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“Mmhmm,” he says as I feel Zade’s laser-sharp stare on me through the rearview mirror. Easton pulls me in, his lips brushing gently over mine. “It wasn’t smart coming back here.”
“I know that now,” I tell him. “I thought I could come here and re-group, try to figure out a plan and check in with Liv, but turns out she’s the one who gave me away. She’s been working with Empire this whole time. I was an idiot for thinking I could trust her.”
“You’re not an idiot,” Sawyer says, reaching over Dalton to take my hand. “An idiot couldn’t cause the kind of hell you caused back there. You did what you had to do and got out of there before they had a chance to retaliate.”
Dalton scoffs. “Retaliate? The guy was fucking dead. He couldn’t retaliate even if he wanted to.”
Sawyer rolls his eyes. “You know what I meant,” he says, probably referring to Liv and anyone else who was there.
Needing to change the topic, I glance back at Easton. “So what now?”
“First, you’re gonna kiss me like you fucking mean it, and then we’re taking you back to Faders Bay where we can watch over you properly.”
“You mean, keep me safe until Zade can kill me himself?”
“Something like that,” Easton says, not bothering to sugarcoat it. He lets out a heavy breath before focusing his stare right on my eyes. He pauses a moment as if trying to gather his thoughts before finally letting me have it. “Don’t get me wrong, Pretty. I know why you ran, and I accept that, but fuck. I’m so fucking angry with you. When you ran, you weren’t just running from Zade. You ran from me, and I don’t fucking like it. It kills me that I couldn’t keep you safe, and because I wasn’t there to have your back, you were almost killed by the very people we’ve been trying to protect you from.”
“Surely you must know that I wasn’t intentionally running from you. I was doing what I had to do to save myself. You guys might be trying to save me from Empire, but they’re not the only ones I need saving from,” I tell him. “But you don’t have to worry anymore. I’m not going anywhere. Forty-eight hours out here on my own was enough to learn that I’m not strong enough to survive this by myself.”
Easton shakes his head. “You are, Oakley,” he says. “We followed you this whole time, tracking your movements and watching you through CCTV, and the way you’ve survived has only proven just how strong you are. You did what you had to do to get this far—”
Anything else he was going to say is cut off when an alarm sounds through Zade’s phone. All eyes turn to him, and I watch as he unlocks his phone and looks down at the screen. “Fuck,” he spits a moment later. “The jet has been compromised.”
“What? What do you mean jet?” I ask.
“We weren’t about to drive twelve hours across the country only to get here too late,” Dalton tells me, his hand on my thigh. “We took one of Empire’s jets, and clearly the risk paid off. We got you back in one piece.”
“But, how do you know the jet has been compromised? What’s happening?”
Zade reaches back, handing me his phone, and I look down at the screen, watching a live feed of men storming through a jet and planting explosives. I suck in a gasp, horror resting in my chest. “How did they find it?”
“All of Empire’s jets have tracking systems,” Zade tells me. “It’s just a question of whether they’re smart enough to hack into it or not. Either way, you might as well get comfortable. We’re in for the long haul now.”
Well, shit. A twelve-hour drive across the country, stuck in the back with these three guys. I wonder what we could possibly do to pass the time.
Turning back to Easton, a smile pulls at the corner of my lips, and within seconds, the same, devilish smile tears across his face. He knows exactly what’s about to go down.
Chapter 10
OAKLEY
We’ve barely hit the highway when my lips lock onto Easton’s and his arms wrap around my body, holding me so damn close I can barely breathe. I kiss him with everything I’ve got, letting the fear, grief, and pain of the last few days seep out of my body, leaving me with nothing but pure passion and desperation.
It’s only been two days since the explosion, but so much has happened since then, and I feel as though a whole lifetime has passed.
Feeling him harden beneath me, I grind down against him, groaning with pleasure before tipping my head back. His lips trail down to the base of my throat, and my eyes roll in the back of my head, loving the way he works his tongue over my skin.
