They’d stayed apart.
But I kept the ring. Just as he’d kept on loving her.
“What did you say?” Rose’s voice had gone hoarse. Her eyes were huge. Her hand fisted around the ring.
“I love you.”
“We broke up.”
He’d been in hell every single day without her. “And we’re back together.”
“You—you think—you—” Her words sputtered to a stop.
“I thought it might be too soon before, and I was definitely fucking afraid it was too soon this time, too. That’s why the ring was hidden.”
“Your kitchen drawer is not a good hiding spot!”
“So Odin tells me…” He turned his palm toward her. “I’ll keep it some place safe.”
She didn’t give him the ring. “You said you loved me.”
A nod.
“Why would you say that?”
His head cocked. “Because it’s true?”
Red bloomed in her cheeks. “You never said you loved me before! It was just sex. Hot, intense, crazy sex and—”
Fantastic sex, yes, but… “I tend to be controlled about most things in my life.”
“I noticed. Talked to Odin about that very thing earlier. And I get it.”
Odin was being way chatty now. He must like Rose.
“I get that you need your control. I get that trust is hard. But War, with me, you can let down your guard. I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve never wanted that.”
“I am different with you, Rose. I’ve always been different with you. Controlled is the last thing I am when it comes to you.” That was why he wanted to destroy every threat to her. “From the first, I knew I was falling fast and hard. Your smile would light me up, and I wanted to put the world at your feet.”
“You didn’t say anything like that to me!”
“When something is important, you try not to screw it up.” He’d tried to keep all of the ugly parts of his life from her. He’d thought he was protecting her, but now he saw he’d been putting up a wall that had kept her away. “I still managed to screw things up, so I figured this time, I’d try a different tactic.”
“Tactic?”
“In battle, you learn that if one technique isn’t working, you switch things up.”
“We aren’t battling.”
He was. He was in the most important fight of his life. “I held back my feelings before. I held back far too much. The result was that I lost you. I won’t hold back again, and I don’t want you holding back, either. This time, I’m telling you everything.” And the big everything was… “I love you, Rose.”
She blinked rapidly.
Oh, no, were those tears in her eyes? “You don’t have to say it back,” he told her. “You don’t have to feel it back. You don’t need to do anything but…let’s just keep going as we are. Let’s see what happens. There is no pressure—” He went to take the ring.
She snatched it out of reach. “That belongs to me.”
And I want you to belong to me. Always. “You have my ring, sweetheart. What can I do to have you?”
A tear leaked down her cheek and absolutely broke his heart. “War, I will—”
His phone was ringing. No way was he answering it. “Fuck it,” War said. He kept his gaze locked on her. This mattered. She mattered.
The phone kept ringing. He didn’t recognize the ringtone. Right then, he didn’t care who was calling.
Rose mattered.
A faint line appeared between her eyebrows. “It could be the detective.”
“Not her ringtone.” It was just the standard ringtone that came with the phone’s unaltered settings and—
“That’s your business line, though, right? Because it’s your backup phone.”
The phone stopped ringing. “Finish what you were saying.”
“War—”
The phone rang again.
“Answer it.” Worry darkened her eyes.
He yanked out the phone. Didn’t recognize the number. “This had better be—” War began angrily because the caller had just interrupted probably the most important moment of his life.
“I know the cops are monitoring Rose’s phone,” a rasping voice told him. “I figured it would be wise for me to call you and deliver my message.”
War’s teeth ground together.
“I’m guessing Rose is close?”
Right in front of him. The little line between her eyebrows was deepening with her worry.
“You like to keep her close, don’t you?” A taunt.
“Yes,” he growled.
“That’s made things difficult for me. You see, I wanted Rose close, too.”
“Go screw yourself. You’re not touching her.”
Rose flinched.
“Thought you might say something along those lines,” the disguised voice told him. “That’s why, for tonight, I have turned my attention elsewhere. Another target came into my line of vision, thanks to you. Someone who deserves exactly what she will get.”
“Who the hell are you talking about?” His heart pounded too fast.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure her death will make for a killer headline on the news. She won’t be behind the scenes any longer. She’ll be the lead.”
Click.
“War? What’s happening?”
“Bastard said he has a new target. He’s taunting me.”
“That’s what he did to me. He—he gave me clues. Wanted me to find his victim before he killed her.” She grabbed him with her left hand. “Tell me exactly what he said to you.”
“Told me not to worry.” Such a confident dick. “He said her death would make a killer headline. Then…something about her not being behind the scenes anymore. That she’d be leading.” He swore. “Said she’d come into his line of vision because of me.”
“Then it’s someone who has been in contact with you lately. It’s someone we’ve seen. If she works behind the scenes—oh, no!” Her voice rose. “It’s Simone! We were talking to her today at the station. She fired Dylan. Simone works behind the scenes and—”
He was already calling Detective Slater as he spun for the door.
“She was going home,” Rose rushed to say. “Simone told me—after we wrapped up the broadcast—that she was going home for the rest of the night.”
Lynn answered his call on the second ring. He immediately said, “Get patrols over to Simone Davis’s house. The perp just called—
“What? I wasn’t told he’d contacted Rose! I’ve got people monitoring her phone. They should have contacted me immediately.”
“He didn’t use her phone. He called me.” Tricky SOB. “Based on what he said, Rose thinks he is going after Simone.”
“Why does she think that?”
He was bounding down the steps. Rose was bounding right behind him.
“Because he’s dropping freaking clues, and she’s the only one that fits.” The only one that came to mind. He spared a glance over his shoulder. Rose had grabbed her phone, and she had it to her ear as she ran with him.