“You about to blow this popsicle stand?”
“Sweetheart, if you’re willing to kidnap me without release papers, I’m willing to be kidnapped.”
“Maybe we should wait for the papers,” she said with a shrug. She saw the flicker of disappointment in his eyes, but it melted into a smile.
Her eyes found Teller across the room and this time, she didn’t look away. He stared back, unreadable, arms crossed like he hadn’t just inserted himself into something that wasn’t his to touch.
She felt the heat rise in her chest, the sharp desire to call him out on his bullshit right there, in front of everyone. Let him know she didn’t appreciate being handled.
When the brothers finally cleared out, the room felt too quiet.
The door clicked shut behind the last one, and with it went the laughter, the teasing, the buffer that had kept everything light.
Diamond hated the silence that settled in their wake.
It pressed in on her, heavy and uninvited, dragging all the things she’d kept pushed down straight to the surface.
She looked at Sayer—really looked this time. The bruises stood out more in the stillness. So did the lines around his mouth, the stiffness in the way he held himself.
Without the noise, there was no hiding from the truth of it. How much she cared. Biting the bullet, she asked the question that had been eating at her for the past hour.
“Teller said you might want to head back with them?”
Sayer arched a brow. “Trying to get rid of me already?”
He said it with a smile, but when he saw the seriousness in her eyes, the joke faded.
“Why would I wanna head back with them and not you?”
“I’m just saying that’s what Teller told me.”
“Fuck Teller,” he said without hesitation. “He’s looking out for the chapter. I get that. But I’m not worried about the chapter right now. I’m worried about you. Aboutus … whatever this is.”
Diamond held his gaze. “So what you’re saying is... you’re with me until we get back home?”
“Yeah, sweetheart,” he said with a grin. “I’m riding shotgun all the way home. Just watch the bumps, okay?”
She gave him a slow wink. “I’ll try not to hit them.”
Before either of them could say more, the door opened and a nurse stepped inside, release papers in hand.
Diamond didn’t hear a word the woman said.
Her focus was locked on Sayer, caught in the quiet gravity between them—where all the things they hadn’t said lingered in the space of one shared look.
There was a lot said in that one look.
Too much, maybe.
There was so much she didn’t know about him. Things he hadn’t offered, and he hadn’t asked. Ghosts she hadn’t named. Wounds she hadn’t shown.
Did any of it matter?Would it matter to him,she wondered.
Would he still look at her the same way once the road got long and quiet, and there was nothing left to distract from the weight of her past?
But Sayer just held her gaze, steady and sure, like whatever he saw in her right now was enough. And for the first time in a long time, Diamond let herself believe that maybe it was.
Sayer didn’t hear a word the nurse said either.
