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“Okay, you’re close enough,” I told her. “I need you to grab the railing.”
She nodded, swinging back. As she kicked her legs out, leaning back to propel herself forward, I heard the metal snap.
“Grab the broom!” I screamed.
Her hands scrambled for it, body beginning to fall, when the steel pole I held with my entire weight caught my best friend.
Wordlessly, I tried to reel her in. The metal bit into my palms and I gritted my teeth.
Just then, footsteps thundered behind me.
“Julietta!” Romero roared.
Kieran and Aaron dove for Arie. Romero’s hands wrapped near mine on the broom handle, steadying me.
A sob burst from me. As the guys pulled up my best friend from the ledge, I sank to the ground, tears pouring from me like a tsunami crashing onto dry land. A flood so great I soaked my front. Arie collapsed beside me, and we held each other for several minutes, until Romero’s jacket fell over my shoulders and Kieran slipped a blanket over Arie.
Romero knelt beside me, pulling me gently into his chest. I sensed he didn’t want to take me away from my best friend, but that he needed to feel me in his arms. That I was whole and safe.
I, too, needed him. He was relatively uninjured. Perfect. My head tilted back so I could search his face. The stubble on his jaw was just how I’d seen it last, but the dark bruise on his cheek and the cut above his left brow were new.
Lifting my face, I pressed my lips to his. He stilled, seemingly unsure of what to do. After a moment, he relaxed, deepening the kiss. It was tender yet fierce. Both of us fell into it, carving out a moment that etched our stories into the fabric of time. My body hummed with heat and desire. But though I’d vaguely sensed that Arie and the other two had left to give us privacy, my body was fraught with exhaustion and bruises.
I sank into him further, his heat seeping into me, and the shock of the past hour began to fade.
“Is it over?” I asked.
“Si, mi amor,” he rasped. “It’s over.”
I nodded, my relief so violent that my eyelids began to droop.
“Come,” he said, lifting me into his arms. “Let’s get you home, princesa.” Pressing a kiss to the top of my head, he whispered, “My brave little warrior.”
THE END
Epilogue
Four weeks later
I paced the small room, my stomach alive with a thousand butterflies. The waves crashing outside beckoned, and it was killing me not to peek at what awaited me.
“Quit pacing, you’re going to snag your dress,” Arie scolded.
I heaved a sigh, forcing myself to halt, and faced my best friend.
Her glittering blush-pink gown hugged her lethal curves. Hair partially pinned up, dark curls spilling over one shoulder…she was a dream.
She pulled me into a hug, careful not to move a single curl of my own. The hairdresser in the corner—a wiry man in his late fifties—gasped at the contact, ready to spring into action.
I shot him a look over Arie’s shoulder, which silenced him immediately. When we parted, she scanned me from head to toe. Suddenly, her eyes misted. “Hot damn, girl.” Her voice broke and I disguised a sob behind a laugh. Tears threatened to spill over, but I blinked them away, not wanting to smudge Arie’s hard work.
“I knew I should have snapped you up for myself,” she teased, dabbing the moisture from her eyes.
Chuckling, I hugged her again. The past few weeks had been insane. Arie had come to stay with me and Romero for a few weeks to be sure that the last of Morgan’s followers had truly dispersed. In that time, she’d filled me in on everything that happened during the month I was gone. Being in Connecticut, she’d thought I was simply ignoring her, but after two weeks she’d filed a missing person report. It had been dismissed almost immediately, and she’d flown back to California to demand that Romero tell her where I was. It wasn’t long before Castiel had abducted her.
“Thank you for everything, Arie,” I whispered.
“Forever and always.” Her promise was a brand on my heart.
