He knew then that, as someone who’d spent a lifetime doing what she had to do, she understood better than most what it was like to have to make a choice between two shitty options. He wasn’t sure it meant she forgave him, but she’d propped herself up on his bare chest to look him in the eye for the first time since they’d left the UAE.
“Tell me we’re still going to find her.”
Ronan didn’t want to do it. Didn’t know if Elise was alive or dead, didn’t want to lie.
So he’d decided that Elise was alive, that she would have to be, that he would have to find her to make Julia, his Julia, whole again.
“We’re going to find her.”
They’d spent the next three weeks at his house, Elise’s empty bedroom in the apartment too painful for Julia to see every day. His brothers had gotten used to Julia’s presence, had welcomed her with caution that was gradually becoming affection.
During the day, they went over every scrap of intel they found on Manifest and the people behind it, starting with Gold, the shell companies who owned it, the people who financed it. They ran scenario after scenario plotting their next move, arguing over how best to take the organization apart, how best to find Elise, who Julia insisted was still alive.
He held her in his arms at night and tried not to think too hard about how quiet she was, about how she really felt after what had happened in Dubai. He didn’t know if she forgave him or if she was just telling herself she forgave him because she thought it was the right thing, and doing the right thing is what she’d always done.
If he didn’t bring Elise home alive, Julia might feel differently, might wonder if Dubai had been her last chance to save her sister, if Ronan had lost her forever when he’d dragged Julia out of the club.
But he couldn’t think about that now. She was here. She’d stayed. It had to count for something.
He watched as she made her way back toward him, kicking at the surf as Chief ran around her with a big goofy smile. When Julia reached him, she lowered herself to the sand.
He lifted his arm and she leaned her head against his shoulder and rested her hand on his thigh. Chief lay down by Julia’s leg with a sigh, and they watched the surf ebb and flow over the beach as the afternoon tilted toward evening.
“Tell me we’re going to find her, Ronan.”
They’d become familiar words, a plea she repeated often and at odd times — when they were making dinner, when they were falling asleep, when he opened his eyes in the morning.
“We’re going to find her.”
“When?” she asked.
“Soon.”
They’d uncovered the identities behind the players at Gold. Had discovered links to politicians in four countries. They were gathering information, preparing for war.
“I love you,” she said.
The words came out of nowhere, the last thing he’d expected her to say after everything that had happened.
He tightened his hold on her and kissed the top of her head. “I love you too. I think I have since I pinned you in that alley, and you hit me and told me to get the fuck off you.”
She looked up at him with a smile, the first one he’d seen in almost a month, and then rested her head back against his shoulder.
His heart was full to overflowing. How had she become everything?
He didn’t know, but the truth of it was as real and as deep as the ocean stretching to the horizon.
He thought of the men who had taken her sister, out there somewhere beyond the water, thought of the men who had dared to put their hands on Julia.
He would find Elise. He would bring her home for Julia.
Then he would kill everyone who had ever conspired to hurt her.
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Thanks for reading Murphy’s Law. Ronan and Julia’s story continues in Murphy’s Wrath. Find out what happens when Ronan gives all of himself to Julia - and demands all of her in return.
Click here to read Murphy’s Wrath
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Also by Michelle St. James
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Fearless
Lawless
Muscle
Savage
Primal
Eternal
Covenant
Revenant
Rule
The Sentinel
Rogue Love
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Into the Fire
Through the Fire
Eternal Love
King of Sin
Wages of Sin
The Awakening of Nina Fontaine
The Surrender of Nina Fontaine
The Liberation of Nina Fontaine
Thicker Than Water
Blood in the Water
Hell or High Water
Murphy’s Wrath
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Murphy’s Law: Murphy’s Law Book One Page 15