"Yeah. You really are." She snorts with a dry little nod.
"It's new for me, you know? I’m usually the best at everything."
'Knox, you idiot. Stop bragging,'I shout in our link, fighting against rolling my eyes.
I expect her to try to leave again, but instead, she exhales heavily. The kind of breath you take when you’re too tired to be angry anymore.
"You really aresuchan asshole," Halley says, but it's lacking venom. It's almost like resigned fondness.
Hope flickers back to life in my chest.
Knox, seeing his chance, nods emphatically. "I am. A huge asshole. I'm trying not to be, but I'm way too good at it."
She almost,almost, smiles. It starts small, one corner of her mouth tugging up, and damn, it’s like the sun coming out after a hailstorm.
"You’re the biggest asshole I know."
‘Keep going, she’s relaxing,’Viper encourages.
Knox tilts his head, looking at her from under his lashes with that cautious charm he rarely bothers to use. “Can we hit reset? Try this second chance thing again… but better this time?”
"Technically, that would make it a third chance," I add.
Knox rubs his mouth, thumb digging into his lower lip. "I told myself I'd be different with you... I want to be different. I thought I could… but I immediately fell back into the same way of doing things. I made a strategy to ambush you and negotiate the terms of our reconciliation. It’s the way I was raised and trained… to see everything as a battle. It’s not an excuse."
His thoughts push through the bond a moment later, strained and self-directed. He looks at me with distress written on his features.
‘I don’t understand my own actions, so how can I explain them to her?’Knox's voice echoes in my head.
I take mercy on him and step back into the conversation.
“It wasn’t just Knox,” I say, locking eyes with Halley. “I didn’t push back either. I let it happen. We’ve all got years of wiring to undo, and none of us has handled it well. But we’re here now, and we want to do better. For you.”
Halley purses her lips and looks at the four soldiers giving her puppy dog eyes. Well, three soldiers. I don't know what to call the expression Blaze has going on, but it's not remorse.
“The military really messed you guys up, huh?” Halley says with a dry little laugh.
Viper huffs in amusement or relief. I’m not sure. “You have no idea how much, pretty girl.”
Her lips twitch. She mirrors his expression, and it’s enough to lift the heavy tension stifling the room.
“Fine,” she says. “You get your third chance. But this time, we do it right.”
"Thank rutting-fuck," Viper exhales and takes her agreement as permission for a full body hug. He drags her from her chair and onto his lap. His arms squeeze her close, enveloping her into his body, tucking her as close as possible.
Halley doesn’t resist. She curls into him like she never left.
But she doesn’t let us off the hook, either.
“You still need to explain what you meant earlier,” she says, tone dipping back into sharp territory. “About me not being your... your... equal.”
Knox’s whole body stiffens. He’s got the good sense to grimace.
“Yeah. That,” he mutters. “Not my best moment. What I meant was... I mean, you are...”
He glances at me with the wide-eyed panic of a man who knows he’s one sentence away from detonating everything again.
‘Viper, tell her about our decision,’I project to my brother, hoping the good faith she has in him can carry this home for us.
