This guy though…
“I’m not Luke. And thank fucking God for that. I’m Agent Heath Light, and I’m going to make sure no one ever touches you or that little girl again. Luke Cosgrove was a bitch who couldn’t do one fucking thing to help you except take a daily inventory of whatever bruises you came in with and whatever trivial fact you let slip about your home life. I, on the other hand, will use every fucking resource I possess in order to secure your safety. Even if that means raining down the entire federal government on that piece-of-shit husband of yours. So, no, I’m not your fucking personal trainer, but I am your friend. And you can trust me when I say no one is going to arrest you, nor are they going to take Tessa. Not the cops. Not the DEA. And sure as fuck not Walter Noir.” He pushed himself upright and moved back to the chair. Then he slowly sank down, his eyes locked on mine. Once he got settled with his legs crossed ankle to knee, he finished with, “Questions?”
It sounded good, but if I’d learned anything by marrying Walt, it was that too good to be true was often just that.
“You’re a liar.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Oh, I am?”
“Yes. You are!” I sat up, taking Tessa with me. She was knocked out, and her sleeping body folded to the side, her weight sending her toward the floor.
He lurched from the chair, his arms extended to catch her, but I caught her and dragged her back onto my chest first.
“Don’t you touch her!”
His eyes narrowed, and he ran a hand through his thick, blond hair. “Don’t touch her?” he asked in utter disbelief.
I didn’t reply. He might have been the only man I’d ever trusted to touch her. Or at least Luke was.
“Don’t touch her?” he repeated incredulously.
“You played me for months.”
He nodded multiple times, his scruff-covered jaw ticking as he struggled to keep his composure. “I sure did,” he replied, cracking his neck. “But I did it for you.” He tipped his chin at Tessa. “For her. The man you met that first day at the gym was a lie. I’ll admit that. But the person you got every single day after that was me.” He stabbed a thumb at his chest before pointing a finger at me. “And the woman you gave me was not the fraud you put on for everyone else. It was you, Clare Cornwell.”
I sucked in a deep breath at the use of my maiden name.
He wasn’t wrong. I had given that to him. He was the only person I’d felt comfortable enough with to be myself around. I hadn’t understood it then, but I’d felt it all the same.
“Luke,” I whispered.
“Heath,” he corrected. “It’s still me, Clare. Your favorite color is green, like Tessa’s eyes. It took approximately two weeks before it became my favorite color, too.”
Oh my God. My heart stopped.
“Your favorite hobby is gardening, and I wished like hell every day that I could take you outside and just watch you lose yourself in a pile of dirt and an endless supply of flowers.”
“Heath,” I sighed.
“Your favorite food is pizza, and you could wax poetic for hours about what toppings you were planning for your monthly cheat day. I used to fake a laugh and urge you to stick to your meal plan, but it took every ounce of restraint I had not to start sneaking pizza into the gym and forcing you to actually eat. You’re too thin, Clare. And, for fuck’s sake, everyone deserves pizza more than once a month.”
A strangled laugh bubbled up my throat, and a sad, but very real Luke Cosgrove smile split his mouth. Or maybe that grin had always belonged to Heath Light. I couldn’t be sure.
He took a cautious step toward me, and this time, my heart raced for a different reason.
“I get it,” he said. “You’ve had total shit dished out to you by men. But those men are not me. Look at me, Clare. You know who I am. You know you can trust me. I was pulled off your case the day Walter saw you in my office. Yet, today, I risked my job to get to you. That had not one thing to do with the investigation and everything to do with you. And I would do it a million times over as long as it got you here. Right now. With me. And I’m gonna take care of you both.” He nodded to Tessa. “I give you my word, regardless of how I have to make it happen, that life is over for you.” He inched even closer until he was looming over me. His hands were still at his sides, but his proximity was possessive—and not in a scary way.
No, the way Heath’s warmth wrapped around me sent a shiver down my spine at the same time it drained the fear from my tense body.
“Walt…he always told me the cops would arrest me if they knew what I’d done for him. And I told you everything.”
“No one is here to arrest you. Especially not me. We all know you’re an innocent in Noir’s bullshit.”