Chapter 65
Chapter Sixty-Five
I’m looking at a map on the tablet when Beast slams on the brakes. His voice booms inside the truck. “What the fuck am I seeing?”
The device flies out of my hands, landing between my feet. We’re still rolling when I leap out of the truck like I’ve been shot out of a gun. Behind me there’s a whoop of relieved laughter.
In front of me…
Heaven.
Aria climbs to her feet, brushing her hand over her dirty face, a wobbly smile on her sweet lips. “I guess I found you.”
“Babe.” Choking out a relieved sob, I grab her and bury my face in her damp, tangled hair. She smells like fruit and mud, and my forever girl.
“Are you okay?” The words shake out of me, like rocks tumbling down a hillside .
“A little ragged, but I’m fine.” Tightening her arms around my neck, she whispers, “So glad to see you.”
I rock her, holding her off the ground for several minutes until my hands stop shaking and I can finally breathe.
She wiggles against me. “Um. We have an audience and I’m kind of not wearing much.”
As I set her down, using the width of my back to block everyone else, I take her face in my hands.
“They can wait.” I press my mouth against hers for a searching kiss. Proving to myself she’s real. “All goddamn day.”
When I pull back she smiles at me as she touches my cheek. “God, Memphis, you look exhausted. We’re taking a vacation to somewhere very quiet…”
“And dry,” I add as I grip her shoulders. “What do you have on?”
It’s orange and white and muddy, hardly recognizable as a safety vest.
“It was all I could grab out of the truck before I ran.”
I laugh at her cute expression as relief courses through all of my cells like warm honey. “A reflective vest is not the best thing to hide in, but lord, I wish I could have found you with a spotlight. I have half-a-mind to put a tracker on you, sweetheart. I’m never going through this again.”
“Fine by me. Oh—” She pulls back. “I lost the big Mag light right up there! Can you go get it? I’m kind of fond of it now. I even named it Hammerhead.”
I loop my hands around the back of her neck and bring her mouth to mine for another swift taste of her. “I’ll buy you another and I’m not worried about that damned thing.”
Studying her pretty face, I rasp through tight vocal cords, “You’re the only light I’ll ever need from now on. ”
Her tears nearly crush me. But her words are the sweetest sound I’ve ever heard in my life. “I missed you so much. I was worried sick about you.”
I scoop her into my arms. “You don’t even know how crazy I went when I woke up and you were gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
I press my forehead to hers, trying to push out the memory of seeing our bed empty. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You did everything just perfectly.”
“It was crazy. Scary. Crazy. Exhausting.”
Fucking hell. I can’t imagine what it was like for her.
Hungry for revenge, I fight snarling like an animal. “Do you know who it was that drugged us?”
“He was speaking a language I didn’t know.”
“A dead male was found in the woods, but there’s no ID on him.”
She nods and hugs me tighter. “I wondered if he made it. The wreck… and I hit him pretty hard with the light.”
“God.” I rasp, refusing to picture that scene in my head.
“Take me home, please. I just want to forget about it all right now.”
Over my shoulder, I call out to the guys. “I need a blanket STAT.”
She laughs softly. “Actually, we need a bed.”
“Oh, that’s guaranteed. This time I’m staging armed guards outside of the house.”
When a blanket is tossed over my shoulder, I snug it around her without letting her go. “Let’s get you dry and get your feet taken care of.”
She wiggles her legs where they’re dangling over my arm. “I would say I want a massage later, but truthfully I don’t think I can stand it. ”
A growl rumbles through me. She’s been through hell.
“We’ll get a doc to clean you up.” I don’t trust myself. Not with the risk of her getting an infection. I want an expert. Even if I have to carry her all the way to Carollia in my arms.
The team is gathered around the truck when I stride back with her, barking orders about having Agent Torres send a doctor. Justice, Beast and Truck close in around us, ruffling Aria’s hair, giving her a squeeze on the shoulder, offering words of praise for her survival skills.
Aria waves it off. “It was dumb luck. The worst part was the duct tape on my arms.”
Anger rolls through me, making my eyes narrow.
“Easy tiger.” She nuzzles into my chest as I climb into the truck with her in my arms. “I hear you growling.”
“I was afraid that you had been bound.”
“I wasn’t scared of that, weirdly, as long as I could run or hike, I was fine. I even managed to knock the bad guy out with the flashlight with my hands bound.”
“You knocked him out?” I ask, shocked.
Beast looks at me in the mirror, his eyes narrowing as he grins. “Boy, you’re so toast.”
I roll my eyes as Truck chuckles next to me and Justice covers a laugh with a cough.
After the laugh, silence fills the truck as Beast drives toward the farm. I rest my chin on Aria’s crown and watch the scenery passing.
Everything feels so right.
Aria.
The team.
My life. What the hell?
I never thought I’d have someone. Letting someone hold or touch me was so far outside my scope, I just didn’t think it could happen. But with Aria… I want it all. I want the future that I tried to end.
That’s something we need to talk about. I don’t want anything between us.