My gut churned.
He’d come here for me.
He stood up to them for me.
He meant more to me than anyone else had.
He showed me I deserved to be wanted and needed and cared for in ways that had me falling for this man.
For him, in this moment, I could be strong.
“He does it because he cares for me, like I do him,” I told them, tipping my chin up slightly.
Link turned his body my way but still held his gun pointed at my family.
“Baby,” he whispered.
Sighing, I faced him, lips twitching at the brightness to his eyes. All the fury he’d been feeling had vanished. “Don’t overreact?—”
“You care for me? I goddamn knew you’d fall for my awesomeness.” There was a sound of someone shifting. “Move again, and I’ll shoot you,” Link warned, not looking away from me.
“I think this meeting is done,” Wolf said.
Ruin grunted. “Tell Link you’ll never contact Ryo again and leave.”
Link grinned at me. “Can I shoot them again before they go? Or you wanna shoot them, snook?”
I smiled. “Not today.”
“Fuck, baby, that smile…. We gotta hit your room.”
Ruin and Wolf chuckled.
“You can’t?—”
“Kenta,” Father clipped.
I turned to them. “I know the only reason you want me back is because it benefits the family in one way or another. Whatever it is, forget about it happening. I’ll never leave here.”
“Damn right,” Link added, crowding my back and kissing my neck.
The disgust was clear to see on their faces once again.
“You’re a disgrace—” Father cried out as his body jolted back in the chair when Link fired off another shot, hitting him lower on the arm.
“I can kill them all if you want,” Link said into my ear before he kissed there. He wrapped an arm across my chest and held me tightly to him.
Reaching up, I smoothed my hand up and down his inked forearm. “No. I want them alive to know that I’ll be living a happy and rich life with?—”
“The one you care about,” Link finished for me, and I felt his grin against my neck.
Smiling, I turned my head and kissed his jaw.
He beamed at me.
Like I’d just given him the best gift I ever could.
Or like a devoted puppy to his master.
