He slid his thumb to her lips and whispered, “Stop.”

“I can’t,” she whispered back, a tear sliding out of her eye. “I have to say it. You have to know. You have to know that I’d be alone, lost and alone forever, if I didn’t have you.”

He pressed his thumb against her lips and begged, “Stop it, baby.”

She wrapped her fingers around his wrist, pulling his hand away, tears streaming out the sides of her eyes, and declared, “You gave me my life back.”

Fuck.

So sweet.

“Emme—”

“You didn’t give up on me.”

“Honey—”

Her fingers tensed on his wrist. “You’re everything to me, Jacob.”

He held her bright eyes then slid his cheek down hers to warn in her ear, “Can’t take more of this sweet, Emmanuelle.”

She fell silent.

“You’re everything to me too, baby,” he told her, and felt her shake her head.

“No. You have a house and a dog and a job that challenges you. You’re close with your family. You have friends, good friends, so good they name their children after you. You have everything, including me. I have good stuff too. Now more than before, but only because of you. Because you led me to that. Stuff I held myself away from. Stuff I’d never have if I hadn’t found you. Stuff I know I’d lose if I didn’t have you.”

“You wouldn’t lose it, Emme.”

“If I lost you, I’d lose everything, Jacob. I’d fade away, alone, denying all along I was lonely.”

Jesus.

He lifted his head, locked eyes with her and told her gruffly, “You gotta believe, babe, you’re everything to me too.”

She shook her head again, opened her mouth but he cupped her cheek, thumb back to her lips, and dipped his face close.

“You’re gonna build on what you started. We’re gettin’ a puppy. You’re building a crew. You’re workin’ through shit with family. You’re gonna have everything I have, Emme. But when you get all that, that won’t mean I won’t be everything to you and that holds true for me.”

“I—” she pushed out from around his thumb, but he again pressed it to her lips.

“You’re going to give me children.”

Her eyes and mouth closed.

“You’re gonna share my bed, my home, my life, and build a family with me, Emmanuelle,” he told her, and her eyes opened, brighter now, tears again streaming. “That’s everything, baby.”

She pressed her lips together under his thumb and nodded so he slid his thumb away.

“You’re right.” She gave him a smile, it was trembling but it lit her eyes and pressed that dimple in her cheek. “That’s everything.”

He pushed his h*ps into hers, put his lips to hers and whispered, “Love you, Emme.”

She curled her arms around him and whispered back, “I love you too, honey.”

He slanted his head and took her mouth in a deep, searing kiss that demonstrated the words they’d just uttered.

And Emme gave back as good as she got.

* * *

Forty-five minutes later…

“Hi-yah!”

Emme attacked.

Buford barked.

Deck, walking out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel, getting attacked from behind, threw his hands behind his head. He grabbed Emme under her arms, hefted her up his back and took four strides to the bed. She squealed and Buford barked again when he bent at the waist and flipped her over on the bed. He leaned in, grasped her hips, twisted her around and dropped on top of her.

She huffed out a breath of air and blinked up at him.

Then she noted, “My instructor didn’t teach that when we were going over scenarios of what to do when being attacked from behind.”

Deck burst out laughing.

Emme had liked the idea of self-defense classes and wasted no time finding one and enrolling in it. It was held in the Community Center in Chantelle and she’d been to the first two of six weekly classes. They also did an advanced course, which she’d already signed up to take.

On the other hand, Deck had wasted no time installing her security system. Her windows were done and now Max was pulling together a bid to see to her garage. And while Deck worked on the system, Emme worked beside him, patching the walls around her wiring.

That evening, they were heading out to a ranch outside Gnaw Bone to have a look at Rottweiler puppies.

They had a plan, but better, they were wasting no time moving ahead on it together. And Deck wasn’t dragging Emme along with him.

She was beside him all the way.

This meant his laughter was heartfelt in more ways than one.

“Usually you say ‘hi-yah’ right before you break boards with a karate chop,” he informed her after he quit laughing.

“I also say ‘hi-yah’ to give my man advance warning I’m about to attack, something he apparently doesn’t need.”

He felt his brows rise. “Apparently?”

She grinned at him and stated, “Don’t think I’ll ever be able to flip someone ass over head over my head. So, first, that was awesome you doing it. Second, heads up, I’m so totally attacking and doing it repeatedly so you’ll do it again. And last, even in defeat, I’m taking this opportunity to brag that at least I took my instructor down last night on try three. Though not by flipping him over my head as he’s six one and may weigh twice as much as me.”

“Well done, Emme,” he muttered distractedly, not really listening as he was suddenly remembering he was only wearing a towel, noting she only had on his shirt, and as she always played it that way, it was doubtful she had on any panties.

“Jacob,” she called, and his eyes that had drifted to her lips, drifted up just as his hand drifted down her side.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Your oatmeal is on the kitchen counter,” she told him.

He dropped his lips to her collarbone and slid his hand up the shirt at her hip then in over her belly. “It’s too hot to eat now.”

“”Honey, we just finished,” she reminded him.

“An hour ago,” he murmured against her throat.

“I have to go to work.”

“You can be late.”

“I can’t.”

“Your dad’s the boss,” he told her jaw.

“Precisely why I can’t be late. He depends on me.”

Deck lifted his head, looked down at her and at something she saw in his face, hers changed.

And Deck liked that change.

So he grinned and murmured, “Quick.”

“Quick,” she whispered, already lifting her mouth to his.

He didn’t make her go far.

* * *

One hour later…

Deck and Buford stood in his garage watching Emme pull out.

But she stopped in the driveway, rolled down her window and stuck her head out.

“Persephone!” she yelled.

Deck smiled huge and tipped his chin up at her.

Before she left, after he’d kissed her and she climbed up in her Bronco, they’d had words about her truck’s name, now with her word being the last.

Her head disappeared but he saw she was smiling through the windshield. She waved after she turned out of his drive and before she rode away.

Yeah. Emme’s light was beaming, unrestricted.

And blinding.

Deck looked down to his dog. “How you likin’ this Emme, pal?”

Buford’s tongue lolled and his tail started wagging.

He liked her before so the point was moot.

Deck bent, gave Buford a rubdown, and as he was straightening, his phone rang.

He pulled it out of his back pocket and saw the display said “Chace calling.”

“Yo, man,” he greeted, at the same time moving toward the button that would close the garage door.

He was facing computer work that day. That afternoon, with no other options open to him as nothing was leading to anything with Prosky, staking out the high school. Then off to look at dogs.

Not a fun day, until the end.

“Where are you?” Chace asked, and his voice made Deck stop thinking about his shit day that at least would end well, and he stopped dead.

“At home. Why?” he answered.

There was nothing from Chace for a long moment before he asked, “Those prints you gave me to run, where’d you get those again?”

Deck’s blood turned cold right before it ran hot.

Not hot the way Emme made him feel.

Hot the way he felt that night Chace had told him Faye was buried alive.

“Why?” he asked back.

“Just tell me, Deck.”

“My nightstand,” Deck answered tersely and again got silence. He moved to the garage door button, hit it, the door started sliding down and he and Buford moved into the house as he pressed, “Chace. Talk to me.”

“I’m gonna preface this by sayin’, we’re on this. I’m callin’ it in to Mick and—”

“Stop f**kin’ with me. Say it,” Deck growled.

He heard a sigh then, “Three prints you lifted and gave me to run. Yours. Those belonging to Emme, probably in the system because they were put there sometime after she was kidnapped. And Dane McFarland’s.”