I shuddered and pressed my face against Dirk’s neck. The game was over, Philippe was tied up, and Dirk had no reason to stay close to me, unless he still wanted compensation for damages. I couldn’t ever pay him back for what my family had taken away from him.
“Justice?” he murmured, his low rumble sending shivers through me the opposite of Philippe’s.
“No kidding,” Toni said cheerfully. “It was brilliant, of course, because no one would expect you to set him up with a life sentence over a bullet to the brain, so he didn’t see it coming. He probably would have seen a bullet, which would also be satisfying, but still, this way is more unexpectedly brilliant.” She patted my leg.
I raised my face and looked at her. “Where did you come from?”
“When I realized that you were in town, and that my FBI boy was actually an independent working for your man, I naturally insisted on coming along.”
Dirk rumbled deep in his chest, the vibration sweeping through me and bringing all my nerves to life. “Next time,I’m knocking you unconscious and locking you behind bars. Daniela’s safety is the priority.” He kissed my hair and snuggled me back into his chest. “I don’t like that you had someone shoot you.”
I snuggled into him. “It was part of the plan. How long are you going to hold me?” I shouldn’t have asked, because I didn’t want to know how long he’d think that he had to not put me down. Getting Minx to wing me was the least dangerous part of this plot. She was the most talented marksman I’d ever met.
Dirk growled, “I’ll hold you in the car, and then once we get to the house, I’ll carry you inside, and then we’ll eat. Can I hold you while we eat? I don’t see why not, and then I’m going to hold you until we fall asleep. Then I’ll be holding you when we wake up.”
My heart pounded too fast, and I went light-headed. “The house?”
“Mm.” He rubbed his nose against my neck in a way that made me light-headed. “My sister and I called it the Holiday House. We used to stay there when we went to visit my grandparents for holidays. Toni’s going to stay in the pool house, so she’ll be close enough to see you, but not too close, because we have so much therapy to do.” He bit my ear.
I gasped and sat upright, but he pulled me back close, so strong, so implacable. “Therapy?”
“You asked me to fix intimacy for you.”
I swallowed hard. “You mean, before you break me?”
Toni scoffed. “Like I’d let him do that.”
“It’s okay. It’s what Philippe did to?—”
Dirk kissed me harder than I expected before it melted into something so deliciously soft and sweet, I only vaguely heard the elevator ding as we arrived on our floor.
Toni did, and punched Dirk’s shoulder so he stopped kissing me. It was my turn to hiss at her.
“Don’t touch him, he’s mine.”
She raised her hands, but there was a smirk on her mouth as we left the elevator. Once we got to the street outside, Roger turned and walked off through the swirling snow while Toni opened the door of a big black car, so Dirk could duck inside, still carrying me.
I squeezed his biceps. “Super strength?”
He raised a brow and scooted over so Toni could climb in after us. “It seems like it must be, but no, that’s just weight training. What do you want to do?”
I stared at him then glanced at Toni. Was he serious about finishing our therapy marriage, of making it last until Christmas? She was in the car, so we probably shouldn’t work on intimacy now. I looked up at Dirk while my heart pounded and butterflies threatened to shake me apart. “What do you want to do?”
He smiled the most mischievous, dangerous smile in the world. “Everything.”
39
HERO
Thanksgiving was better than I ever could have hoped. My grandparent’s estate, before they’d left it to me and taken up condo hopping all over the world, was extremely well defended with three perimeter fences and guard houses every thirty feet. Dogs and tech finished out the defense, but none of that was visible from the main house with its French roof and formal gardens, or the smaller cottage tucked away from the house and surrounded by a wild garden filled with roses and ornamental cabbages when it wasn’t covered in snow.
The pool house was close enough, but not too close, at least that was the idea, but Toni didn’t seem to want to leave the tiny two-bedroom house that was mostly living room and kitchen, with walls lined with books and fern plants hanging over the window seat.
Daniela let me hold her, but she was waiting for the moment when I broke her. She didn’t understand what it was like to be safe and protected, but I would show her, for as long as it took.
She started looking at me differently when I carried her into her room so she could get dressed and saw Straw, her father’scello next to my banjo. Her eyes glowed as she stared at me through a veil of tears.
“You rescued my cello.”
