“You don’t need to thank me, Cara. I’m where I want to be.”
“Stop being cute,” she whispers, pulling back and kissing me softly. Her hands rest on the side of my neck, her breasts pressed up against me.
I do mean it.
I am right where I want to be.
Even being chased by gang members, I want to be by her side.
I’ve never felt this way about a woman before. I’ve always enjoyed them and loved being around them, but I was never emotionally attached to any of them. I could take or leave them—it wouldn’t have bothered me either way, as fucked up as that is.
It’s a whole different world with Cara.
And I’m happy to be here.
It’s been a while since I’ve had something to lose, and although it’s scary, it’s also set my soul on fire.
Clover walks into the kitchen and wraps her arms around the two of us in a group hug. “Are we celebrating another day of breathing?”
“Something like that,” Cara replies, and I can hear the smile in her voice.
Clover lets go of us, pulls out a stool and sits next to me. “What do you think about the Marko meet-up?”
“It’s obviously a setup,” I comment.
“Yeah, but if we show up with all of our people, what can they do?” Clover replies, leaning her arms back against the kitchen countertop. “We can’t keep living like this. I think we just need to meet this guy and either come to an agreement or get him arrested. Those are our two options. I mean, there is a third, but it would probably mean one of us would end up in prison. And Uncle Arrow told me all about prison—it doesn’t sound like somewhere I’d like to go.”
“Your mom would get you out somehow,” Cara reminds her.
Clover shrugs, nodding. “Also true.”
“Let me guess, we say we are meeting him one on one. Meanwhile, all of his people and ours are there waiting to come out into the action?”
“Exactly,” Felix says. “Except he wants Cara to be the one to meet him so they can talk.”
“No fucking way.” I shut that down instantly. “Cara has nothing to do with what happened.”
“Yeah, but he’s fixated on her.”
“Exactly why she won’t be going,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Then who else is going to go?” Cara asks, scowling. “Decker, it has to be me. I appreciate you trying to protect me—in fact, it’s pretty damn sexy—but I need to do this. This is how it ends.”
“How does it end?” I ask, frowning. “With you getting your way by following your original plan of being the bait?”
“Yes.” She smirks.
“We can play this to our advantage,” Felix says, slapping me on the back. “I’ll tell Atlas we will meet this Marko.”
When the girls leave, Felix continues our conversation. “Let the women think that Cara is going to meet Marko, but really we can send Rhett in when he gets here. When did he say he would be back? Tomorrow?”
I nod, feeling uneasy. Is it because of the meet, or because Rhett is returning? Most likely it’s both. Rhett returning is going to save Cara, but if something happens to him, I know how upset Cara is going to be.
Do I think Rhett will want Cara back? He’d be an idiot not to, but I can’t worry about that right now. As long as she doesn’t want to be with him, I don’t give a fuck what he wants.
“Let’s just see how this plays out,” Felix murmurs, as the girls reenter the room.
“Okay,” I agree.
But Cara is not walking in to meet Marko alone.
I spend the night making love to her, and when morning comes I feel sick in my stomach. I’m not going to let anything happen to her, but there’s always a chance that something can go wrong.
“You okay?” she asks as she exits the bathroom, a white fluffy towel wrapped around her. Her hair is still a little wet, dripping down her shoulders, her cheeks flushed from the hot water and steam.
I want to tell her that I love her, just in case, but I don’t.
I’ll tell her when this is all over.
“Yeah, you look beautiful.”
She smiles widely, removes the towel and uses it to dry her hair, the sunlight from the window hitting her perfect body. “It’s all going to be fine. It’s going to take a lot more than a street gang with mommy issues to take us all down.”
My lip twitches. “I know. If anything goes down, you get the hell out of there, though, all right?”
She doesn’t reply, and we both know she wouldn’t leave anyone behind to save herself. Instead she bends forward to kiss me. “I’m going to be okay. And then we can go back to our normal lives, whatever the hell that may be. I’ll get a job at a school around here, you can go back to work and we can live our lives together. How does that sound?”
“Pretty fucking good,” I admit. She smiles, then continues to get ready.
“You know I’ll do whatever I have to do to protect you, right?” I warn her, trying to keep my tone light.
“I wouldn’t expect any less from you, Decker,” she replies, amusement in her tone.
She isn’t going to be amused when she finds out what I have planned, but I’m going to have to do the whole asking for forgiveness instead of permission thing.
And pray that she can forgive me.
* * *
When I can’t sleep later that evening, I head into work, running into Nadia when I get there.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, glancing at my watch. “It’s late.”
“I could ask the same about you.” She smirks, lifting her eyes from her laptop. “I just wanted to tie up some loose ends and now was the only time I could come in. Why are you here? How is Cara?”
“She’s fine.” I left her in bed, just needing to clear my head a little. And something keeps bothering me about our plan. I don’t like it. I don’t like that I haven’t told Cara about Rhett, and I don’t like that our plan is essentially to go there and somehow survive. I need it to be better. And I need to be honest with Cara no matter how angry she gets at me.
I sit down and open my laptop. “I’m glad you’re here. I need to find out all the dirt I can on this guy. It’s a life-or-death kind of situation.”
Nadia’s eyes light up with excitement. “Give me his name; I’ll help you.”