ANDREW’S SALT-AND-PEPPER EYEBROWS SHOT UP in surprise. “I would have gone as high as fifteen.” He chuckled like he was so damn clever, then started writing my check. “But ten sounds just fine.”
My nails dug into the palms of my hands. “It’s Helen Ortega. O-r-t-e-g-a.”
“Helen, Jesus Christ,” came Theo’s tortured protest. “What are you doing?”
I raised a brow, but I couldn’t look at him. I could not bear to see his expression. “I’m being smart.”
Something choked and tormented clawed up his throat, and I felt it slide down mine. Hurting Theo hurt me right back, but it was a necessary evil. I didn’t know what else to do.
Andrew tore the check out with a flourish and handed it to me. My hands were steady as I accepted it. I sat down to inspect it and whipped out my phone.
“Checks are so funny.” I scrunched my nose as I held my phone over the piece of paper. “Isn’t it crazy how I can just scan it with my phone—and boom, the money is deposited in my account? I don’t even have to go to the bank.”
Theo sank down in the chair beside mine, covering his eyes with his hand. I could feel his confusion and anger bubbling up, and I had to put an end to it. This was too much on top of too much.
“Hey, Theodore, can you send me your account info?”
His head slowly turned in my direction. His eyes were bleary and wet, barely focusing on me. “What?” he croaked.
Oh, my heart. I hated doing this to him, but it would be over soon. “Send me your account info and I’ll transfer the ten K as soon as it clears.”
“Baby?” Theo squeezed his eyes as if to clear them. “What did you say?”
Andrew slammed his ledger down on his desk. “What is the meaning of this? You will do no such thing.”
I rose to my feet and braced my hand on his desk, just like he had. “I can, and I will. I’m not for sale, Mr. Whitlock, and I’m not leaving Theo. If you decide you can’t support a son who has a former stripper for a girlfriend, then that cash you so kindly gifted me will come in handy to him. But this is the last time you use me as leverage over your son. I hope we understand each other. There is no amount you could give me that would make me walk. If you want to try, I’ll be happy to keep transferring it over to Theo each and every time. Are we clear?”
Theo rose behind me, pressing his front to my back. “Angel of vengeance, you’re going to pay for taking a hundred years off my life,” he murmured.
“I love you,” I told him.
Andrew had turned puce. If his coloring was any indication, he had to be in danger of stroking out at any moment.
“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, young lady, but you do not want to test me. You won’t win. Remember who the president of your university is. I can very easily find a reason to have your enrollment revoked.”
That struck true fear in my heart, but I wouldn’t be bullied. If I never graduated from Savage U and collected the money Mads left me, it would be a massive let down, but it wouldn’t break me. So, I squared my shoulders and didn’t even blink.
“Try me, old man. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m really fucking scrappy. I won’t back down.”
“Enough.” Theo squeezed my nape. “You won’t threaten Helen.”
“What makes you think it’s a threat? I have her academic future in the palm of my hand, and right now, I’m not feeling very altruistic. If you care about this girl, get rid of her, Theo.”
Theo released my neck and claimed my hip, pulling me into his side. “That’s never going to happen. And let me tell you why. What do you think people will say if they find out you personally approved my wrestling coaches administering performance-enhancing drugs to me when I was a minor? Do you think that will go over well with the alumni?”
Andrew chuffed, and somehow turned an even deeper red, bordering on purple. “No one would believe that. And even if they did, you would ruin your own reputation in the process.”
“That might be true. Or the public might feel sympathetic toward a kid you abandoned as a baby being thrust into an unknown world of privilege and doing anything he could to gain his father’s approval.” Theo played with the bow on the side of my dress as he spoke. “As for them believing me…well, the emails I have saved should do the trick. I don’t want to release any of it, but I will. If you threaten Helen’s academic future or bother her in any way, all the evidence I’ve saved will come to light. I think I have more of a leg to stand on than you do, but if I go down, at least I’ll take you down too.”
Andrew was struck speechless, and honestly, so was I. I would never let Theo go down, but the fact that he was willing to, that he would ruin himself to save me, struck me so deep in my heart, I’d never lose it. This was love, real love, and it was mine.
“That’s enough, Andrew.”
The three of us whipped around to find a stony-faced Miranda in the doorway.
She turned her attention to Theo and me. “You two should go. Andrew and I have a lot to discuss.”
Theo didn’t hesitate. He took my hand and pulled me along, away from his father. At the doorway, Miranda stepped to the side, but she touched Theo’s arm to stop him.
“You will never have anything to worry about. Both of you. I’ll take care of this.” She gave me a fast hug, then patted my shoulders. “Madeline would want that. She would adore the two of you together. So, go, be in love, and don’t worry for even a second.”
“Thank you,” I whispered, my throat tight with emotion. Mads would definitely adore Theo.
Taking Miranda at her word, we ran to the front door, and kept running, past Theo’s car, down the driveway, and through a narrow passage between houses to a set of wooden steps that led down to the beach.
We didn’t stop until we hit wet sand, then Theo fell on his butt, pulling me down on top of him to straddle his thighs. This stretch of beach was private and deserted, so it was just the two of us and the roar of the ocean.
He held my face in his hands. “Never, ever scare me like that again. Find another way.”
I nodded as much as I could with him holding me. “I’m sorry, so sorry. I had to think on the fly, and that was the best I came up with. I couldn’t let him do that to us. I just couldn’t.”
He dropped his forehead to mine and exhaled. “Jesus, baby, I love you so much. You went to battle for me. For us.”
“Of course I did. You’re mine, Theo. I’ll always protect you and what we have. No one gets to decide our future except for you and me.” I touched my mouth to his and sighed. “Do you think he’s done?”
“I think Miranda will make sure he is.”
I thought he was very right. I was almost certain Andrew Whitlock was being flayed alive by his wife, and he deserved every second of it.
Scooting closer, I wrapped my arms and legs around him, hugging him with all the fierceness I possessed. “I really am sorry I hurt you, Theodore. I couldn’t look at you when I was doing it or I would have broken. I just…I love you. I never want you to doubt that.”
“Love you too, Tiger. Believe me, after that, I’ll never doubt you again. Never.”
He held me with the same ferocity edged with his Theo tenderness that settled my soul against his. We stayed like that, two wounded, world-weary people who had taken down our walls for each other, baring all our soft places, knowing we’d be safe.
To think, I could have missed this if I hadn’t had my Mads’s words in my head. I would have still been sinking under the weight of my pain instead of swimming with Theo in the light.
Life hurt. It took and took. I’d learned that way too young. It took me longer to see the flip side. Sometimes life offered up something so big, it didn’t erase the past, but it overshadowed it. It made the hard, painful past seem a lot less important than the soft, safe present.
That was Theo and me.
He was the good, necessary kind of trouble I could keep getting into for a long, long time.
He nipped at my jaw and pressed a sweet kiss to my cheek. “Love you, Tiger.”
“Love you too, Theodore.”
Mmm…yeah. This just might be forever.
