“Come on. We need to move,” I say, tugging Theo in the direction of my room.
“She can’t get enough! Look, dragging him off to the bedroom again already.”
Flipping off my idiot cousin, I continue forward. He doesn’t need encouragement with a response.
Dragging Theo's shirt over my head, I rummage around in my unpacked case—something Theo doesn’t miss—to find some underwear.
“I don’t like that,” he announces when I pull on a lace thong—a really freaking sexy lace thong, I might add.
“Let me guess,” I say. “It doesn’t have your name on it.”
A smirk pulls at his lips as he rests one shoulder against the wall, his eyes locked on my body as I pull my bra on. Anger and darkness radiate from him in the same way they do me as thoughts of what might have happened while we’ve been here run through my head.
“Dad was keen for me to come this weekend,” I blurt, as I drag on a pair of skinny jeans up my legs. “I thought it was weird that he was encouraging me to be out and potentially in danger. With you,” I add.
“Your dad loves me,” Theo says with a smirk.
“Oh yeah. The mafia prince with blood on his hands is every dad’s dream for his little girl.”
“Don’t forget who your father is, Hellcat. We’re kindred spirits, I’m sure.”
I shake my head, more than able to picture a younger version of my dad in the middle of a gunfight.
“Yeah. What the hell have I put myself in the middle of?” I mutter lightly.
He doesn’t respond, clearly more than aware that I didn’t need an actual answer to that question.
We both know what I’m in the middle of. Fucking chaos.
And to think, I believed that I’d move in with my dad and have an easier life.
Pretty sure I couldn’t have been any more off the mark there.
Theo doesn’t say another word and I pull the rest of my clothes on, brush my crazy half wet hair and pile it on top of my head, out of the way. I do a quick job of swiping some eyeliner and mascara on, shove my feet into my boots, and grab my bag.
“Let’s go.”
Theo stares at me with wide eyes.
“That was… fast.”
“What were you expecting?” I ask, quirking a brow at him.
“A longer wait. I thought girls always took ages.”
“Well, I’m not your average girl.”
“That you are not, Hellcat.”
The second I get to him, he wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me into his body.
He doesn’t take my bag for me, or even offer, and I love it. I love that he doesn’t see me like some damsel in distress who can’t look after herself. He knows I’m capable and treats me as such. The knowledge makes my heart flutter and my stomach clench.
The words he said to me last night, and assured me he meant this morning, still ring in my ears, but still, I can’t say them back. Not yet.
“Something’s going on,” Stella says, hopping up from the sofa and placing her hands on her hips the second we appear.
“Uh… What makes you say that?”
“I can just see it on your face. What’s happened?”
My eyes shoot over to Xander, and one side of his lips curl up.
He knows.
He knows, and he hasn’t said anything.
I grip Theo’s waist tighter in the hope that he caught that look too and realises that Xander is as loyal as they come.
“Luis Wolfe is dead,” I say.
“Good,” Seb spits. “That’s less than what he deserves for what he did to you."
“Why are you rushing back? Shouldn’t you be celebrating?”
“Yeah, we should,” I concede, not wanting to dive into our suspicions yet and incriminate anyone unduly.
“They’re saying Ram did it,” Theo says when I hesitate.
“Oh shit,” Seb gasps. “That’s…” A deep frown forms on his brow.
“Yeah,” we both sigh together.
“You’re right. You should get back. We’ll be right behind you.”
“No,” I argue. “Stay, enjoy the luxury while you’ve got it. We’ll be fine. I’m sure there’s no drama.”
They all stare at me like I’m insane, and a rush of emotions swells within me for the people surrounding me.
My family.
I might have fought it, with Theo especially, but everyone here, and a few probably still passed out elsewhere in the hotel, have become everything to me.
I left Lovell with nothing, and I fully intended to eventually leave Knight’s Ridge the same way after two years of torture there. But that’s not what I got. I found myself my ride or dies within the elite and privileged walls of that place, and quite honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
All of these guys would take a bullet for me, I have no fucking doubt. And, if I’m being honest, I’d do exactly the same for them.
“Okay, Em,” Stella concedes, but I know she’s just telling me what I want to hear. The second we walk out of this suite, they’re going to be getting ready to do the same.
“Ready, babe?” Theo breathes, tugging me tighter into his warmth and strength.
“Yeah. We’ll see you soon, yeah?”
In only minutes, we’re back in the lift once more and heading to the basement parking level.
Just like last night, the second the doors close on us, the intensity in the enclosed space almost becomes unbearable.
Pressing his hand to my stomach, Theo pushes me back until I hit the wall.
I stare up at him with my heart racing in my chest, waiting, begging for him to kiss me. But he never does. Instead, his fingers curl around my hip, grounding me with his sparkling emerald stare.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Em,” he says reassuringly. “Me, Seb, the guys, your dad and uncle. None of us are going to let anything happen to you.”
Sliding my hand up his chest, I wrap it around the back of his neck.
“I know. I… I trust you.”
All the air rushes from his lungs as I say those three little words. They might not be as big as the ones he said last night, but after everything we’ve been through, the lies, the secrets… they feel almost as important.
“Fuck, Em. You wreck me in the best possible way,” he breathes before brushing his lips against mine and making me forget my own name with his searing kiss.
When the lift dings to announce our arrival underground, I’m more than ready to hit the close door button once more and head right back up to the top, just to keep reality at bay, and Theo’s hands on me a little longer.
Sadly, that’s not what happens though, because the second the doors open, Theo steps back, grabs my hand and tugs me forward.
“Keep looking at me like that and we’ll never leave this hotel, Hellcat,” he growls, using his free hand to rearrange himself.
The desire to drop to my knees for him rushing through me is almost too much to ignore.
“You’re a filthy little whore, babe,” Theo growls, dragging me along toward his car. “I fucking love it. And,” he adds, “I’ll totally take everything that’s in your head right now. Just later, once I’ve got you back in my flat, alone and all to myself.”