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"I don't understand. He was the one who..."
"Made Luis' head explode like a Pinata at a birthday party?" Janie asked with a laugh. "Yeah, that was him. I kinda... helped him get free. See, I knew he was too hot to go in, but there's nothing that can shake his calm when he's got a scope and a trigger. I figured you would be safer with him on that roof, just in case."
"Disobeying a direct order," Lo said at her, attempting a firm tone, but her lips were twitching. They had a strange mother/daughter or older sister/ younger sister dynamic.
"Yeah, well, it was a dumb order and you fucking know it," Janie said, shrugging a dainty shoulder. "Anyway, I was pretty sure right then what he was feeling but then him being a dickhead and dumping you at the hospital before you even got patched up? Yeah, that was not cool. So we needed to investigate."
"Investigate what?"
"We wanted to see if he was just being an asshole," Alex cut in, "which is not like him," she said in a way that I knew she knew him well. "He might be a lot of things, but he's a good guy and he has never been that big of a fuckhead toward a woman. Actually, he's been nothing but amazing to the women around him, even the ones who key his car or whatever when they realize he's not the settling down type. So this wasn't like him."
"What they're trying to say," Summer broke in, smiling a little, "in their very roundabout way is... we wanted to see why he left you like that. So we went over to his apartment."
"And?" I asked, despite knowing I should just tell them to leave it be. It was over. He told me himself.
"And he was a wreck," Lo said with an inappropriate, huge smile.
"A wreck?"
"Yeah, it was fantastic," she added.
Janie rolled her eyes. "Lo is a hopeless romantic. She gets her jollies off on this kind of thing. Anyway, he was there with Breaker and the rest of our men... staring at the wall all doom and gloom. And, well, you know Shooter. He's not a doom and gloom guy. So we kinda had our answer."
"What answer? Actually, what was even the question?"
"The question was 'why did he dump you'," Alex answered.
"And the answer is because he loves you," Lo said and the words felt like a hit to my solar plexus.
No.
Absolutely freaking not.
I wasn't going to let myself believe that, no matter how much I wanted to.
I shook my head at them and watched, with a small tug of amusement as all four of their heads started nodding at me at once. "Look, I know you guys are trying to help, but trust me, he doesn't love me."
"He loves you enough to let you go, Amelia," Summer said in that sing-song voice of hers. "We all have men who love us. And, I know you don't know them that well, but trust me, it's with a sort of fierceness that is borderline brutal. But not one of them was willing to let us go. No matter how dangerous their lifestyle and, trust me, what Breaker and Wolf and Reign have gotten into makes what Shooter's done look like child's play. His life is relatively safe compared to the rest of them because he's so detached from his jobs, doing them from such a distance. But even so, he didn't want to drag you into it. He thinks that highly of you that he wants better for you."
"Look," Lo said, her voice serious. "I've known a lot of men. I work with them. I employ them. I've chosen bad ones. And I have a good one. Let me tell you, I met Shooter and within minutes, minutes Amy, I knew that he had the potential to love someone like nothing I've ever seen before. He has a huge heart and he's given little pieces of it to us and our men, but there's so much left. I've never seen him so much as offer a chip of it to the women he has dated, but honey, let me tell you... the way he looked last night... he gave what was left to you. Him letting you go, that was his way of showing you how much he loves you. It was a stupid-man thing to do, but he felt it was right. Don't do a stupid-woman thing and let him slip away because of your pride."
"This is nice and all of you guys," I said, the urge to get up and pace making me feel antsy. It was sweet and all that they came by to try to pep-talk me, but really, they had no idea what they were talking about. "But you don't know much about what has gone on with us. I've only known him like... I don't know... a week or something. You don't fall for someone in a week."
"Really?" Summer asked, a weird smile on her face. "I was under the impression that love happens when it happens. I'm pretty sure there are no rules for when it has to happen, how long you need to spend with someone before you can claim you love someone."
"Took Cash a year to get in. But I fell for him in a moment."
"Knew Wolf for a year too. Took me just a second to fall though."
My eyes drifted to Alex, figuring they were all going to spill their stories. "Oh, Breaker kidnapped me," she said with a shrug. "We got together kinda fast. I knew by the end of the first week I loved him, but I didn't tell him for like... half a year."
"She's stubborn," Lo said with an eye roll.
"Summer fell for Reign in like two weeks," Janie supplied, waving a hand. "But what we're saying is... love doesn't always creep up on you slow and steady as you share stupid shit about your childhood or why you hate avocados or whatever. Love is just that second when you feel it click, you know?" I did know. I knew that moment. And the scary thing? It was the second Johnnie walked into my apartment and told me he got me. But that was just... crazy. That wasn't love. That was... well hell. I didn't know what that was. But it couldn't have been love. I didn't know him at all. "I don't know if you believe in soulmates or if they exist or any of that cheesy bullshit," Janie said with an eye roll, "but it's like that. A part of you just... gets that other person."
