Page 293 of Assassin

At her voice, he stopped, and she headed his way to catch up with him.

“I’m sorry. That sounded obnoxious. If you’d like to join me for dinner, I’m good with that.”

When he didn’t even look at her, Aly wanted to be sick. Then, it was his words that stung.

He was honest.

“If you don’t want me around you, Aly, I won’t force you to be near me. You know how I feel about you, and my intent. We all have demons. I just assumed we were at the point in our relationship where we fought them together—not leaving one of us behind. AGAIN.”

She felt horrible.

She was a runner.

Apparently.

All of the emotions boiled up, and she was fighting them internally, and now battling this too. She was about to lose him.

She’d bet on it.

“I’m not a good person inside,” she admitted.

He shrugged.

“None of us are. We all have a little larceny, homicide, and anger that fuels us. I was a cop, and I thought I was above it. We killed people. Clearly, I’m not as lily white as I believed.”

Aly was floundering.

She was legitimately struggling. What she felt for this man was something she’d never felt before.

“I don’t understand us.”

He was honest.

“Maybe that’s part of the journey. Maybe, we’re supposed to learn that along the way. I can’t imagine the next fifty years being fun if there were no side trips, paths, or other adventures.”

She let him talk.

“I’m not going to force you to be with me, Aly. It’s not going to happen. If you don’t want to be with me, just say it. I’ll back off. I believe I told you how I felt about you the last time you ran. I followed because I would hope if I was struggling with something, my partner would do the same thing for me.”

When he turned, she saw the heartbreak in his eyes. This had been hard for him too.

When she went to say something, he stopped her.

“Don’t. Sometimes, it’s for the best. I’m not an easy man to love, so I’m not shocked this is the outcome. I’m tired, Aly. I’m tired of chasing and watching you slip away. Just be safe and come home when you feel like you can. I’ll tell the family you’re okay. Greyson wanted to know where you were.”

And with that, he kissed her on the forehead and walked away, leaving her to stand on that sidewalk all alone.

Jesus.

Her heart hurt.

That sounded awful, and it scared her. It appeared she was losing him.

She loved him so much, but she wasn’t sure how to assimilate into that normal life. Jax wanted the American dream of a white picket fence, children, and a wife.

They were mercenaries and the mob. On top of that, she was sterile thanks to Alexsandr Dominik, and she knew nothing about being a wife.

She.

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