“Thank you,” Hayden says with tears streaming down her face. “Thank you for giving me peace,” she whispers.
We gather around and hold her for awhile, and then Ezra speaks.
“We love you, sis. We’d do anything for you. And,” he pauses, looking at Fiona and me. “If I’m not mistaken, it’s time to do the same for this little darling.”
“Darling?” Fiona raises an eyebrow.
“My brother loves you,” Ezra says. “That makes you his darling. I don’t know all the details of what brought you two together, but if I’m not mistaken, I’d say it’s probably time for a little payback of your own. Am I right?”
Hayden suddenly looks at us with bright eyes.
“Where are we going?” She asks. “Can I come? Do we get to beat someone up? Well, do we?”
“I, um, I…” Fiona looks momentarily stunned. “I would love it if you guys came with us. I mean, it’s really not necessary, but…” She looks at me and leans her head against my shoulder. “Yeah,” she whispers. “I’d love it if you would come.”
I don’t want Fiona to leave.
I don’t want to lose her, don’t want her to go away. We haven’t come up with a definitive plan to get her parents and Darin, yet, but we have a three day flight to Mirroean and that gives me three days to come up with something that will sever ties with them forever and secure her to myself.
And if she chooses to stay on Mirroean, I’ll stay with her. I already told Ezra. Where Fiona goes, I go. I might have rescued her without really wanting to, without knowing what I was getting into, but none of that matters now. Now the only thing that matters is saving her again, and again, and again.
I’ll spend the rest of my life saving Fiona if she’ll let me.
I’ll spend the rest of my life making her love me.
Chapter 27
Fiona
Quinn and I make love all night. It’s sweet and it’s passionate and it’s something more. Something about it feels more permanent, more intense than the sex we’ve had before. Something about this feels like Quinn is bonding me to himself, like we’re meshing together, and I like that.
I love that.
I need it.
When we wake up, Ezra and Hayden are waiting for us downstairs. They both smile at us, but don’t say anything.
“Good morning,” I greet them with a smile.
“A very good morning, by the sounds of it,” Hayden snickers and picks up her coffee mug.
“Oh, shit,” I blurt out and quickly cover my mouth. They heard us. Holy dragons. I didn’t even think about how loud Quinn and I were being while we were making love all night. That’s what we were doing: making love. It was hard and intense, but it wasn’t the primal fucking we did on the ship. This was more, and it consumed my entire mind, and I didn’t even think about the fact that we weren’t alone.
Ezra just laughs. “Give the girl a break,” he says to Hayden. “Like you’ve never gotten carried away in the moment.” Hayden smiles, but her smile is a little sad, like she’s got a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
Part of me wants to ask her about that, but it’s not the time. Maybe when we’re alone together sometime, we can have some serious girl talk. Something tells me there’s a lot about Hayden Fox her brothers don’t know. Something tells me she keeps many of her secrets close to her heart.
“When do we leave?” Quinn asks Ezra.
“An hour,” Ezra glances at his watch.
“Where’d you get a ship on such short notice?” I ask them. On Mirroean, if you don’t personally own a ship, flying is incredibly difficult. There are waiting lists to rent a ship and the cost can be astronomical.
“Gaz,” the three siblings say in unison.
“Woah. He’s a pretty nice lawyer,” I manage to say, but I’m guessing there’s more to their relationship with Gaz than they’re letting on. Maybe he really is just a lawyer, but I’m guessing he’s a close, personal friend, and they’d like to keep that information on the down-low, for some reason.
“Too nice,” Ezra agrees politely. “All packed?” He asks, and Hayden jerks her head toward the tower of suitcases by the front door.