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I hurry around a tight corner, needing to catch my breath, and come to a dead end. Not having the same enthusiasm as earlier, I decide to find the exit. When I turn, a familiar pair of hazel eyes glower at me through the plastic goggles secured firmly to her heart-shaped face. Her smile is downright wicked as she aims her paint gun at my head.

Now she’s having fun.

“I heard you assassinated a child. You’re the talk of the obstacle course.”

“Word gets around fast.” My finger toys with the trigger, the barrel pointed downward. “If you’re going to shoot me, get it over with.”

“Why? You scared?” Her arm wobbles with the weight of the gun.

“Not as scared as you.” I step forward until the nozzle presses into my chest.

“I’m not scared. I took down four of your teammates back there.” She smiles triumphantly.

“Not of this.” I flick a finger between us. “Of this.”

She narrows her eyes. Riling her up might not be the smartest move, but playing it safe hasn’t gotten me anywhere since arriving back in town. If she thinks I’ll accept this tame, subdued version of her, she’s sorely mistaken.

“Don’t you ever give up?”

“On us? Never.”

Splat.

“Hey! No firing in close proximity!” a field marshal shouts.

A vibrant blue splotch stains my vest. That shit is going to bruise. Her humor falls away.

“This isn’t a game.” Splat. I stumble backward. “You can’t waltz back into my life expecting us to pick up where we left off.” Splat. “Because you’re just going to leave me again!”

“I never wanted to leave in the first place!”

“Then you shouldn’t have signed the contract!”

All the stress and chaos from the last week comes racing toward me. Panic takes root in my bones. I can’t lose her. I can’t do this. I can’t fucking win.

“I wanted to give you—our kids a better life than the one we grew up in.” All the fight leaves me. Talia lowers her paint gun. “If me fighting for us is a losing battle, then just put me out of my fucking misery”—I thump a fist to my heart—“because it is killing me inside wondering if I’ve broken us beyond repair.”

There’s a crack in her facade.

I hold my breath, waiting for the heartbreaking moment she agrees with me.

I count every painful second as they stretch into an eternity. When it feels like I can finally take a breath, I continue confessing my nightmares.

“I was going to stay away for the full two years like you asked, but fuck if I’ve ever been more grateful to land in the hospital, because if I’d done what you asked, there’d be no hope for us.”

She doesn’t move. Frozen in place. Pellets fire around us; people scream and shout in victory and failure. We’re in a paint-splattered war zone, yet the real conflict rages silently in the small space separating us.

I stare at the sky. Where’s the fucking rain? “I can’t lose you, Tally Girl. I can’t. Walking away from you was the biggest mistake of my life, and I will make it up to you for every single second I walk this earth. Please, baby.” I step closer, aching to hold her. “You fell in love with me once. Maybe you can again.”

When she still doesn’t speak, I’m tempted to reach out and check she hasn’t turned to stone.

“Hey! You! You’ve been hit. You’re out,” someone shouts at me.

I drop my gun, hands raised, my gaze never leaving hers. “It’s fine. I think we’re done.”

If the mood driving to the paintball site was sour, driving home is downright hostile.

I’m exhausted. Talia’s still unresponsive. It’s zero steps forward, a hundred back.