Page 90 of Hunted Hearts
Everyone was gathered around the table. The war room hummed with quiet energy, and screens flickered with scenes that she couldn’t begin to process.
None of it held her attention.
Not when Theo was standing across the room.
His gaze fixed on her, ever vigilant, always in control, even here in the heart of the storm they’d just survived.
Juliette watched him, her heart thudding softly in her chest.
There was no one else in the world she trusted more than this man. No one else she wanted at her side.
A ripple ran through the room like a soft lullaby after a night of chaos. But it was Theo’s voice that calmed Juliette’s heart.
“You’re safe now.”
The words came low, his eyes lined with exhaustion but his gaze unwavering. “Teams all over the world are moving in as we speak.”
Her attention shifted to the screens. What she saw was frightening but also filled her with a feeling of peace. Those criminals were getting what they deserved. So many children would be safe.
Theo took her hand in his rough clasp. “Every last person involved in running that…that so-called charity is being arrested or detained.No oneis walking away.”
Her pulse hitched. He said she was safe. She was supposed to feel relief and freedom from her fears over the past weeks.
But all she felt was cold panic threading through her chest.
Safe meant she didn’t need a bodyguard anymore.
Safe meant Theo was no longer tied to her.
Safe meant goodbye.
She took a step back. Her lips parted, but no sound coming out. Her body felt weightless. Sometimes she felt it when she was deep in the music, one with the strings beneath her fingertips.
Now it felt like the world had just shifted beneath her feet. She wrapped her arms around herself and forced her lungs to work. “So what now?” she asked, her voice a whisper. “I just…go?”
Theo’s brows dipped. “What?”
“I mean, now that I’m not a target…”
His steps were swift. He closed the space between them, gripping her hands like he needed to anchor her in place. He bent over her, his scent flooding her nose.
“Juliette,” he said softly, his voice deep with something that made her stomach tumble. “You don’t have to go. I don’t want you to go.”
Her heart cracked wide open.
“I’m in love with you, Juliette,” he went on, stroking his thumb across the inside of her wrist. “I don’t know when it happened or how, exactly. Maybe it was when you ordered me earbuds so I couldn’t interrupt you with my loud music.”
A half-sob broke from her throat.
He went on, “Or when you were on that stage looking right at me and I forgot how to breathe.”
She was staring at him the same way now.
Like he was everything. Because he was.
“I don’t know what spell you put on me,” he whispered, his lips lifting slightly at the corners. “Maybe it’s your music. Maybe it’s the way you look at me like I’m a man worth trusting.” He drew in a breath, voice shaking now. “All I know is I love you.”
Her tears came fast and without warning.
