“Still too many moving pieces to risk it. We’ll be safe here until we hear from Cortez—and the rest of the team.”
Rest. I need to rest. But not as much as I need a shower. Clean clothes. Food. And to understand how Leo and I are both alive—and together.
“Put your arms around my neck,” he says. “I’ve got you.”
He’s solid and strong, his skin warm under my touch. Every part of my body hurts, but when Leo carries me, I feel like I’m floating. Like my feet will never touch the ground again.
My eyes flutter closed. He’ll take care of everything. I know he will.
The elevator hums for several long moments, then jerks to a stop. Leo’s uneven gait almost lulls me to sleep until Trevor says something about checking the suite before we enter.
“Clear,” he calls.
I smell flowers. Lilies, I think. Forcing my head up, I blink hard. Plush, beige carpeting, a dramatic living space with sweeping views of the ocean, overstuffed couches, and through an open door, there’s even a kitchen.
“You and Domina are on the left,” Austin says to Leo. “I’m on the right, and Trev’s got one of the rooms downstairs. Head to the back of the kitchen to get there.“
One of the rooms?
Before I can ask just how big this suite is, Leo’s headed for “our” room.
As exhausted as I am, the strange surroundings have me on edge. Until Leo kicks the door closed and sinks down onto a love seat with me in his lap.
He tucks a lock of hair behind my ear and holds my gaze. “I thought I’d lost you,” he says, his deep voice rough.
“I thought you had too.” Fresh tears spill onto my cheeks. I don’t have to be strong anymore. I’m with Leo, and though I have so many questions—how they found me, what’s going to happen to the men Austin and Trevor killed in that apartment, how Cortez is alive when I heard all those shots and explosions, what’s going to happen now—I do know one thing.
I love this man. I can shatter into a million pieces in Leo’s arms, because he’ll be here to help put me back together.
* * *
Leo
Domina jerks awake with a whimper.
“Easy, baby. You’re safe.” I pull her against my chest, tangling my fingers in her hair. “Breathe for me.”
She shudders. Under the light-as-air duvet, she finally started to warm up an hour ago, but after what she went through, the adrenaline crash hit her hard. I need to get some food into her, but after a hot bath—where she sobbed in my arms until she had nothing left—she was so tired, she fell asleep the second I wrapped her in one of the hotel’s fluffy robes.
“We’re really safe?” she asks.
I nod. “Austin and Trev are in the next room. Along with a retired Navy SEAL who—in his spare time—teaches Krav Maga to some of the deadliest men in the world. No one’s ever going to hurt you again. I promise.”
“What am I wearing?” Domina wriggles out of my arms and pushes up on an elbow.
“The Five Points has really nice robes.”
“Then why are you naked?” The barest hint of a smile curves her lips, and pieces of my shattered heart start to mend.
“Because holding you was a hell of a lot more important than putting on a pair of boxers.” I drag a knuckle along her jaw and she leans in. We haven’t talked. Haven’t kissed. I don’t know what happened to her in the twenty-four hours we were apart, but if her half-lidded eyes and parted lips are any indication, she needs this as much as I do.
Domina straddles me, plundering my mouth until I’m rock hard for her. “I need you, Leo,” she whispers, kissing her way down my neck to my shoulder.
“Wait.” I wrap my arms around her and roll onto my side. “We have all the time in the world. Austin texted half an hour ago and said he was ordering takeaway. Thai, I think. Did…” Fuck. I don’t know how to ask, but I have to. “Did they feed you at all?”
She shakes her head. “N-no. But…” The desperation in her voice breaks me. “I need to know…this is real.”
“I’m real, baby.Weare real.” Cupping the back of her neck, I hold her gaze for a long moment. How did I not see it when I first got her back? The uncertainty in her eyes? “I want you like I want my next breath, but…we should join the others. You’ll feel better once you eat something—and we explain everything that happened after they took you.”
