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He was right, but Bones meant what he said. Unless he was shriveled on the ground, Catwouldbe safe from now on.
“Are we taking your bike?” Cat murmured once they were on the surface level of the compound.
Bones snorted. “As if they haven’t planted numerous trackers on it, Don’s promises be damned. No, Kitten. We’re using the last ten minutes of darkness to fly out of here.”
She grumbled but then put her arms around his neck. “I can take anything as long as I’m with you.”
Bones tightened his arms around her.His sentiments exactly.
31
Bones flew until the sky lightened too much to remain unnoticed against it. After landing, he mesmerized a passing driver into taking them the rest of the way. Their impromptu chauffer didn’t remember the trip after Bones was done with him. Even if he had, he wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the house. Bones had him drop them at the back of the tree line bordering the subdivision versus driving them up to the rental house.
Yes, he was being paranoid. No, he didn’t care.
Cat had been silent the entire way. Bones chalked it up to her aversion to flying until they entered the house and she dropped onto the sofa as if her legs had stopped working.
“My father tried to murder me, Don is my uncle, and now,you’reworking for Don, too.”
She said it as if she needed confirmation that all the above was still true. Bones took the seat next to her.
“Quite a lot to absorb,” he said, searching her face.
She let out a short laugh. “Absorb. That’s one way to put it. I remember when it felt like to a lot to find out I was half vampire. Little did I know that would be the easiest revelation of my life, huh?”
He took her hand. “None of this is easy. Pretending otherwise is an exercise in futility.”
She said nothing. Just squeezed his hand and stared at him as if trying to memorize every line of his face. Bones raised her hand and kissed it, frowning when she pulled away.
“What is it?”
“You,” she said, her laughter harshening. “You shouldn’t have done it.”
His brows rose. “What? Agreed to be on your team?”
“Searched for me for so long.” Now, her voice dropped to a whisper. “I sure as hell didn’t deserve it.”
He grasped her hand again, holding on when she tried to pull away. “Kitten, what is this?”
She blinked hard, but that didn’t stop her eyes from welling with tears. “Ileftyou. Worse, then I never contacted you because I thought I was being heroic, but it turns out I was only being an idiot because Don just did everything you wanted him to do, so I left you fornothing. How can you forgive that?”
“Kitten-”
She was suddenly across the room. She’d moved quicker than he’d anticipated, or maybe, she was faster than he realized.
“The guys think I risk my life over and over because I’m brave.” Her derisive laugh ended in a choked sob. “They don’t know that Iwantedto die. I kept trying to get on with my life without you, but it hurt too much, and the only thing worse than the days were the nights. I hated going to sleep because I knew I would dream about you, and then I hated waking up because the pain would hit me all over again as soon as I opened my eyes, and you weren’t there.”
Bones closed his own eyes at that. Oh, how he knew that pain. He and it were old friends.
“Kitten,” he tried again.
“Don’t,” she said with such force, his gaze snapped open. She held out her hands as if to ward him off as she paced.
“You wentincrediblyout of your way to bring me the truth today, so let me be truthful with you. I wanted to die, and with this job, I kept thinking it would happen, but you trained me too well. None of the fanged fuckers I took on were able to kill me, so I kept going, and I told myself at least this way, I was doing something useful. Then, a few months ago, I tried setting Denise up with Noah, and she ended up setting me up with him instead. I knew it was hopeless, but I started dating him anyway because I was so tired of hurting all the time. I’d tried every other way to forget you, so I figured…why not this one?”
It was so close to his reasons for his colossal mistake with Annette that the weight of the memory nearly crushed him.
“Go on,” he said in a hoarse voice.
