I grip her chin to keep her mouth closed and tip her head back into the flow of water. At first, there’s no response, but after a moment, her body’s need for air sends a tremor running through her body.That’s it. Come on, fight me.
Her arms lift to push against my shoulder.Come back to me, firecracker.Her body jerks and trembles like she’s being electrocuted, and my teeth grind together as I force myself to keep her under the water. It goes against all my protective instincts, but it’s for her own good. Her hands curl into claws and she fights me in earnest, leaving red welts along my arms. I yank her back from the spray and release her mouth, and she sucks in a deep shuddering breath. A high-pitched, primal sound erupts from her, shattering my heart.
“I can’t…he’s here…you lied…I can’t.” She garbles everything that fights to break free.
I hold onto her and turn the temperature up to help with the shivers racking her body. “It’s okay, I got you.”
Her fists pummel my chest, each time stronger as my little firecracker fights for her place in this world.
I hold her as she rages. Gibberish flows from her like there’s no filter on her subconscious. Her nails scratch at me, but I welcome the pain as it means she cares enough to fight to stay. She eventually tires herself out and collapses against me, sobbing into my shoulder as I wait for the initial panic to subside.
I turn off the knob and carry her back to the bed, flinging the bloody blanket onto the floor before laying her down.
“Fox?” she says, her voice a broken whisper. “Tell me it’s not true.”
Something inside me wants to die that she has to ask. I know deep down it’s not a reflection on me as a person. It’s because of the asshole she is married to. She doesn’t know who to trust.
I cradle her face in my hands and stare into her gorgeous eyes. “It is not true. I have never raped anyone in my life. I’ve done questionable things, but never that.”
Her gaze soaks in my features, every microexpression, the cadence of my voice, my breathing, my pulse. She is an expert at reading people because she’s needed to be to survive her marriage.
She swallows and squeezes her eyes closed before they fly open, and she wraps her hands around my head and grips my hair. Our mouths clash together, and she kisses me like she’s never done before. Nobody has ever kissed me like this—like they are offering me their bare vulnerable exposed heart and trusting me to keep it safe. It’s terrifying. In return, I give her mine. I take off the years of hardened shell and hope she will not findmy blackened soul lacking. She moans into my mouth, an acceptance of love and devotion that floors me.
I tear my mouth away from hers. “While I’m fully invested in where this is going, we have to go. I’m sorry, firecracker, but I need to take this fight somewhere I can control and win.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t run, Honor.”
She swallows and nods. “I won’t.”
For now, at least it’s the truth. Time to take this hunt to its conclusion. This woman in my arms deserves to live in a world free of the bastard that tried to steal her light. It’s time the hunted became the hunter.
CHAPTER 43
HONOR
Oh, what a complex web we weave.
Fox scowls at his phone and hammers something onto the screen.
“Everything okay?” I ask as I dump my duffle bag in the trunk and open the rear door for Duke to jump in.
Fox’s eyes lift to mine as he raises the phone to his ear. “We are leaving. Are you in position?” he snaps. I sink into the leather seat and click my seat belt on. “Any problems?” he asks as he starts the car.
I’m burning with a thousand questions.Is who in position? Where are we going? Why are you helping me?Helen’s already gone off to some nameless place arranged by the protective man next to me. He should be with her, not me. I wrestle with the feeling that I’m leading him to certain death. Gideon won’t hesitate to kill Fox once he discovers he’s been intimate with me and taken what Gideon believes is rightfully his.
He drops the phone into the center console before peelingdown the drive and taking the turn leading away from town and toward the freeway.
“Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
He darts a quick look at me before checking the rearview mirror.Oh, hello, Mr. Bodyguard.This is Fox Alderidge in full protection mode.
“I’ll explain once we put some distance between us and Red Lake. Gideon knows where you are, so we need to change that situation immediately.”
“But you have a plan?”
“No, I have three. Which one I follow will depend on what happens.”
