Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 90315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90315 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
“No. I was completely shut out. I wasn’t allowed to know anything, and it drove me crazy. How was there nothing on the news? I know that some things can be covered up, like what happened that night before I came here. But a mass shooting in a museum? Gideon, there was nothing on the news, and I searched for it. No mention of you being hurt, of me being there, of any of those people dying.”
Taking a deep breath, I push my hand through my hair. “The press releases what your mother and her people want them to release. Whether it’s the death of one man near a restroom in an art gallery or the deaths of sixteen people in a museum. She’s in control of that.”
She blinks, clearly not understanding.
“I don’t know why the shooting itself wasn’t reported. I can tell you that she didn’t want anyone to know you were there, or that I was injured, because that would show weakness. Weakness makes your whole family more vulnerable.”
Lena rolls her eyes, making my shoulders finally relax.
“There’s my sassy girl.”
“I thought I could do it today, out there with you, but as soon as I saw that weapon, it took me right back there. You got shot, I was trying to stop the blood, and then you passed out on me.”
“I told you to go so you wouldn’t see that.” I use my pinkie to brush her hair off her cheek and behind her ear. “You shouldn’t have had to see that. I didn’t want that for you.”
“But it was the last time I saw you until you walked into my bedroom, and damn it, Gideon.” She blinks furiously, trying to keep the tears at bay.
“Did you miss me, Rebel?”
She huffs out a breath. “Yeah. I did.”
That fills me with immense satisfaction, and I pull her onto my lap, needing her closer.
“If I hadn’t been shot, I would have stayed on your detail until your mother was out of office, and things would have been strictly professional between us. I never would have allowed myself to look at you differently, Lena. Even now, I know that I’m skirting some serious lines when it comes to what’s appropriate.”
“Gid—”
“No, let me say this. I would absolutely, without a fucking doubt, do it again. There isn’t anything I would do differently, because if I hadn’t been shot that night, we wouldn’t be here like this, and there is nothing I want more than having you here with me. You’re mine, and it took that incident to take me out of the job so I could have this with you all these years later. And this?” I kiss her lips softly as they tremble. “There’s nothing better than this, Lena.”
“Gid, what if I don’t want to go when all this is over?”
“Then you don’t have to go.”
She blinks in surprise. “I don’t?”
“You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you want. Always.”
Don’t ever leave.
I’m so gone over her, I’d marry her today. But my life is here on this ranch, and I know it’s not for everyone. She hasn’t experienced a winter, dealing with forty-below-zero temperatures. Being isolated out here. That’ll get old for her.
But for as long as she wants to stay, she has a home here, because if I had my way, she’d be with me for the rest of my life.
“I’ll try again tomorrow,” she says with a sigh, wrapping her sweet little body around me.
“Try what?”
“Shooting that fucking gun.”
Scowling, I drag my hand up and down her back. “You don’t ever have to shoot it. I’ll take it off the table right now.”
“No, I do need to. I need it for my own self-confidence. It’s just metal. It can’t think or react. It can’t hurt you, and I need to remind myself of that. So I’ll suck it up and shoot the fucking thing, and then we’ll get on with our lives.”
Taking her chin in my fingers, I kiss her lips softly. “You’re the strongest woman I know. You don’t have to shoot that rifle to prove anything to me or anyone else.”
“I’m proving it to me.” She straddles me and wraps her arms around my shoulders, and when she presses her center against me, it makes me hard as fuck. “Thanks for talking it out with me. I think it helped a lot. But I have some questions.”
“Shoot.”
“First of all, do we know why they targeted that museum?”
“One of them was a security guard who had been fired because he took his job a little too seriously and pulled his gun on a customer who touched a painting. The other guy was his brother.”
She blinks at me, then looks out the window. “That is so . . . It wasn’t a political statement? Or, I don’t know, something? All those people died because he was mad?”