Page 96 of Turn the Tide
Mike sank into a chair. “If you had gone alone, you might both be dead.”
“You definitely would’ve been killed, Ashley.” Ethan patted her shoulder. “If I hadn’t taken out that one guy with my rifle and sent the other one running.”
“Logan, you needed us.” Mike nodded. “You didn’t force us. We chose to help you, knowing there’d be consequences.” He heaved a sigh. “What’s done is done. At least we’re still breathing. Besides, my stomach has soured for years over some of the stuff the Agency has pulled. I never considered doing what was right, only doing what I was told. What you did took conviction, Ashley, and serious balls.”
“I should’ve gotten out years ago.” Ethan shrugged. “When Kim finds out, she’s going to kick my ass, then I think she’ll kiss me. She never liked me working for the Agency. I think she’ll be relieved I’m done.”
Mike picked up the paper Knox had written on. “Maybe we’ll get lucky, and this guy will have work for us.”
“Let’s hope.” Ethan collected their gear. “Mike and I will wait for you two downstairs.”
After the door closed behind them, Ashley gripped Logan’s knee. “You were done with this, had washed your hands. I didn’t mean to get you embroiled in my crisis of conscience.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. Nothing. I don’t regret coming here for you. I don’t regret the choices I made to get you back.”
His only regret was not getting the chance to kill Glasses. But the world of intelligence was smaller than some might think, and for operatives, paths crossed more often than many might like. One way or another, sooner or later, he’d run into Glasses again and put a bullet in his head.
Logan cupped Ash’s face. “I love you.” He’d come dangerously close to losing her. To never seeing her smile again, or hearing her laughter, or watching anger and arousal stain her cheeks. To never holding her and making love to her. He wanted to drop to his knees and give thanks to a deity he’d never acknowledged to still have those things with her.
He loved her so much, he might possibly have found religion.
“I almost got you killed.” She rubbed her palm over his thigh. “And I’m a bruised, broken mess. Nothing but trouble. Sure you want me?”
His heart thudded with a foreign happiness. Her love and acceptance of him filled in the gaps and cold crevices of his life. She was worth any price he had to pay.
“Who’s being the idiot now?” He kissed her forehead and cheeks.
A lump of emotion ballooned in his throat. He ached for her, yearned, but reveled in this deeper intimacy. She rested her head in the crook of his neck, clutching his leg like she longed to be closer too. Skin to skin with nothing else between them.
“Bruised, broken, a hot mess of trouble, I don’t care, sweet pea.” He tilted her chin up and stared into her eyes. “I’ll take you, any way I can have you. So long as I can keep you.”
A smile brightened her face, warming her eyes, warming him. “Ditto, Logan.”
His heart gave a little kick against his ribs. “I plan to hold you to that.”
“For how long?” She caressed his cheek tenderly.
He loved the way she touched him, with such quiet reverence as though he bore no scars, inside and out. “Forever.”
