Page 66 of Guarded from Danger

“Of course you need to look.” But my stomach is already squeezing into a knot, and my appetite has faded to nothing.

He swipes his phone off the coffee table, looping his other arm around me as he looks at it.

For a moment, his features go completely still.

My breath catches. Is it bad news? Worse news? How bad can it get?

Then he exhales, all his breath leaving in a gust. Turning to me, he says, “Matt found him. The man who started everything. He found the payments leading straight to him.”

My heart literally stops for a second. “He did? Really?”

Xavier sets the phone back down and gathers me into his arms. “Yeah. He did.”

“It’s going to be over?”

“Yes.” He hugs me tighter, his breath whispering across my hair. “It is.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

XAVIER

“You have enough flowers in there?”

Dante peers into the apartment, his smirk turning to a wide grin. “I’m not sure you bought enough,” he adds. “You might want to see if the local florists have any left.”

“Ha. Very funny.” Swatting him on the arm, I add, “I seem to recall some gifts you bought for Sarah not too long ago. She mentioned something about a movie? A tear-jerker? And how sweet it was that you watched it with her?”

“I was trying to cheer her up,” Dante replies, a hint of defense in his tone. “And it was just a movie. I didn’t buy out three florists and order half the candles on Amazon.”

“She liked it. That’s all that matters.”

Besides, I don’t care if the guys give me shit about flowers and candles. Just like when we teased Niall about his big romantic gesture for Jade, it wasn’t malicious. We were happy that Niall had finally gotten together with the woman he’d been half in love with for years.

Did that mean we wouldn’t tease him about it? Of course not.

I never thought I’d be on the receiving end, but here I am. And I’m more than okay with it.

Dante sobers. “I’m glad, Xav. Before Sarah, I didn’t get it. Grand gestures and romance and all that. I mean, I knew it happened, saw friends falling in love, but I didn’t think—” He shrugs. “It’s different when you meet the right person.”

“Yeah, it is.” The apartment door a few inches ajar, I cock my ear towards it, listening for any sign of movement—the shower running or the coffee maker kicking on—but everything is quiet. I’m not surprised Lucy’s still asleep after our late night; we didn’t fall asleep until well past midnight, after dinner and dancing and three rounds of ravishing.

Thankfully, the news from Matt didn’t put a damper on our night. Quite the opposite. With the end of Lucy’s ordeal in sight, we had even more reason to celebrate.

It’s almost surreal that this could all be over.Isover, barring some unexpected development. Once the piece of garbage who hurt and traumatized Lucy is in prison, she can go back to her normal life again. She can go outside without being scared, work at the bookstore if she wants, see her parents…

She can go back to her house in Seguin, if she chooses.

I don’t want her to, though. I want Lucy to stay here. With me. Living together as a couple, planning a future together, and hopefully, once things settle down, even a wedding.

Of course I want to propose to her. The only question is when. Do I ask her to move in with me first? Should I wait a few months until things have thoroughly settled down? Or do I throw caution to the wind and ask her right away, like my heart is telling me?

“So she must be so relieved,” Dante says, still keeping his voice low so it doesn’t carry into the apartment.

“Very. I think she’s still processing, honestly. After everything, to find out it’s some guy she never met, doesn’t even live in Texas…”

“Yeah.” Dante’s expression darkens. “But thanks to Matt, Leo, and Beth, that asshole won’t get a chance to hurt anyone else.”

The asshole, or piece of garbage, as I like to call him, is actually Garrett Wilton, a hacker from San Jose, California. He has a history of activity on the dark web, though nothing near as sinister as his fucked up game—mostly hacking financial institutions and selling the data he stole. But when Matt looked closer into Wilton’s background, he discovered some disturbing connections to the sex trade and snuff films.

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