CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Blair slashed yet another tire as she waited for him to appear at the top of the hill. She could hear him coming closer. Could hear grass rustling and branches snapping.

She’d expected him to come barreling up the hill, but either the climb wasn’t so easy or the asshole was a little dazed. Or maybe it was a little of both.

Finley peeked out of the rear of the van. “I called Luke,” she said, her voice low. “He’ll be on his way as we speak.”

“Get back inside,” hissed Blair, slashing the fourth tire. “I told you, you need to stay out of sight. I know it goes against your instincts to hide, but I need him to focus on me.”

The enforcer’s mouth thinned. “I know, but I don’t have to like it.” She paused as a cry of alarm rang out, followed by thuds and snaps that suggested he’d fallen back down the hill. “Are you sure you don’t want to just make a run for it? I know we’re in bad shape, but he can’t follow us by car now.”

“He’d give chase on foot. Our scents would lead him straight to us.”

“And you’d rather face off with him.”

“And I’d rather face off with him.”

Finley muttered an oath. “Fine. Just know that if he attacks you, I’m not gonna stay in hiding—injured or not.” She retreated into the van.

Letting out a long breath, Blair moved to stand in front of the vehicle’s hood. She could hear him once more trying to make his way up the hill. Ten minutes. Luke would be here in ten minutes—maybe less if he really hit the pedal hard. She could keep her captor distracted for that long.

Blair’s inner female planted her feet, more than ready to make this asshole pay. Even if it hadn’t been for her current state and she thought that she had a shot of outrunning him, Blair wouldn’t have fled. She wasn’t anyone’s prey—least of all his. And she wouldn’t have wanted to take the chance that instead of tracking Blair he’d quite simply take off and come at her some other time. She wanted all this to end tonight.

Blair prayed that he’d fall again but there was no such luck. Her gut tightened as he finally reached the top of the hill, his expression hard, his fists clenched. Scratches decorated his face and arms. There was some light bruising here and there. Blood dripped from an ugly wound on his hairline.

His mouth tightened. “You’re supposed to be in the van.”

“I’m supposed to be in the very spot from where you grabbed me.” As she stared at him, a shard of ice lanced her chest. His betrayal was still too much to process. She hadn’t fully trusted him—had never fully trusted anyone but Luke, Mitch, and Kiesha—but she hadn’t ever thought she was in danger from him.

She’d been wrong.

Keeping her cool was not going to be easy when there was so much she wanted to scream right into the delusional asshole’s face. Especially when her female longed to rip him to shreds and kept urging Blair to do it. But what she needed was to buy herself some time, and that meant not going apeshit just yet.

He scanned their surroundings. “Where’s the damn cat?”

“She ran to get help,” Blair told him.

He grunted, unconcerned. Well of course he was. It might be a ten-minute drive back to the drop-off point, but it wouldn’t be so quick a run. Especially not for someone as injured as Finley.

Blair tipped her head to the side as she studied him. “You know, I can’t say that anything about you ever gave me the creeps.”

His gaze snapped back to hers.

“I never had a single moment where I thought, ‘This dude is a little weird.’ I never once felt uneasy around you. It has to be said, you’re very good at hiding your true self.”

His brow pinched. “I didn’t hide any part of who I am from you.”

“Not true. You hid parts. Faked others. Played a role. You fooled everyone, including me. Fooled me into thinking that I was safe with you.” It shamed both her and her cat that they hadn’t seen through his act. No one had, true, but still.

His face firmed. “You’ve always been safe with me.”

Blair very slowly lifted a disbelieving brow. “Not sure if it has slipped from your memory, Donal, but you drugged me. You scooped me up with a net like I was a goddamn fish. You locked me in a crate and drove off with me against my will.”

For a brief moment, his eyes flickered with what might have been shame. “I gained no pleasure from any of that. It wasn’t what I wanted. But you left me no choice.”

He thought he could throw the weight of this on her? “You had plenty of choices.” Plenty of sane ones.

His gaze went hard. “And you had plenty of chances to come home. You didn’t.”

“Sylvan territory isn’t my home anymore.”

He took two steps toward her. “Your home is with me.”

She gestured at the van with her thumb. “In that little crate, you mean?”

Swearing beneath his breath, he thrust a hand into his hair. “Things weren’t supposed to go this way.”

“No? How were they supposed to go? Tell me.”

“We should have been mated by now. We would have been if you weren’t intent on playing immature games and making me prove myself to you. None of that should have been necessary, Blair. We had a silent understanding that I’d claim you once you came of age.”

“We did, huh? I never got that memo.”

Taking another step toward her, he gave her a pointed look. “You know you’re mine. You’ve always known that.”

“How can you honestly tell yourself that when you’re perfectly aware that Luke and I discovered we were mates years ago?”

He waved that away. “There was no discovery. It was like your mother used to say, he made the claim; you agreed, thinking it was true. Children are often confused about such things. You eventually realized that you’d made a mistake, but you said nothing because the entire situation pissed off Noelle and that suited you fine.”

Her lips parted, Blair stared at him for long seconds. “It is truly amazing how much you lie to yourself. You could explain away pretty much anything that you don’t want to believe, couldn’t you? If something doesn’t fit your narrative, you rewrite it to suit you.”

“There is no narrative, there is only the truth. That being that we are mates. If I’d thought you needed me to make the first move, I would have done it the day you turned eighteen. You’ve never been shy or hesitant about going after what you want before. I should have been mindful that … certain things would make you nervous.”

By “certain things,” he no doubt meant her virginity. “If you really believed that I wanted the same things you do, you wouldn’t have drugged and kidnapped me. You wouldn’t have confined me in a crate. You would have simply asked me to come with you.”

He snapped his mouth closed.

“You know this is wrong, Donal. Deep down, you know you shouldn’t—”

“What I know is that we’re predestined mates.” He paced as he began to rant—going on about how people so often blinded themselves to the truth and how plain fruitless it was to fight fate.

Blair didn’t properly take in the words, her focus instead on taking stock of herself. Some of her strength had returned, but not enough for her to overpower him. As Finley had pointed out, he was one tough mother. If Blair pounced, he’d soon subdue her and then she’d be back in the crate.

Finley would help her try to take him down, of course, but Blair knew his style; knew what he’d do—go right for her injuries to further weaken the feline. It seemed more logical and less risky to keep him talking. Which was something he was doing plenty of at that moment.

More than happy to let him waste time, Blair remained still and silent. She took a moment to tune into Luke’s emotions via their bond. His panic wasn’t quite as electric. Determination and anger were his most dominant emotions. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but he felt closer than he did before.

Probably her imagination.

Still, he couldn’t be too far away now, could he? Five minutes had to have gone by, at the very least. Maybe even more. It was hard to tell.

Donal stopped pacing and turned toward her. “You’re not listening to me, are you?”

“Of course I am.”

He snorted. “Time to leave. We’ll talk more in the van.”

Her pulse jumped as he took a step toward her. “I’m not her,” Blair blurted out.

He halted, his brows pulled together. “What?”

“Alayna. The woman you once almost imprinted on.”

His expression iced over. “Where did you hear that name?”

“I’m not her,” Blair repeated.

“Well of course you’re not her.”

“But I remind you of her.”

He scoffed. “You’re nothing like her. She was weak. Spineless. You’re the opposite. You’re my equal. You’ll make a perfect Beta female.”

And that was when Blair realized … “All these years that you gave me advice and training on being a Beta wasn’t really to prepare me for life at the Olympus Pride. No, you did it because you’d convinced yourself that you and I would be the Beta pair of the Sylvan Pack.”

“That was always the plan. We both knew that you would never mate with Devereaux. But we also knew that if I’d declared my intentions, Noelle would have lost her mind. She might have paraded all those young male bush dogs in front of you, but she didn’t want you to mate any of them early on in life. She only wanted you to date them. She wasn’t ready to let you go. She’s still not ready, but she’ll just have to deal with it.”

“You truly think that you can take me to Sylvan Pack territory and that everyone will just accept we’re now together?” It wouldn’t surprise her. He was off his rocker.

Donal hesitated. “You’re not ready for that. You and I need some … quality time alone first. I’ve prepared a home for you. I’ll spend as much time with you there as I can. Once you fully accept and admit that you’re mine, once the mating bond is complete, I’ll take you back to our territory.”

Wait, he intended to jail her somewhere and not free her until he’d brainwashed her into thinking that they were mates? Oh, he was high. “That’s not gonna happen.”

“You’ll only have to stay there for as long as it takes for you to—you know what? We can talk about this later. Let’s move.”

Not likely. “Your plan has zero potential, Donal. Even if you did manage to imprison me somewhere, it wouldn’t last long. Everyone will be searching for me.”

“They’ll never find you.”

“Sure they will. They already suspect you.”

“I have plans to make Gabriel take the fall.”

Blair would have pointed out that Finley had seen Donal and would describe him to others, but that might inspire him to go hunt her down before she could “get help.” It was better to keep him talking. “Gabriel take the fall?” she echoed.

“Yes. It won’t be difficult to make him … disappear. Everyone will then instantly believe that he took you.” Donal cleared his throat. “I won’t enjoy using him as a scapegoat—the boy’s been through enough. Not that he isn’t better off without his parents.”

Her scalp prickled. There was something about the way he’d said the latter words, something that made her instincts scream. “You killed them, didn’t you?”

A muscle in Donal’s cheek jumped. “I never intended to kill her,” he insisted, defensive.“I only meant to shoot Warrick. I wouldn’t have hurt Milly, not for the world. But she wouldn’t stop trying to protect him. And after I shot him, she lunged at me to grab the gun and … it just went off.”

“It just went off?”

“What, you don’t believe me?”

“I believe you lie to yourself quite often. What did Warrick ever do to you anyway?” She narrowed her eyes as his words replayed in her mind … “I wouldn’t have hurt Milly, not for the world.” And then Blair understood. “You developed a little obsession with Milly. You pursued her, even though she was claimed by another male. You thought she’d make a good mate for you—”

“For a time, yes, I did mistakenly think that she was fated to be mine. Even though she proved that my belief was wrong when she risked her life to save his, I still found it hard to accept at first. But it all worked out fine, because as you grew up I learned that she wasn’t the woman I’d been waiting for at all. It was you.”

Blair couldn’t help but wonder if there’d been other women over the years he’d become obsessed with. Others he’d convinced himself were meant to be his mate. Hell, even Alayna could have been a female he’d developed an unhealthy attachment to as opposed to someone who had wanted to imprint on him.

He rolled his shoulders. “Like I said before, we can talk more in the van.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He heaved a sigh. “If you want to sulk about the drug, fine, knock yourself out. But you know in your heart I wouldn’t have resorted to that if you hadn’t forced my hand.”

“How did I force your hand?”

“You’re the one who wanted me to take control. Well, I did. It isn’t my fault if you don’t like the reality of it.”

“Reality,” she drawled. “I have the distinct feeling that you and I live in totally different versions of reality. In mine, we’re not mates. Not even close. The claiming bite on my neck only proves it.”

His eyes flared. “Don’t think that you won’t pay for letting Devereaux mark you.”

“I didn’t simply allow Luke to mark me. You can tell that my scent has mixed with his. You can probably even tell that the mating bond is complete. You’re willfully ignoring all of that because it suits you to do so, but that doesn’t make any of it untrue. Face it, Donal, I’m not your—”

“Don’t say it,” he bit out, taking a lurching step forward. “Like I said, we’ll talk … what the hell?” he growled, finally noticing the punctures in the tires. “Tell me you didn’t do that.”

“I could. But I’d be lying. You should have expected it, really. But then, you truly have managed to convince yourself that I want to be with you. Well, like Isaid, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He clenched and unclenched his fists. “Don’t make me hurt you, Blair. I’d hate to have to do it, I really would.”

“But you’d do it anyway, which just goes to prove that we’re not mates.”

Something ugly rippled across his face. “Make no mistake about it, Blair, you belong to me.”

“No, she fucking doesn’t.”

Blair’s heart jumped. The male voice came from behind her. A voice that belonged to her mate. Thank God.

Luke had to have parked somewhere close by so he could scope out the situation before planting himself in it. She hadn’t sensed him arrive or creep up on them. But cats were sneaky that way.

She saw in her peripheral vision that Luke and a bunch of others were rounding both ends of the van to flank her. She longed to drink in the sight of Luke, but she didn’t dare look his way, determined to keep Donal in her line of sight. She didn’t trust that he wouldn’t lunge at her or something, despite that his attention seemed to now fully be on the male cat who sidled up to her. Her female bared her teeth in a smug, feral grin, sure that their mate would make Donal pay.

Donal’s face contorted into one of sheer rage. “You.”

Luke planted his feet. “Yeah. Me.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“You thought I wouldn’t come for my mate?”

Donal snarled. “She isn’t yours.”

“Wrong.” And seeing her alive and unharmed untied the knots in Luke’s gut, but his fury remained. This sick freak needed to be put down like a rabid dog, and Luke had every intention of making that happen. “Blair was meant for me.”

“You are nothing to her.”

“Wrong again. She’s the other half of my soul. I knew it the first time I met her.” Luke tilted his head. “You can’t say the same, can you? Not from what I just overheard. It sounds as if you jump from one woman to another—you pin your entire focus on them, you convince yourself that they’re your mate, you no doubt also stalk them, and when things don’t work out the way you hoped, you oh so suddenly realize that another female is actually your mate.”

“Blair is mine.” The words were sure. Hard. Nonnegotiable.

Luke shook his head—not only in objection, but in sheer wonder. The other male didn’t seem in any way mentally unbalanced. There was no yelling. No sharp, jerky movements. No signs that he was on the verge of exploding. Yet, he was quite clearly unstable.

“She’s only ever been mine, Donal. The evidence of that is right in front of you. But I won’t bother trying to force you to acknowledge the mating bond—you’re clearly not going to. Besides, I’m more interested in tearing you apart.” Luke took two predatory steps forward, a spike of adrenaline pouring into his bloodstream. “You’ll die tonight, Donal. Let’s face it, it’s been a long time coming.”

Donal inched up his chin. “It will be you who breathes their last.” He cricked his neck, his mouth curled into a smug grin that said he was certain he’d win the duel. “I’ve been looking forward to this moment.”

Keeping his muscles loose, Luke took another fluid step forward. “Not half as much as I have.”

They both charged.

Luke went in hard and fast and vicious. Donal retaliated ferally, attacking like a wild animal. The duel was ugly. Dirty. No holds barred.

Flesh thudded into flesh. Blood splattered on the ground. Grunts and growls rang through the air.

It quickly became clear that Donal was well-trained in combat. That was only to be expected, given he was Beta of his pack. Every counterstrike was wicked fast and brutally accurate. The bastard had one hell of a steely punch.

It also became clear that Donal had one major weakness—he allowed his anger to rule him. And so he often failed to block the pitiless blows that came his way, too focused on fighting offensively.

Luke took full advantage of it, repeatedly landing devastating punches on Donal’s head wound, making it bleed and bleed. His fury still hot and electric, Luke’s cat egged him on. The animal wanted the other male to suffer. Craved his fear. Hungered to brutalize him. Luke was quite happy to oblige his cat. He wouldn’t stop until the bush dog was bloodied, mauled, and dead.

Luke unsheathed his claws and took a swipe at Donal’s belly. Cloth ripped. Skin tore. Blood welled up.

Breathing hard, Donal tightened his fists. “Bastard.” He punched out his balled up hand.

Luke caught the fist and twisted sharply, hearing a tendon snap.The asshole’s pained grunt was music to the cat’s ears. “I was thinking the same of you.” Luke followed up the move with a vicious blow to the bastard’s jaw that made his head whip to the side.

Donal spat a glob of blood and saliva on the ground, and Luke’s cat bared his teeth in a grin of cruel satisfaction. Then the Beta came at Luke in a flurry of fists, hitting him with one body shot after another.

The bystanders egged on Luke, but he tuned out their voices, focusing on his opponent. He was torn between incapacitating him fast and dragging out the fight. Luke was eager for this threat to his mate to finally be eradicated, but he was in no mood to end the bush dog’s suffering soon—not after what the bastard had put Blair through.

Pain rippled up Luke’s body as a rib cracked. Jesus Christ. He snapped out his fist, smashing it into the wound on Donal’s scalp once again.

The bush dog hissed, his eyes blazing. “It won’t matter how hard or many times you hit me. It won’t make her yours.”

“She already is mine.” Luke jerked back, evading the claws that came at his face, and then savagely rammed his fist into the Beta’s face, hearing his cheekbone fracture.

Donal jerked back, sucking in air … and Luke sensed the moment that Donal lost his confidence. Gone was the smugness of earlier. In its place was an uncertainty tinged with fear—the smell of it tainted the air.

Relishing the scent, Luke attacked again with his claws—shredding flesh, stabbing into Donal’s sides, swiping at his throat. The Beta dodged and weaved, but not fast enough. Soon, he was easing back under the pressure.

Still, Donal didn’t wave a white flag. He continued to throw punches—even managed to deliver a solid blow to Luke’s jaw that had so much power behind it he was surprised his teeth didn’t rattle—but Luke was now dominating the fight and they both knew it.

Grabbing the bush dog firmly by the throat, Luke sent his fist smashing into Donal’s ribs again and again and again. Choked breaths whooshed out of Donal, who would have doubled over if Luke hadn’t had a grip on his throat.

A grip Luke then tightened. “Told you you’d die tonight.”

His eyes widening, Donal struck out, wheezing.

Luke’s head snapped back as the bastard landed a mean uppercut. Son of a bitch. He retaliated fast, landing a punch on the spot behind Donal’s ear. The bush dog stumbled backward, double-blinking, his body swaying, his knees buckling.

Luke didn’t give him a moment to recover. He attacked like a savage, slamming his fists into the bush dog’s temples over and over, dazing him further. Soon, Donal dropped to his knees, his eyes completely glazed over. Luke wasted no time in acting. He unsheathed his claws once more and sliced the fucker’s throat, severing arteries.

It was no swift death. Donal gurgled and choked for what seemed like endless minutes. Then, finally, he slumped to the ground, unmoving.

Swiping at the blood dripping from his nose, Luke turned to face his mate. She sucked in a breath. Unsurprising. He knew he was a mess. His knuckles were red and swollen. His utter lip was split. Rake marks scored his face, chest, and sides. A deep gash sliced through his eyebrow, stinging like fuck courtesy of the sheen of sweat on his forehead.

Blair slowly came to him, reaching out to touch him but hesitating.

Knowing she was worried she’d hurt him, Luke curled an arm around her shoulders and tugged her close. She shuddered against him, and he could feel how much it pained her to see him so wounded. He put his mouth to her ear, whispering, “It’s over, baby. It’s all over.”

Healed, clean, and thoroughly sated, Blair sprawled over her mate later that night as they lay in bed. She couldn’t quite make her mind go quiet. It was currently a hub of activity, replaying the evening’s events again and again.

Well it wasn’t as if they’d been able to relax the moment Donal’s corpse hit the ground. There had been so much to do. Like getting rid of evidence and notifying her old pack about Donal.

Mitch had lost it when she’d returned his call and told him what happened, as had her parents when she’d later called them. They felt guilty for upholding that none of their pack mates could be her stalker, as well as for trusting Donal.

Breaking it to Embry that his Beta was not only her stalker but had killed Gabriel’s parents had been hard. Absolutely devastated by Donal’s betrayal and by Embry’s own mistakes, the Alpha had expressed an intention to visit Gabriel and “make things right.” Blair wasn’t sure that was doable, but she hadn’t said as much.

Donal’s body was now nothing but crumbs, according to Isaak—and yeah, ew. Dimitri had claimed the Beta’s van for himself on learning it wasn’t registered to Donal, so that was sorted.

None of the pride were shocked to hear that Finley had come to her rescue. But then, as Vinnie pointed out, the female enforcer might be a pain from time to time but she would always protect her pride mates whether she had a fondness for them or not.

After Blair thanked her for all that she’d done that night, Finley had responded, “Yeah, well, don’t read anything into it. I still don’t like you.” There had been no heat in her words, though. In fact, there’d been a playful glint in her eye.

Blair doubted that they would ever be friends, but she did get the feeling that they’d no longer be foes. Going by how Finley had earlier deferred to her as they cleaned up the evidence, the enforcer had clearly decided it was time to stop pushing for the position of Beta. Maybe it was Blair’s advice that made the difference, maybe it was something else. Whatever the case, Blair was glad of it.

As for the standoff between the humans and the shifters … the only casualties had been human, thankfully. Valentina’s brothers had tossed the bodies into Hank Wheeler’s van, promising that they would “take care” of them. Blair hadn’t asked what that meant, but she suspected it involved them using certain body parts as edible delicacies.

The pride members had gotten rid of the other vehicles and cleaned up all evidence of the battle. Unfortunately, that might not be enough to erase every trace of the meeting, since Wheeler or his cronies might have told other anti-shifter extremists about it. If so, their associates would for sure turn their attention to Vinnie when they realized that so many had gone missing.

No one was concerned about that, though. If contacted, Vinnie intended to claim that he’d delivered Camden and then driven away. As the extremists firmly believed that Vinnie was in their corner and trusted him implicitly, he didn’t believe they would at all consider that he could be connected to the “disappearance” of Hank and his fellow assholes.

Although Zayne wasn’t exactly a person who could go missing without it being noticed by many and then thoroughly investigated, the pride wasn’t much concerned that it would be linked to them. After all, it didn’t seem likely that the police would learn he’d recently paid Vinnie a visit. But if they did, Vinnie already had a story whipped up that would connect Zayne with extremists and shifter poaching—the police tended to avoid getting involved in such matters. And River would be a big help in ensuring that their attention was diverted anyway if necessary.

No one felt it was likely that the police would find something to link Zayne to Camden either. Zayne would have been a fool to leave a paper trail of his shifter poaching hobby lying around, including the document that Alex pinned to his wall. But if the police did somehow uncover such proof, they’d have no evidence to suggest that the tiger had any part in the human’s disappearance. Plus, Camden would have plenty of alibis in the form of pride members—all of whom the police thought were human so would be inclined to believe. And again, River would prove helpful in diverting their attention.

“I can practically hear you thinking,” said Luke, his voice low. He gave her hair a gentle tug. “What’s wrong?”

She propped her chin on his chest, meeting his eyes. “Nothing at all. I just can’t switch off. Sorry if I’m keeping you awake.” He’d no doubt feel her restlessness through their bond. Speaking of which … “I wasn’t conscious when our bond snapped fully into place earlier. What brought that on?” With all the activity around them, she’d forgotten to ask.

“It was my fault that it was incomplete until now,” he admitted. “I was holding back from fully committing to you, worried I’d go back to living in a fog and that you’d then be stuck tied to a man who was sleepwalking through life.” He stroked a hand over her hair. “I knew that being fully bonded to you would stop that from happening, but the fear was stupidly still there.”

“Not stupidly.” She traced the eyebrow that was now healed. “I think I’d have harbored that same worry in your shoes. It was probably something you were subconsciously working through all this time. But just so you know, I wouldn’t have considered myself being ‘stuck tied’ to you in a negative way if our bond hadn’t been able to prevent the fog from coming along again. You wouldn’t have been to blame, and I wouldn’t have looked to lay any blame anywhere. I’d have only wanted to be there for you. I would still have wanted nothing more than to be mated to you. If the situation was reversed, you’d have felt the same.”

His face softened. “You’re right, I would have.” He searched her eyes. “You’re not mad at me for subconsciously holding back, then?”

“Of course not. You’d be bleeding right now if I was.” She smiled as a chuckle rumbled out of him. Earlier, he’d been in no mood to even smile. It was during their shower that he’d confessed how much it had wrecked him to hear she’d been taken.

Blair had gotten a little growly when she realized that he idiotically blamed himself for not guessing that Donal would choose to act tonight. Luke had eventually agreed that it was dumb of him to feel such guilt, but she wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he’d only been placating her. Dominant males had a habit of shouldering blame that didn’t truly belong to them.

“I’m guessing your parents will turn up tomorrow,” said Luke. “They’ll want to see you in person; see with their own eyes that you’re fine.”

“Probably. It’s still hard to believe that it was Donal who did all those things. I’d agreed that he was a possible suspect, yeah, but that was different from being confronted with the knowledge that he was actually the culprit we’d been seeking.”

“It hit you hard,” Luke sensed, hating her pain, wishing he could pound Dolan into the ground all over again.

She nodded. “Just as it would hit you hard if you discovered one of the pride betrayed you. That was what he did. Betrayed my trust in him. Made me grow up believing that I knew him. Made me believe that the mask he wore wasn’t a mask at all. And not only did all kinds of weird shit but killed a woman who, though bitchy toward me, did not deserve to have her life taken from her. All the time I spent with him, I never felt in danger from him; never sensed he had some dark, creepy obsession with me.”

Luke gave her a fierce look. “That does not mean that your judgement can’t be trusted. You’re not at fault for not seeing through his bullshit. Nobody did.”

“I know. I’m pissed at him, not myself.”

“Good.” Lifting his head, Luke planted a quick kiss on that mouth he loved and then settled down again. Sliding his hand up the smooth skin of her back, he added, “I bet you never thought that you’d be happy to see Finley.”

“You’d be right on that. But she came through for me. As did you. I needed you, and there you were. Like always.”

He stroked a hand over her hair. “And that’s how it’ll always be.”

“I know. I’m lucky that way.”

He felt his lips curve. “Yeah, you are. But then, so am I.”