She made her way back to the van, where Aaron had managed to prop himself up. He looked a little better now—his face wasn’tquite as pale. Maybe the wound hadn’t been as bad as she first thought.
“Bailey,” he breathed, and he wrapped his spare arm around her and pulled her in close, pressing his face into her neck. She sank into him. It was over. It was really over. After everything that had happened, everything that they had been through, it was done. There was no way Ziegler and the rest of them were going to get away after this. They didn’t stand a chance. Whatever they thought they had been capable of, they were wrong.
She could finally relax and just be with Aaron. She knew he was going to need some serious patching up—a bullet wound wasn’t the kind of thing you messed around with—but he was alive. She could feel the slow rise and fall of his breath as Ziegler, Moore, Lee, and Benning were handcuffed and put into trucks, ready to be dropped off at the sheriff’s office when they were done here.
“I thought something had happened to you in the fire,” Aaron murmured to her, and she pulled her head back.
“Nothing happened to me then,” she assured him, but she was certain he’d have more questions. Like why she’d left while everyone else was distracted with the fire. She wished she had a better answer for him than the truth, but she didn’t see any way around it right now.
“I… I was just leaving,” she admitted. “I thought I could go after them myself, I thought I could take them down. I didn’t want to be pushed out of it again. I saw the fire, I let everyone know what was going on, and then I left.”
He tensed.
“But I can see how wrong I was,” she assured him. “They drove me off the road—that’s why I crashed the truck. And if it hadn’t been for you, they would have killed me.”
She inhaled shakily as the reality of that hit her. Yes, they really would have killed her. If it hadn’t been for him throwing himself into the fray the way he had, she would have been dead. The thought chilled her to the bone. She squeezed him tighter.
“And they told me…they told me they came looking for you because of me,” she confessed. “And I’m so sorry for that, Aaron, I never meant for that to happen.”
“Hey, you have nothing to apologize for,” he told her, brushing her tears away. “I know how hard it’s been for you. I know how much you wanted to take them down. And I know you probably could have done it yourself. I just wanted to help you. The only thing that matters to me is that you’re all right.”
She nodded, but she wasn’t sure she totally believed him. Could he really be that quick to forgive her, after everything she’d done? She didn’t know. She wanted to believe it, but she knew she had some explaining to do.
“I didn’t want to go,” she admitted to him. “I never did, Aaron. I just… I didn’t want either of us getting hurt again, not after what happened before. And I thought if I made the decision for you, it wouldn’t be something you had to…something you had to do for yourself, at least this time.”
“That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” he murmured, shaking his head, eyes misty as though he was remembering it at that very moment.
She cupped his face in her hands. “I’m never going to be apart from you again,” she told him fervently, surprising even herself with how sure she was of that fact. She scanned his face, eyes wide, needing him to understand how much she meant it.
“That sounds good to me,” he agreed, and he drew her in for a kiss. Even with the slash in her shoulder, her body filled with pleasure at his touch. Here he was, the man she had wanted for all these years, the man she loved, and there was nothing in the way of them being together. It was finally just…them. Their pastsleft far behind for once, a history they never even had to think about again. No matter what happened next, she could hold on to him, and she wanted that more than anything in the world.
She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder again, a wave of emotion crashing through her. He held her to his side, and she knew he was feeling everything she was right now. The two of them were together again, no matter what had pushed them apart, no matter what had landed them back in each other’s lives. All the fight in her was gone, all the anger forgotten. Their pasts didn’t matter now.
No, the only thing that mattered now was their future. And that they got to spend it together.
Chapter Twenty-Four
As Aaron held Bailey, he tried to let himself relax. She was safe. The guys were dealt with. Even though this bullet wound wasn’t exactly making him feel fantastic right now, he knew it could be treated. He would have been dead by now if it was lethal.
“Hey, Aaron.”
Lawson stood next to the van, waiting for them to break from their embrace. Aaron winced as he turned around to face him, doing his best to keep the pain from his face. He didn’t want to worry anyone.
“We’re going to get one of our guys to drive you down to town,” he explained. “Xavier let Willis know what’s going on, and they’ve got emergency personnel standing by at the hospital for you and Willis will meet you there. Cade and I will make sure this scum gets to the station to be locked up, once and for all. Bailey, you need medical attention, too.” Lawson pointed at her. “You look about as bad as he does.”
“Not quite.” Xavier walked over and chimed in. “But you lost quite a bit of blood, too.” He nodded at her shoulder. “That needs to be cleaned and treated as soon as possible.”
“Thank you,” Aaron replied, his voice coming out weaker than it had before. He could see those dark spots at the side of his vision again, and he tried to blink them away.
“Aaron, are you all right?” Bailey asked, the worry evident in her voice as she pushed away some of his sweat-soaked hair from his face.
“I will be,” he replied, and she offered him an arm to help him to his feet. He leaned on her heavily, and she draped one of his arms over her shoulder to help guide him to the car waiting to get them out of here.
It was carnage out on the road. Truck parts were scattered everywhere from the wreck, and Lee was making a scene, fighting hard to try and break free. He didn’t stand a chance against the people around him, but he had never known when to give up.
Bailey managed to get Aaron into the car, and laid him out on the back seat. She climbed in behind him and put his head on her lap.
“It’s going to be okay,” she whispered to him, though there was some doubt in her voice. How bad was it? He planted his hand on the wound as the driver pulled away from the chaos around them, driving them the rest of the way down to the small town at the bottom of the mountain.
