They drove through the night. Kian behind the wheel, eyes like flint. Talia beside him, heart fractured.
Marcus had done what Kian paid him for, traced the SUV to a remote industrial compound two hours west of Billings. The kind of place with no neighbors, no cameras, and only one rule: No witnesses.
That's where Lena had taken Nova and that's where they were going together.
"Kian," Talia said softly, "what if we're too late?" His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. "We're not."
"You don't know that."
He didn't answer.
She turned toward him, watched his profile in the cold dashboard light. The sharp cut of his jaw, the muscle twitching in restraint. His silence screamed louder than any words.
And suddenly she hated herself for ever leaving him, for lying, for keeping the best part of him hidden from the man who had once set her soul on fire.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
He didn't speak, didn't look at her but his hand reached over, gripped hers tight calloused, warm, unyielding.
"I know," he said hoarsely. "But don't apologize now. Not unless you're ready for me to fall apart."
An hour later, they stopped in a clearing off the highway, just short of the compound's fence line. Kian laid out weapons and recon gear in the back of the SUV while Talia paced.
He glanced up. "You're shaking." She shook her head. "It's not fear." He stepped toward her, slow and deliberate. "Then what is it?"
She looked up at him, eyes glassy. "You. This. Everything I never stopped wanting." Kian's hand came up to her face, brushing her hair back, fingertips trembling.
"I loved you like a man starving," he said. "And you left me starving for years."
"I know," she whispered. "I starved too."
She gripped his jacket, pulling him closer. "Touch me. Like I'm yours again. Like I didn't destroy everything."
Kian growled low in his throat and slammed his mouth to hers. It wasn't gentle. It wasn't tender. It was punishment. Worship. Need.
Talia moaned into his mouth, her fingers dragging his shirt up, palms sliding over hard muscle and hot skin. He pushed her back against the SUV, hands yanking her thighs around his waist, grinding against her like his body had never forgotten hers.
"You think I forgot?" he rasped against her neck. "You think I haven't dreamed about this? About bending you over and making you beg after everything?"
Her breath caught. "Do it."
"Tell me it's still mine," he growled. "Say it."
"It was always yours," she gasped. "Even when I hated you. Especially then."
He ripped her jeans down, his fingers already teasing slick heat.
"You're shaking," he said again, voice thick with desire and fury.
"I'm burning."
He didn't wait.
He slid inside her fast and deep, and the sound that tore from both of them was pure release.
No games. No teasing.
Just need. Just love. Just punishment.
The SUV rocked with their rhythm, her cries muffled against his shoulder, his name a prayer she'd forgotten how to say until now. When he came, it was with her name on his lips like a curse and a vow.
When she came, it was with his whole body wrapped around her like he could protect her from the world even when it was already on fire.
After, they held each other in the backseat. No clothes. No lies. Just breathing. His hand curled around hers, tight.
"I'm going to kill her," he said quietly.
Talia didn't ask who. She didn't need to.
"You'll bring Nova back?"
"Yes," he said. "And then I'm going to take you home. And show you what it means to be mine without the world in the way." She pressed a kiss to his chest. "And if the world gets in the way again?"
Kian smiled, dark and dangerous.
"Then I'll burn the world."