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He grabs hold of me. “I’m not that fragile.”
“I thought you were going to die. You took three bullets for me, Noah. You could have died!” When it all happened, there was so much blood, I had no idea of the extent of his injuries, only that they were serious.
It was my dad who got all the details while I was at the police station. Noah was shot three times. One of those bullets came very close to his spine. Another went straight through his intestine. The last punctured his lung.
“I’ve been worse,” he grinds out and winces.
“Really?”
“No. I had a feeling you’d be trouble.” He tries to laugh, but a bout of coughing so severe it sets off an alarm stops him. The nurse comes in to scold us, and when she leaves, he watches me. It strikes me as off that after all this, his gaze seems more golden than ever. More beautiful. “Why didn’t you tell me what my father did to you?”
His question surprises me, and it takes me a moment to figure out the right answer. “I didn’t want to destroy his image in your mind. You’d already lost your mother. I couldn’t do that to you.”
“You could have killed him.”
I shake my head. “If he’d come back, I would have. He didn’t.” Because he died. I leave that part unsaid.
He turns to stare at the ceiling and a tear slips down his temple. “Emily,” he whispers.
“What is it?” I squeeze his hand.
His voice broken as he struggles to speak, he looks at me and says, “I will spend the rest of my life bringing the light back into your eyes. My loyalties are with you alone. I swear it.”
“I want more than your loyalty, Noah,” I tell him honestly. “I want your love.”
“You have it, Emily. You’ve always had it.”
25
NOAH
Rowan Kane, Arran Maxton, Gavin Alexander, Marco Tadesco, Jorge Ruiz, and I have all returned to Briar House.
It’s been weeks since the attack on the marina and the loft. Things have been quiet since then. But Gideon is still out there, lurking in the shadows. The Ferryman is threatening to emerge at the first sign of vulnerability and send us all to hell to pay for the crimes committed against his father.
I should sympathize with his plight. After all, I was on a similar mission not long ago. But I was wrong, and so is Gideon.
We’re all once again sitting at the long table in the dining room, with Luca at the head.
“Can we all agree that it’s time to put an end to this threat?” Luca asks. “Over the last few weeks, his attacks on our business have increased. The Colombians won’t even talk to me anymore. He’s got them selling him my shit, and he’s sneaking into my goddamn city and making money off it.”
“How do you propose we stop him?” Maxton asks.
“An alliance. We work together, just as the men before us did, and we bring him down.”
“An alliance? We’d kill each other,” I say because, although I’ll always be willing to work with Luca, not everyone here is as easy to get along with.
He shakes his head. “You and I are proof that a truce can work. New York is Sinacore territory, and you left unscathed.”
“That’s because I saved your fucking ass,” I say.
“Exactly,” he says, leaving out, “And I saved yours.” But he says it with his eyes.
I incline my head. True. Very true.
“I don know about an allayance. I jus came for the show,” Ruiz butts in. “Maybe this time, jou can fuck with the door open so we can see.”
Everyone ignores him.
