Page 103 of Piece You Saved

His fingers grip my chin and angle my head up. His eyes are bright and happy. Surprised. “You do?”

It wasn’t in my head.

Thank God.

I think back to the blond man with the bulging bag of limes who made it his mission not only to save me but to make me feel safe and protected. More. To make me feel loved.

“Is it really so surprising?” I smile. “You’re so easy to love.”

I wonder how I didn’t fall in love with him right on the spot. Maybe I would have if Rylan hadn’t scarred me more on the inside than he had on the outside.

He winds his arms around me and lowers his face to my shoulder. “Kade will be jealous you told me first.”

I think of Kade and hug Aden tighter. “No, he won’t. He knows how I feel about him.”

I’ve never attempted to hide it. He looks at me with a warmth that makes me think he loves me, too. He won’t tell me, though, because feelings are something we both struggle to share. It’s why I never hide how I feel from him.

“Well, then Dariel will.” He places a soft kiss on my shoulder and lifts his head.

“Because he’s the one women fall in love with?” I hadn’t believed Kade when he told me that before, but more and more, I think I’m starting to see why. Dariel is broken in a way that women must itch with the need to fix him.

Aden brushes his fingers along my nape. “He messed up with you, and he’s realized how badly. I think it’s made him even more determined to keep you safe, and he’s our Alpha. We follow our Alpha when he gives an order.”

But at what cost?

I tilt my chin and stare him dead in the eye. “Even if his order means you all die?”

CHAPTER 28

DARIEL

“She’s not going back to him,” Kade bites out.

I meet Kade’s determined gaze, and say nothing.

Kade leans over the dining table, meeting my eye. “Dariel, you’re not thinking of handing her over. You can’t.”

I reach for the bottle of whiskey on the table, ignoring Harley’s curious gaze.

Kade shoves himself to his feet, gets to it before I can, and launches it at the wall. It showers us in whiskey and fragments of glass. “We arenottrading her for Sam,” he snarls.

For the second time in one day, I brush the glass from my hair, counting myself lucky it’s only in my hair. I pull my arm back as I sit back in my seat.

“The alternative is what? We leave Sam with him? We let Saige kill herself? What exactly is the plan here?”

He stares at me for a beat, then, growling with frustration, starts to pace the kitchen, squeezing his hands into tight fists as if on the prowl for something to punch. “I don’t fucking know. But we can’t fucking do this. We can’t.”

He focuses on Harley. Before he can destroy our kitchen the way he did our dance floor, I narrow my eyes. A knock at the front door pulls my attention from him. Standing, I cross over to answer it.

“Don’t kill the doctor.”

“Who the fuck is that?” Kade calls after me.

“The plan,” I call back, my eyes lingering on the spot where Claudine’s body had lain in the entryway. There’s no blood now, but there was. I’m going to have to unpack exactly how I feel about her absence soon. After we deal with this mess. “Or part of one.”

Kade’s curiosity is like pinpricks on my back as I make sure there’s no trace of blood on the hardwood floors.

Three phone calls in one day.

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