Who wanted Talia that badly and why?
Noni tried to remain calm, but a scream kept trying to rise in her.
They’d been polite to each other all day, but he’d been focused, and she’d hustled around cleaning in a freaked-out frenzy. Where was that numbness from the night before? She couldn’t find it.
The wind whistled through the trees outside as the temperature dropped to nearly zero. She moved from the kitchen to stand near the fireplace. Denver sat on the sofa facing her with his laptop on his legs and his feet planted on the coffee table in front of the roaring fire. His broad shoulders took up an inordinate amount of space. In his dark shirt and faded jeans with bare feet, he brought back memories that had been etched in her heart.
“I didn’t realize it got so cold here,” she murmured, trying to ignore how quickly her body attuned to his.
He glanced up, and his blue eyes focused. “I don’t think it usually does. But the cloud cover moved away, so it’ll be chilly for the night.”
Good Lord, they were talking about the weather. Tension rumbled around them, competing with the crackling of the fire. She jerked her head toward the laptop. “How’s it going?”
Stress emphasized the lines at the sides of his mouth. “Good. Right now I’m the high bidder, but there are two other determined bidders.”
A lump settled in her throat, and she swallowed several times. Her heart rate picked up. “Well, why don’t we just bid really high? I mean, higher than they’d ever counter?” This whole thing made her want to puke. To think people were trying to buy Talia.
He studied her in that way he had, as if he were trying to see inside her. To see how much she could take. “We can’t be obvious. If we bid too high, that’ll raise suspicions, and I don’t know what will happen. The Kingdom Boys could just contact one of the other bidders directly and cut us out.”
What if they didn’t get to Talia? What if one of the other bidders actually won and got their illegal hands on that baby?
“Stop thinking like that,” Denver said quietly, his gaze softening. “You have to believe we’ll get her.”
He’d always been good at reading her facial expressions, not that she was holding anything back. “I don’t think I can make it until tomorrow evening,” she said, tears pricking the backs of her eyes. The poor baby. Was she warm? Fed? Feeling safe?
“You’ll make it.” He turned the laptop so she could see new pictures of Talia in a bright green outfit. “She’s okay.”
Noni nodded, her heart filling. Okay. That was good. She had to believe Talia was safe or she’d lose her mind.
Denver set the laptop on the side table and patted the seat next to him on the sofa. “Come talk to me.”
That low voice. So inviting. She moved toward him and sat, staring at the fire.
He slid an arm over her shoulders, casually and just to offer comfort. She tried to keep herself from leaning into him, but his warmth was too enticing. Barely biting back a soft sigh, she allowed him to take some of her weight.
“There you go,” he murmured, his gaze still on the fire.
The scent of the forest, wild and free, surrounded her. The forest was probably because he’d scouted outside. But that dark, elusive, all-male scent of pure wildness? Yeah. That was Denver Jones. Not once had she wanted to harness or tame him. But, man, she’d wanted to keep that scent around her. To keep him around her and with her. What he didn’t know was that she’d heard his conversation. The one in which he’d apologized to his brother for earlier mistakes.
Had he lived with that guilt his entire life? Deserved or not, that was a heavy burden.
“Why do you think you’re going to fail at taking down Dr. Madison?” she asked, closing her eyes and letting her head rest on his chest.
His breathing remained sure and steady beneath her cheek. “I won’t fail. It’s just . . . I don’t know that I’ll survive. Even if I live, I’m, ah, not sure.”
Noni’s eyelids opened. The fire popped a deep orange with dark blue hues. “Because of Madison.” Could he kill a woman in cold blood? Even that woman? “Can’t you turn her in to the authorities?”
His barked laugh lacked humor. “No. She has enough connections she’d be free and creating more soldiers in a lab in no time. There’s only one way to stop her.”
Shouldn’t those words scare her somehow? Noni tried to hold on to reality, but all she could feel was Denver. All she could sense was his emotion, his pain. Every cell in her body wanted to be mad at him and wanted to hold a grudge for his hurting her. But he’d come to her rescue, and now he was going to challenge a gang to save a baby he’d never met. One he had no connection to and probably would never know. What if he died? What if he survived and then died trying to go after that crazy doctor?
Would Noni have any regrets?
Yeah. If she never saw him again, which seemed a definite possibility, she’d regret not taking every moment she had with him and riding it through. Oh, he’d destroy her, and she knew it. But did she care? Really? There were worse ways to go, and maybe she’d somehow save him. A part of him. “My thoughts are going way too deep,” she whispered.
He chuckled, his body moving hers. “Life, eternity, ever after?” His voice wove around them, soothing over her skin.
“No. Here and now. Regrets and promises. Moments and reality.” Now she wasn’t speaking in complete sentences, either.
