Chapter 40
CHAPTER FORTY_
HAZARD
Decaf willing to follow me somewhere warm to make me happy already achieves his goal.
Wanting something more once we were safe has been implied but never explicitly said, and I think there was always that rejected, abandoned part of me that didn’t want to believe he’d stay with me.
If I don’t let myself fall, I’ll never get hurt.
But I fell anyway, and we’re only one boat ride away from our forever starting. I guess, technically, our forever started a few days ago—days? Yesterday? Who’s keeping track of time, really—but once we get to Trav’s island, I think that’s where true reality will set in.
For the seven of us on this mission, we’re officially dead.
For the others already on the island and for those who stayed in the US with new jobs, severing ties with anything and everything Mike Bravo, their future is less sure.
We only know for certain which of us were burned because of our attacks.
Atlas’s house, Decaf’s car, and then our final showdown.
No one else has been approached, attacked, or followed.
It’s possible the government is only interested in those still tied to Mike Bravo, or it’s also possible not all of our real identities were leaked.
I hope that all of us are safe and that each and every one of us gets the future we deserve.
One where we don’t have to look over our shoulders every five seconds.
Although I’m probably going to still do that for the next year, at least. Our plan worked, but it’s not like we have death certificates to prove our deaths.
“What are you thinking about?” Decaf asks in my ear. His breath on my skin, his soft lips as he kisses the side of my head … I don’t even care what I was thinking about anymore.
“Just that I can’t wait to start my life with you. Wherever it may be.”
“Naww.” Iris’s loud voice cuts through the sweet moment. Decaf’s face screams, “I’m not going to miss that.” “It’s so weird seeing Decaf with someone. I didn’t know he could emote like a human being and not some angry coffee goblin.”
I laugh and pinch either side of Decaf’s mouth to push his lips out in a big fish pout. “Aww, he’s still an angry coffee goblin. He’s just my angry coffee goblin.”
Even though we’re openly mocking him, Decaf cracks, and his smile pushes my fingers away from his mouth.
“You can call me whatever you want as long as you’re claiming me as yours.”
“Does that go for me too?” Iris asks.
And with the timing of any couple who’ve been together a while, Decaf and I say at the same time, “No.”
Because Decaf belongs to me, and I belong to him. No one else.
The sun is riding low on the horizon, preparing for the beginning of sunset, when a familiar face appears, standing on the bow of an incoming cruiser. Kevlar.
“Our ride’s here,” I say.
When they reach the dock and tie off the boat, we greet Kevlar and Alphabet, who was steering, with open hugs and back slaps.
“Where’s Trav and Rogue?” Kevlar asks.
“They’re going to stay close to the hospital until Scout is released,” I say as we start piling into the boat.
As soon as we landed in Montenegro, we got Scout the medical attention he needed. With Decaf having dug the bullet out already, he should avoid infection, but it’s impossible to know if he got everything or if the bullet didn’t shatter his bone.
Hopefully, by the time he’s discharged from the hospital, we’ll all have had time to come down from the adrenaline, we’ll be rested, and then we can all decide on what’s next.
I don’t care what’s next, as long as it happens with Decaf by my side.
“What about Bali?” Decaf suggests, coming out of our en suite. “It’s cheap. We could live off our nest egg pretty much forever if we didn’t want to work.”
“What is work? Don’t know her.” I stay on my spot on the bed with a view of the water a few steps outside the back door.
Decaf continues looking at something on his new phone.
We have new phones, new clothes, new everything, all supplied by Trav.
Trav’s island is gorgeous and spacious, and our individual bungalows are the perfect size for a couple.
The water surrounding the island is bright aqua, the sun is always shining, and I’m starting to think we could live here forever.
If Trav would let us. I’m sure he would.
The bungalows are spaced around the island, so it’s not like Trav’s ranch back in the US, where it was one big house and some of us had to camp outside if the entire team was staying there.
“We could stay here for free,” I say.
“Yeah, I’m not living with these guys any longer than I have to.”
“You love them.”
“I love them a lot more when I have the chance to miss them. How can I miss them when they won’t go away?”
I laugh. “Fair point, but moving across the other side of the world from them, you might never see them. Are you okay with that?”
“Are you? They’re your family too.”
I lean up on my elbows. “Eh, they haven’t been my family as long as they have yours. I’m used to it only being me. Well, and my mom.”
“Have you spoken to her yet?”
I fully sit up now, running a hand through my bed hair. “I sent her a cryptic message in case she’s being monitored, but I doubt she is. I just said not to believe fake news in the media if anything pops up and that I’d see her soon.”
I smile as I think of her response: TFYOBIYWIBYBFDAKYM.
It took me a second to figure it out, but I’m pretty sure it means Thank fuck you’re okay because if you weren’t, I’d bring you back from death and kill you myself.
I got word to her before everything went down that I’d be going away for a while, just until it was safe for me to see her again.
I’ve neglected to tell her I will no longer be able to come to and from the US, and I’m setting up house with a man she hates all the way across the other side of the world, but that’s a future me problem.
And Decaf problem, I suppose. Winning over my mom?
Usually pretty easy. But with their history, the age gap, her sense of his betrayal … it’s not so straightforward.
“When are you going to tell her about us?” Decaf asks.
“What makes you think I haven’t already?”
“Because she hasn’t tracked us down to kill me yet.” He’s joking. I think.
“The government could barely track us down. You think my mom could?”
“Overprotective moms have no boundaries when tracking their child. She would’ve been here waiting for us when we arrived.”
My laugh is cut off by the intercom in the room and Lemon’s voice echoing around the small space.
“They’re pulling up to the dock! They’re pulling up now!”
Decaf points to the small speaker built into the wall. “Another reason living here isn’t going to work for me.”
I can imagine the type of shit any other Mike Bravo guys would use that for, like ruining the mood, making alarm sounds in the middle of the night, making creepy whispery messages like “I’m hiding under your bed” with loud breathing.
I stand, letting the sheet fall off my naked body. “Good call. Should we go see who’s arriving?”
Decaf’s gaze gets stuck on my ass for a second, but he shakes off his stupor. “It’s probably Scout with Trav and Rogue, but yes. I need to make sure Scout’s okay before we leave for Bali.”
“So we’ve decided on Bali, have we?” I ask as I throw on the nearest clean clothes. I’m not opposed to the idea of Bali, but it’s so far away from everything and everyone. Then again, isn’t that the point of faking our deaths and moving on? To get as far away from our old lives as possible?
“Only if you’re comfortable with it.” Decaf looks at me with the type of expression I’ve only ever seen once before. His eyes are soft, his lips tight on one side like he’s trying to hold himself back from saying the thing the rest of his face is.
The only other time I’ve seen someone look at another person that way was in a photo of my parents. At their wedding.
We may not have explicitly said it to each other yet, but I know Decaf loves me. Maybe not in the way my father intended when he asked Decaf to be my godfather, but definitely in the way I’ve craved to be loved by a man my whole adult life.
I approach my man and press against him, chest to chest, not wanting to be the one to say the words first, but acknowledging it probably has to be me.
He already feels like he’s crossing so many lines he shouldn’t, admitting he has fallen in love with me out loud is something he probably doesn’t want me to feel pressure over.
To say it back, to feel it. But I do. I feel it to the very depths of my soul.
“I want to move to Bali with you,” I say. “Or Argentina. Or anywhere else you want to be. Because I love you, and I will follow you to the ends of the Earth and back.”
Decaf sucks in a breath, the sound sharp and quick as if it gets stuck in his throat. “That’s good. Because I will lead you to wherever you want to be. There are no limits when it comes to us.”
There’s a beat of silence, and I’m trying not to read into the fact that he hasn’t said I love you back, but I have to force my lips together to stop them from quivering.
Decaf cups my face. “Because I love you too. With my whole heart. I was born to protect you and watch over you, and you were born to be mine.”
I break into a wide smile of relief. “I am yours.”
Decaf lowers his forehead to mine as we both breathe in this moment. This surreal and raw moment that seems both too soon and long overdue.
Then that damn intercom blasts again, and if I wasn’t fully on board with Bali before, I am now.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, come quick!”
I can’t tell if Lemon is excited or if there’s an emergency, but Decaf and I both move as fast as possible to get outside and down the dock.
Our feet stall, though, as not one, but two boats are visible, one a bit further behind the other but both close enough to see this isn’t an emergency. It isn’t an invasion.
Actually, scratch that—it is an invasion, but it’s of the fun variety.