Page 48
“Take Silence where?”
My head whips around. Silence is in the kitchen doorway, head tilted, Bullet at her feet.
Zayden strides over to her. “I have to go to Seattle.”
Concern flashes across her expression. “Now?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.” He cups her face and kisses her. “Yale is going to drive me to the plane—”
“What plane?”
“Our plane.”
She gapes at him. “We have a plane?”
“We did have two,” I say. “But Xavier broke the last one.”
Xavier grimaces. “They land in water all the time in the movies; how was I supposed to know it’s not ideal?”
“Common sense, brother. Common fucking sense.”
Zayden continues, “You and Xavier will need to stay in the panic room with Bullet until Yale gets back. It’s the safest place.”
It is, but I also don’t like the idea of two of the people I love most in the world being locked in a small room when no one else is here. Ryker won’t know where we are, and even if he did, Zayden is right, it’s the safest place, but it doesn’t sit right with me.
“How long?” Silence asks.
“A few hours.” He kisses her, whispers something, and she nods, brows furrowed. “Love you, baby.”
“Love you,” she whispers, and tracks him as he walks out of the door.
The conversation from the bedroom is hanging over me, and maybe Silence senses that, because she meets my eye and her cheeks flush.
There’s so much going on that this should take a back seat, but after living this life for so long, I’ve learned if you don’t multitask, very little gets done. There’s always an enemy lurking, a target that’ll fight back or the chance we’ll get caught, so putting life on hold is pointless. Live it, or lose it.
“Come on, Bullet,” Xavier says. “Meet you upstairs, little Q. Bring some cards. We can play strip poker.” He squeezes my shoulder as he passes, and his playfulness vanishes. “Be careful.”
I nod, and he heads up the stairs, leaving Silence and I alone.
She glances once more at the door. “I don’t like that we’re splitting up.”
“Me neither. But Zayden has to go.”
Silence and I have always shared an easy energy. I’ve never shied away from telling her anything, and I hope she hasn’t, either. We’re tactile, and relaxed, and we always have been.
Now, though, something else crackles between us. A sharp, exciting thing that ignites an excitement in me that I haven’t felt in years. A gate has opened, and we have to decide if we’ll step through it.
“Zayden spoke to you?” she asks quietly, and I nod as I close the space between us. She tips her head back to maintain eye contact. “It’s weird, right? For me to ask this of you.”
“No, it’s not.” I gently take her chin and angle her face to look back at me. “It means you trust me.”
She searches my eyes. “I do.”
“And you know I’d do anything for you, love.”
“Anything?”
That single word packs a punch that steals my breath, and my gaze drops to her throat and the gentle throb of her pulse. “I’d die for you.”
