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I didn’t believe Lachlan would hurt me, but his world frightened me. And these men? They were absolutely terrifying.

And judging by the jet surrounding me, they had more money than I could possibly imagine.

Lachlan belonged among them.

I’d seen that clearly in the FBO.

The moment his people reached him, something about him had changed. He was still the man who teased me, kissed my knuckles, called me Mouse, and held me while I slept, but he was also unmistakably one of them—powerful, dangerous, and completely at home in a world that still frightened me.

Then there was me. A nobody with nothing. I had escaped with no job, money, or real identification beyond the documents Nik had manufactured for a woman named Isabella Eliana Duarte. I didn’t know how to rent an apartment, open a bank account, navigate New York City, or do any of the ordinary things people my age probably managed without thinking.

Lachlan would take care of me. But that frightened me too. Not because I doubted he would, but because I knew he would.

He was that kind of man.

But what happened a week from now? A month? When he went back to running his club and living the life Isabeast had interrupted? When the intensity of almost dying together stopped making everything between us feel so immediate?

We had spent the night wrapped around each other, and I wanted more nights exactly like it.

Far more than I was ready to admit.

But great sex and feelings neither of us had fully named didn’t make me his permanent responsibility.

I wouldn’t become another obligation he never asked for.

Somehow, I would figure out how to stand on my own feet. I would find work and eventually repay him.

A warm hand closed over mine.

Lachlan gently pried my fingers away from the window frame.

Only then did I realize how quiet the cabin had become. The violence and shouting were gone, replaced by the steady hum of the aircraft and the soft rush of air that seemed impossibly peaceful after everything we had just survived.

“Mouse.”

I turned.

His attention dropped briefly to my trembling hand before returning to my face.

“Sweetheart, are you all right?”

Lucian had noticed too. He sat ahead of us, but his head had turned enough that I could see the concern on his face.

Nik glanced back from his laptop.

I hated suddenly being the center of everyone’s attention.

“I’m scared,” I whispered.

My lower lip quivered.

Lachlan’s expression changed immediately.

“Of flying?”

I shook my head.

“No.” My voice came out thinner than I wanted. “Everything else.”