through the rushing chaos of my brain.
My lungs seized in my chest as I searched to find my equilibrium.
“Holly, I love you. Stop running from me, woman.” Reid pulled on my wrist, and this time I let him. I gave up a fight I didn’t want to win as I collapsed into him in the darkness.
Everything I have ever known is falling around me. The ashes of my life are raining down on me, a reminder of the explosion I’ve been dealt. My entire life I was conditioned to believe a lie.
Who am I?
I considered the implications of everything that Reid told me. Where does the truth lie?
My father is a murderer.
My family is the blood of mafia.
And I’m in love with an undercover FBI agent.
I’m in love with Reid.
“You love Holly Adkins, the mafia princess, or Holly Adkins, the designer with a secret identity that, up until a couple of minutes ago, she knew nothing about?” I looked up at Reid as he held me.
“Both? Holly, yes, your father is an evil man, there is no question about that. For generations your family has been involved in the dark world. But you, you are pure, and God am I thankful for that. I’m so thankful that you aren’t tainted by the actions of your family. I fell in love with Holly the warrior princess. The intelligent woman with a strength that outweighs some of the most badass female agents I’ve worked with, and I can assure you that I’ve worked with some of the baddest of them all. The woman that sleeps in only boy shorts when her apartment is fucking Antarctica. The woman that willingly agreed to live in a haunted house because of her fascination with the history and architecture of the structure. The woman that continues to go to bed with a man that claims to be an insurance adjuster but is armed enough to take down an army, because even though she’s in denial right now, she loves him too.” He brushed a stray piece of hair from my eyes as it fell in my face, and I leaned into the warmth of his palm, needing his touch.
“That’s the woman I fell in love with. I know you are just now finding out that there is another layer to your history that you never realized, but I fell in love with all of you. Up until the moment that I walked into that café, my career was the most important thing in my life, but I’m risking everything for you on the off chance that you’ll take a chance and trust me. I need you to trust me Holly, our lives depend on it.” I could hear the desperation mixed with sincerity in each of the words that he spoke.
The truth of the matter is that the list of people I trust right now could fit on a sticky note, and not one of the regular sized ones. No. I’m talking the tiny little ones that are used to mark tabs. But I hear Reid, I feel his words. If I’m being honest myself, I felt his words long before they ever left his mouth and I trust him. I’ve always trusted him, even when I was certain he was lying to me. Now I know that my gut instinct was spot on, and while I’m sure there is so much more for me to find out, I trust Reid to tell me. I trust him to maintain his promise to protect me, to protect my heart.
“Will you still chain me to the wall for funsies if I agree?” My racing heart began to level out as my brain finished working through everything Reid told me. I smiled at him through the darkness, even though I’m not certain he can see me.
Air burst from Reid’s lungs in a laugh that echoed the halls of the tunnel, a release of the pent-up tension he’d been holding in. “Holly, baby, I will gladly buy you a set for home if you want them. But I’m kind of ready to get you out of these tunnels. It’s my job to keep you alive, and I’ve already sent us careening down an elevator shaft once today.”
“Your job? It’s your job to keep me alive? But I thought you wanted me for my mind and my brave warrior spirit?”
“Don’t forget about that ass in those boy shorts.” Reid pulled my phone from his pocket and bathed us in a dim light.
“Aha, I knew there was more to the story.” I said the words playfully, but the look on Reid’s face as he turned back to grab my hand said that there really was so much more.
“Come on, let’s get out of these tunnels, and we can talk more.” I followed Reid in silence through the darkness of the tunnels until we located a ladder that hung down from a wooden trap door in the ceiling.
Reid handed me the light as he climbed the ladder and pushed open the door. It was dark outside at this point, but I could feel the cool air and the smell of humidity as it penetrated the dry air of the tunnel.
“Ladies first.” Reid hopped back down from the ladder and hoisted me to the first rung that hung a few feet from the ground.
“You’re watching my ass, aren’t you?” I purposely threw in an extra sway of my hips as I climbed.
“Do I have eyes? Hell yes I’m watching your ass.” I felt Reid’s weight on the ladder as I ascended the last rung and my head popped out into the night.
I hadn’t realized how stifling the air was down there until I was able to fill my lungs with the clean air outside.
Distracted by my thoughts I jumped when I heard the wooden door close behind me. “Geez, give a woman a heart attack. I wasn’t kidding when I said I can’t take much more today.” I felt Reid’s presence as he came up behind me, and the strength of his hands on my hips calmed me immediately.
