AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Damn, woman. Do you own a gun?”
She looks at me confused. “No? Why?”
“You’ve maced me. Now you’ve beaten me with a bat. I’m a little afraid what might come next.”
“Let me remind you, you were stalking me and breaking into my place when both things happened.” She continues to inspect my bruise, her light touches giving me goosebumps.
I grab her fingers and bring them to my lips. “I’m fine. But I need to go the bathroom and you need to go tend to the bacon before it burns.”
"I don’t care about the bacon. I’m worried–"
I scoff. “That’s like one of the Ten Commandments. Thou shall not burn bacon.”
She stands up, shaking her head. “I can’t wait to hear your other nine.”
After we clean up the kitchen, I slap her on the ass. “We’re doing something fun today, go get dressed. Make sure to wear pants.” She eyes me warily, walking out of the kitchen. “After you and that bat last night, you’ll love this.”
“I need to take a shower,” she calls out from the bedroom.
“Perfect. So do I after I dirty you up.”
* * *
“Where are we?” Her eyes light up when the ginormous white house comes into view. “Who the heck lives here?”
“Max.”
She does a double take, straining her neck to get a better look. “This is Max’s house? No way.”
I nod, remembering my reaction to seeing it for the first time. I never knew Max had money, just knew about his elite team. He’s not the type to flaunt his riches. Then again, neither am I.
Watching Ellie’s wide-eyed response makes me wonder when it will be a good time to tell her I have money. Hell, I’m keeping bigger secrets than that, I don’t know why I’m worried about that little detail.
She points out the stables and the lake, in awe of the property. I need to take her horseback riding. She spent every weekend on a horse growing up. I have some wicked memories of us out in the pastures of Barrow that I’d like to recreate.
I pull behind the guy’s cars, lined up on the driveway. We designated today as our team building day. It’s a bullshit title for us wanting to blow off steam and have a little fun. After the last two weeks of self-sabotage, the guilt at what I had done to Ellie eating me alive, I realized there would always be parts of my past that would haunt me. She’s helping me find ways to deal with it rather than hide behind it. I spoke with a counselor from the women’s shelter who gave me some ideas as well. One, which we already gathered, if Ellie wakes me, she has to be across the room. It’s still hard to fall asleep when we’re together, but I’m told that’s a natural reaction to what happened. It has to get better because I’m not giving her up.
Everyone is chilling in the living room when we enter. The energy is high as the guys load their guns. Stone glares at me while doing his. “You’re going down, Nixon.”
“Strong words, from a little man.”
“It’ll be way easier for me to hide.”
The guys all howl in laughter. The door opens and Tori and Ben walk in. He’s holding two large bags from the store. I tip my head to the side wondering what in the world he bought. Tori bounces in and gives Ellie a hug.
“We’re ready,” she beams. Ben sits down, emptying the contents on the table and I’m taken back to the nights we were planning our missions out, loading all our armory.
“Ben,” Hudson says, holding out his arms. “You only needed two guns, one for each of you. This isn’t a mission, it’s paintball.”
He stops and glances up to everyone, flashing an innocent expression. “I didn’t want to come unprepared. Look who I’m up against.” His eyes travel around the room.
“We’ll take it easy on you,” Hudson jokes. “We’ll just add you to the list with Stone and the girls.”
The uproar from the girls has us all laughing again. Well, except Stone.
“I’m shooting you first,” Ellie snaps, giving him a warning glare.
“All right kids.” Max stands and everyone shuts up. “There’s only one rule, you get tagged, you’re out. Winning man—” Tori clears her throat, and he smirks, “or woman, gets the grand prize of a week’s vacation of your choice.”
