When I get into the car, I reach over and pull Paige onto my lap. It's dangerous, and probably illegal, but I drive back to our building with her in my arms. I'll be damned if I ever let her go again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Paige
"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" I ask, burying my face back in his neck when we get in the elevator and he hits the button to the wrong floor. I can't let him go. I never want to let him go again.
"I need to show you something."
It's late, and we've both been through so much. I'm drained. I don't know if I can handle much more, but I'll be strong. For him and for me. For us. And at this point, he could take me anywhere and I would go without a fight. After tonight I'm his.
He carried me from the car and refused to put me down since. The doors open, and he walks out with me in his arms as he goes to a door. He unlocks it, and once we are inside, he sets me down and closes it behind us.
The place is sparse, but I can tell right away it's his. The smell of rosewood and clean linen makes me smile. This is his home. There's not a lot of furniture and no pictures anywhere, so it doesn't take me long to see everything. I turn to him. It doesn't feel like a home at all.
Captain takes a deep breath and pulls me down the hallway to a door. He pushes it open and then steps aside, letting me walk in. My hands go to my mouth as I see thousands of pictures of me.
"What is this?" I ask, looking at him and then at the pictures. Some from right before I went to college, around the time Miles found me; some from my college years. I take up every inch of his walls.
"I barely graduated from high school when the CIA got ahold of me. I'd shown interest in going into the marines, and they swooped in and grabbed me. I wasn't with them long when they started pushing me underground. My target―Alexander Owens."
He'd given me lot when he was talking to Alexander, but now he was giving it all to me.
"I had to play dirty for a few years until I built up a little bit of a name for myself in Owens's crews. Then that day came. I'd actually thought about not going to the meeting. Just thought about getting out. I was having to do things I didn't like, and each time things got dirtier and dirtier. But I went to the meeting to see what he'd say. My handler was pressing me hard. Alexander wanted me to get close to Miles. Keep an eye on him. Thought his son was gunning for him, as you know he was."
I step in a little closer, showing him I want to hear more. That I'm not going anywhere. He's just filling in the details for me. I already knew he'd never betrayed me. Only tried to protect me.
"Then out slipped your picture. All that red hair and fire in your eyes. Hit me like a fucking truck. Knew right then why I was on the path I was on. It was leading me to you, and all the dirtier shit I had to do to get there was worth it. All of it. I knew I had to have you. You were mine. And then once I met you, I couldn't stand not being with you. When I went to Miles, I struck a deal. Told him I was with the CIA, deep undercover. Didn't care I was breaking so many laws I could end up in a cell and never see light again, but we hatched a plan together. He thought I was working my case. I was working to get you. To do what I had to do to take Alexander down, and in the process keep him the fuck away from you."
He cups my cheek, his thumb rubbing back and forth. I lean into it.
"When Miles and I came up with you watching over Mallory, I hired a private guard to follow you around and take pictures and keep an eye on you. It was all I had for years. I put them in here so that every night I could fall asleep looking at you while I waited for the time when you were close."
I'm shocked and overwhelmed as he sits me on the end of his bed, and he goes to his knees in front of me.
"I've been beyond obsessed with you since I got a glimpse of you. I gave it all up for you, Paige. My mission with the CIA, my plan to take down Alexander. All of that was pushed aside the day I saw you. You came first. I had to protect you, and I knew the only way to do that was to hide you. I knew sending you away was the best bet. Miles and I had a common goal. Take Alexander down. I made him keep you in school and isolated from everyone. God help me, I wanted to put you in a tower and throw away the key, and this was as close as I could get."
He drops his head to my lap, and I don't know what to say. All of this is hitting me like a ton of bricks.
"I made sure you were alone, with no one else to lean on besides Mallory and myself. I'm not the good and perfect man you think I am, but I can't say I'm sorry for it." He lifts his head, and his dark green eyes are pleading. "I would do everything all over again to have you end up in my arms. I love you, Paige. I love you more than my own life. I would set fire to the world to make you smile. With one word from you, I would turn it into ash. You are the beginning and end of my life. Don't make me live a life without you. Because I won't survive. Without you there is no me. You have been my everything and I swear you're all I know anymore."