The alpha was quiet for a while. “I’ve been wanting to do something good for you, ever since we met at the kidnappers’den. But I wasn’t sure how I could help, and I didn’t want to contact you at a bad time.”
“That’s... That’s really nice of you,” Killian said, humbled. “And yet here I am, squashing your balls.”
Crush huffed. “Didn’t we agree not to talk about that?”
“I should be responsible for it! I mean, if I broke your balls and you can no longer make babies...” Killian blushed when Crush raised an eyebrow. “I’m just saying that I’ll help you get a baby if you ever want one.”
“Hmm.” Crush’s eyes darkened. “Let me think about it.”
Killian ducked his head and texted the alpha chat. Then he remembered something else. “Um, you never gave me an answer. Do you have a gun?”
Again, Crush gave him that sharp, penetrating look. “I have a couple.”
“Do you have ammo for them? Spare mags?”
“Two boxes of ammo for each gun, and two spare mags.” Crush paused. “You know that I’ll protect you, right?”
Killian’s heart skipped. “I can’t ask you to drop everything for my sake. You can’t protect me 24/7.”
“That’s what I’ll be doing anyway, whether you like it or not.”
A hot blush flooded Killian’s cheeks. No one had offered to do that for him before. “Even if the bad guys don’t stop coming?”
“Especially then.”
“Oh.” Killian tried to hide his blush. He added a few more requests to the alpha chat, then tucked his phone away.
Crush took them down some side roads and blew through more red lights. But it was only when they were heading out of Cartfalls, when the gunfire had tapered off, that Killian began to relax.
Not fully, though. Not until he knew for sure that they were safe.
Crush reached over and opened the glove box. “There.”
Tucked into the shadowy space was a semi-automatic, sized for alpha hands. Killian picked it up and turned it over. It was a good model; it had been in production for several years. Crush had kept it well-maintained.
Killian took it apart anyway in a field strip, running his fingertips along the nooks and crannies. The gun wasn’t sparkling clean, but it would work for their purposes.
He counted the bullets in the magazine. Then he put the gun back together, feeling slightly better with it in his hands.
“No hesitation,” Crush murmured. “No wasted movement. Have you shot a person before?”
He looked... almost admiring.
Killian breathed out. “Are you going to kick me out of the car if I say yes?”
“Nah.” Crush shrugged, so at ease that some of the tension drained out of Killian’s shoulders.
“Then yes,” Killian said. “I have.”
Mathlin gasped in the back seat. “You’ve shot someone?!”
Killian sighed. “I was in a bad situation. It’s why I got out.” Before Mathlin could open his mouth and ask more questions, Killian shook his head. “I’m not talking about it. Not even Walren and the rest know this much.”
He felt Crush’s curiosity like a live thing, prickling across his skin.
“Spare mag is in the glove box too,” Crush said. “Everything else is where we’re headed after this.”
Killian blinked. “Where are we going?”
