Page 98 of Runaway Hearts: Seduced by Danger

“Hi…” I answer, voice unsure.

“Hey, Care Bear. Congratulations! That’s a big move,” the old man’s voice reaches into my core, and I smile. “We’re talking about the ex here, right?” he asks with a half-joking tone.

“Who else would I be talking about?”

“Victor Salem, security of any kind.”

I gather mentally everything I know about Victor. The text must’ve been an error. I think my phone number might be on the wrong list. Eric probably scrawled my number in a public bathroom somewhere, out of spite. That makes more sense to me than Victor asking if I killed a man and need assistance.

Silence briefly blankets the line before he chuckles, dry and husky. “Just joking, Care Bear. How do you feel?”

I exhale, the phone pressed against my ear. “Lighter, somehow.”

“That’s my girl.” Victor’s pride washes over me through the wire. “You just took back your power, you know that?”

The bubbling warmth of victory spreads through my chest as I acknowledge the weight of his words. “Maybe,” I admit, still a little unsure.

“How’s the vacation going so far?”

“Surprising,” I say while drying my tears with my palms.

“How so?” he asks, voice lower.

“I made a friend.” I don’t want to say too much too soon, but Kai is more than a friend. So much more.

The shower stops.

“I have to go, but I just wanted you to know I’m good, better than I expected.”

A sigh comes through the lines, and a bing announces a shared file.

“Enjoy yourself, Care Bear.”

“Bye.”

I open the shared file and heave out a relieved sigh. Victor sends a picture of him holding a green chip. Three months. My eyes narrow asI don’t recognize the background of the picture. It’s not Victor’s place, that’s for sure. It doesn’t look like the hospital, either.

Where is he?

But that’s when Kai steps out, water dripping from his toned body, a towel slung low around his waist.

My phone drops on the bed, my eyes locked on his black hair, wet and slicked back. He pauses to look at me, eyes intense as if sensing the shift in the atmosphere.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, crossing the room in two long strides.

“Nothing,” I lie, hoping he won’t pry further into the shadows of my past.

Sunlight streams through the curtains and catches in his eyes, revealing flickers of something I can’t quite place.

His jaw works, a sure sign he’s sorting through his own concerns. His gaze drifts toward the window and lingers there, lost in a thought only he knows. Kai grabs my hand and sits on the bed.

And just like that, the most painful half-smile I ever saw draws itself on Kai’s lips, and he closes his eyes. “We can pretend it never happened if you... if you have regrets about last night.”

My eyes trail over his hand covering mine, the dragon tattoo appearing to eat my palm. Last night, I rode that dragon.

“No,” I say, brushing my thumb over his wrist.

No regrets, but revelations.

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