Athena stands in the doorway to my room, her hands cupped over her mouth. Her eyes are speared wide, and she stares between us, panicked. “I swear I only wanted to see you,” —she breaks protocol for the first time since the rules went into action— "I thought we could work on a plan to get you up and going again but then I saw– I saw—” Athena falters and sobs, slumping against the doorway.
Hendrick reaches back to grip my hand. I let him but can’t look at Taylor or Crew, knowing that they’llknow. I shouldn’t care so much but like him I had been hoping to keep what he had between just us, and not need to share it with everyone. Broadcast into the world.
But now it looks like we need to.
“What is it?” Hendrick cuts through all the faff in his blunt way.
One of the things I’ve come to love about him in such a short time.
Oh, hell. I’ve fallen for my bodyguard.
I stare at his bare back, studying the neat row of stitches over the thin mark that will create a scar left on his skin because of me. How many others does he have/ Who else has he loved like he did with me last night? Hendrick held me like I was the only person who mattered to him in the entire world and he held me like that for the rest of the entire night, not letting me go until we were woken by Athena’s tortured scream that heralds all the nightmares.
I shiver and reach for his hand, relieved when he grips my firmly without question.
How do we make this work? I know nothing about you.
But I do. Hendrick is in everything I see here. This house is all about him. The way he treats his horses., How he tried to feed me from the first night together.
How he loved me last night. Slow and caring, then rough and hard.
Everything this hard edged man I’ve fallen for is. I can only hope that our two worlds that should never cross over find something in each other to love.
His thumb brushes back and forth across my hand. “We were asleep, Athena,” Hendrick says without preamble. Without hiding. “What do you need?”
That he doesn’t like her is obvious, but then I get the impression that he doesn’t like anyone much at all.
Athena presses the door to my bedroom inwards and steps aside. Without so much as a glance over his shoulder, Hendrick strides forward, towing me along with him. Not stopping me or protecting me from whatever is inside. He doesn’t let go, but takes me, too. And I fall harder. I cling to his hand, my nails digging into his skin in a parody of last night. Athena’s eyes drink in the sight of both of us clinging together: him guiding me, me wearing his clothes as he tows me forward, and then stops.
Turns.
I look at him. Glance over my shoulder. Count who isn’t with us.
My heart stops. “No,” I whisper.
No. Not my bear.
Not Milo.
I want to self opt out. But I don’t.
“Adora,” Hendrick murmurs.
A collective gasp fills the hallway around us as he races for me, but I rip my hand free of his and duck under his arm.Hendrick curses, grabbing for me as I slink through the gap in his arms and dart into the bedroom.
And stop cold.
“Damnit, love,” Hendrick swears. All our promises of secrecy from last night are shattered.
But none of it matters. Because the only other man I trust in the entire world lies on my borrowed bed, a neat bullet hole through his temple.
Otherwise, he could be sleeping.
Not Milo, Not Milo, Not Milo.
I sit on the sofa in Hendrick’s living room, a pillow clutched in my arms as four bodies circle around me. Apparently there are other security members coming from the firm that he works for, but my team wants to movenow. I don’t blame them, but I don't really care, either. Because no matter what we do, Milo will never be with us ever again.
“Adora. Get up. The harp is in the car. Come on.” Athena snaps her fingers at me.
