“Because she’smysister,” I inform him, and I don’t cower when he glares at me or when his jaw clenches. Or when his hands fist and he stands up straighter, dwarfing me.
They all dwarf me.
Because he’s not mad atme. He’s just angry. And that fierce fury rolling through all their bodies is going to save Rosie.
“I’ll stay out of the way, I’ll be quiet, I won’t interfere. But when she comes out with you, I will be there to hold her.”
Julian pulls his hand down his face.
Rome paces away in agitation.
None of them wants me here.
“We won’t talk her out of it,” Mateo says.
“You don’t talk her out of shit, you force her back upstairs and lock her in your motherfucking penthouse,” Carson counters, and I lift an eyebrow.
“Right,” I scoff and walk for the SUV where Bobby’s holding my door open. I slide inside, and Bobby closes me in, and I see Mateo talking with his brothers.
Finally, they split up and have talks with their own men. I see them put in earpieces, and then Mateo joins me in the car.
He hardly addresses me as he talks into his comms.
“Roger. Team A, report. Team B. Team C. Team D.”
Suddenly, Bobby says, “Here, over.”
I blink at the back of his head. “You’re Team D?”
“Team D isyourteam,” Mateo informs me. “And they won’t leave you.”
“A whole team for two men?”
“Twenty men,” he counters, studying an iPad that he slipped out of the back of the seat in front of him.
“Twentymen? For me?”
“That’s right. You might insist on going, but that means that I insist on keeping you safe. They’ll protect you with their lives. You won’t move from this vehicle until I give the all clear, do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“If you leave the safety of this armored car before I tell you to, there will be consequences.”
I narrow my eyes on him. “Enlighten me.”
“No. Just don’t fucking do it.” He swears under his breath and then reaches out and cups my cheek. “I love you, Savage.”
“I love you too.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “Thank you.”
“Save that for later.”
It feels like we driveforeverbefore our caravan pulls over to the side of the road, all the lights on the vehicles turned off, and I stare out at the darkness.
It’s pitch black outside, and we’re in the middle of nowhere.
“There’s nothing here,” I say to Mateo.
“We’re walking the rest of the way so we don’t tip them off that we’re coming,” Mateo says, and then leans over, grips myface, and kisses me hard, as if he’s afraid this might be the last time. “Remember, you promised.”