Page 93 of Edge of Desire

“Preston, I was shot and had surgery. I’m bound to be sore.”

I leaned in and kissed her forehead. “You look really great.”

“Puhlease. If I look anywhere close to how I feel, I’m sure I look like dog meat.”

My emotions grabbed me then, my guts churning and bulldozing into me like a freaking tidal wave. I swallowed that burn, once, then twice, before I could utter a word. My voice trembled and was hoarse as I spoke. “You’ll always look great to me. I thought I was losing you, Avery. When we got back to the condo, and you collapsed, I didn’t think ... didn’t know ...” I couldn’t finish as I was about to lose my shit. I wouldn’t let my girl see that.

Her arm snaked out and latched on to mine. “Hold me, Preston.”

I folded myself around her and lay down next to her. She put her head on my chest, and we held each other.

“Avery, I love you with all that I have to give. We’ll never go through that again. I just left Pete and told him that he’d better get his boss to send in the cavalry and take care of this problem because I’m not going to deal with it anymore.”

She lifted her head and looked at me. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

I gave her the detailed explanation. Then she wanted to know, “Do you think they’ll do it?”

“Oh yeah. The last thing they want is media exposure.”

Four days later, Avery was released from the hospital. We couldn’t go to her place because we didn’t want to take any chances. Instead, we booked a three-bedroom condo at the Chalet at Vail so we could have round-the-clock security, and I also hired a nurse for her. She balked at that idea, but I wanted to make sure she had good care, particularly for her wound, and at least for the first seventy-two hours. However, after the first day, the nurse left, saying Avery didn’t need her. She gloated over that.

Justin called about five times a day. He begged Avery to call her other brother Pearce, who was a trauma surgeon, but Avery refused, saying it would alert her mother. That was the last person Avery wanted descending on her.

“Justin, if Mom comes here, first off, I’ll lose my shit. And then, I’ll hop on a plane to Seattle and strangle you.”

“Okay, okay. I got it,” he said.

I’d put the phone on speaker so we could all talk.

Avery contradicted him, “No, I don’t think you do. She’d sail in here and tell me how terrible I look. And then afterward she’d tell me I needed to lose fifty pounds. Then she’d get me so upset, I’d be in tears. She’s the last person I need to see right now.”

“Oh, come on, Ava, she’s not that bad.”

“Not to you she isn’t. She doesn’t criticize every little thing about you. You’ve never paid attention to how she treats me. You know that was one of the reasons I left Charleston.”

Avery was getting extremely agitated. Her hands clenched the coverlet I had draped across her lap and her mouth was set in a thin line. I wasn’t happy with the way she was reacting to this conversation at all.

Justin began to comment, but I cut him off. “Hey, this conversation needs to end. Avery’s upset and that’s the last thing she needs. Justin, I’m capable of taking care of her, so I don’t think we need your mom in here.”

We ended the call, and I knelt in front of Avery, taking her hands in mine. “I want you to know something. If I ever hear your mother say one disparaging word about you, all bets are off and I’m gonna let her have it. Just saying.”

She gave me a half-assed smile and I squeezed her hands.

“What can I get you?”

She gave me a hard look and I knew those damn wheels of hers were spinning. “I wanna go to the cabin.”

I was not expecting that. “Sure thing, but we can’t leave yet. We have to wait until it’s safe and until you’re cleared by the doctors.”

She bit her lower lip and then asked, “How long do you think it’ll be until it’s safe?”

I shrugged because I didn’t have an answer for her. “I don’t know, babe, but I’m hoping for sooner rather than later.”

“If I get cleared by my doctors soon, could we go to the cabin with security?”

After thinking about that for a few minutes, I answered her, “I don’t see why not, but I’d rather wait until this op was completed. That way we’d have a much better time out there.”

What I didn’t tell her was that as soon as we got the go-ahead, I wanted to be part of the mission that removed the fucking cartel from existence. I wanted to watch as their lives were taken away just as too much of mine had been. Pete was currently working jointly on the plans with the CIA and Special Forces. They wouldn’t get cooperation from the Mexican government because if they did, too many lives would be lost. If they went in covertly, and without the Mexican government’s knowledge, it would be a far quicker and cleaner operation.

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