God, we’re not even a day into this and I’ve already put Ella in unnecessary danger.
This is why killing people is so much easier than protecting them.
“You alive, Gibson?” Silence. I sigh and get up, going over to the door and knocking. “Knock once if you’re dead, twice if you’re alive.” I expect her to laugh or give me a sassy response; instead I hear something else. A sob. The sound tears into me, like it shreds through my heart, and I open the door slowly.
Ella is sitting on the bathroom floor, kneespulled to her chest, face wet with tears. She’s crying quietly, her eyes shining as she looks up at me.
“Fuck, Gibson.” I crouch in front of her. “Why are you crying?”
Her chin dimples. “They—they were going … they were going to kill me!”
“Well, yeah. That’s what happens when you have a bounty.”
She lets out a sob. “Don’t be mean to me right now!”
I sigh and groan as I sit beside her. “Come here.” I put my arm around her shoulders, and she cuddles into me, crying into my chest. “You didn’t die.”
“But I could have.”
“I’ve already told you, I won’t let anything happen to you.” She clings to my T-shirt, her sobs slowly subsiding.
She wipes her eyes. “I thought I was stronger than this. My dad is a cop, for Christ’s sake. I’ve heard and seen awful things.”
“It’s a bit different when those awful things are happening to you. And you are strong.”
She sniffs and angles her head to look up at me.
“I am?”
“I’ve personally witnessed you chasing down a mugger.” She laughs, wiping her nose with the back of her hand, and I grimace, snatching for some toilet paper and handing it to her. “Almost dying isn’t an excuse to be gross, Gibson.”
She blows her nose and cuddles up to me again. I heave out a sigh, holding her close, despite the goddamn heat she emits.
“What was your deal with Z?” she asks.
I play with her hair absentmindedly, remembering the day the deal was struck. We were all filled withexcitement for what lay ahead, for the cash and the drama, for the murdering and travel. Anything felt possible.
“We kind of learned this life together,” I say. “Hunter trained Asher and me before we worked for the agency, but?—”
“The agency?” She tilts her head up to look at me again.
I nod. “It’s the company that accepts the jobs and sends them out. Hunter worked for it for years, but now he owns it.” She listens, blue eyes wide. “Before he was the owner, he trained Asher and me, so we’d be ahead of the competition, other bounty hunters. But you still have to go through several trials before you’re accepted. There were thirty of us in total; Z and his brothers were in the same induction as Asher and me. There were no rules about turning on each other. If anything, surviving each other was the biggest challenge. One night, one of the other guys tried to kill Y. Asher, being Asher, stopped it. Y’s strong, but he’s more brains than brawn. Z said he owed Asher, but instead Asher said we should stick together. Vow never to hurt each other or those we love. So, we got close. We’re the only five that made it through.”
Her lips part. “Out of thirty? What happened to the others?”
“What do you think, Gibson?”
Her shoulders soften. “Oh.”
Resting her head back on my chest, she falls quiet, and for a moment, a strange, bone-chilling moment, I wonder if I’ve frightened her. I tighten my hold on her, but instead of pulling away, she leans closer.
“Thank you,” she says quietly. “For looking after me.”
“You hear that, Asher?” I say to the ceiling. “I got Gibson to thank me.” She laughs into my chest, and I smile. “You’re an ugly crier, by the way.”
“Oh, I know. My dad said when I cried as a kid I looked like an alien.”
I bark out a laugh.
