Finally, they stopped on his.
“Next time you go on a path of vengeance, Raiden Ulysses Miller, I expect updates direct from you. I don’t care how hilarious Sylvie is, and by the way, you can tell Deacon his grunts of, ‘All good. Don’t worry. Raid will be home soon,’ don’t tell me anything.”
Looking in Hanna’s sleepy but annoyed pretty blue eyes, he knew she was okay.
So that was when Raid allowed himself to smile.
*
Eight hours later…
Raid opened his eyes, saw ceiling and realized he couldn’t breathe.
This was because he had a fat cat lying on his chest.
He also had his woman’s head on his shoulder and her heavy casted arm on his gut.
He didn’t move.
Time passed.
He still didn’t move.
He knew when she woke because her body shifted minutely before it melted into his.
She gave it time before she whispered, “Honey, you awake?”
“Yeah.”
She snuggled closer.
The cat woke and started purring.
“He’s going to want food in about five seconds,” Hanna warned.
Raid, nor Hanna, were going anywhere.
“He’s gonna have to wait,” Raid replied.
“Can you breathe?” she asked.
“No,” he answered.
He felt her smile against his skin.
She fell silent.
Raid didn’t break it.
Eventually, she asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”
He did not.
“It’s over,” he declared in an effort to communicate that to her.
“I’ll take that as you not wanting to talk about it,” she mumbled.
She got him.
Since she did, he didn’t bother to confirm.
She was silent another long while before she remarked, “Sylvie’s a kick in the pants.”
Sylvie Creed was a lot more than that.
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“It was nice of her and Tucker to go all out for us,” she noted. “Especially taking them away from Jesse.”
“They were away from Jesse for a day,” Raid told her. “They hooked up with me, and Tucker went back to Denver ‘cause we were havin’ better luck with our informants using Sylvie. Then Sylvie found she couldn’t be away from her boys and she took off to join Tucker and Jesse in Denver, but those two worked the case in Denver. Tucker came back, then he left and Sylvie came back. In the end, Tucker came back, Sylvie left to go to Jesse and then it was done.”
“Sounds confusing.”
“They don’t like to be apart and they don’t like to be away from their boy. Now they’re all together and headin’ back to Phoenix.”
“Good,” she murmured.
“Is it?” he asked, and she lifted her head to aim her still sleepy eyes at him.
“Well, yeah. The family back together, this done.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” he returned.
Her head tipped to the side and her sleepy eyes warmed. “You mean you and me?”
“Cuddled close to me, baby, you throwin’ yourself in my arms when I got home last night, I’m guessin’ we’re all right. What I want to know is if you are.”
Her eyes drifted to his collarbone before she said quietly, “I should have talked to you at Chilton’s after I overheard your conversation on the phone.”
That was when he shifted and the cat jumped away, surprisingly without objection, as Raid rolled to his side. He pulled Hanna into his arms.
She rested her casted hand on his chest and tipped her head back to look at him.
“This is not your fault,” he stated firmly.
“You were going to take care of it. I jumped the gun.”
“This is not your fault.”
She looked deep into his eyes before she dipped her chin and pressed her face in his throat.
“They killed Bodhi,” she said there.
“Yeah, and they fucked Heather up in a way she’s not ever gonna heal,” he shared. Her body twitched then her head went back and she caught his eyes again. “Their consequences. Not on you. This is no one’s fault except the asshole scumbags who make poor life choices and blame good people doin’ the right things for those assholes bearing the consequences of their own fucked up decisions. They made more, they got more consequences. Now they’re done and you’re done. Safe.”
Hanna studied him a moment before he saw that settle in and settle deep, thank fuck.
She then asked, “I get the sense you don’t want to talk about it, but after looking for this guy for ages, how did you find him in three weeks?”
“Phantoms can’t be seen in the sun. Men can be phantoms for a while but they make mistakes. He always stood in the shadows.” Raid’s arms got tight around her. “To do what he did to you, he made a mistake. He came out into the sun.”
“Uh… that’s kinda bounty hunter speak,” she informed him, and Raid felt his lips tip up.
“What I’m sayin’ is he never got close to his business. This time he showed. Your neighbors saw the car and the Nevada plates. You saw him and told the team about him. This time he left breadcrumbs. We followed them.”
“Oh,” she replied, and his grin got bigger.