Chapter 13 Ellie
Ellie
I wake up in his bed.
And not just in it—wrapped in him.
Micah is the kind of man who doesn’t do things halfway. He kissed me like I was air after a decade underwater. Touched me like he was memorizing the shape of a home he thought he’d never find. Made love to me like he wanted to burn the past out of his body with the heat of mine.
Now, with his arms banded around my waist, his breath warm on the back of my neck, and his steady heartbeat pressed to my spine, I feel something I probably shouldn’t feel so soon.
I think I’m in love with him.
God, that feels insane. Too fast. Too much. But it doesn’t make it any less true.
It snuck up on me somewhere between him standing at my side at the youth center and him making me coffee without asking how I take it. Somewhere between that first kiss and the way he ran outside, barefoot and ready to shoot someone for me in the middle of the night.
He’s calm in chaos. He’s fierce in silence. And he’s mine—or at least, I want him to be.
But I don’t know what he wants after this. After the threat is over, when the fight is done. I don’t know if he’ll go back to his solitude, and expect me to just pack up and disappear like I was only a temporary mission.
I don’t want temporary.
I want to stay.
I want to make fires and breakfasts and memories in this place that used to be nothing but wood and walls to him. I want to decorate the house every year. I want to kiss him under mistletoe even when it's not Christmas.
I want forever.
But first, I need to survive the next few days.
That thought snaps me out of the dreamy fog and back into the real world, where someone is still after me. Where a man with a fake name is working at my youth center and packages keep showing up like ticking time bombs wrapped in ribbons.
Carefully, I slide out of Micah’s embrace, trying not to wake him. I pull on one of his flannel shirts and pad into the living room, hugging myself against the morning chill. The fire’s out, and frost clings to the corners of the windows.
Ranger, his dog, lifts his head from the rug, ears twitching.
“Morning,” I whisper, scratching behind his ear. “Thanks for watching over us.”
I heat water for tea and stare out the window, heart heavy. I just want this mess done. I want to stop looking over my shoulder. I want the teens at the center to be safe. I want my life back.
No—not back. I don’t want the old version of my life.
I want a new life.
One with roots and warmth and Micah.
But my gut is uneasy.
Something feels… off.
I glance toward the window again. No movement, no cars. Just snow-dusted pines and stillness. The kind that doesn’t feel peaceful—but waiting.
A creak from the bedroom pulls my gaze. Micah walks out, shirtless, hair tousled, eyes still dark with sleep. He pauses when he sees me.
“You okay?”
“I’m just thinking.”
He walks over and pulls me into his arms, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Don’t overthink. We’re almost there. We’re close.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
But before I can answer, a sound cuts through the room.
CRACK.
It’s sharp. Loud. Wood against wood.
Micah’s already moving—grabbing his gun from the mantle, muscles tensed like a coiled storm.
“Stay inside,” he snaps, voice all command again. “Don’t open the door unless it’s me.”
“Micah—”
But he’s gone, door swinging shut behind him before I can finish.
Panic flutters in my chest. I rush to the window and watch him disappear into the tree line, Ranger right behind him.
And then—
The power cuts out.
The hum of the heater dies. The lights vanish.
My breath clouds in the cold.
No. No, no, no.
I spin around, heart pounding. My phone is on the coffee table. I sprint for it, grabbing it just as a crash shatters the back window.
I scream—
But it’s too late.
Hands grab me.
A cloth presses to my face, and I kick, scream, claw, but the scent hits my nose—chemical, sharp, terrifyingly effective.
My limbs go heavy.
The world tilts.
Micah—
I try to call his name, but it dies on my tongue.
I’m dragged backward, out the broken window, into the cold, and the last thing I hear before everything goes black—
Is my heart breaking.