“Can we treat ourselves and get one with room service? I’m hungry. By the time we reach a hotel, I’ll be starved.”
“You can order the whole menu if you want.”
A sliver of a smile ripples across her face. I’ll spend the night coaxing the full one out because she deserves to smile.
An hour and a half later, we’re standing in our room, and she’s staring at the tub, her tone full of disappointment. “Normally, I’d take a bath to wind down.” Coming to sit on the bed next to me, she says, “I think I’ll skip it tonight.”
Almost drowning in one makes her reaction reasonable. Fucker. He’s stolen that from her as well. “Sorry I wasn’t there sooner. I thought he’d run, not gone inside. I was checking the perimeter.”
“I thought he was on drugs. Now I’m thinking he was on a mission.” Resting against my chest, she drapes her arms over my middle.
My arm curves around her back, holding her to me, our warmth exchanged in the embrace. “He only had one bullet in his gun, Delilah.” I don’t mean to sound ominous, but his intentions were clear.
“He was going to drown me.”
“And then kill himself.”
“His life is shit. He’s shit. I hate him so much.”
Swearing doesn’t come natural to her. The words are distorted, dripping from a place that should never reside inside her heart—hate. Sitting up, she presses her palm on my chest over my heart. “What if you wouldn’t have found me in time?”
Caressing her cheek, I lean forward and kiss her. “You saved yourself. I have no doubt after the courage you showed tonight that you would still be here.”
“In your arms?” It’s an odd question, but the whole night was odd.
“I have everything to live for now, so no one’s taking me out that easily.”
Her smile returns, the light in her eyes smothering the dark that tried to win, tried to take her hostage.
A knock on the door signals room service. I hop up and let them push the cart of food inside. After tipping, we’re left alone with enough food to feed a small army. Her eyes are wide, and a huge smile appears. When my stomach growls, I rub it, and ask, “Was the drive worth it?”
“It was definitely worth it.” When she grabs a bowl of spaghetti, I can tell by the way she settles back on the bed and starts flicking through the channels that she’s content . . . for now.
I’ve been paid a lot of money over the past few years. It gave me financial security for the rest of my life and then some. But living within the confines of darkness, at times existing just outside the law, I didn’t have this. Contentment. With her, my girl, I’ve found it. Peace. Solace. This is something no paycheck ever provided.
I’ll take this life over the last every day of the week and twice on Sundays. I reach for the steak because there’s no time like the present to enjoy a few of the finer things in life.
29
Delilah
I can’t breathe.
I savor the fiery orange on the inside of my lids. Orange means life.
Flailing my arms to find anything to hold on to that will give me the leverage to save myself is useless. I’m held under, drowning in his arms.
. . . The horror I felt at that moment has worked its way into my veins. It’s attached itself in ways I can’t remove. I was so close to that slice of paradise with Jason that even though we survived and still have that future, I don’t think I’ll be able to easily let last night go after almost meeting death.
I thought I was doomed to spend eternity tangled up in Cole and death, hate, and hell.
Jason stirs, and I look back. Just the sight of him, the fact that we’re alone in this room has me smiling, though. He once told me he was a soldier, a mercenary of sorts, but when I look at him, I only see my dark-haired knight. His sleep is steady, his features finding peace, as his body lies bare for me. The sheet is tangled around a leg, exposing parts of him that I’m the only one privy to these days.
How can he possibly be that hard when he’s sleeping? Men will always be a mystery to me. It’s a mystery I’m happy to solve over the next sixty, seventy, or more years. I’d love to live a long life with him. The years we were apart, when he was doing those things he doesn’t like to talk about, will pale in comparison to the years we’ll spend together.
One day, they won’t matter at all.
One day, last night won’t matter.
We survived. Together. That’s all that will matter when our souls leave this place.