Page 6 of Kidnapping of a Myth

“They’re uncomfortable around me,” she said. “Maybe if you check on them as a friend, they’ll open up?”

“I barely know her. I worked with her father…” Eamon trailed off as he registered the look on her face. “And I’m going.” He placed his hand on her back. “Are you okay by yourself?”

“You know I am.”

Eamon paused, and Bel could see the war waging in his chest. She suddenly wondered if his decision to bring her here was solely because she was a detective. She recognized that was part of his reasoning, but his hesitation told her there was more to it. He was afraid to let her out of his sight.

“I’ll be fine.” She captured his broad hand in both of hers, pushing confidence into her grip.

“I’ll be quick.” He squeezed her hand in return and left.

Eamon both admiredand despised Bel’s stubborn independence. It made him long to lock her away in his house, but she was a forest fire. Meant to burn and rage and consume, and it would be a sin to conceal the majesty that was Isobel Emerson. She couldn’t be locked away, couldn’t be hidden from the world, so he’d resolved to watch her as closely as she would allow. There was also no arguing with her. If she wanted him to check on a friend’s welfare, he had no choice but to obey. He was defenseless against her power, but it was a beautiful surrender. He would travel to the edge of the world for that woman, step into the flames and burn for her if it meant she regarded him as the hero in her story. To be a monster among men, yet be her champion? It was the reason he walked this earth.

“Are you sure that’s a smart idea?” Henry’s voice strained as he tried to keep from shouting, and Eamon froze, hovering just out of sight as their discussion washed over him. “We don’t know this woman, and you gave her unlimited security access? She acts like a cop, and police mean the boys die.”

“But she doesn’t look like one,” Wendy argued. “Eamon’s idea of slumming it? Absolutely, but not a cop, plus she arrivedwith him. For all The Tinker knows, she’s just last night’s leftovers.”

“And you’re willing to trust some sloppy hookup with your brothers’ lives? You saw her scars. What kind of woman is she?” Henry asked.

“If she gets John and Michael back, I don’t care what she is,” Wendy said, not bothering to keep her voice low. “My dad trusted Eamon, so maybe she’s a crisis negotiator.”

Eamon retreated down the hall without a backward glance. Bel wanted him to check on the couple, but he couldn’t face them. Not when they’d insulted the one person he cherished above all others. His anger would only urge him to violence, but this wasn’t the time or place for vengeance. So, he stormed back into the security room and threw himself into the chair beside Bel with such force that she flinched.

“Eamon?” She pinched her eyebrows at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

Bel stared at him patiently, knowing full well he was lying. She said nothing. She didn’t need to. Her eyes spoke for her.

“How do you do it?” He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, his lips so close to her shoulder that the slightest movement would press them against her. “How can you be so kind, so willing to help? I brought you with me because Wendy said she couldn’t call the cops. She was sobbing hysterically, begging for my help, and I should have left you out of it. I should’ve gotten into my car alone, but you’re good at your job. Unlike me, you’re trained to handle these situations in a human capacity, and the second Wendy said no police, I understood her brand of trouble required police aid. I slipped an officer into their midst, but ever since we stepped foot inside this house, they’ve been nothing but judgmental and insulting. The Darling’s wealth surpasses mine, but I didn’t think they wouldbehave so hostilely toward you. How are you so unfazed because I’m about to lose it? I’m seconds away from leaving because if I hear them humiliate the only perfect thing in this world one more time, I’ll destroy something.”

“I’m not perfect.” Bel cupped his cheek, and he closed the distance, pressing his lips to her shoulder as his palm trapped her hand against his face. “I am insecure and reckless,” she continued. “I’m introverted, often to the point of fear. Sometimes I run headlong into danger, and other times I can’t even face my own nightmares. I’m not perfect, but I love that you still defend me.”

“You are perfect,” Eamon said, leaning back in his seat but refusing to release her hand. “You are to me, and I don’t understand how you can be so helpful when I practically fed you to the wolves. I knew the Darlings could be elitists, but I didn’t expect such callousness.”

“My job requires me to deal with people on the worst days of their lives,” Bel said. “I enter their worlds on the days they learn their loved ones have been murdered or kidnapped or harmed in some horrific way. I look husbands in the eye and tell them their wives died. I tell parents their children are never coming home. I see pain and death and fury from families suffering unimaginable agony. Grief makes humans irrational, and while I’m not the villain in their story, I am all they have to blame. They need to put a face to their anguish, and I represent the absolute worst thing that’s ever happened to them. It’s sometimes difficult to endure, but I accept their anger. In these moments, I’m all they have, so I let them be angry. I let them suffer and hate and rage because, without me, they have nothing. Their anger isn’t really with me. It’s with the injustice, and it’s my job to bring them what justice I can.

“You’ve met my father. He’s an incredible man, but when he got the call that you almost killed me in New York, he turned intosomeone my sisters didn’t recognize. He lost himself. I’m sure he lost himself again when Abel took me.”

Eamon nodded his agreement, rubbing her knuckles between his fingers, but he refused to meet her gaze. He hated being reminded of the attack that left her scarred. He’d been cursed, unable to govern his own actions, and it was a testament to his devotion to Bel that he’d fought the curse’s control long enough to spare her life. A lesser power would’ve been helpless against the witch, but Eamon’s beast resisted the dark magic, his strength the only reason she still breathed.

“And you.” Bel captured his jaw, urging him to meet her gaze. “Were you reasonable when I was taken?”

Eamon growled, and she released his chin with a smirk.

“I heard stories about you. Griffin said you practically forced your way onto the case, and your reaction to my kidnapping confused my father. He told me you behaved as if you’d lost half of yourself. He couldn’t understand why someone he just met, a man I never mentioned, was destroyed by my disappearance. I know you didn’t react reasonably when I was in trouble, so we need to be patient with Wendy. This is the worst day of her life. She woke up a newlywed, but within minutes, she was confronted with the very real possibility that she’ll never see her brothers again. Today might end with her planning funerals, and I can’t allow that to happen. I won’t let children die on my watch, no matter how cruel Wendy and Henry become. They can hate me all they like. They can belittle and humiliate me because today isn’t about me. It’s about two lost boys who are running out of time. This family needs someone on their side, and I can be that person for them because I have you. You always guard my back, so I don’t care what they say about me. You don’t believe their words, and that’s enough.”

Eamon released her fingers and leaned forward, cupping her face in his hands. He held her as if she was gold and not flesh,and Bel’s heart faltered at the expression coloring his handsome features. It warned everything was about to change between them, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for it. Yet she wanted it more than anything in this world.

“Isobel Emerson.” Eamon tasted her name as if he was speaking the name of a deity, as if he wasn’t worthy of the woman he held in his hands. “I love you.”

“Isobel Emerson, I love you.”

Bel froze as his words echoed in her brain.I love you. I love you. I love you.

“I’m sorry.” Eamon pulled his hands back, but she captured his broad palms and held them firmly against her face, not willing to be parted from him. “You deserve something more romantic than this. I should’ve waited for when you weren’t elbows deep in an emergency. I should have told you over a candlelit dinner, but I can’t survive another day without you knowing how I feel. Your resilience, your passion, your fire, your ability to make me crazy. I love it all. Every part of you.”

Bel couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. He’d said it, changing their future, changing her down to her very core. Shewould be forever altered because of this man, because of this moment and those three monumental words.I love you. I love you. I love you.She wanted him to say it again. To say it over and over until his voice drowned out the world because those words were all that mattered.

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