Page 181 of Forbidden Fate

Not with Eagle still in the hospital.

Not with Hawk looking at me like he wants to burn down the entire continent of South America at the same time.

“It felt like something more to you,” Daniela says softly.

My throat aches.

I nod.

Hawk makes a rough sound and turns away again.

“I know,” I say. “I know how it sounds.”

“How it sounds?” He turns back, eyes blazing. “He was also the one who kidnapped you in the first place, Robin.”

“I know.”

He squints. “I don’t know why you’re even feeling anything for this guy.”

I wrap my arms tighter around myself. “I don’t either.”

Hawk exhales hard. “He put Eagle in the hospital.”

“I know.”

“He dragged you to Colombia.”

“I know.”

“He worked for Vega.”

“I know.”

“Then what is there to feel besides rage?”

Daniela stands between us, not physically, but somehow emotionally. “I understand,” she says quietly.

Hawk looks at her. “Daniela.”

“I do.” Her voice is gentle but firm. “Not because Cruz is innocent. He isn’t. But because feelings sometimes don’t make sense.”

I almost laugh.

Then I almost cry.

Hawk shakes his head. “That’s not⁠—”

“It is,” she says. “Sometimes the person who hurts you is also the person who saves you from something worse. Sometimes your body trusts before your mind can make sense of it. Sometimes your heart attaches itself to the one hand reaching for you in the dark, even if that hand has blood on it.”

Hawk stares at her.

Something passes between them.

Something I don’t know. Maybe I’m not meant to know.

But they made it. Whatever impossible, forbidden, complicated thing happened between them, they found a road through.

Daniela looks at me. “I understand why your heart is broken right now.”