Page 75 of Ride Long
“They already know.Guaranteed.”
I glared at Chaser, wishing he would keep his mouth shut for once. The only thing that had gone right so far was that we had Marini tied up in thebasement.
“What do you want,Sloane?”
“Huh?” I thought we’d already worked that out. Revenge for all. Theend.
“What happens after this?” Chaser asked. “If we get what we want, thenwhat?”
Ah, the bitafterthe end. I shrugged. “I always thought Fortitude would be disbanded after we’d gotten revenge. Continuing to run a criminal organization that’s ruined so many lives doesn’t seem right. Though, nothing has exactly turned out like I’d hoped.” I turned my gaze on him. “What aboutyou?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve been so fixated on revenge, I got lost in my rage. I saw nothing past that. Not until I told you I’d leave it allbehind.”
My heart swelled, and I leaned my forehead against his. “You did, didn’tyou?”
“It’s…hard for me,” he murmured. “Saying thesethings.”
“Iknow.”
“I’ve held onto her for solong…”
I didn’t want to feel jealous of a dead woman, but I couldn’t help it. He’d loved her so much they’d married, and in the aftermath of her passing, he’d given up everything to go after the bad guys. I wanted to inspire that much love and devotion in someone, but it wasn’t something you could make happen. Not really. Love was fickle and only reared its head when it was good andready.
Still, I wanted Chaser to love me like he’d lovedMadison.
“We’re fighting for something better,” I said. “Revenge isn’t the right word anymore. I doubt it everwas.”
“Then whatis?”
I thought about it for a moment. We wanted to take over Fortitude—granted, that didn’t work out—and unite against the threat of the Hollow Men. We both had our reasons, but maybe it was more about justice for the wrongs that had been committed against us. For Chaser, it was what had happened to Madison. For me, it was what my father had planned to do to me, now and then. We’d both picked up a few more bullet points along the way to solidify our cause, but it all boiled down to the onething.
“Justice,” Iwhispered.
“Justice…” He tested out the word, his eyesnarrowing.
“It’s what you signed up for when you were a cop, right? And when you went into the FBI? You wanted to protect those who couldn’t protectthemselves?”
Chaser grunted, his past still very much a sore point. The system had failed him, which was what had gotten him drafted into Fortitude in the first place. Well, we just had to make our own set ofrules.
“See that star with the red tinge?” he asked after a moment. “That’sMars.”
“Really?”
“And that’s Venus on the horizon…” He trailed off, his body tensing as we saw the sameanomaly.
“What’s that light?” I asked, rising to myfeet.
Chaser stood and grasped my arm, tugging me behind him. Something was wrong. I could feel it in mybones.
“Fire,” he said. “The cabin is onfire.”
