Leaning against the side of the car, I let my head fall back and sighed.

I wished I smoked because I could really go a cigarette right about now. The scent of gunpowder was stuck up my nose, and death was on my mind.

Marini had pulled the trigger, not me, so why had this one stuck? Maybe it was because Harley had tried to hurt Sloane. These feelings were starting to get…complicated.

Darkness clung to the surrounding alley, though the sky was tinted orange by the city. Always orange. I decided I hated the city. Being alone out in the middle of nowhere with Sloane had been a nightmare, but strangely, it had been the calmest I’d felt in a long time. Maybe it was her, or maybe it was the lack of Fortitude. Fucked if I knew.

Movement drew my attention, and I straightened up, my palm settling on the gun shoved into the waistband of my jeans.

Sloane emerged out of the darkness, her hand firmly in the grasp of Sam’s hand.

I didn’t want to know how they got out of the compound with no one noticing, but I assumed Gasket had something to do with it. That meant she knew the cat was out of the bag where her surrogate daddy was involved. An argument was coming about that, but not for a while yet. Fuck, I hoped it was when we were alone and locked away someplace. Arguing with her meant my dick in her pussy. It had been way too long.

“Okay?” she asked, her voice low.

I nodded. “Clear.”

Sam glanced at me warily, her gaze falling to the gun. I knew what she thought of me. I was a cold, hard killer, who cared nothing for nobody. Everyone said the same thing, so I wasn’t surprised at her hesitation. She was here because she had nowhere else to turn to. Sloane’s trust in me had likely sweetened the deal.

Sam had brought nothing with her. Just the clothes on her back.

“Here.” Sloane took Sam’s hand and set something into her palm.

“You got it?” Tears misted Sam’s eyes as she inspected whatever Sloane had given her.

Sloane nodded. “I promised, didn’t I?”

The two women embraced, and I turned away, not entirely sure if I was irritated by their display of emotion or saddened by it. They would likely never see one another again.

“You’ll like Yvette,” Sloane was saying. “She’s got a daughter. Bringing her up on her own. She’s going to meet you halfway. Give you a ride back west and a place to stay for a while.”

I opened the car door and raised an eyebrow.

Sloane waved me off. “Give us a second, would you?”

“We’re out of time,” I said.

Sam nodded. “He’s right. If you get caught…”

They hugged again—this time, a little tighter.

“Thank you, Sloane. For everything.” Sam wiped a tear and got into the car. Fiddling with the necklace, she reached behind her neck and put it on.

“Take care of her,” Sloane said to me.

I smiled. “I got you here, didn’t I?”

Sloane’s lips curved, and she pressed her forehead against mine.

“Gasket’s waiting for me,” she said after a moment.

“Go. I’ll send word when I get back.”

Closing the passenger side door, I rounded the hood and opened the driver’s side.

“Hey, Chaser?” Sloane’s voice echoed down the narrow alley.

I glanced over my shoulder. Even the darkness made her look beautiful.

“Thank you.”

I nodded and slid into the car.

“What’s with you two?” Sam asked as I turned on the engine and coasted down the alley.

I grunted, not wanting to talk about it. Sloane had started off as cargo, just like Sam was now. Difference was, Sam would stay that way. Unless Fortitude realized where I was, who I was with, and where we were going. The Hollow Men didn’t rate a mention…yet.

“You fell in love with her, didn’t you?”

“You don’t know anything about my life,” I replied, keeping my eyes on the road.

“I suppose not.”

Thank fuck she shut her mouth because I was not in the mood for a heart-to-heart. I was driving twenty hours across the country for her—for Sloane—risking my position in Fortitude to get Sam out. I didn’t need another big-mouthed woman telling me what I needed to do on a long drive through hell.

“She’s not safe there,” Sam said, breaking the silence I craved. “She’ll never be safe.”

“She knows that,” I shot back. “We know that.”

“If you care about her, you need to get her out of there.”

“Sloane… She has unfinished business with her father.” It was all I could say on the matter. Try explaining my past, Sloane’s, and our current fucked-up plans for taking Fortitude to a woman who’d become a widow less than twelve hours ago.

“You can tell me, Chaser,” she said. “I’m not going back there. I can’t.” She snorted and sank back in the seat. “Harley was the only person who kept me safe, and even then, he’d become a monster. I loved him once, but I was too afraid to leave. There was still a part of me that hoped the man I fell for was still in there. That Fortitude hadn’t taken him away from me entirely, you know? I was afraid to let go.”

I tensed, her words hitting home. He’d become a monster. I wasn’t the same…was I?

“Everyone else, they might’ve liked me in their own way, but they didn’t stop him hurting me,” she went on. “Not once. Sloane was the only person who stepped in, you know. I should’ve trusted her.”

“You had no reason to trust anyone,” I said. “Not with a track record like that.”

“I only trust you and this Yvette woman because Sloane vouched.”

I gritted my teeth. Shit, I hated deep and meaningful conversations. I wouldn’t even entertain them with Sloane, let alone Sam.

“No one ever stuck up for me like that,” Sam went on, babbling. “Stood up to Harley. I can’t believe he’s gone… Just… Dead.”

“Sloane stood up for you for a reason,” I said. “She risked her life for you.”

“You risked yours for her, right? You got stabbed?”

“It’s my job,” I snapped.

“No one voluntarily gets knifed,” she declared.

“I do.” I was so over this conversation.

Sam’s mouth fell open in shock. “She’s got your balls!”

“Huh?”

“Kelly will be devastated.”

“Who the fuck is Kelly?” I scowled and rolled my eyes.

“Stewie’s woman.”

“Bet he’d have a few things to say about that.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked. “When you get back to Fortitude? I don’t think Marini’s got good intentions. Sloane said he tried to sell her off. Is that true? I’ve always been scared of him.”

“Smart girl,” I drawled.

“I can’t believe he was just going to sell her like that…” Sam shivered, whimpering and dabbing her sleeve against her eyes.

He was going to do it again, but it was a secret I wanted to keep and one she didn’t need to burden herself with. Not considering her current predicament.

“So?” she prodded. “What are you going to do?”

Thinking about Marini’s plan to sell Sloane off to the Hollow Men to prevent a war, I narrowed my eyes. We were on the highway now, traveling away from the lights of Los Angeles. Soon, we would be able to see the stars again. The real ones.

I grunted, signaling I didn’t want to talk about it because I didn’t know.

Whatever happened, it was going to be a bloodbath. Sam should be happy she got out now. Extremely happy.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” I said, turning on the radio. “You should get some sleep.”

Sam sighed and nestled into the seat, rubbing her eyes with the sleeve of her cardigan.

“She’s so got your balls,” she muttered.

* * *

It was a long way to Tulsa.

A full night and day had passed, the sun showing its face and then disappearing again before we parked in the lot of a McDonald’s near the highway. I left Sam in the car stuffing her face with cheeseburgers and fries while I sat on the hood, watching the traffic come and go.

Apart from our insightful conversation about who had or didn’t have the possession of my balls, the trip had been uneventful. Unlike the last time I drove across the country, no one had shot at us.

Sam… Well, after a while, things kind of got to her. She’d fallen asleep after a while but had cried and sniffed straight across Arizona and half of New Mexico. Couldn’t blame her, but I had no words of comfort. Harley was dead, shot in the chest at point-blank range for trying to murder Sloane, and there was nothing I could do about that—you reap what you sow, an eye for an eye, and all that.

Besides, I wasn’t Sloane. Sloane knew how to use her words. All I knew was how to pull the trigger. The life I led at Fortitude had erased the one I knew when I was with Madison. Tenderness, smiling, caring, sacrifice. How did I get those things back? If I lost Sloane to the Hollow Men or her father, did I want to care that much about her? Madison’s murder had destroyed me utterly and completely. Her death had turned me into a shell.

A silver sedan—a rather old Ford that had seen better days—turned into a spot across the lot. The headlights turned off, and all was dark.

I vaguely remembered Yvette from the strip club where I’d found Sloane. Blonde, tiny, pouty lips, and that stripper look that saw tips being shoved into her cleavage every night behind the bar at that club she worked at. That was all I knew. That and that Sloane cared enough about her to stop Marini from ‘dealing with her’ while we’d been on the road. The fact Yvette had just upped and left her kid to drive across the country to take in a woman she didn’t know was more points in her favor. She was taking on a lot for no other reason than she had the means to help.

The driver’s side door opened, and a little blonde woman climbed out. Turning, she spotted me sitting on the hood of the car and glanced around the lot. It was lit bright enough it wasn’t dodgy, and inside the McDonald’s, there were still full tables of locals eating their way through chicken nuggets and sweet and sour dipping sauce.

The woman wandered over, her hands shoved into the pockets of her denim jacket.

“Hey. I’m looking for directions. Are you Gunnar?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Fuck this code word shit. I’m Gunnar.”

Yvette pouted and looked me over. “I can’t believe I told Sloane to fuck you.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Is that right?”

“How is she?”

“Fighting.”

“She was always good at that.” Yvette craned her neck and gave Sam the once-over in the car behind me.

I slid off the hood and opened the passenger side door.

“Your ride is here,” I said, tapping the roof.

Sam got out of the car and sized Yvette up. Immediately, she combed her fingers through her knotty hair and wiped the back of her hand across her mouth.

I snorted, earning myself a glare from Sloane’s BFF. I could see why she intimidated other women. She was pretty and all, but she wasn’t Sloane.

“Hey, I’m Yvette,” she said, smiling at Sam.

Sam glanced at me, and I nodded.

“We’ve got a long drive ahead of us,” Yvette went on. “We can get to know one another in the car. Are you hungry? We can get something to go if you are.”

“Chaser already got me something,” Sam replied.

“Good. I’m glad his surly ass was thoughtful enough to feed you.” Yvette turned her attention to me. “You look after Sloane, okay? I’m holding you responsible if anything happens, you got that?”

“Sure,” I drawled.

“Is he always like that?” she asked Sam as they walked off.

“Yep.” Sam gave me one last look, mouthing the words thank you.

I waited until they were in the car and on the road before I turned away. The things people did for Sloane never failed to amaze me. Gasket, Yvette, me. But she deserved it, right? Look what she’d just done for Sam, a woman she’d known for a little under a month. It was always something with her. Passionate, reckless, and completely selfless. Sloane had a definite sense of right and wrong.

Gasket was right about one thing. Fortitude wasn’t for her. I wondered what would happen if she managed to take it over.

Shaking my head, I got back into the car, backed out of the space, and turned back the way I’d come. Back to Los Angeles and Fortitude.

Back to Sloane.

As the lights of Tulsa faded in the background, I thought about the things Sam had told me.

Maybe it was love, after all.