I finally turn, leveling her with a look. “Yes, I’m fine,” I lie. “Go back inside.”
She just bites her lips. All I want to do is take her right there and kiss her senseless. But instead, I turn away.
A few minutes later, I step inside the porch, stretching my shoulders. The security lights cast long shadows along the porch, the lake behind the cabin reflecting the last streaks of daylight. Asher and Zane are sitting on the deck, watching something on the laptop.
“I’m going to meet the client,” I say, breaking the silence.
Zane snorts. “The hell you are.”
Asher looks up from his phone. “You’re justleaving? Tonight?”
I walk away toward the car, and I hear their footsteps after me. I open the driver’s side door. “It’s a few towns over.”
Asher lets out a sharp laugh, like he thinks I’m messing with him. “You’re joking.”
“Not joking,” I say, yanking my duffel from the front seat and checking the contents one last time. “I’ll be back by morning.”
Zane stares at me like I’ve grown two heads. “Damon, what the actual fuck? Why now? Why are you going alone?”
“Because someone has to meet the client.”
“Wearewith the client!” Zane gestures toward the cabin. “Or did you forget we’ve got a stalker, two kids, and a woman you claim to care about back there?”
“It’ll be fine.” I shut the door and turn to them. “The two of you are staying here.”
“Oh, yeah, that makes so much sense,” Zane snaps. “Let’s leave the guy with the personal vendetta against Jason and the guy who’s one foot out the door in charge while you go meet some shady contact alone.”
I exhale through my nose. “Zane?—”
“No,” Zane shoots back. “No, I’m sorry, I just wanna make sure I understand. You’re storming out in the middle of the night, after we just had a perimeter breach, after we found a tracking device in the kids’ toys, because what? You suddenly feel like taking a field trip?”
Asher, who’s been unusually quiet, crosses his arms. “Zane’s right. This is a dumbass move.”
I grit my teeth. “The two of you will hold down the fort. Mia and the girls are safe here. And this meeting, it could give us answers.”
Zane throws his hands up. “Or it could get you killed.”
I look him dead in the eye. “If it does, you’ll know where to find my body.”
Asher curses under his breath, dragging a hand through his hair. “So this is it? You’re going, no matter what we say?”
“I am.”
Zane shakes his head, jaw tight. “You better make it back, Damon.”
I nod once, then climb into the truck, starting the engine. In the rearview mirror, I could see Asher and Zane still standing there, watching me go.
They don’t get it. They don’t know that this is the only way I can clear my head.
Or maybe they do. And that’s why they’re so damn pissed.
The drive is long, but I don’t mind. The road stretches for miles, nothing but the hum of the engine and the occasional flash of headlights passing in the opposite direction. With each mile, the tension in my chest eases. Not because I feel better, but because distance helps.
Helps me think.
Helps menotthink.
By the time I pull into the outskirts of the town where we agreed to meet, it’s past ten. The neon lights of a roadside bar flicker, half the bulbs blown out. The place is exactly what I expected: dim, rough around the edges, but quiet enough to keep things discreet.
