Page 88 of Hunted Hearts
Her sob rattled loose. “I’m so sorry. I should’ve waited. Should’ve told you. I-I messed everything up.”
“You didn’t,” he said fiercely. “You saved that kid. We’ll get all of them. And what matters most to me is that we gotyouback.”
“But I should have known. I was stupid—”
“They lost,” he bit out, cutting her off. “You’re safe. The kids are safe. That’s all that matters.”
She buried her face in his shoulder, and his arms closed around her like steel bands. He smelled of musk and smoke andhim.
Outside, the noise continued. Orders were barked, suspects subdued, the flashbang haze was clearing.
But Juliette stayed tucked in the quiet cocoon of Theo’s embrace. And there, in the back of the limo that almost carried her away forever, Juliette realized one truth stronger than fear.
She belonged to Theo Malone.
“I thought I’d never see you again,” she whispered.
“You will.” His voice was grit. “Every. Damn. Day. For as long as you want me, honey.”
She let out a shaky breath. “You really came for me.”
“There was never a world where I wouldn’t.”
Chapter Seventeen
He could have lost her.
Theo braced his hands on the conference table and leaned forward. Eyes closed, he exhaled heavily through his nose as the adrenaline of the past six hours pounded through his veins.
For a long time, he stood like that, trying to scrub the vision of Juliette held in that limousine. The fear burning in the depths of her beautiful eyes wasn’t something he’d forget soon, if ever.
His shoulders slumped, and his throat worked with emotion.
He was in love with her.
How it happened so fast was anyone’s guess, but that was the bald truth of things. And when she left, she’d take his heart with her, packed away in her suitcase alongside the designer gown she’d worn tonight.
Behind him came a soft footstep. He swallowed the lump in his throat and cleared it with a tearing noise.
“Theo?” Willow’s quiet tone was the only one he could stand to hear right now.
He turned to see his sister with Decker right behind her. Theo didn’t know much about the guy, only that he stood guard over his sister like a sentinel in worn jeans and flannel.
He met Decker’s gaze. “Thank you for what you did for our family.”
He dipped his head in a single nod. Mute, as he had been ever since Theo returned to the Black Heart.
When he turned to Willow, she stepped forward and rested her warm hand on Theo’s arm. “Aspen and Honor took Juliette to her room to get cleaned up.”
“Good.” The word seemed to echo with a hollowness that matched the one in his chest at the thought of what almost happened to her…of what would have happened to him if that were the case.
“Theo.” Willow’s gray eyes were so much more like his mother’s than the rest of theirs. Maybe it was her long, thick lashes that made him conjure his mother’s image in that moment, but he had to look away.
She pressed her fingertips into his forearm. “I know you think you failed, but—”
He shook his head and stepped away from her. “I did fail. If I’d stayed with Juliette, none of this would have happened.”
His sister shook her head, her long, messy braid swinging over her shoulder. “You were protecting her from a danger you thought was coming for her. You never could have known it would be inside her purse.”
