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Giving a tight-lipped smile, I nodded, finding the whole situation kind of comical. I never really imagined my life like this, surrounded by people that were just a tad too crazy.
“Do you still have the evidence?” Cash asked, not wasting any more time.
“What’s the hurry?” Noah asked curiously.
“Eva’s been on the run for years. I think she deserves to have this end as swiftly as possible, and the only way for that to happen is for us to get this out in the open.”
“And what happens after that?” Aunt Gayle asked. “She’ll be a target. She’s a witness to what happened.”
“And I’ll protect her with my life,” Cash said fiercely. “Nothing will happen to her. This is what I was trained to do, along with everyone else at my company.”
“We’re trained too,” Noah interjected. “I say she stays here and we’ll keep her safe. No one knows about this location.”
“Like hell she’ll stay here,” Cash growled, taking a menacing step forward. “There’s no fucking way I’ll allow her to stay here where I can’t watch her and make sure she’s protected.”
“I told you I would protect her,” Noah shot back.
“And what’s your experience? Running and hiding? Have you ever served?”
Noah’s jaw snapped shut and the hatred in his eyes burned bright.
“I have no doubt that you want to protect her, but these men won’t stop. You’ve been hiding. I don’t hide. I fight back, and I win. Every. Fucking. Time.”
“Okay,” I stepped forward, wrapping my hand around Cash’s very large, very muscular bicep. “Let’s all calm down. I understand that you all want to do what’s right, but it’s my choice where I go from here.”
Cash didn’t even look at me as I declared I was making my own decision. My aunt and uncle, however, didn’t look as certain as him. “Eva, you’ve already been running for too long. You belong with your family.”
“I did at one time, Aunt Gayle. And if I had stayed with you, none of this would have happened. But it did, and I trust Cash more than anyone else to keep me safe. And he’s not just some man to me. He’s the man I chose, and you need to respect that.”
* * *
“Honey, can we talk a moment?”
I looked up from my bowl of stew, glancing at everyone else sitting around the table. For the most part, everyone had relaxed slightly upon my declaration of who I belonged with. I couldn’t say my aunt was happy about it, but she hadn’t said anything else, not until now.
I nodded and stood, following her out of the room. “What’s up?” I asked.
She smiled at me, reaching out her hand to grasp mine. “You’re all grown up.”
I wasn’t sure where she was going with this. Years had passed since I last saw her. I’d been through a lot, and because of that, I knew I had to make these decisions for myself. “It’s been a long time since I was a kid.”
“I know that. I just want to make sure you’re really thinking this through. That man—” she started.
“Is the man I chose,” I finished. “Aunt Gayle, I know you’re trying to protect me, but trust me when I tell you that I couldn’t find a better man than Cash.”
“But look at what he’s dragged you into,” she hissed. “You were in a government facility, going to be held hostage!”
I almost regretted telling her that much. I should have known she would try and use it against me. “He was there because of me.”
“That’s not what you said.”
“It was all intertwined. I’m telling you, he didn’t have to do anything for me. He chose to go on the run with me, to take care of me. I’m not some idiot that just fell into some man’s arms.”
“That’s certainly what it looks like.”
I tossed my hand on my hip, getting awfully irritated with being second-guessed. “And don’t you think I worried about who I was with every second of the day? It took a lot for him to convince me that he really wanted to help me. I didn’t blindly trust him.”
“You ran away with him,” she hissed.