The gym. Would he ever go back there either? There were so many memories. The first time he ever saw her, the first time they walked along the sand, then the night he’d kissed her there, sitting on the bench outside. They’d find another beach, but it would never be the same one. He’d never see the spot he first laid eyes on the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, never feel the California sun warm his back as he carried her, laughing, into the water at Ocean Beach. None of it. Aaron slammed his fist through the bedroom wall. Josh had fucking destroyed all of it, but what did it matter?
Not one fucking bit.
Not when he could lose her at any time. Aaron slammed his first forward again. He’d just pulled his hand from the plasterboard, tiny cuts across his knuckles stinging, when he felt hard metal press against the back of his head and the gun cock next to his ear.
30
Lainey
No matter what Lainey did, she couldn’t cut through the cloud of worry hovering over Payton as she paced around Lainey’s living room.
“Stop. You’re making me nervous.”
Payton shot her a glare. “Well can you fucking blame me? This is bullshit.”
“I don’t want to leave either.”
“I promised myself I wouldn’t run again.” Payton flopped down into an armchair across from the couch. “If I can’t even keep a promise to myself, how the hell am I going to keep you safe?”
Lainey rolled her eyes. “What is it with everyone deciding it’s their job to keep me safe? Sure, I may not have as much experience as you, but I put a man on his ass last night.”
Payton stood and started trying to wear a hole in Lainey’s carpet again. The nervous orange in her colors were tinged with fear. “And what’s with that? You don’t even know what you did, how the fuck are you supposed to control it?”
“I’ll figure it out. Help me pack. The guys’ll be back soon.” Lainey had pulled a duffel bag down from her hall closet and was halfway to the bedroom when she heard the front door handle twist. “Who is it?”
Payton looked out her bedroom window. “Aaron. His Jeep is out front.”
“Thank God.” It had ended up being a split decision, but now it was made, Lainey was almost relieved to be nearly ready to hit the road. It would be nice to not have to look over your shoulder for awhile. Well, not every second, at least. She dropped the bag and walked over to let him in when the door cracked open, bouncing as it hit the security chain. “Hang on, just let me unlock it.”
“That won’t be necessary, Bitch.” The voice cut through Lainey and she froze. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t tell Payton to grab the fucking gun. She was frozen to the spot, her only movement an entire-body tremor, her only sensation the pain in her chest from her racing heart. The only thing louder than the pounding of it in her ears was the splintering of the door frame as Josh shouldered his way through it and dropped an unconscious Aaron on the floor. He walked over to him and pointed a gun at Aaron’s head. Josh’s colors were completely black. There was no good left inside him.
“I’ll let him go, Lainey. I will.” God, he was serious. “Guy might be an ass, but I have no real problem with him. Not like with you.” The colors followed Josh’s words, spewing out in a thick black smoke of hatred and terror. It blocked out all other colors in the room, including the last lingering tinges of passion.
Aaron!
Lainey tore her eyes away from the giant gun staring her in the face. Was he still alive? Aaron groaned and opened his eyes and Lainey nearly wept with relief. Even fresh from unconsciousness and with duct tape over his mouth, his eyes told her everything. Run, stay alive.
Except she couldn’t. She wasn’t going to leave and let Josh kill him, kill everyone. His eyes silently begged her, but she didn’t move. Aaron had been willing to sacrifice himself for her, and she would do no less for him. If it came down to her life or his, she wouldn’t hesitate.
“Alright.”
Aaron tried to wiggle free of the rope binding his legs and arms. Josh cocked the gun at his temple and hissed something in his ear with a snicker. The resulting anger from Aaron was like pepper spray, stinging Lainey’s face with the force of its presence. Josh watched with piercing eyes, staring at her reaction with a twisted smile.
“I’ll go with you! Just don’t hurt him.”
“Get in the damn car, Bitch. I’ll wait here.”
Lainey swallowed hard, but held her ground. Josh didn’t know Payton was in her bedroom. If she could get him to change positions, move the damn gun away from Aaron’s head, she could buy them some time. “No. You go first and I’ll follow you.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “You must think I’m stupid.” Aaron grunted, shaking at his bonds on the floor, his eyes promising murder. “I’m not so dumb,” Josh continued. “If you can’t get to the girl, take the man. She taught me that, you know.” His chest puffed up. “And it worked again, even after that last bitch already fell for it.” Oh, my God, Cole! Lainey nearly groaned. If they made it out of this alive, Aaron was going to be even madder than he already was that they’d let them pull the same shit twice. If she didn’t get smarter, then they were already all dead.
Josh gestured with his hand, making the gun twitch and Lainey eyed it warily. “Let’s go. We’ll walk out together, then you’ll see. I’m a man of my word. I told you I’d be back, Lainey.” He reached out with his other hand and grabbed her arm forcefully, his grip hard enough to leave faint purple marks immediately at his touch. He turned, yanking her out the door. They were nearly there when someone stepped in the way. Payton.
“No one hurts my friends, fuckface.” She raised a gun, but Josh was fast. Dropping Lainey’s arm, he pulled a second pistol tucked in at his lower back, aiming the first back at Aaron and the second at Payton. “Want to see who’s faster? You can’t take me out before I’ve pulled the trigger on your friends.” He practically growled through clenched teeth. “But looks like I get two for the price of one. Drop it, and I’ll let him live. You two, I’m not so sure.”
Payton simply shifted her stance and stared Josh down. Lainey tore her eyes from the gun to look at her friend. Payton wasn’t scared—not anymore—she was just pissed. Josh clicked the hammer back, and Payton just stared. She was definitely not the person you wanted to piss off. Payton wasn’t going to drop the gun, not for anything, but neither was Josh. He sneered and the darkness continued to flow from him, compressing the air in the room with a thick cloud, even blocking the sun filtering through the damaged front door. It covered Lainey, pushing through her mind and choking her in fear. Death was in the room and he was covering everything with his icy breath. All Lainey could see was Josh. Somewhere, lying behind them was Aaron, and somewhere in front of them was Payton, but they were both obliterated in the dark fog. It was just she and Josh—exactly as it should have been all along.
Lainey smiled.
She’d already done this before. She just had to hold on this time until he was down for good. She closed her eyes, blacking out any sight of Josh through the swirling fog of anger, and found the spark inside her. It was white hot, anger of her own, and she caught it as it flitted past. She pulled it deep inside her. If she was going to do this, she had to keep calm.
“Move it, Bitch!”
She blocked him out. Forgot Josh was even there. Lainey gathered all the worry and all the pain and took a deep breath. She pushed outward and felt the light throb, staving off the clouds of smoke. She pushed again and the light pulsed again. Lainey opened her eyes and gasped, nearly losing the connection. The light inside her mind encircled her, surrounding her entire body in a bright glow, chasing away anything that threatened to hurt her, pushing away the fear.
Aaron was somewhere in that fog still, along with Payton. Probably also still scared out of their minds. She was barely resisting Josh’s flood of evil, and they had nothing to fight it with. Lainey reached deep inside her, where the light swirled in an almost all-consuming vortex. She closed
her eyes again, and pulled.
It came small at first, tiny drops that settled somewhere near her feet, then more. It rose higher until she was wading in it. It overtook her knees, her waist, and she then was floating, swimming in power. The energy was so strong she felt her knees buckle.
Hang on. Use it.
The light was strong. It embodied a force of its own. It had a warmth, a life, and she could use it. She was going to end this. Neither she, nor any of her friends—including her lover—was dying today.
“I love you.”
Lainey whispered it, then spoke it louder, and louder until she was yelling against Josh’s storm. It became her mantra, the words flowing into the circle of light, building her power to the point of climax. Lainey closed her eyes and braced herself, but when her eyes flew open again from the force, she felt no pain. No weakness, no splitting of her soul as she had the last time. Instead, the dark clouds were gone. Instead, the room was glowing, luminescent, painted in every color she could imagine. The soft pink of tenderness, violet despair tinged with lines of pure white—that was Aaron’s imprint, his personal signature. She could see him again, see him through anything. Payton’s blues and greens pushed at her, her determination clear.
She could also see Josh. He was still white at the edges, but she cut it off. Time stopped moving as she stripped away the cover and looked inside. There, deep inside Josh’s mind was a sphere of sickly green, mixed with black and dark yellow. It was weaker now, thinner, almost translucent, but it stained everything it touched.
Lainey’s eyes widened. She wasn’t just looking at their moods. This was his essence, what he was made of. Lainey was seeing past any external thoughts, anything he tried to hide from the world. She saw his soul.
And she could tell what he really was, which meant she could fight.
She compressed the light, shaping it into a sharp point, and let it fly. The light tore from her and hit Josh’s chest. His face contorted even before he hit the ground and his screams reached her ears.
Lainey’s knees gave way at the sound and she fell to the ground with a smile on her face. She kept pushing the light from her until her sight tunneled in, but just as it dimmed she saw movement. Josh moved. His hand shaking, he reached for his gun on the floor and pointed it at Lainey. His arms where shaking, his eyes full of torment, but he held it aimed at her.
She felt it before she heard it. The small compression of fire as the bullet left the gun, the way the air in the room parted ways as it traveled to its destination. The quiet thunk sound as it impacted flesh.
Lainey thought it would be louder.
Then the world spun up and everything moved at once. Josh hit the floor, his mouth still opened in surprise as his eyes dulled then faded away, as Aaron pulled her backward and into his arms, the gun still in his hand. She reached around and clung to him as his embrace pressed her to him. She didn’t move for what seemed liked hours. Instead, she just held him for as long as she could. She’d stay like that forever if it were up to her.
Finally, Aaron reached down and brushed damp hair off her forehead. He ducked to look into her eyes. “You back with me now?”
“Back?”
“You weren’t talking there for awhile. Even when Payton managed to get me free after you distracted . . . well, what exactly were you doing to Josh?”
“I’m . . . I’m not sure. I saw . . .” She shook her head.
Aaron picked her up and sat on the couch with her on his lap, facing him. “What did you see?” he whispered.
“I saw you. I mean, I think it was your soul. Aaron, it was a beautiful thing.”
He reached forward and kissed her, his lips hot. “God, Lainey, don’t you ever put yourself in danger like that for me again. I was so fucking scared.”
“I couldn’t let you die.”
He smiled. “I get that, trust me. If you go, I go. There’s no other way anymore.”
He was right. Together, they could face anything.
Lainey sighed. They just couldn’t face it there. Josh was dead, if the thick puddle of red beneath him was any clue, but they had no idea who he’d been working for. Had he found Lainey all on his own? It seemed unlikely, and his rantings toward the end all but outed him as part of the organization Payton had hinted at. Flashes of the final moments of the fight ran through Lainey’s mind and her hand resting on Aaron’s arm squeezed tightly. He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead in response. Yes, he may not have been as strong as she, but Josh definitely had powers of his own. There was nothing coincidental about what had happened here. She sank further into Aaron’s arms and closed her eyes. Maybe the universe would give her a day before throwing the next curve ball at her.
“So um, someone want to tell me why there’s a dead body in the living room?”
Or maybe not. Lainey opened her eyes and met Cole’s gaze. He watched her carefully even as he embraced Payton at the door.
“It was totally his fault,” Payton said. “He started it.” She grinned. Yep, Payton wouldn’t be mourning Josh’s demise anytime soon. She shouldn’t, either. Still, Lainey couldn’t quite share in her friend’s relief. Not until she knew they were safe.
“We should call Keila. Tell her yes.”
31
Lainey
Lainey stood with Aaron at the entrance to the juice bar. She’d made one last batch of strawberries with whipped cream while he’d pulled together a couple of blueberry smoothies. “Let’s take them out front,” he said. “I’d like to watch the waves on our beach with you one last time.”
She said, listening to the squawking of the gulls and the giggling of children over the soft hum of the ocean, “We can come back. One day.” She took a sip, resting her head against Aaron’s shoulder.
“I want to. This is home.” He shook his head. “Sometimes I still can’t believe we’re really leaving.”
Things had moved quickly after the phone call to Keila. Emily and Reece were already on the road and were just hours away now. They’d follow them back to Arizona and meet the new girl. There was something funny about her, but Keila had refused to get into it on the phone. “Just get here safely and don’t fuck this up,” was all she’d said. Payton had laughed bitterly and replied, “Same to you.”
Aaron’s voice broke into Lainey’s thoughts. “You remember when you first started and you kept spilling drinks on the floor?” He grinned at her and she slapped him on the arm.
“I did not!”
“Oh, you so did.”
“Okay, okay. I was a klutz. But you were so nice to me about it.” She smiled, resisting the urge to kiss him again. They had to come up for air at some point. “You didn’t lose your patience once. At some point there, even I would have broken.”
Aaron laughed. “I couldn’t get mad because every time you dropped one, you’d pout and then stomp around cleaning it up.” He let his mouth fall into a mock pout. “It was adorable.”
She grinned and lightly slapped him again, then poked him in the ribs, making him laugh again.
“I love you, Lainey. I always have. Even when you spilled the drinks.” The red shining out of Aaron was pure bliss. What was she feeling so melancholy about? It didn’t matter where they went, as long as she had his colors—his soul—with her.
“I love you, too.” She leaned in and kissed him, feeling his strong arms wrap around her as her eyes fluttered closed. His deepened the kiss, his tongue playing with hers as his fingers trailed over her skin. Down her neck, across her collarbone, brushing over her breast. Lainey shivered and felt him grin against her lips just as he took her clothed nipple in his hand and squeezed it. She gasped, and his hand traveled further south, over her rips and into her waistband. “Aaron! We’re in public.”
“Don’t care,” he mumbled against her lips. “You love me.”
The man had been in front of her for years, loving her for years, and she hadn’t known what she was missing until it was almost too late. She wasn’t going to let anythin
g threaten it—threaten any of them—now. They’d find a way to survive. They still knew little about the group they were fighting, but she had Aaron, and Payton and Cole, and soon five new best friends, too, it seemed. Emily, Keila, their boyfriends, and the new girl, whatever the big secret there was. Whoever these others were, however outmatched they were, she’d find a way. She would get her happiness with Aaron. There was no other choice.
Thank you so much for reading Lainey and Aaron’s story. Who is Sienna and what’s her secret? The answer will blow their entire world apart. Click here to be first to know!
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Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to you—all my readers, subscribers, and social media followers. Thank you for choosing to read my books!
Thank you to my ARC team, for all your support. You’re all amazing!
A special thanks also to Anette King and Kristine Piiparinen, for all that you do. You are both incredible ladies.
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Lainey (Dreamcatchers Romantic Suspense Series Book 4) Page 18