Sweet Salvation (Ruthless Games 3)

He spins me around, and I meet his gaze face-to-face instead of through the mirror. His hands come up to frame my face, and his touch is heartbreakingly gentle as he tips my chin up.

“We’ll be okay, Rose,” he murmurs quietly. “It’ll all work out.”

His promise is laughably impossible to back up. There are at least a dozen ways we know of that tonight could go wrong, and probably a hundred more we can’t even anticipate. But the confidence in his voice settles the bees that seem to be buzzing around in my chest, letting me relax a little.

He grimaces, his lips pulling to one side. “Eh, maybe you’re right, after all. It is stupid. It’s fucking stupid that fate brought you into our lives and now that bitch won’t even let us just enjoy this shit. It’s stupid that I’m almost glad things happened the way they did, no matter how terrible it was—because if even one thing had gone differently, we might not be standing here today.” His thumbs trace the line of my lower lip, making my skin tingle with awareness. “This is what I want, Rose. This. You, me. Ryland. Marcus. All of us together, forever.”

His blue-green eyes shine with sincerity, and I swallow down the lump in my throat. “It’s what I want too. More than anything.”

“I’ll give it to you,” he promises. “Or at the very least, I’ll die trying.”

He drops his head to kiss me, and I stretch up to meet his lips with mine, desperate to feel the tangible connection between us. I don’t like his promise one bit, but I can’t exactly fault him for saying it.

Because I feel the same way.

I realized a while ago that I would kill for Marcus—for any of these men—if it came down to it.

But it’s more than that.

I would die for them too.

“Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that,” Theo adds with his signature grin when our kiss finally ends. The dimple on his cheek flashes, and I almost imagine that he heard my internal thoughts.

“A-fucking-men,” I mutter.

It’s a strange feeling, to be so willing to die for the men I love and at the same time, so desperate to live for them too.

I want the future Theo promised.

I want forever.

And I’ll fight to get it, even if the road to happiness is littered with fallen bodies.

He kisses me again, a lingering press of his lips before he pulls away and takes my hand.

“Come on.” He grins as he leads me toward the door. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get back home. And I’ve got a few ideas of how we can celebrate a successful mission.”

I can’t help the smile that tugs at my lips. “Would one of those ideas involve recreating what happened after Luca’s last party, by chance?”

He glances back at me as we leave my bedroom, heat flashing in his eyes. “For starters.”

The other two men are waiting for us downstairs. Just like last time, they’re all dressed to the nines in bespoke suits that fit their tall, broad frames perfectly. I wish I had more time to appreciate how fucking good they look, but as we head into the garage and move toward Theo’s car, the butterflies in my stomach start flapping harder and harder, distracting me.

It’ll be okay. We can fucking do this.

The drive to Luca’s house is tense and quiet. His place is outside the city, over thirty minutes away, but the trip seems to take no time at all—probably because I’m dreading our arrival so much.

When Theo pulls into the circular drive that fronts Luca’s massive mansion, I scan the property, checking for security cameras and guards. I don’t remember an overwhelming pr

esence of guards last time we came for a party, and I don’t see one this time either. But that definitely doesn’t mean this place isn’t protected.

The only thing that gives me hope is the thought that Luca is so powerful, so well-positioned as the de facto ruler of Halston, that he doesn’t feel like he needs a massive security force at his party.

Because trying to steal from him would be suicide, and everyone here knows it.

The guys and I know it too.

We’re just dumb enough to try anyway.