Page 15 of Saving Their Forever

“My web crawlers haven’t uncovered any chatter,” I say. “If anyone were looking for you, I’d know. The last hit was more than eighteen months ago, and you put an end to those guys.”

A vein in Ry’s temple throbs. He took West, Inara, and Graham to Istanbul after someone spent a week searching for Ryker McCabe on the dark web. They fell into every trap I set for them. All the false leads. The tax records proving Ry was in Dallas, Texas. Then paperwork showing his move to Canada. Barcelona. New Delhi. And finally, Istanbul.

The three men they captured were related to the guards Ry killed when he escaped Hell Mountain. They lived for eight hours. Long enough for West to be sure they were acting alone. Their bodies were never found. Knowing my husband, they never will be.

He sinks down onto the couch, close enough I can reach for his hand and lay it on my belly. The baby’s hiccupping, and it’s the oddest sensation.

“If my darkness touches you or Harlow,” he says, his voice barely more than a whisper, “I won’t…I can’t…”

I cover his fingers with mine. “Ry, our daughter isn’t going to care that you have demons. She’s only going to care that you love her.”

His arms wind around me—so gently now that I’m about to pop—and in his embrace, I can breathe, despite the near-constant worry someone’s after him.

“I can’t lose you, Wren. I can’t do this without you.”

“This?” His eyes hold so much pain. More even than they did when we first met. “You’re scaring me.”

He stares out the floor-to-ceiling windows. The sun and gentle breeze turn Elliot Bay into a sea of glittering diamonds in the distance. “After Hell, I didn’t know how I was going to survive in the world. There were days I didn’t want to.”

My heart aches for him. I try to wriggle closer, but my belly gets in the way.

“And then I met you. I don’t think I’d laughed in six years. Or smiled. Or done a single fucking thing that wasn’t absolutely necessary. I worked out. I ate. I slept—or tried to—and I saved people. I didn’t talk to anyone outside of missions or training.”

“Horsepucky.”

He flinches and stares down at me. “Are you calling me a liar, sweetheart?”

“No. But you forget. I know you, Ryker McCabe. You read four books a week. At least. And that didn’t start when you met me.”

“Those are necessary.”

Arching a brow, I snatch his phone from the coffee table, unlock it, and find his eReader app. “So, Surprised and Sacked is a necessary read?”

He huffs out a breath, and his cheeks take on a slight tinge. My big, hulking mountain of a husband who doesn’t let a single thing knock him off his game is actually blushing.

“You read it last week. I…should know what you like.”

I nestle against his side, enjoying the feel of his arm draped over my shoulders. “I love that about you.” We sit in silence for several minutes, until I remember what started this whole conversation. “Ry, you can’t be with me twenty-four hours a day. Even with West running Hidden Agenda. And what about when it’s time for Harlow to go to preschool? Or college?”

The terror written all over his face makes my heart ache. This man who once thought he was too broken to care loves so deeply, with so much of his soul, he doesn’t know how to put it into words.

“Remember what I told you when we first met?”

“You’re going to have to be a little more specific there, little bird. I remember everything.”

My lips curve into a smile. “Of course, you do.” I sit up a little straighter and meet his gaze. “You said you didn’t know how to care. And I said…?”

“You’ll learn.”

“Well, you’ll learn how to do this too. How to trust that I’m okay. That our daughter’s okay. Even when you can’t see her. Or me.”

“Not when there’s a potential threat out there.” It secretly thrills me that he’s so protective he’s practically growling. Even if it probably is overkill.

“We have a whole server farm running twenty-four-seven at the warehouse. None of the cameras we have around the building have picked up anything. Cara and Evianna are flippin’ gorgeous. The guy who followed us was probably a creeper. And what Ripper heard…I don’t know. I can’t explain it.”

The baby lands a hard kick to something vital, and I suck in a sharp breath. Ry tenses. “What hurts?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head with a little chuckle. “Well, nothing more than everything. Your daughter is tired of these cramped accommodations. She’d like a two-bedroom apartment with a view and all the toys she can play with. And at least three more dogs.”

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