"You could have." He crossed to me, taking my hands in his. "You're the strongest person I know, Betty. You would have found a way. But I'm glad you don't have to."
"So am I." I looked up at him, at this man who'd broken my heart and then come back to save my life. "Hudson, I need to tell you something."
"You can tell me anything."
I took a deep breath, gathering my courage.
"I love you."
The words hung in the air between us, fragile and precious.
"I've been fighting it," I continued. "Telling myself I was stupid to let you back in, that I was just setting myself up to get hurt again. But tonight, when I heard that gunshot, when I thought something had happened to you..." My voice cracked. "I realized I'd rather have you and risk getting hurt than not have you at all."
Hudson pulled me into his arms, holding me so tight I could barely breathe.
"I love you too," he said, his voice rough. "I've loved you for twelve years. Through everything. Through all the time apart, all the missions, all the nights I spent wishing I could take back what I did. You're it for me, Betty. You always have been."
I buried my face in his chest, breathing him in, letting his warmth seep into my bones.
"What happens after the trial?" I asked. "When this is all over. What happens to us?"
"Whatever you want." He pulled back to look at me, his eyes soft. "If you want me to stay, I'll stay. I'll move here, run my business from your spare room if I have to. If you want to come with me, we can go anywhere in the world. If you need more time, I'll wait. Whatever you need, Betty. I'm yours."
"I want you to stay," I said without hesitation. "I want to wake up next to you every morning. I want to build a life with you, a real life, not this crisis-mode survival thing we've been doing. I want the future we should have had ten years ago."
"Then that's what we'll have." He kissed me, soft and sweet. "As soon as this is over, we start fresh. You and me, building something real."
I kissed him back, pouring everything I felt into it. The love, the fear, the hope. All of it.
One more week.
We just had to survive one more week.
That night, Hudson made love to me like it was the last time.
Slow and intense, his eyes locked on mine. He whispered words of love against my lips, my neck, my breasts. Told me I was beautiful. Told me I was brave. Told me he was never going to leave me again.
And when I came apart in his arms, crying out his name, I believed him.
For the first time since he'd come back into my life, I believed him completely.
I should have known it couldn't last.
Chapter 8: Hudson
Three days before the trial, I made a mistake.
It was a small one. Insignificant, really. The kind of thing that wouldn't have mattered in any other situation.
But in this situation, it almost cost Betty her life.
The morning started like every other morning that week. Betty and I had breakfast together, then drove to the bar for the lunch shift. Santos was parked outside, Martinez was monitoring the cameras, and I had two more guys from my team on standby in case anything went sideways.
We were locked down. Secured. As safe as I could make us.
But Lang and Briggs had been cops for twenty years. They knew how to work around security. They knew how to find weaknesses, exploit blind spots, hit where it hurt the most.
And my weakness was Betty.
