“I am now,” she replied, wrapping her arms around him, and settling her head against his chest.
He could hear her heart still hammering. There were so many questions he wanted to ask and yet, he was afraid of the answers. He decided none of it mattered right now. He pulled away from her and looked down at her, pulling her face toward his and kissing her, a long kiss that hopefully said everything he didn’t know how to say right now.
Finally, he pulled away, brushing a wisp of hair away from her eyes. She looked tired, but still beautiful. He felt such relief about being able to hold her again.
“I love you, Lucy,” he said, not willing to hold it in anymore.
“I love you too,” she replied.
“Do you mean that? You don’t have to say it just because I did or because of what has happened.”
“I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t. I’ve had a lot of time to think while I was stuck in that closet they shoved me into and all I could think about was you and how I was going to get back to you.”
“Alright, let’s get it warmed up in here and we’ll relax for a while. I’m sure you can use a bit of that.”
“Is there something to drink in here? I am so thirsty.”
“Check the fridge and that small door to one side leads to a pantry where all the dry goods are stored,” he told her, adjusting the thermostat from air conditioning to heat, and kicking it on.
Lucy walked back with two bottles of cold water and sat down on the sofa, leaning back and closing her eyes after taking a long drink of hers. He sat down beside her and pulled her toward him, letting her rest her head against him.
“My father. I saw my father there,” she said in a half dazed voice.
“Yes. Him and some of his goons came with me.”
“How?” she said, pulling away and looking up at him.
“I didn’t know you were missing until Monday night. I got questioned when I got back to the station from my shift and they made it pretty clear that I was the prime suspect and that they weren’t going to put a lot of effort into finding you.”
“You? Why would anyone think that?”
“Because we had an argument and no one saw you after that. They jumped to conclusions. Anyway, I went looking for myself. I figured I had to find you before they hauled me in and tried to pin your disappearance on me. If that happened, no one would be spending any urgent time looking for you.”
“And how did you find me?”
“The sketch you drew. I finished tracking down the guy in it. You were right. He’s human. One of the detectives had asked me if Derek Jameson was your father and it didn’t mean anything to me, but when I looked at that guy’s record, I saw that they had been tied to some drug deals together.”
At this, Lucy looked down at her hands. It was a secret she’d obviously intended for him not to find out about.
“Don’t worry about it, Lucy. I understand why you didn’t tell me. You were trying to leave that part of your life behind. My family has some dark roots, as well. I think most wolf packs do, in all honesty.
She nodded, but said nothing, so he continued.
“Anyway, I went to your father’s office to ask him why the man was following you. I knew his name and had his record, but still no clue why he was watching you. Your father told me there had been some threats and he had sent him to keep an eye on you, but when he found out you were dating a cop, he told him to back off. He called the guy in and he confirmed that he had done that and wasn’t anywhere near when you were taken, but he had an idea who did it once he realized you were gone.”
“One of the men, he was human. He’s the one that drugged me at the house and took me to where they were holding me.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll find him and take care of him if your father and his guys didn’t already.”
“I killed him.”
“You what?”
“I killed him. He attacked me and I . . . I just, I killed him.”
“I’m sorry, Lucy. I’m sorry I didn’t get there before you had to do something like that.”
Tears fell down her face. It spoke volumes that it hurt her so much that even killing someone who was trying to harm her hurt so much. It wasn’t an emotion he shared, but he could understand that other people weren’t like Alphas.
“Why did those people take me? The guy that I . . . killed . . . said that they would let me go once my father paid them back for what he had taken. Did my father steal something from them?”