and sweet, and it’s a balm to the poison that eats away at me.
Love for her flares inside me, lighting up my chest like the sun emerging from behind a cloud.
Wrapping one arm around her waist, I palm the back of her head and slide my tongue against hers, trying to memorize the taste and feel of her.
A little noise rises in her throat, and I know it’s for me—because of me.
When she finally breaks away, she smiles up at me. I don’t know how she knew I needed reassurance in this moment, but she did. And she gave it to me, openly and willingly.
I smile back at her, releasing her but threading my fingers through hers. I’m not quite ready to let her go yet.
With her hand held in mine, Trinity turns around to look at my brothers. She purses her lips, letting out a small sigh. “I’m sorry about earlier. I… I had some sense talked into me.”
“Love, I think you mean you had some sense fucked into you,” Sawyer drawls, and I suddenly understand the look on his face earlier. He knew.
Once, Trin would’ve blushed at that response. But now, although her cheeks flush a little, it doesn’t look like it’s from embarrassment. She bites her bottom lip in an unconsciously seductive gesture, her gaze darting to Beckett and Ryland.
Both of my brothers look quite pleased with themselves, smirking as heat flickers in their eyes.
“Well, the fucking came afterward,” Trin admits with a smile that makes me want to kiss her all over again. “But before that, it was pointed out to me that if you love someone, you stand with them. No matter what. The idea of losing any of you scares the crap out of me, but if the tables were turned, there’s no way I’d let you keep me out of the fight.”
“Yeah. I’m still torn over which sin you’d represent,” Nix says, a grin tugging at his lips. “Impatience or stubbornness.”
Trin rolls her eyes at him affectionately, then her expression grows serious again.
“You guys have… changed me,” she admits quietly, tightening her grip on my hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about my mission to redeem you. I should have—especially when I started to wonder why you needed redeeming in the first place. You made me a better person. You helped me find courage inside myself I didn’t even know was there. You taught me about love. You taught me about sex. You taught me that a family can fight and argue but still have each other’s backs.”
Beck’s eyes glint in satisfaction as he nods slightly, his gaze fixed on Trin.
“So, if you want to have my back in this…” Trin pauses, taking a deep breath before she continues. “I’d be honored to fight by your side.” Then she bites her lip, her nose scrunching up. “But please, please, please don’t die.”
“’Course we won’t, sweet cakes.” Nix winks at her. “That’d be pretty fucking rude of us, wouldn’t it?”
She chuckles, although there’s something a little manic about the sound—like she’s working hard to suppress her fear. “It would be very rude. Not cool at all.”
“What we told Trin is that each of us has the right to fight alongside the woman he loves,” Beck says, his gaze sweeping all of us. “But neither Ryland nor I are going to tell any of you whether you have to join this battle. That’s not how we operated before we split apart, and if we’re going to work as a family again, it’s going to be by everyone’s choice.”
Family.
It’s not lost on any of us that he used that word on purpose. That’s what we were once, although it’s been so long that I almost forgot what it was like to have one.
“I’m in,” Ford says immediately, stepping forward like he hopes the fight will start any minute.
“Me too, love.”
Sawyer rises smoothly from his chair and lifts Trinity’s free hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles. I’ve seen him do a lot more than that to a woman, but there’s something in the gesture that I haven’t ever seen before.
Intimacy.
Trin smiles at him, her eyes softening.
“I’m a chef, not a warrior,” Remi puts in with a lopsided grin, “but if we don’t stop these assholes, there won’t be anyone left to cook for. We need to defend our world.”
“Ah, fuck it. I’m in too. But I’m taking a year-long vacation afterward,” Nix warns. He flops back on the couch as he speaks, like he’s determined