Page 257 of Quinlan

“The door’s locked from the inside.” She keeps kicking with her other foot near the spot Damien has splintered.

I don’t tell her it’s jammed from the outside. I don’t because—thank fuck—it relents. It opens for me.

“Damien, out of the way.” A second is all I have in me to offer him. Offer them.

He moves. Rome can’t. Won’t, I think. He can’t take the blow.

I yank on the handle hard anyway, and the door hits Rome when I hurl it as far as it’d go.

He doesn’t waver, his hand squeezing Quinlan’s shin harder.

“Darling.” The name out of Damien’s mouth is relief. The strangled type, barely pushed out of his throat.

I get it. I feel the same. Breathing is a challenge when I see her on top of that bastard, Rex. She was right. His eyes are closed, head slumped to the side. His cheek is on his shoulder and his arms aren’t folded around Quinlan.

But he’s there with her. And Aria’s passed out in the front seat.

They wouldn’t stay that way forever.

Damien moves first. He bats Rome’s hand away from her. A gentle slap, and Rome’s out of the way, pulling himself out of the car.

A heartbeat later, Damien’s inside instead. Hands gripping Quinlan’s hips, his strong muscles yanking her out of there.

“Damien,” she screams, and this, too, sounds a lot like relief. Her gray eyes are frantic, and I know they’re searching for mine. She finds me and her grin has never been wider. “Liam. You’ve found me. I knew you would.”

“Always,” I breathe out the word.

It sends a spiral of warmth through me to watch her alive. In his arms. Damien pins her cheek to his chest, cups the back of her head and presses his lips to the top of her head. Inhales her scent like he needs it to survive. Has to touch her everywhere and make sure she’s okay. That she’s really here.

We all do, but we give him space. And that’s fine. He’s an extension of us and she’s okay, he’s making sure of that.

“Darling. We’ll always find you. Always.” When he draws back, he kisses her so thoroughly, she moans into his mouth. “I’d lose my fucking heart, my goddamnlife, before I lose you. Fuck, I love you. Fuck, you’re safe. Fuck, fuck,fuck. Thank God for you.”

“Little flame.” Damien squeezes her one more time, and I have her.

One arm around her back, a hand on her cheek. She’s exquisite, but this isn’t why I can’t look away. Why my eyes roam over her features. The slope of her neck. The outline of her collarbone.

I’m searching for bruises in case Damien was too lost to see them.

“Motherfucker.” There’s one. Her cheek swells. A touch of purple paints her heart tattoo. Ruins it.

Ruins me.

“He didn’t do this.” Quinlan strokes the scar on my cheek, burrowing her body into mine. Comforting me. I can’t stop grinding my teeth. “No one did.”

“The impact.”

“Yes.”

I can’t stop looking at her. Can’t stop myself from brushing my lips to the wound. Kissing it. Licking it. I don’t have an ice pack to make it better for her. Don’t have anything but my heart in my throat and my lips and tongue.

I’m useless. But then she whimpers, and I’m her hero all over again. I’m hard, groaning as I suck and kiss her cheek.

“I love you.” I trail kisses down to her mouth, tilting her face up. Nuzzling her nose.

“I love you too.” Her gray eyes sparkle, pupils wide. “They tricked me. Rex sent me a letter saying my parents were going to kill themselves. When I figured it out…” A bright smile. An unhinged one. “I showed them. I kicked ass.”

Wrath spikes up my spine to the base of my skull. I’m hot and murderous. They used Quinlan’s love against her. Her kindness. Her giant heart and the fear that’s been sown into her life ever since she was five.

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