Page 31 of Innocent Salvation

“Yep. So you need to be brave like she is, okay?”

“Okay.”

With that little chat, Fleur’s bravery was restored, and Sebastian felt even more inept than before.

Looking at the house, he knew it was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours since he’d seen her face down gunmen for him. He wanted to yell at her and bend her over his knee and spank her ass raw for being so stupid, for putting herself in danger for him, a man who didn’t deserve her loyalty or sacrifice, but he also wanted to drag her into his arms and kiss her senseless and thank her for protecting Fleur.

The car revving caught his attention and he glanced out of the side window to see Snow and the other guy running toward them.

Snow jumped in beside him in the back as the other guy took the front seat beside McCullum. The scent and sight of her healthy and breathing sent relief shuddering through him as Fleur threw herself into Snow’s arms. He wanted to do the same but held back.

As the car tore away from the house he loved, which had been the scene of a gunfight, he wondered how his life had come to this. The soft silk touch of fingers on his arms made him look to Snow over Fleur’s head.

“You okay?”

Her touch sent fire through him, every thought from earlier coalescing into one as he gave in to the urge and wrapped his arm around both her and Fleur.

“I think that’s my line, Snow.”

“I’m fine. Just a couple of nicks from some broken glass.”

Sebastian rubbed his thumb over a smudge of blood on her cheek, revealing a cut that didn’t even make her wince but made him want to turn the car around and go back and find the men who’d done this and do what he should have done the first time. Instead, he held her closer.

She didn’t try and pull away from his hold but nestled deeper into it, kissing his niece on the head as if to reassure herself she was okay.

“We need to send a clean-up crew.”

The man who’d saved his life turned in his seat and looked at them, assessing the way he was holding Snow. Sebastian tightened his hold, his gaze not wavering in the slightest. He didn’t even know why he was laying claim to a woman he didn’t even seem to know, let alone know if she liked him at all, or if he even liked her now that he knew she’d lied. It was instinctive and territorial, and he knew he was being a dick.

Apparently, that was the side of him she brought to the fore, and he wasn’t going to fight it when this blonde god was looking at him.

“Titan is handling it,” McCullum responded as he wound his way through the streets of London.

“Where are we going?” Sebastian finally found his voice after the last twenty minutes of complete mayhem.

Snow refused to look at him. “A safe house.”

“Safehouse? Who are you people?”

Snow glanced at Fleur who was snuggled between them, sleeping already. “Let’s talk when we get there.”

“Fine, but then I demand answers to what the hell is going on.”

“Seems like we all have some questions that need answering, hey, Judge.”

“Don’t, Reaper,” Snow warned the blond man he now knew went by Reaper of all things.

He shrugged his shoulders with a smirk. “Fine, baby girl. You handle it.”

Reaper calling Snow baby girl made him want to rip his pretty-boy face off and pound it into the ground. A growl escaped his throat and Reaper’s smirk seemed to go up another infuriating level. Fuck his life. He didn’t know whether to hold her closer or wring her damn neck!

Chapter 13

Snow watched Sebastian as he settled Fleur in the big double bed at the safehouse. It was a cute, detached cottage just outside London in Reading. It had easy access to Oxford Road and a good visual around the property. More importantly, it had all of Shadow Elite’s security set up and couldn’t be traced.

Bein and Reaper were downstairs updating Bás and Duchess via secure video link, and she was up stairs, not concerned with the two lives she’d ended but terrified of the cold shoulder Sebastian was giving her. When she’d heard the men break into the house, her gut had clenched with fear. Her only concern was to get Fleur and Sebastian to safety.

Revealing she was more than who she said she was, had flown from her mind in the midst of the fear almost drowning her. As Sebastian had run up the stairs with Fleur in his arms, leading her to safety, she’d seen the internal battle that raged in him. He wanted to protect her and Fleur. It was natural for an alpha male like him to protect those around him, and especially one like Sebastian who craved control in all areas of his life.