They’d dug me out with their hands.

I turned my face into Chace’s neck and whispered, “You need to buy a shovel, honey.”

His body went solid around me.

Then he shoved his face in my neck and burst out laughing.

* * * * *

Semi-lounging, semi-not on Chace’s couch, hanging over the back of it, I looked out his back window.

On his deck illuminated by the outside lights was a beautiful, thin brunette who was having words with an extortionately handsome Italian American man. This was happening while a supremely good-looking black man with twists in his hair and another man, somewhat schluby wearing Buddy Holly glasses and a t-shirt that I could appreciate that said, “All hail Khaleesi, bring on the dragons!” looked on.

“I told you once, I told you a thousand times, Ren, what I do with my life is none of your business! Stay out of it!” she shouted.

She.

That would be Serenity.

My Serenity.

Or a woman I met an hour and a half ago named Ally Nightingale. A woman, after she gave me a big, relieved hug, who told me she lived in Denver. A woman who unabashedly and thankfully did not stop poking her nose into murder and mayhem in Carnal when I asked her to.

The woman who saved my life.

Luckily, at her back, was a badass introduced to me as Darius Tucker (the black guy) and a computer geek that Ally admitted did all the keyboard work introduced to me as Brody (the Game of Thrones freak).

Following her on her self-appointed assignation to save my behind but doing it in order to ream her, was a man I hadn’t met since he laid into Ally the second he arrived. I did know from her shouting at him that he was called Ren.

Cool name.

Hot guy.

And he seemed seriously pissed at her but it was in that way that Chace got pissed at me when he found out I did something crazy and stupid. That was to say, he was pissed because he was seriously worried she’d get hurt.

And it seemed Ally wasn’t cottoning onto that.

It further seemed Ally “Serenity” Nightingale was not like me in a lot of ways and not just that she was thinner than me, taller than me and a brunette. But also she was the queen of backtalk and attitude.

I knew this when Ren shouted back, “Baby, you keep up with this shit, I’ll chain you to my goddamned bed!”

To which she returned heatedly, “Try it, Zano, and I’ll kick your ass!”

All Chace had to say was “baby” and I was all, “okay”.

Not Ally.

Watching, it appeared Ally never gave in in her life, even to a serious hot guy who was threatening to chain her to his bed, which, studying him in all his tall, dark, hot-blooded Italian, badass gorgeousness, was no threat at all.

Jeez, she had this guy hot on her heels and she was perving on Nathan Fillion? I mean, Nathan Fillion was mega hot but this guy… amazing. And he didn’t live wherever Nathan Fillion lived but he was right there, on Chace’s deck, a foot away from Ally, shouting at her because he was worried.

I sensed movement, tore my eyes from the action, turned my head and watched Chace, hair wet from a shower, in clean jeans and a sweater, bare feet, walking to me, eyes to the window.

Infinitely hotter than the Italian hottie on the back deck.

He shifted in behind me and hauled my booty into his lap as his lower half twisted so one leg was on the couch, my h*ps were between his legs and through this, his eyes remained out the window.

“They still at it?” he asked.

I looked from Chace’s handsome profile out the window to see Ren pointing a finger in the African American man’s face, not a good move in my estimation but he didn’t seem to be worried, as he shouted, “You should know better!”

Darius Tucker grinned.

Seriously, he was hot too.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Should I intervene?” Chace asked.

There was a hot-blooded, pissed off, tall Italian guy on the deck. I was steering clear. I’d had enough danger for one night.

“Would you want someone to intervene when you were concerned pissed and shouting at me?”

“I’ll leave them be,” Chace muttered instantly and I grinned. “Just got a call from Cap,” he announced and my eyes went from the scene outside to him.

“Yeah?”

Chace’s eyes came to me.

“He told me that apparently, while Ally and Tucker were playin’ The Elite to get a lock on you, Brody was at CPD showin’ them the trail. They may have got what Newcomb was holdin’ over those boys, but two of them got fidgety and stupid. Direct links to the guy who nabbed you at Bubba’s and that shit ties in another man called Clinton Bonar who they’re goin’ out to pick up now. Some of that crew might breathe free but those two will go down for conspiracy and Frank says they already got warrants to collect shit on Brody’s trail. Not to mention, Tucker and Brody are both connected to a private investigator in Denver called Lee Nightingale who’s got links to law enforcement. So, the male PI Nightingale and his brother who happens to be a cop put their stamp on it, the shit he gave them direct may still be admissible.”

“Did she know they were coming after me?” I asked, hoping she didn’t and thus didn’t warn me.

“Not until she got the same text I got,” Chace gave me the right answer. “She and Brody were hacked in, following their communications so she was on alert because she knew something was going down. She got that text when I got it and she, Tucker and Brody hauled ass. They had a lock on who Newcomb gave the shit to and they motored direct to him. Took him down, got it, dropped Brody and made the connection to hand it over.”

“So Serenity saved me and took two of them down,” I whispered.

“It sticks, yeah,” he whispered back.

“Wow.” I was still whispering, my eyes drifting to the window.

Darius was looking at his boots. Brody was biting his lip and looking to the dark sky. Ren had Ally pinned against the railing of Chace’s deck in a way I couldn’t see her at all.

No one was shouting but Ren’s body was still tight with fury.

And his booty looked really good in those faded jeans.

Seriously, I needed to have a chat with Serenity. She needed to wake up.

“Faye,” Chace called softly, I tore my eyes from Ren’s behind and I looked back at him. His hand came up and slid my hair over my shoulder then curled around my neck when he went on, “Samuel Sterling delivered your kidnapper to CPD.”

Fraking good.

The creep.

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Can you ID him?” he asked gently and I bit my lip because I could.

He’d stunned me in the back hall of Bubba’s and I woke up in that box but I saw him before he did it.

Chace didn’t miss me biting my lip and whispered, “Fuck.”

We hadn’t spoken of it. Chace had made a call telling his colleagues that he’d let them know when I was okay to make my report and for the time being they were to steer clear.

They steered clear.

So it was all about the guys and Twyla giving me hugs (Twyla’s being the tightest), making phone calls to let their women know I was good, them taking off, me showering, Chace showering and Ally and Ren fighting.

“Can we do it tomorrow morning?” I asked.

“Yeah, baby,” he answered.

“Can I tell you about it tomorrow too?” I asked softly.

“Whenever you’re ready, Faye,” he answered softly.

“Did Krys and the girls tell Benji I was okay?”

“Yeah. He knows everything.”

Good. Benji would be worried but I wasn’t surprised to hear that he’d totally stepped up for me.

“I need to do something for all of them, say thanks for helping,” I muttered wondering what said “thanks for saving my life” and thinking, unless you were a gazillionaire and could hand out castles, pretty much nothing did.

“I think you breathin’ is thanks enough,” he told me.

“Yeah,” I whispered because he probably thought right and luckily that cost a lot less than a dozen castles.

Chace’s eyes moved over my face before they again locked on mine.

“You seem okay,” he noted quietly.

Quietly back, I noted, “I am. I’m breathing.”

Upon me finishing my last word, he sucked in breath as he closed his eyes, his hand shifting up and back into my hair, pulling my forehead to his.

“I knew you’d save me,” I whispered, his eyes opened and he pulled his head an inch away.

“I didn’t know,” he whispered back.

“Well, I did.”

“And I didn’t save you. Serenity did.”

At his words, I found his wrists with my hands and tugged them between us. He’d showered but there was still dirt in his nails and tears in his flesh where he’d pounded through and torn away the wood imprisoning me.

I dipped my ear to my shoulder, but held his eyes as I shook his hands and asked, “You didn’t?”

“Faye –”

“Did you give up?”

“No, but, honey –”

“Would you have given up?”

“No, but I lost it.”

“Of course you did, you love me.”

“Deck had to hold me together.”

“Of course he did, he loves you.”

“Faye –”

“You pulled me free.”

“Honey –”

My hands tightened on his wrists, I leaned in and whispered fiercely, “It was you who ended it, Chace. You that dug me out. You that pulled me free. You had help but you did it. That’s my last memory of that nightmare. You pulling me free.”

His eyes warmed and he opened his mouth to speak but I wasn’t done.

“I’ll let you in on a secret, honey. The knight who has serious chinks in his armor but never falls is the true hero. That means he’s won battles and doesn’t waste time polishing his armor so he can look good while he rides in parades that are tributes to his glory. He just drags himself back on his steed and keeps right on battling. And if he’s the right kind of knight, he never rides alone. The best heroes inspire loyalty. The best heroes keep fighting the good fight, tirelessly, quietly. The best heroes always have scars. If they didn’t, the heroine would have nothing to do. It’s her job to help the hero let all that stuff go in order that her man can be strong enough to fight on but when he’s with her he’s free to just breathe.”

His wrists twisted so my hands released them but he just captured mine in his own, pressing them to his chest and his voice was gruff when he asked, “You gonna breathe free, honey?”

“Lauren was kidnapped and stabbed by a serial killer and she told me she never lost a wink of sleep because when she slept she did it next to Tate,” I told him and his brows drew together.

“Is that an answer to my question?”

“Yeah. See, what happened to me you feel is your responsibility because you feel it’s your responsibility to protect me. But for me, I was freaked and I was in a box in the ground for a couple of hours. Now I’m not. Tonight, tomorrow, every night I’ll sleep next to my knight with the chinks in his armor and his scars, knowing he’ll always take care of me so I’ll sleep easy. You won’t, not for a while and I’m sorry about that, honey. But you’ll eventually notice me sleeping easy then you will too. But for me, it’s over, you made that happen so I’m already free just to breathe and earlier, I bought a lifetime being free to breathe by accepting your ring. I may have needed an oxygen tank for a while but your fist went through that wood and moments later, I breathed clean and free.”