Page 100 of Stolen for Keeps
“You’ve already lived like you believe that,” she said. “You’ve carried the guilt. Every day.”
She was fucking right. But that didn’t make it easier to sit with.
“It still hits different if it’s black and white.”
She met my gaze. “You’re right.”
That hit harder than I expected. No trying to soothe it away. No easy answers. Just the truth, held gently.
Then she added, “But you’ve got me. I’ll be with you.”
It wasn’t some dramatic vow. Just her. Standing in it with me.
My Blue. Not delicate. Not dark. A kind of rare that thrived where nothing else could. She didn’t just hold pain. Sheunderstoodit.
“Know this, Noah,” she said. “I’m not afraid of the hard stuff. You were right. I wanted to shield you from more hurt. But sometimes, hurting together makes the weight a little lighter.”
And I knew she meant it. She’d lived her own kind of hell. She’d watched her father die because he couldn’t stop two dirty cops from taking his daughter. That kind of pain didn’t just fade. It rooted. And twisted into something you carried for life.
“But promise me something,” she said. “Ask Elia. Don’t live in the space of doubt.”
She wasn’t saying I was innocent. Wasn’t telling me to let go. She gave me a kind of courage no one else ever had.
And that…thatmeant everything.
When I’d first asked Elia to meet me at Whiskey & Barrel, I still wasn’t sure I’d go through with it. Part of me had every intention of keeping that wall right where it was. But now? Now I couldn’t keep it up even if I tried.
I curled my fingers around hers, my thumb brushing a slow circle against her skin. “Thank you,” I said. “That means more than I can say. And I will talk to El.”
“Do you want me there?”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve got this.”
Her smile came easily. Confident and proud.
I took both her hands in mine. “You know, Blue,” I said. “I told you I wasn’t going to lose you. Ever.” The image came back sharp—her dangling off that cliff, her fingers slipping, and me terrified down to my bones. “I said it was because I’d already lost someone. And now you know who. But the truth is, that wasn’t the reason.” I squeezed her hands. “I don’t want to lose you because I love you.”
A choked breath caught in her throat.
Then she threw herself into my arms.
I caught her without thinking, wrapping her up so tight that I didn’t know where she ended and I began. She was shaking. Or maybe I was. It didn’t matter.
“I love you too, Noah,” she whispered against my shoulder.
I pulled back just enough to look at her before I kissed her.
It wasn’t rushed. It wasn’t desperate.
It was the kind of kiss that made me forget I’d ever lived without it.
“I will never leave you,” I told her, my forehead resting against hers. “And I never, ever want to lose you.”
She buried her face in my neck, her breath threadbare against my skin. “But you don’t know what life’s going to hand you next,” she murmured. “Time. It’s the one thing you can’t control.”
Was she talking about what was coming next with the heist? Or something bigger…final? Either way, it rattled me.
“You’re right, Blue.” I held her tighter. “But whatever time we’ve got, I swear to God, I’ll give you the best of me for every second of it.”
