Page 62 of Silver Secrets

“What?”

“You would have been a prime candidate for witness protection. With this sicko still out there, still wanting to come after you. WITSEC should have been offered. It should have been thefirstoption offered. You would have been protected all this time instead of left on your own.”

“Kimi didn’t want me to be in any systems. When she explained it to me, how she could get everything off the books, how there would be no trace for anyone to potentially find, I knew that was the only way I’d be willing to do it. And it’s what I’m willing to do again to protect you.”

“I don’t think it’s smart. Not using official channels is a giant red flag, Sloane. If you do go, I’ll be going with you.”

“No. That’s absurd. You’ve got a whole life here. A whole family. You can’t do that for me.”

“I can, and I will.”

“No, Gage. I mean it. You can’t. You’ve already had to say goodbye to the most important people in your life. I can’t ask you to do it again. Not for me. I’m not worth that.”

“Stop. You are?—“

“I’m not. My parents, my brother… they don’t even know I’m still alive. Do you know how hard it is to sit in a hospital room and watch your parents cry on national television over the fact that you were murdered? I know that the guys would at least know you’re okay because they have connections to the FBI, but you’d never be allowed to visit where Melody and Mikey are buried. You’d never be able to go and clean out that storage unit one day. You’d never be able to tell anyone about them. No matter what I want, no matter how badly I don’t want to leave you, I can’t ask you… I mean, you wouldn’t have the same last name as them anymore. If I decide to go, you need to let me.”

“You think that’s possible?” Gage slipped out from under the covers, his feet slapping against the cold floor as he marched towards the bedroom door, his fist clenching around the doorknob. But instead of opening it, he just held on while he forced himself to breathe. “You think I’d ever be able to stop thinking about you? The way my heart skips a beat when you smile at me? How your cheeks flush the prettiest shade of red I’ve ever seen when we hold hands? The way your breath hitches and you seek me out when you’re scared?”

“I know it’s hard. But it’s the only way I can see keeping you safe.”

“Red.” His teeth ground together as he said her nickname.

Everything in him was screaming to pull her into his arms. To finally kiss her and pour into her the love he felt coursing through his veins. Instead, he climbed back on the bed and held his hand out. He waited, watching the war inside her eyes, until she finally reached out and slid her hand into his. Her fingers were freezing, so he took a second to press his lips against the tip of each one before closing both of his hands around hers.

“I refuse to believe that you think there is any chance of me ever forgetting you. You are the first thing I think of in the morning, and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep. I’m going to pretend like you never said that, okay? Because if I don’t… If I were to walk out of this room right now knowing that you believe I could ever erase you from my mind, from my heart, I’d lose it. What has all this time been for? You think I’m just joking around here? You think I told you about Mel and Mikey for nothing? The only person I’ve ever told outside of my teammates, the only other person I’ve talked to about what it was like losing Melody and Mikey is Emma. I fucking love you, Sloane. So yeah, I would go with you wherever you needed to be to feel safe. I would do that for you in a fucking heartbeat.”

Her eyes were wide, unblinking. “You love me?” she whispered.

“Fuck,” he raked his hands through his hair. “I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that, but the thought of you leaving, and not taking me with you… not having control of the situation. Not being able to do anything to change the outcome. It feels like losing Melody.”

“Gage.”

He sighed, running his hand along his jaw. “I’m not walking around here comparing the two of you, Sloane. You are not her replacement. You are not filling the void left in my heart from losing her. There’s this separate part of my heart that belongs to you. Only you. I want you to know that. Whatever needs to be done to keep you safe, that’s what we’ll do. Together.”

“We’ve never even kissed. What if I’m a terrible kisser? What if I’m never able to get past… this. What if we can never take our relationship to the next step? What if?—”

It was a risk. A huge fucking risk. He didn’t want to scare her. But he didn’t know what else to do. Gage slid his hands up to her cheeks, framing her face in warmth. And then he moved his face down towards hers. He stopped, their lips just an inch apart, waiting for her to stop him.

And that’s when she took him by surprise. Because the most reserved woman he’d ever met, the one who had trouble with touch, the one who had been slowly warming up to him, allowing him into her space inch by terrifyingly slow inch, leaned up and pressed her lips to his.

The world shattered around him, in the best fucking way. The walls of dull gray and muted pain that he’d constructed around his heart cracked and crumbled and all that was left behind was the incredible realization that the woman he loved was finally, finally letting him in.

“Well,” he whispered as they broke apart. “I don’t think we have to worry about our kisses not having chemistry.”

“I guess not,” she smiled, a sheepish grin growing across her face. “But it’s so fast. You barely know anything about me, Gage. The stuff you learned yesterday is… it’s too much.”

“I barely know you?” His head shook back and forth in disbelief. “This might be fast for you, Sloane, but I’ve been thinking of this moment for months. Warring with myself over what to do. Because I saw you that very first time you walked into Montgomery Defense to introduce yourself. And I fucking started worrying about you the next week when you came to see me about putting a tracker in your necklace. This hasn’t been fast for me.”

“I saw you too,” she whispered. “There’s always been something there. Wanting. More than friendship. But Mae told me about what happened, and I couldn’t get past my own issues. And that’s just it. Until yesterday, there was everything about my past hidden between us.”

Gage leaned in and tucked a wayward strand behind her ear, letting his hand drift down the length of her hair until his fingers brushed along her collarbone.

“I know you, Red. I know that you sprinkle cinnamon in your coffee every morning. I know that you wear your black blazer on Mondays and your blue power suit on days when you are meeting with new clients. I know you nibble on your bottom lip when you’re trying to make a decision about what to order at Dolly’s and you have a small war going with the mailman, which I still fully support your position and will make sure he respects your wishes. I know you like spending your time at the animal shelter because you don’t have to worry about being safe around them, and that probably feels like a big weight off your chest. And I know that you are trying to get better about touch and growing close to people because you love your friends and you want them to truly feel that from you.”

“How do you know all of that?”

“Nothing you do is too small for me to notice. Because I love you. And I’m going to keep you safe no matter what. No running. We lean on each other from here on out. We lean on our friends. We trust that everything is going to be okay.”

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