Page 119 of His Wild Attraction

“I’m fine. I’m okay. You came. You’re here. Sammy?” Ellie whimpered, uncontrolled tears streaming down her face.

“He’s fine. Josef!” I yelled.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Sammy’s frightened voice reached my ears, and I opened my arms for Josef to hand us our son.

“I thought I was too late. I’m so sorry. So sorry,” I said, biting back my own tears.

Clinging to my wife and son, I picked Ellie up, princess-style, while she held onto Sammy. I walked past the barricade the cops had set up, Adrik and Marat were dealing with them.

I trusted them to get through all the politics of what had just happened. It was nothing they hadn’t done before.

But I couldn’t think about that. I didn’t have the headspace.

Fuck, I almost lost them.

I climbed into the SUV, sliding Ellie into a seat so she could put Sammy beside her. I carefully buckled them both in and told the driver to go straight to our condo.

“Is he okay?” I asked a half an hour later after Ellie finally emerged from Sammy’s room.

Her eyes were puffy and her face blotchy from crying. She had rips in her pants, and a small bruise on her cheek where she must have gotten hit when she collided with Gary.

“Yeah, he’s sleeping, and Rocky is curled up at his feet,” she said, walking over to where I stood, a tumbler of whiskey in my hand.

She took it from me and knocked it back, hissing at the powerful stuff. I was sure it burned going down, but I didn’t fault her for drinking it. It was my third one already, and my hands were still shaking.

“Ellie, I am so sorry?—”

“Sammy didn’t recognize Gary,” she blurted, wringing her hands, looking everywhere but not at me.

“No?” I asked.

It was clear she was having some feelings about what happened, and I needed to let her have them.

But I was nervous as fuck. Scared, she wanted to leave me.

Goddamn.

I would do anything she asked if I could just keep her.

Please, Ellie.

“He, uh, just thinks it was a strange man who tried to hurt him. I’m going to call the therapist tomorrow and get her advice, but I think it’s better that he think it was a stranger until he’s much older. What do you think?”

My heart stuttered.

If she was asking me what I thought, she had to be staying, right?

You didn’t ask someone a question like that if you didn’t care.

“Andres?”

“Ellie,” I started.

But because I couldn’t stand to be so close and not touching her, I cupped my hand around the back of her neck and pulled her to me.

“Anything you want to tell Sammy is fine with me, Ellie. Just tell me this means you’re staying. You’re not leaving me,” I said.

“Andres,” she whimpered, and shoved against my chest. But I tightened my hold.

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