Time passed.

Seconds and minutes blurred together in an endless loop. Braiden didn’t come back. Neither did Cole or Shaughnessy. There was no sign of Max, the cops, or anyone who could help us. We were stuck here, and no one was coming to save us. Jackson and I stopped trying to reassure one another. He was lost in his own thoughts, probably regretting his decision ever to leave Ana and his unborn child to help Braiden. At least, she was safe and far away from this nightmare.

I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes when the door handle rattled. It swung open, and Jackson and I shifted. Cole Calder wheeled himself into the room as Shaughnessy dragged a limp Braiden behind him.

“Taking you was a mistake,” Cole said. “I wanted to believe he was the same—that he cared only about himself—but I see now that’s not the case. And you—” He turned to Jackson. “After everything he did to you, you would stand by his side?”

Jackson nodded. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Understand what? Loyalty? Brotherhood? Family? You forget who I am, where I come from. It was in the name of family that I ended up like this, was it not?”

Cole spoke with the poise of someone much older, and I couldn’t help but wonder how what Braiden had done to him changed him. Something like that stayed with you and ate away at your soul.

“A lot of time has passed, Cole.”

“Yet here I am still crippled.”

“He’s changed.”

“Can a leopard ever truly change its spots? Braiden might love her, he might care for the friend he once called brother, but when it comes down to it, would he really choose to sacrifice himself? In the name of what? Love? Braiden Donohue isn’t capable of love.”

Cole aimed the gun at Jackson and then slowly dragged it to me. “When faced with the choice, what will it be?”

Fear gripped my heart and the blood pumping through my veins turned to ice. Braiden’s eyes connected with mine, and in that split second, I saw everything he’d fought so hard to shelter me from.

Shame.

Guilt.

Self-loathing.

It was all there, immersed in pools of electric blue. But I also saw something else. Underneath all the hate, I saw Braiden’s vulnerability. His desire to be a better man—for me, for his friend. I wasn’t the one at the end of the gun, but it was as if our lives flashed before my eyes—or what could have been. A little boy with eyes the color of the sea, laughing as his father threw him in the air while I watched with a smile. A feeling of completeness settled over me, and then, as Braiden’s eyes shuttered, a stark sense of emptiness tore through me.

“It’s me you want. I plunged that knife into you. I can still remember the way it slid in like butter. I could have stopped myself, but I wanted to hurt you. I wanted you to know that I had the power to hurt you. That you could never touch me, but I could rip away everything from you.” Braiden shrugged out of Shaughnessy’s hold and started toward me as if it was some beautifully choreographed swansong.

The distraction worked, and Cole moved his focus off me and onto Braiden who came around and put himself in the middle of us. “Am I sorry you’re like this?” he said with conviction. “I’ll never forgive myself. But what’s done is done. You’ll never walk again, and I have to live with the knowledge that I caused that for the rest of my life.”

“You’d choose her? You’d die for her?”

“A thousand times over.”

“It doesn’t change anything. I should end her, make you live with the knowledge that you killed her. That is more than you deserve, yet I can’t seem to bring myself to do it. You do love her; I see it now. If I take her away from you, it will eat you alive. But it would be my own death sentence, wouldn’t it? You’d spend the rest of your days hunting me down. So there is only one choice ...”

“Noooo!” I screamed, lurching forward with the ferocity of my cry.

A gunshot rang out, reverberating around the room, and I crumpled to the cold floor, unable to open my eyes through the gush of tears. Unwilling to accept he was gone.

Braiden was gone.

My heart stopped and shattered into a thousand tiny shards, and I hugged myself tight, sobbing into the emptiness.

“Everyone okay?”

Voices barely filtered through my hysteria as pain splintered through me, filling every crack, and I fought for breath.

“Cara,” a deep voice said.

“No, no,” I cried, unsure of what was real anymore. Had I dreamed the whole thing? Was this a dream? I’d heard the shot. Braiden was gone. Killed out of revenge. An eye for an eye.

“Look at me, Cara.”

“No, I-I can’t. You’re not real. You’re ... you’re gone; he took you.” A hand slid to my cheek, coaxing my face upward, and I found myself swimming in eyes the color of the sky on a summer’s day. “Is this real?”

I blinked up at the mirage. I wanted to pull my eyes away and see for myself. But I couldn’t move.

“It’s real. You’re safe. It’s over.” Braiden pulled me to him, forgetting my wrists were still bound, and I fell helplessly against him. Our cheeks collided, blood mixing with tears, but it didn’t matter.

Braiden was alive.

“I thought you were gone,” I murmured against his skin as he undid the ropes around my wrists. When they finally broke free, I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life.

“Careful,” Braiden urged, wincing under my desperate grip.

He was a mess, but I needed this. I needed to know this was real.

“You’re hurt.” My hands brushed down his neck, and I tilted his jaw to look at his face.

Braiden’s hand covered mine. “I’m fine. I’ll be fine.” He pulled away, leaning down, and his mouth lingered over mine as if he couldn’t quite believe this was real either. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

He kissed me softly, cradling me to him as if I was delicate glass that might shatter under his touch at any second. But then his mouth moved harder, desperate, and his fingers dug into my skin, pulling me closer. I knew at that moment that everything would work itself out.

So long as we had each other, everything would be fine.

BRAIDEN

“You good?” Frankie O’Connor glanced back at where Max and Jackson were standing with Cara.

I nodded, my eyes landing on her. “I will be.” My body ached, the cuts and bruises sore and tender, and I was almost certain Shaughnessy had broken a rib or two, but it could wait.

“You need to get that looked at.” He motioned to my face. It hurt like a bitch, but nothing compared to the pain I’d felt looking at Cara one last time. The thought of never seeing her again ... never holding her. It was something I didn’t ever plan to feel again.

A strong hand gripped my shoulder. “We’ll take care of this. Take my daughter home.”

I met his steely glare. “Just like that?”

“She’s made her choice, Braiden. You were prepared to sacrifice yourself to save her. That’s all I need to know.”

“What’ll happen to him?” I flicked my head to Calder. The shot wasn’t lethal, and he lay awkwardly on the floor, writhing in pain.

“Does it matter?”

“No.” It didn’t. Coming at me was one thing, but taking Cara was his undoing.

“And Shaughnessy?”

O’Connor loosened his tie. “Already taken care of.”

“Good.”

“Go.” He shoved me forward. “She needs you.”

As if she heard her father’s words, Cara’s head snapped up to mine, and the air sucked from my lungs. And then we were moving toward one another. I scooped her up in my arms, burying her face against me.

“I’m never letting you out of my sight again. Ever,” I whispered into her hair.

“Good.” Her murmur tickled my neck.

“I’ll fuck up. I can’t promise this is the end. There’s a list of guys out there just waiting to take their shot, but I swear to you, I’d die a thousand times over before anyone touches you. Do you understand?” I brushed her hair off her neck and pressed a kiss there. “You’re it for me. My beginning. My end. Everything.”

Cara pulled back, staring intently at me, her eyes glossy with tears. “I love you so much.”

“You do, huh?”

“When I thought you were gone, it felt like I was dying. I never want to feel that again.”

Pain rushed to my chest, twisting around my heart and dragging the air from my lungs. There was movement around us. Jackson and Max. O’Connor and his guys. But they all paled into insignificance until there was just us.

“I don’t deserve you.” I leaned in and captured her lips.

“I promise to make you work for me every day.”

That, I could do.

JACKSON

I turned away, giving Braiden and Cara some privacy. Frankie’s men worked around me, already cleaning up the scene to remove any trace of what had happened here. When I felt him step up beside me, I said, “You’re leaving? You just arrived.”

“Do you need me to stick around?”

“No, no, I just thought ...” What? That Frankie would roll into town and fix everything? Take Cara and Braiden back with him? Did I want that? Did I want Braiden gone, out of my life for good?

“How did you get here so fast?” It had only been a couple of days since we first called him, and Seattle was over three-thousand miles away.

He ignored me and said, “I’ll find out who leaked their whereabouts.”

I didn’t expect an answer. Frankie O’Connor didn’t explain his actions to anyone. Maybe I was right; maybe he did have people watching Braiden and Cara, watching me. Or maybe he did care enough to fly straight out. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that when we needed him, he came.

“And when you do?”

He arched his eyebrow, and I nodded, tight-lipped. I didn’t need to know the rest. I was done with this. I needed to get back to Ana.

“Goodbye, Jackson. I hope the next time we cross paths, it’s in less urgent circumstances.” He started toward his car.

“Thank you,” I called after him.

He stopped and turned. “It is I who should thank you. Show him the way, son. Help him be the man my daughter deserves. I’ll be in touch.”

I nodded, but Frankie was wrong. I didn’t need to show Braiden the way because he’d already found it.

~

FRANKIE LEFT BUT NOT before personally driving Braiden and Cara to the nearest medical center. I didn’t go with them. I had more important places to be.

“How is she?” I glanced over Dennis’s shoulder to Ana’s room, breathless from running the three flights of stairs. I’d refused to wait for the elevator. I hadn’t wanted to waste a single second.

“Pissed.” A hint of amusement played in his voice.

I could deal with pissed—I just couldn’t deal with her shutting me out. Not when I needed her more than ever. Dennis squeezed my shoulder as I brushed past him and slipped into the room.

“Jackson?”

“Hey,” I said over the lump in my throat. The sight of her unharmed filled every inch of me with relief.

“You’re okay?”

I nodded, striding toward her. Dropping onto the side of her bed, I grabbed her hands in mine and leaned in to kiss her head. “It’s over.”

“For good? It’s done? You’re okay? H- he’s okay?”

“Everyone is fine.”

I would have to fill her in on the facts one day, but today was not that day. All that mattered was this—us.

“Thank god, I was so scared. But you’re here, and you’re okay, and everything really is okay?”

“Everything is fine.” I sat beside her and kicked up my legs. “I’m so tired.”

“The nurse just came and did my vitals. We have a while.”

My body was crashing, the adrenaline seeping out of my system. I closed my eyes, soaking up the warmth of Ana’s touch, her smell, the feel of her hand in mine. She would always be my sanctuary.

My home.