“I’m protecting everything that matters.” I kiss the top of her head. “You. My brothers. A chance at a life that he doesn’t poison.”
“What if something goes wrong?”
“It won’t.”
“But what if it does?” She tilts her head back to look at me. “What if he finds out before then? What if someone gets hurt?”
“Then I’ll handle it.” I stroke her hair. “I’ve been handling him my whole life. This is just one more time.”
“You’re not invincible, Calder.”
“No.” I pull her closer. “But I’m stubborn as hell. And I have something to fight for now. Someone to come back to.”
She kisses me. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”
“I promise.”
We drift off to sleep like that, her body curled against mine. When sleep finally takes me, I let myself hope. For tomorrow. For a future without Roman’s shadow. For a life where she’s not my captive but my choice, and I’m hers.
Whatever comes tomorrow, whatever price I have to pay for betraying my father, it was worth it for this. For her. For us.
I just hope I survive long enough to give her the life she deserves.
Calder
The wire sits heavyin my pocket as I pull up to the house.
I’ve spent the afternoon scrambling, burning through every contingency plan I had in place. Agent Reese couldn’t move up the full operation. No backup agents, no coordinated raid, nothing like what we’d planned for the ceremony. All she could give me was a wire from a dead drop behind the feed store and a promise to be listening. Agents on standby but definitely nowhere close enough if shit goes to hell. And it will. I can feel it.
It’s not enough. But it’s all I’ve got.
The sun is already sinking toward the mountains, painting the sky in shades of orange and red. Blood colors. I try not to read anything into that.
The porch light is on when I park, warm yellow against the evening shadows. Saint must have heard the truck because she’s at the door before I reach it, her face pale, her eyes searching mine for answers I’m not sure I have. She’s been alone all afternoon, waiting, wondering. I can see it in the tight set of her shoulders, the way she’s holding herself like she might shatter.
“It’s time,” I say.
She nods. She already knows. And I’m glad I told her everything. Prepared her.Family dinner tonight. Bring your wife.The contempt in his voice when he said it still echoes in my head.
“I need to change.” She steps back to let me inside. “Give me fifteen minutes.”
“Take twenty. We can’t be early. Can’t look eager.”
She disappears upstairs, and I move through the house, checking windows and doors. Habit. Paranoia. The knowledge that everything I’ve been building toward is about to collapse or come together, and I’m not sure which. At least Kade did a decent job of cleaning up. Not a speck of blood, only the soft scent of bleach lingers in the air.
The FBI was supposed to be in position. Recording equipment in the barn, agents stationed in the treeline, the whole plan hinged on Roman feeling safe and powerful during the ceremony, drunk on tradition and his own authority. Not a family dinner. Not tonight. I’ll just have to get him there myself. Bait him. Send him into a rage if I have to.
But I worry this change means he knows something. Or suspects something. Either way, I can’t walk into that house without insurance.
I pull the wire from my pocket and turn it over in my hands. Small black box with adhesive backing and a battery that Reese said would last six hours. It looks like nothing. Feels like everything. My salvation or my death sentence, depending on how tonight goes. Saint comes down the stairs twenty minutes later, and the sight of her stops me cold.
She’s wearing the deep red dress that makes her dark blue eyes pop, simple and elegant. Her hair falls loose around her shoulders, catching the lamplight. She’s put on makeup, subtle enough to look natural, enough to hide the exhaustion and feararound her eyes. On her feet are low-heeled boots she can run in if she needs to.
Smart girl.
“You look beautiful,” I tell her.
“I look like I’m walking to my own execution.”
