Then the conversation shifts. Timelines. Contingencies. Worst-case scenarios. It all blurs together, my mind still replaying Xaden’s hand on my jaw, his breath hitching when I kissed him first this time.
But I snap back when Keller says: “One last thing. Keith Blackwood. We need bait.”
His gaze lands squarely on me.
My chest tightens, but before I can think, the words are out: “I can do it.” At the exact same second, Xaden growls, “Over my dead body.”
The two answers clash in the air. Kate’s brows twitch up. Keller doesn’t even blink.
Xaden’s radiating fury beside me, his thigh rigid where it presses against mine. My pulse is hammering, but my chin tips higher.
“It makes sense. If it gets you closer to ending this, I want to help. Or do you think I can’t handle it?”
I cross my arms to hide the way my fingers are trembling.
Upstairs, I wasn’t trembling.
Upstairs, I was bold enough to grind against him on the bed and kiss him until he was the breathless one.
The memory of it steadies me now.
“Well played,” Kate murmurs. Xaden shoots her a glare sharp enough to slice steel. Then he looks at me.
“It’s not about handling it,” he snaps, voice low and furious. “It’s about me not wanting you in danger.”
The heat of his anger only fans the embers still smoldering in my chest. “As opposed to me rejoicing that you put your life at risk every single day?” I challenge.
His jaw works, eyes flashing. For once, I don’t blush under the weight of that stare.
Finally he bites out: “I’m not a dad. But you are.”
The words land like a body blow. Noah upstairs, cheeks pink with sleep, Dinosaur the Dog tucked under his arm. Noah, who trusts me to keep him safe.
And here I am, offering myself up as bait to a monster. But the thing is, if I don’t stand up now, if I keep hiding while Xaden shoulders everything — what does that make me?
Silence stretches. Even Keller looks unsettled. Finally, he clears his throat. “We’ll table the decision until tomorrow. But if Keith takes the bait, there’s no pulling back.”
Xaden mutters something that’s not worth repeating.
My heart’s still pounding.
My hand moves almost of its own accord, brushing hisknee under the table. Just enough for him to feel it. Just enough to remind him I’m here. That I’m choosing this.
His eyes flick down, then back to me, dark and burning.
For a moment, I swear the whole room fades away. The laptop screen, Kate’s steady gaze, Keller’s voice.
It’s just me and Xaden, the ghost of his mouth still on mine, the warmth of his thigh under my palm.
We are together in this.
XADEN
Rusted trucks loom like silent witnesses when I kill the engine and step out to the same gravel yard they used for Mike. Guess they think it’s poetic justice.
I feel oddly calm considering what’s at stake. JJ paces like a rabid dog, Ronnie flicks his knife open and shut, eyes hungry like he’s already peeling me open.
“I wouldn’t swagger like that if I was a dead man walkin’,” he barks, laughing at his own joke.
