Her eyes shift, softer now. Pleading.
“I just want to help, please.”
Fuck me.
My grip doesn’t ease.
“Promise me, Aspen. Promise you won’t do anything that puts you in danger. Promise you’ll obey for once.” It doesn’t come out like an order. It’s a plea.
Because if I lose her too? If she gets taken like Dante…
I don’t know what I’ll become.
“I promise, Knox,” she whispers.
I search her face, eyes flicking across hers, desperate to catch even a flicker of a lie, but it’s not there.
She means it.
I finally release her throat, letting her breathe properly again. My hand falls to her waist instead.
“We’ll find a way, sweetheart,” Max says softly, lifting his hand.
She takes it, letting him pull her down beside him.
“You need to trust us,” he adds, “and we need to trust you for this to work.”
She nods, quiet. “I know.”
Her fingers slip into his hair, playing gently, and Max closes his eyes like it’s the only peace he’s had in days.
Aspen is the only thing grounding us now.
The only reason we haven’t completely lost our shit.
I sink back into my chair. We have to find a solution today. Dante’s been in there too long. And as much as I try to believe he’salive, that he’s still fighting, part of me… part of me fears he’s not.
But I don’t say that out loud.
I can’t.
I just pray he’s still holding on, doing whatever he has to do to stay alive until we get to him.
“I’m going to lie down for a bit,” Aspen murmurs. “My head hurts.”
She leans down and presses a kiss to the top of Max’s head.
Then she moves to Ryker, doing the same.
When she rounds the table and reaches me, she pulls my head down gently and kisses it too, but when she turns to leave, I grab her hand.
She stops and looks back at me.
“Please,” I say. “Don’t do anything, Aspen. I’ll get Dante back. I promise.”
Her eyes soften.
“I know, Reaper,” she whispers.
