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She’d barely gotten the words out when he stepped forward and pulled her into his apartment and into his arms. She fitted her face into the crook of his neck and took a deep, calming breath, finally feeling like she was okay. He curved around her, pressing her against him, his hands moving over her, like he was trying to push each individual part of her into him.
“I’ve never been so scared in my life as when I took that shot. The thought of missing…” he whispered into her hair.
“I thought I was going to die,” she whispered.
He kissed her temple, her forehead, her uninjured cheek. He pulled back, looking over the abrasion on her face.
“I could see that you were bleeding through the scope, and your clothes were torn,” he said, his voice breaking. He brushed his lips across hers and brought her against him again for another tight hug, still reassuring himself that she was there and not being dragged into the back of a car. “All I could think about was how badly they could have hurt you. What they might have done to you that Icouldn’tsee. I thought I was going to lose my mind.”
“I’m okay, really,” she said, pulling back to look at him. “Ben just wanted to scare you and my brothers enough to get you to back off. He didn’t want to hurt me.”
“I almost killed him. Even though, tactically, he wasn’t my shot,” Elias said, his eyes blank as he remembered, and it sunk in for Bianca that he’d killed someone for her, and had considered killing someone else. She had no idea what that could possibly be like, but she didn’t want him to feel any guilt.
She made him look at her. “But you didn’t. You did the right thing, and I’m okay because of you. I’m alive because of you.”
His expression lost the stony-eyed look of a sniper, and he was suddenly vulnerable again. He looked her over and said her name so quietly it was more to himself than to her.
“Do you believe me? About the recording?” he asked. “Their last connection between you and my case was Maxwell Ronson. I had to get you to say you weren’t helping him.”
“Is House involved?” she asked, devastated to think that her life-long friend could be connected to what had happened to her.
Elias tipped his head to the side considering. “I don’t thinkMaxwellis, but there’s still a lot to work out with that case, and the Ronson family does have something to do with it.” He shrugged. “It’s not my case anymore. All that I care about is whether or not you believe me about why I recorded us.”
“I believe you,” she said. Then she shrugged, uncomfortable. “I’m still embarrassed about it. Just please tell me that my house doesn’t have listening devices all over it, or I’ll never be able to go back there.”
“No, it doesn’t,” he said immediately. “The device was on me.” He looked upward as a wave of regret washed through him. “I am so sorry I did that to you.”
“I know, but I get why now. Diana told me about someone else unscrubbing it to include, well… us,” she replied, smiling at him.
“She told you?”
“She told me someone really high uphatesmy family.”
He nodded. “When I realized that they were just using me to get to you, I quit,” he said.
“I’m sorry you had to do that. All because of my family,” she said, worried now that he might not think she was worth the sacrifice he’d made. “Your whole career.”
“I couldn’t work there anymore. Not after what they’d done.”
“I know you loved your job.”
“I love you so much more,” he replied. “It doesn’t even compare.”
It was the first time she’d heard him say it. “You love me?” she asked, unable to stop a smile.
“Oh,somuch. Like, a stupid lot,” he said, nodding and looking at her like she had to be crazy not to know that. “Ever since you honked that horn with your butt,” he said, cracking up. She laughed with him.
“Really?That’swhat did it for you?”
“It was the goofiest, hottest thing I’d ever seen,” he replied, pulling her closer and letting himself enjoy their laughter. “That bare ass on a Lykan steering wheel? It was like something out of a boyhood fantasy of mine. And then,” he broke off, laughing. “Thehonk? Hilarious. But that’s you. My sexy, funny girl. I love you a stupid lot.”
She laughed with him, loving how he appreciated her goofy side. How he understood her, silliness, and all.
“I love you a stupid lot, too,” she said, smiling up at him.
His answering smile fell away and a look of longing replaced it. He lowered his head and kissed her.
Bianca did a lap around Rafe’s living room, but this time, it wasn’t to avoid her mother. It was so she could admire Elias.
