"You're allowed to want your life back." He sips the coffee, and I see the surprise flicker across his face when he tastes the sugar. "I forget sometimes that you're not here by choice. That you're a victim in this too."
"I'm here by choice now." I sigh and lean on his workbench. "I don't think I'd be safe anywhere else."
His eyes search mine like he's testing to see whether I’m lying, but I'm not. "I brought these." I set down the scissors and bleach on the workbench. "If you want to cut my hair, bleach it, make me look different, I'm ready. I call a truce."
He stares at the supplies for a long moment. Then he picks them up and moves them to the side, out of the way. "No."
"No?"
"I was wrong to ask you to hide. Hiding never solved my problems. It just delayed them." He sets down his coffee and crosses his arms, leaning against the workbench beside me. "I've spent five years running from my past and look where that got me. Right back where I started, except now I've dragged you into it too."
"So, what are you saying?"
"I'm saying it's time to stop running and go on the offensive." Dane looks more determined than I've seen him in weeks, but that sort of scares me. "Cal Maddox wants to play games? Fine. But he made a mistake bringing you into this. He made it personal. And now I'm going to end him."
I want to ask him what he means by "personal", but seeing this side of him come out makes my belly flutter.
And it's absurdly attractive.
His eyes sweep down over me, and I can tell he's noticing the flush of my cheeks. I'm attracted to him. There's no point in hiding it now. We've already fucked once.
"I'm going to the city," he continues, and I force myself to focus on his words instead of the way his muscles flex beneath his shirt. "I'm gonna track down Cal, figure out where he's operating from, and I'm going to make him stop. Permanently."
"When?" The practical part of my brain that's spent years as a trauma nurse handling emergencies kicks in. I want to know logistics and time frame. If I’m alone in these mountains, I need to know what's happening out in the real world. "How?"
"Soon. I need a few days to gather intel, confirm his location, plan my approach." He picks up his coffee again, taking another drink. "My buddy Jason gave me some contacts, people who might know where Cal's been hiding. I'll probably meet up with him and see if he has anything else for me."
"What do you need me to do?" I ask, even as another thought creeps in. If he's going to the city, he could take me there and hide me. I don’t have to be obvious. I could stay hidden. But even as I think it, I know it's selfish of me.
"Stay here. Stay safe." I don't like his tone or his instructions, but I've already caused problems once today. I don't want him to think I'm impossible. "Cal doesn't know exactly where we are yet, which means this cabin is still secure. But if you leave, he'll find you, and I won't be there to protect you."
"You think he'll come after me?"
"I know he would. You're part of his revenge fantasy. In his mind, you let his father die on that table. You're as guilty as I am." He sets down the coffee and moves closer to me, touching my elbow lightly. "I need you to be safe."
The intensity in his gaze pins me in place. Dane is serious when he says he needs me safe, but I'm not sure why he's saying it.It makes me uncomfortably warm but still hesitantly afraid. If Dane's catching feelings for me the way I am for him, it could be really bad for his concentration. He has to go up against a killer. I'm not sure I'm okay with him just riding off into the sunset with some murdering spree on his mind when he's distracted.
"Come inside," I say, taking his hand. "Let me cook you dinner. The venison from last week needs to be eaten, and I found potatoes in the cellar. You need to eat something before you start planning how to take down a crime family."
The corner of his mouth twitches and I almost see a smile. "You're going to cook me dinner?"
"Don't sound so surprised. I'm a decent cook when I'm not arguing with you about nutrition."
"The last time you cooked, you tried to make me eat quinoa."
"And you survived." I tug him toward the door. "Tonight, you get actual meat and potatoes. No vegetables in sight."
"Now you're speaking my language." He lets me pull him playfully toward the door, and I manage to avoid eye contact, but we break the handhold several steps outside the closed barn door. This comfortable closeness between us is growing, but I don’t know how to respond to it.
Dane is a mystery wrapped in the flesh of a man so intoxicating it makes me want him every time I see him. But he's also a dangerous man, one who could easily snap my neck like he's breaking kindling for his fireplace. And the men he's hunting, the ones I'm supposed to be terrified of, they're even worse than him.
When I started looking into the death of Domingo Maddox, I never thought this would all land on my doorstep. I just wanted to know who he was and what he was involved in. Maybe I had a smidge of hope I'd be able to track down the man who shot him to help ease some of the burden of guilt I carried. He died on my operating table, for fucks' sake.
But this?
Meeting Dane the way I did is the biggest red flag I've ever witnessed in my life, and instead of running away from him, I picked it up and started waving it around. Now I've fucked him and managed to get his attention and tonight, I'm playing house, cooking him dinner.
I'm insane.
