“We’ve all lost a lot,” Lion said with a wince, and they all knew that the man had lost the most of all of them when their lives were upended by Dr. Gardner. “But if you get a chance at happiness, you grab hold of it with both hands and refuse to let it go.”
“You're all giving me your blessing to find a way to make it work with Rose?” It sounded like they were, but it was a big ask. For the last decade, they’d been all each other had, and Steel didn't know how to have a future where he didn't see his team every single day.
“Do you really need it?” Thunder asked.
“Yeah, I think I actually do,” he admitted. He’d already told Rose she was his, that he was never letting her go, and he’d meant every word of it, but at the back of his mind had been doubts about how he was supposed to go about making that work. While he had no problem forcing Rose to stay with him until she wanted to stay on her own, a part of him wanted herto choose him. Wanted her to stay because she couldn’t stand to be away from him, and not because he’d become just another person to strip her of her choices.
“You have it,” Dragon said, and that the words came from the man who had wanted to take out his anger at losing Cassandra on Rose meant everything.
Nodding his acceptance of his team’s welcoming Rose into their family, Steel felt emotion clog his throat. Rose seemed to like him, although he had no idea why, but how much of it was real, and how much of it was survival?
They’d told her she had to earn her freedom by helping them, then he’d claimed her, told her she was his, and he was never letting her go. If he were in Rose’s position, he would have said or done whatever it took to make it through another day.
“Hey,” Dragon barked, and Steel looked over at him. “She likes you. I've been watching her. The way she looks at you … you give her something she’s been craving that no one else has ever provided.”
“I abducted her.”
“Yet she let you have sex with her, several times,” Blade reminded him.
“I had her tortured, starved, and whipped.”
“And still she agreed to help us,” Thunder said.
“I forced her to tell me she was mine, told her I wasn't letting her go.”
“When you left the room after burning her feet, she went after you, no hesitation,” Voodoo said.
“I think love is this crazy thing that never makes sense, no matter how much you want it to,” Dragon admitted softly. They all knew the man regretted choosing vengeance over Cassandra, but he was too stubborn to admit it and make a new choice instead.
“Much as I hate to break up our emotional bonding session, we got company,” Blade announced, his head cocked to the side as he’d obviously heard something.
Shoving aside everything else, it would all be there to deal with and unpack later. For now, the only thing that mattered was getting their hands on Ridge Gardner and punishing him for everything he’d put them all through.
Then there would be time to figure out how a man like him could ever earn the love of a woman like Rose. As much as he craved her submission, as much as he wanted to own every inch of her, Steel equally needed her love.
He might be a monster, but if he was, he was Rose’s monster.
January 2nd
3:03 A.M.
The cold had her so numb she couldn’t even feel the pain in her throbbing feet anymore.
“At least that’s something,” Rose muttered, clenching her teeth together to try to stop them chattering.
Since Ridge had demanded that she not move from the spot where she’d been when she called him, she’d lost her ability to keep her body temperature up. Sure, she was doing jumping jacks, running on the spot, anything she could think of to stop herself getting hypothermic, but with her burned feet, cracked ribs, and all her bruises, it was painful. At least when she’d been running through the forest, it gave a purpose, so she didn't have as much time to think about the pain.
With her hair a tangled mess, her pajamas filthy and torn, and her skin dirty and scratched up, she looked like a disheveled mess who had been running for her life.
If she didn't know that Ridge would absolutely punish her for moving from this spot, for “wasting his time and making it harder for him to find her,” she absolutely would have kept running and let him track her to the phone’s location. But Ridge would freak out, act like he was doing her this massive favor coming after her, even though he had been perfectly content to allow her to be killed at Steel and his team’s hands.
Still, even knowing the risks, she ached to run anyway. She was too cold and only getting colder. The clouds above her were thickening, and she wouldn't be surprised if it started to snow soon.
How was she supposed to survive that?
All she was wearing were thin flannelette pajamas, no underwear, no socks or shoes, no beanie, gloves, or scarf, no coat, nothing at all to protect her from the elements. She supposed she could always call Steel if it got too bad. He’d made her memorize his phone number, but if she did that, she risked ruining everything.
“You can do. It’s only cold. You’ve survived it before, you can do it again.”
