Page 150 of The Mountain Echoes
We move together like the world outside has gone quiet, and it’s just us, holding each other, healing each other.
After, she lies tucked against me, her hand resting on my chest, her leg slung over mine.
“I need to run somethin’ by you.”
She raises her head, rests her chin on my chest. “Okay.”
“You don’t have to carry this alone anymore,” I say softly.
“Hmm,” she murmurs.
I stroke her back. “Longhorn and Kincaid don’t have to be separate. We can combine our operations. Legally clean, no strings except the ones we choose to tie. We’re stronger together, and you know it.”
She gives me a measured look, but there’s no fear or suspicion in her eyes. We’ve come a long way in a short time.
“And you want to do this out of the goodness of your heart?”
“No.” I grin. “I want to do it because I’m in love with you. And because we’re getting married.”
She chokes out a gasp. “Excuse me?”
I press a kiss to her shoulder. “Since we’re getting married, I don’t see why you’re still resisting.”
“You haven’t even asked me,” she mutters, amused.
“I’m not gonna ask,” I tell her. “You might say no. I’m just gonna wear you down.”
She laughs.
“You’re mine,” I announce.
She nestles closer, and her voice is a whisper, “I haven’t said yes.”
“You will,” I murmur, brushing a kiss to her temple. “You just don’t know it yet.”
CHAPTER 35
aria
The county jail is colder than I expected.
Fluorescent lights buzz overhead. The floor smells like bleach and resignation. I sit across from my sister in a metal chair bolted to the floor, a scratched-up plastic partition between us.
Celine looks like hell.
Her blonde hair is dull, pulled into a limp ponytail. She’s in county-issued orange, sleeves pushed up like she’s too good for it, but the strain in her face says the performance is cracking. There’s no more velvet curtain between us. No pageantry.
Celine never did get out on bail, didn’t want the lawyer I paid for, said she didn’t want ‘a damn thing’ from me. As Nadine said, “Celine is stubborn pride wrapped in bitterness.”
She’s officially taken a deal.
She had no choice.
The DA had her cornered. With Tate and Wes’stestimony, the paper trail, and what they pulled from Wes’s phone, there wasn’t much left to argue.
She pled guilty to conspiracy and reckless endangerment. They dropped the attempted manslaughter, but she’s still looking at years in a federal prison.
I wanted to see her before she was transferred out of the county.
