She wasn’t cold.

Alex had seen to that.

Somehow, he’d managed to get her a blanket and a cup of hot coffee. She was sitting in the back of Nate’s car, with officers surrounding the vehicle.

Protection.

Because Alex was sitting with her.

She couldn’t identify all the law enforcement on the scene. Nate, obviously. He’d been the first to arrive, just a minute behind Alex. He’d burst into the building, a metal pipe in his hand, ready to do whatever he could to ensure her safety.

But Alex had taken care of that.

Kellan had arrived later, along with officers from Bentley PD and BCA. She wasn’t sure, but there might have been some federal agents there, too.

“Tell me again where Necco is.”

Alex smiled. “They took him to the hospital, remember?”

She didn’t. She remembered everything that happened at the shootout with vivid clarity, but the moments after were a blur.

“Hospital?”

“Nothing serious,” Alex said. “They took him because he’s a minor and because they wanted to make sure he didn’t sustain any injuries.”

She nodded. That made sense.

“Speaking of…” Alex stared pointedly at her. “You should go in. Your ankle.”

Cam frowned. “I’ll be fine.”

“You probably need a brace.”

“Yeah, well you probably needed an MRI for your ribs and stitches for your wound,” she shot back.

“Touché.”

She sipped her coffee. The night had grown chilly, but she wasn’t sure if she was shaking from the temperature or from something else.

“Thank you for finding me,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry I walked out on you.”

“You should be.”

She looked at him. “I am,” she said simply. “I wanted to help. I thought I could do it on my own. Turns out I just made a big mess of everything.”

“But you didn’t,” he told her. He reached for her hand and warmth flooded her as his fingers closed over hers. “Your methods might have been a little…lacking…but the end result was not.”

She shuddered. “Necco almost died.”

He frowned, his voice shaky as he whispered, “So did you.”

She knew this, but for some reason that didn’t carry nearly as much weight with her. She would have never forgiven herself if Necco had died because of her actions.

The sea of officers surrounding the car parted. Nate and Kellan appeared.

Nate spoke first. “You okay?” he asked gruffly.

She nodded.

Kellan looked her over, not bothering to hide his concern. “Nate managed to debrief me. Your friend here did, too.” He nodded at Alex. “I’ll want to talk to you about all of this.”

She nodded again, a little guiltily this time.

Kellan gave her a grim smile. “Your head might have muddled the normal process for investigations like this.”

That felt like a massive understatement.

“But your heart was in the right place.” Kellan’s gaze softened, his unique way of smiling without moving his mouth. She was forgiven.

He and Nate left.

Cam leaned back against the seat. Kellan had hit the nail on the head.

It was what happened where Alex was concerned.

Her heart was in control.

She chanced a glance at him. He was staring at her, his eyes so intense that they felt like they might burn holes into her.

“What happens now?” she asked softly.

He blinked. “Oh. I don’t actually know. I spoke with my chief, gave him a statement about the shooting and then what happened here. Amazingly, a couple of guys in the unit spoke up and corroborated my account. So I think this might all blow over. Eventually.”

“And your gang?”

“That’s slightly more complicated,” he admitted. “I’m still a marked man, at least around here. Aspen Falls, too, considering people found me there.”

Cam’s heart hitched.

“I’ll need to talk with the feds, talk to BCA. We’ll come up with a plan. Right now, with my testimony, we have enough to arrest several of them and lock them up for a good long while. I’m just not sure how that’s all going to play out for me with my cover blown.”

Cam nodded. A heaviness settled over her chest.

They’d diffused the threat.

So why was Alex still in danger?

It was a futile question.

She knew exactly why.

Because the situation was nuanced. Complicated.

Just because one threat had been taken care of didn’t mean other enemies would stand down. It was the whole reason helping him had been so difficult—because it really had felt like there was no safe place to go.

And that was where they still were.

“You’ll leave.” She said it as a statement, not a question.

His hand tightened over hers. “I don’t have a choice. At least not right now.”

She drew in a shaky breath. “I don’t want you to go.”

It was a hard thing to admit, but fuck it. She’d nearly died. She was going to say what was on her mind, the consequences be damned.

He pulled her toward him. “I don’t want to leave you,” he whispered against her hair. “I lost you for twelve years. Now that I’ve found you again, I don’t ever want to let you go.”

Tears stung her eyes.

She knew what they both wanted.

But that wasn’t the reality.

The reality was that she would go back to Aspen Falls and Alex would go somewhere else. He’d make a new life for himself. Reinvent himself again.

And Cam would have no part of it.

His lips moved from her hair to her temple, a whisper-soft kiss that made her toes curl. Slowly, his mouth traveled to her nose, then her cheek, finally settling on her lips. Greedily, she breathed him in. She wanted to sear every taste, every touch, every scent of him into her memory. She plunged her hands into his thick short hair and crushed her lips to his.

Fate would once again steal him from her life, but it couldn’t take this moment away. She was going to savor every minute of it.

He kissed her with abandon, his lips sucking hers, their tongues tangled together. She wanted more. So much more.

Finally, he broke free of her embrace. “This isn’t goodbye,” he told her.

Her throat felt tight.

He could say those words, but it didn’t make them true.

She knew better.

And she knew he did, too.

They would need a miracle to figure out a way to stay together.

And miracles didn’t happen to people like Cam and Alex, kids who’d grown up with the cards stacked against them from the start. Hell, their miracle had been simply getting out of their neighborhood.

They didn’t have any miracles left.