Page 126 of Crossover

Oh my God. That’s when I realized what he was really doing. Not merely being part of a team or an operation. He was planning to confront Vosch himself.

“We can find a way to protect ourselves,” I pleaded. “You don’t have to do this!”

“Ivy, it’s done.” His words were clipped, like a parent who’d reached their limit with patience, which stung even more.

How dare he lie to me. How dare he trick me and then act impatient when I refused to go along with his schemes. If the shoe was on the other foot, he’d never get on that plane.

I knew he was trying to protect me and his family, and for that, I was grateful. Especially with the little surprise I hadn’t told him about yet, but that only made it all the morecrucialthat he was safe, too.

Grayson looked around again. “Every second you’re on this tarmac is a second too long. Vosch’s men could be en route right now. You need to go. Now.”

He had the nerve to grab my arm. Gently, but still. I yanked it away, keeping my voice as full of authority as I could muster.

Desperation took the wheel of my heartbeat, thundering it through my veins so quickly that I began panting.

If I refused to go, he wouldn’t leave my side, and if he didn’t leave my side, then he wouldn’t personally confront the most violent criminal in the country head-on, and then—and only then—would Graysonremainalive.

For now, at least.

“I’m not leaving without you.” I stepped away from the plane.

“Ivy, I love you.” He stepped in front of me, blocking my path. “And I appreciate how difficult this is. But hear me when I say this: You’re getting on that plane, even if we have to carry you. If I have to sedate you, you will be safe.”

“You can’t confront him!”

Grayson motioned for some gun-yielding guard to come closer, and my throat dried at his betrayal.

“My dad died, trying to protect me,” I reminded him as tears blurred my vision. “You can’t do it, too. I can’t live with myself if two people I love most in this world died to save me!”

I could see my words gutted him, his eyes softening with regret, but it didn’t change his mind, evidently, because he turned to the burly man with the AK-47 and said, “Get her on the plane.”

“I’ll fight you,” I warned the guy, tears breaking over my cheeks.

If I got on that plane, Grayson would die; it was as simple as that.

“Hey,” the guard called out to some other enforcer guy. “Looks like we’re going with plan C.”

A thin man with a goatee nodded and walked toward us as he pulled a black case from his pocket and opened it.

Revealing a syringe.

“You can’t,” I barked, stepping backward as I snapped my furious gaze at Grayson. “How dare you?”

“It’s for your own protection,” Grayson said, like this didn’t violate my human rights on a zillion levels.

“You can’t inject me,” I snapped, darting my gaze between AK-47 Dude, who was coming closer to me, and Needle Guy, who took the cap off.

“Ivy…”

I spun, heart racing, but my attempt to run was cut short by an immovable wall of flesh. A mountain of a man had materialized behind me, his massive chest an impassable barrier. Panic joined the rage surging through me as I realized I’d been so fixated on the threat in front of me that I’d left myself vulnerable.

Prey being herded.

“Last chance,” Grayson warned as I turned to face him again. “I don’t want them to do this to you, Ivy, so please, get on the plane.”

I couldn’t let them inject me with anything, and Grayson needed to understand the true stakes, the life that hung in the balance beyond just his own. This wasn’t how I wanted to tell him—I’d imagined this on a romantic walk on the beach at sunset. Making love with the ocean waves crashing outside our hotel room, a starlit night, and watching the sun paint the sky as we marveled at the countless new mornings stretching before us, each one a promise of shared joy.

But fate had other plans. Here I stood, on a grimy tarmac, winter’s chill biting at my skin. Our breath clouded the air while the menacing glint of rifle barrels surrounded us, a far cry from the starlight I’d hoped for. And there he was—the love of my life,my future, our future—teetering on the edge of leaving not just me, but the child he didn’t even know existed.

---