I let out a small cry when he wrenched my head back. The gun was cold, but his breaths were hot and sinister against my neck.
“Maybe you’re beyond saving. You’ve been ruined. But that’s okay. We can be together in our next life.” He kissed my neck. A shiver of disgust rippled down my spine. “We’re soulmates. Soulmates always find their way back to each other.”
He cocked the gun.
Pain and terror dissolved into numbness. I closed my eyes, not wanting this cabin to be the last thing I saw before I died.
My breaths slowed as I mentally retreated to my safest place.
Whiskey eyes. Warm murmurs. Leather and spice.
Silent tears dripped my cheeks.
Time slowed as snippets of my life passed through my mind. Dressing up as Bratz dolls with my friends for Halloween, assembling puzzles with Maura, family vacations to the beach, posting my first blog post, calls with Brady and afternoons in cafes and photoshoots by the water…and Christian.
Of all the people I’d miss most, he took the top spot.
I love you.
A loud gunshot rattled my eardrums.
I flinched and waited for the burst of pain, but it never came.
Instead, I heard the slam of a door, followed by shouts and a violent rush of air as Julian’s body was yanked off mine.
My eyes flew open, and I watched, stunned, as half a dozen men poured into the cabin with guns in hand.
One of them subdued Julian easily while the others swept the space.
Everything happened so quickly I was still standing by the door when a warm, familiar presence touched the side of my neck.
It can’t be.
But when I turned, there he was.
Dark hair. Bright eyes. Face carved with cold, pitiless rage.
Christian.
My trapped sob finally broke free.
As angry as I’d been when I’d found the files, and as much as he’d betrayed my trust in the past, there was no one I’d rather see at that moment than him.
“Stella.” Relief softened the razor edges of his fury.
He said my name like a prayer, a whisper so raw and heartfelt it obliterated any resistance I might’ve had.
I didn’t think. I didn’t speak.
I just crossed the room and crumpled into his arms.
CHRISTIAN
She’s here. She’s safe.
I repeated the words in my head as I held Stella tight.
Tiny shivers rippled through her body, and even though she was almost as tall as me, she felt fragile. Breakable.
Fierce protectiveness burned in my chest.
“It’s all right, sweetheart,” I murmured. “You’re okay. You’re safe.”
She buried her face deeper in my neck, her soft sobs twisting my heart like a wrung-out rag.
I was holding her again for the first time in weeks, but this wasn’t how I’d wanted it to be.
Not with her bruised, hurt, and terrified.
The relief I’d felt at seeing her alive gave way to renewed rage.
My cold gaze found Julian over Stella’s shoulder.
He glared back at me, his eyes filled with hatred, but he didn’t say a word as Steele and Mason secured him with restraints.
I’d recognized Julian’s face from his Washington Weekly bio. I also recognized it from the background check I’d run on his grandmother when she first bought her apartment at the Mirage. After she died, the property passed to him.
I didn’t involve myself in the mundane details of tenant turnover, so I hadn’t connected that detail.
No wonder there’d been no evidence of him leaving the Mirage after he broke into Stella’s apartment. He’d been inside it the whole time.
“Keep him alive,” I said. “I’ll deal with him personally.”
I wanted the pleasure of tearing the bastard apart myself.
However, a glimmer of pride sparked in my chest when I saw the nasty wound on his neck. Stella must’ve taken a chunk out of him before we arrived.
That’s my girl.
Steele nodded. “You got it.”
We’d tracked Julian down via the credit card he’d used for his car rental, then tracked the car to this shittastic cabin in the Virginia woods. The car’s built-in GPS made that easy.
I hadn’t wanted to take any chances, so I’d called in a handful of men to accompany me and dispatched another to get Brock.
Julian must’ve drugged him and Stella with different substances—one to incapacitate Brock and get him out of the room, the other to disorient her.
I wanted nothing more than to flay him alive, but Stella took priority.
I rubbed a hand over her back. “We’ll check into a hotel and get you cleaned up,” I murmured. “I have a doctor who can meet us there and take a look at your wounds.”
I hated hospitals. All that fucking paperwork and lax security. It was easier to take care of her myself.
When she gave a tiny, silent nod, I left my men to deal with the mess in the cabin and gently guided her into my car.