Her shoulders were rising and falling with her heavy breaths, and her fists opened and closed at her sides.
I prowled toward her, only to stop dead in my tracks as she slammed the door and pivoted on a heel to face me.
Not a tear in sight.
Her back was straight.
Her shoulders square.
Her jaw clinched.
Rage radiating off her.
And that subtle flicker of fear she wore so often when it came to Walt was gone completely.
“You okay?” I asked warily.
It was safe to assume she was not as she seethed, “It’s Christmas for God’s sake. He does not get to do that. Not today. Not fucking ever.”
I caught sight of Roman and Devon storming down the hall toward us. But I lifted a hand to halt them, shaking my head as I assured them, “We’re good.”
Clare spun to see who I was talking to, but she was nowhere near done with her rant. “We are not good. We are fucking great!”
Roman cocked his head to the side, but he had the good sense to mutter an apology and back away.
With the hall empty, Clare turned her anger back on me. “I swear to God. I’m finally fucking happy for the first time in my entire goddamn life. He does not get to take that away from me!”
It made me an asshole, but a huge smile spread across my face, pride swelling my chest.
“What do you need, Clare?” I asked, fighting the urge to sweep her off her feet.
“To kill him,” she replied without missing a beat.
Weeks ago, she would have crumbled, overwhelmed with fear and panic. She would have lost it at the thought of Walt knowing where she was.
Weeks ago, it had been, “He’ll kill me.”
Today, a beast emerged from within her.
Today, it was, “To kill him.”
I smirked. “While that’s not exactly legal, I wouldn’t stop you.”
She stomped past me, plucked the cardboard box the gift had been delivered in, and slung it across the room. “Why haven’t they been able to find him?” she snapped. “It’s been over a fucking month. I refuse to believe he’s hiding in an underground bunker. He’s out there, Heath. Shopping at a goddamn mall for Christmas presents while I’m locked up here, hiding like a fucking coward.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and continued to smile at her.
She continued with the bitchy little attitude that had me fighting a hard-on. “Why are you smiling?”
I shrugged casually. “Oh, maybe because the man you’ve been terrified of since the day I met you sent you a present just to fuck with your head and, instead of allowing him that move, you exploded and threw that shit on the front lawn.”
Her lips thinned, but her resolve stayed strong. “He didn’t send them just to fuck with my head. It’s a warning.”
“How do you figure?”
“The diamonds. Those aren’t new. He gave them to me after he almost killed me on our first anniversary. He thought I was flirting with the waiter. I spent a week in the hospital. It was so bad we had to tell them I was in a car accident.” She sucked in a shaky breath. “We were staying in that cabin I told Tomlinson about. He took me back there every year and made me wear the diamonds as a not-so-subtle reminder.” Her gaze flashed to the floor. “He knows about you.”
For fuck’s sake, I wanted to kill that bastard for ever having laid a finger on her. But, worse, for have mentally manipulated her with fear for so damn long. It was a miracle she wasn’t a head case after everything that son of a bitch had put her through. It was a true testament to her strength.
I closed the gap between us and rested my hands on her hips. “So?”
“So?” she repeated in confusion.
“Why does it matter that he knows? Honestly? I hope that motherfucker lays awake in bed every single night knowing that you’re with me.” I stabbed my thumb at my chest. “Knowing it’s me you chose. Knowing it’s my body you crave. Knowing it’s my name you call when I make you come. I hope that shit eats away at his soul because he knows it’s happening and cannot do one goddamn thing to change it. You aren’t his anymore, Clare.”
A playful grin pulled at the side of her mouth as she whispered, “It’s probably destroying him.”
“I’m sure it is. It used to kill me when you went home to him every night.”
Her smile fell flat. “Oh, Heath.”
“But you’re with me now. And he will never get you back. Those diamonds and that bracelet was his last-ditch effort of getting in your head because he can’t get to you any other way. He doesn’t even deserve your anger. Don’t give him that. Let’s sit back down. Finish playing Santa. And carry the fuck on with our lives.”
Her lips once again curved up. “You’re right.”
I narrowed my eyes and studied her face, searching for the chink in her armor.
But I didn’t even see armor anymore.
I just saw Clare.
My Clare.
The one she gave me when we were alone with Tessa.
The brave woman whose smile could light even the darkest night.
The one who had ensnared me from the moment we’d met.