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If my urgency to load up on weaponry worries her, she doesn’t show it.
Wordlessly, I motion her back into the hallway, and we start our travels again, passing three doors, all of which I not only check but update Ashley on what I find: an office, a bedroom, another bedroom and then at the final door is one more bedroom. It’s large, a second master, with a king-size bed. “This one,” I say, “but stay here a moment.” Once again, I don’t wait for a reply.
I enter the room, and she steps to the door, watching me as I check the closet and a bathroom, before looking under the bed and chair. As much as I want to grab Ashley and pull her into the room where I strip her naked and take her to bed, I can’t. Not yet. That might calm the tension between us now, but it won’t end it and ending it is my goal.
I cross to stand in front of her, catching her arms and walking her into the room, kicking the door shut behind her. “I didn’t leave you. I always knew where you were. I knew the day you went to see the movie Little. I knew the day you rejoined a karate studio, and the day you went back to the shooting range. I knew the day you colored your hair, which, by the way, looks good brunette, but I love your natural red, and I’m going to make you feel safe being you again.”
“You were watching me?”
“Yes, baby, I was watching you.”
Anger burns in her stare, and she grabs my shirt. “And you didn’t tell me? You let me feel like I was alone? You let me question everything I thought I knew about us.”
I catch her wrists. “You shouldn’t have questioned me or us.”
“Because you told me so many truths?”
“I told you I loved you. I showed you I loved you because I do fucking love you.”
“You should have let me know you were watching.”
“I wanted to. Damn, woman, don’t you know I wanted to?”
“You’re a CIA agent—”
“Was. I was a CIA agent.”
“Whatever, Aaron. See? I got the name right. I know who you are. I’m not a slow damn learner. You could have gotten me a message.”
“You didn’t trust me, Ashley. Had you turned on me, we both could have ended up dead.”
“How were you watching me and solving this case?”
I release her and push off the door, scrubbing my jaw where a four-day beard sits that needs a damn razor taken to it. I hate every part of this backstory. I really fucking hate it. A part of me wishes I would have just taken her to another country and hidden her away months ago. I turn to face her. “Whoever did this is now ten feet below ground,” I say. “And that’s what I was trying to avoid. If you set off red flags, if I set off red flags—and you disappearing would do that—then Mick could get spooked. If he gets spooked and runs, he runs with any proof I might find to clear my name.”
“What happens if the proof is already gone? What happens if we can’t find proof to clear your name?”
“We will,” I say, my hands settling on my hips. “We will.”
She pushes off the door and crosses to stand in front of me. “What if we don’t?”
I catch her waist and pull her to me. “You don’t know me well enough yet, or you wouldn’t ask that question.”
“Aaron, Noah, what if we—”
I cup her head and kiss the hell out of her, the way I’ve wanted to for months, the way I plan to for the rest of our lives. “We will. I will. But I can, and will, take you away and hide us away if that becomes necessary. Is that what you need to hear?”
“I don’t know what I need to hear,” she says. “I don’t want to run away from this, but I don’t want to lose you again. I don’t want you to die. I thought you were dead.”
My hands come down on her arms. “And I’m trying to make sure you don’t end up dead.”
“I know that.”
“I don’t think you’re processing the implications of all that’s happened.”
“I am,” she insists.
“Are you? Because these people sent you flowers after I left and made you think they were from me for a reason. Whoever this is, is fucking with us.”
