I wondered if Aubrey knew that.
His brows knitted together, and the soft flush of delight that spilled across his tan cheeks told me he liked the idea, even if he wasn’t going to say thank you. He moved closer, tilting his head up so he could look me in the eye.
“No.”
I drew up short, barking out a surprised laugh. “No?” Did he think he got to tell me what to do? Just because we’d fucked, just because I’d been willing to do something for him, didn’t mean?—
“We,” he answered, cutting me off before I worked myself up into something angry and ugly.
“What?”
“I said,weare going to take Paradise.” Then, like he couldn’t help himself, he added, “Together.”
The slow smile that spread across my face was probably feral, definitely vicious. “All right.We.” I pulled his pistol from my belt and offered it to him, wondering if he’d fuck me over now that he had a weapon. Aubrey just looked at it as though he was wondering whether I was trying to trick him, before he carefully took it. His fingers cradled the gun, and the smile he gave me, the light that flared to life in his bright green eyes…
Well, shit. It was worth the risk of being shot if he looked at me like that.
CHAPTER
NINE
AUBREY
Paradise was biggerthan I expected, though there was a part of me that couldn’t help but compare it to the pictures I’d seen. They’d been faded in the pamphlets that Bishop and I had managed to find like we were on a scavenger hunt through the city. It had been amazing then, maintained and gorgeous. There was even a fake lagoon in the center of it with a little house you could rent, surrounded by wildlife kept safely at bay in cages.
It was picture perfect on paper, but as we rounded the corner and the gates came into view, I realized…
It was just as run-down as the rest of the world. It was broken, and there were vines crawling up along the gates. The welcome sign had been ripped down and replaced with crude words smeared across dilapidated wood with red paint.
And…
“Wow,” I breathed. “It’s perfect.”
The excitement buzzing through my chest wasnew. I hadn’t felt it in… fuck, it had been way too many years since I’d felt excited about anything. But there it was, in front of me.
The resort I’d been wanting to get to since I’d met Bishop and we’d found the letter. A place that looked wild and untamed. Untouched, really. There were supposed to betigershere.
It was all there, waiting for someone to take it by the hands and make it theirs.
“Perfect, huh?” Phoenix sounded almost unsure, but I nodded, my gaze flicking to his with all the determination I felt building in my chest.
“Yeah, it will be by the time we’re through.”
I didn’t miss the way his eyes lit up again at the wordwe. Ididignore it, because I didn’t have time to think about what it meant. Instead, I followed him as he stepped forward and pressed his hands against the gate. I had a second to appreciate the way his broad shoulders flexed as he pushed, the loud squeal of rusty metal giving way shooting through the air.
We’d spent the better part of a week walking here, and I’d spent that entire time making sure I didn’t have a repeat of what had happened with Phoenix the night before he’d taken me to the train station. I couldn’t pretend that my lips around his cock had no influence on him coming here, and I couldn’t erase the way it had felt when he’d put his hands around my throat and I’d wondered if I was going to die while drowning in the ocean of his eyes.
It had been…
Fuck.
It had been something I didn’t need to think about. He’d hurt me, he’d bitten me. The bruises had almost faded already, but the memory of it still lingered in the back of my mind.
Phoenix had been the first person in a long time who hadn’t treated me like I could break.
And he was a raider who killed and ate people, so it was a nonfactor. I could use him to get here. I’d been planning on killing him the moment he turned his back on me, even though I knew I’d probably end up dying while fighting the rest of his group, but…
Well…
