Insatiable (Steel Brothers Saga #12) - Helen Hardt Page 0,25

you being here, does he?”

“He knows you were missing, but no. He doesn’t know about Colin’s message to Jade.”

“Thank God it worked.” I sighed.

Bryce gripped my shoulders and pushed me away slightly, meeting my gaze. The moonlight slid over his features. He looked both beautiful and insanely mad at the same time.

“Thank God,” he echoed. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

Chapter Nineteen

Bryce

Marjorie.

I held on to her, relishing her body melded against mine. We fit together so perfectly, almost divinely, even like this.

I hadn’t let the fear overtake me while I searched for her, hadn’t let myself give in to the fear that threatened to consume me. No, I’d had to focus—focus enough to be able to use every bit of my muscle to kick in doors. For her.

But now? Holding her like this, letting her cry into me…

All the fear flew through me in retrospect.

I couldn’t let her go. Didn’t want to let her go. If I let her move away from my body, would I be able to protect her?

I’d meant what I said. I wanted her and Colin to go to a hospital to get checked out. Talon was probably already on the road with his mother. Had he checked in with Ryan and Ruby?

Colin still had my phone.

Even if I had it, I wasn’t sure I’d have let go of Marj to text them.

I wasn’t ready to let go just yet.

I might never be.

“All good,” Colin said. “They’re on their way.”

I nodded.

“Now what?” he asked.

“Go to my contacts. It’s a short list on this burner phone. Text Ry and Ruby and let them know I have you and Marj. Tell them Tal has Daphne as well. I’m not sure if he texted them.”

Colin nodded and began pecking at my phone.

And still I held on to Marj.

“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” I said echoing myself. “Never again.”

I expected her spitfire personality to emerge and fight my words. But she didn’t. She just leaned into me. She was no longer bawling, only a sniffle now and then.

We stood, and even though clothing separated us, I felt like we were one body. Like we’d always be one body.

Ryan and Ruby found us, and though I spoke to them, told them what had occurred, it didn’t seem like me talking. The real me was glued to Marjorie.

Time moved slowly, and it seemed like hours before the police and ambulance showed up. Ruby took the lead with the police, and the paramedics brought the woman inside the unit out on a stretcher.

“Is she alive?” I heard Colin ask.

“She’ll be okay,” one of the medics said. “We got here in time. The other guy just has a flesh wound on his lower leg.”

Colin said nothing more. At least he wouldn’t be responsible for taking a life, though he’d certainly had good reason to attack. I selfishly wished I’d been the one to slit the woman’s throat. I’d have liked to kill with my bare hands everyone involved with Marj’s disappearance.

The police didn’t make Marj and Colin tell their stories yet. Instead, they drove us all to the hospital where Talon had taken his mother.

After the doctors had given Marjorie and Colin a clean bill of health, the police took them into a secluded room to tell their stories.

I still didn’t know everything that had gone on.

I sat next to Talon in the waiting area. “How’s Daphne?”

“Physically, she’s fine. They didn’t do anything to her. Apparently she walked right out of Newhaven with someone she thought was my father.”

“I thought whoever signed her out used Joe’s name.”

“He did. He wouldn’t use my father’s name. Everyone knows he’s dead. Did you get any information out of Marj?”

I shook my head. “I just held her. Didn’t want to let her go.”

He nodded.

Ruby had been let in with the officers doing the questioning as a courtesy because she was an ex-cop, and Ryan had gone somewhere. I wasn’t sure where. To get food maybe. It was the middle of the night. I’d wanted to call Jade so Marj and Colin would have an attorney, but Marj and Talon both nixed that idea.

“Who do you suppose is behind this?” Talon asked. “It couldn’t be Ted Morse. He’s Colin’s father.”

“I’m not sure that makes a difference,” I said. “I guess Marj didn’t get a chance to tell you what Colin told her right before she was taken.”

Of course she hadn’t. She’d been taken while she was on the phone with Joe and