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ChapterTwenty
Ethan
LeavingJosh and Ben was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. His soft kiss goodbye and a whispered stay safe was all we exchanged.
I didn’t tell him I loved him, because what if I didn’t come back?
On the one hand, I was focused on the job I had to do—one that meant something. On the other, I know I left my heart back with Josh and Ben, and it took me an hour or maybe more, prodding the bruise where Kayden had hit me, to remind myself I needed to get my head back in the game.
“I’m not sure you had to hit me that hard,” I said after driving with Kayden for an hour in silence.
“You said you wanted to make it look good.” He glanced at me, then snorted a laugh. “That’s gonna be some black eye.”
“Asshole.” We decided it would be a good idea if I turned up with some kind of injury. The two of us had contemplated a gunshot wound, but Josh stared at us as we amped up my potential injuries to a level where it would be believed there’d been an altercation between myself, and Sanctuary, as I escaped from them. He grew more pale with each threat, and even though he said nothing, the way he looked at us nixed the idea of a bullet wound. I couldn’t sit here and think about Josh—it was too dangerous.
“Hey, you wanted authentic,” Kayden broke into my thoughts, with an added shrug.
We fell into silence again until he pulled off the main road. We ended up on remote side roads, and stopped where the navigation system instructed. At first it seemed as if we’d stopped in the middle of nowhere, but then another car approached from the opposite direction. While I tensed and reached for the gun I’d had to leave behind, Kayden relaxed and grinned. A battered Toyota pulled off the road and parked up in front of us, and a short, dark-haired guy stepped out.
“That’s my man.” Kayden said and was out of the car in an instant, stalking straight over and grabbing the other man before kissing him soundly.
Oh.
So, when Kayden said that was his man—he was being literal and saying that washis man. I gave them a moment to reconnect. With the time Kayden had been spending with us in the remote cabin, they had to have been apart a while. Then I recalled how hard he’d hit me, and the two rabbit punches he added to my chin for effect, and I stepped outside and walked over to them, because that fucker deserved it.
By now the kiss had turned into a hug, and they held each other as tight as I had Josh before I left.
“Guys?” I asked.
After some murmured words, they parted, and Kayden laced his fingers with the other man’s. “Ethan, this is Beckett. He bought you a car, so you can go now.”
Beckett shoved Kayden, and instead of Kayden getting all bristly, he sent the other man a fond smile full of love.
Then Beckett extended a hand to me, which I shook. “It’s nice to meet you,” Beckett said, and rolled his eyes. “Finally. Kayden won’t stop talking to me about you and this case.”
Kayden glared back at me, daring me to make a comment about how little he talked to us back at the cabin. I raised an eyebrow, and he shrugged, then pulled Beckett close to his side.
Beckett waved at the Toyota. “Part of the story,” he said. “Keys are in the ignition, gun in the locked cubby, fingerprint access as discussed. There’s nothing to trace the car apart from the previous owner with a checkable address in Chicago. Back story is that you stole it from the parking at Sanctuary’s Chicago office, as we agreed. Nothing else has changed. It’s all on you now. Questions?”
I circled the car—it was the exact age of model that I would have stolen had I needed to—easily to break into, a bit beat-up, with nothing obvious that made it stand out against any other vehicle.
“Do you have questions?” Beckett asked.
I shook my head. The plan was in place. Here in the middle of nowhere, all contact with Sanctuary, Kayden, and the rest of the guys would end. It would be too dangerous, but I knew they would monitor anything they could to have my back. Now I needed to head into the city, and track down Danvers at his house and now, there was only one thing that I was worried about.
“Don’t let anyone near Josh and Ben.” My words fell somewhere between a warning and a plea.
“You have my word.” Kayden murmured. “Do you want me to hit you again?”
“Fuck you.”
We shook hands and gripped tight—one tough guy to another—a hundred messages passing between us. Then we separated, and I watched him drive away, Beckett at his side, back toward the cabin, and Josh.
“Okay, let’s do this.” I said to no one, and pulled up the navigation on my brand-new phone, typing in the address I’d learned by heart—it would be dark before I reached my destination, but that was kind of the point. I missed having my team with me. I wished I wasn’t leaving Josh behind. I wished he and Ben weren’t involved in this. I wish I’d questioned my loyalty to Danvers earlier…
None of that could matter because I had a job to do.
I found the mechanism to open the glove compartment, pulling out the Sig, checking it was loaded, then pushing it into the shoulder holster I’d been handed back at the cabin. I closed my jacket to cover it, and then there was no more delaying. I started the car, then headed east.
