I emptied the glass and dropped it into the sink with a crash.
“They could have killed you,” I whispered.
“They didn’t,” he murmured against my neck.
“They could have killed you,” I repeated.
One hand left the edge of the sink and snaked across my belly but his face didn’t leave my neck. “Baby, they didn’t.”
“I read somewhere that it takes only three days to die of dehydration.”
Creed didn’t respond.
I told him something he knew better than me.
“They had you a month.”
His lips went to my ear. “They’re dead, Sylvie. We’re here. We’re together. We’re breathin’ and they are f**kin’ dead.” I listened to him pull in a breath before he finished, “We win.”
We win.
I dropped my head.
Creed’s other hand left the edge of the sink and wrapped around my chest.
He held me that way a long time. Then he moved from me but took my hand, guided me gently from the sink and out of the kitchen, through the dining room into the living room where he took me to the couch. Positioning me with his hand in mine, he let me go but put both his hands to my shoulders and pressed lightly.
I sat on the couch.
He leaned into me and framed my face with both hands, so close, his shadowed, scarred for me beauty was all I could see.
“Wait here. I’ll be back,” he whispered.
I nodded, moving his hands with my head.
His hands tipped my head forward, he kissed the hair at the top then he let me go. I watched his shadowed form leave the room.
He came back in less than a minute and I noted vaguely he was wearing jeans. He also was carrying a bag.
He came to the couch, upended it and a bunch of small, mismatched jewelry boxes fell out on the couch beside me.
“Knight gave me your name, I wasted no time findin’ you. Saw you then I flew home and got these,” he murmured.
He tossed the bag to my coffee table and pawed through the boxes in the dark. He found the one he wanted, flipped it open and with a tug, yanked out a necklace.
I stopped breathing.
The gold glinted in the moonlight. I saw the gemstone pendant hanging. I couldn’t see the color in the shadows but I knew.
I knew.
He held it toward me.
“That was the one I didn’t get to give to you by the lake on your eighteenth birthday.”
I started shivering. My hand lifting up like it had a mind of its own, Creed draped the necklace over it, gem to my palm before he went back to pawing through the boxes.
He found one, opened it, yanked out another necklace.