I didn't expect words like that from him.
And I wasn't prepared for it.
I blinked at the tears and he kept talking.
“You're smart and stubborn and determined and I've never met someone who I wanted to give soft and sweet to before you. I didn't think I had that. You brought that out of me. You showed me things about myself I didn't know were there. You gave that to me when you gave yourself to me,” he paused, his other hand moving up to swipe the flowing tears away. “I love you, doll.”
Holy hell.
I mean...
I knew it.
I had known it for months.
But I had never heard it.
And the words landed like a punch. Knocking out all my air. Making my heart speed up into dangerous levels.
A warmth spread through me, foreign, yet somehow comforting. Like it blanketed all my insides. Like it would never allow the cold in again.
“Okay. Now you can go,” Breaker said, giving me a small smile as he moved his hand away from my mouth.
“Gee... thanks,” I said, lowering my eyes at him, but my heart wasn't in the fight.
“You gonna tell me you love me or keep trying to fight with me?” he asked, lips twitching. He knew me too well.
“I'll fight with you later,” I promised, cradling his face in my hands, leaning in to press a soft kiss to his lips before pulling back and looking into his eyes. “Right now... I need to tell you, Mr. Macho Man Badass Bryan Breaker...” I started and his eyes warmed. “That night you stormed into my apartment, pointing your gun at me...” I reminded him and he shook his head at the memory, but he was smiling, “that was the first day of my life. There was nothing before that. Not really. That day was the day I started living. And I'm pretty sure it was also the day I started loving you.” His eyes closed, staying that way as he took a deep breath before looking at me again. “I love you,” I finished, throwing my arms around his neck.
There was a slow clap coming from behind us and we both swiveled our necks to see Shooter standing in the doorway, eyes soft, huge smile on his face. “About fucking time,” he said, nodding at us. “Didn't mean to interrupt. But I wanted to stop by and tell you guys that I am heading back.”
“Back?” Breaker said, stiffening in my arms.
“Yeah. It's time. Things have calmed down. No one has heard from Lex. Evidence points to him being dead. His empire is gone. It's time.”
He was right.
I looked down at Breaker and saw the same realization there.
We had a nice vacation. Cocooning ourselves away. But it was time to go back. Not just for Shooter. For all of us.
I nodded at him. “Good. Get things settled. We'll be following soon too,” I supplied and Breaker squeezed me tight.
“Just can't get enough of me, huh?” Shooter teased, winking at me.
Shooter was Breaker's (for lack of a better term) brother.
And he had become my best friend.
There was no one else in the world easier to love.
And I wanted to be around when, one day, another woman realized that.
Besides, our lives weren't in Mexico. Our lives were back at Breaker's house on the hill. And Shooter's stupidly lavish apartment in town. In Paine's tattoo shop. In all the places we left pieces of ourselves.
We were going back.
And no matter what Breaker thought, I was totally going to get back in touch with Janie/Jstorm.
Because she had a pretty freaking awesome story too.
I looked down at Breaker, his eyes smiling at me, his arms strong around me.
Not as good as mine (in my humble opinion. Seeing as it didn't involve Breaker) but it was a doozy. And it did involve a really badass biker.
It was something I wanted to know all about.
So yeah... it was something Breaker and I were totally going to argue over in the future.
And, just like always, I would love every minute of it.
xx
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Acknowledgements :
As always- Nikki, my cheerleader, the best beta reader in the world. She called this book "cake" and it still makes me smile when I think of it.
And Heather- for being the swift kick in the ass I needed on hard days.
The memory of Layne Staley (and the rest of Alice In Chains) for the soulful "Unplugged" rendition of "Down In A Hole" that I played on repeat for weeks to get a feel for Alex Miller's soul.
And to coffee. Can I acknowledge coffee? Fuck it, I am. Couldn't have done it without you, old friend.
Read more about “The Henchmen” in:
Reign
As well as in the upcoming:
Cash
Wolf (Janie's badass biker's story)
Also by Jessica Gadziala:
What The Heart Needs
What The Heart Wants
What The Heart Finds
What The Heart Knows
The Stars Landing Deviant
Dark Mysteries
For A Good Time, Call...
Dissent
The Sex Surrogate
About the author:
Jessica Gadziala was born and raised in New Jersey and thinks Manhattan would be like... the best place in the world to live, but still secretly wants to buy a farm in rural Pennsylvania. Writing was the only acceptable career path for her from the first time she learned that such a thing existed and she would hoard her allowance money to buy herself notebooks and pens instead of toys. She attempted a string of odd jobs before quitting and taking the blind leap of faith that was trying to make a career out of her passion.
She is a parrot enthusiast, a houseplant killer, and wholly incapable of answering text messages in a reasonable amount of time. When she is not writing (which is practically never), she is obsessively trying to read as many books as possible and has totally been known to throw temper tantrums over fictional characters.
Jessica is a firm believer in snark, strong secondary characters, and HEA.
You can find Jessica on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jessica-Gadziala-746940975355564/
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13800950.Jessica_Gadziala
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessicaGadziala
♥/ Jessica