Page 27 of Gray’s Surrender

“I want you in my life. In Ruby’s. And maybe it takes two months. Maybe it takes two years. I don’t care how long, as long as we’re heading toward the same place.”

My throat tightens. “What place is that?”

“One life. Yours and mine together. Not you fitting into the spaces I already have. Something we build between us.”

I hold his gaze. “That’s what I want too.”

“Yeah?”

“Not tomorrow. But one day, I want to wake up knowing I don’t have to decide which home I’m going back to.”

Gray draws me closer. “Then we’ll get there.”

“You sound very sure.”

“About you? I am.”

I kiss him.

This time, he smiles against my mouth.

We stay there for another few minutes, hidden from the activity on the other side of the garage, before Gray takes my hand and leads me back toward the clubhouse. Tessa appears at the hallway door with Ruby beside her. The stuffed red panda is tucked beneath one arm, and sleep has flattened her hair against one cheek.

“The bikes woke her,” Tessa says. “She wanted to see her daddy.”

Ruby spots him and hurries across the common room. Gray drops to one knee before she reaches him, and she throws both arms around his neck.

“You came back.”

“Told you I would.”

He closes his eyes and holds her, one broad hand spread across her back. The last of the strain leaves his face as she presses closer. When Ruby finally draws away, she touches the bruise at the corner of his mouth.

“What happened?”

Gray glances toward Tank, who’s standing near the bar. “Ran into something hard.” Tank turns away and finds sudden interest in the crates being carried through the clubhouse. Ruby studies Gray for another moment, but whatever she sees satisfies her. He’s here. He came back.

Ruby looks at me. “Will you finish my story?”

“Of course.”

Gray’s gaze meets mine. “Come with us?” Previously, he tried to move me out of Ruby’s life before either of us could get hurt. Now he’s asking me to step closer.

“Yeah, I’d love to.”

Tessa squeezes Ruby’s shoulder. “I’ll leave you guys to it.” Gray takes Ruby’s hand, and I walk on her other side as we cross the clubhouse. Behind us, Kingdom Come unloads what Perdition brought into Ransom. Boots strike concrete. Wooden crates scrape across the floor. Cash checks the steel boxes while Judge directs two brothers toward the garage. Kane stands in the middle of it all, waiting until Ruby is out of the room before he starts giving orders in a voice that carries through the noise.

The club is still armed and moving, but the pressure inside the room has changed. Every man who rode out has come back. In the guest room, Gray hangs his cut over the back of a chair and sits beside Ruby. She climbs beneath the blanket with the red panda tucked under her chin. I find the marker inside the book and settle on her other side.

“Start from the picture,” Ruby says.

“You’ve already heard that page.”

“I was tired.”

Gray looks at me. “Better start from the picture.”

“You’re both very difficult, you know that?” I laugh.