“Once Tom’s safe, I’m going to rip that son of a bitch limb from limb for what he’s done to us both. I want the bounty on my head erased from existence.”
“One thing at a time.” I adjust the back of her vest, tugging it down to her tailbone. “First Tom. Kill Luis. Then we deal with Gael and his bounty. No one else is going to come looking.”
“That easy?” She tsks.
“Not exactly, but we’ll get it done.”
When I move to step away from her, Ember’s hand catches mine. Her lip is trapped between her teeth, forming a bright-red petal against her pearly white.
“What is it?” I step back up to her.
“Just… tell me he’ll be alive.” Her croak betrays a glimpse of her inner vulnerability. “Tell me we made it in time.”
“You know Luis wouldn’t risk killing Tom.”
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“Your brother is tough. You should’ve heard him calling Warner every week on the dot to demand updates when we were searching for you. Give him some credit. He’s a survivor.”
“That’s different. You don’t know Gael and his…methods.”
“You think he’s my first monster?” I laugh without humour. “Think again. I’ve seen plenty of his kind even before I joined Sabre. I know what he’s capable of.”
Fear inches over her delicate oval features to warp her face into a twisted caricature. I wince at my own idiocy. Right… Not the correct thing to say when she’s secretly terrified for her only sibling.
Wonder what that’s like.
I prefer to pretend mine doesn’t exist.
Dropping my chin to her shoulder, I circle my arms around her cargo-clad figure from behind. Ember is stiff but slowly relaxes into my hold as I maintain eye contact in the mirror.
“My point is, Tom has waited all these years to get you back. I know for a fact that he would endure just about anything to have the time with you that he prayed for.”
“But if they’ve hurt him?—”
“Then we will deal with it,” I say with certainty. “They’ll pay in blood, and we’ll ship their carcasses back to the monster who sent them to find you.”
“Gael will only send more in their place.” Her expression is bleak.
“Then I’ll kill each and every one of them too. When we track down Gael, he’ll receive the same treatment. No one is going to hurt you or this team again.”
Pulling at my arms, Ember turns to face me. She lifts a hand to cup my jaw, her fingertips skating along my cheekbone and beneath my eye. A slow, luxuriating shiver rolls down my spine at the feel of her fingers on my skin.
“You’d risk so much for me.”
“Are you only just realising that?” I study her reaction.
“I’m understanding the reality of it. You had to spend all those months in Mexico. It was your job. But everything you’ve done for me since… I guess I still don’t understand why.”
Disbelief tugs at my quivering heartstrings.
“How could you not understand?”
“Because I was just a job,” she replies like it’s obvious. “Perhaps I still am.”
“You’re a member of our team, Em.”
Her mouth turns down at the corners. “Right.”
