“Yep! Just needs some fresh air,” he assured her, continuing toward the emergency exits in the back.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to call for some help?” the woman insisted, following him. “Ma’am? Ma’am? Are you all right?” the woman then called out to Dani.
Shit.This didn’t look good.
When Theo didn’t stop, the woman yelled at full volume, “Young man! Stop right there! Someone, stop him! He’s taking that woman!”
Goddamn tourists! Mind your own business!
The woman was now jogging toward him, creating a commotion. This was thelastthing he needed. Maurice and Louis were surely going to hear. He may have wanted to get rescued, but not at the expense of potentially putting Dani in danger.
“Lady!” Theo said, spinning on his heels to confront the woman. “This is my fiancée, and I’m taking her to get some air. Now, please. Stop following us. You’re making a scene.” His words were forceful, but he needed this woman to back off.
But the woman didn’t. She put her hand on Dani’s wrist and tugged. “I’m not letting you take her. How do I know you’re not some sort of kidnapping creep?!”
Theo wanted to laugh. Kidnapping creep. If only she knew.
Dani started to stir in his arms.Yes. Please wake up.
“Dani? Baby?” The endearment slipped out without warning. Where hadthatcome from? “Dani, I need you to wake up,” he said.
Her eyes fluttered open for the briefest of seconds. Long enough for her to see his face. “Theo?” she whispered, before closing her eyes again.
“See?” Theo said to the old woman. “Now if you don’t mind,” he said, nodding his head at the woman’s hand on Dani’s wrist.
The woman finally let go, and Theo turned and ran out the back door. Once in the alley, he booked it down the street to a small hillside park. Hopefully Maurice and Louis were still searching the museum for Dani and wouldn’t look for him in the deserted park. After setting Dani down on a bench, he scanned his surroundings, noticing a few locals sitting near the side of the road a short distance away. He ran over and asked if they had any water for his friend, pointing to Dani in the distance. They’d offered to call a medic, but he quickly waved them off, explaining she’d overheated and would be okay in a few moments. One of the men called out to someone in the house to grab a water, and a moment later, a child ran out with a bottle of water, handing it to Theo. He thanked them profusely, then ran back to Dani, slumped over on the bench. He brushed the long black hairs that had come loose from her braid away from her face.
“Dani,” he said, rubbing her face and putting the bottle of water to her lips. “Dani, please. Wake up.”
She opened her mouth, drinking from the bottle, and her eyes started to flicker open, taking a moment to focus.
“Theo?” she said a little more confidently this time. “Is it really you?”
“Yes, it’s me.”
Upon hearing his words, her eyes flew open all the way and she flung her arms around his shoulders causing him to spill thewater over her back. But she clearly didn’t mind, pulling him in tightly as she pressed her face against his chest.
He held firm, not wanting to let go for fear that she’d vanish. She was real. He could feel her enveloped in his arms. Smell her vanilla cream lotion. He couldn’t believe he was touching someone from home—and not anyone, but Dani.
The woman he thought he’d lost forever.
Slowly, Dani pulled back and stared up at him with her hands on both sides of his face, sending an aching in his stomach. He’d seen that look many times. There was a hopefulness to her eyes. A questioning. But it never lasted, primarily because Theo always had a knack for killing the mood.
“Hey, Juicy,” he said, smiling down at her.
“I can’t believe it. You’re here. You’re really here.”
“So are you.”
“Everyone thinks you’re dead,” she said with worried eyes.
“I know.”
She drew back and knit her brows together. “You know?”
Before he could respond, Dani cross-jabbed him in the shoulder.
Damn.That hurt. He brought his hand up to the spot where she’d hit him and rubbed it.
