Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 46098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46098 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
The air in the office thinned. Kane didn’t move. Edge didn’t blink. Jax looked everywhere but at us.
“Angel—”
“I think you’re underestimating who’s on the other side of this,” she argued, turning to face me. The ring of gray around her pupils looked like stormwater cut by the sun. “These aren’t thugs who shake people down behind bars and threaten to smash kneecaps. They’re…clean. Professional. They have budgets and backup plans.”
“They bleed like anyone else,” I said with a shrug. “They just think they don’t.”
Kane straightened off the wall. The change in his posture made Edge’s knife disappear into his pocket without him looking at it.
Meeting adjourned.
“We move quiet,” Kane commanded. “Jax, keep pulling. Deviant, sit on his shoulder, slap his hand if he gets cute. Edge—”
Edge nodded. “Already drafting a patrol schedule. I’ll ride the line with Rev.”
Kane’s gaze slid to me. He didn’t have to ask if I was good. He could see the answer. He gave me one short nod, then a softer one to Ashlynn. A sign of respect, not a blessing to her plan. Then he left as abruptly as he came. Edge followed, and Jax packed two of the laptops into the Faraday case and left one open, muttering to Deviant about key ladders and checksum drift as he walked out the door.
Ashlynn stayed still for a moment after the door clicked and then stood so fast her chair legs squeaked. Her hands found each other and clasped, then unclasped, nervous energy searching for an outlet. Her eyes cut to me, and the fight was already on her tongue.
“I can disappear. Take the heat somewhere else.”
My blood was already boiling. Not just from the thought of her gone, but from the fact she actually thought she could walk away from me. That I would ever let her go.
I stood, and the scrape of my chair legs seemed louder in the quiet tension thickening the air.
Her chin tipped up like she could stare me down.
“You think this is just heat?” I asked, closing the distance between us.
“I think it’s a freaking firestorm, Mason, and I’m the reason it’s at your door.”
“Angel,” I gritted, the word coming out like gravel as I stepped in close enough that she had to tip her head back to keep my eyes, “you’re in my world now.”
Her chin lifted, stubborn as hell. “And I’m trying to get out of it before I burn it down.”
“It’s not yours to save.” The muscle in my jaw ticked hard enough to ache. I didn’t give her the chance to run. I caught her wrist, not rough but firm, and walked her backward until she was pressed against the wall. I planted my hands on either side of her head, boxing her in, close enough to catch the rush of her breath. “You don’t get to decide who I fight for.”
Her eyes searched mine. “Why are you fighting for me?”
It wasn’t a taunt. Wasn’t even a test. It was the naked question of a woman who didn’t see how someone could look at her and choose the harder road.
I let my gaze drop and did a quick, possessive sweep from her eyes to her mouth, then down to where my cut hung over her frame like a claim. My blood pounded loud in my ears, and my body was on fire, desperate to get her naked and under me. But not before we cleared this shit up. “I protect what’s mine, angel.”
Something flickered in her expression—heat, relief, the barest hint of surrender—but her voice stayed steady. “You barely know me.”
“I know enough.”
Her pulse jumped in her throat again, and I slid my hand over it to feel it under my thumb. I wanted to take her back upstairs and mark her in ways that would make anyone who looked twice think better of it.
“You shouldn’t have to take fire meant for me.”
“This isn’t about taking fire. It’s about making sure it never gets close enough to touch you.”
11
ASHLYNN
The hum of the air conditioner and the soft tick of Mason’s pen were the only sounds in his office, steady enough to almost lull me into a nap. Laptops sat open, one in front of each of us, displaying different decrypted indexes Jax had passed along for a fresh set of eyes.
He and Deviant were uncovering information faster than they could go through it, so they were letting me pitch in on organizing it all.
“Need a break, angel?”
I glanced up at Mason with a distracted smile. “Nah, I’m good.”
“More coffee?”
“Nope.” I took a sip of my half-full cup and smiled at him over the rim. “I think three is enough for today, even after you kept me up all night.”
A heated gleam filled his eyes—one I’d gotten quite familiar with since he took my virginity. “Maybe we should take a different kind of break.”