Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
He gets me into a vehicle without speaking much, hands steady even though I can see the tremor in his jaw. The drive to his house is a blur of streetlights and silence.
When we arrive, he walks me inside like he’s afraid I’ll evaporate if he lets go. His house smells like him. Clean soap, metal, and something faintly spicy from whatever he cooks whenever things are normal.
He locks the door. Then he locks it again. He checks windows. He checks rooms. He checks every corner like he is fighting the urge to tear the walls down and rebuild them stronger. Finally, he comes back to the living room where I sit on the couch with my hands tucked under my thighs to stop them from shaking.
He stands in front of me for a moment, breathing hard. Then he kneels. His hands cup my face gently, careful of my bruise. “I love you,” he says. The words are steady, but his eyes look wrecked.
I smile. “I love you too.”
Ozzy’s forehead rests against mine. “I’m moving you to a new safehouse in the morning. Somewhere nobody knows. Somewhere even I won’t say out loud unless I have to.”
I swallow. “Okay.”
His hands slide to grip my shoulders. “Listen to me. You are safe tonight. You’re with me.”
My eyes burn again. “My father—”
“I know,” he whispers, and the pain in his voice makes my chest crack. “We’ll get him back.”
I inhale shakily. “What if Poe really did it?”
Ozzy shakes his head. He sits back on his heels, eyes locked on mine like he needs me to understand his truth. “I don’t believe it,” he says.
My breath catches. “Ozzy…”
He shakes his head. “I saw the text. I saw the signature. I know what it looks like. But I know Poe. I grew up with him. I trust him with my life.”
My stomach twists. “People can change.”
“They can,” Ozzy admits, voice rough. “But Poe isn’t the kind of man who sells girls to traffickers and steals beaten men out of hospitals. That doesn’t fit.”
A chill crawls up my spine. “So you think he’s being framed?”
Ozzy’s eyes sharpen. “Or coerced. Or forced. Or set up so Serafina can split us apart from the inside.”
My heart pounds. Closer than we think. Someone’s trying to make us turn on each other.
Ozzy exhales slowly, and his hands slide to mine, gripping tight. “I need you to hold onto something right now.”
I swallow. “What?”
His eyes soften, and he looks like the man who held me when I was shaking in the safehouse, not the man who wants to burn cities down. “Hold onto us,” he says quietly. “Hold onto the fact that I love you. Hold onto the fact that whatever this is, we are not letting it win.”
My throat burns. I nod. “Okay.”
Ozzy leans forward and kisses me, slow and steady, like he is anchoring both of us to the same ground. When he pulls back, he presses his forehead to mine again. “Sleep,” he whispers. “I’ll be right here.”
I stare at him. “You won’t leave.”
“Never,” he says.
Later, when the house is dark and the only light is the faint glow from a streetlamp outside, I lie curled against Ozzy’s chest on the couch because he refused to let me sleep alone. His arms are locked around me like a promise. His heartbeat is steady, but I can feel the tension in him, like a storm behind his ribs.
My father’s missing. Maddox Security is compromised. Poe is gone. Somewhere out there, Serafina’s smiling.
I close my eyes and force one last thought into my head before sleep tries to take me.
Ozzy loves me.
I love him. And whoever is trying to tear this team apart is about to learn what happens when you turn predators on each other. Because we are coming.
And this time, we’re not leaving anyone behind.