Grabbing his hand, I stepped close and placed a hand over his racing heart. “You are what makes me happy. I can’t live a life that you’re not in, Kash. I’ve already tried it once before, it didn’t work.”
A deep exhale left him, and he pulled me close to his body.
“Thank you,” Trent’s deep voice sounded behind us, and I turned to see him holding out his hand, which Kash shook. “For everything. What you did means more to me than you could possibly know. So . . . just, thank you.”
Kash nodded and released his hand. “Take care of yourself.”
After Trent and Mason exchanged a similar good-bye, he turned back to me, and much like I had earlier, I launched myself at him. Hugging him tight once, I stepped back and wiped away tears.
“Never forget you, Rachel,” he said again, and I gave him a shaky smile.
“I’ll miss you.”
And then he was turning and walking toward the SUV, and driving out of my life forever. My chest ached at a different kind of loss for Trent than the one I’d been dreading, but I was so happy for him.
Once the taillights had faded, I turned to Kash and punched his shoulder. “You can’t get rid of me that easy! Don’t you understand that I love—”
His lips cut me off, and I moaned into his mouth as we shared a kiss to rival every other one we’ve ever shared.
“I had to give you the choice,” he whispered when we pulled away, our breathing ragged.
“I know, and I love you that much more for it. But it’s you, Kash. Like I told Trent, it will always be you.”
He kissed me thoroughly again and repeated his words from last night. “It’s you and me, Rach. Always.”
“Always,” I agreed.
Kash
MASON STOPPED TALKING and nudged my arm before nodding toward Rachel. Turning my head, I looked down at her lying in between my legs asleep. One of her arms was hanging over my leg, and her body was still turned toward Mason from when they’d been talking.
After everything that had gone down tonight, she was still here . . . with me.
Mason and I had been working on getting Trent into witness protection for almost two weeks. Because of his background, and his involvement with Rachel’s kidnapping, it took time to get his charges dropped so we could move forward. But I’d known for a few days now that it could happen at any time. I’d wondered how to tell Rachel, and a part of me was afraid of how she’d react if she knew I’d done it all behind her back and Trent was already gone, but then Chief had given me the journal.
Before Rachel had been taken, I’d vowed to always look for signs that she was struggling with something . . . anything. It wasn’t hard to know she’d been hurting since she came back, and after reading Trent’s letter to her, I’d known what I had to do. As much as it killed me to think of Rachel choosing him, and as much as we’d progressed, I knew he was constantly on her mind. And though I didn’t doubt her feelings for me, I couldn’t deny that there was something for him too. It was the last thing I wanted, but if it was what she needed, I’d known I had to be strong for both of us . . . and let her go.
I’d almost changed my mind after reading Rachel’s letter to me, though. I’d woken up early this morning and watched her while she slept, and was trying to convince myself that I would gladly take her anger if it meant keeping her. But then I’d gotten the call that Trent was getting out, and going to be leaving today, and I knew in that moment that just because I wanted her for myself, didn’t mean I could take away her option to choose.
Mason had had to stop me from walking back outside the entire time Trent and Rachel were out there, and when he’d gotten the call from the detective that would be taking him to a waiting jet, everything switched. I wasn’t ready to know what her answer was, but Mason had practically shoved me out of the house and walked me down the lawn to go talk with them.
I’d been afraid her constant thinking about him had been a sign that even with her denying them, she had stronger feelings for Trent than maybe she even knew. It wasn’t until I asked her not long after he left that she told me she knew he would die in jail, and she’d been struggling with the guilt that she couldn’t help Trent like he’d helped her.
Ever since, Rachel hadn’t left my side, and this was the most I’d seen her smile in the three weeks since I’d gotten her back. And I was so damn glad for it.
I smiled at Mason and bent to kiss the top of Rachel’s head. “You ready to call it a night?” I asked Mason quietly.
“Yeah, it’s late.” Just as I began to move, he asked, “Did you think we’d be here?”
“What do you mean?”
“A little over a year ago we were in a bare apartment in Texas, and you were telling me not to go bang the hot neighbor because it would mess with the case. I’d called your bullshit that day. I told you if either of us had to be careful, it was you. And now, here we are. Back in Florida, you’re engaged to Rachel; Candice will be here in a week, and we’ll be in the same place we’ve always been.”
I laughed at the memory, but something close to terror still slid through my veins at how right Mason and I had both been. Our jobs had been dangerous, for Rachel. We’d been proven right too many times already on that. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her body closer to mine when Mason repeated himself.
“So that day, did you think we’d be here?”
“You know, I think even then I did. I knew there was something different about her from that first moment. I knew it, and you could see it too. I couldn’t see this at that time . . . but I think I knew we would be here.”
“I’m happy for you, man. You deserve this. You deserve her.”
The corners of my mouth tilted up in a smile and I looked back over at him. “Thanks, Mase.”
He just nodded before clearing his throat. “Let’s get her to a bed, yeah?”
“Yeah.” I pressed my lips to Rachel’s neck and spoke softly in her ear as I let my fingers trail up and down her arms. “Wake up, Sour Patch. Time to go home.”
She groaned and turned in my arms, but went right back to sleep.
“Rachel, come on, babe. Let me take you home.”
Her only response was to nod her head and let it drop into my chest. I laughed and scooped her up before getting my legs beneath me, and standing with her in my arms.
“See you tomorrow?” I asked Mason. At his nod, I walked over to where my parents were talking with some of their friends and said good night before getting Rachel into my truck.
About halfway home, Rachel slowly started waking up.
“Where we going?” she mumbled.
“We’re going home, you fell asleep after all the fireworks.”
“Hmm . . . yeah. Where’s my Jeep?”
“Still at my parents. We’ll go get it tomorrow.”
“Yeah . . . ’kay.”
I smiled and squeezed her knee. She just groaned and swatted at my hand.
“Oh my God!” she yelled suddenly, and sat straight up.
“What?” I’d been slowing for a red light but slammed on the breaks at her outburst.
“I have something for you at home! I almost forgot!”
“You . . . Jesus Christ, Rach! I thought we were about to get hit or I was about to run over someone!”
“Well, get over it! We didn’t. Come on light, turn green, go, go, go, come on we have to get home!” She bounced up and down in her seat and looked at the empty streets around us.
“Fuck, swear to God you’re going to be the death of me.”
She stopped bouncing and turned to face me. Her dark blue eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms. “Keep being an asshole and you won’t get it.”