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I turn to Nash. “You ready?”
He takes my hand. “Yeah.”
We go to Dare first. The smile on his face when we enter the room tells me exactly what he wants from this, and I feel Nash slow beside me when Dare looks directly at him.
“You survived.”
Nash’s fingers tighten around mine before he lets go and moves toward the chair near the wall. “Disappointed?”
Dare smiles wider. “Surprised.”
“I get that a lot.” Nash lowers himself carefully into the chair, catching me watching before I can tell him to sit. “I’m sitting, Daddy.”
Dare leans back in his chair and studies me. “Alina told me about you long before she came to Philadelphia. I expected someone more interesting.”
I don’t answer, and after several seconds, his attention shifts toward Nash. “She didn’t describe him very well either. Made him sound like some little delivery boy you were fucking.”
Nash stretches his legs out in front of him. “I love that for you. You seemed pretty fucking interested in me at the hotel.”
“You were more trouble than you were supposed to be.”
“You grabbed the wrong little delivery boy.”
The smile slips from Dare’s face before he turns his attention back to me. “I almost had him out of there. Another minute with the lights off and you never would’ve found him in that ballroom.”
He waits for me to respond, but there’s nothing he can tell me that I haven’t already seen in the messages Ronan recovered. He wants me thinking about what another minute would have cost us, and I spent enough time doing that while Nash was in surgery.
I stand, and Dare’s eyes follow me. “That’s it? You don’t want to know what I would’ve done with him?”
“No.”
His expression changes when he realizes there isn’t going to be a conversation. I didn’t come in here for a confession, and I have no interest in giving him another opportunity to talk about the people he’s hurt. I came in here because he put a knife in Nash, and I end it before he gets anything else from me.
When it’s done, I turn toward Nash. He isn’t looking at Dare. His attention is on me, and as soon as I cross the room, he reaches for my hand. I pull him carefully against me, mindful of his side, and kiss the top of his head.
“You good?”
“Yeah.”
I study him long enough to make sure he means it before helping him up from the chair. He keeps hold of my hand as we leave the room, and neither of us looks back.
Alina’s room is more crowded. Alessia is already inside with Kieran near her, while Declan and Xavier stand off to one side. Declan has Xavier tucked against him, one arm wrapped around his waist, and Ronan stays near the door.
Alina looks at me first, but the second she sees Nash beside me, everything about her changes. Her eyes move over him slowly, stopping at his side before coming back to his face.
“You’re alive.”
Nash’s fingers tighten around mine. “Looks that way.”
“Where’s Adrian?”
No one answers her at first. She looks from Ronan to Kieran and then toward the door behind us before asking again, louder this time. “Where is he?”
“He’s not coming,” I tell her.
The anger drains out of her expression before she manages to hide it, and Alessia steps closer. “You spent all these years wondering what happened to Maria.”
Alina’s attention shifts to her.
