Page 51 of No Second Chances

I scramble out of his bed, away from his touch, and get dressed faster than I even think possible. It isn’t until I’m struggling to find my shoes that he catches up to what is happening.

“Kennedy?” Linc sits up, his face a distorted mix of confusion, amusement, and misunderstanding. “Is everything okay?”

“No.”

I walk out, not even bothering to hold my tears back. I think I’ll get away, too. I think he’ll let me go. That he’ll give me space. That Linc will stay away.

I don’t even make it to the stairs.

“No.” He catches me by the waist and hauls me back against his body, careful not to hurt me, but refusing to let me go. “You’re not running from me. We’re done with that.”

I try to pull away, to hide from him. From the truth.

“Not gonna happen,” Linc whispers against my head. “You don’t have to tell me everything, Kennedy. But I’m here. I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. I promised you tacos and sex to fix everything that’s broken, and I mean it. Tacos and sex, for the rest of our lives. Together.”

He holds me through the panic. Through the fear. Through all of it. And I let him. He doesn’t hurt me. Doesn’t push. Doesn’t do anything but love me.

“Royal tried to kill me.” I slump in his arms, and Linc picks me up. He carries me to his room silently and then strips me out of my shoes and pants, leaving me in his shirt.

“I know.” Those two words are all he gives me, and then he pulls me into his arms and lets me cry. For the life I had, the one I should have had. The one I lost. All of it.

“He held my head under the water of the bath, because almost drowning me didn’t leave bruises. Over and over again.” Opening up, telling Linc why I’m broken and damaged, is the most freeing thing in the entire world. “He burned my clothes, Linc. He destroyed the only pictures I had of Cassie. He took everything. Everything. And when I refused to give him your dog tag, he tried to kill me with it.”

Linc doesn’t say a single word. But I feel his body tighten around mine.

“I can’t. I just can’t give up my things.” I swallow and wipe the tears from my eyes. “I can’t give it up.”

“Sometimes I talk to Danny. Not his ghost or anything. But him. Like he’s living inside me. My twin, ya know?” He pauses, then rubs his cheek against the top of my head. “You don’t have to get rid of anything that’s yours that you don’t want to. You can keep it all. Hell, we can move into your place if you want. But you’re the only thing in the world that gives me peace, Kennedy. I don’t want to lose you. I don’t want to sleep without you at night. You’re the only thing keeping the nightmares at bay.”

He is echoing the thoughts that I have, but about him. And he is giving me everything I’ve ever wanted, and more than I’ve ever hoped for.

“Tacos and sex, you say?”

He chuckles, bringing his lips down to mine. “Every day if that’s what you want.”

“Maybe. If you buy me a new machete so I have two that match.”

23

LINC

“Where the fuck is that woman?” Kennedy has, true to form, vanished before dawn. But she made coffee before she left, so I don’t actually think she abandoned me like a one-night stand.

She is, however, dodging my calls and attempts to figure out where she’s gone like a pro. Not only her, but Parker as well. Everyone thinks it will be a great day to fuck with me and if I didn’t have to work the morning shift, it would have pissed me off. Instead, I’m walking on air and just want to see my woman.

Mostly because of the sticky note that Kennedy stuck to the side of my coffee pot.

You suck.

I love you.

Be safe.

Don’t get shot.

I owe you a blow job.

That woman. She has a unique way of pissing me off and turning me on at the exact same time. As soon as I see the words, I want to run back upstairs and strip off my uniform. But she isn’t there. So I’m left turned on and wanting all fuckin’ day while I have to deal with assholes and teenagers who think blowing through stoplights is okay or even funny.

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