Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
“I meant what I told Ian,” Tristan said quietly. “I am going to leave the other teams.”
Sure he would. Aidan strode down the hall leading to the stairwell. He ignored the elevators. He didn’t want to be stuck in a small space with Tristan, and he was pretty sure Tristan would follow him. “I don’t care. I think you should do exactly what Ian told you to do. Send me and Carys to a safe house, and I’ll take care of her. But we need an end date.”
“I thought you wanted to face Huisman. I thought Huisman was some hero of yours.”
He had. There had been a moment when he’d thought going on this mission—all three of them—might heal the breach, but he was past the idea now. Wasn’t he? “Carys means more, and after what happened, I can safely say she needs me. She needs me to focus on her and not to get involved in the very thing that broke us.”
“We are not broken,” Tristan said.
Aidan stopped right before he reached the door, pointing his best friend’s way. “Were you in the same room I was? How the fuck can you say we’re not broken? She used her safe word.”
“I told you. She was emotional, and it’s all she’s got. She wanted to send a message, and it’s been received.” Tristan opened the door, allowing Aidan to go first. “I don’t have to be in Canada for a couple of days. We’ll take Carys to The Hideout tomorrow night. The good thing about having a completely private club is you can open it at any time. I’ve already got a message out to Gabriel Lodge, and he’s handling the arrangements. He was having a training meeting with a new class, but he told me he’ll turn it into a watch and discuss session. We didn’t get a wedding, so we’ll have a stress relief party.”
What the hell? He blew past Tris, jogging down the stairs. “You honestly believe she’s going to the club and submitting to you tomorrow?”
“I do.” Tristan sounded like the confident asshole he liked to pretend to be. Or maybe it was who he was now. “I think she’ll go because it’s her safe place, and she won’t be able to resist. She’ll end up in a privacy room with both of us. I expect she’ll likely use her safe word then, too. This is going to be a process.”
How could he talk like this? Aidan reached the door leading into the bodyguard unit. He thought some of the sales unit was down here, too, but he needed the space of the men Big Tag called the Douche. Yeah, it was what Carys’s uncle called a group of bodyguards. The group also included women, who should be more outraged by the title. “It’s not a process. It’s a relationship. At least it was once.”
“Maybe everyone is right and we need to sit down at the Ferguson Clinic,” Tris said with a long huff as he followed Aidan inside.
The clinic had been around as long as Aidan could remember. Founded by therapist Kai Ferguson, it was housed in a building next to the old folks’ home…Sanctum. He probably should never make the joke out loud. There was no need to go to the clinic for throuple’s therapy because they weren’t a throuple anymore.
Except for a moment it had felt so right.
The stairwell door led right into the office portion of this side of the floor. A bank of cubicles were to his left, the first one belonging to Nate Carter, the newest bodyguard and Aidan’s sister’s boyfriend. Daisy had taken one look at the big Aussie and she’d been a goner.
He’d never felt that rush of new love. He’d simply always had it. Carys had always been there, a piece of him he’d never thought he could lose. He was happy for his sister and Nate, but he had no desire for the kind of crazy new love they had. He wanted Carys.
He wanted Tris. Or rather he wanted the Tris his best friend had always been. Sometimes he didn’t recognize him now. He’d been okay with the soldier. Tris had still been recognizable in the soldier. The operative scared the shit out of him.
“Somehow I don’t think a handful of therapy sessions are going to solve this,” Aidan shot back.
Tristan ignored his opinion. “Nate’s shirt is going to be way too big on you. Landon Vail is closer in size. Or they keep some MT shirts in the locker room.”
Aidan was about to tell him he could dress himself when his cell trilled. He wanted to ignore it but what if it was Carys? What if she’d changed her mind and she needed him? He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced down at the screen.