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She laughs. “I don’t think we can get away with not going again later if this is any indication of what happens when we try to fight it.”

“And your rules?” I ask, kicking myself the moment the words are out of my mouth. Her body tenses in my arms and I squeeze tighter, hoping like hell that she doesn’t pull away from me. My prayers are answered when she only pulls back enough to peek up at me.

“I guess we should talk.”

Nodding, I fight the urge to sigh. I knew this was coming but that doesn’t mean I’m eager to have this conversation. Although, I do have to wonder if she’s going to claim this was a one-time thing and that it won’t happen again when we both know that’s not true or maybe she’ll say we can be a friends with benefits thing but none of that is going to work for me. I am on a mission to make this woman mine in every way possible and nothing is going to stand in the way of that.

“Obviously this is an unusual situation,” she says, motioning to her little belly and I nod, staring down at it for a second. “And these hormones are making me crazy horny so I need some relief but this can’t ever be more than sex. I may have broken my rule about going back for seconds but the other one stands.”

I grunt. It’s neither an agreement or a protest because I know this will take time but I still don’t like it. Taking a deep breath, I tell myself it will all be worth it in the end. “Okay.”

“You could probably move back into your bedroom, too. Seems a little silly to have you sleeping on the couch if we’re going to be…”

I arch a brow. “Fucking?”

“Yeah, that,” she whispers, her eyes glazing over as she drags them down my body. Her teeth sink into her bottom lip and she looks up at me again.

“Izzy,” I groan, pulling her closer and pressing my lips to hers. A soft little moan is pulled from her throat as she hooks her naked leg over mine and presses her hand to my chest.

“Why is it so good with you?” she whispers, climbing on top of me and straddling my hips. I grip her waist as she steals another kiss, flicking her tongue against my lips as I groan.

“You’re going to kill me, woman.”

She sits up and grins. “Tell me that there’s another way you’d rather go out and I’ll call you a fucking liar.”

“Fair enough.” I laugh. She stares down at me for a moment and I can see her mind spinning so I let her have a moment. As much as I want all of this with her, I also recognize that she’s got some serious demons to battle along the way so I have to be patient with her and, for the most part, let her take things at her pace.

“What happened with the guys and the phone call you got earlier?”

Shit.

I had totally forgotten about all of that but I did promise to tell her everything so even though I don’t want to scare her, I don’t have any other choice. Hopefully, she knows that I would die before I ever let anything happen to her.

“The phone call earlier was my buddy over at the police station. He said that your entire file has gone missing - the physical and electronic copy - as well as the nine-one-one call from that night.”

She scowls. “How?”

“Luca’s got someone very important at the station on his payroll,” I tell her, rubbing her leg in an attempt to keep her calm as I reveal just how fucked we are. She crosses her arms over her chest, trying to cover her naked body and my heart breaks. Ali’s words flicker through my mind and I wish I could ask her what happened to her, why she puts up these walls but that would only lead to her erecting another one and shutting me out. Instead, I open my arms and wait, allowing her to make the choice to use me to make her feel safe. After a moment, she sighs and falls into me.

“Could it be anything else?”

I shake my head and band my arms around her and hold her close. “If only one was missing, I would say absolutely but with all three gone, no. It has to be foul play.”

“What does this mean for us?”

“It means there’s no record of what happened to you,” I whisper, dragging my hand down her back to soothe her as I talk. “It means no one is looking into this anymore and it’s like it doesn’t exist.”

She trembles. “So, he’s just free to make me disappear?”

“Hey,” I whisper and she peeks up at me. “I’m not going to let that happen, okay? I swear to you, Izzy. Nothing and no one is going to touch you or our son.”

“Right,” she sighs, turning away from me and staring off into space as I drag my hand up into her hair and massage the back of her head. “What about the guys? Did they have any new information?”

I shake my head. “Not yet. Streak is digging into security footage around the restaurant and I’ve got some photos for you to look at whenever you’re ready.”

“Let’s do it later,” she mumbles as she relaxes into me. I peek down at her as her eyes flutter shut and I can’t help but grin as I turn back to stare at the ceiling above us, letting out a contented sigh. This is everything I want and I won’t stop fighting until this moment is an everyday reality in my life.

Chapter Fifteen