Page 118 of Holiday Hostage
It worried me.
I’d be damned if I was going to let her out of my sight.
Mav squeezed Payton’s leg, and she covered his hand with hers, doing the same with Tarron.
We couldn’t seem to stop touching each other. Touching her reassured me that it was real. We’d saved her in time.
By the time we finished our statements and the sergeant released us, my throat ached from talking so much, and my fingertips tingled from stroking the rough fabric of Payton’s shirt over and over again.
“I’m driving this time.” Tarron held out his hand for the keys, and I handed them over without argument.
Payton hugged her arms over her ribs and shivered. “I’m glad that’s over.”
“Me too.” I gave her shoulder a squeeze. She’d lost weight since we saw her at the cabin.
I’d noticed it earlier, but it became more with her arms crossed like that. I narrowed my eyes, raking a look over her entire body.
Even disheveled and recently kidnapped, she was gorgeous.
“What can we do?” I ran a hand through her hair.
She closed her eyes and sighed. “Take me somewhere safe.”
“On it.” Tarron jingled the keys, and we climbed into the car.
An hour later, we pulled up outside our penthouse apartment.
The doorman raised a brow at the beat-up monstrosity of a car, but he didn’t say a word once he recognized the three of us.
Payton’s steps faltered as she craned her neck to look up at the building. “You live here?”
“Yes.” Mav nodded at the doorman, and he and Tarron bookended Payton.
I took up the rear. Jack was no longer a threat, and the sergeant reassured us they’d picked up the rest of Jack’s lackeys at the abandoned apartments.
Still.
We couldn’t turn off the need to protect her.
“This way.” Tarron took Payton’s hand and led her to the elevator.
As soon as the doors closed around us, the tension turned from protective to relaxed.
We all took big breaths and let them out.
Payton glanced at all of us, her lips twitching in a slight smile. “Guess we’re all glad that’s over.” She rubbed her cheek over her shoulder and frowned. “Ugh, I smell like a sewer.”
“That might be me.” I raised my hand in a partial wave. “Pretty sure I stepped in something on the way out of the building.”
Payton laughed.
Not the polite laughter of someone giving attention, but a genuine laugh that transformed her face into a brilliant smile.
She leaned into Tarron’s chest, her locked arms relaxing while her laughter built and built.
The release of fear and tension brought an edge of hysteria to her laughter, and she swiped at her eyes when tears began to fall.
“I’m okay.” She met my eyes and sniffled. “I thought I was going to die.” Her chin quivered, but she straightened her shoulders. “I’m not going to let him steal one more second of my thoughts.”
