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“And track it,” Diggs confirmed with a sharp nod.
I thought of this morning as I paused beside my car, trying to just breathe when everything felt so heavy. This night. My new reality. The air from the approaching storm...
“What if I’m wrong?” My head bounced awkwardly as I hurried to clarify, “I’d been seeing those neon masks on people who hadn’t actually been wearing one. I can’t be sure I saw someone wearing one this morning.”
Diggs rubbed at his jaw, seeming to contemplate what all he should tell me. “KSG don’t have a reason to come after us this way because, like I said, it’s a family matter, and they are the furthest thing from family,” he finally admitted as he rounded the car.
Each step closer incited fluttering wings in my stomach until I was nearly breathless and silently begging him to pull me into his arms. And part of me hated that I still wanted him to.
“But it’s their style, and they live close enough that they wouldn’t need to hang around town,” Diggs went on. “They could disappear after each hit the way our ghosts have been. Now, explain exactly what you saw this morning.”
I sucked in a shallow breath when he stopped directly in front of me. His nearness wreaking havoc on my body and mind and heart, and I knew in that moment that his confession hadn’t changed a thing.
My need for him was just as great. Even with the indifference he was forcing, I felt safe and protected just being near him. And I would’ve given anything to be tangled up in my bed, peppering him with questions and answering all of his.
“I think...” I began hesitantly, then continued more assertively, “I think hearing what you got from my apartment will be enough to know if what I saw was real.”
One of his eyebrows twitched, just enough to crack his façade and show a whisper of his amusement. “You testing me, Tree?”
“No,” I said honestly, then let him hear every ounce of my fear when I said, “I desperately want to be wrong.”
His mask broke.
His expression fell and one of his arms reached for me before he managed to force it back to his side.
“Are we back to that?” I asked with a defeated laugh. “Pretending we’re okay with keeping our distance from each other?”
He gestured to my car, his chest pitching as he challenged, “After your reaction?”
“I’m allowed that reaction,” I said firmly. “I’m allowed to want you to be anything other than the nightmare that haunts me. But as much as I am scared to find out more, and as much as I hate what I already know, I know you aren’t them.”
A strained breath fell from my lips when I reached for him and he pulled me against him without hesitation, holding me close and cradling my neck in his large hand. Gray eyes searching my face as an indescribable hope and need swirled there.
“I’m not your nightmare,” he assured me. “My family isn’t.”
My head bobbed shakily as I accepted the honesty in his words. “I’ve experienced true fear. I’ve gone through the worst thing a person should ever have to. And even after that, I felt that danger radiating from you and knew I was safe with you. Knew you would use that danger to protect me if it came down to it.”
“Fucking hell, Willow,” Diggs whispered as he lowered his forehead to mine. “Protecting you?” He swept his mouth across mine, stealing my breath and a piece of my heart. “Told you, that’s my job.”
I pushed onto my toes, accepting the next kiss greedily.
Slow. Deep. And so achingly sweet as he took his time embedding his name in my soul. Fingers trailing down my back and pulling me closer as the hand around my neck tightened.
A subtle claim that had me trembling and aching for something he couldn’t give me right there.
“I can handle you,” I maintained when the kiss ended with an adoring brush of his lips against my forehead.
“What about my family?”
I inhaled slowly, a little shakily, and exhaled with an unsteady laugh when amusement vibrated in Diggs’ chest. “No promises.”
“Well, you’re about to meet them,” he said on a sigh, then held me at arms’ length to search my face. His was set in feigned worry that was pure Diggs charm. “All of them.”
“Right now?” I asked as he began walking backward, pulling me with him. “In that massive house?”
“Right now,” he confirmed, then effortlessly twirled me into his body and turned us so we were walking toward the house. Easily slipping into that carefree confidence as if the events of this evening hadn’t happened.
As if I wasn’t about to enter a house full of mobsters.
