Page 106 of How To Catch A Killer … And Date His Best Friend

Hunter blinks. “Lyra—”

“An hour and a half,” I say. “I could have watched a whole movie.”

Hunter sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose while Maddox has the nerve to look genuinely offended. “We came as fast as we could.”

“I know coming fast is your specialty, but there was nothing fast about this,” I tell them. “I had this whole thing planned. You were going to race in and be my heroes and then we were gonna fuck like wild animals. It was going to be great, but you took literally a whole lifetime to get here. And now the Challenger is all scratched up.”

Hunter presses his lips into a hard line, glancing back at his car before fixing that hard stare on me again. “I fucked up my car for nothing?”

“Well, it wasn’t for nothing. I really was being held hostage in there. It was just . . . You know what? It doesn’t matter,” I say, striding up to him and pushing onto my toes to kiss him. “I’ll make it up to you. Promise.”

His hand finds my waist, pulling me in. “How?”

“I’ll buff out every scratch. Absolutely naked.”

His brow arches, and Maddox curses under his breath. “Goddamn it. I knew I should have brought the bike.”

I laugh as I glance over toward him. “Hey, you can watch, too, big guy. You know I like it when both your eyes are on me.”

Hunter gets back to business, his hand tightening on my waist. “Alright, if your life currently isn’t in mortal danger, and you’re done fucking with my patience, could we go home? We’ve got something to show you.”

My body stiffens. “Like what?”

Maddox grins from across the warehouse, shoving the gun into the back of his pants. “If we told you that, it wouldn’t be a surprise, now would it?”

My heart starts to race. “A surprise?”

Hunter leads me back to the Challenger. “Mm-hmm. Now get your ass in the car before I have to put it there.”

“Oooh, I’ve got grouchy Hunter tonight,” I tease, stepping past him to get in the car. “I like it.”

The drive home is suspiciously silent, and by the time we’re pulling into the driveway, I’m all but bursting from the seams, desperate to know what this little surprise is all about. But when Hunter cuts the engine, and I step out onto the pavement, I see a strange red glow coming from just behind the house.

I suck in a breath as Maddox comes to stand next to me, his hand dropping to my ass. “Tell me I’m imagining things,” I say, fighting the tears welling in my eyes.

“I can’t do that.”

“Holy shit.”

Hunter moves past us to unlock the door, and the moment it opens, Smooch barrels out, jumping up at my chest and almost knocking me over.

We all get inside and the boys lead me through the house and straight to the back door, and as we make our way out into the yard, I see what can only be described as an outdoor studio with a big red light hanging over the entrance.

“Open it,” Hunter murmurs beside me.

I look up at him, sensing a slight hint of nervousness in his tone that I’ve never heard from him before. When he nods, I step right up to the door, twist the handle, and push it wide.

Darkness swallows me as I move inside, and when Maddox follows me in and switches on the overhead lights, the world around me disappears. The noise, the exhaustion, the fear of being caught, it all goes away because right here, standing in my very own dark room, my peace has returned.

My chest swells with overwhelming emotion as I look around, taking it all in. The enlarger, the drying line, the workbench and storage space, right down to the developing trays. It’s all here, ready to go, and for a moment, I struggle to breathe.

Behind me, neither of the boys speak. They just watch me, silently waiting, and I slowly turn to face them, my eyes welling with unshed tears. I almost laugh, because for two highly trained killers, they look like they’re about to pee their pants.

“You really built all of this?”

Maddox nods. “It took us a few weeks, but yeah. We wanted you to have something here that could be just yours. Somewhere to escape when shit gets out of control.”

“A few weeks?” I ask. “How the hell did I not notice this?”