Page 82 of Filthy Rich Temptation

He doesn’t get to take from her any more.

Not a fucking drop.

Not on my watch.

And the sooner I can get her and Lottie out of here, the better.

My phone buzzes in my pocket and I pull it out, jaw already locked.

Taylor.

I glance at Lottie, still engrossed in the TV, and back up into the kitchen before answering. ‘Hey.’

‘Hey…’

I flinch at the sound of her voice. So brittle. So unlike her.

‘Can you talk?’

‘Yeah. She’s packing. How are you holding up?’

‘I’ll be a lot better once you’ve got her out of the city.’

Still that tremor in her voice. The terror. Just the thought of him breaking Tay the way he broke Sadie – two of the most important women in my life – I can’t bear it.

‘We’ll be gone in a couple of hours.’

‘Good. That’s good.’ A pause. ‘Though even then… what’s to say he won’t?—’

My fist clenches around the phone. Nails bite into my other palm.

‘He won’t find us. He has no way of tracking us there.’

Her breath shudders down the line. ‘He said he couldsmellher on me, Theo.’

Ice slices through my spine.

‘Actuallysmellher. Said it was her perfume, her shampoo… The freak said he’d know it anywhere.’

I swallow down bile, even as my inner voice accuses me of the same twisted skill. I’d know her anywhere. Difference being, I’d never hurt her. Not ever.

I’d kill for her, though. And that man…

‘His days are numbered,’ I bite out, teeth grinding so hard, it hurts. ‘Axel’s onto him, the police too. They’ll get him.’

They have to. Because I can’t think about the alternative.

‘Until they do, she can’t know about this,’ Taylor whispers. ‘You understand? If she knew he got to me, how close he’d come?—’

‘I know,’ I cut in. ‘I know.’

Because I do know.

It would destroy everything she’s fought so hard to rebuild.

And I’d rather choke on the truth than see her broken again.

‘Thank you, Theo. I don’t know what we’d do without you.’