Page 35 of Irrevocably Mine

Dax thought his heart couldn’t possibly break for her more.

He was wrong.

Stacy began to scream and try to scramble away, but Hank’s body held her in place. She was obviously terrified and she needed him. Right now.Damn door. Dax became frantic to reach her as her screams went on and on. Pounding on the door and calling her name wasn’t doing shit to help him get to her.

Sirens cut through the night. They were just a few blocks away and moving closer; even that was too long to wait. He needed to wrap her in his arms, and tell her everything was going to be all right. Dax would never walk away without a fight again. Spinning around, he reached for the wrought iron cafe table behind him and swung. And swung. Dax kept swinging until the door shattered into a million faceted pieces. There were some things he would never forget about this night, the sound of his boots crunching the bits of glass into tile was one of them. That sound meant he was moving toward his love in her hour of need.

Dax lost traction when he stepped in the still-growing pool of blood. He went down hard, but that didn’t stop him from reaching her. As he tossed the body aside like I rag doll, Stacy scrambled into his arms. The momentum almost put him on his back. She clung to him as if her life depended on it and cried. Dax had never witnessed this side of her and, as much as he had wished to see a slightly vulnerable side of her in the past, he never wanted to see this again.

“Shhhh, babe. I’ve got you. No one will ever hurt you again, okay? Trust me, I will never walk away like that. Ever.” It was a vow. One he would keep. “Shhh,” he soothed.

“I…I…killed him,” Stacy cried. “I had to. He made it clear I was not leaving here alive. I didn’t have a choice. I…” Her head turned to where the body lay, but Dax pulled her attention back toward him. It was then he realized he couldn’t see much skin on her face. It was all covered in blood. After his fall, he was too.How much can a human body bleed?He shook off his shock at her appearance and the amount of blood to get through her rambling.

He grasped her bloody face with both of his hands and paused at the sight. His hands seemed to eclipse her face, adding a layer to her vulnerability. “You listen to me, Stacy, you didn’t kill him so much as you saved yourself. Just like you always said you could. He made his choice when he entered this house.” As hard as it was to ignore the gore that covered them both, Dax leaned his forehead to hers. “You did good, babe, I just wish you hadn’t had to. But no more tears for that asshole. You did what he forced you to do. No regrets.”

The sirens were deafening as they came to a halt right outside the front door. Boots echoed off the stairs and the police announced their presence. Dax yelled back through the door, telling the police his name and hoping that John’s call included it so they didn’t automatically assume he was the perpetrator. The cops played along, at least, and asked how many people were in the house, their names, any weapons, etcetera. So, John must’ve told them something. Dax replied with all the answers, and that the kidnapper was dead. He finished with, “We’ll go to our stomachs now.” He knew better than to get up and open the door in his state. This wasn’t his first rodeo. Dax wasn’t sure how much of his information they would trust, but he would do his best to keep the situation from escalating out of fear.

“Babe, we need to get down and spread out now, okay?” Stacy’s coherency was returning and she nodded.

While going to her stomach, she turned to him. “I didn’t mean any of it. I need you know that. I didn’t mean a single word. I…I love you.” With her declaration, she dropped to the floor like a stone and assumed the position.

Dax did the same. “I know, babe, I love you, too.” Then he yelled to the officers who were still on the other side of the door. “We’re in position.”

His only thought as the cops entered—from seemingly every direction—was,she said it. She fucking loves me. I am the luckiest man on the planet.

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