"Last chance," Vance says, pressing the gun harder against my head. "Drop it."
"You know I can't do that," Finn replies, his aim never wavering. "But I can offer you a deal. Let her go, and you walk out of here. I give you a head start. That's the best offer you're going to get."
Vance laughs, the sound vibrating through his chest against my back. "You think I'm stupid? The moment I let her go, you'll put a bullet between my eyes."
"Maybe," Finn concedes. "But your options are limited. My brothers are on their way back. In about two minutes, this cabin will be surrounded by very angry McKennas. Your only chance of walking away from this is to take my deal."
I feel Vance hesitate, calculating odds, possibilities, escape routes. His grip on me loosens fractionally as his attention splits between Finn and his own survival.
It's the only opening I'll get.
I drive my elbow back with all my strength, catching him in the solar plexus exactly as Finn taught me. As he gasps, doubling over, I twist away, throwing myself to the floor.
Finn fires the instant I'm clear. Once. Twice. Three times.
Vance crumples, his unfired gun clattering to the floor beside him. His eyes meet mine one last time, confusion replacing theemptiness, as if he can't understand how his perfect plan has gone so wrong.
Then the light goes out of them, and he's just a body on the floor of Finn's cabin. Just a man who thought obsession was the same as love.
Finn is beside me instantly, pulling me into his arms with a desperation that matches my own. His hands move over me, checking for injuries, reassuring himself that I'm whole, that I'm safe, that I'm still his to protect.
"You're hurt," I say, touching the blood on his face. "What happened? How did you know to come back?"
"Vance set a trap. Tripwire with a flash bang. I got separated from the others, disoriented for a while." His hands cup my face, eyes searching mine with an intensity that steals my breath. "When I came to, I knew something was wrong. Knew he'd doubled back to the cabin. To you."
"I left the panic room," I confess, needing him to understand why I broke the one promise he asked of me. "I saw him on the monitors. I thought. I was afraid you were hurt or worse, and I couldn't just hide while you were in danger."
I expect anger. Disappointment. A lecture on following security protocols and not taking unnecessary risks.
Instead, he kisses me. Hard and desperate and full of everything we've been too afraid to say directly. His hands tangle in my hair, holding me to him as if he's afraid I might disappear if he loosens his grip.
When we break apart, both breathless, he rests his forehead against mine. "Don't ever do that again. I can't lose you, Nova. I can't."
"You didn't lose me. You saved me. Again."
"We saved each other." He pulls back enough to meet my eyes, his own filled with an emotion I've been waiting to seewithout reservation or qualification. "I love you, Nova. God help me, but I do."
The words I've been waiting for. The truth we've both been circling since that first kiss by the fireplace. Since the night we spent in each other's arms. Since every moment since when we pretended what we feel is temporary or circumstantial or anything other than what it is.
Love.Simple and complicated and terrifying and wonderful.
"I love you too," I say, the words coming easily now that he's broken the barrier between us. "I think I have since the moment you walked into my house in Los Angeles and promised to keep me safe."
He smiles, a rare full smile that transforms his face, makes him look younger, unburdened by the weight of protection and responsibility he carries so naturally.
"Even though I'm a grumpy mountain man who lives too far from civilization and has too many security protocols?"
"Because of those things. Because you're exactly who I need. Who I want."
He kisses me again, gentler this time but no less filled with promise. With future. With the certainty that whatever comes next, we face it together.
The sound of running footsteps and shouted questions announces the arrival of his brothers, drawn back by the gunshots. But Finn doesn't release me, doesn't step away, doesn't pretend this is anything other than what it is.
A man holding the woman he loves. A woman who has finally found where she belongs.
In his arms. On his mountain. Home.
9
