Page 70 of Dirty Little Secrets
The silence in Xaiden’s SUV is thick enough to cut. The engine hums beneath us as the skyline bleeds into early dawn. My hands tremble in my lap. He hasn’t said a word since we left the warehouse. He drives like he always does, steady, commanding, not a single ounce of hesitation.
When we arrive at the private airport, we arrive at a safehouse tucked behind a tall gate in the Bronx, guarded and wired up like a fortress. Inside, it smells of leather and cedar and faint cologne.
Xaiden helps me down gently. His fingers linger at my wrist where the cuffs bit into me.
“Sit,” he says, motioning toward the edge of the leather couch. His voice is low, not cold anymore. Just… frayed.
He disappears into another room. I stare at my scraped wrists. I don’t realize I’m crying until I feel the warmth down my cheeks. When he returns, he’s got a first-aid kit. He kneels in front of me again like back in the warehouse. He takes my hands without asking, working in silence. The antiseptic stings, but I don’t flinch.
“Are you gonna kill me?” I whisper afraid I dodged one monster to only be devoured by another.
He looks up at that. His jaw tics, like he’s grinding down something ugly in his throat.
“No, Princessa.” He smiles. “You already been through enough.”
My breath hitches.
“I didn’t want it to happen like this,” I say, voice cracking. “I’m so sorry about everything.”
He nods and cups my face again, but this time he kisses me. Not rough. Not demanding. Just real.
“I don’t care who you were,” he whispers against my lips. “You’re mine now. And I’m glad you’re both Red and you. It’s why I couldn’t stop touching you as Red and couldn’t wait to be with you as Nori. I love you, Nori. And I shoot anyone between the eyes if they try to take you from.”
“I was one of the girls.”
“I know baby.”
He does. He must if he’s killed one of them in the past. “I need to get them out.”
“The Kings are on it.”
I close my eyes tears of relief pouring down my cheeks. “The kings. As in, the cartel.?”
He nods slowly. “We protect what’s ours.”
Maybe that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be. To be loved.
“I love you, Xaiden.”
He grins. “Good, because it would hard to ask you to marry me if you didn’t.
The End
