I exhale, running a hand through my hair. “Yeah, well… that’s great in theory. But right now we need everything we can get on this guy if we’re going to beat him. Whether we like it or not, Amanda has to be part of that.”
Luke studies me for a second, then nods. “I agree. We’ll ask Reid to talk to her.”
“Okay. Good.”
With that settled, I turn to leave, my mind already jumping ahead to what comes next—but before I can take more than a step, Luke catches my wrist and pulls me back.
I stumble slightly into him, and then his mouth is on mine.
The kiss is fierce, immediate, stealing the air from my lungs and scattering my thoughts in every direction. For a few seconds, everything else—Reid, the mayor, the danger—just disappears.
When he pulls back, his breath still warm against my lips, I blink up at him, completely disoriented.
“Say it again.”
“Huh?” I manage, my brain still catching up.
He grins, slow and satisfied. “You know. About how much you love us.”
“Oh.” Heat floods my face. I can’t believe that slipped out earlier, just… thrown into the air like that. I hadn’t planned it. Hadn’t even fully admitted it to myself.
But the second I said it, I knew it was true.
I love them.
Reid. Luke. Talon.
Not one of them. All of them.
The realization settles deeper now, heavier but steadier. Less like a shock, more like something inevitable.
I swallow, my fingers curling slightly against Luke’s shirt.
I’ll fight for them. For this. For whatever this is becoming.
Even if I don’t know how it’s supposed to work. Even if my life is somewhere else, in a different city, tied to a job that suddenly feels… smaller than it did before.
Because the thought of walking away from them now?—
That feels impossible.
As I lick my lips, my gaze flicking up to Luke’s again, I let myself picture it for a second. The future. Me with all three of them.
It’s insane. Completely, utterly insane.
But maybe that’s the point.
I haven’t done anything this reckless in a long time.
Maybe I’m overdue.
Luke and I walk back into the office to find Talon still there, standing exactly where we left him, solid and unreadable as ever. Reid is on the phone, his voice low and controlled as he speaks.
Talon looks up when we enter.
I move toward him without thinking and reach for his hand.
He might not have reacted like Luke did, might not have exploded or walked out—but there’s no way this didn’t hit him just as hard.