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“Yes. I promise.”
“I’m coming back,” I said, holding his stare steady as he passed me the duffel bag. Kai didn’t answer, but there was no need for him to.Foreverwasn’t a term to be thought about right now. Only the present and getting out of here before Gordon Saxon blanketed his rage over NYC and upped the price on my head. To utilize the time Theo gifted by having me presumed dead.
In a fit of emotion, I threw my arms around Kai and pulled him close. “This isn’t goodbye.” I buried my face in his neck. “This is thank you.”
“I know,” he said, rubbing my back with light swipes. It was clear he was holding it in as much as he could—the outburst, the need to come along, the desperation that this was our last shot at safety. “I love you, too. And I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”
I nodded, then let go.
Theo’s presence was like a magnet, a hot pull against my skin, goosebumps prickling the flesh where he was closest. But in order to survive, I had to avoid it. If I leapt into his arms, if I held onto him, I wouldn’t let go. I’d scream and cry and beg to stay with him. Just one more night. A few more moments with him and it’d be over.
I loved him, too.
Avoiding eye contact, I opened the drivers’ door, but jerked back when it met resistance.
The source of the door not opening all the way was Theo, standing steady, his hand gripping the top.
His emotion was entirely in his voice when he said, “You’re on the passenger side.”
“What?” I looked to Kai like he’d have answers, but he seemed as confused as I was.
“Scarlet,” Theo said, drawing my attention back. “Have you not figured it out yet?”
“I…” The duffel bag was a heavy weight at my feet. “No. I don’t think so.”
“I’m coming with you.”
My heart flew sky-high at the same time I said, “No, you’re not.”
Theo cocked a brow. “I am.”
“No,” I said again, then pointed in the direction of Kai. “You have immunity, you need to testify to keep your father behind bars, to get Trace life in prison. You have things to do here, important matters.”
“Do you really think I’m going to wait in some city apartment for my moment to testify? I’ll be killed just for stepping out for some coffee.”
I pursed my lips.
“It’s the best cover,” he said. “You presumed dead. Me in the wind. My father’s syndicate will never die. He has people, even now, crafting a list to make witnesses disappear, to destroy any evidence, to essentially make it so he’s the cleanest businessman there ever was to be dragged to the precinct.”
“But…”
Theo grabbed my hand, his dry callouses like rubbing velvet the wrong way against my skin. “Perhaps the trial will be successful, or my father and brother will take a plea. But I am not about to bet my odds against something so unsure. Not when it comes to your life. So, I’m going with you. I’ll stay with you. Return when I have to testify. Then leave again.”
I shook my head, dumbfounded over the probability that I was no longer in this alone. That Theo Saxon, a man I’d pushed out of my mind for so long, was waltzing back in to drive me off into the sunset.
I shoved at his shoulders, and he fell back, shocked.
“You donotget to do this!” I shouted at him. “After all we’ve been through, after the years you spent giving menohope for us, you do not get step in at the last minute and promise me everything.”
My voice rose and fell, hitched, broke, and I blinked crazily, catching tears in my lashes but most falling onto my cheeks. “I have no hope left,” I breathed out roughly. “You’re not allowed to give me that kind of flame again. You can’t. Youcan’t—”
“Scarlet.”
Theo rounded the open door and pulled me to his broad chest, the smell of him all-consuming andmelting, but I pushed away. Then pushed again. But he wouldn’t let go. So I pounded with closed fists, but they opened, went limp, as he murmured in my ear and I sobbed.
“I’m not making the same mistake again,” I heard him say. “I’m with you. You understand? You are my hope, Scarlet.You. And I’m not letting you lose anymore.”
“Theo,” I cried into the skin of his neck. “There’s no chance…”
