Page 249

Gabriel stretched his legs in front of him. “What happens to Delgado’s estate in New York?”

Nik looked over the top of the laptop.

“Why? You shopping?”

“Depends. Good pool?”

“I haven’t checked.”

“Shame.”

I shook my head. “Burn the fucking place.”

Nik sighed. “That worked for The Sacrifice.”

For a few seconds, nobody spoke.

These men had crossed borders to find me, and I wasn’t sure how the hell to put into words what that truly meant.

“Thank you.”

Gabriel’s amusement faded, and Rory acknowledged me with a slight nod.

“I knew you’d come. Never doubted it. But knowing you were out there looking for me was one thing; sitting here with all of you around me was another.” I swirled the whiskey in the glass. “So thank you for coming after me and for making sure Isabella got out with me.”

Lucian studied me for a moment. “You’re in deep with her.”

“Aye, and if your next question is how deep, mind your business.”

Lucian’s mouth curved. “You are my business. Marriage didn’t change that.”

“No, it just made you nosier.”

“It made me smarter.”

“Debatable.”

His mouth curved, but there was no chance he was letting it go, and judging by the attention coming from the rest of the cabin, neither was anyone else.

I set the whiskey on the table beside me.

“She grew up in that place surrounded by people who treated cruelty like breathing. She lost her mother and spent years hearing what happened in the dungeon beneath her room, and somehow she came out of it kind.”

No one interrupted, so I kept going.

“She notices everything and remembers every fucking detail. She’s stubborn as hell, and when she decides something matters, good luck moving her off it.” A smile pulled at my mouth. “She can be quiet enough that people forget she’s there, then say one thing that cuts straight through all the bullshit.”

Lucian’s expression softened.

“And she’s good,” I continued. “Not innocent. Not helpless. Good. There’s a difference. Ciro had twenty-five years to turn her into something ugly, and he failed.”

I picked up my whiskey again. “Aye. I’m in deep with her.”

“I’ve never seen you like this with a woman,” Lucian said.

“You’ve never seen me chained in a dungeon either. Maybe I’ve changed.”

“No.” His mouth curved. “I knew Scarlett was mine when she was still trying to convince herself she hated me.”