Second Debt (Indebted #3)(42)

I had no desire to change or hide or do any manner of things I’d done all my life to exist within my household.

I was grateful.

Beyond thankful.

She cares for me.

I’d felt it.

I’d lived it.

She’d poured the truth down my throat and taken all the wrongness inside away.

I’d never been so happy than when I’d slid inside her. Never been so completely content holding her in my arms.

I lay in bed and smiled, just for the beauty of smiling.

I was at peace…for the first time.

The only time.

I was just…me.

Jasmine was right.

Nila had the power to cure me.

She held something that after today I doubted I could ever live without.

To be cared for so deeply.

To be wanted so fiercely.

Despite all my faults and downfalls, she welcomed me.

She gave me a sanctuary deep enough and pure enough to hide in.

My eyes burned with thanks. I wanted to shower her with gifts and promises. I relived the intoxicating joy of finding something so treasured.

You came inside her.

My heart skipped at the thought. It was stupid of me to be so reckless, but in that moment, I couldn’t care less.

It was perfect. I had to come inside her. I wouldn’t change a thing.

Being with Nila today had allowed me to demolish my walls—be strong enough to drop my guard and take her with nothing bared.

I gave her the truth.

The truth of who I was.

And in return, she gave me the strength to believe there might be a way after all.

I might not have to continue hiding.

I might finally be free.





MY OLD HEART was broken.

It’d been replaced with something not of flesh and blood but diamond and immortality.

I’d fallen for a smuggler, a biker—a fiend.

I’d fallen for a boy from my past, a man from my future—a friend.

For four days after the polo match, I didn’t see Jethro. I didn’t try to find him or turn on my phone to message him. We had things to talk about? but I liked the newly blossomed connection too much to overthink it.

I missed him but understood him.

Understood what he’d be going through.

For four days, I spent most of my time sewing and cutting out patterns for a sequence of gowns that would be the headline pieces of my new design. On a daily basis, my mind hurled profanities at me; reminding me that I lived on borrowed time. That the Hawks were not to be trusted. That I should run and never look back.

But my heart argued just as loudly. Encouraging me to believe in what I’d found with Jethro. To trust that I had the power to change our fate. To give us a bit more time.

I didn’t know how yet, but there could be a happy ending.

There has to be.

Hawksridge Hall was quiet—more so than normal. Most of the Black Diamond brothers, including the Hawks, were busy with a large shipment that I’d heard held a pink diamond weighing in excess of eighteen carats.

I’d lingered in the dining room long enough to know that such a stone was almost priceless and would fetch untold millions on the black market.

At night, I slept in my luxurious bed and pondered all things Jethro. I became self-absorbed—completely wrapped up in my feelings for him.

A small part of me hated the woman I’d become. The old Nila would never have removed herself so completely from her family—especially Vaughn.

But at the same time—they removed me.

And Jethro had taken me in.

However, there was no denying that my soul was torn and bruised.

Jethro had given me everything beneath the grandstand that day, and by doing so, he robbed me of my hate and the power of injustice that kept me fighting every day.

It wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t right.

But there was no changing the will of a Weaver’s heart.

I was alone now. More so than when I’d first arrived.

I would never be welcomed back with my family, never be able to return home.

Jethro had successfully torn me from my past, stripped me of my mind, and abducted my heart.

I wasn’t okay with that.

I couldn’t be.

And that was why I had to do the same to him.

I stroked the diamonds around my neck. I’d come here believing I would never be strong enough to fight. But unbeknownst to Cut, he’d brought a disease into his home. Day-by-day, I undermined his foundations, stealing what was his from beneath him.

I had the tools to continue to wreak havoc…all but one, that is.

I needed one last thing to make my arsenal complete.

It was time to know where Jethro disappeared to.

It’s time to find out what exists behind the door on the second floor.

I looked at the clock above the fish tank in my room. Just past midnight.

I’d heard the men rumble off in a smog of motorcycle smoke an hour ago. If there were any night to investigate—tonight was it.

The corridors would be empty, and Daniel would be far away from delivering his threats of harm.

Resolution filled my veins. I sat up in bed and swung my legs over the side.

It took me two minutes to pull on a pair of yoga pants and slip into an old hoody before collecting my ruby-encrusted dirk and shoving it down my waistband.