Page 81 of Ice Cold Christmas
Victor wanted to kill. For a moment, everything went dark around him as a killing fury consumed him. Rage nearly choked him. Some bastard had taken his Melody. Attacked her.
Abducted. Melody was abducted. He’d screamed those words at Detective Clinton so long ago. At the other cops. At anyone who would listen. But they’d refused to use the term “abducted” in their investigation. She’d “disappeared”—that was how they’d termed it. “Vanished” one night. They’d often said she’d “gone missing” when they described her.
Bullshit. She’d been abducted. He’d known it. Had known that she would not leave him and her father without glancing back.
Melody had loved him. She wouldn’t disappear, vanish, or just fucking go missing for shits and giggles.
Abducted. Attacked. Nearly killed.
She’d been through hell, and he hadn’t been able to help her.
Never again.
“I got away,” she whispered as she shivered in his arms. “It was so cold in the snow.”
Fuck that shiver. He rose, holding tightly to her, and when he sat down on the bed again, he’d repositioned their bodies. With one hand, he tugged the thick comforter up over her. He needed her to be warm.
“I walked and walked through the snow until I couldn’t even feel my toes any longer.” Her head tilted back. Her eyes had narrowed as she peered at him. “I had frostbite,” she suddenly said. “In the hospital. I remember them telling me that. They said…said I was lucky I hadn’t lost any toes but with everything else happening, I just…” A sigh. “Frostbite seemed like the least of my worries when they were telling me that I’d been in a coma. That they’d worried about permanent brain damage. Everything they discussed seemed to hit me in a haze. Then I was just staring at them and realizing I had no idea who the hell I was supposed to be.”
Fuck. This. “You are Melody Mage,” he told her. Was he aware that his voice was deep and harsh? Yes. Could he do anything about that? No. “You are the woman I live and die for.”
Her lips parted. Her eyes searched his. “I screamed for you.”
She had, and he’d come running.
A little furrow cut between her brows. “When the car was barreling toward me, when all I saw were headlights in the dark…even as it hit…I screamed.” A pause. “For you.”
Did she understand how those words utterly carved the heart from his chest? She’d screamed for him, and he hadn’t been there to help her.
“You came running tonight…” That furrow scrunched a little deeper. “Because I screamed your name, didn’t you?”
He nodded.
“I…” A blink of her incredible eyes. “I screamed for you when we were at the Mage Mansion, didn’t I?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t realize—” Melody stopped, shaking her head. “How long have I been waking up, screaming for you, and I didn’t even realize it?”
Yes, his heart had just been completely carved out. Going forward, Melody would have an army of guards around her. She would have every bit of protection he could give to her. She would have his entire fortune at her beck and call. “Marry me.”
Her lips parted. “What?”
Okay, dammit, he hadn’t meant to spit out the proposal. Or maybe he had. Not like he was in full control at the moment. “Marry me. As my wife, you will have full access to everything I own. Every resource I have. You can stay protected, always. I can have so many guards around you that you never have to be afraid again.” And he’d have her tied to him. Melody would be linked to him. Forever. “We can leave,” Victor told her because he wanted her safe. If safety meant getting the hell out of that city and never coming back, then done. He was ready to board the plane with her. “We can fly to Paris. To London. We can go to some tropical island where we will have complete privacy.” Hell, he’d buy her an island, if she wanted. “I can make sure you’re protected twenty-four, seven. You don’t ever have to fear again. I can have you so surrounded?—”
“I don’t want to hide for the rest of my life.” A slow, negative shake of her head that sent her soft hair brushing lightly over him. “And I don’t want the monster who hurt me to get away. I can’t let him hurt someone else. I can’t let him do this again. I will not run from him. I will not let him destroy me. I can’t.”
He wanted to take her away. To force her into hiding. But…
That wasn’t him. And he understood her desire for justice.
He wanted justice, too. Okay, fine, fuck it. What he wanted was vengeance. Good, old fashioned, I-will-fucking-kill-you-for-what-you-did-to-her vengeance. “I’ll put him in the ground for you.” A simple offer. A quiet promise.
She sucked in a breath. “Victor.” But, rather than look horrified, she stared at him as if he’d just said the sweetest thing in the world to her. “You love me.”
He could not speak. A lump had risen in his throat, choking him.
“You offer to kill for me in the same quiet tone that you use when you offer to whisk me away to Paris.” A faint smile curved her lips and lifted some of the terror from her eyes. “I actually think you would do both if I said yes.”
