The enforcer collapses onto the gravel, motionless. The lead threat is gone. The Syndicate's spine is broken.
I fling the SUV door open and run down the embankment, my boots crunching over the gravel. Easton turns as I approach, holstering his weapon. He looks worn, covered in dust and sweat, but his eyes shine with absolute, unwavering devotion as he opens his arms for me.
I throw myself into his hold. He lifts me off my feet, wrapping his thick arms around me so tight I can barely breathe, burying his face in the crook of my neck.
I close my eyes, feeling the steady, powerful rhythm of his heartbeat against mine. The shadows that have chased me my whole life, the fear, the isolation, the constant running, finally fade away into the cold night air.
I draw in a deep, clean breath of mountain air, clutching the back of Easton's shirt. “I’ve got you, Stella,” he murmurs,dragging his nose up and down my neck as he continues to breathe me in.
“I’ve got you, too,” I tell him confidently, sliding my hands from his back to his neck. I hold Easton’s face in my hands while he keeps me steady with an arm under my thighs. “We’re better together. Stronger. Safer.”
He nods and closes his eyes as I press a kiss over his scar, nose, and lips. “Freer,” he adds. I rest my forehead on his, letting that one word wash over me.
I’m free. Truly free, not only from the immediate threat of the Syndicate, but free from my past. It feels like a heavy chain has finally loosened and fallen away from where it was suffocating me.
Easton carries me back to his SUV, securing my seatbelt before hopping in the driver’s seat. He immediately patches into the Aegis secure line to update the rest of the team and get a clean up crew out here.
The voices of Atlas, Kai, Miller, and Easton blur into the background. My head is aching and my heavy eyelids are struggling to stay open. A large, warm hand covers mine across the console, followed by Easton’s voice.
“Rest now, love. I’ll take care of you.”
10
EASTON
The heavy iron gates of my primary estate swing shut, locking out the noise, the violence, and the lingering ghosts of a syndicate that will never touch my Stella again.
Miller and the rest of the boys handled the cleanup at the timber yard, coordinating with the federal contacts we still have in our back pocket to sweep up the remaining pieces of the broken network. For weeks, every breath I’ve taken has been hitched to a silent, hyper-vigilant terror—calculating angles, checking blind spots, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
As I kill the engine of the SUV and look across the center console at Stella, the crushing weight finally evaporates.
She’s exhausted, her shoulders slumped with the delayed crash of pure adrenaline, but she’s unharmed. She’s breathing. She’smine. My protective instinct shifts from a frantic, snarling defense into a profound, possessive peace. The threat is gone. Completely eradicated.
I cut the lights, step out, and round the hood before she can even reach for the door handle. I pull it open, unbuckling her seatbelt with steady hands, and sweep her up into my arms. Shegasps softly, looping her arms around my neck and burying her face against my shoulder.
"Easton," she murmurs, her voice thick with fatigue. "I can walk."
"Just let me carry you,woman," I growl, my voice vibrating against her chest as I carry her up the stone steps and straight into my master bedroom. She lets out a soft but genuine laugh that melts away some of the tension in my muscles.
The room is dark, save for the pale wash of moonlight spilling across the hardwood floors. I set her down gently on the edge of the mattress, but I don’t step away. I trap her between my thighs, my hands resting on her hips as I look down at her. Her green eyes shine in the dim light, heavy-lidded and filled with an emotion that strips away every last jagged piece of my armored soul.
"We won," she whispers, a breathless wonder in her tone.
"We did," I murmur, leaning down to press a slow, reverent kiss to her forehead, trailing down the bridge of her nose until my lips find hers.
The kiss starts soft, a celebration of surviving the fight, but it instantly ignites into something fierce, simmering, and absolute. There's no panic left, no rushing against a ticking clock. Just the deep, intoxicating reality that we have all the time in the world.
My hands move with deliberate reverence, stripping away our clothes and tactical gear, replacing the adrenaline with a slow, searing heat. When I lift her shirt, letting my palms slide over the soft, lush curves of her waist and hips, she arches into my touch with an urgent moan that rattles straight to my core.
As I gently guide Stella down on the mattress and crawl over her, I take a moment to absorb each and every curve, line, and inch of her skin. They’re a testament to the fact that she survived, that she fought by my side, and that she choseme.
Stella fists my hair, forcing me to meet her gaze. “More,” she gasps, spreading her legs wider and searing me with her need.
I crawl up her body, licking and nipping at her soft flesh along the way. Stella wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me down, sealing her lips over mine. Her legs tighten around my back urging me to fill her up. I drag aching my cock through her folds, coating myself in her juices and rubbing my hardness against her clit.
“Please, please, please…” she whines, wiggling underneath me to position me at her entrance. I push the tip inside of her, groaning when her pussy tries to suck me in deeper.
“Is this what my greedy girl needs?” I rasp, pulling back and barely entering her again.
