“I would never—”
“I know.” His voice is low, absolute.
“You were—”
“Pissed at myself for putting you in that position. I should have found another way.”
“It was the only way, Rick.”
A phone rings and Rick rolls to the left and grabs it from the wall. “Yeah?”
“Got it.” He hangs up. “Your father is with our team and safe. They’ll be in New York by tomorrow night.”
Unbidden, tears spring to my eyes. “Thank you.”
He lays back down and molds me close. “Anything for you, baby.” He strokes my hair. “Anything.”
At that moment, thirty thousand feet in the air, with Rick Savage holding me, I feel like the world is right. This man has a way of doing that for me. He always did. When he’s holding me, nothing is wrong. I know this isn’t over, but for now, I let myself revel in what really matters: Rick is here with me. My father is safe. And soon we will all be together in New York City. And with that, my lashes lower and I drift off into the sweet heaviness of slumber.
CHAPTER FORTY
Savage
I’m not sure how long I lay in that seat facing Candace, my hand possessively on her hip, staring at her, drinking her in, before I drift into sleep. I wake with my hand still on her hip and by my calculations that means half an hour before we land. And damn, she’s beautiful, so damn beautiful, but there is so much more to this woman than beauty. She’s smart and strong. She’s brave and fierce. She’s my damn heart. She’s my everything. She’s also talented as hell. And even knowing how much her work means to her, I haven’t even taken the time to really talk to her about her work or where she wants that to take her in her future. And neither has she. That’s how blindly she’s following me into this new life.
The altitude begins to change, an alert that I need to wake her up soon before she’s startled awake. I roll away from her, head to the bathroom, brush my teeth and splash water on my face. I’m just about to head back out to the cabin, but my gaze catches on my scar in the mirror, and I give it a long, hard inspection. I made myself embrace that scar a long time back and I embrace it all over again now. It’s a reminder of how different my life is from those years when I first met Candace. If she’s going to be in my life, and she is, I need to lay down a safe path for us to travel. I need to make decisions right now that protect her and our future. I need to fucking kill Gabriel and hell, maybe even Pocher. There has to be a way to get rid of that rat-faced prick, and not feel the backlash.
The plane shakes and shimmies and I quickly exit the bathroom to find Candace still sound asleep, but her hand is on my seat now, as if she was looking for me. I wonder how many nights she reached for me after I left all those years ago. I wonder when she stopped. I curse myself for ever letting that happen but I remind myself that she was right when she spoke of the past last night—we were young. I was young and fucked in the head. I lie down next to her again, facing her and when the altitude beings to shift even lower, I reach up and gently stroke her cheek. Her lashes flutter and lift and when she focuses on me, her eyes soften. “God, I missed waking up to your face.”
My cold as ice fucking heart is all kinds of warm mush. “God, I missed waking up to your face.” My voice is low, rough, affected in ways no one can affect me but Candace. “We’re going to land in half an hour, baby. The pilot warned me it should get bumpy on the way down.”
She raises up on an elbow and blinks again. “What time is it?”
I glance at my watch and then at her. “Five in the morning New York time which is exactly why we’re going to the apartment to shower and nap before we dive into the bigger pond of problems awaiting us.”
Her eyes go wide. “Oh no. Oh God. I just realized that Gabriel saw you, Rick. He’ll look for me with you.”
“And why would he do that?”
“Because I didn’t just tell him you were my ex in some matter-of-fact way, Rick. I told him I wasn’t sure I could commit. I told him you were the reason. I told him that you’re the love of my life. And then you were at the party and I disappeared.”
“You told the man you were engaged to that I was the love of your life?”