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“What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask him, blinking in the bright light of day. Jesus, I forgot how miserable it was being locked up.
“Nice to see you, too,” he says with a smirk. “I’ll tell you everything in the car.”
“Where’s Savannah? Did you find her?”
Lyam’s jaw tightens. “Yeah, we have her.”
“Lyam…”
He throws me the keys to the car. “When you get in and I tell you everything, you’ll want to be the one driving. Jesus, this isn’t like you to be so impatient, and risk being overheard.”
“Can you blame me? The woman I love was missing, and I want to make sure she’s alright.”
“Remember that” is all he says until the car door slams. “Head to Le Square Du Vert-Galant.”
By the time he finishes the story, I’ve got the gas pedal flat to the car floor as houses whizz by. I take the damn corner on two wheels.
“Of all the goddamn—”
“Just go,” Lyam says. “You can kill me and Fabien later.”
“Oh, I will.”
As I drive, Lyam pulls out his phone and hits play. “This has been sent to the chief of police and all lawyers involved in this case. It goes live online in thirty minutes.”
He hits play on his phone. I stare at Savannah, telling her side of the story, and clench my fist. I want to reach through the screen and hold her to me. Shield her.
“Who saw that?”
“So far? Me and Fabien. Soon? Everyone.”
“If they fucking see that—”
“They won’t. They’ll be gone by then. This clears your name as well.”
I will the car to go even faster.
Lyam’s phone rings. Fabien.
“Where are you? Jesus, where are you?”
“What’s the matter?”
“They called in reinforcements. Must’ve called in a fucking favor. They think Savannah’s here to see her sister, so Nicolette and I are hidden, and we haven’t brought enough backup with us. We’re outnumbered, Lyam. There’s got to be twenty of them ready to take her. They’re assembling now.”
I drive so fast the needle’s buried on the speedometer. I can see the park in front of us.
“What do you have for weapons?”
“Fucking arsenal in the trunk, brother. You have to clear for civilians, Thayer.”
“I won’t hit civilians.”
I never, ever miss.
Then I see her.
Savannah.
She sits on a park bench as pretty as a flower in bloom, placid and calm, a book in her lap. I don’t know where Fabien and Nicolette are hidden, but I know they see us. I want to claw myself out of my own skin at the sight of the woman I love in broad daylight, an exposed target without protection. An electric pulse surges through me, propelling me forward. I’ll lay down anything and everything to save her.
I bring the car to a stop behind a stone monument, leap out, and arm myself. Lyam follows suit. Everything seems as if we’re frozen in time, in slow motion. I need to get to Savannah.
As a man in a suit carrying a briefcase walks by, Lyam grabs his arm.
“What the hell?”
“You walk into that crowd and yell. Say whatever it is you need to. Gun, fire, whatever. You get that crowd the fuck out of that garden, you hear me?”
He stares at the wad of cash Lyam hands him. “Take it and clear these fucking civilians out of here or innocent lives will be lost.”
We stand back. He does what we tell him, and seconds later, people run past us.
Savannah looks over at me. Our eyes meet across the lot. I want to kiss her and shake her. I want to fuck her and make her know without a shadow of a doubt she belongs to me. I want to hold her, safe in the crook of my arm, where no one can touch her.
But first, I want to make sure she’s safe.
I stalk into the garden with Lyam beside me. Aware of the eyes of our enemies on us, I walk straight to Savannah.
“Fall back,” I command in a tone that brooks no argument.
“Le Sauvage,” I hear one of them say in a choked voice. Good. I want the memory of every shred of violence I’ve ever committed replaying in their minds. I want them to imagine their own faces on the bodies of my dead enemies.
Savannah leaps to her feet, an array of emotions written across her face.
“Thayer.”
The book on her lap falls to the ground, the pages fluttering like a bird’s wings.
I don’t care who’s here. I don’t care about their reinforcements. An army won’t keep me from her.
“Come out,” I say loud and clear while I hold her eyes. “All of you. You know who I am. You know what I’ve done. And you know what I’ll do if you touch a goddamn hair on her head.”
Anything and everything I fucking have to.
Anything.
“Thayer,” she repeats.
I sling my arm around her shoulders and face them. I hear footsteps scurrying in the bushes, hushed voices.
