Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 125248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125248 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Genesis reached Curtis first. Curtis made a muffled sound as the huge man folded him almost in half. Ruxs and Green were right there too, touching him everywhere, checking his lip, his shoulders, his wrists, his ribs, cursing under their breath.
“I’m good,” Curtis kept saying. “I’m good. I swear. I’m great, actually.”
“‘Great’?” Green snapped.
Across the room, Tech went to Steele. It wasn’t dramatic. Tech didn’t rush, and Steele didn’t make a sound. But the second Tech was close enough, Steele unfolded from the wall as Tech gripped the front of his jacked and pulled him into him.
Steele glared into Tech’s eyes behind the glasses that’d helped save their lives. Steele tipped Tech’s face up and kissed him once, controlled and brutal in its tenderness, pressed his mouth to Tech’s temple and kept him there.
Curtis grinned through the split in his lip. “I got kidnapped with Xander Vale and held for a ten-million-dollar ransom. Then Ex and Meridian saved us. Do you understand how insane that is? No one at work is gonna believe this.”
Genesis pulled back just enough to look at him. “You can’t tell anyone, babe.”
Curtis groaned. “Uggh, come on.”
Ruxs dragged a hand down his face. “No, never.”
Curtis touched his busted lip and frowned. “Fine.”
Genesis pulled Curtis back against him. “This is what comes from being raised by two insane men.”
Curtis beamed up at him. “Do you still want me?”
“Absolutely.”
Curtis smiled, pushing up for a kiss. Genesis kissed the side of his mouth that wasn’t swollen.
“I don’t wanna wait another week to do it. I wanna marry you right-fucking-now.”
The room stilled in a strange, stunned ripple.
Curtis blinked.
Then blinked again.
“Seriously?”
Genesis’s expression didn’t change. “Seriously.”
“Like now, now?”
“Right now. Everyone we love is right here.”
Curtis gestured at his clothes. “But I don’t wanna get married in a Los Angeles courthouse wearing jeans and a Van Halen T-shirt.”
“You know we host weddings on the ranch all the time,” a man said from Free’s computer screen.
Everyone turned.
“That’s Fox. Another member of God’s team,” Cassidy answered Xander’s silent question. “He’s in Atlanta. He’s the one who helped us find you.”
Fox had messy-ish silver hair, tired but amused light grey eyes, and a killer, almost cunning smile. “It’ll be the experience of your life,” he said.
Genesis glanced back at the screen. “Um.”
Fox leaned back in his chair. “Imagine a ten-foot-tall arch, covered in roses, in a wide-open field of wildflowers, and arriving at the altar in a carriage pulled by the most majestic Clydesdales you’ll ever see.”
Curtis gasped.
“Yes. Yes.” Curtis turned fully toward the screen. “Yes, Fox. I want that.”
Fox nodded and stood, stretching his back. “Well, I got shit to do then. Get your asses back over here. I think you’ve done enough on the West Coast.”
“Fox,” Xander said quickly, lifting his head from Cassidy’s chest.
Fox’s eyes flicked to him on the screen.
“Thank you,” he said, wishing he could say something far deeper, but he was wrung out.
“I’m glad you’re safe,” Fox said and hung up.
Cassidy took his wrist and examined the red marks from the zip ties. “Let me look.”
“Cassie.”
“Let me look, Lane.”
Xander stopped fighting.
Cassidy checked him again with careful hands. His wrists. His jaw. His shoulders. His ribs where one kidnapper had grabbed him too hard climbing out of the van. Xander watched the fury move behind Cassidy’s eyes, but that never reached his touch.
When Cassidy’s hands reached his face, Xander caught one and held it to his cheek.
“I love you, too.”
Cassidy went still, as the room continued moving around them, but for Xander, every sound dropped away.
He hadn’t meant to say it there. Not in front of everyone. Not with assassins nearby and Curtis planning a ranch wedding. Not with his body still buzzing from fatigue and terror.
But Cassidy had said it through Free on a warehouse floor.
“I love you,” he said again, voice steadier. “I think I loved you before I understood what was happening. Maybe the first night you stayed with me, and I realized I couldn’t breathe without you in the room.”
Cassidy stared at him with those whiskey-brown eyes that were bright in a way he’d never seen.
“And I know this is a terrible place to say it, but I don’t want another terrible thing to happen before you hear it.”
Cassidy slid his warm hand around the back of Xander’s neck and pulled him forward until their foreheads touched.
“I love you,” Cassidy said, rough and deep. “I love you so much I haven’t known what to do with myself for the last seven hours.”
Cassidy kissed him, sealing the confession between them.
God clasped Free’s shoulder. “You did good.”
Free sagged into Day’s side. “I was terrified.”
“I know,” he said. “You still did good.”
Day hugged him for a long moment, then whispered, “I was scared too.”
Near the door, Meridian cleared his throat.
“All of this is nauseatingly touching,” he said, voice smooth as aged brandy, “but I have a human trafficker in Montenegro I’d like dead before lunch.”