Chapter 28 - Ado

I know Keira’s going to fall before she does it.

In the dim light, flickering through the haze of our adrenaline, I see her shoulders rise and fall fast. The bond seems to pull, tugging like a loose thread. It strings itself all the way through me and pulls like a tripwire, ensnaring my soul.

Bigby appears at my side. One of his boots lands on the chest of the man, gasping on the floor, pinning him like a bug.

I am on the stage beside Keira before my body or brain has decided on the plan.

When her legs give out, I catch her, lowering her to the ground against my chest. She curls her arms around her middle and presses her face to my shoulder, beginning to weep.

I hold her tight. We breathe, neither of us speaking.

This mansion, where so many have lost their freedom and their hope alike, rings empty, its foundations settling and creaking. Soon, dawn will draw in over Border Ridge.

“It’s over,” I find myself whispering into Keira’s hair. “It’s over, I promise, it’s over.”

We both know I don’t just mean the mission. I mean her days of fear. Her loneliness—her life of anonymity, and likewise, my life of silent reclusion. The shape of our lives before we ended up back in each other’s. It’s clear—it has ended.

The rest of the world regains its dimension slowly, in pieces.

“In the basement,” the man on the ground is gasping as Bigby’s foot crushes down on his chest. “The girls—they’re in the basement—”

Percy helps Byron off the ground ten feet away, both of them bleeding from the head but still looking alert and mostly unharmed. Nearby, Rafael groans as he pokes at a graze on the outside of his bicep where a bullet grazed him. Aris ties a piece of an unconscious guard’s shirt around the middle of his calf, probably to patch a bleeder.

We have no way to contact Veronica and Maisie—we’ll have to find them in the woods surrounding the property, wherever they parked.

I can’t move yet, though. I don’t think I’ll be able to move for a long time. Not for as long as Keira is here in my arms, heavy as the weight of my entire future, holding me as if I’m the only thing keeping her in one piece.

Aris meets my eye as he approaches the side of the platform. The stage lights are still on over our heads. Keira and I, kneeling in the mess we made, must be the most visible thing in the entire world.

An understanding passes between us like a spark of electricity.

***

We gather in the meeting room, bruised and exhausted.

Aris runs through the mission details, his voice calm and authoritative. We don’t have time to waste—not when half of us are about to crash out, and the other half will be left to carry the ensuing follow-up jobs. This isn’t a celebration, and we all know it. There’s still more to be done, more people to track down; for most of the team, rest won’t come until tomorrow morning, when another two dozen rescued women and girls will have arrived in Rosecreek for medical care and help in contacting their families.

No one says much. We’re all trying to conceal it, but we’re exhausted by the night and its happenings. I spy Percy yawning into his fist, glancing at his phone under the table. Probably texting Veronica. Byron has already departed to be with his mate, who is shaken but fine by all accounts.

Keira sits like a statue beside me, and I’m acutely aware of her presence. Our shoulders brush every now and then, a small point of contact. I’d be lying if I said it’s just to ground her. The bond between us hums steadily, a connection that feels more real than ever.

I glance at her occasionally, catching her eyes. I can still hardly believe she’s real. She smiles back at me, but there’s a new hollowness in her face now, a deep, impenetrable exhaustion wrought by all we’ve been through.

I love you. I will her to understand. I want to reach across the space between us and do everything I can to force her to know it. I’m never letting anything happen to you again.

She says nothing throughout the debrief, holding a piece of gauze to a thin cut across her temple. But I think if I focus, I will hear her saying it back.

After the meeting wraps up, the team disperses. Aris and Bigby stay behind to finalize details for the follow-up missions, and Percy and Rafael head off to get patched up in the medical bay. Byron texts in the group chat once: Olivia, okay, I’m fine; we’re going to take a bit of time. When he heard Olivia had been left alone in the pack center, he was terrified. I can relate to his anxiety.

I glance at Keira as we stand and nod toward the door. “Let’s get out of here.”

She takes my hand in hers and follows me without a word.

We find a small, quiet room on the other end of the second floor with a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooks the woods behind the pack center. The sun is rising now, casting a warm orange glow over everything. Just twelve short hours ago, we were still in the safehouse, listening to the pattering of the rain on the water.

We sit side by side in front of the window and watch our town as it gains shape and detail in the new light.

Keira leans over, puts her head on my shoulder, and closes her eyes.

“It’s strange,” she murmurs, her voice soft. “I know it’s over, but I still can’t really believe it.”

I shift beside her, reaching for her hand. Her fingers are cool and soft in mine, and I hold on tightly, as if she might slip away if I don’t.

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” I say. “But we did good today, Keira. You did good.”

She opens her eyes and looks at me, studying me in the way she does when she’s trying to figure something out. She reassembles me. It’s what she’s always done.

For a while, when we were out of each other’s lives, I used to wonder why I could never stop dreaming of her. I understand why now. I see it all so clearly in front of me.

“We did it together,” Keira murmurs, squeezing my hand. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

I can’t help but smile. I want to kiss her, want to smile against her mouth. But I have a lifetime to do that now. “And I couldn’t have done it without you. So, I guess that means we’re stuck with each other.”

There’s a beat of silence, but it is no longer exhausted and stricken. Since I met Keira, I’ve learned that my silence can be something that doesn’t erase me. It never erased me from her life, after all.

“We’re going to track down the rest of them,” Keira says after a while, her voice stronger now. “And I’ll help, and as far as I’m concerned, this mission isn’t over until I say it’s over. The affiliates, the buyers, all of them. We’re going to make sure they can’t hurt anyone else.”

I nod, my gaze steady on hers. “It doesn’t have to be over,” I tell her. “Not if you’re staying.”

A lesser woman might have flinched from my words, but Keira seems to take comfort in that—I see her relax. The fear and uncertainty clouding her features starts to fade, replaced by her stalwart, quiet determination.

“If I’m staying,” she repeats, an edge of teasing in her voice. “If I’m staying, I guess I’ll need to find something to do with myself, won’t I?”

She leans close and kisses me, one hand braced on the top of my chest. I take her weight, allowing her to lean on me, eyes slipping closed. I love kissing her almost as much as I love hearing her speak.

But maybe I underestimated how tired we both were, because somehow, we ended up slipping backward onto the floor, breaking apart and laughing as she sprawled on my chest on the ground, under the golden glow of a new day.

“I could sleep here for a week,” she says against my shoulder. Her slight frame curls around me like a koala.

“We should rest properly,” I say, though the words feel heavy on my tongue. I don’t want this to end. “There’s still a lot to do tomorrow.”

She nods, but neither of us moves. Instead, we lie there in the coalescing light, watching the world brighten under us.