“If you want to rule the world with me, Rebel, you are going to have to stand on your own. Next to me, but on your own.”
“So you lied? You wouldn’t protect me?”
“Until my last fucking breath, but that isn’t the point. You’re strong, smart, and capable. You can’t be a weak point in our lives, in mine. No one can think you’re a pawn or a bargaining chip. They have to know they will die if they touch you.”
“Or die if they touch you?”
He groaned, pulling me back into him. “Fuck, that’s the hottest thing in the world. Yeah, they can know my little rebel girl doesn’t like people trying to kill me.”
“What if I don’t want to kill people?”
“Then they at least have to know you’re in charge enough to send someone else to kill them.”
I shifted on my feet, the clear answer making me feel in control. “I can do that. At least, I think I can.”
“I know you can, and it’s not like you have to all the time, but I need to know you can when it comes down to it. You just proved you’re capable, and I didn’t even have to tell you to do anything. You did it yourself.”
“If I had to choose who I had to watch get killed, it was him. I wasn’t sure I could see something bad happen to you.”
“I understand. I don’t even want people to look at you wrong without wanting to break their limbs. Thank you, Rebel.”
“I would say anytime, but I wouldn’t mean it.”
He laughed, wiping something away on my cheek, but I wasn’t going to ask what it was.
“How about you agree to do it when it’s a situation like that and I can’t get to my gun in time?”
I frowned. “Depends on how mad I am at you that day.”
The smile that broke across his face was heart-shattering. The man so willing to put himself between me and a gun, the one running himself into the ground to keep his friends and sister safe and happy, seemed shocked that I would do anything to protect him.
“Feel like taking me home now?” I asked. I really was covered in a lot of blood and there would be no way I could go to the party now. Not that I truly wanted to.
“Yeah,” he said, running a hand down my jaw. “We have to talk.”
“That doesn’t sound great.”
“Technically, it’s not, but after what just happened, it’s a lot better than I thought.” He looked back over his shoulder at the guy slumped on the sidewalk. “I think I might have to take care of this before we go.”
I didn’t even want to look. Instead, I turned, leaning against the bike as I stared up at the building. “You do that and I’ll wait here.”
“Do you want to call your car back? I’ll have to do what I can and then wait for the guys to get here for the rest of it.”
“No, I’m good here. I can wait.”
He leaned over the bike, kissing my neck once before his lips came to my ear. “I’ll make it worth the wait, Rebel, promise.”
“Don’t make a promise you can’t keep.”
“I never make promises that I can’t keep.”
Thirty-Six
Rook
There had been a few times over the past few weeks that I wondered if I could ever tell Regan what I was doing. If I could ever tell her why I had really gone after her when I learned her name, and what I had been trying to do since.
I had thought it over so many times, and none of the outcomes ended up with Regan happy with me.
