Page 28 of Rough Ride

Don’t hate me for leaving you behind. I was rushed away from home without warning. Had I had the chance to retrieve you, I never would have left you behind. Can we talk? I’m quite possibly the closest I’ve ever been to death, and yet I feel more alive than ever. Does that make any sense at all? Staring down the barrel end of a gun, I can’t shake the electricity that is filling me. My life has been a series of predictables, textbooks, laws, and standards. Yet here I am, on the opposite end of the law I swore to uphold, working for a crime lord and living with a criminal. My every waking moment is full of suspense and danger and, God help me, it’s full of passion like I’ve never known. I quit my job today. For a myriad of reasons, but mostly because I will never be the same after this. Whatever is in the water, I drank from the well, and I’m forever changed. I know things about myself, exciting things, that just make an office job seem so obsolete. I won’t abandon my passion for the law and protecting the innocent, but neither will I deny that I am— for better or worse— so much more than I thought I ever could be. I guess I have Kye to thank for that. Sexy, stoic, resolute Kye with the serious brow. He’s changed, you know. Not like the happy youth I once loved. No, he’s very different. And not entirely for the worse.

Kye closed the book and smiled. Whether she realized it or not, he could tell in her words, she was falling in love with him again. Not the old Kye, not the kid, the man. She’d once called him her hero. He could be that for her again. Not by repetition, but by evolution. He’d grow into the man she needed him to be.

He’d win her back.

Eliana opened her eyes when she felt something shift underneath her. With a jolt, she sat up and scrambled off the bed. In the process, her legs tangled in the silky sheet, and she tumbled toward the floor. Attempting to catch herself, she flailed an arm toward the nightstand only to send the contents of the top spilling over as they, and she, crashed to the ground.

“Ow,” she groaned, laying prostrate on the carpet. Hearing a chuckle behind her, Eliana rolled over and saw Kye with his head resting on his upraised arm laying on his side facing her.

“I pictured waking up next to you very differently,” he noted, and she huffed at him. “You alright?”

“I’ll live,” she grumbled and kicked herself free of the sheets. The irony of her statement wasn’t lost on either of them. Kye reached for her hand and pulled her back into bed. Unresisting, Eliana slid back under the covers next to him, both laying on their sides facing each other.

The weather hadn’t improved in the night, and they could both hear the pattering of rain on the roof and windows. The wind must have picked up because there was howling in the distance. Kye, having closed the window the night before, was grateful. Had he not, the carpet likely would have been soaked.

“I’m surprised you stayed,” Eliana commented as she absently picked at the sheets, her eyes intently focused on the task.

“I guess I haven’t built the reputation of staying,” he agreed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Can I tell you something?” he asked, and she looked up at him with expectant eyes. “I’ve never slept with a woman before.” He chuckled when her brows knit together, and her lips pursed. “Not in that way,” he elaborated. “I mean, I’ve never fallen asleep and stayed the entire night with anyone.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Eliana said. “Sleeping next to someone doesn’t seem nearly as, I don’t know, serious as having sex with them.”

“To you, maybe,” he replied. “It’s different for people I guess. For you, maybe having sex is the most personal thing you can do; for me, it’s sleeping beside someone. I don’t like having my guard down around people. I was this way in foster homes too. Bad shit happened to kids when they were sleeping. What position is more vulnerable than allowing someone to have access to your sleeping body?”

“I can’t argue that,” Eliana answered. Her bottom lip sank between her teeth, and she trailed a finger along the arm he used to prop his head up. “So why me then? I could have just as easily killed you in your sleep as anyone else.”

“You could have,” he agreed with a chuckle. “But if it was going to be my last act, falling asleep beside you, I would have died happy.”

“Are you trying to be romantic?” she asked with a hint of accusation in her tone. He scooted closer to her.

“Are you feeling romanced?” he asked in return with an equal tone of voice.

“No, but it was a sweet thing to say,” she confessed. His eyes searched her face for a few seconds and for the briefest of moments, she saw a long, familiar glint of mischief in his eye that made her breath hitch. It reminded her so much of the boy she used to know.

“Thanks for letting me live,” he said, and they both smiled. She seemed to catch herself, though, and as quickly as it appeared, her smile fell. “What are you thinking?” he asked, lifting a hand to tuck a bit of hair behind her ear.

“I quit my job yesterday,” she replied with a hard swallow. Kye raised both eyebrows in feigned surprise. “Let’s face it, Kye, on the off-chance Max lets me live, he won’t let me off the hook. He’ll want me to keep working for him until he dies. If that takes another six months, I can’t draw out my vacation that long. I’ve already received two emails from my boss asking how I’m doing.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad. Maybe he’s just concerned,” Kye suggested. To his dismay, Eliana rolled out of bed, much more gracefully this time, and stood. He had to remind himself to be patient when his instinct told him to reach for her and draw her back into bed.

“I’ve no doubt my colleagues are concerned,” she said, digging through her suitcase for fresh clothing. “Time moves quickly in the courtroom. If I’m gone for an unforeseeable amount of time, then that’s one less person working a caseload. One less pair of eyes and set of hands. They need all the help they can get. We were short-staffed when my dad got sick, and with me gone they’re likely desperate. No…” she said, trailing off as she settled on an outfit. “It’s best for them to move on. Find someone else. Someone more reliable and…” She wanted to say, ‘someone likely to live’ but couldn’t force the words out.

“Hey.” She jumped, startled again. She’d been so lost in thought she hadn’t noticed Kye slink out of bed and cross to her until his arms were wrapping around her waist. She placed a hand over his arm but didn’t sink into the embrace. “I’m sorry, Eli. I know that job was important to you.”

“It was,” she agreed and slid out of his arms as slowly as she could so as not to give offense. “A lot of things used to seem so important. Now, I just want to live to the end of the day. It’s hard to feel hope for the future when I know I’m not guaranteed one.”

“Please don’t talk like that,” Kye asked pleadingly. “It makes it sound like you have no faith in me to keep you safe. I told you, I’d kill Max before he can hurt you again.”

“You can promise that, Kye, and a thousand other things. That doesn’t set it in stone. What if Max hires a contractor to kill me ten years from now? What if the next box of case files has a bomb in it? Or in my car? What if the Chinese take-out I order is poisoned?”

“Easy,” Kye began. “I’ll have the boys open the boxes outside first before they ever get to you. We won’t drive your car, and we’ll order pizza, not Chinese. Much harder to poison pizza.” His joke earned him another smile. He hesitantly placed his hands on her shoulders and slid them up to her neck to cradle her face. “And in ten years’ time, I will still be following you, and I will kill anyone who tries to harm you.”

“That’s sweet,” she sighed, “a little creepy,” she teased. “But sweet.” Standing on her tiptoes, she kissed him in the gentlest of brushings of her lips to his. He savored it even long after she’d disappeared into the bathroom to shower.

Yeah. She was definitely falling in love with him again.

* * *

Kye had been waiting all day for a break in the rain, and when it finally came just before dinner, he had hauled Eliana from the couch in the living room and insisted they go out.