“This isn’t about me or Mr. Bounds,” he calmly informed him. “And the fact that you haven’t even considered that I’m here forheris the reason you’re sitting in that chair.”
Atticus turned the lights back on.
Junger squealed, his whole body jerking reflexively as if he could recoil from the light. “Yousaid,”he cried, voice cracking. “You promised if I gave you the information you’d stop!”
“I didn’t promise shit, motherfucker.” He settled back in his chair and checked his phone. A message from Harlan came through.
She’s asking about you.
His chest went so damn tight, it was actually hard to breathe for a second.
She had to be so scared. The look in her eyes when he wrapped her in his coat and sent her off with Michael would haunt him for the rest of his life. Carmine had appeared so lost, but she’d looked tohimfor reassurance. For safety. For sustenance. For pleasure.
The bites on his neck throbbed with a deep, pleasant ache. They’d be gone soon. Bites healed fast, what with the coagulant properties of vampire saliva, but the thought didn’t make him happy.
For the first time in a long time, Atticus felt the itch to run back home. He needed to see that she was settled with his own eyes. The jealous monster in him howled at the idea of someone else making sure she was fed and comfortable.
It needed her.Now.
Atticus leaned back in his chair and held his phone up to his ear. Harlan picked up on the first ring. “You must be almost done.”
“Yeah. She okay?”
“Shaken and not very talkative, but fine. She slept in the guest room. She’s been hanging out with the girls since she woke up, but the only time she really speaks is when she asks about you. I presume that’s nerves.”
“She’s not used to talking much,” he explained, rubbing his chest like it could ease the tender ache there. “Give her a minute and she’ll warm up. Zia okay?”
“She’s delighted. You know how she loves a full house.”
Yeah, he did. Atticus had no doubt that soon enough, there’d be more than just Serafina running around on the estate. Zia loved having all the men over whenever she could, but he knew she wanted her house bursting with more than hardened criminals.
“Atticus,” Harlan said, speaking in a low voice that always accompanied a scolding, “Michael said he saw bites.”
“He did.”
No use denying it. If he’d wanted to hide what they’d done, he would have told her to bite him somewhere else. But as fucked up as the situation was, he didn’t want to hide it. He wanted everyone to know that she’d had those pretty fangs inhisthroat.
“So that’s how it is.”
He breathed past the reflexive, squirming guilt that still lived in his chest. “Yeah, that’s how it is.”
Atticus’s jaw flexed as he watched Junger’s head loll against the back of the chair, like he was trying to disconnect it from his body so it could roll away from the lights.
He wasn’t sure how he was going to make it work, let alone convince her to give him a chance without implying she needed to in order to earn her place, but Atticus was in too deep to back out now. The moment she chose him over freedom with Captain Bennet, trusted him, there was no going back.
He’d never wanted a blood bride, but he’d do anything forher.
“You want to talk to her?”
His heartbeat accelerated. “Yes. Thanks, boss.”
“Of course. We’ll discuss this more when you get home.” There was a pause, then some rustling. Familiar voices came through the connection — Zia’s rapid-fire speech, Serafina’s babble, and Adriana’s gentle response to something.
Distantly, he heard Harlan announce, “Carmine, it’s Atticus. He wants to speak?—”
There was an abrupt sound as the phone was jostled before Carmine’s high voice came through, demanding, “Are you coming back?”
Atticus closed his eyes, savoring the sweetness of her voice. There was no guile, no shyness. Just an earnest desire to know when he’d be home.
