She picked herself up off the ground, shaking her head at him. She scooped the light up and tossed her head at the car. “Get in the back, Reyes.”
He raised his brows and grinned at her. “When you want your fifteen minutes, you really want it. Not sure I can perform like this, but I’ll give it the Reyes effort.”
“Enticing as the offer is….” She snorted and rolled her eyes. “It’s time to heal you. No more excuses. Get in the car.”
He eased himself back on the rear seat. He lost his grin when she lifted his shirt and her breath hissed out.
“Oh, Alex.”
The slash stretched from hip to hip across his groin. He’d been able to function because it wasn’t deep, but it was ugly. She lifted her hands to hover over his belly.
Alex couldn’t resist a tease. “No scar, now. I’d hate to have a mark across one of your favorite places to lick.”
She glanced up and arched a brow at him. The warmth spread under his skin as the Dust did her bidding and knit his skin back together. Like before, the warmth became a hot itch that faded a few moments later.
Lena darted down, her tongue leaving behind a wet, warm path of sparks as she licked up toward his navel.
His breath caught, and his hands went automatically to her hair.
She reached up and tugged them away with a laugh. “Just checking. No scar.”
With the pain from his midsection gone, he had a good deal more ability to move. He flipped his hands around, caught her wrists, and pulled her in and up his body. She squirmed for a moment before he tightened his arms around her. She snuggled in to his chest. The Dust swirled lazily between them, warm and easy. It was home.
She rubbed her cheek against his chest, inhaling. “All right, Alex. I can tell your brain is working something over. Let me have it.”
He didn’t want to send her away, certainly not with Jackson. He’d rather keep her with him, fighting by his side. It just wasn’t the right decision—not for her, not for the movement.
He wouldn’t draw it out. She wouldn’t let him get away with beating around the bush anyway. “Jackson’s not going with the caravan. He’s not going to be Azcon’s new security chief. I don’t know how aware you were, but I basically made Merritt confess to being part of a plot to take out the Councilor. It changed the strategy for this operation.”
“I know,” she answered. “With his confession, and all the witnesses, you don’t have to ‘die.’ No one will be looking at you. You can keep your position, consolidate your hold on Zone Three, and deal with the assholes behind Lucas.” She exhaled again, and the long, warm breath flowed across his skin, chased by Dust beneath it. “You don’t need Jackson to stay. Don’t need me to stay, either. I’m going back with him.”
His breath eased out. The difficult scene he’d envisioned, her fighting to stay and him fighting against his desire to let her stay, winked away. She knew. Of course she did.
Now it became difficult for an entirely different reason. He didn’t have to send her back. She was leaving. Was it the recognition of the greater strategy that had her returning to the Fort? Or was it something else? Jackson. Or the decisions Alex had made back at the caravan.
What about us? He hated how plaintive the question in his head sounded.
He waited. Not only did he not trust himself to say anything yet, but he could feel her gathering her breath. She wasn’t finished.
“I want you to know that I’m not going because of the collar. I know why you made that choice. I understand all of your choices. And I want to stay with you. But you don’t need me here, not like those girls need me.”
He couldn’t stay silent. “I want you to stay, too—”
She nodded as she talked over him, needing to get the words out. “And I know that in the same way you can stay now, I could too. Mina Gardin could go on.”
He could feel her cheek move against his chest as she smiled at her code name. He could also feel the hesitation at the end of the sentence. “Except?”
“Except Mina Gardin, sous chef, serves absolutely zero tactical purpose at the Meet. I don’t offer what we’re doing enough value in that role to offset the danger of me being there.”
Alex felt a smile tug at his lips. His heart swelled. The smile grew into a grin. Just as he hadn’t been preparing to send her away as a means to end what they had, she wasn’t going away to abandon him. She was going back to fulfill a more important role. She believed in what they were doing. She was with them. She was with him.