I check the time. If we leave now, I can grab a go bag I left in a locker a few parishes over. I can leave them both with family on the other side of the state. After that, I can make me and Kaylee disappear again. I’ve done what I can to fight against my father.
The smooth rumble of an expensive motor outside draws me up short.
Chloe and I both turn to the front window in unison. My heart is in my throat but when I turn back to look at Chloe, she has an odd look of recognition in her eyes.
Then again, she would know my father’s SUVs.
“Protect Kaylee. If this goes bad, you know who to take her to.”
Like I said, Chloe knows all my secrets.
Thankfully Chloe doesn’t fight me on this and quietly fades into the back rooms with Kaylee.
I ease open the glass door to Chloe’s china cabinet and palm the beretta I know she keeps tucked in behind her Christmas porcelain.
I check the clip and flip the safety off just as I see a shadow move across the porch.
I raise my gun, finger hovering over the trigger. I hesitate only a slight second before pulling, but that one second costs me.
The front door flies inward and out of the darkness steps a man dressed in black with a dark set of gray eyes pinned on me.
“I told you I would catch up with you.”
My insides do a quiver and I honestly can’t tell if it’s out of relief or fear.
He steps into my personal space and tips the end of my weapon away from his heart.
“I think you’ve done enough damage to my heart without putting a bullet through it.”
And just like that my ire fades.
“You need to leave, Phantom. Unless you’re ready for round two with my father, that is. I have no doubt he’s coming this way sooner rather than later.”
I shuffle away before I let the heat of his body make me do something irrational like throw myself into his arms and beg for his forgiveness. Now that I don’t have bullets flying at my head, I am a little less stressed about dying and more freaked out about wanting what I can’t have.
Him.
My eyes drop to the guns in their holsters under either of his arms. “I hope you reloaded, but I’m heading out now and–”
A rush of energy washes over me right before Phantom is across the threshold and hauling my body up against the nearest wall. Porcelain plates rattle and snowflakes drift in behind him.
I gasp as he pushes me against the wall with his massive weight pressing against my body. From nipples to hips, everything touches. It’s decadent and what all my dreams are filled with since the day I walked out on Phantom.
My pulse roars in my ears. The dark, decadent, gorgeously dominant older man who stole my heart when I had no right to love the enemy is finally touching me again. There’s a dark hunger in his eyes and this time, I can see every glittering shard of it reflecting at me through those perfectly gray eyes.
He works quickly to unzip my borrowed coat and slips his hands inside to wrap around my waist.
“I missed you.”
I inhale sharply at the pain in his voice. The utter heartbreak drips from every vowel and consonant.
I did that to him, yet he looks at me with love in his eyes.
He slips his hands over my hips and under me, lifting effortlessly. I wrap my legs around his middle and just breathe him in when he presses his forehead against mine.
“Stop trying to run,” he whispers when he pulls back to look me in the eye.
Soft light from a nearby fire glows in the corner. Chloe’s Christmas tree gives off a cozy vibe and the overheads are dimmed low. If I try I could easily pretend this was our house, our tree and my husband had me pinned to the wall with desire in his eyes.
