Page 140 of Handsome Devil

I rolled my eyes. “She can’t hear us.”

“Ican,” he countered. “And what you just said was total bullshit.”

“Excuse me?”

“Youran away.” Tate pointed at me. “As usual. And I chased,alsoas usual. I have spent the better half of this decade following you like a lovesick puppy. Yes, you told me you were falling for me, but those are justwords.”

“Just words?” I spluttered, eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets.

“Just words.” His nostrils flared, a thick vein pulsating in his temple. “I chased you. I sheltered you. I moved fucking oceans and continents to get your mother a spot in the experimental program. I visited her. Often. I read to her, because I knew it was important to you.”

The memory ofAlice’s Adventures in Wonderlandassaulted my mind. He was telling the truth.

“Ikilledfor you.” His lips twisted around the confession. “And I’d do it all over again without a second thought. Killing. Dying. Stealing. Torturing. There is not a red line in this world I wouldn’t cross for you.”

The confessions were ripped from his mouth and thrown at my feet like a sacrifice at an altar.

“You are so fixated with love as a concept.” He shook his head. “You have completely forgotten what it looks like.”

“If you love me,” I said quietly, “stop the war with Callaghan. Put me first.”

“Just because you said those fucking words doesn’t mean I care any less than you do. By the way.” He ignored my words, rummaging through his front pocket, producing something small and shiny. He tossed it to me. I caught it between my palms, uncurling my fingers.

I stopped breathing altogether. Something lodged inside my throat, and I was pretty sure it was my heart.

“But how…why…”

“I found this shell the week I finished off Moore.”

A perfectScaphella junoniashell bracelet was in my palm The same one I thought I’d lost. Only shinier, prettier, the bracelet now studded with tiny, glittery pink diamonds.

“Flew to Jamaica—same beach you and your family went to—to find an identical shell.”

My eyes snapped up to his face. “This is not the original bracelet?”

He shook his head. “It was lost on the way to the coroner’s office. I checked.”

“So how did you—”

“I knelt down in the sand like a fucking toddler and looked for a similar seashell. Took seven hours.”

“How did you remember exactly what it looked like?” The shell was a dead ringer to the one I’d had.

“Because I remember every fucking thing about you, Gia.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, draping the bracelet over my wrist. He stepped forward to help me clasp it. I wasn’t quite ready to apologize for not keeping him updated on my mother’s condition, but I wasn’t livid with him anymore. The man flew to Jamaica and searched its beaches to find me a seashell. To imagine him crouching in his suit on the loose white sand, burying his fingers in it to fish for one of the rarest shells in the world, made me feel fuzzy.

As though reading my mind, Tate grumbled, “And yes, I wore a suit.”

“God.” I placed a hand on his cheek, biting down on a smile. “Now Cal and Dylan think our marriage is a mess.”

“Our marriageisa mess.” He stared at me incredulously.

“I know.” I laughed tiredly. “But…it’s not bad all the time. It’s just that their relationships are so…normal. They’re perfectly in tune with their husbands.”

“It hasn’t always been like this.” Tate brushed my cheeks with his thumbs, cupping my face. “I remember when Calla ran away from Row five hundred times because she was scared of her own shadow. Rhyland and Dylan alternated between boning and trying to kill one another publicly. Relationships are messy. It takes time to find your groove.”

“What a profound observation.” I curled my arms around his waist, drawing him close.