Page 78 of Hart's Redemption

“…the other thing secret. You never mentioned anything about legal bindings.” His face was unapologetic and set with determination. His words from earlier came back to taunt me:Idid what I had to do.“They wouldn’t let me be here any other way,” he insisted.

I pulled at my hair at a total loss for how to handle this latest wrinkle. Elijah had always been in danger, but he was more so now. If my mother even suspected what I had done to cut her out of her own family legacy, she’d skin Elijah alive for sport and, assuming I wasn’t already dead, make me watch. It didn’t matter that she was supposedly already in custody; she’d find a way to see it done. I clawed at my throat as I struggled to breathe. I’d let the world burn before I let her harm so much as a hair on his head.

“Josh, are you really that upset? We can always get it annulled when this is over.”

My head shot up, and air flooded my lungs in a sudden rush. “What? No.” I finally noted the wariness around his eyes and the uncertainty dampening his scent as if someone had dropped him in a river. “No, baby. I’m not upset that we're married.” My heart skipped a beat just saying the word. “I just… I guess…”

I don’t want the world to hurt you just so it can hurt me.

He took a step closer. “What is it, moonbeam?”

I shrugged and refused to give voice to my fears. “I guess I just thought if it was ever going to happen for me it would be… I don’t know, grander?” Elijah’s soft smile touched his eyes, and he cupped the side of my face. I leaned into the caress and let out a sigh.

Maybe this all could’ve been avoided if I’d been honest with him from the start.

He pressed a light kiss to my forehead. “I promise, we can have the grandest celebration you can imagine, wherever you want, with whoever you want. But first, we have to get through this.”

“If only it were that easy.” I glanced behind Elijah to see Lombardi tapping his wrist where his bio-ware was embedded. “Can we have another minute?”

Lombardi held up a finger and stepped back once more.

“Why didn’t you tell me about all of this before?” The hurt in Elijah’s voice was too much to bear on top of everything else.

“I was afraid you’d try to stop me.”

“You’re damn right I would have,” he responded, echoing my words from earlier.

I laughed into his shoulder as he pulled me close. I held onto him tightly, hating that our time together would once again be brief. “I love you.”

He squeezed my waist. “Josh,” he whispered in my ear.

“Hmm?” I hummed against his neck.

“Will you marry me?”

Conflicting emotions rushed through me. Fear, hope, doubt, joy. The bond burned them all away. “Yes.” I pulled back enough to look into his eyes. “Elijah—”

He leaned forward and brushed his lips against mine.

I lost myself to the gentleness of the kiss. My fingers dug into his shoulder as fear threatened to steal this precious moment.

“Sh, moonbeam. Everything is going to be okay. We’ll get through this.”

If only I could believe that.

My gaze drifted past him to the alabaster statues standing in judgment. If the myths that Gorgon victims weren’t actually dead and could be revived held even a shred of truth, then it was possible at least one of us could walk away from this.

Chapter 25

Elijah

“CommanderWalsh,pleasestatefor the panel your history with Detective Joshua Hart.”

The Commander’s eyes glittered with malicious glee where he sat in the chair provided for all witnesses brought to give testimony. “I met Joshua Hart eighteen years ago when he lied about his age in order to gain admittance to the Lycan Detective program.”

The prosecutor, Camilla Hightower, nodded. “I understand you petitioned to have Detective Hart removed from consideration. Is that correct?”

“You’re damn right it’s correct.”