Page 66 of Chasing Redemption

And she loved me. She fucking said it, and she couldn’t take it back.

I waited for her to lay her body on my good side and settle in.

“Tell me what happened,” I demanded, resting a cheek on the top of her head.

“It was a trap.” Peyton sighed. “They tased me. Questioned me, hit me. You guys showed up shortly after.”

“They’re dead?” I asked, needing confirmation. I know one was definitely dead. Peyton snapped his neck.

“Two are. Pullbar was trying to escape with his wife, gun to her head. Tyler did what she does best and put a bullet between his eyes.”

I dropped my head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. My thoughts were still sluggish. “How did the EMTs get there so fast?”

“Jessen called them while they were in the car with you. Did you forget? Is there anything else you don’t remember?”

I gave her a long look. “I was too worried about you to pay much attention to anything else.” She looked down, and I decided to let her off the hook. Her team would put her through the wringer for going off alone. Again. She didn’t need to get that from me too. “The third guy?”

She rubbed her lips together, her eyes moving from my face to the bandages covering my wounds. “He got away,” she said carefully.

“What?” I couldn’t have heard that right.

“The cops who showed up were newbies. First look at a dead body. Pearson slipped out while they were distracted.” Her eyes went back to my bandages and filled with tears.

I didn’t hate seeing her cry, knowing those tears were for me. I knew what it meant that she finally opened up, gave me her tears, let herself be vulnerable. It was everything.

It meant everything.

She was giving me all her emotions that I knew she kept behind a wall. I’d finally worked my way inside her heart, and she wasn’t going to get me out. Ever.

She lay back down next to me, and I massaged her scalp the way she liked. “I need to ask a favor.” She tilted her head back and looked at me, waiting for me to continue. “Wait to go after Pearson until I’m healed. I want to get my licks in. Then you girls can do whatever you want.”

“Deal. The team already talked it out and came to the same conclusion.” She burrowed into me more deeply, her face nuzzling my neck. “Heard you gave a very… impassioned speech. Good for you. Everyone enjoyed it.” I grunted, which only made her laugh more. “Tyler even unloaded the gun with your bullet in it.”

Jesus, that woman scared me.

When she fell asleep a little while later, I lay there and listened to her even breaths, thanking every deity I could think of that we were both okay. That she was mine. Closing my eyes, I fell asleep next to her with plans of our future playing in my mind like a movie.

ChapterThirty-Seven

PEYTON

A metal springpoked my butt.

The old recliner had seen better days, but it was one of the only chairs in the room.

It took three weeks for Reaper to fully recover and make the trip. That was how long Chad had been hiding. Perverse joy filled me at the knowledge that he was paranoid, looking over his shoulder, wondering if and when he would be caught.

It was dark out, closing in on ten at night. Chad picked an industrial building in St. Louis to hide out in. I bet he thought it would take a while to find this place, since it was owned by a shell company and had been sold, with questionable paperwork, at least four times in the last two years.

It took me a day.

But with the police coming to question us over the past few weeks and waiting for Reaper to recover, this was our first opportunity to collect what we were owed.

Keys jingled, the front door pushed open, and a light flicked on.

Chad carried two large brown paper bags and set them on the folding table. He put away milk, a cereal box, and a few other snacks. Like he’d be needing those.

Completely unaware of the danger that lurked in the dark corners of his hideout, he popped open a can of beer andfinallyturned around. The beer slipped from his hand, splattering on the floor.

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