Page 76 of Rescued

She let everything come spilling out. “All my life, I’ve felt like everything was going to come crashing down any day. Like I was constantly running from this tsunami of disaster, and one day it was going to catch up to me. Money was the thing that was going to keep me safe. And I didn’t know how to get enough.”

She gestured at the envelope. “This—it wasn’t about the mansions and yachts and mojitos and sex on the beach. It was just knowing that I’d never have to go hungry, or let other people exploit me to keep a roof over my head.

“That I could… I don’t know. Lay in bed all day and eat chocolates and get fat, and it wouldn’t matter, because I wouldn’t have to buy my way anymore with the way I looked. Life on my terms. Finally.”

Switch cupped her face in one hand, brushing away her tears. “You’d still be beautiful if you were fat,” he told her. “Sexy, too. All soft and pillowy. I’d just lay in bed on top of you all day because you felt so good. Or maybe sometimes, I’d let you lay on top of me. You’re welcome.”

That made her laugh, just a tiny bit. She loved the way Switch could make her laugh, even when things were really, really bad.

She said, “I’ve just felt so scared, all my life. The only time I’ve ever felt safe is with you.” She looked down and whispered, “I meant all the things I said up the mountain. I don’t care about the money and the other stuff anymore. I just want to be with you. But I couldn’t leave Kimberly out there with nothing. I promised her. And now it turns out Quentin caught her. She didn’t have a flying wolf to save her, like I did. I have to help her.”

He said, “You could have trusted me.”

It wasn’t about that. How could she make him see? “I didn’t want to make you responsible for her. You didn’t even want to be responsible for me.”

“That’s true,” he conceded. “At least, at first.”

She said, “I messed up. I should have told you. And now I don’t know what to do. Will you help me fix this? And save Kimberly? I really need your help.”

“So why won’t you look at me?”

She took his hand. “Because I’m afraid you’ll think I’m trying to manipulate you with the doe eyes. And this is too important for that.”

Switch tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes—straight into her heart. That huge, brave heart that had faced down Sanchez with cookies, that had sent her into a bloody mess of a med center to help wounded wolves. That had made her keep her promise to her friend, even though it was dangerous.

He said, “It’s true, I’d do anything for the doe eyes.” She couldn’t help but smile, even though he could see it made her sad, too. Until he added, “But it’s because they’re yours. All this time, I kept telling myself it was just the doe eyes. But really, from the very beginning, it was about you.”

He kissed her softly. He’d told her the truth. She made him feel like more, like better, like he could do anything.

He didn’t know how to say that, though, how to put it into words. He wasn’t a guy who did words.

Instead, he said, “Just tell me what you need. You want to help your friend, we’ll help your friend.” He gave her a wicked grin. “If we play our cards right, we might not even have to give the money back.”

Chapter 32

They hid the bonds again and walked over to the command center, where there was a direct line up to the Big House.

Switch sat down to make the call, and Breanna went over to where the current on-duty team, Rex and Matéo, were playing poker with Cisco. All of them looked freshly scrubbed, probably thanks to the inner tube derby.

To keep her mind off Kimberly, she hiked herself up on the desktop behind Cisco. “What kind of hand you got?”

He said, “Don’t start talking about my cards. You have no fucking poker face.”

She actually knew nothing about poker, except that aces were good, and he didn’t have any. She said, “I think you should raise.”

“Will you stop?” He folded his hand and tossed it down. “I’m out.”

“One down.” Rex winked at Breanna. “Thanks, cookie babe.” He threw in some more chips. “Call.”

Switch was on the phone with Sugar, talking about Thanatos. “No, we need to see him now. Bree’s friend Kimberly turned up—and Moreno has her. He’s wanting to set up an exchange for some documents that Breanna… hmm. That she acquired before she got here.”

Sugar obviously asked why they hadn’t mentioned this before.

“I didn’t know before, Sugar Baby. But we’re on the clock here. About sixteen hours. Does Thanatos want to get this guy or not?”

Sugar said something else—probably profane. Then Switch said to Breanna, “He’s checking with the Master.” Switch started drumming his fingers on the desktop.

Everyone else was looking at Breanna. “You had a way to get to Moreno all this time and you didn’t tell us?” Rex said.