He hadn’t really left since.They’d gone together to pick up a few of his things, for Summer to see where he lived—a confirmed bachelor pad in an apartment complex about five miles away—then returned home.
Chloe couldn’t be happier to have her precious Ah-ta around.Even if his arm was in a funny cast.She was now napping and they were taking advantage of the calm to do the same.
“I was just thinking about Tyrone Marcus.”
Ashton sighed.“Yeah, he’ll be sorely missed.”
More tears leaked from her eyes.“I thought they were going to kill you.That I was going to watch you die in front of me.”
“I’m amazed you even want to be here with me right now.Nobody would blame you if you didn’t want to be involved with someone who works in law enforcement.You’ve been privy to way too much personal violence in your life.”
Summer shrugged.“I wasn’t there when Tyler died, so even though that was horrible, I didn’t really experience it.When Bailey Heath kidnapped us a few months ago, she drugged us first.I was never fully conscious for that.Don’t even remember much, unlike Laura and Joe.”
She took a shuddery breath.“Butthis.I thought they would kill you and then Chloe and I would be at Harper’s mercy.”
He put his good arm around her and pulled her close.“Even if they had killed me, the team was out there.No way Curtis was going to get to you.”
“I can’t believe he thought you would actually come alone.”
He kissed her forehead.“If there’s one thing Curtis Harper seems to excel at, it’s deluding himself.”
She snuggled closer.“I might not ever be able to let you out of my sight again.”
“I know the feeling.”She felt his lips against her hair.“When Harper told me you’d been taken off the plane...When he had just enough details for me to know he’d somehow really managed to kidnap you and Chloe...I almost couldn’t function.”
So many things could’ve gone wrong.If Ashton had been five seconds later in figuring out that Damien had placed a bomb under the house, they would both be dead.
But they weren’t.
She kissed the side of his chest and, twisting around, pushed herself up until she was sitting across Ashton’s hips, straddling him.“I say, since we’re both so dang grateful that the other is alive and relatively unhurt—and since the baby will be sleeping for another hour—that we should celebrate life.”
“Sounds perfect to me.”
She saw him wince as he moved his injured shoulder reaching for her.She put a finger in the middle of his chest and pushed him back down.
“But in this celebration, you’re going to let me do all the work.”
The sudden flash of his bad-boy grin stopped her heart.He tucked his good arm under his head as he looked up at her, heat smoldering in his eyes.Had she truly ever thought this man shy?
“By all means, I would never turn down the request of a lady.”
She heard him suck in a breath as she pulled her T-shirt over her head, and felt him harden beneath her hips.She loved that she had this effect on him.
“That’s right, you save your strength for figuring out who this Damien guy is tomorrow.But right now—” she leaned down to kiss him “—right now is just for us.”
* * *
ASHTONDIDN’TWANTto leave Summer to go back to the hospital the next day, but he knew he had to.
Curtis Harper had woken up.The man had survived the explosion.If Lillian’s shot in his shoulder hadn’t propelled him across the room, he’d most definitely be dead now.
The rest of the Omega Team wasn’t so lucky.Not only had promising young agent Tyrone Marcus died, but a few halls down, Roman Weber lay in a coma, back and arm covered in second-degree burns.The locked door he’d found leading to the crawl space under the house—the one that had tipped Ashton off that they were all in grave danger—had blown off and hit him on the head.For all the damage it had done, it had also probably saved Roman’s life, covering him and protecting him from much of the heat of the explosion.
Between Tyrone’s death and Roman’s severe injuries, whoever this mystery man was who’d masterminded the entire scenario had just jumped to the top of Omega Sector’s wish list.Not a comfortable place for any criminal to be.The mystery man had no idea who he was messing with.
But he was about to find out.
But for right now, they had Harper.He wasn’t dead, but he probably wished he was.He’d be in the hospital for a long time, recovering from the burns that covered a great deal of his body.And then once he did, he’d be going to jail.
