Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Tink

If not for the delicious ache in my body when I wake up alone in Hook’s bed, I could almost convince myself I imagined everything that happened last night. Not the sex. No, the scariest thing that happened last night was admitting my feelings to Hook. They aren’t going away, and that terrifies me. I don’t know if we’re going to live past the confrontation with Peter that’s barreling down on us.

The possibility of a future? A family?

If I reach for it, grasp it with too much enthusiasm, will the universe respond favorably? Or will it kick me in the teeth for having the audacity to believe I deserve a happily ever after?

The only way to know for sure is to jump and hope I learn to fly on the way down.

Hook walks out of the bathroom. He’s got on slacks and nothing else and seeing his bare feet peeking out from beneath the black fabric feels strangely intimate. Silly considering everything we’ve shared in less than a week, but the strangest things become kicks to the chest with this man.

He studies me in that way of his, as if he knows I’m sitting in his giant bed and having a silent freak-out. “You want to talk about it?”

“I don’t believe in happily ever after.” As soon as I blurt out the words, I feel foolish. I don’t know what I want him to say. I’m precariously perched on a cliff edge, and one word will send me back to safe ground, and a different one will push me right over the edge. I don’t know what I want. I don’t know what I need.

Hook turns, freeing me from his gaze, and pulls open one of the wardrobes. All his clothing was cleaned in record time and put away the day after I sent it to be dry cleaned, though I have no confidence it will stay that way. This man is a hurricane in motion. He shrugs into a cream button-down and does it up with deft fingers. “There’s no such thing.”

My heart sinks, even as I tell myself that to be grateful he’s being honest with me. “Oh.”

Hook crosses to the bed and holds out a hand. “All the stories end with the villain vanquished and the happy couple riding off into the sunset. That’s what happily ever after is. They never have to work on their relationship, never have to get their hands dirty when facing the challenges living a full life creates. They’re caught in stasis, without conflict, without problems, without life. That’s no way to live.”

I blink. Of all the things I expected him to say, this isn’t one of them. “You read a lot of fairy tales, Hook?”

“Don’t do that.” He gives me a tug, and I climb gracelessly to my feet. “When I say I love you, and I want a life with you as my wife, I mean a life, Tink. The problems and the victories and the day-to-day mundane bullshit. I want everything.” Another tug closes the distance between us, and then I’m pressed against his chest. He skates a hand down my spine and gives my ass a squeeze. “That’s better than any fictional happily ever after, don’t you think?”

“How can you be so damn confident all the time?” I whisper. Compared to him, I’m wobbling on my feet like some unsteady newborn creature.

He shakes his head. “It’s not confidence, beautiful girl. It’s the truth, and I try to always be honest with you.” He grimaces a little. “At least since we’ve been married.”

The caveat gives me pause. I lean back and narrow my eyes. “You would have saved me anyways, even without the ring.”

For the first time in a long time, he actually looks a little uncomfortable and won’t quite meet my gaze. “Maybe.”

“Jameson,” I say his name slowly, enjoying watching him fidget. “Are you sure you’re really the monster you claim? Because I think you might have a tarnished suit of armor stuffed in that wardrobe somewhere.”

He kisses me, a deep, rough kiss that has me weaving on my feet. Hook lifts his head before I’m ready for it to end. “Get ready, beautiful girl. Wear comfortable shoes.”

Because I might be running for my life before the day is through.

The thought weighs down the lightness in my chest brought on by his words. I grab his hand and give it a squeeze. “I want to live not-happily-ever-after with you, Jameson.”

His grin is blinding. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” The words feel strange on my tongue but not entirely unpleasant.

I rush through getting ready, moving quickly to avoid thinking too intensely about what comes next. I opt for comfort, slicking my hair back into a ponytail and pulling on a pair of jeans and one of my graphic T-shirts. Boots round out the outfit. I stare down at them, wishing that they were steel-toed instead. The thought brings a hysterical giggle to my lips. What would I do with steel-toed boots? I might be a fighter in the survival sense, but when it comes to actual combat, I’m a flail-violently-and-hope-for-the-best kind of woman.

Why the hell didn’t I pick up some kind of training in the last five years? Or at least take Hades up on his offer to get me shooting lessons? I know enough gun safety not to shoot myself in the foot, but the thought of spending that kind of time with a weapon that still reminds me too much of Peter … I couldn’t stomach it. Even the taser, I purchased and stuffed in my bug out suitcase and promptly forgot about it.

There’s no use worrying about it now. There’s no other way forward. We were too far to go back the second I met Peter, and I can’t afford to think too hard about that, about paths not taken.

I ended up here. I don’t know if I believe in fate any more than I believe in happily ever after, but I want this future Hook paints for us. I want it desperately enough to fight for it.

We meet up with Nigel and Colin in Hook’s office. If I wasn’t already on edge, the serious expressions on all three of the men’s faces would put me there. Nigel shuts the door behind me, and I move to perch on the corner of the desk. “What’s the plan?” The sooner we get moving, the better.

“He’s watching you.” Hook speaks low, as if he really doesn’t want to admit it. “He’s had a couple people on this building since you showed up, and one of them followed you from Hades’s place.”

I shoot him a sharp look. This is new information. “Were you just not going to tell me?” I should have suspected Peter had me followed. How else would he know the exact moment I left the safety of Hades’s place?

“You were stressed enough without that added to the mix.”

His logic is flawed, but I’m not willing to get into it in front of his cousins. The end result is all that matters, and the end result is that Hook kept his promise and kept me safe. Now it’s time for me to do my part. “So the second I leave—”

“He’ll know.” Nigel has himself locked down. “Yes.”

Hook shifts, drawing my attention to him. “You won’t be alone with him. We just need to draw him out. We’ll go together.”

There’s one huge flaw in his plan, loathe though I am to point it out. “He won’t do it if you’re there.”

Hook’s mouth goes flat. “Absolutely not.”

“You know I’m right.” I turn to his cousins. “You know I’m right.”

Nigel is silent, but Colin looks at the ceiling as if it’s the most interesting thing he’s ever encountered. “She’s not wrong.”

“Stay out of this.”

“Listen to me, cousin.” Colin finally meets his gaze. “We’ll only have one shot at this. We have to make it count.”

“Fuck that. Then we make some calls to one of Nigel’s shadow contacts and have a sniper take out Peter.” He still isn’t looking at me.

Nigel finally makes a sound suspiciously like a sigh. “If that were an option, we would have done it years ago. You have to do it yourself or it paves the way for assholes to undermine you in the future.”

“He doesn’t get his hands on her. I’ll deal with future assholes as they arrive. That’s tomorrow’s problem.”

Oh, Hook. I want to kiss him and strangle him at the same time. I glance at his cousins. “Could we have a second?”

Nigel and Colin don’t hesitate, which tells me they’ve been having this conversation with him for longer than I realized. As soon as the door closes, I turn to Hook. He’s already shaking his head. “Don’t even think about it.”

“We don’t have a choice.”

“That’s bullshit, and you know it. You’re reacting emotionally.”

I might laugh if I could breathe past my racing heart. “I’m not the one reacting emotionally.” Or at least not the only one. I move closer until he can’t look anywhere but down at me. “If we only have one chance to get him, then we have to do this right. Peter’s too smart to fall for the same ploy twice.” He might be too smart to fall for this one the first time, but I don’t say that aloud. It’s something Hook will have already considered. We have to try.

His mask flickers, and I get a wave of torment from his dark eyes. “I promised he won’t get his hands on you again. I meant that promise.”

I desperately don’t want to be anywhere near Peter. Even now, part of me is searching for another option, another way to go about this. But Colin is right—there are rules of engagement, so to speak. Hook is only the top dog because he’s instilled enough fear and loyalty to ensure no one will challenge him. But all the loyalty in the world won’t hold people back from doing exactly that if they get a whiff of weakness. Our world only respects strength. Sending someone else to do his dirty work reads like he’s afraid of Peter, which paves the way for people to doubt him.

The next challenger might learn from Hook’s mistakes and kill him when they take over so there isn’t an enemy at their back.

The thought sends ice cascading down my spine. I press my hands to his chest. “Jameson.” I wait for him to meet my gaze. “He’s already laid a hand on me. He’s already done his worst.”

“Not his worst,” he says darkly. He doesn’t need to finish the thought for it to beam right into my head. Because I’m still alive.

Peter will kill me if given half a chance. That thought should terrify me—and it does—but there is a steely determination rising up within me. “I was always going to play bait. Let me do what you intended.”

“That was before.” Hook rakes a hand through his long hair. “And even then I had my doubts.”

Fuck, but I love this man.

“I was always going to play bait,” I repeat softly. “Walk me through how it should have gone.”

He doesn’t want to. That truth couldn’t be clearer. But he finally jerks his chin in a rough nod. “Cell phone tracking. We follow you in. Take him and his people out from there, burn their shit down.”

There are a thousand things that can go wrong with that plan, which I’m sure is why he’s balking now. I cup his face in my hands, his beard rough against my palms. “Then that’s what we do.”

He covers my hands with his. “I’m not risking you.”

“If Peter stays in the shadows and keeps undermining you, then you are risking me.” I have to work to keep the shake from my voice, to sound as strong as he needs me to be in order to agree to this. “I can’t stay in this building for the rest of my life, Jameson. I can’t. At some point I’ll have to leave, and then he’ll strike. We either choose the time now, or we live with the threat of him hanging over our heads.”

Still, he hesitates.

So I go in for the kill. “Did you mean it when you said you wanted a partner in full?”

Hook tenses, already knowing where I’m going with this. “Don’t start that shit.”

I steamroll right over him. “Either I’m your partner, or I’m not. Either you want a true future with us, or you still see me as some damsel to be saved and locked up for my own good. There’s no gray area here. It’s one or the other.”

“You can’t just logic your way out of this, Tink.”

“Watch me.” I drop my hands, but he laces his fingers through mine, maintaining contact. “Answer the question.”

He curses long and hard, and I stand still, waiting him out. It’s not fun to be painted into a corner, and he’s entitled to feeling pissed. There was a time in my life when this wave of anger would make me flinch, would send me back several steps to ensure I’m out of reach. Maybe it still would with a different person, but though Hook may be loud as hell with every single one of his emotions, he’d cut off his hands before he touched me in anger.

I didn’t flinch when we fought in the kitchen, either.

Acknowledging that feels like sliding home the final piece of a puzzle I didn’t realize I was building.

Finally his shoulders drop the barest amount. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“Okay.”

“There will be three teams on your location, all from different directions.”

“Sure.”

“The second we have him off the streets, I move in and handle it. You don’t play the hero, and you stay the hell out of my way and as far from him as you can manage.”

I squeeze his hands and give him a confident smile that I don’t feel. “I promise.”

Another of those world-weary sighs. “Then let’s get this shit rolling and over with. The sooner, the better.”

I only hope this won’t end up being the worst mistake of my life.