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Resting my head against the back of the couch, I close my eyes, getting comfortable.

“Did she pass your test?” I blurt out.

I’ve known Ryker for a long time. Not once has he shown interest in women being more than just something he could use to get his rocks off. Not once has he cared enough to make them their favorite food, to show them his face, let alone kiss them.

“She’s stubborn.”

I chuckle, because that she is.

“Are we actually doing this together?” Ryker finally whispers.

Tilting my head over, Ryker mimics me, searching my face.

“We’ve never shared before,” I answer back. We’ve talked about our sex lives before, we live together, but not once has it crossed my mind to share a girl with him.

“No shit,” Ryker snaps back.

“Listen, you’re a little too sassy for someone that just came in our girl’s ass,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Which for your information, is currently leaking down onto my thigh, so it’s too late, we’re doing this. I’m not prepared to lose her.”

Ryker tilts his head back up towards the ceiling, lost in his own little world. I know he’s scared because of his past; everyone he cared about died in that fire. It destroyed him and he nearly lost his life in it.

“I wasn’t lying. What happens if she triggers something in me and I freak out? We’re supposed to be protecting her—”

“She’s not a job to me anymore… I don’t think she was ever a job, honestly.”

Ryker nods, shifting on the couch.

“Jace…” He visually swallows, and I already know his fear.

“She’s not your weakness, Ryker. Blake is… she’s strong, she just doesn’t believe in herself. But she is. She went through something that none of us can imagine. Sure, she became mute, but she’s a fighter.”

“I’m afraid I’ll hurt her,” he whispers also as if it were to himself.

“That just shows that you care. It shows that you have a heart, and hey…” Reaching over, I tap his knee. His eyes shift to mine. “In case you haven’t noticed, you push, and Blake pushes just as hard. She has demons that can matchyours as well as mine. She’s the only one who can understand our pain just as we understand hers.”

Ryker sighs, glancing down at Blake as she twitches and tightens her grip on his hand.

“Only her.”

“Only her,” I agree. Blake’s it. I didn’t think I would get into bed with the mafia, but for her, I’d go to war against them.

I wake up pressed against the couch with someone lying on top of me. Blinking my eyes open, I let them slowly adjust, staring down at Blake as she peacefully sleeps across my chest. Calmness washes over me as Blake matches her breathing with mine, and I realize this is the first time since meeting her that she hasn’t had a nightmare.

Blake’s mouth is slightly parted, a little drool pooling at the corner of her mouth onto my chest. I smile, pulling the throw blanket further up. Resting my hands on her naked back, I can’t tear my eyes away. Blake is beautiful, even with the scars. It makes her who she is, and I love her stubborn self.

My fingers brush over her back, feeling the raised scars. Several of them in shapes of what would be like whip marks.

I wonder about those twelve men who got out before Dimitri and his team could kill them. I wonder how it all ties together. Dimitri wanted her out of the way because of Antonio, but why? And why didn’t Blake tell them about theother men? So many questions run through my head that I don’t realize Blake is watching me.

“Good morning, Sunshine,” I mumble.

Blake smiles, tilting her head forward.

“You’re beautiful.”

She scrunches her nose, shakes her head, and presses her forehead against my chest. I laugh when she picks her head up, eyes dropping down to the drool.

“Beautiful and messy.” I try to hold back my laughter.