Page 29 of Hunted Hearts (Black Heart Security #6)

Theo stood at the edge of the ballroom, his eyes never leaving her.

As she lifted the violin to her shoulder and played the first note, silence fell like snow.

The room stilled. The music wasn’t just beautiful—it was transcendent .

It bled through every crack of his armor and stitched something in him back together.

Every note told a story. Her story.

His.

Theirs.

It felt like she was playing only for him.

And he wasn’t the only one moved—there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

When the last note faded, the entire ballroom erupted in applause. Theo’s chest swelled with pride…with love…

With fear.

Because the more she shone, the more she stood out.

And that made her more of a target.

* * * * *

Juliette dipped into a graceful bow, then exited the stage. Theo was already moving.

He found her in the hallway. She looked up, eyes blurred with emotion for this man.

“You were…” His voice cracked. He cleared it. “You were incredible.”

The intense expression in his eyes hit her square in the chest.

She stepped up to him. He dropped his forehead to hers. For a long beat, neither moved.

Suddenly, he straightened, hand snapping to his earpiece. He muttered something to one of his brothers. “I’m going to escort Juliette to her dressing room. I’ll meet you there.”

She searched his face. “What’s going on?”

“A disruption in front of the venue.”

“I can go to the dressing room by myself—”

He was already shaking his head. He slipped his hand around her body to rest on the small of her back, guiding her out of the shadows toward the corridor leading to her dressing room.

Inside, he performed a quick sweep of the room. She didn’t see anything out of place. Everything was exactly as she left it.

Theo strode to the door and turned to pierce her in his gaze. “Lock the door behind me, Juliette. Don’t let anyone in but me.”

Gulping, she nodded.

He rushed out, leaving her feeling hollow. Wishing she could call him back and convince him to stay with her rather than run into danger.

She tried not to picture her lover running into that burning dressing room, but all she could think about was that Theo wasn’t a man who backed down from any threat.

In a sweep of her long gown, she moved to lock the door as he instructed her. After that, she turned to the empty space. Her heart was the only sound in her ears.

Usually her team was surrounding her after a performance. Henrik would gently take her violin out of her hands and place it carefully in the case. Then he would embrace her, kissing her on each cheek in the European fashion.

Rachel would shoo away the media until Juliette was ready to give interviews. Chris and Harper would see that she got out of her gown and into street clothes.

She missed them so much, but she wasn’t incapable of taking care of herself.

But there was a lovely bouquet of roses in a vase on her dressing table. When Aspen brought them in earlier, Juliette knew without a doubt that they were from Theo.

She stared at the velvety petals and let her mind linger on her lover rather than her music, as she usually did after a performance. Where was he? She wished he would come for her.

She placed her violin in the case with care. With that task completed, she reached for the zipper of her dress. After letting it slip off her shoulders, she gathered it over her arm and took her time hanging it up on the rack.

After that, she dressed in loose trousers and a soft sweater, her mind far away on Theo and what exactly this disruption could be.

She pictured a brawl like a heavy metal concert, but that was silly.

Had the team’s plan worked? Did they root out the people who were after her?

Her heart was still racing from the performance—maybe the most emotional one of her life. She had played her soul out on that stage, and she’d done it with Theo’s unwavering presence grounding her.

Emotion washed over her, and she was helpless to stop the tears trickling down her cheeks. She was reaching for a tissue to blot beneath her eyes when she heard it.

A low buzz.

Not her phone’s ringtone. Not the sound her phone made when someone messaged her.

It was something else…dull and persistent.

Coming from her bag.

Her phone wasn’t in her bag.

She froze.

Hands trembling, she opened her purse and dug through lipstick, mints and the compact she hadn’t used. Her fingers closed around a slim plastic rectangle. Not her phone.

A cheap model. A burner.

Her stomach bottomed out.

Buzz.

She almost dropped the item vibrating in her hand. The screen lit up with a picture.

Juliette’s eyes blurred for a moment. It was one of the orphans—Emil.

Sweet, dimpled Emil with the crooked tooth and the laugh that always came too late.

He was supposed to be adopted by a family in the Netherlands in the coming month.

She would fund the therapy that he would require after he was settled.

She’d spoken to him just two months ago.

Her lungs squeezed as she read the message attached to the photo.

Your bodyguard’s getting too deep. Finding out too much.

Exit through the back door if you want the boy to live.

For a second, the world narrowed to that single line of text.

Juliette couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe.

Then she was moving. She snatched up her violin.

Her hands were clumsy as she fumbled with the lock. She didn’t have much time if she was going to save the child. Emil’s face was burned into her mind, and every second she delayed could cost him.

She pressed her hand to the door, hesitating.

She could go to Theo. He’d stop her. He’d take the phone, make a plan and alert the Black Heart Security team.

But they—whoever they were—had already warned her. This was personal now. They knew Theo was closing in. They were trying to shut him down.

If she didn’t comply, they might kill Emil just to prove they could. Clearly they would go to any lengths to make her stop drawing attention to the charity.

She didn’t have time. She had to act.

She slipped out the corridor, making a break for the back door into the night.

The cool air slapped her cheeks. The alley was dimly lit, a far cry from the glowing windows of the resort and the elegant guests sipping champagne inside.

Gripping her violin tight, she scanned the area, straining to hear any noise coming from the disruption that took Theo away from her, but the night was silent except for an idling engine.

There. A black limo in the shadows.

Her steps slowed, and her legs locked as her body told her to run. The car was only ten steps away from her, but Theo’s voice in her head told her to freeze, to stay away.

The passenger window rolled down.

She couldn’t see the man’s face—only the brim of a wide hat that shadowed his features. But she heard the voice.

“You’re making the right choice, Juliette.”

“I brought this.” Her voice shook as she stepped closer, holding up the case. “It’s worth a lot. Please, take it. Let the boy go.”

He didn’t move.

“We need to talk.”

“Take the violin. Let Emil go!”

The back door opened.

Her instincts screamed.

But if she walked away, Emil could die.

She climbed inside.

Someone came out of the shadows to close the door and the limo pulled away.

Too late, horror crashed over her.

Oh God.

Oh God.

She’d just broken rule number one, something drilled into her since childhood—never go to a second location.

She’d let her feelings blind her, causing her to make a monumental mistake and she’d never see the man she loved again.

Panic clawed at her throat as she twisted in her seat to see a big man seated on the long bench seat beside her. “Where are we going?”

No answer.

She tried to see through the dark glass separating her from the driver but could only make out a shadow.

The man next to her didn’t look at her, his jaw a hard line under the shadow of a beard.

“Where is Emil?” she demanded with a strength in her voice she didn’t know she possessed.

Still no answer from the man.

She hugged the violin case to her chest like a shield. Her heart slammed against her ribs, each beat screaming her mistake.

What had she done ?

Theo would know she was missing. He’d find the phone, the message.

She knew deep down in the pit of her soul that he wouldn’t just come for her out of a sense of duty as her bodyguard. If she was right about what she saw in his eyes when he looked at her, then he loved her too. Or was very close to loving her.

He’d come for her. He’d stop at nothing.

Unless that “disruption” took him out.

She squeezed her eyes shut against the overwhelming sting of tears.

This was because they’d dug too deep, because Theo and his brothers had peeled back the layers of this so-called charity and exposed something foul. Trafficking and black-market adoptions. Greed wrapped in a veneer of humanitarianism.

They’d tried to silence her with fear, with fire, with scorpions and by hurting her friend Henrik.

Now they had her .

The violin case pressed to her ribs where her heart pulsed out a staccato like a goodbye.

She imagined Theo’s face and the way his warm, callused hands felt cupping her cheek and the feel of his lips on hers.

As if he was with her now, she heard his voice in her head, low and rough.

I’ve got you.

But he didn’t.

Not this time. She had stepped right into their trap.

Juliette drew a shuddering breath and looked out the window. The lights of the country club were slipping past. Wherever they were going, it wouldn’t be good.

Still, she clung to hope that Theo would come, even as a sharper, colder thought needled its way through the cracks of her resolve.

What if…he couldn’t?