“That’s handled,” Devin said gently.
My pulse stuttered. “What do you mean?”
“I called in a favor. Your mom’s being looked after. Two of our best guys are watching her house tonight.” He gave me a small smile. “She’s safe, Frankie. I promise.”
I didn’t realize how much tension I’d been holding until it cracked down the center. Relief rushed in. “Thank you,” I whispered.
Devin nodded, his roughly handsome face softer than I’d ever seen him.
Jonathan stepped closer. “Angel, none of us want you to disappear from your life. But for now, the smart move is getting distance. And…maybe this is an opportunity.”
I blinked. “An opportunity?”
He smiled—a little teasing, a little warm. “For the vacation of your dreams.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “What?”
“We need to get you out of town, but that doesn’t mean we have to go to some remote, dull location where you can stay cooped up in a safehouse.
We have the resources to take you anywhere, Frankie. Anywhere you want.” He gestured, his hands open as if to encompass the whole world. “No limits, angel. Pick a place, and we’ll get you there.”
I looked to Devin and Alex too, disbelieving it even as their faces reflected the same sure determination as Jonathan’s.
The three of them looked at me like they were ready to move the whole world just to make me safe.
It made my heart trip over itself, wanting to escape my chest, to get as close to their hidden, secretly soft hearts in turn.
I laughed, a shaky little sound. “You’re serious.”
“Dead serious,” Jonathan said.
A place floated into my mind immediately.
The one I’d dreamed about as a kid, the one I’d always promised myself I’d get to someday, when life wasn’t so complicated.
When things were simpler. When money wasn’t such a problem. I’d thought of it even as I’d been auctioned off to a crowd. Once Mom was secure, our house ours completely…
It felt ridiculous to even say it out loud.
Extravagant. Impossible.
But so were the three men standing in front of me.
“…Paris?” I offered, almost wincing. “I mean, not that you’d actually?—”
“Yes,” Devin said instantly.
“Paris works,” Jonathan agreed.
Alex’s lips curved, just barely, but enough that it warmed something deep inside me. “If that’s where you want to go, then that’s where we go.”
I stared at them. “You’re all insane.” It came out on a breathless laugh.
“Probably.” Jonathan shrugged.
A bigger laugh bubbled out of me, then. Real, bright, shocked. “Okay. Then Paris it is. Wow.” I paused, a thought occurring to me, and I asked them like a child eager for dessert, “Wait. Does this mean we go to Shakespeare & Company while we’re there?”
The guys all smiled in sync. The way they seemed to do everything. Devin chuckled. “You’re adorable.”
