Redeemed (Dirty Air 4)

She laughs to herself. “And you’re going to be the one to sacrifice yourself for the cause?”

“It’s not a sacrifice if I’m willing.” I grin.

Marko, cockblocker extraordinaire, interrupts us, squeezing my neck with his sweaty arms. “Time for gelato?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. You already had gelato yesterday.”

“Please!” He squeezes my neck tighter. “You’re the bestest uncle ever.”

“Thanks. It was a tough competition with myself, but I’m glad I won.”

Chloe giggles and I want to hear more of it.

“So yes?” Marko whines.

“Why don’t you go run around some more?” Go run. Go hide. Go rip grass from the ground like I did when I was your age. Anything to give me an ounce of privacy with Chloe.

“Then I get pukey.” He fake retches.

Chloe’s deep laugh has my dick waking up like it’s time to play.

“Then sit.” I pat the grass. If it worked on me, maybe it’ll work on him.

He moves onto Chloe, crawling into her lap and holding her face with his pudgy hands. “Princess, can you take me? Tickle dragon is grumpy.”

The little shit.

Chloe looks at me with a raised brow. “I don’t want the tickle dragon mad at me.”

“Please.” Marko pouts.

“Fine. We can go.” I exhale.

“Yes!” Marko claps and stands up, offering his hand to Chloe. “You coming?”

Chloe opens her mouth, clearly wanting to reject Marko.

I jump in. “You don’t want to disappoint a four-year-old because they tend to hold grudges. And this little guy is the worst at them. He forced me for an entire week to dress up as Elsa because I didn’t want to watch Frozen with him.”

She chuckles to herself as she packs up the few items she had strewn out on the grass. “Sure. Why not? I don’t have anything else to do tonight.” She rises from the ground with ease.

I make a move to get up before remembering I can’t do it the same way anymore. The vein above my eye throbs as I prep myself.

Fuck. This was a terrible idea. Getting up is way worse than going down.

“Hey.” Chloe bends over, hitting me with two sapphire eyes. “Marko calls you Iron Man, right?”

I raise a brow, ignoring the clenching of my stomach muscles from the fresh wave of nerves. “Yes.”

The scar above her lip twitches as her lips part. “And do you know what makes Iron Man special?”

“His suit?”

She laughs and leans into my ear. The hot air from her mouth sends sparks down my spine. “No. Iron Man is special because he owns who he is, no matter what people think of him. He is unapologetic and people are drawn to him like a magnet. Personally, I don’t care if it takes you a minute or an hour to get up. All that matters is that you do.”

How the hell did life throw this girl in my path? I’m destined to destroy her before she has a chance to get away. She’s too good for the likes of me.

I swallow back the lump in my throat. “Is this your game-day speech?”