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Chapter forty-one
Ashley
Laughter fades between the three of us, and we’re all standing there in the shooting range, a million pieces of a broken past between us. A million pieces of what could be my future if we don’t end this war between Mick and Aaron. I see this in Smith’s eyes when they meet mine, but there is also acceptance. With that acceptance is peace. Something shifted while I slept, perhaps while we talked a few minutes ago. He’s not going to fight me. He’s not going to call Aaron the enemy any longer.
He gives me a nod and then shares a look with Aaron that, for me, is unreadable, but Aaron’s returned nod tells me that’s not the case for him. The minute the door shuts, Aaron steps to me and glances down at my hands, where I still hold my gun. “You going to shoot me with that?”
“Should I?” I tease. “Because you and Smith clearly just had something going on that I don’t understand.” I’ve barely said the words, and my gun is taken from me, disappearing I don’t know where, while his hand slides under my hair to my neck. I’m pulled snug against his hard body, his voice and eyes just as hard. There’s a reprimand in what he’s just done that I don’t understand.
“Do you want to live this life, Ashley?” he demands. “You want to be with me, really be with me?”
The charge in the air is electric, the challenge evident, even if I don’t understand where it comes from right here and now, what set him off. “You know I do.”
“Then no one takes your gun, not even me. You have to train. You have to learn.”
“I have. I will. You know I will.”
“I’ve thought a lot about this the past few hours. I’ve thought about you saying that you’re like me.”
“I am.”
“You have to do more than say that. You have to live it.”
“I will damn it. I will. I am. Why do you think I had the gun in my hand in the first place?”
“There will always be someone who hates me, who wants to kill me. Who wants to hurt me by hurting you. There will always be someone who wants to take your gun and kill you with it. And you have to kill them. You have to pull the trigger.”
“And I will. I’m not going to die.”
“You can’t die,” he says. “Do you understand?”
His voice is low, rough, a demand that is pure steel.
“Aaron—” He doesn’t give me time to reassure him.
His mouth comes down on mine, his tongue pressing past my lips and drinking me in, the taste of him dark and possessive, demanding. Protective. Somehow, this kiss manages to be all of those things and more, but right when I’m sinking into him, devouring him the way he’s devouring me, the door bursts open.
“Oh fuck,” Savage murmurs. “Spare me that shit. I need soap to wash out my eyes. Get a room, but do it later. We need to roll, Aaron, my man.”
“What does that mean?” I ask. “Roll where? What’s happening?”
Aaron motions for Savage to give him a minute, and Savage actually nods back in agreement and exits; agreeable. That’s not any more normal than Smith laughing with us a few minutes ago. “Aaron?” I push, feeling the pulse of growing urgency.
He catches my waist and pulls me to him. “Blake used his hacking skills and started connecting dots to clear my name, and he’s good, baby. You were right. He’s led me to places I didn’t know I needed to be led. He found a trail that leads from Mick to me.”
Hope rises inside me. “Are you telling me that we’re going to be free?”
“I’m telling you that we’re going to be free.”
I laugh and smile. “So I was right about trusting Walker Security?”
He laughs, and God, I love his laugh—all low and rough, all sexy man—and he kisses me. “Yes. You were right.”
“And you love me for all my brilliant ideas?” I tease.
He cups my head and leans in close, his mouth near mine. “I love the fuck out of you,” he says, his voice a raspy timbre that turns suddenly serious. “That’s why I’m going to make this count. I’m going to make this happen now.”
I pull back to look at him. “What does that mean? Make what happen?”
