My sarcasm makes his patience snap. “I know you don’t care about the bloody money! But it might make your life easier once I’m gone!”
My heart pounds. My hands shake. I want so badly to sock him right in the nose. I manage to keep my voice steady, though everything inside me is churning.
“The only thing that would make any of this easier is if you weren’t who you are. But that’s impossible. So let’s not entertain hypotheticals about futures that can never happen.”
Nostrils flared and lips thinned, Declan looks like a bull with a rider on its back about to explode from a holding gate.
“And don’t glare at me, either. If you want to drop me off on the next corner, that’s fine.”
As it turns out, that was the exact wrong thing to say. He regards me with entire cities burning to the ground in his eyes.
Pulling me close with a hand wrapped around the back of my neck, he growls, “I’m not dropping you anywhere, hellcat.”
I flatten my hands over his chest and push. It’s useless. I might as well be trying to move a mountain. “I hate that nickname, by the way.”
“No, you don’t. You fucking love it. And you hate that you love it. Get used to being seen, and being with a man who won’t let you hide, and who won’t cower when you lash that barbed tongue of yours.”
He crushes his mouth to mine.
I’m starting to get that this is going to be what’s politely called a volatile relationship.
I break away. He allows it, but only just. I fold my arms across my chest and stare straight ahead out the windshield, trying to get my ragged breathing under control.
He says darkly, “Why don’t you try some box breathing? I’ve heard it’s helpful in stressful situations.”
From the corner of my eye, I see Kieran glance back at me in the rearview mirror. If he’s worried his boss is about to get his eyes scratched out, he’s right.
The remainder of the ride to the airport is spent in silence. Thick, tense, burning silence. The left side of my face is peeling off in layers due to Declan’s blistering stare.
We come to a screeching stop at the heliport. I’m removed from the car by a tense Declan and led across the tarmac to a big black helicopter that looks like it was made to transport military troops. He opens the passenger door, settles me into the seat, buckles me in, and kisses me. Hard.
Then he says gruffly, “Please don’t freeze me out. Be angry all you want, but don’t shut down on me. I need you right now. I won’t be able to think straight if you don’t communicate with me.”
I’m such a wuss. That softens me up like microwaved butter.
“Okay,” I say, looking into his searching eyes. “But just because I’m not freezing you out doesn’t mean I’m not breaking vases inside my head.”
He kisses me again, this time more softly. “I know,” he murmurs against my mouth. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Then he slams shut my door, trots around to the other side, and gets in the pilot’s seat. He buckles himself in and starts flipping switches. He gestures to a pair of green headphones resting on a stick on the dashboard, or whatever the console of a helicopter is called.
“Put those on.”
“Don’t tell me you’re flying this thing.”
“Of course I am.”
Of course he is. Why am I even surprised?
Looking over at me, he smiles. “I told you I was in the military.”
“You didn’t say you were Tom Cruise in Top Gun.”
“Didn’t I? Must’ve forgotten to mention it. Now put on your headphones.”
He dons his own pair of headphones and hits a switch that starts the engines. Above us, huge black blades begin to move in slow circles, quickly picking up speed.
I watch him go through the preflight checks with a deep sense of awe. I thought he was pretty macho before, but this…
Well, this wins the macho war. My ovaries are screaming in glee like a bunch of playground kids on sugar highs.
We lift off, rising into the twilight sky in a roar and a blast of wind that scatters the leaves on the tarmac and sends dust blasting out in a wave. Above us, the rotors beat a thundering whump whump whump that matches the pounding of my heart. When I look over at Declan, he’s staring straight ahead, concentrating on the flight path.
He’s grinning.
The ache in my cheeks means I’m grinning, too.
He glances over. “Tell me what you’re thinking, baby.”
“I’m thinking we’re a couple of lunatics.”
That makes him chuckle. “Aye. But my crazy matches your crazy. That’s why it works.”
I look down at the diamond tennis bracelet he clasped around my wrist before we left. It glitters, catching the waning light and sending a shower of colorful sparks across the windows.
For a moment, I’m blinded. Then the sparks clear, and I lift my gaze to the horizon. It stretches off across the city and out to the sapphire bay. The Atlantic is a rippling ribbon of dark blue far beyond.
I wish Nat were here to see this.
I miss my best friend with a fierce, sudden ache. An ache that worsens when I consider that she lives in New York now. There won’t be any more girls’ nights out at Downrigger’s on the lake, giggling over cocktails and scarfing down shrimp enchiladas. There won’t be any spontaneous shopping trips, or coffee runs, or movie nights.
There won’t be any anything, because she’s in love with Kage.
Which wouldn’t have been a problem before, but Kage and Declan are mortal enemies. Which means that if I stay with Declan…
There won’t be any more me and Nat.
Out of nowhere, it hits me with a force like a wrecking ball. A sledgehammer slams into my chest. I can barely draw a breath.
If I’m really going to be with Declan, it won’t simply be an “issue” we’ll all have to work through. Neither Kage nor Declan will allow us girls to hang out like it was business as usual. My friendship with Nat will be over.
In fact, I might never see her again.
Impossible. I won’t let that happen. She won’t let it happen, either. We’ll figure out a way.
I look over at Declan, so calm and confident as he handles the helicopter, and remember his strange smile when the TV reporter was talking about the body found at the dump. I remember the vengeance tattoo on his chest. I remember the elation in his eyes when he asked me who I belonged to, and I answered, “You.” The elation and the triumph.
Like he’d won.
Because he had.
This man who calls himself a monster kidnapped me and claimed me. He took me to his bed. He saved me from a rival gang, protected me while I was in the hospital, gave me a choice between yes and no, gave me things I didn’t even know I needed.
Gave me a promise that he’d do anything I asked.
I told him the only thing I wanted was for him to not hurt Stavros, but now I’m thinking there will be more items to add to that list.
Starting with a promise that he won’t ever go after Kage.
And I’ve got to get Nat make Kage promise the same thing.
In the middle of a war, no less.
I wonder if Declan knew all this when he said it was going to be messy.
30