Page 12

Adler

My blood ran cold when I heard Linzey tell Coval that he might as well shoot her.

What the hell was she thinking? When I got my hands on her, she was so getting a spanking.

I didn’t give a shit how mad she was at me.

I was already pissed that she ran out of the safe house—though fuck, Coval must have had a tail on the car. He’d been right there to nab her.

Everything about this was a fubar—except Linzey’s tracker. That worked, and it was the only thing saving my sanity at the moment.

“You got any food in this place?” I heard Linzey ask. “I think my blood sugar’s getting low. Not sure I’ll make it until Igor gets back with the food.”

Coval’s accomplice, whose name wasn’t Igor, wouldn’t be coming back at all.

He was in the back of a van right now and would be on his way to interrogation as soon as we took down his boss.

The other three were in the wind, but without Coval, they weren’t much of a threat to me, the Kingdom of Zenderland or its royal family, including Booker.

Not that Ghost’s team wouldn’t go after them.

“Deus…” Coval swore through his teeth, and I glanced over at the men with me as Linzey’s kidnapper stomped into the kitchen. The plan was for them to grab him while I freed Linzey.

I pulled down my mask, and stepped back as one of the team took my place.

He edged open the door, ready with a smoke grenade canister.

I cringed at the loud screech from the single hinge, but the canister shot across the apartment, clattering across the counter before Coval even had a chance to spin around. We flooded into the apartment.

I grabbed Linzey and ran outside while the others converged on her kidnapper, a man considered a terrorist after masterminding the explosives at her building.

And kidnapping and terrorism were only two of his crimes.

As long as he was neutralized and my woman was safe, I didn’t give a rat’s ass about the man.

“Adler! Oh my God, Adler!” she cried, her arms going around me in the hallway. I didn’t speak, didn’t stop moving until we were safely out on the sidewalk in the fresh air and away from the smoke filling the abandoned structure.

“You are in so much trouble, little girl,” I growled, shoving off my mask and crushing her to me.

“You rescued me again,” she whispered. “But I’m still mad at you.”

“Mad?” I growled. “I am so incandescently angry at you, you’ll be lucky to sit for the next week.

” In contrast to my words, I ran my hands over her to ensure she was unharmed.

She seemed fine. Thank God. Otherwise, Ghost might have a murder on his hands.

“Don’t ever do that to me again. I almost had a heart attack when they grabbed you. And then I couldn’t get to you…”

“How did you even find me?” she asked.

I caught her hand in mine. Turning her palm up, I ran my thumb over the scar on her wrist, an action she had to recognize because I did it often. She just didn’t know why.

“Remember the day you were rescued from Rod? How you were injured? And I tended to you before the medics got there? Gave you two shots?”

“Yeah…”

“Only one of the shots was to numb the area… The other wasn’t an anesthetic.”

“You put a tracker in me?” she exclaimed. “You didn’t even know me back then.”

“Baby girl… I took one look at you and knew you’d be mine someday. My whole life from that moment has been for you.”

Her mouth dropped open, but before I could say anything else, before she could move past her shock and yell at me, Ghost and his team dragged Coval from the building. I took a step forward, but Linzey sidestepped into my path, staring at him.

“I told you, you were a shitty kidnapper,” she taunted, and he swore at her in Zenderese.

Ghost shoved him. “Watch your mouth when you’re talking to a lady.”

Which reminded me…

I swung her around as the vans with the military prisoners took off, leaving us alone, my car half a block away. “How could you say that to him?”

“He is a bad kidnapper.”

“That he should shoot you?” I raged, pulling her toward my vehicle. “How could you say that to him? Don’t you know my heart fucking beats for you? Don’t you realize how important you are? To me. To your family?”

She made a scoffing noise. “You broke up with me.”

I pushed her against the side of my car, my arms caging her in. She lifted her chin without a trace of fear, but I saw the vulnerability in her eyes, the demons that told her she wasn’t good enough.

“I didn’t break up with you,” I growled. “God damn it, I love you. And you’re mine. You think I’d lose the best part of my life? Fucking hell, Linzey!”

Her eyes went wide, then sunlight seemed to dawn over her features. She grinned. “I love you, too.”

“Good. Because you’re stuck with me.” My fingers threaded into her messy hair.

“I thought you were handing me over to someone else?”

I laughed. “A pain in the ass like you. I wouldn’t do that to one of my men.”

She shoved my shoulder, but I tugged her in to me and covered her mouth with mine, so fucking grateful that she was okay.

“But you said…” she started when we pulled apart minutes later.

“That was before. Let’s go home,” I said.

“We can’t. The explosions…”

I shrugged. “Already been inspected. The building is sound. Safe for residents while they repair the minor damage.”

“You’re sure?”

My curled fingers lifted her chin, and I brushed my lips over hers. “It’s safe. And you’re always safe with me.”