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A growl left him. He kissed her again—hard. The possessive crash of his mouth over hers stole her mind and she didn’t even realize the elevator stopped until she heard the doors open.
She ducked under his arm and broke for the exit.
“Where are you going?” He caught up to her in long strides.
“Just because we determined that we care doesn’t mean anything has changed. You’re still overbearing.”
“And you’re still stubborn!”
Luckily the doors leading outside were only steps away—they could take this argument to a more private spot without involving more people. It was bad enough that Indika and Apollo witnessed their tiff and most—if not all—of the team knew they’d once been married.
She took off across the parking lot with Slade hot on her heels. What was she supposed to do with all this love she had for a man she couldn’t live with?
“You’re staying with me until this threat is over.”
“Staying with you in the hotel? In your bed? Of course you want me there, Slade. All safe and sound, right? When are you going to accept that isn’t who I am?”
He pulled her to a stop and hovered over her. “When are you going to accept that you’re my whole fucking world?”
Her stomach bottomed out at his words. The flames in his eyes shook her to the core.
His throat worked. “If anything happened to you…I don’t know if I can go on,” he choked.
“Slade…”
“I want you. I want our child. I don’t know how, but—”
“That’s the question, isn’t it? Have you thought about how a baby changes things? Are you going to stay home and change diapers while I rappel into a foreign embassy?”
They faced each other, at a standoff. Just then, tires peeled on asphalt. Simultaneously, she and Slade spun toward the sound, and then Slade threw out an arm, shoving her behind him.
A steely arm banded around Lena’s throat, cutting off her air as she was dragged away from the man she loved.
The sharp point of a blade pressed to her side. Terror ripped through her along with a fierce instinct to kill. Not only for herself but for the threat against her child.
Apparently the mama bear instinct was a real thing, and it rocked her.
Slade reached for his weapon, but the voice she remembered from that video call in Ramon’s car ground out in her ear even as Trey pressed the knife harder against her side. “Don’t move!” he commanded in Spanish.
Slade’s eyes met Lena’s. In the depths, she read black fury that if unleashed would see the cartel leader’s son lying in a grave next to his evil father.
She saw terror too.
When Slade shifted his weight, she read his intent to jump the man holding her at knifepoint, and she saw how every scenario played out.
She couldn’t let him put her or the baby in danger with a sudden move, and if she made one, Slade might take the force of the attack.
Lena had to rescue them all.
“Slade, look at me!”
Her tone brought his attention back to her.
“I want this baby, no matter what I’ve said about it. It means giving up everything I worked so hard for, but I still want it.” Her voice broke as she implored him to forgive her for…well, everything. They’d both made mistakes and grown since then. She’d like to think this moment bridged their past with their future, and the rocky road here had given them the strength of character they’d need to fight the world going forward.
Slade’s jaw clenched. The tendon in the crease leaped.
Oh no. She knew that take-charge, I’m-gonna-fuck-someone-up expression, remembered it from Bosnia. If he went off, they’d lose everything.
