For me it was.
He looked confused.
I blathered on, trying to explain myself. “I know it might sound stupid or trivial, but I never felt safe when someone teased me. You—you make me feel safe. Safe enough to open myself up to whatever you have to give because I know it comes from someone who loves me.”
His eyes burned with intensity as he reached over and hauled me back into the truck and into his lap. “Sweetheart.” He swallowed thickly, looking like he wanted to say more but couldn’t.
I ran my finger across his full lower lip, watching the path that my lips hungered to follow. “You were right about my parents. I hadn’t ever thought about it much before. They put us aside. They didn’t nurture us or pay much mind to us. I really wanted their attention, to feel loved by them. It scarred me, I guess. Made me close off to people the way I’d learned to do with them to avoid rejection. But you healed those scars, Sid. First by being a friend I could rely on, and then by being a man I could love and be loved by.”
His fingers tangled into my hair. “That last part—you should put that in a song.”
I shook my head. “No. That’s all for you.”
He pressed his forehead to mine, his breathing labored as his expression darkened with a heat that lit my inner fire. “Get your shit so I can take you home.”
I nodded eagerly, and with a quick kiss slid out of the truck just as ungracefully as last time. This time when he smiled at me, that glimmer of teasing in his eye—it meant so much more.
It meant everything.
When I stepped into the office, most of the lights were off. I was still riding high from my conversation with Sid, so the nagging sensation at the base of my neck that said something was off took longer to register. I told myself it was just because I wasn’t used to seeing it so dark, and soldiered through to the training area where I’d left my phone.
What I saw there stopped my heart cold as I gasped in shock.
Agent Richards had my brother on his knees with a gun to his head. Richards spun to face me, his eyes narrowed with rage. “Fuck.”
“Get out of here, Sam!” Travis barked, his hands clasped behind his head.
“Can’t have that.” Richards shook his head. “Come here,” he ordered.
I moved to him on shaking legs, kneeling in front of my big brother. “What’s going on?” I demanded.
“Agent Richards seems to have a taste for jewels,” Travis bit out with disgust.
“Now maybe you’ll tell me where it is,” Richards growled, gripping my hair and pointing his gun at my temple.
“You’re who Osip was waiting for,” I murmured, all the pieces clicking together.
He chuckled darkly. “Give the girl a prize.” He released me for a moment, pacing the space. “I told Ivanov I could get it for him if he took you. I figured it’d draw your brother and his team out—so I could search here. And maybe if I was lucky, those bastards would just kill each other off. But those assholes Trent and Marcus were here and this place was locked up too fucking tight.”
“But you were never going to give it to him anyway, were you?” I surmised. I figured keeping him talking was our best bet. Right now, it was really the only option.
Travis gave me a nearly indiscernible nod of approval.
He snorted. “No. I have a very interested buyer in the Mexican cartel.”
This guy was seriously cracked. The chances that we’d get out of this alive seemed horrifyingly slim.
He grabbed my hair again, his eyes narrowed on Travis. “Let’s try this again, McAllister. Where is my fucking diamond?”
I detected the slightest movement to my right but instinct had me keeping my gaze straight ahead. I knew I’d been in here long enough for Sid to get worried.
“I told you. I gave it to your superior two days ago,” Travis growled with impatience. “You think I’d lie about that shit when you have a gun pressed to my sister’s head?”
“I’m the agent on this case,” Richards barked, seemingly incensed Travis hadn’t gone through him directly.
“Yeah, well, obviously my instinct not to go through you wasn’t far off base,” Travis muttered as Sid crept along the far wall, his gun pointed at Richards’s back. “What the fuck are you thinking anyway, man? You’d have to be seriously fucked to think you can steal from the Russians to pay the cartel.” He shook his head, looking as baffled as I felt.
“Ivanov’s locked up,” Richards shot back.