Chapter 27 #2
“No.” I lifted my good hand. “First, tell me how you found me. I was drugged and taken from the hotel lobby in Zagreb. How did you end up in Dresner’s hands?”
Something flickered across his face—there, then masked. He leaned against the wall, careful with the distance.
“When I realized you were missing, I was already on the phone with Damon. He alerted the Commander and SENTINEL. They helped to a point,” he said, voice flat. “But they prioritized raids on the two warehouses we identified.”
“More important than finding me,” I said. The words came out flat. “I understand Commander Dawson’s perspective.”
“No, you don’t.” His voice hardened as he pushed away from the wall. “There’s nothing to understand about their priorities.”
The muscle in his jaw ticked. Anger bled through his control.
“Wolfe—”
He caught himself, drawing a slow breath.
“If anything had happened to you…” He stopped, reset. “I’m still not convinced I shouldn’t pay Dawson a visit when this is over.”
I kept my worry off my face. “So what did you do? The last thing I remember was being drugged in Zagreb, then waking in a luxury cage before Dresner’s little palace of horrors.”
“I couldn’t find you through conventional means,” he said, pacing the small space. “So I opted for a desperate play.” He faced me. “I broke into CuraNova Biotech in Geneva.”
“You did what?” I stared.
“It’s the one known channel that could flag Dresner directly,” he said, matter-of-factly. “SENTINEL intel confirmed it was Oblivion’s legitimate front. With SENTINEL busy, options were limited.”
“So you just strolled into their headquarters?” My voice climbed despite my best effort. “That’s insane.”
“It was calculated.” His gaze didn’t move off me. “I needed to be captured.”
“Needed to be…” I broke off, stunned. “You let yourself be taken on purpose?”
He nodded once. “I knew if he had me, he’d use me to get you. That meant I’d know where you were.”
It hit with physical force. “You sacrificed yourself to find me.”
“I created an opportunity.” He could have been discussing dinner. “Dresner wanted us both. Using myself as bait was the most efficient approach.”
“Efficient?” I nearly choked on the word. “They tried to reset you, Wolfe. They tried to wipe your mind.”
“They tried,” he said quietly.
I gripped the chair, ignoring the throb through my cast. “You risked everything. Your memories, your identity, everything we fought for.”
“Yes.” No hesitation. No regret.
“That was beyond reckless.” Heat climbed my throat. “What if you hadn’t been able to resist the reset? What if I’d lost you completely?”
“Then you’d still be alive.” His voice was simple. “And I’d have fulfilled my purpose.”
“Your purpose?” The word scraped. “That’s bullshit. You’re not some self-destructive missile I point and fire.”
“In this case, I was exactly that.”
I tried to stand. Pain snapped through my ribs. “So you decided your life was worth less than mine. No discussion, no—”
“You weren’t available for consultation.” Dry humor flickered. “Kidnapping complicates rescue planning.”
“Don’t make jokes.” My anger started to crack. “You could have died.”
“I weighed the risk.” He came closer, tone softening. “Dresner’s obsession with my conditioning made killing me unlikely. And his fixation on our connection made keeping me alive useful.”
“That’s your defense? ‘I probably wouldn’t die’?” I shook my head. “What if you’d been wrong?”
“I wasn’t.”
“You could have been.” Frustration scraped my voice raw. “Dresner talked about opening your skull. He told me.”
Something dark moved behind his eyes. “Unfortunate.”
“Unfortunate?” Speechless. “You’re impossible.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“This isn’t funny.” Despite everything, his absurdity tugged at me. “You walked into the lion’s den with no backup, no extraction plan—”
“I had a plan.”
“Oh, really? Get captured, get mind-wiped, hope for the best?”
His mouth almost curved. “Something like that.”
I wanted to throw something. My options were limited. “Your brilliant strategy was to get yourself captured?”
“It worked.” He gestured to the room. “We’re here. We’re alive.”
“Barely. And only because you somehow resisted their conditioning, which you couldn’t have known you’d do.”
“I knew.”
“How?”
His eyes held mine, intent and steady. “Because of you.”
The fight drained out of me. “What?”
“The connection between us.” His voice was quiet. “I knew it would hold.”
“You couldn’t have known that.”
“I did.” No flinch. “I’ve never been more certain.”
“That’s not science, that’s…” Words failed.
“Faith?” His brow tipped up.
“You bet your entire identity on something you can’t measure?”
“Yes.” He knelt in front of me, bringing us eye to eye. “They could try to erase memory. They can’t erase what I feel for you. That lives outside their programming.”
Honesty like a blade. It cut straight through me.
My vision stung. I cupped his face with my good hand and the edge of my cast. Rough stubble grazed my palm.
“You gambled everything on that?” My voice shook. “Do you understand how terrifying that is?”
“For you or for me?”
“Both.” My thumb slid along his cheekbone, warm skin under my hand. “I’ve spent years studying how fragile the mind is, how easily it breaks. And you trusted yours to hold onto me through all of it.”
“You’re the only real thing they couldn’t touch.” He didn’t look away. “The only constant worth keeping.”
I leaned in until our foreheads met.
“I love you, Wolfe. God help me, I love you.”
We stayed there a moment, quiet, breath mingling, the cabin narrowing to skin and heat and the weight of what I’d said.
I eased back, wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, and tried a shaky smile.
“So,” I said, rough-voiced. “That happened.”
He didn’t move, eyes locked on mine, intensity steady enough to shake me loose again.
“Say something,” I managed. “Please.”
His thumb brushed away a tear I’d missed. “You love me.”
Not a question. He tested the words like they might break and found they didn’t.
“Yes.” No point pretending. “Terrible timing.”
“Why terrible?”
“We’re fugitives. My arm’s in pieces. A psychopath wants to erase you and dissect me. Pick one.”
His mouth curved. “None of those sound like real objections.”
“You’re impossible.”
“And you love me anyway.”
A jolt hit somewhere under my ribs. “Yes. And what you did was still monumentally stupid.”
“Probably.” The ghost of a smile lingered.
“Don’t do it again.”
“I won’t promise something I can’t keep.” He took my hand, his fingers warm around mine. “I’ll always come for you, Selina. No matter what it costs.”
I wanted to argue—wanted to tell him what it did to me to watch them strap him down and believe I’d lost him. But the look in his eyes stopped me. This wasn’t Specter, the operative, making a tactical move. This was Wolfe, the man, choosing.
“I really want to stay mad at you,” I muttered.
“I know.” His thumb traced slow circles across my palm.
“You’re making it difficult.”
“I know that too.”
I let out a breath. “Promise me something.”
“What?”
“Next time, try a rescue plan that isn’t suicidal.”
“I’ll take it under advisement.”
“That’s not a promise.”
“No,” he said. “It’s not.”
I exhaled, drained by the whiplash of it all. The crash hit—escape, confession, everything. My limbs felt weighted.
“You know,” I said, trying for light, “in the movies this is where you’d sweep me off my feet, throw me on that bed, and ravish me until morning.” I lifted my cast and winced when my ribs complained. “Given I’m one giant bruise with plaster jewelry, maybe we try the gentle cut this time?”
Warm amusement eased the intensity in his face. “The gentle version.”
“You know—the one without acrobatics or furniture casualties.” I gave him a tired smile. “No guarantees I won’t fall asleep on you. These pills mean business.”
He huffed a soft laugh. “We should postpone the circus entirely.”
“Circus?” I raised a brow. “I prefer ‘enthusiastic appreciation of anatomy.’”
“Very enthusiastic.” His eyes darkened for a breath before he stood. “But you need rest.”
“Rest is boring,” I complained, eyelids heavier by the second.
“Being unconscious or drugged isn’t rest.” He helped me up with careful hands. Heat from his palm at my lower back sent sparks along nerves I thought were done for the day.
“Details.” I leaned into him, not pretending otherwise. “Fine. If I can’t have my wicked way with you, what’s the alternative?”
He guided me toward the bathroom. “How about I run you a bath?”
“A bath?” The thought of warm water loosening every ache made me nearly groan. “Yes. Though the cast complicates things.”
“I’ll wrap it.” His tone left no room for argument. “And I’ll help you in and out.”
My mouth curved, impossible to stop. “Exactly how much help are we talking about?”
His gaze met mine, heat banked and steady. “As much as you need.”
“Dangerous offer.” My voice came out lower than I intended.
“For you,” he said, opening the door. “I can handle dangerous.”