Page 139 of Bulletproof

Aaron brought Jaden the second day, and we talked about cooking school and that I would call him when I got home if he gave me his number. He gave it to me quickly, asked me to please call, and told me that Aaron and he had already decided, mutually, to call an end to their relationship.

Sitting on the bed beside me, Jaden sighed deeply.

“What?”

He was looking at Sam. “I want what you have, Jory. I want my own man who only wants me. Once I’m done with school, I’ll have something to offer.”

“You have a lot to offer now,” I assured him. “But, yeah, being self-sufficient? There’s really nothing like it.”

He seemed to be looking forward to it.

“What’d you do?” Sam asked me later that night when we were alone again, Dane having gone back to his hotel to get some sleep. “Fix everybody while you were here?”

I explained about Jaden and Aaron, and Sam agreed that he could see me having both men in my life.

“I’m sorry?”

He shrugged those muscular shoulders of his. “I told Aaron it was fine by me if you guys wanted to hang out, and I might even have a meal with him myself once in a while. Maybe.”

This was news. “You hate Aaron Sutter.”

“I used to. Now I feel sort of bad for him. I mean, if the roles were reversed—never mind.”

“What?”

“If the roles were reversed and he had you, I couldn’t just be your friend, J. I’d grab you and leave for someplace without an extradition treaty.”

“That’s so romantic.”

“You wouldn’t think it was if you loved Aaron Sutter instead of me.”

“That could never happen.”

“No, it couldn’t.”

I smiled and took his face in my hands. “It’s really okay with you? Me and Aaron, I mean.”

“We’ll see how it goes. As long as he doesn’t fuck up and try an’ fuck you, we should be all right.”

“Aww, look at you with the growth and all.”

“Shut up,” he said as he leaned forward to kiss me.

“And stop⁠—”

“Swearing,” he growled. “I know.”

I would have given him more crap, but he kissed me, so I couldn’t.

On Monday of the following week, I finally got to go home.

EIGHTEEN

The case against Cristo Liron had been dead in the water until he sent hit men after Sam and me. There had been some internal leaks, bad intelligence gathering, and more than anything, procedural inconsistencies. But when the two hit men rolled on Cristo, Adrian Miller broke, became a witness for the prosecution, and had frightened Adan and Paz into telling everything they each knew. Agent Calhoun came to see Sam when we arrived home and gave him the good news that Cristo Liron was going to prison for life.

Later that night, when I was practicing in the wheelchair, rolling myself from one side of the room to the other, I asked Sam why he thought Cristo had taken the gamble to kill me instead of just walking away.

The look I got of absolute bewilderment was cute.