Warm.
Solid.
Real.
“You didn’t,” I say gently. “And you won’t.”
His jaw tightens.
Emotion locked down again—but not gone.
“You don’t get to scare me like that.”
I turn toward him fully now.
“You don’t get to walk away from me like that.”
The words land between us.
Sharp.
Honest.
No hiding.
His grip shifts slightly under my hand.
Not pulling away.
Not holding tighter.
Just… staying.
We look at each other.
Not arguing.
Not apologizing.
Just seeing.
Really seeing.
Ronan’s voice cuts through the moment like a needle through thread.
“You two done emotionally bleeding, or should I give you another minute?”
Aaron exhales, something almost like a laugh under it. “What?”
“You didn’t just escape,” Ronan says.
Aaron glances at me, then back to the road. “We didn’t?”
“No,” Ronan replies, tone turning serious. “You just burned one of their primary nodes.”
I sit back slightly.
That lands.
