Page 103 of Broken Player

Connor turned to her. “The little asshole’s right. I think you’d fit in with my team, and you’ve already got skills and haven’t even had much training.”

She bit her lip, looking a little lost in thought. I rubbed my fingers along her hip, watching as she shivered beneath my touch. I fucking loved that she did that. “What would I be doing?” she finally asked.

“We’d evaluate your skills, but if I had to say right now, probably guarding like I do.” Connor leaned back, crossing his ankle over his knee and watching Ryan intently.

“And how’s that different from being a cop?” She was absently running her fingers through the short hairs at the back of my neck and driving me fucking insane. Shivers wracked my body under her light touch.

“The training would be similar but in more areas and more one-on-one so it’ll be really fucking intense. Then you’ll get assigned someone to guard. It’ll probably be someone from the band because we all feel more comfortable with people we trust on both sides. But if something comes up like this Yates situation, you might get pulled off of your detail and be asked to apply your skills to whatever problem or case we’re working on,” he told her as she nodded along.

“I like that.” She looked down at me. “And you’re okay with me doing this?”

“If it’s what you want to do, Freckles, I’m more than okay. I think you should do it,” I confirmed, loving how her eyes lit up and sparkled as she considered her new future.

“I want to do it. Yes, I’m in! I’m in.” She was practically bouncing in my lap, and I was cursing the audience we had right now, so I couldn’t take advantage of the hard-on I was sporting.

She jumped off of me and strode across the room, hauling her bag up onto her shoulder while four sets of eyes watched her with curiosity, and I tried to figure out how long it would take me to rip her clothes off. “What are you doing, Freckles?”

“Aren’t we going? What’s the holdup?” She lifted one of Quinn’s bags and dragged it across the room, flinging it at him. He caught it with a wince as it narrowly missed his junk.

Chuckling, I stood up. “You heard the lady. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

It didn’t take us long to gather everything, lock up, and go. I said my goodbyes to Joel, who promised to keep me up to date on finding staff and combining the ranch operations. I was sure that with my someday in-laws living next door, we’d be back to see how things were going for ourselves pretty often.

The drive to the airstrip went quickly with Ryan pushed up against me in the back seat. I could get lost in her anytime and anywhere. She was everything to me, and despite what we went through with Yates, we came out the other side better than I ever could have imagined.

“What are you thinking?” she whispered, her body relaxed against mine with her head resting on my shoulder.

I pressed a kiss to her temple, brushing back the soft strands of her hair. Running my fingers through the dark waves had become one of my favorite things to do. “About how much I love you, how glad I am that I came back and everything turned out the way it did.”

“Who knew you had this sweet, sentimental side to you?” she teased with a soft laugh.

“What can I say? You make me fucking weak, Freckles. In the best possible way.” Turned out, I did have a heart buried under all of my cynicism and anger. I just needed the right girl to make it beat again.

She turned her head, facing me, so our eyes connected. “I’ve never loved anyone the way I’ve always loved you. Thank you for coming back for me, even if it took you a lot longer than I ever expected.”

I captured her lips with mine but didn’t get carried away. “I hope you like having me around because I’m not leaving again.”

“If you do, I’ll kill you,” she said sweetly, her eyes drifting closed as she settled in for the rest of the drive. I believed her. If anyone could plot my death and carry it out, it’d be Ryan. As fucked up as it sounded, that was one of many reasons I loved her.

“I know.”

I staredout the window as the ground shrunk below the powerful engines hurtling us into the air. When I first came back to Texas, I carried a heavy weight on my shoulders of guilt, anger, anguish, and regret. But I was free of that now.

The gorgeous woman sitting next to me helped release me. She smiled and squeezed my hand as I lifted it to my lips, pressing a kiss to her wrist before pulling our joined hands into my lap. I knew we’d be back here, to the place we met and grew up. The place our families still lived. But it wouldn’t be home.

As the plane lifted into the clouds, the past fell away. It would always be a part of me, a part of us. But now we could look to thefuture, a future that held so much promise. Ryan and I had our whole lives ahead of us. And I was so fucking proud of her. When she joined Connor’s team, she’d be fulfilling a long-held desire to make a difference in people’s lives. I didn’t think anything could make me happier than bringing her joy and experiencing life through her eyes.

Glancing around at the plane full of the people closest to us, complete contentment settled inside me, and for the first time in my life, my soul was peaceful. In only a matter of hours, our new life together would begin, and I couldn’t fucking wait.

Two months later...

Getting usedto being back with the band and away from Ryan was hard as fuck. A few times over the past few weeks, I'd wanted to sayfuck itand throw her over my shoulder and run back to Texas. Even though I knew we were both working, and we both loved our careers, that didn't make shit any easier.

I'd been gone in the studio for forty-eight goddamn hours, and every one felt like an eternity. Ryan texted me earlier that she'd be with True and Amara until the morning when Julian relieved her, so needless to say, I was fucking cranky at the prospect of coming home to an empty house and having to wait another twelve miserable hours to see her.

Saying I was fine with her working with Connor's team and actuallyfeelingfine with it were two different things. I loved seeing her happy, but I missed her when she wasn't around.

Walking through my front door, I slammed it harder than necessary, taking out my irritation on the innocent piece of wood but not giving a single fuck. I threw my keys onto the table, but with so much force, they slid off the top and fell onto the floor. Not bothering to pick them up, I stalked into the kitchen, planning to pour myself a shit ton of whiskey.

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