“Safe,” he answers instantly. A muscle twitches in his jaw. “Killian got there before I did. I was too fucking late to be useful here and there.”
“Don’t say that,” I rush out, hugging him tighter. “You gave me the confidence to protect myself.”
“Christ, Basia,” he murmurs into my hair. “My beautiful, fierce warrior.”
I pull back so I can look up at him, tears in my eyes.
“I love you, Caleb,” I admit, my lower lip trembling with my emotions. “I don’t want to wake up without you by my side again.”
“Darling,” he breathes, his lips connecting with mine. “Love isn’t a strong enough word for what you make me feel. I’m obsessed.”
Just as I melt into his kiss, I’m startled by boots pounding on the floor. Damien runs in, medical bag in hand, followed by a frantic Teddy Coleman.
“Shit!” I hiss, trying to get up, but feeling like a doe on ice. “How’s Matty? There was so much blood, and?—”
“Shh,” Caleb soothes. “Damien’s gonna take care of her. She’s conscious and putting pressure on the wound.”
“Let me have a look,” I hear Damien say. Then, “Looks like it didn’t nick anything vital.”
“Guys!” Ethan yells, skidding to a stop just in the doorway. When he sees the mess of blood and broken items, Matty wounded on the ground, he gives a low whistle. “I, uh, have the governor on the phone for Basia.”
I hurry forward, taking it out of his hands and pressing it to my ear with shaking fingers.
“Daddy?” I whisper, fresh tears flowing down my cheeks.
“Basia! Thank goodness you’re alright!”
I’m sobbing as he explains how he and Mom went to dinner, and she was taken from the bathroom.
“If it wasn’t for Ward and his men, we’d have lost Katarzyna,” he sighs.
“Yeah,” I agree with a small, relieved giggle, looking at my man. “He’s pretty darned awesome, isn’t he?”
When I catch Caleb’s eye, I blow him a kiss.
Ethan gags.
24
CALEB
The police insisted that Basia and Mrs. Langford get checked out by real doctors. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, both women are healthy and whole. Detective Mann has been questioning us for what feels like hours as we wait for Wheeler to get out of surgery.
The governor seems slightly annoyed, but I think that might be hiding embarrassment—if the stalker is to be believed, Governor Langford dismissed a lot of cruelty and suffering.
“Who was he?” I ask the detective. Basia is leaning against me, her arm around my waist—something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by her eagle-eyed father, even as he’s preoccupied with soothing his wife and answering the detective’s questions.
“Thanks to the birth certificates your colleague uncovered,” Mann begins, “we’ve identified him as David Waterbury.”
“Waterbury,” Basia repeats with a shiver. “Like the woman… Ana Danbury.”
“Exactly,” the detective confirms grimly. “They were found near enough in time and location that we hypothesize they were somehow connected.”
I grunt. “No shit. He said there was a cult. There arewhispers about it on the darkest parts of the internet. Your investigations into it keep being impeded and have been for years. It was her body parts he sent to Basia for a reason.”
Mann’s face turns slightly purple as his nostrils flare. “I did the best I could with the leeway I was given.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumble. “And what about Danbury? Does he have her locked up somewhere, missing pieces and starving?”
