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Pierce swallowed hard, unable to meet their gazes.“I don’t.”
Donovan hissed out a sharp breath. “Well, that’s bullshit.”
Pierce’s head snapped up, startled by the vehemence in the big guy’s tone.
“You think we don’t know what that’s like? Every one of us has been there, feeling like we don’t deserve the people around us. Like we’re better off alone. But that’s the thing, Pierce—none of us are better off alone.”
Zak nodded in agreement. “You’re part of this team now. We’ve all made mistakes, carry our own demons. But running? It doesn’t solve anything. It just makes the hole you’re digging for yourself deeper.”
Pierce’s fingers tightened around the strap of his bag. Their words were getting under his skin, chipping away at the resolve he’d been clinging to. But before he could say anything, another voice joined the conversation.
“Are you leaving?”
The men parted as Rylan stepped through the doorway, his expression unreadable.
Pierce tensed, unsure if he should expect a battle or a celebration. With their recent history, either was a possibility.“What are you doing here?”
For a long moment, he just stood there, scanning the room. Finally, he met Pierce’s gaze.
“A favor for my sister,” Rylan said quietly. “I thought you were going to get her killed. Hell, I thought maybe you already had. But she made me realize how wrong I was. You saved her. Over and over, you saved her. You’ve always protected her, throwing yourself in the line of fire for her. I didn’t see that at first, but I see it now.” He took a step forward. “You and Rhiannon… you’re meant for each other. You’re not perfect, but neither is she. And that’s okay. The only thing that matters is that you make each other better.”
Pierce felt his throat tighten.“Rylan, I?—”
Rylan held up a hand to stop whatever he was about to say. “Everything you’ve ever done since meeting her was meant to keep her safe. But leaving her now? That’s not protecting her.It’s abandoning her. And I’m telling you, as her brother and as your friend, you’re the best thing for her right now. So don’t fuck it up. She just found out our mom has cancer,” he added softly. “She’s been through hell. Don’t make her go through it again by breaking her heart.”
Pierce blinked, the weight of Rylan’s words sinking in. He’d spent so long believing that running was the only way to protect the people he cared about. That staying meant putting them in danger. But standing here, surrounded by the people who had become his family, he realized how wrong he’d been.
Zak, Sawyer, Donovan, and even Rylan—they weren’t just telling him to stay for Rhiannon. They were telling him to stay for himself. To stop running. To stop hiding from the things he wanted.
A deep breath shuddered through him, and he let the duffel bag slip from his shoulder, hitting the floor with a dull thud.
Zak smiled. “That’s more like it.”
Sawyer nodded, his lips curving into a faint grin. “Welcome back.”
Pierce’s heart pounded in his chest, but this time, it wasn’t from fear or guilt. It was from something else. Something lighter. Hope, maybe.
“She’s staying at my place.” Rylan stepped forward and gripped his shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. “Go talk to her.”
Pierce nodded, his throat too tight to speak. He’d come so close to throwing it all away—to walking out on the best thing that had ever happened to him. But now, as he stood there with his teammates, his friends, he realized that maybe, just maybe, he didn’t have to run anymore.
Maybe he did deserve happiness.
And maybe that happiness was waiting for him in the arms of the woman he loved.
If she’d have him.
If she still wanted him.
chapter
thirty
Pierce stoodin the hallway outside Rhiannon’s room at her brother’s house, each beat of his heart loud and heavy in his ears. He hadn’t felt this kind of fear since—ever. When he’d been a soldier, he’d faced threats he could quantify, enemies he could fight.
But this was different.
He wasn’t walking into battle. He was walking into something far more terrifying—love.
