Page 135 of Drawn Blue Lines

“How?” When she just offered a secret smile, I shook my head. I probably didn’t want to know. “They said you coded. I thought I lost you.”

“You did.”

“Huh?” Something was off about her. Her demeanor seemed too calm. Almost at peace.

“It would’ve been so easy to walk away from everything, Brody. This life hasn’t been kind to me, so I thought the next one had to be better.”

She didn’t say the words, but the implication was there. I knew what she meant, and I stilled. “Do you still think that?

“No, I’m ready to finally start living. I used to want power, but that was the old me.”

“What do you want, Adriana?” I looked away, not wanting to see her face if her answer wasn’t the one I wanted to hear. I’d laid all my cards on the table. I still had some damn pride left.

“A home,” she whispered, her voice hoarse and raspy. “I want to belong.”

I entwined our fingers together, turning them so her palm faced up. “You have that, princesa. And I’ll never take it from you again.”

She swallowed hard, her brows pulling together. “Does that mean you’ll be going back to Houston soon?”

“I have to. Val needs me there, and it’s my home. He’s put a lot of trust in me, and I won’t let him down.”

“I under—” She tried to pull her hand away, but I gripped it tight.

Maybe a little too tight.

Because what I’d mulled around while she was in surgery took a lot for me to say. It wasn’t something I offered on a whim, and it made zero sense.

Maybe that was why I trusted it.

“Come with me,” I blurted out.

Her mouth dropped open. “What?”

“We have hospitals in Houston. You can recover there. I’ll take care of you.”

“What are you saying?”

What was I saying?

Standing, I leaned over her bed and braced my hands on either side of her head. I got as close as I could to her without touching her, my lips hovering above hers.

Above the kiss I knew was mine and mine alone.

“I’m saying I love you, Adriana Carrera. I love the rival you were. I love the fighter you are. And I don’t want to miss a moment of the leader you’ll become. I don’t know how to do this. I’m winging it. I’ve only begged a woman one other time in my life, and now I realize it wasn’t out of love. It was out of fear. Fear that I wasn’t good enough for anyone else, or that I was just too fucked up for anyone to look beyond the mask to see the man. Then I met you. I met a stubborn, bossy, mouthy…”

She narrowed her eyes. “Watch it.”

I grinned. “Beautiful, amazing, pain in my ass who wouldn’t let me kiss her. And once she told me why, I stopped wanting to steal one, and started wanting to earn it.”

“Brody…”

“And once this woman gave me her kiss, I knew that was it for me. I never wanted to kiss anyone else for the rest of my life.” I ran the pad of my thumb over her bottom lip, and it was like coming home. Adriana closed her eyes, and I waited.

Waited for the answer of a lifetime.

When she finally opened her eyes, that smirk that I loved so much curved under my thumb.

“Does Houston have any decent food carts?”

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