Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 62197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
He gave Huck an annoyed glance, then turned and started back toward the door he’d come in through.
What the hell had just happened? I didn’t know Madeline that well. What did she have to do with this? Not that I wasn’t eternally grateful, but seriously, what the fuck?
“Can you tell her thank you for me?” I asked his retreating form.
He nodded, but didn’t look back.
I chanced one more question. “Why did she do it?”
He paused at the doorway and glanced over his shoulder. “For a signed advanced copy of Juliette Romeo’s next book.” The hint of a grin played across his normally severe expression before he walked away.
I stared at the empty space where he had been as his words registered and made sense in my head.
Noa.
But … how?
“She’s got a set on her,” Huck said, and I swung my eyes over to see him watching me.
“Who?” I asked, not sure if he was talking about Madeline or Noa.
“Your woman,” he said, shoving off from where he’d been leaning.
“Noa …” I said.
He cocked an eyebrow. “You got more than one? I wouldn’t tell her that if you do.”
I shook my head, standing up as my mind raced. How did Huck know Noa? Was she here?
“No! Of course not. Where is she?” I asked.
“Waiting on you. She wouldn’t go to the airstrip without you. Everyone else has already headed that way. Don’t think she trusts us much.”
She was here. My heart took off at a full gallop, and I started for the door.
Noa had come to Ocala. How did she even know where I was? Jesus Christ, what had she been thinking? Blaise could have reacted badly to her arrival.
“She’s waiting outside in the Escalade!” Huck called out, and I broke into a run.
Twenty-Eight
Noa
When the second one of the massive double doors to the house opened, I took a step in that direction. I’d been out here for over thirty minutes, waiting on Ransom. Branwen had convinced Linc to let me stay. Even if she hadn’t, no one would have gotten me to budge. I wasn’t going until I had Ransom by my side.
He came barreling outside, and my heart leaped in my chest as my eyes filled with water. Relief rushed over me as I began walking in his direction. His eyes lasered in on me as he made his way down the elaborate steps leading up to the Hughes’s mansion.
His long strides turned into a jog, and joy from the sight of him bubbled out of me in a teary laugh. When he closed the last few feet between us, he grabbed my face with both hands and slammed his mouth down over mine. I clung to his arms, pressing into him. He was alive. He was here.
Our tongues tangled in their own desperation, and my tears wet both our cheeks before he broke the kiss and stared down at me as he continued to cradle my face.
“What did you do?” he asked huskily.
I smiled and sniffled up at him. “Came to bring you home.”
He closed his eyes briefly, and his body trembled slightly before he opened them again. “Do you have any idea how dangerous this was?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“And you came anyway.”
“You promised me forever.”
He let out a disbelieving laugh. “Yeah, I did,” he agreed, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. His gaze seemed to devour me, as if the sight of me made everything else fade away. “How did you do it?” he asked. “Am I really getting to live because of a signed book?”
I lifted a shoulder, trying my best to be nonchalant. “I have my own set of strengths. You have your guns, and I have my words. Mine is a much more humane, civilized way to handle a situation.”
He leaned down and kissed me gently again before whispering against my lips, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“I’m ready for that forever. Tell me you’ll leave Manhattan and come back home.”
I smiled. Once, I’d have balked if someone had called Madison home. I’d never felt at home there. But my home wasn’t a place. It was a person. And he was in Madison. His job required he live there. With mine, I could live anywhere.
“On one condition,” I said.
He leaned back so he could look at my face. This was something we would have to discuss fully eventually.
“Anything,” he replied.
He said that now, but I had a feeling that he’d need a reminder of that in the future.
“Find a way to get Arden back from the cartel without getting killed.”
The way his eyes flashed with shock told me he hadn’t planned to ever tell me about how Arden had disappeared. I could hold it against him or accept it for who he was. After almost losing him, I found that I could forgive him his lack of morals.