Page 295 of Assassin

And trust Jax would have her.

Yeah, she needed to learn to be soft, and that was no easy task for a battle-scarred Russian mercenary who was born into the KGB and lived her life being imperviable.

He tried to walk her through this.

“What scares you about him?” Greyson asked. “Because you keep running away, and Jax is waiting for you to run toward him.”

Aly was honest.

“I’m flawed.”

He had news for her.

“Honey, we’re all flawed. I used to be an FBI agent, and a good one. Now I kill people and don’t bat an eye. Jax was a cop, and he’s in the same boat.”

She understood that, but there was one thing that had her scared.

“What if he sees what I’m really like, and runs? How will my heart handle that? If I let him in, and he decides I’m not worth it…?”

He reassured her.

“Baby, one, if he runs and leaves you, I’ll hunt him down, break his legs, and make him cry. If that’s not enough to convince him, let me tell you why he won’t leave. He’s in love with you. What you don’t see, Aly, is how he looks at you. We all do. He’s stupid in love with you.”

She didn’t understand that.

Not.

At.

All.

“Why? I’m a mess.”

That was an age-old question, and it always had one answer.

“Because the heart wants what the heart wants. Don’t you love him?”

She laughed as she moved through the crowd.

“I have never loved anyone before him. I can’t think when I’m around him, and he makes me…happy.”

“Baby, that’s what love is supposed to do.”

She let him talk.

“When you find that person, and you think they are the one, you have to trust them. Jax is waiting for you to do that. You don’t trust him yet, and I imagine that hurts him because he’s been putting his faith in you since that day you saved him from the police headquarters.”

That made her heart squeeze in her chest. She was honest.

“I don’t want to hurt him.”

“I know you don’t, Honey, but unfortunately, in this case, you are.”

Greyson wasn’t done.

“He goes into a fight with you, and he never doubts you’ll have his back. What he’s waiting for is for you to let him have yours. He wants to marry you, Aly. He came to me and asked me for your hand in marriage.”

Jesus.

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