CHAPTER 34

T en miles outside of Boise, we had the sun at our backs and a full stretch of road ahead of us. The windows were rolled down, and music played quietly in the car—a hell of a lot quieter than usual. Sitting next to me with his hand in mine, Ryder was as inside his head as I was. He flipped through pictures on his phone. Tessa’s whole one-family photo nonsense turned into over thirty minutes of fucking nonsense. I may have been the dick flipping her off in every picture I could sneak into just to fuck with her.

“I like that one,” I said when Ryder landed on one of us—full-on piggyback ride bullshit. It was the smile on his face that I loved. Unburdened and happy. That smile was my fucking favorite thing ever.

“It’s a good one,” he agreed. He put the phone away, falling silent. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was thick with a list of unspoken things. I didn’t need his power to know that the whole afternoon with his family weighed heavy on him .

“You know,” I began as I cleared my throat, “I was doin’ some thinkin’?”

“Oh? What kind of trouble are we getting into now?”

“Why you got to ask it like that?”

“Do I need to remind you what happened in Tennessee? Or Virginia? North Dakota?” Ryder asked, his eyebrow cocking when I glanced at him. God, that sassy fucking expression did things to my dick.

“For the record, they were damn good ideas,” I retorted. “At the time. Maybe lookin’ back I can concede they weren’t my best thoughts.”

No, my best thought was sticking with him. I didn’t say that shit out though.

“All right.” He sighed. “Where are we going and what are we fucking up this time? I’m assuming you found a demon.”

“Well, you’d be assumin’ wrong,” I told him. “I was talkin’ to Tessa. Washington has a shit ton of small fuckin’ towns along the coast. Little towns that people don’t give a fuck about and just sort of exist doin’ their own thing.”

“Okay.” He drew the word out as he tried to follow where I was going with this.

“I was thinkin’ maybe we could visit a few of them. I bet some of them have a house on the beach we could rent for a weekend or somethin’. You know, a place a few hours outside Seattle and shit. Tessa said if we could give them a heads-up and all, they could swing a few days away here and there. A few times a year maybe.”

“You want to go on vacation with my family?” he asked slowly. His confusion was fucking adorable, making me smile.

“I was just thinkin’ that there ain’t no reason we can’t make it a point to come back out this way, baby,” I said. I glanced at Ryder, taking in his unreadable expression as he stared back. “We ain’t got to if you don’t want—”

“I want to,” he interrupted. “It’s just… we’ve never made plans to stick in one place at all. You hate sticking around anywhere.”

But the idea of staying put was starting to sound real damn nice. Maybe some part of me was stuck on that fucking dreamworld the sirens had created in my head. I knew it was fake, but fuck, it felt damn real. I missed it. Way more than I wanted to admit, even to myself.

“I just want to properly corrupt Jo.” I made a joke of it because I was who I was. “Make sure she learns all the right fuckin’ words and shit.”

“Right.” Yeah, he wasn’t having my bullshit.

“Look, I figure we get a few good hunts in, fuck up some shit, and then we go take a weekend off,” I continued. “I ain’t gettin’ any younger, and I know you’re fuckin’ feelin’ it too.”

Our healing and fast recovery as hunters slowed the older we got. With Ryder pushing forty, I knew he was starting to feel it. I caught it in how he paused as he woke up, the new ways he stretched, and more. We could only take so many beatings before they all caught up with us.

“Yeah,” Ryder murmured. “Maybe it’d do us some good.”

“Probably,” I agreed, letting my gaze settle on the stretch of asphalt ahead of us. I didn’t have a clue where the fuck we were going, but my mind wandered to the what-ifs of a little house on the beach. Maybe one day.

But for now, it was just us and the open road. Demons and cheap motels. Us doing the right thing no matter what it fucking cost us.