“Damn.” He didn’t hide his fleeting smirk.
“Tell me something…” she began.
“Anything,” he answered.
“Would it be easy for you to walk away from this? From us?”
“If it was, I woulda done it already. But do you even got a choice at this point?”
“We always have a choice, Rook.”
“Don’t want you to regret the one you make.”
She swallowed past the tightness of her throat. The one he loved to possess with his hand, with his mouth, with his teeth. She sighed. “I know you’re not perfect and, of course, neither am I, but can you at least promise me you’ll do your best to keep your ass out of prison? I draw the line with visiting you behind bullet-proof glass.”
“Can’t promise that, darlin’. Gonna protect myself, my family, includin’ my niece, my brotherhood,” he brushed his lips softly over hers, “and you. If that means I gotta get my hands dirty, then that’s what’s gonna fuckin’ happen. And this is where I go back and mention that moral conflict again.”
“I’d do whatever I need to do to protect my family—all of them—and you, too, Rook. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“How I’d do it and how you’d do it are two different things,” he reminded her.
“Not necessarily.”
“Your badge protects you. Let’s you do shit I’d never be able to do without gettin’ tossed behind bars. You know that, right?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “But I’m not giving you up, Rook.”
Not now. Not ever.
He turned his face away from her and she stared at his shadowed profile. Even in the dark she could see his eyes were closed.
He didn’t want her to give him up, either, but he wouldn’t say it out loud. He wouldn’t put that pressure on her.
When he turned back to her again, he said, “Darlin’, take the two weeks. Think long and hard about it. If you want me to make myself scarce durin’ that time to make it easier on you, I will. You wanna fuck me into a coma durin’ those two weeks, ain’t gonna say no. But the final decision’s yours and yours alone. Just want you to make the right one. The one that’s best for you. You. Not me. Not Max. Not your family. The one you’ll be able to live with. That’s all I’m askin’.”
“Okay,” she whispered. She could give him that. She could give herself that.
“And don’t let my awesome fuckin’ dick be your decidin’ factor.”
Jet rolled her eyes. “Okay, then. That makes the decision easy.”
“Know it’s hard to resist.”
“It’s not hard right now,” she said, trying to relieve some of the heaviness between them.
“It can be.”
“How about after we share those loaded fries,” she suggested.
“You prefer Dino’s fries over my dick? Damn.”
“Well, they are famous. You’re just infamous.”
He snorted and dropped his head to nuzzle her ear. “If you don’t kick me out right after, gonna mark you inside and out tonight.”
She wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and yanked him down to her. “We can reheat the fries later.”
“Yeah, they’ll taste better after I smoke a big fatty anyway.”
She shoved at his shoulders. “Not funny.”
“You hear me laughin’?”
“I’d rather hear you grunting as you fuck me.” And chase away the stress of the last twenty-four hours.
“Anythin’ you want, darlin’.”
“Anything?”
“For you? Yeah.”
Her heart swelled at his answer. They became quiet for a few moments and she simply enjoyed the solid weight of him on her.
In truth, Rook was the biggest asshole she knew. But he was her asshole and she planned on keeping him.
She didn’t need two weeks to figure out her choice. It had been made weeks ago. She just wasn’t aware at the time how that choice would change her life.
Maybe Max was right. To be happy, this Bryson might need to branch off and follow her own path.
Wherever it led.
As long as Rook was traveling it with her. Along with a little ankle-biter named Cujo.
Epilogue
When life grabs you by the balls and never lets you go…
Rook heard Jet’s Toyota pull up to their tiny modular home. The small ranch-style house had been placed near his brother’s on the other side of the tree line from The Barn. It might be small, but it was still bigger than his room in the bunkhouse and Jet’s former shit-hole basement apartment.
What it did have was an oversized walk-in shower that they made use of. A lot.
That meant they wasted a lot of hot water.
Even lukewarm water.
Sometimes even bone-chilling cold water.
But this morning using that shower would have to wait. They needed to get good and dirty first.
“Honey, I’m home,” Jet called out in a teasing manner as she opened the front door and stepped inside. Cujo tore past him and danced around her feet with his tail wagging and him whining for her attention.
Get in line, asshole.
From where he hid, he watched as she stripped off her light windbreaker and shoulder holster, then slipped the chain holding her badge over her head. A badge that no longer said Manning Grove PD, but instead, Fugitive Recovery Agent.