"No." My voice is firm. "I'm not putting myself in danger deliberately. We'll find another way."
"What if there isn't another way?" He scrubs his hands over his face. "What if the only option is to let them come for you in a controlled environment where we can catch them?"
"Then I'd rather live in lockdown than risk getting killed in some FBI operation." I move to kneel in front of him. "Mason, I need you to hear me. I'm not doing this. I'm not playing bait. Find another solution."
He's quiet for a long moment, then nods. "Okay. We'll find another way."
Sarah excuses herself, sensing we need privacy, and once the door closes behind her, Mason pulls me into his lap.
"I'm terrified," he admits quietly. "Terrified that I'm going to make the wrong call and lose you. That I'll let you out of my sight for five minutes and something will happen."
"You can't protect me from everything. No one can."
"Doesn't stop me from trying." His arms tighten around me. "I've already lost one woman I loved to monsters. I can't do it again."
"Elena."
"Yeah." His voice is rough. "She was fifteen, thought she was invincible. Went to a party, someone slipped something in her drink, and by the time we realized she was missing, it was too late. I had three months of hell before they found her body."
"Mason, I'm so sorry."
"It's why I can't, why I won't let anything happen to you." He buries his face in my neck. "You're everything, Ava. Everything."
I hold him while he processes grief that's never fully healed, and when he pulls back, his eyes are suspiciously bright.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to dump that on you."
"Don't apologize. I want to know these things, I want to understand what drives you." I kiss him softly. "Your sister would be proud of what you did. Saving those twenty girls, taking down Castellano. You're honoring her memory."
"Doesn't bring her back."
"No. But it means her death wasn't meaningless. That something good came from that tragedy." I trace the line ofhis jaw. "And it means you're not the cold, emotionless SAA everyone thinks you are."
"I am that person, when I need to be."
"Maybe. But you're also the man who holds me when I'm scared, who makes sure I eat when I forget, who'd burn the world down to keep me safe." I shift in his lap, feeling him already hardening beneath me. "You're complicated, Mason Vaughan. And I love every complicated piece of you."
His mouth crashes into mine, desperate and hungry, and I respond with equal intensity. We strip each other frantically, needing the connection, needing to forget about threats and danger and everything except this.
He's inside me within minutes, both of us too desperate for slow. The rhythm's hard and fast, chasing pleasure like it'll save us, and when I come apart around him, he follows immediately with my name torn from his throat.
We collapse together in a sweaty tangle, hearts racing in tandem.
"I love you," he says when he can breathe again. "Even when you're stubborn and reckless and refuse to follow perfectly reasonable security protocols."
"I love you too. Even when you're overprotective and bossy and act like I'm made of glass."
"You are made of glass. Incredibly strong, beautiful glass that I'm terrified of breaking."
"Then stop handling me like I might shatter, I'm tougher than you think."
"I know you are. It doesn't make it easier to watch you take risks."
We lie there in comfortable silence until his phone rings. Vulture’s name is on the screen.
"Yeah?" Mason answers, still holding me close.
Whatever Vulture says makes his body tense. "When? Where? Okay, we're coming down."
