Page 142 of End Game

His thumb brushed over her bottom lip. “What you were waiting for was for me to get out of my own head.”

Kayla leaned back. “Have you?”

“Yes, God help me.”

“About damn time, Blackwell.”

His teeth flashed. “Agreed. Now come here.”

She hugged him close, as he covered her mouth, sealing their promise to each other.

76

Ash ignored the searing pain in his shoulder, as he held Kayla close. He inhaled and found a hint of her honey-vanilla scent amidst the smoke.

Before he’d located her makeshift den, he’d begun to think the dying merc had duped him, until he noticed several small trees had branches ripped from their wispy trunks. He followed the trail of sapling destruction to the downed tree.

Branches were placed willy nilly over the enormous trunk and scattered across the ground to give the impression a wind storm had ripped the fragile limbs from the trees above. Many would’ve been fooled by their ruse.

But Ash had felt Kayla’s presence. Knew down to the cellular level that she was close by.

Adrenaline from his fight with the merc began to ebb, a bone-deep weariness taking its place. He couldn’t give in to it yet. They still had a puppet master to apprehend and family to protect. He kissed her temple. “Where’s your mother?”

“She ran to a neighbor’s house to call for help.”

He grasped her shoulders and set her away from him. “Why didn’t you go with her?”

“Elsie forced me to ingest some sort of paralytic. At first, my body wouldn’t cooperate and it was clear Jillian would be more successful in going for help if I stayed behind.”

“All your limbs working now?”

“For the most part.” She averted her gaze. “But it still feels like I have an alien inside me, operating the controls.”

Something about her expression alerted his instincts. “Why do I feel like there’s more to this story?”

Her face cleared, and she cupped the side of his face. “I’m so damn glad to see you alive.”

Covering her hand with his, he lifted her soot-covered fingers to his lips, kissed their tips. “Same. Now tell me what scheme you’ve hatched.”

She sighed. “I wanted to search for you, but needed to ensure Jillian would be safe first.”

“You didn’t trust me to keep my promise?”

“I did. I swear.” She squeezed his hand, then swallowed. “It’s just that . . . ”

“What?”

“When Elsie’s head mercenary couldn’t get a hold of the two men tasked with murdering you, she had him send two more. The odds that you’d survived seemed rather steep at that point.”

“Elsie could’ve sent an army, and I still would’ve made it back to you.”

She rose up on her toes and kissed him. “Now I know.”

He gave her a wry grin. “I have to admit, keeping my word would’ve been a lot more difficult if Zeke and the guys hadn’t shown up.”

She glanced around. “Your brothers are here?”

“Thanks to Liv. Cruz and Phin are tracking down the two mercs you mentioned. Zeke and Rohan are clearing the big house.”

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