Page 109 of Cruel Secrets

I wince as Gia shoots me a dirty look. “Oops?”

“After everything that’s happened today, all you have to say is oops?”

“Hell! Hell. Hell!” Bianca claps her hands in time with the words, getting a laugh out of Gia as she shakes her head and walks with me down the stairs.

“I can’t believe you taught our sweet little baby to swear.”

“At least her first word wasn’t fu?—”

Gia clamps her hand over my mouth as we hit the bottom step. “Don’t you dare say it. If we have to explain to your family why their niece if cussing like a sailor, then you and I are going to have a problem.”

I open the car door and put Bianca into her car seat. “Fine. I won’t teach her yet. We can change her diaper once we get away from here. I don’t want to be here when the cleaning crew comes.”

My phone buzzes and when I pull it out, there’s a picture of Noah’s dead body slumped against some shelving in one of the closets.

AIDEN:DIDN’T THINK GIA SHOULD HAVE TO SEE THIS. IN FRONT HALL CLOSET. CLEANERS KNOW.

AIDEN:CONGRATULATIONS ON FINALLY PUTTING THE BASTARD DOWN.

Gia settles into the passenger seat, reclining and closing her eyes. “My entire body hurts.”

“I know, baby, but we’re going to be at the safe house before you know it and everything is going to be?—”

“If you say some variation of fine or okay, I’m throwing myself out of this car. Everything is not fine. Nothing is okay.”

“We’re going to be safe.”

“You don’t know that,” she says as I start the car. “You have no way of knowing that a bigger chain of events hasn’t been started from this.”

* * *

Gia yawns laterthat night as she settles into bed beside me, her fingers brushing against one of several bandages on her face to protect the stitches. “Thank you for coming for us.”

I loop my arm over her shoulder, easing her into my side, needing to feel her close to me, knowing that nobody is ever going to be able to get close to her again. She’s going to stay safe with me.

My lips press against her temple before I brush them over her lips, trying not to hurt her more than she already is. “I’m never going to leave you again. I hope you know that by now.”

She presses her head to my chest. “I just want this to all be done.”

“It is done.” I comb my fingers through her damp hair.

“Are there any other enemies I should know about?”

Chuckling, I kiss her again. “If you think that anyone is going to take you or Bianca away from me again, you should know that they’ll have to rip you from my cold, dead arms.”

“Romantic.” She rolls her eyes but the corner of her mouth twitches.

“Anything for you.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY-ONE

GIA

Sweat sticksmy hair to my skin as I jolt upright in bed, heart racing.

I reach out and feel the other side of the bed, searching for Royce but he isn’t there. My heart seizes in my chest as I throw back the blankets. I swing out of bed, feet hitting the cold wood floors of our new penthouse.

Taking a deep breath, I open the drawer beside the bed, pulling out my gun and loading it.

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