Page 298 of Rangers Last Promise

Gunfire echoes outside.

Sirens scream along the runway.

The hangar could still be full of Harlan’s men.

None of it matters.

Not for this one second.

Her hands are covered in my blood.

Her eyes fill with tears.

“You picked a terrible time to say that.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“You’re not dying.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“You’d better not.”

She presses harder against the wound.

Pain burns through me.

I manage a smile.

“You love me too.”

“That wasn’t a question.”

“No.”

Her eyes hold mine.

“Yes.”

The word is barely a whisper.

But I hear it.

I feel it.

Fifteen years of loneliness end on a dirty hangar floor while Mara Ellis tries to stop me from bleeding.

“I love you,” she says. “So you’re going to stay awake, let me stop this bleeding, and never jump in front of another bullet for me.”

“I can agree to two of those.”

“Colin.”

“I love you.”

She kisses me.

Hard.