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“Not currently,” she breathed. His grin flashed briefly before he kissed her again, and for one perfect second, everything felt simple.

His phone rang, and Butcher froze immediately. Princess blinked up at him, flushed and breathless. “Whoever is calling you, their timing sucks,” she mumbled. He was planning on ignoring it until he saw the number. The area code was from Huntsville, and that caused his mood to shift. Princess seemed to notice too.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Not sure,” he breathed. Butcher answered the phone slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. “Yeah?”

Vengeance’s voice came through hard and sharp. “We got a problem.” Every instinct Butcher had snapped to attention.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Romano reached out to us down here in Huntsville.” Vengeance’s voice darkened. “And he’s offering money for your head.” Princess’s gasp filled the room as she covered her mouth with her trembling hands.

“Fuck,” Butcher growled. “What did you tell him?” he asked.

“What the hell do you think that I told him?” Vengeance asked. “I told him to fuck off.” Yeah, that would be what he’d say, because Butcher would have said the very same thing. Still, Princess’s father had balls of steel, even calling down to Huntsville to make that offer. He just wondered how far he’d go to get his daughter back. Butcher would never let that happen because now, this was personal. No one put a price on his fucking head and lived.

PRINCESS

Princess couldn’t breathe. Her father put a hit on Butcher. The thought slammed into her chest hard enough to hurt. Vengeance told him that her father put a bounty on his head. She had heard those kinds of conversations her entire life growing up. Men sitting around tables deciding who lived and who disappeared. Numbers attached to human beings like their lives meant nothing more than business transactions. But this wasn’t some stranger her father wanted gone. This was Butcher—her Butcher, and suddenly all she could think about was the fact that she brought this to his door. Her stomach twisted violently.

“Fuck,” Butcher growled. “What did you tell him?” he asked.

“What the hell do you think that I told him?” Vengeance asked. “I told him to fuck off.” Princess barely heard the rest of the conversation after that. The room felt too small and too hot. Panic clawed up her throat hard enough to choke on, because this was exactly what she’d been trying to avoid. People got hurt around the Romano family—people died, and now Butcher had a target on his back because of her.

“No one puts a price on my fucking head and lives,” Butcher growled. The cold fury in Butcher’s voice should’ve scared her.Instead, it made her want to cry, because he wasn’t afraid—not even a little bit.

Butcher hung up the phone a second later, his jaw tight enough to crack teeth. The second his eyes landed on her, some of the rage faded immediately. “Princess?—”

“This is my fault,” she said. The words came out sharper than she intended, and Butcher’s expression hardened instantly.

“No, it’s not your fault,” he insisted.

“Yes,” she snapped, backing away from him. “My father is trying to kill you because of me.”

“I’ve had worse happen to me, honey,” he said.

“That’s not the point,” she spat. Emotion climbed painfully into her throat. God, she hated this. She hated feeling helpless and weak.

“You should’ve stayed out of this,” she whispered roughly. “You should’ve let me leave.” The second the words left her mouth, Butcher went absolutely still, and Princess realized too late what she’d said.

“No,” he said quietly.

She swallowed hard. “Butcher?—”

“No.” He stepped toward her slowly, eyes locked on hers. “Don’t do that.”

Her pulse stumbled. “Do what?”

“Don’t push me away because you’re scared,” he said.

Princess laughed bitterly. “Someone just put a bounty on your head, Butcher. Of course I’m scared.”

“You're worried for me, but not yourself,” he said. That shut her up instantly, because damn him, he was right. She wasn’t scared for herself anymore, but she was terrified for him.

Butcher closed the distance between them completely then, one rough hand catching her jaw before she could look away again. “You listen to me real carefully, Princess.” His voicedropped low and rough. “I knew what kind of danger this was the second you told me who your father was.”

Emotion burned behind her eyes immediately. “And you stayed anyway.”