Page 22 of Theirs to Take

“Thanks for understanding, Alex,” she said. “I appreciate that. She needs you—you’re good for her too.”

“Thanks, Evie,” he said, pulling her in for a hug. Nova was just trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

Evie pulled her in for a side hug and kissed her cheek. “I’ll leave you guys alone now,” she said. “Talk soon.”

Nova nodded and turned back to Alex. “So, you love me?” he asked.

“I do,” she agreed. “You love me too?” she questioned.

“Yep,” he agreed. “Even if you are a lunatic.” She looked down at the outfit she had on and nodded. She did look pretty crazy and there was no way that she’d argue with him now that she had made a fool of herself.

“Are you angry with me?” she asked. “You know—for ruining your business meeting. Do I still have a job?”

“Of course you do, honey,” he said. “And no, I’m not angry with you. I think it was kind of sexy the way you barged in here to fight for me.”

“Actually, I barged in here to fight with you, but your version sounds better,” she said.

“Yeah, I think I like my version better too,” he agreed, causing her to giggle.

“How about we head home?” he asked.

“Um, I brought your security guard with me—he’s sitting in the parking lot waiting for me to come back out with my takeout order.”

“Let me guess, you told him that you wanted to pick up some food so that he’d drive you over here?” he asked.

“Well, he wasn’t about to let me out of his sight and go against your orders to keep an eye on me no matter what,” she said. “So, I came up with a little white lie.”

“You are very crafty,” he said. She wasn’t sure if he meant that as a compliment or not, but that was how she planned on taking it.

“Um, thank you,” she said.

He reached for her hand and led her to the front door. “I’ll relieve him and tell him to go home.”

“Don’t be mad at him,” she insisted.

“I can’t be upset with him, honey. He just bought into your crazy plan and that’s not his fault. You are pretty irresistible,” he said. “Give me just a minute.” She stood by the front door and waited for Alex to run over to the SUV and talk to his very surprised security guard. The guy looked past Alex at her, and she shrugged and waved, giving him her best, “I’m sorry” smile. The guy pulled away and Alex walked back over to her.

“Let’s go home, honey,” he said. “How about this weekend, we move the rest of your stuff over to my house?” he asked.

“Your house?” she questioned.

“Yep, and if you don’t like my house, we can pick one of the others to live in,” he offered.

“I love your house, but don’t you think it’s kind of soon for us to move in together?” she asked.

“Well, you’re practically living with me now and I’m happier than I’ve ever been,” he said. “So, how about it?”

“Yes,” she agreed. Nova was done with living her life in fear. She wanted to be with Alex, and she had to admit, she washappier than she’d ever been living with him. “I’ll move in with you.”

Alexander

Alex ran out of his office, waving the papers in his hand around like a madman. “We’ve got him, honey,” he said. He had been combing the thumb drive that Evie had given them for weeks now, and every night that he took Nova home with no new information, it broke his heart.

Every Saturday, when they picked up Jack, Nova lit up. And when they had to drop him back off on Sunday afternoon, he held her while she cried and told him that it wasn’t fair that they had to give him back to Simon. He agreed it wasn’t fair, but he just wasn’t finding the information that he needed on the drive that Evie stole from his firm—until today.

“We’ve got who?” Nova asked.

“Simon,” he said, “we've got the evidence that we need to put him behind bars for a damn long time. He bribed the lawyer who worked with you to do a shitty job, and he bribed the judge, just for good measure. He’s bribed half the judges in the county—Evie was right, it’s all right here. It was just encrypted on the drive and took a bit of digging to get to it,” he admitted.

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