I push off my feet with a roar when the beep of a cell phone being shutdown is chased by the Russian voice demanding for the floor to be placed into immediate lockdown. I sprint past the office he’s commanding so fast, I’m certain I am nothing but a blur, but regretfully, rogue agents are more watchful than their younger, more strait-laced counterparts.
“Maddox!” My name scarcely leaves Agent Brahn’s mouth when the thud of his boots boom into my ears. He’s on my tail in an instant, and even faster than that, I’m crash tackled by two plain-clothed security officers I didn’t see coming from the other direction.
“Let me go! It’s my right to see her!”
I fight them with more gusto than I did my brothers, unforgiving if I hurt them. Even if the hope fueling my campaign the past thirty minutes is completely false, they’re denying me the chance to say a final goodbye to Demi. That, in itself, deserves retribution.
“Get off me! I want to see Demi! It’s my right to see her!”
I fight and fight and fight until the faintest trickle of a voice I wouldn’t forget in a million years stops my crusade in an instant. “Maddox?”
4
Demi
Maddox stares at me as if I am a ghost. Excluding the frantic thrust of his chest, he lays completely still, motionless and unmoving. His response to seeing me up and out of bed after a three-hour-long operation shocks me until recognition for his distress dawns on me.
With my jaw tight with annoyance, I shift my focus to the tall Russian agent at the back of the pack. “I said no!”
I had barely come to from an emergency D&C when I was propositioned with a wildly eccentric plan to have me permanently ostracized from the Petretti family. Agent Brahn was going to tell Maddox I didn’t make it through my surgery, that I had a condition that made it fatal for me to fall pregnant.
Years ago, I would have accepted his offer without the slightest bit of hesitation. Today, the only reply that formulated in my head was a stern no. I couldn’t leave Maddox, not in a million years, so there was no way I would leave him by making out he was partly responsible for my demise. It takes two to tango, just like it takes two to make a baby. Once Maddox’s grief had lessened, guilt would have taken over.
That alone had me explicitly stating to Agent Brahn numerous times during our thirty-minute conversation this morning that I would never go through with his plan. I thought I made myself perfectly clear. Clearly, I need more practice at exerting my authority, and now is as good a time as any. “You said it was my choice! That you’d never force me to do anything against my wishes.”
Agent Brahn steps toward me with his hands held out like my father did anytime memories of my past resurfaced the nightmares I was plagued with for most of my childhood. He had a way of making me forget the bad times and cherish the good. “Motions were put into play before you woke. I’ve never had an offer turned down before, so—”
“You told him I was dead? That I died on the operating table?”
Needing confirmation to my questions from the only man I trust, I lower my eyes to Maddox pinned to the floor by two agents. The torment in his voice when he screamed to see me already endorses my claims, not to mention the absolute despair still dampening the usually bright gleam in his eyes.
He thought I was dead.
That hurts me almost as much as knowing our baby is gone.
When I speak, my voice cracks, strangled by the remorse clutching my throat. “I’m so sorry.”
“You havenothingto be sorry for, Demi. Nothing at all,” Maddox promises, his voice unlike anything I’ve ever heard. “Nothing happening is your fault.”
When recognition of the last time he spoke those words to me filter through my head, three little tears topple down my cheeks.
He was there.
He found me.
Oh, God. I can only imagine how painful that was for him.
The expression on Maddox’s face reveals how badly he wants to wipe away my tears, and he is given the chance when Agent Brahn signals for the undercover agents to let him go. But instead of removing them in shame, he gives them meaning by locking our lips together.
After telling me he loves me, he kisses me like I’ve never been kissed before. It is an embrace so blinding, even with my insides feeling like they’re being pulled in different directions, I loosen my grip of the IV stand before weaving my fingers through his thick locks to secure his mouth to mine.
If I had it my way, I’d stay here for eternity. Regretfully, Agent Brahn has other ideas. His cough is subtle but loud enough for me to get the hint that Maddox and I are gaining an audience, so with reluctance, I pull back from Maddox’s blistering embrace.
“I’m so sorry,” I express again when I see the sheer devastation still lingering in his hooded gaze. “I told them no,” I whisper over his kiss-swollen mouth before nibbling on his lower lip a little more, forever craving more when it comes to him. “I would have nevergone through with their plans. I wouldneverhurt you like that.”
Maddox bites on my bottom lip, drags his tongue across the sting, then delves it back into my mouth. The saltiness of my tears flavors our kiss for the next several minutes. We have an audience. I can feel the eyes of a dozen people on us, but I don’t care. When Maddox’s lips are on mine, the world fades away. It is just him—my knight in shining armor—and me.
“Not yet,” Maddox murmurs against my lips when I pull back for a quick breather. “I thought I’d lost the opportunity to do this. I need more. Lotslotsmore.”
