“Ivan. He’d found her somewhere she shouldn’t have been.”
“Do you think she can handle herself?”
The question dangles in the air between us. I don’t answer, not entirely trusting myself to say something rational.
“Leon. It’s your call. I can go in and get her out, but I need you to be positive that she can’t deal with this on her own.”
If it were anyone else, I’d give them a grace period. That would be the smart thing to do. To trust my men to make the right decisions and only jeopardize the mission as a last resort.
But Mia isn’t just some Prince’s Guild lackey. She’s mywife.
God, the word barely has any significance between us. I have no right to claim it. But right now, I can feel myself curling around the word protectively, possessively. I feel like some kind of dragon curling around a precious, sparkling gem.
That one. There, in the stunning black dress and the garter that is slightly too high up her perfect thigh. She’s mine. She’s in danger.
My wife, my wife, my wife.
I shake myself, trying to strangle the thought. “Tell me as soon as the rotation changes.”
It’s the right call. Just not an easy one.
Dante stays on the line while we wait in silence. My eyes never stray from that pulsing dot on my screen.
Then.
“Shift as normal, Leon. No disruption inside.”
The breath I was holding knocks through my ribs as I let it out. “Right.”
“Again, it’s your call, but…”
“Continue to monitor the situation as planned,” I say with a sigh.
“Copy that.” Dante doesn’t immediately hang up as expected. “She’s…a force to be reckoned with. She’ll be fine, Leon.”
I don’t take too much comfort from his words, but I swallow a scolding response all the same. “Update me if anything goes awry.”
I’m in the kitchen when the front door opens. The very picture of calm and collected.
If you ignore the fact I’ve been tracking her little dot on my phone for hours now.
The tension in my shoulders releases a bit more with every centimeter it beats back toward my location. It’s not a heartbeat, I remind myself. But she’s coming anyway. Soon, she will be home and safe.
Of course, someone could have intercepted her and taken the tracking device. But Dante called to say he was following her back to Carmen Rubio’s apartment, where she dropped off the debutante without any issues.
Dante was likely parked outside now, watching as Mia entered the house. I make a mental note to thank Teo for letting me borrow his second.
“Leon?” her voice calls out.
“In here.”
There’s the clicking of heels on the wooden floor, and then…
…and then she’s there.
She’s still unfairly stunning in that sinful black dress, still holding herself tall. Even her makeup seems to have stayed exactly in place.
I bury my fingernails into the palms of my hands to stop myself from reaching for her. Something primal within me needs to do more than see, totouch,to make sure that she’s okay. That there’s not even a hair out of place on her head.
