Jimmy was gone, cuffed and loaded into the back of a cruiser, and the officers left after wrapping up their preliminary interview.
As soon as we were alone again, Lucy crossed the room and walked straight into my arms.
She didn’t say anything at first. She just pressed her face against my chest and held on, her fists curled into my shirt.
I held her solidly against me, determined to never let go again, my chin resting on the top of her head.
“You did it,” she whispered, her voice muffled. “You saved me. I’m safe.”
“Yes. You’re finally safe again,” I confirmed.
We held each other just like that for so long that we both lost track of time.
I breathed her in and tried not to think about what came next.
But it was already moving through me, cold awareness, the recognition that the job was done. Jimmy was in custody. The threat had been neutralized.
Cal’s team would confirm whether he’d had anyone else on the payroll, but the operation was over.
She didn’t need me anymore.
The thought landed harder than it had any right to. I was a man who’d spent more than twenty years walking away from things without looking back.
And now I was standing here with a woman in my arms who made my chest ache in a way I hadn’t felt since I was young enough not to know better.
“I should stay the rest of the night,” I said, keeping my voice even. “Until Cal confirms there’s no one else coming. Standard protocol.”
It was true.
But it wasn’t thewholetruth.
She pulled back just far enough to look up at me, her eyes warm.
“Standard protocol. Is that what you’ve been giving me?”
I let out a husky laugh.
It was nice seeing that she could make a joke in the middle of a crazy time like this.
I picked her up and carried her to bed.
This might be one of the last times I’d get to be with her. So I’d have to make it special.
In just a few short days, she’d become the most important thing in my world.
But now the reason I was here had disappeared, and I had no idea what that left me with. All I could do was hold her close tonight and let my body tell her that I wasn’t done with her yet.
No. I wasn’t done at all.
Chapter 8
Lucy
Iwoke up slowly while the world was dark, dawn still hours away.
The low rumble of waves crashing on the shoreline kept up the rhythmic churn I’d grown accustomed to over the last few months.
The first thing I registered was warmth. Bronson was next to me, warming up the bed.
