Page 77 of Royally Ruined

I hated admitting it, but ... “Amazingisn’t half the word.”

Scotch was watching me with her eyebrows hidden in her messy hair. “Say that again.”

“Say what?”

“Say that these men are amazing.”

Okay. Now she was pushing it. Curling her against me, I filled my nose with her comforting scent. “I know what you’re getting at. And you win.”

“I definitely win,” she agreed, snuggling against me.

- CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR -

SCOTCH

There were tons of cop cars waiting outside the warehouse.

Costello’s hand was wrapped around mine, firm and tight. I didn’t want him to let go. It was crazy to think that this mess could finally be over. I clung to the words my uncle had said earlier:

“The Valentines won’t keep chasing you if we can get clear evidence that you never attacked their son.”

“What about Darien himself?” I asked.

My uncle laughed. “Him? If we do this right, he’ll be in jail for a long, long time.”

“And there’ll be no war? No one will have to die?”

His eyes were shadowed under his thick brows. “I’ll be right outside. You’ll be fine, I promise.”

“This is about more than me.” Remembering my standoff with Maverick, I spoke as carefully, as seriously, as I could. “Costello and his family can’t suffer for this.”

“When this is over with,” he whispered, “they won’t.”

Breathing in the cool air, I laid my head on Costello’s shoulder. We’d stopped walking, lingering by the warehouse as the police ushered Horace and Darien and all the others out in cuffs. None of the men looked our way; I was glad. “Go on,” I chuckled. “Tell me I’m a genius for solving this.”

He smiled down on me indulgently. “You’re more than a genius. I can’t imagine what else you’re capable of. It’d be wonderful if I got to see it.”

A tickle of unease made my words catch in my mouth. “Ha, you make it sound like you won’t.”

Costello’s attention went over my shoulder, to the cop cars with their flashing lights. I followed his gaze and saw my uncle staring at us without even pretending to hide it. Suspicion turned my guts into snakes. “What’s going on? Costello ...”

“He expects me to leave,” he said grimly. “He’s watching to make sure I do.”

“What? He can’t make you do that!”

“Your uncle is a stubborn man ... stubborn and smart.” Costello’s smile was bleak. There was no warmth, only the eternal pain of a man who’d suffered and thought he was fated to suffer more. “He laid it out for me that night in your kitchen. He’d work with me to help you, but when that was over with, he wanted me gone. Everything he pointed out about me and my family putting you at risk was the truth.”

My hand fell from his like a dead branch in an ice storm. I couldn’t touch him, I couldn’t ... I couldn’tbelieve him!

He knew he’d have to leave.

He’d known and still he’d held me ... touched me ... kissed me.

“Don’t give up on this,” I said, the words wet in my mouth as tears slid from my cheeks into the corners of my lips. “Don’t say goodbye. You fought tooth and nail to keep me alive, and I fought with you, and after all of that you want to say it was worth nothing?” My voice cracked as I came undone. “Look me in the eye and tell me you want us to end!”

I knew people had to be watching us. I was shrill in my disbelief. No one could be angrier in this world than me. It wasn’t possible.

Then Costello spun his fingers in my hair, facing me down—and I knew I was wrong. His eyes were furious, a sea no one could swim in and survive. “Of course I don’t want us to end! You make me feel like I’m enough. I’ve never felt that way, not once in my whole damn life. I can’t lose that.” All the ice in his eyes melted away, and through them I glimpsed his fragile soul. “I can’t loseyou.”

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