"Because you're careless and stupid and because I thought it would be a good idea to extort you.”
"What made you change your mind?”
“Who says I have?”
Alex growled. These games weren’t fun anymore, if they ever had been.
“I don't see anybody here,” he said, looking around the address he'd been given. It was a construction site on the edge of Manhattan. Busy, yet empty in that way only NYC addresses could be. He glanced around, then kept walking.
“Colder.”
Alex stopped and looked up at the scaffolding surrounding the building under construction.
“Warmer.”
Of course Indigo was watching. He would be enjoying this. Alex didn't care about the games anymore. Being shot, thinking he had been betrayed, facing the loss of the one woman he loved beyond all others, it had all conspired to change him fundamentally. He was no longer the man he had been when he met Sophie. All his shark-like instincts had gone by the wayside, channeled into one desire: protecting her.
“Is she up there?”
“If you want the spoils of war, you have to be ready to ascend…”
Alex craned his neck and squinted. As he did, he saw what could have been a figure at the very top, over a dozen stories high. It was perched very precariously at the end of a plank extending out into oblivion.
“SOPHIE!”
“So much warmer,” the mocking tone continued.
“Indigo… I will make you pay for this," Alex growled. He broke the burner phone beneath his heel and kicked it away, gesturing for his men to follow him up the scaffolding.
The doctors would not have been pleased to see him scaling a rickety building with an iron ladder, but he had no choice. The higher he got, the more he could see. The figure was hooded and bound, unable to move.
“SOPHIE!”
“Alex!” Her cry was thin, but it was all he needed to spur him on through the aching of his muscles and the complaining of his wound.
He reached the top ahead of his men, and could have had one of them retrieve her, but he decided that if anybody was going to fall and fail it would be him. Crouching on hands and knees, he crawled out over the void. The pain in his gut was fierce, but he pushed through it, one inch at a time, risking his life for her sweet existence.
“I’m coming, Sophie! Sophie! Sophie! I’m here.”
He reached for her, then stopped. He could so easily accidentally knock her off if he wasn't careful. “Stay still, baby,” he soothed. “I’m right here.”
"Alex, I’m so sorry,” she whimpered. “I've fucked it all up…”
“It's okay. You've got nothing to be sorry for. I've got you. You're safe now.”
In truth it took about ten men a solid hour to get them back off the ledge, using ropes and pulleys to stabilize the plank and haul them back in, but eventually he had the hood off her head and he was able to look down into her beautiful eyes for the first time in what felt like eternity.
She was sobbing as he pulled her into his arms, shaking so violently she could barely stand.
“I've got you," he murmured in her ear. “You're safe now. I've got you.”
Instead of comforting her, his words only seemed to upset her further. Her sobs turned into anguished wails as she buried her face in his neck.
The poor thing had been through so much. Had been blamed for so much. Alex swore to himself that she would never suffer this way again. She would spend the rest of her life absolutely safe, and entirely protected. He’d kill before he left anybody touch her again.
“Sir, I think we should vacate this scaffolding," Smithers said. “The wind is picking up, and your stitches may be at risk of pulling…"
Alex didn't care. She was his burden to carry, and he was not going to let anybody else take her from him ever again.
“We’re not safe,” she whispered to him. "They're still out there.”
“I know,” he murmured back. “They won't beat us.”
Her response was so soft it was easy to miss it in the wind which was becoming a howling gale.
“They already have."
She couldn't hear his response because it was not said out loud. It was written in the vicious gaze shot defiantly out over the city.
He had his girl back, and he was never going to let her go again. Whatever plans Indigo might have, he'd foil them. He had plans of his own too. Big plans. From this day forth, every bit of energy he had would go into dismantling Indigo. Taking his organization, and the man himself apart piece by piece until there was nothing left. He already had Christo and Carlyle on board. The combined resources of their global empire were about to be deployed.
Apex vs Indigo.
This was war.
And it was only just beginning.
Epilogue
Sophie arched her back, the length of her perfect naked body extended for Alex’s inspection. He ran his mouth from between her breasts, down over her belly and finally claimed the hot little nub betwixt her thighs.