Page 34 of Jason Bourne
Jason’s voice cut through the chaos. “Lane! Right side!”
I pivoted just as another man broke from the trees, charging me with a knife glinting in his fist. He was fast, but I was faster. I caught his wrist, twisted hard, and slammed him to the ground with his own momentum. My boot pinned his chest, Glock aimed between his eyes.
“Game over,” I snarled.
Jason was suddenly there, rifle sweeping the treeline. “Nice work, deputy.”
Minutes later, the gunfire tapered off. Silence reclaimed the ridge, broken only by the ringing in my ears and the groans of Harris’s men bleeding in the dirt.
Nate called it first. “All clear.”
Forest emerged from the shadows with Marcie clinging to his arm, wide-eyed but alive. Relief swept through me so hard my knees nearly buckled.
Jason reached me, his hand brushing mine briefly, grounding me. His voice was low, meant for me alone. “You were fire out there, Lane. Absolute fire.”
I didn’t answer because my throat was too tight.
But I knew this—Jason’s world wasn’t something I had to fight to fit into anymore. Tonight, I realized his world was just like mine.
38
Lane
The hospital was quiet, sterile, and far too bright after the chaos of the ridge. Marcie was asleep, IV dripping steadily into her arm, a nurse keeping close watch. She’d live. That was what mattered.
Jason stood beside me, arms crossed, silent but steady. Just his presence calmed me more than I wanted to admit.
“You were great tonight,” he said finally.
I glanced at him. “So did you.”
His mouth quirked. “Always the diplomat.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to him. “Are you as hot as I am?”
I grinned, “Hotter, but it’ll have to wait.”
He smiled.
I snorted softly, but the sound broke into something else—relief, exhaustion, maybe even the weight of knowing how close we’d come to losing that girl.
Jason must’ve seen it on my face, because he leaned in, his voice low. “She’s safe because of you, Lane. Don’t carry the weight like you didn’t do enough.”
The knot in my chest loosened. “Five years apart, and you still know how to read me better than anyone.”
“Because I never stopped watching you,” he admitted, eyes burning into mine.
Heat rippled through me, sudden and undeniable. I swallowed hard, realizing the hallway was empty, and the nurses’ station was around the corner.
Jason’s gaze dropped to my mouth, and that was all it took.
I tugged him into the nearest empty room—supplies stacked high on metal shelves, the smell of antiseptic sharp in the air. The door clicked shut behind us.
His hands were on me instantly, strong and certain, pulling me against him like he’d been starving. My back hit the wall, and I gasped against his mouth as his lips claimed mine—hot, rough, familiar.
“Damn it, Lane,” he growled between kisses, “let me know when you are ready to scream.”
I fisted his shirt, dragging him closer, desperate to erase every second we’d lost. “Are you planning to make me scream a lot?”
“You know it, sweetheart.”
