I help Liza inside, and then slide in beside her. Rik shuts the door.
As Alexei starts driving, I hit the button for the privacy screen that shields us from the front.
Liza curls into me, fingers gripping my jacket. I slide out of it and wrap it around her. My arms won’t let go of her, so I keep her in my embrace. I lower my forehead to hers. “You’re safe now.”
Her breath trembles. “I knew you would find me.”
“I will always find you,” I say, voice raw. “I will always come for you.”
Her eyes close, and she melts against me, trusting me to keep her safe.
And for the first time since I saw her slip through the side door at the fundraising party, my lungs fill fully with air and I breathe normally again.
10
DANYL
The penthouse elevator doors slide shut behind us and the world outside becomes irrelevant. Except for the weight of what happened tonight. How close I was to lose her.
I keep my arm around her, guiding Liza to the steps that leads to our bedroom. She’s trembling. Probably both from the shock of being taken and the betrayal of her father. Every tremor, every quick breath, every tiny muscle twitch in her back is a reminder that I failed. That I didn’t protect her.
“Nobody will ever hurt you again,” I murmur. A vow I intend to keep until my last breath.
She sighs as we reach the top of the stairs and I guide her gently toward the bed. The lights are soft, dimmed to a warm amber that does nothing to erase the tension in my body. She sinks onto the edge of the bed.
I remain standing, hovering, restless.
She lifts her hands toward me, and I sit beside her, catching them in mine. The tremor in her fingers is still there. I bring them to my lips, kiss the knuckles lightly.
“You’re still in shock,” I murmur.
She leans toward me, resting her head against my shoulder. Her hair tickles my neck. “I’m fine now that you’re with me.”
I brush my thumb across her jaw. Her gaze meets mine full of trust. “Danyl,” she whispers. “Are you okay?”
I tighten my hold just slightly. “I’m fine. Because you’re here. Because you’re alive. That’s enough.”
Her lips press against my collarbone. And it makes my chest ache how much she trusts me when I failed her.
She studies me, searching my face like she’s trying to see inside my mind. “What’s going on?”
“I failed you. But it won’t happen again.” My hand drifts to the side of her face, fingertips brushing her temple. I don’t want to scare her. I want to comfort her. But I also want her to understand that she is my world, and I will obliterate anyone who threatens it. “I know what you saw,” I whisper. “The violence, the monster I can become. But you have to know, what I did, what I am… it’s only because I needed to get to you. To keep you alive.”
She frowns. “You’re not a monster.”
“I am.”
She lifts her hands to my face, tracing the sharp line of my jaw, the curve of my cheek. “What you did was everything you’ve promised. Protect me. Keep me. Fight for me. That’s not monstrous. That’s,” her words falter and she takes a big breath before she continues, “that’s love.”
The word hits me like a hammer. Something in me cracks open, all the fury, all the restraint, all the violence I’ve held at bay spilling into a new kind of heat.
Protective. Consuming. Fierce.
“I don’t want you to be afraid of me,” I murmur, voice hoarse. “I am capable of terrible things. But I will protect you from them.”
She leans into me, forehead pressed to mine. “I don’t want you to protect me from you,” she says. “I want you, all of you.”
I scoot up and pull her fully against me on the bed, careful. I trace the bruise blooming on her face and rage fills me again, making my jaw clench. “If I could, I would kill him all over again for striking you.”
