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Aeron gives him the finger, his peachy ass material for the spank bank as I watch him go. Tarl steps into my line of sight, his hand cupping my cheek.
“Âsheghetam,” he tells me softly, and my heart fucking melts in a puddle on the floor.
“I love you too,” I reply, feeling like the luckiest girl alive as I’m surrounded by the men who would do anything for me, no matter the cost.
Tarl
“No Time To Die” by Billie Eilish
We take our little bird to the old Soldiers’ HQ, and the way she squares her shoulders before striding inside has me and the others staring after her in sheer awe. This woman continues to floor me at every turn, showing us she’s stronger than any of us after the trauma she’s suffered, the abuse that the sorry excuse for a father subjected her to.
I watch her obsessively—Jude isn’t the only one who has developed a fixation with her—taking in every slight pause as she gazes around the space.
“What are you thinking,Azizam?” I ask, wrapping her up in my arms from behind. Something primal in me preens when she sinks into my embrace, allowing me to hold her as she faces the demons of her past.
“Can I truly have anything I want to revamp it?” she asks, her head turning as she takes in the main room. The long, wooden bar is still standing, riddled with a few bullet holes like the rest of the room. The space is cleaner than it probably ever was under Rufus’s rule; we had a team in to clean out the bodies and the entire complex.
“Money is no object, Dove,” Aeron says, coming to stand in front of her and reaching out to stroke her cheek. I’m not the only one who is unable to resist touching her. Her fingers stroke his shirt back, his suit jacket placed carefully on the bar. She steps out of my loose hold, trailing her fingers down Aeron’s chest as she walks past him towards the bar. Biting her lower lip in a gesture that has all of us needing to adjust ourselves, she trails her fingers across the surface.
“I want this to be kept but polished. The bullet holes kept too, to remind everyone of what happens if they cross us.” She spins around to face us, a feral gleam in her eyes, and I hear Jude practically groaning from the other side of the room. Fuck me, she’s magnificent. “Maybe we can fill them in with red glittery epoxy?”
“Done. What else, Dove?” Aeron grills her, his tone fierce and low. He enjoys being claimed by this goddess as much as the rest of us.
“Crimson velvet barstools, dark polished wooden floors, and red leather chesterfield booths with black round tables, lamps with beaded fringing on each,” she answers immediately, telling me she’s already been planning. “A stage over there”—she points to a corner of the room—“with scarlet velvet curtains behind it and an old-fashioned shiny microphone. A crystal chandelier, and everyone wears twenties clothes.” Her eyes are bright, practically sparkling as she sweeps her gaze across the room, seeing what it will become.
“And the rooms out the back?” Knox questions, and the skin around my eyes tighten with her flinch. I watch as she licks her lips, her hands clenching into fists before she relaxes, a small smile tugging her lips upward.
“There’ll need to be restrooms and a manager’s office. The others can be for gambling,” she tells us, and I watch as Aeron tips his head to the side, his eyebrows raised. She gives him a wink. “We have to clean dirty money somehow, right, Devil Man?”
I watch as his jaw goes slack, Jude giving a bark of laughter and skipping to her. She holds Aeron’s stare, and I can practically see hearts in his eyes. Not that I can blame our illustrious leader, we’re all goners for her. A twinge of unease slithers through me like a snake, hissing that this happiness can’t last forever. Not for all of us anyway. But I tamp down what feels suspiciously like guilt and focus back on the love of my life.
“Right, Dove,” Aeron answers as Jude frames her face with his palms, bringing their foreheads together.
“I knew they made you for us, Nightingale,” Jude tells her, and I couldn’t agree with him more.
“Let’s make some notes. I’ll call our team down so you can tell them all of your ideas,” Aeron says, taking his phone out of his pocket and striding over to her. Jude releases her with a soft kiss, and she turns her face for Aeron to do the same.
I watch, my chest aching with an unfamiliar warmth as I gaze upon this marvelous woman who turned our world upside down when she stepped into it. And I thank every star in the heavens that she did, knowing with a certainty that is unshakable, we would be utterly lost without her.
* * *
We spend the rest of the day at the site, going over plans with builders and decorators, and I continue to watch our bird spread her wings and commanding the room with a regal quality that is rarely seen. My phone buzzes in my pocket, and taking it out, I frown at the screen, my heart giving a painful thud.
Unknown number: Time to come home, Tarl Ahmed.
“Everything okay?” Aeron asks, and I quickly delete the message, blocking the number and slipping the device back into my pants pocket. His brows furrow as he looks at me, and I school my features to smooth out my own face into a mask of serenity.
“Everything’s fine,” I reply, nodding over to Lark. “She’s coming into her own over this. It was a good idea of yours to let her reclaim her past like this.” He looks to her as well, his features softening.
“She needs to face things if she’s going to move on. Hopefully, this will help her do that and give her a bit of purpose now that she’s no longer having to plan an escape,” he comments, and I’m not surprised that he’s thought of everything before the rest of us. He always was good at anticipating our needs.
“She seems to be in her element.”
We watch as she talks to a contractor, using hand gestures to help describe her vision, and his eyes follow her movements, his head nodding as he agrees with her. She has them all eating out of the palm of her hands. Again, I’m not surprised given how she’s tamed us.
My phone buzzes again, and a sinking feeling in my stomach makes my hand tremble slightly as I lift it out of my pocket once more.
Unknown number: You can’t run forever; we’re coming for you.
