Page 68 of Stolen Love

The doors slide apart on the fourth floor and he presses the button for the fifth on his way out. “You forgot your bodyguard.”

“What about your brothers?” I call after him.

“Do I seem like a man who needs brothers?” he asks before I’m shut inside the box alone.

The minute he’s out of view the tension and adrenaline that had me fighting back deserts me. The tears I’d had under control roll down my cheeks. His sunshine is probably lucky to have gotten away from him.

The elevator bumps and the doors spring open, revealing my dishevelled bodyguard. He sways on his feet and uses a hand on the wall for support.

I still have no idea how West took the man down so easily. Jackson is trained to deal with situations like that, but West made him look like an amateur.

“You okay, Miss Love?” He scans the empty elevator before he steps inside. He straightens, his hand resting on his service weapon.

But West didn’t come here to harm me. He came for Dizzy.

“Yes, Jackson.” I run my fingers under my eyes, removing any traces of my eyeliner and mascara before I move onto smoothing my hair.

My throat hurts from where West squeezed it. If the bruises haven’t already come up they will soon. But honestly, I don’t think he wanted to hurt me.

He might not trust me and he clearly doesn’t like the fact that I’ve become the target of his sunshine’s obsession, but I don’t think he harbors any actual malice toward me.

His entire world is wrapped up in Dizzy.

It’s a feeling I understand only too well. I can’t breathe knowing that Rogue and I can never be. That we can only be as close as family. He is the one man that I have ever opened up to. The one man who found a way to crack open my shell and reach inside me.

Like the art of kintsugi, where you take shattered pottery and fix the cracks with gold, Rogue took my damaged soul and filled me with his love. The pottery becomes more attractive. I became braver, stronger, capable.

But losing him… as slow as it will be… it’s already like I’m being broken all over again. Not in the same way or the same order. No, this feels like drowning. I’m kicking and screaming and fighting. He helped me find that strength.

But when the fight for my freedom is over, then I’ll have to fight a whole new battle. And I’m not sure that I can convince my heart not to love him, no matter how hard I try.

That’s how I think West probably feels about Dizzy. And that’s why he came after me.

Why he scared me so much so it forced the memories in my head to explode behind my eyes like so many fireworks.

And now I know that if I ever see my brother again, he will kill me.

Chapter Thirty

Rogue

I knew I shouldn’t have let her go to see that creep without me. It’s why I planned on going despite her arguing against it. But then Jason had insisted we meet—he’d been gifted some inner knowledge of the case the police have built against me—so I’d agreed that she could take Jackson instead.

They’re going to arrest me again soon. And this time it won’t be so easy to walk away. There will be an arraignment, and the chance of being offered the option to post bail is low, given the severity of the crime.

The fact that we’re still looking down the barrel of this particular shotgun gives me some hope though. The arrest will be followed by a court case that will no doubt be a media circus. The spotlight on me perhaps has never been brighter. Which makes me believe that Nicole isn’t likely to try to have me taken out. Or at least not for a while.

It tells me she thinks I’m more useful as collateral against Ivy. Whatever her motivation, she must be desperate. And Jason agreed with that theory.

He also told me that his informant is working undercover to expose the corruption around my case. So we’re not fighting alone anymore.

The whole time I was with Jason I couldn’t shake the feeling that something would happen to Ivy without me there to have her back. But I’d have put money on that asshole Nathaniel trying to constrain her. Not on my evil triplet abducting her for an elevator joyride.

“Christ, evil triplet is such a cliché,” I say to Rebel as I switch directions and cross the glossy white tiles of the foyer again. “Would it be too much to find out we have a nice, well-adjusted clone out there?”

“I think that cliché is supposed to be evil twin.” He raises an eyebrow. “She said she was okay.”

“I know that,” I bite out. She called from the road, not twenty minutes ago to tell me that there’d been a scuffle with West and they were on their way back.

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