Chapter Twenty-Three
Bailey didn’t understand how they’d gotten here. They had gone from being in each other’s arms, his voice in her ear promising her she was going to be okay, to this—to this man holding a gun against Aaron’s head, ready to end him for good.
Bailey hid behind him, hanging on to him for dear life, arms wrapped around his waist and face pressed into his back.
He would never let her take this bullet for him, that much she knew for sure, but she still didn’t want to let him die without feeling her here with him. She loved him too much for that.
There had to be something she could do. As Ziegler took a breath and steadied up his shot, time slowed, spreading out before her and giving her a moment to gather herself.
She had to make her move now, she knew that, but what could she do?
She was right behind him. Could she make it out in time?
She remembered what she had done to take down Lee, taking him out at the legs, and she knew she was going to have to pull the same thing again.
No time to think. Only time to act. And if she didn’t move now, she and Aaron wouldn’t be alive much longer.
She lunged out from behind Aaron, rolling down to the left, and caught Ziegler’s eye, drawing his attention from Aaron just long enough for her to drive a leg into his, sending him crashing to the ground.
He squeezed the trigger, sending a bullet up above their heads, and Bailey rolled out of the way and under the van so it wouldn’t hit her on the way down, crawling quickly to the other side.
A commotion had broken out around her again, and it took her a moment to realize that it wasn’t Ziegler and the others causing it.
No, this time, there were people here on their side.
Xavier and Cade rushed past her, followed by Lawson, and a few men from the tactical team at the lodge.
She scrambled to her feet, only interested in one thing: Aaron.
He had managed to make it to the back of the van, leaving the other highly trained people to take down the corrupt cops who had done this to them. Bailey checked on him, and found his face pale, his eyes distant.
“Here, put some pressure on this,” she told him, linking her hands through his and pressing them into his wound.
And then, she heard Xavier yelling for help.
When she turned, she saw Ziegler scrambling toward the gun where he had dropped it on the ground.
She sprang up and dived toward it, kicking it out of his reach, and then grabbed it and let off the rest of the shots into the ground.
She didn’t want anyone else using this tonight.
She sank to her knees as the guys took down the cops, subduing them one by one until there was no fight left to be had. Xavier came over to her and offered her a hand, helping her up to her feet.
“How did you know?” she asked, and he shrugged.
“When Aaron went looking for you and didn’t come back, I figured something was up,” he remarked. “And then when we heard the gunshots, we knew you must need our help.”
“Thank you,” she whispered softly to him. The words didn’t feel strong enough for how grateful she really was. If it hadn’t been for him, and the rest of the guys from Warrior Peak, she would have lost Aaron, and she knew she would never have been able to live with that.
She made her way back to the van, where Aaron had managed to prop himself up. He looked a little better now—his face wasn’t quite as pale. Maybe the wound hadn’t been as bad as she first thought.
“Bailey,” he breathed, and he wrapped his spare arm around her and pulled her in close, pressing his face into her neck.
She sank into him. It was over. It was really over.
After everything that had happened, everything that they had been through, it was done.
There was no way Ziegler and the rest of them were going to get away after this.
They didn’t stand a chance. Whatever they thought they had been capable of, they were wrong.
She could finally relax and just be with Aaron.
She knew he was going to need some serious patching up—a bullet wound wasn’t the kind of thing you messed around with—but he was alive.
She could feel the slow rise and fall of his breath as Ziegler, Moore, Lee, and Benning were handcuffed and put into trucks, ready to be dropped off at the sheriff’s office when they were done here.
“I thought something had happened to you in the fire,” Aaron murmured to her, and she pulled her head back.
“Nothing happened to me then,” she assured him, but she was certain he’d have more questions. Like why she’d left while everyone else was distracted with the fire. She wished she had a better answer for him than the truth, but she didn’t see any way around it right now.
“I… I was just leaving,” she admitted. “I thought I could go after them myself, I thought I could take them down. I didn’t want to be pushed out of it again. I saw the fire, I let everyone know what was going on, and then I left.”
He tensed.
“But I can see how wrong I was,” she assured him. “They drove me off the road—that’s why I crashed the truck. And if it hadn’t been for you, they would have killed me.”
She inhaled shakily as the reality of that hit her. Yes, they really would have killed her. If it hadn’t been for him throwing himself into the fray the way he had, she would have been dead. The thought chilled her to the bone. She squeezed him tighter.
“And they told me…they told me they came looking for you because of me,” she confessed. “And I’m so sorry for that, Aaron, I never meant for that to happen.”
“Hey, you have nothing to apologize for,” he told her, brushing her tears away.
“I know how hard it’s been for you. I know how much you wanted to take them down.
And I know you probably could have done it yourself.
I just wanted to help you. The only thing that matters to me is that you’re all right. ”
She nodded, but she wasn’t sure she totally believed him. Could he really be that quick to forgive her, after everything she’d done? She didn’t know. She wanted to believe it, but she knew she had some explaining to do.
“I didn’t want to go,” she admitted to him. “I never did, Aaron. I just… I didn’t want either of us getting hurt again, not after what happened before. And I thought if I made the decision for you, it wouldn’t be something you had to…something you had to do for yourself, at least this time.”
“That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” he murmured, shaking his head, eyes misty as though he was remembering it at that very moment.
She cupped his face in her hands. “I’m never going to be apart from you again,” she told him fervently, surprising even herself with how sure she was of that fact. She scanned his face, eyes wide, needing him to understand how much she meant it.
“That sounds good to me,” he agreed, and he drew her in for a kiss.
Even with the slash in her shoulder, her body filled with pleasure at his touch.
Here he was, the man she had wanted for all these years, the man she loved, and there was nothing in the way of them being together.
It was finally just…them. Their pasts left far behind for once, a history they never even had to think about again.
No matter what happened next, she could hold on to him, and she wanted that more than anything in the world.
She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulder again, a wave of emotion crashing through her.
He held her to his side, and she knew he was feeling everything she was right now.
The two of them were together again, no matter what had pushed them apart, no matter what had landed them back in each other’s lives.
All the fight in her was gone, all the anger forgotten. Their pasts didn’t matter now.
No, the only thing that mattered now was their future. And that they got to spend it together.