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My heart cracked. “Are you willing to give up all of this?” I gestured to the empty chair Liam had left, knowing Rian would understand exactly what I meant—the arms dealing, the protection racket, the violence.
Rian shook his head, his black hair falling over his face, as he met my eyes. “Ginevra, that’s not reasonable.”
A single tear leaked down my face, and he leaned forward to wipe it off with his thumb. I jerked back out of his grip. “I know that. I’m not asking you to. But I am going to get on that plane tomorrow, and go back to my life in California.”
I turned my face away so he wouldn’t see the tears gathering in my eyes. Leaving them, leaving my family, was going to hurt so fucking much. But not as much as a day and a half of torture by Yuri, I reminded myself, steeling my heart.
Dinner was miserable,all four of us stuck in our heads, each attempt at small talk failing miserably.
“Right,” I said, pushing back from the table. Cormac was by my side before I straightened out. Fuck, I hurt. He handed me my cane, and I stood up, wincing at the sting of the cuts and the deep ache in my thigh from where Yuri stabbed me.
Rian looked up from his phone. “I’ve booked a private jet for your trip tomorrow. There’s no reason for you to navigate a busy airport. We’ll leave at ten.”
Cormac kept his hand at my elbow as I shuffled up the stairs. God, I was tired. Once he tucked me into my bed, he pulled my suitcases from wherever he’d stashed them and started packing.
I sniffled, unable to conceal my heartache at the care each of them took with me.
He looked up from his task with those liquid brown eyes that I could just fucking drown in, then sat on the bed beside me, his hip pressing into mine as he held my hand. “Why don’t you leave some clothes here for when you come to visit?”
I nodded as the enormity of my decision slammed into my heart, grinding the already shattered pieces into dust under the weight of my misery. When a whimper escaped me, I turned my face away from him, hoping he’d have the grace to pretend he didn’t see my unhappiness.
Instead, he grabbed my other arm and pulled me up until I sat. The corner of his mouth lifted into a tentative smile as he dragged pillows behind me so I could lean against them. We stared into each other's eyes for a long drawn out moment as I tamped down on the tears. He cupped my jaw in his hand and ran his thumbs over my cheeks, catching the tears that escaped my tenuous control, careful not to press into the bruises Yuri had left on my face.
With tender care, he leaned his forehead against mine, closing his eyes, letting our breath mingle. My eyes shot to his, and he slowly opened them again, before tracing tender kisses along my cheekbones and my nose. He brushed my lips with his, and a strangled whimper caught in my throat.
I dragged my hands up to the back of his head and pulled him to me, kissing him with all the love and sorrow in my breaking heart.
Cormac was gentle, almost careful, as his lips traced over me, sweeping his tongue against mine, worshiping me more than possessing me. When he finally drew back, I searched his eyes for a sign of what he was thinking.
He looked away first and let my hands go. “Let me get you packed, darling.”
I must have dozed off because when I next looked up, I was alone in the room. My two suitcases were neatly packed, my carry-on and my purse beside them near the door. The closet was nearly empty. All my small bits and pieces that had migrated over the room to claim it as mine were gone, and once again, I felt like a visitor in this house.
Liam stood in the doorway in sweatpants and a T-shirt that molded to the muscles of his stomach. A gun holster hooked over his broad shoulders, as he waited there with a book in his hands. He grinned as my eyes grazed over the play of his muscles beneath his shirt, then his smile faltered as his gaze roved over my bruised and cut up face.
“How’re you doing, babe?”
I shrugged. “I feel like shit.”
He nodded, then gestured to the armchair in the corner. “Mind if I sit?”
I shrugged again. He stretched out in the chair and buried his nose in the paperback, ignoring me.
God, he was going to stay with me while I slept. Every time I steeled my heart for my imminent departure, one of my men popped in and showed me just what I’d be leaving behind. Goddamn them for being the men they were, for worming their way into my heart, and for making leaving so fucking difficult.
When I woke, screaming and shivering, Liam held my hand and stroked my back, bringing me back to reality, reminding me that my gun was underneath my pillow, and that most of all, he was never fucking going to let anything hurt me ever again. Wrapped in the heat of his arms, I felt safe. Instead of letting him pull away as my breath calmed, I dragged him closer, intending to burrow into the warm cage of his embrace while I slept.
“Ginevra, please,” he said, his voice catching. “Don’t ask me to hold you in my arms tonight, and then let you go tomorrow,” he rasped, as he pulled away from me and returned to the chair, leaving me aching for the comfort of his arms as I lay in the bed. “I’ll be right here, baby.”
When I opened my eyes in the morning, he was gone.
36
GINEVRA
Min-joon met me at the airport, his eyes serious as I limped to my car. “Welcome home, roomie,” he greeted me with a gentle hug.
“It’s good to be home.”
