Page 32 of Hunted Hearts
“Juliette,” he said, his tone final, “we can replace it. We’re not going back. Get in the SUV.”
Her lips pressed into a thin line, frustration flashing in her eyes.
“You can sit up front.” He caught her gaze and gave her the closest he could come to a smile when he was reeling from everything that happened.
Washappening between them.
She issued a little watery laugh but she didn’t argue further.
Within minutes, they were on the road again, tires humming on asphalt as they pulled out of the lot and headed toward the city’s small private airstrip.
Theo kept his hands steady on the wheel, his gaze fixed on the road. Every muscle in his body was wound tight.
It didn’t help one bit that his mind kept circling back to the woman beside him—the warmth of her kiss still ghosting on his mouth, the feel of her weight in his arms when he carried her away from the burning building with her violin he saved in his clutch.
And the stubborn, aching truth that she was quickly becoming anything but a job.
The plane was waiting when they arrived, the engines humming low and the stairs already lowered. The Wyoming sky and the quiet of the Black Heart felt a lifetime away, but at least there, he could keep her safe.
At least there, he could breathe.
If he could remember how.
Chapter Six
The black SUV rumbled along the winding gravel drive, headlights cutting through the pitch-dark night. Juliette was silent in the back of the vehicle that picked them up at the private airstrip.
Theo didn’t introduce her to the driver when he ushered her inside. He just jumped into the front and they headed to their destination without speaking a word.
She leaned her forehead against the cool window, watching fields and shadowy fences roll by, her mind still spinning from the whirlwind of the past twenty-four hours.
They’d boarded the private jet so fast she hadn’t even processed that they were flying until they were airborne. And the bigger shock than flying private was the name on the side of the aircraft.
Malone.
She knewmegastars who didn’t own their own jets, and yet Black Heart Security had one on standby like it was just a company car?
She was only just beginning to understand the operation wasn’t some small-time protection detail. If they could pull a jet and a convoy together in an hour, they had to have office branches everywhere, maybe in every major city.
It was staggering…and a little humbling.
Her family had an aristocratic title and old money, the kind that built empires back in the day. But decades of higher costs of living had caused it to dwindle. Her father kept up with theestate home in France with shrewd investments, and Juliette never lacked for a single thing during her childhood.
But they didn’t have own-a-private-jet money.
She glanced sideways at Theo. His broad shoulders were broader than his seat despite the SUV’s size. He was watching the dark road ahead, arms crossed, his jaw shadowed and tight in the faint glow from the dashboard.
Rugged bulk and military discipline—that’s what she’d first seen in him. But now? The way he’d handled the chaos of her life—steady, calm, deliberate—even as flames and smoke eddied around them told her everything. He was more than the uniform. More than the muscles.
There was depth there. A quiet strength she hadn’t even scratched the surface of yet.
It made her own reputation of a prissy, rich, pampered violinist with her name in lights feel paper-thin in comparison. No one ever looked beyond the surface with her, not really.
But maybe Theo had. Or maybe she just wanted him to.
The SUV turned a bend, and suddenly, light splashed across the night. The sprawling ranch house came into view, a warm yellow gleam spilling from the windows. Strings of golden bulbs draped along the wraparound porch.
And the yard was filled with people. A whole crowd had gathered despite the late hour, waving and smiling as the vehicle rolled to a stop.
