Page 48 of Enticing the Enforcer
Did someone get to her?
We exit the arena without any update, and she’s all I can think of on the car ride back to the hotel. The back seat of the limo is silent other than the girls’ scrolling their phones looking for any piece of information. It’s just rumors at this point, which is only ratcheting up my anxiety even more. By the time we get there, it’s deep into the night. Marv waits at the hotel doors, arms crossed, carved from stone. I’m shocked to see him.
I open my mouth to ask about her, but he’s already jerked his chin. “Come with me.”
I’m not intimidated by many people. I’m a big guy–I’ve been big since puberty, now I spent six days a week dropping two-fifty pound defenseman. But Marv? He’s terrifying. The way he looks at me makes me think I’m either in trouble or something really bad has happened.
“Is she okay?” I blurt as he swipes a badge over the keypad. He doesn’t answer. Doesn’t even look at me. “Seriously, man, I’m freaking out here.”
We ride the elevator in silence. My stomach twists tighter with every floor. Marv finally says, “There was a threat. Someone breached her dressing room–somehow they got past security and left a box. We had to call the bomb squad in to do a sweep.”
“Fuck. Was it anything dangerous?”
“Not sure. There were a few online threats, but unfortunately that’s not unusual. The box turned out to be a gift that some poor fan spent a lot of time on, but is now destroyed. The big question is how they got in.”
“Will the police follow up on it?”
He nods. “Them and Ingrid’s full security team. We treat every potential threat as if it’s real.”
Thank God for that.
The doors slide open to the penthouse.
I step inside, heart in my throat. Madison paces the floor, flanked by staff whose names I don’t know. They look shaken.
And then I see her.
Curled on the couch in sweats, damp purple hair hanging over her shoulder, eyes heavy, but alive.
Relief crashes into me so hard I have to catch myself on the wall.
She lifts her head, gives me the softest smile, and it undoes me. Madison clocks the look on my face, then waves everyone out. One by one, the suite empties until it’s just us.
I cross the room, fists still balled tight as I take in every single thing about her, cataloging her body for the smallest damage. My voice comes out rough.
“Angel. Tell me you’re okay?”
Ingrid tries for a smile, but I see the crack in it. “I’m fine. Really. Things like this happen sometimes. Security handled it.”
Her casual tone doesn’t land. Not when I can still hear the muffled voices in the next room. For the last two hours she was out of my reach, and all I could imagine was someone slipping past the walls meant to keep her safe. Someone taking her away.
I close the gap between us, taking her hand and pulling her away from the couch. It’s hard enough that she blinks, but I need to feel her. The words scrape out of my throat, raw, “Don’t tell me it’s nothing. You have no idea how fucking scared I was. I thought–”
“You thought what?”
I shake my head, refusing to put that fear into words. Instead I lead with my body—the one thing I’m sure of and that neverfails me. I pull her into me, into my arms, and I bury my face in her neck, breathing her in. The rest of the world may still be moving, but none of it matters. Only her. “You’re mine,” I whisper, voice breaking with it. “And no one touches what’s mine.”
She leans back just enough to search my face. “Yours?”
“Fuck yes,” I say firmly, the words slipping out before I can second-guess them.
It lands between us like a thunderclap. We’ve been dancing around it for weeks, pretending it didn’t matter what we were. Playing it cool, like the games were enough. But tonight stripped all of that away. I almost lost her before I even had her. That thought makes me reckless.
“I want you, Ingrid,” I tell her, the truth laid bare in my chest. “I’ve wanted more since the first night I met you. Tonight just made it crystal clear. I don’t want almost. I don’t want halfway. I want you.”
Her breath catches, lashes trembling. Then she nods. “All I thought, when security surrounded me, was if I’d get back to you.”
That’s all the permission I need. My mouth is on hers, rough with relief, with the crash of adrenaline still roaring through me. She kisses me back like she needs it just as badly, like she felt the same fear. Her fingers clutch at my shirt, pulling me closer until there’s no space left between us.
