I rubbed at the back of my neck. “I went through absolute hell when you were gone. Not knowing where you were or what he was doing to you. If you were scared or hurt or—” I broke off, swallowing hard against the lump forming in my throat. “If I’d been even a second later getting to that auction?—”
She climbed over the console and situated herself on my lap, the steering wheel pressing into her back. “I don’t just want Rusty dead,” she said clearly, needing me to understand the full scope, her fingers framing the side of my neck. “I want the whole operation exposed. Every name, every buyer, every middleman, every hand that touched what he built. I want it all destroyed and the rubble handed over to the police and the press. I want every girl they sold to come home.”
My brows drew together as my hands came to rest at her hips. As much as I understood her desire for revenge and justice, it was her safety that worried me. “I can’t let you get actively involved in a dangerous operation again. I physically cannot lose you twice and survive it.”
“You can’t lock me away like a princess in a tower, Kreed. If I can help stop this from happening to other girls, I’m going to do it. You don’t get to decide that for me.”
My phone buzzed, preventing this from turning into an argument. Once. Twice. Persistent and demanding attention. I ignored it, keeping my eyes locked on hers. “If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that when you set your mind to something, you’ll find a way, regardless of the warnings or how perilous. A part of me, the protective part, wants to forbid you, but I also know that will send you directly into the center of danger.”
Her fingers went into my hair. “Then we do this together. You don’t leave me out.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, unable to think straight with her bodypressing into mine. It had been too damn long since I felt her weight. The truth was simple and ugly: she needed purpose after Rusty had stolen everything, and I needed to keep her alive even if that singular focus killed me in the process. “I’m going to regret this.”
“Not a chance,” she said, and her lips tilted into the faintest suggestion of a smile.
My phone buzzed again. I exhaled as Kaylor climbed back in her seat, and I yanked the device out of my pocket. My father’s name glowed across the screen in harsh white letters. “Shit.”
It didn’t take a wizard to know why he was calling. He only ever called for two things. To tell me he wanted to talk or because he needed something. If I had to guess, he was reminding me to make good on our deal. He’d given me what I’d desperately needed, an address for the auction. I hated that I’d needed him. I hated even more that anything he touched came with invisible strings attached.
Dropping my head back on the seat, I took the call. “What?”
“Since you’re alive and answering your phone, I assume you got what you wanted.” My father’s voice came through the line, cold as always.
I scowled into the phone. “I did.”
“Good. Then I expect you home within the hour. We have business to discuss.” No fatherly concern. No questions about whether I’d been hurt, whether the rescue had gone smoothly, whether I was okay.
“Just me?” I clarified.
“No reason to involve your brothers in this particular conversation.”
Right, this was between him and me.
The line went dead. I dropped the phone into the cupholder between us, my teeth clenching. “I need to make a stop. I’ll drop you off at Brock’s first.”
“Where?” she asked. “Who was that?” Her eyes tracked from my face to the phone and back again, seeing past the layers most people didn’t take the time to peel back.
Brows pinched, I replied, “My father.”
“What does he want?” Her seatbelt clicked into place.
“I don’t know yet,” I admitted, shifting the SUV into drive and pulling away from the curb. “But with my father, it’s never simple. And it’s never cheap.”
“What’s wrong? I can see in your expression that something is going on. What is it? What did you do?”
I merged into traffic, keeping my eyes on the road ahead. “What I had to do to find you.”
“Kreed, no more secrets between us. For real this time.”
This was why I never had a girl before. Everything was more complicated. And yet…I didn’t want to imagine my life without her. Turned out, it wasn’t that I wasn’t a relationship guy. It was I just hadn’t found a girl worthy of committing myself to. “He was the one who provided the auction location.”
“In exchange for what?”
She was quick and knew my father a little too well. Donovan Corvo didn’t do anything for free. Not even for his son. My silence was answer enough, heavy and damning.
“Kreed,” she pressed. “What did you agree to give him?”
My fingers strained over the wheel. “I don’t know.”
