The closed-off look cracked, and he sighed. “When Colt said they’d taken you… it was the most scared I’d ever been in my life. In that moment, I knew I’d been wrong. You put yourself in danger to warn us, and you paid the price.”
His gaze skimmed my face and stopped at the cut on my neck.
I almost tried to hide it when his eyes darkened and the fury that had eased came roaring back into his face. “But I also betrayed you.”
I couldn’t say why I kept pushing the issue.
Some inner demon refused to be satisfied with their forgiveness.
Ash shook his head. “You didn’t betray us. Not really. You chose us over your job, your captain. Over everything. That’s not betrayal, Noelle. That’s love.”
My breath whooshed out.
How did a one-syllable word make me giddy and terrified and breathless all at the same time?
“I do love you.” I’d said it before, but it held more weight now.
After everything we’d been through together, it meanteverything. “I love you all more than I thought possible.”
Rafe brushed the tears off my cheek.
Bishop continued to hold me, and Ash smoothed the hair away from my face, running his hand down my back and leaning in to kiss me.
Rafe took a step closer and framed my face in his large hands. “Listen to me, Noelle.”
How could I not when he spoke to me in that delicious tone?
“We all love you too. Even when I was furious at you, even when I sent you away, I never stopped loving you. I was too scared to admit it then, but not anymore. I’ve realized the cost of not loving you, and it’s too steep.”
They surrounded me in a cocoon of warm male bodies that I could stay in forever.
I breathed them in and swore to myself that I would never take this for granted.
For the first time since this whole nightmare began, I felt completely safe.
They made me whole.
Bishop shifted his weight, breaking the spell. “We need to move. As much as I’d love to stand here and hold you, someone will have called in the gunfire.”
“Right.” I scrubbed my face and cleared the last bit of fear from my throat. “What do we do?”
Exhaustion carved lines in their faces, but they all stood tall and proud.
Bishop winced when he moved, and Ash had a tear in his jacket from where a bullet had sliced through the leather.
I doubted he even knew how close he’d come to getting shot.
Rafe motioned for Bishop to take the lead.
Surprise widened Bishop’s eyes before he controlled the tell-tale sign. “We still have work to do.”
“The toy run.” I gasped. “You’re supposed to be delivering presents.”
Rafe, Bishop, and Ash shared a glance.
I waited for the inevitable demand that I go back to the clubhouse and wait for them.
“I want to come with you.” I stated it with all the firmness I’d used in interrogations.
