‘Whenwego in to talk to the police,’ he said again.
Markus shot one finger in Maverick’s direction. ‘What he said.’
She didn’t correct her statement. ‘Mav …’
‘Don’t do it,’ he said, and even though his voice was even, she could see the panic dancing in his blue eyes.
Nina’s despair rose, but this time she battled through it. ‘When I go to the police, the media storm will come to me in LA. It’ll redirect attention away from the ranch. And you.’ She looked at Mav. ‘But you need to steer clear of me for a while.’
‘That’s not going to work for me.’
‘Mav—’
‘No.’
In her panic, Nina tried to fight him. She turned around to face Markus. ‘You directed that shoot. You can call whoever wrote that article and inform them the kiss was staged. I can post something similar to Instagram.’
Markus looked deep into her eyes. ‘Nina—’
‘It’ll work,’ she insisted, through breaths that had started becoming erratic. ‘You know it’ll work.’
Nina’s edges, already so frayed, began to unravel in earnest, unspooling the control she had of her body. Her hands shook, and she clasped them beneath the table, refusing to break down.
‘I brought him here. I ran and I lied, and I brought him here.’ When the sob rose in her throat, she swallowed it. ‘To Poppy.’ Nina closed her eyes as the weight of her guilt momentarily overcame her.
‘But I can keep him away now,’ she insisted.
‘Okay. That’s it.’
She opened her eyes as Maverick marched over to where she sat. Nina could see the rage in him, but she wasn’t scared. Even when he hauled her up out of her seat and into his arms, she knew he would never hurt her. And when he looked into her eyes and said, ‘Enough,’ in a voice that brooked no argument, she could only stare at him numbly.
‘Enough,’ he said again, gently this time. His arms tightened around her. His lips touched her forehead for one fleeting moment that somehow still managed to be long enough to impart comfort. ‘Taking blame that is not yours to carry is not going to solve anything. We said we weren’t going to do that.’
‘He was in the same room as Poppy today,’ she managed, her voice thick with tears. ‘God, Mav. If you and Markus hadn’t been there … If-if we had been alone …’
Because Nina knew what it was to be a child in a small room with a dangerous man, and she had brought Alex to Poppy’s home. She might not have welcomed him in, but she had lied by omission.
And the most terrifying truth of all was that if Alex hadn’t shown up at Hunt Ranch, Nina might never have found the courage to say anything.
‘But you weren’t alone,’ Maverick reminded her, and sent his own quick thanks heavenward. ‘And you won’t be alone going forward either.’ Turning slightly, he sat down in the chair he’d hauled Nina out of and then pulled her onto his lap.
He tried not to internalize the fact that she was distancing herself from him, tried to remind himself that she was panicking and scared. But he took her hand, linked her fingers with his. ‘Do you want this –us?’
It didn’t matter that there were three witnesses, and that he was putting his heart on a platter in front of them. He needed the words.
‘That has nothing to do with being rational—’
‘Do you want this?’ he repeated.
She nodded.
Mav felt some of that tension drain, even as he demanded, ‘Give me the words, Nina. Trust me with the words.’
‘I want this.You.’
When she blinked, dislodging fresh tears, Mav raised both hands to her cheeks and used his thumbs to brush them dry. ‘You don’t let people you care about face their demons alone. It’s not always that simple,’ he ceded with a small tip of his head, ‘but it should be. Let me—’
‘Us,’ Markus interjected.
