Chapter Nineteen
The safe house wasquiet in a way that didn’t feel peaceful yet.Kayne locked the door behind them and stood there for a second longer than necessary, his palm braced against the wood.It was the only thing holding him upright.The adrenaline hadn’t burned off.It had just shifted, relentlessly settling into his muscles.
He’d felt sheer panic when he heard Chloe’s bone-chilling scream.It was a sound he’d never forget.Then he had found another chain link on the stairs when he’d gone after the perp.
Once they returned to the safe house, Anja had patched Chloe’s hands because Kayne’s weren’t steady enough to do the job properly.She lingered long enough to make sure Chloe was settled, her presence steadying in the way only someone who’d seen the worst could manage.
Chloe crossed the room and sank onto the edge of the couch, elbows on her knees, fingers laced together.She was still wearing the jacket he’d shoved around her shoulders in the chaos afterward.Still breathing as if her body hadn’t gotten the memo that they were alive.
It had been too close.
That thought looped again and again, a drumbeat inside his head he couldn’t quiet.
He walked to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water, and held it out to her.She took it, their fingers brushing, and the contact hit him harder than the blast of noise and movement had earlier.
“You okay?”he asked, though the question felt useless.
She nodded automatically, then stopped and shook her head once.“I don’t know.”
That honesty cracked something open in him.
Kayne crouched in front of her, taking her cleaned and bandaged hands in his.“You don’t have to be okay,” he said quietly.“You just have to breathe.”
She did.Once.Twice.Her eyes lifted to his, too steady in that way people got when they were holding themselves together by sheer force.
“I keep replaying it,” she said.“That second where everything slowed down.”Her voice faltered, and she pressed her lips together, swallowing.“I thought that was it.”
Kayne closed his eyes for half a heartbeat.When he opened them again, the truth was already there, demanding space.
“I was terrified when I heard you scream,” he admitted.
Her brows knit together.“Kayne—”
“I’m not done,” he interrupted gently.“I need you to hear this.”
He rose, pulling her up with him, hands settling at her waist as if they belonged there.Maybe they did.
“I’ve faced a lot of ugly things in my life.I’ve been shot.Blown up.I’ve lost people I loved.”A lump lodged in his throat.“But standing there today, thinking I might lose you?That broke me in a way none of that ever did.”
Her breath hitched.
“I don’t do fear like that,” he continued.“I don’t let people get close enough to matter this much.And I tried to keep this clean and professional, pretend this was just a job.”He let out a short, humorless breath.“I failed.”
Her hands clutched his shirt.
“I need you, Chloe,” he said softly.“I really do.And that scares the hell out of me.”
Silence stretched between them, heavy and alive.
Then she whispered, “I don’t know how to need someone without falling apart.”
The words landed square in his chest.
He cupped her face, thumbs brushing over skin still cool from the night air.“Then we fall apart together,” he said simply.“I’m not going anywhere.”
She leaned into his touch.“I’ve never felt safe.Not like this.Not in someone’s arms.I didn’t even realize how much I’d been bracing for impact my whole life until you showed up.”
