I nipped that curve. “Just okay.”
A pat to my back. “Don’t worry,” she murmured. “We have plenty of time to work on it.”
I growled, nibbled at her jaw, her throat.
She giggled.
And I felt like the luckiest man on the planet all over again.
Especially when she slipped her fingers into the hair on my nape and said, “I love you, too.”
The rain slowed to a drizzle.
The sun continued its descent.
The heat returned, not enough to drive us inside, but keeping it warm enough that we stayed outside, the rain drying from our bodies. Ava yawned and rested her head on my chest.
“For the record,” she said. “That was better than okay.”
Twenty-Eight
Central Georgia
Dan’s cabin
09:55hrs local time
Ava
Luna 2.0 wasn’t Luna.
But she was pretty damned good.
Lighter than her predecessor, but with good range and a reliable scope.
I’d spent the morning on my belly, practicing on targets Dan had set up in a clearing behind the cabin.
And though my ankle was aching, my abdomen sore from the exercise, I’d felt like Luna 2.0 and I had gone on a great first date.
“Here’s to many more,” I whispered, stretching my neck and getting ready to pack it in for the moment. The sun had risen, bringing with it all the heat and humidity of the day. And while I’d enjoyed the lazy afternoon and evening yesterday, I was stiff, hungry, and ready for a shower.
Snap.
I didn’t immediately react, thinking it was Dan coming out to tell me to take a break. The man could be pushy as hell—case in point, pushing through my walls, not to mention the way he’d gotten my stubborn ass to look inward and reconsider what I’d always thought was the only path for my life. But he was also good, and I wasn’t stupid enough to not appreciate that he’d fought for me, that he loved me because of who I was and what I’d survived, instead of in spite of all that.
And he loved me.
Me.
When I’d spent so much of my life thinking that was impossible.
I loved him.
Another seemingly impossible feat, and yet something that was . . . so fucking easy. Because it felt right and incredible and like every one of the ragged edges inside me was soothed when he was near.
Snap.
I shifted, preparing to call out, knowing he wouldn’t be able to see me readily because I’d moved from the center of the clearing into the shade of a tree about forty-five minutes before.
I might have grown up in the heat of Mediterranean summers, but I swore I was going to wither away in these Southern ones.
Smiling, I pushed my glasses up the bridge of my sweaty nose, reached for the scope, readying to unscrew it, to put it into the case beside me—
Snap.
My nape prickled.
Because that was the third noise, the third opportunity for Dan to announce himself.
And he hadn’t.
And my instincts were screaming.
I lifted my head slowly, eyes searching, ears open and listening.
Snap.
Closer this time. Close enough that Dan would have certainly announced himself.
Close enough that the person was dangerously close.
Movement at my back had me leaping up, gripping Luna 2.0 tightly as I spun and faced—
Daniel.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” I said.
“I’m hard to kill.” He smirked, crossed his arms, and leaned back against the tree, less than ten feet from me. The man was handsome, I’d give him that. Large biceps, narrow hips, a pretty face with a strong jaw and kissable lips. Too bad he was an absolute fucker.
Still, he was also close, an easy enough target to shoot.
I lifted my rifle.
“You sure you want to do that?” he asked, stretching casually, and I saw the faint pink line on his throat that must have been the result of Laila’s knife at the warehouse.
I put my finger on the trigger. “Pretty fucking sure.”
“You’re not even going to ask where your boy-toy is?”
I had to work not to react, worry for Dan coursing through me. I couldn’t think about that, not at the moment, not when I wasn’t certain that Daniel had come alone. Because I was fairly certain he hadn’t.
“How do you know about this place?” I asked instead of biting.
A shrug. “Property records are easy to trace when you know what to look for.” His eyes flicked to the side, the barest amount of movement I barely detected.
But one I detected just in time.
I swiveled on my cast, my ankle protesting the movement.
I was fast enough anyway, dodging the man creeping up behind me, not bothering to consider as I fired off two rounds that hit him right in his chest. He collapsed to the ground, dead before his body hit the dirt, and I spun back, seeing Daniel had taken several steps toward me.
Pointing the barrel of the gun at his crotch, I asked archly, “Are you attached to that part?”
Palms up, he leaned back against the tree again.
“How’s that ankle?”
“Fucking fabulous,” I snapped. “Why are you here?”
“Turns out that your dear cousin Sergio would like a word with you.”
I expanded my senses, certain there were more of the enemy out there. “And you’re what? A fucking lapdog?”
Anger on that handsome face. “I’ve got something important now,” he spat.
“Evil on your soul?” I countered.
A slow, sickening smile. “Power,” he said, pushing off the tree again. “So much power that you idiots at the agency don’t even know what you’re missing. Come with me to Sergio, join your family, and fulfill your legacy. We can rule the fucking world if we play our cards right.”
“How?” I asked, lifting the gun slightly higher when he took a step toward me. “By trading in people, in innocents?” I shook my head. “I can never do that.”
“Can’t you?” he asked condescendingly. “Haven’t you already perfected that?”
Once the memory might have had my stomach twisting itself into knots, horror at my past actions making me sick. Today, I knew that I hadn’t forgiven myself, but I also knew I wasn’t that child of the Toscalos any longer, hadn’t been one of them for a very long time.
And I wouldn’t ever be again.
A shift in the air to my right, to my left, behind me.
Surrounded.
Fuck.
Where was Dan?
In front of me, Daniel smiled, and I watched him almost from outside my body, sensing his nod almost before he completed it.
Air moved.
I dropped to my knees, out of reach of the first man who came for me.
Pop. Pop.
Dead.
I rolled, spun around, aimed at the one on the other side.
But the cast made me slow, a little clumsy, and it took three bullets to bring him down. I started to push up, but before I could move again, shift to hit the final man bursting through the trees, a hand grabbed my hair, yanking my head back, pain exploding in my scalp.
Daniel grabbed Luna 2.0 and tossed her to the side.
“Enough,” he muttered when I threw an elbow, clawed at his hand, kicked back with my good foot. “I said, enough.” He punched me hard in the temple, making my vision blacken for a moment, my breath come in rapid gusts.