“We happened to hear her screaming, and I busted the door open. It was sheer luck that I saw him look behind him and up to a corner of his kitchen. He had a camera there and was filming the attack.”
“Oh my God. But you stopped it?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, we did. He hadn’t gotten too far.”
“And is she okay?”
“I think so. I’m not sure.”
Bella looked away for a moment, then back at me. “Do think she’d talk to me?”
I pulled my head back in surprise. “Why do you want to talk to her?”
“Because I know what she went through, Hunter. I know what it’s like to hold that all in, and I cannot begin to imagine what it was like for her to have all of you burst into that room and save her like you did.”
“It was all just lucky timing.”
“No, it was fate. You were meant to be there. To stop it. To stop that monster.”
I placed my hand on the side of Bella’s face. “Are you okay? I wasn’t sure how you’d react to the news.”
She nodded. “I’m okay. I really am. I’m so glad you stopped him. And I’m so glad he’s going to jail. Please tell me it’s not a slap on the wrist and that he’ll only be there for a few months. His father was some congressman or something like that, I remember.”
Smiling, I said, “He won’t breathe free air for a very long time.”
Bella closed her eyes and exhaled. “Thank God.”
When she opened them, something about Bella had changed. I couldn’t pinpoint it, but I could see it in her eyes.
“From this moment on, I don’t ever want to hear his name again. Ever.”
“Okay,” I said as I picked up her hand and kissed the back of it.
“Thank you for loving me the way you do, Hunter.”
“Arabella Turner, you should know by now that you’ll always own my heart.”
She giggled and cupped my face in her hands. “Will you do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
“If this baby is a girl, or if God ever blesses us with one, will you write her a note and put it in a honey bottle with a sprig of lavender like you did for me?”
My heart flipped in my chest. “Yes.”
“And will you do it every year on her birthday, so that someday she has bottles and bottles of love notes from her daddy?”
I blinked, trying to keep my emotions in check. “Yes.”
Leaning toward me, Bella kissed me softly on the lips. “One more thing.”
“Anything,” I whispered.
“How much time do you have for your lunch break?”
Grinning, I stood and reached down to lift her into my arms. “I have plenty of time to make love to my wife.”
As I carried Bella into the house, Jack barked and ran ahead of us to the bedroom, where he patiently laid by the door while Bella and I got lost in each other.