Page 115 of Rogue

But as I pull up his shirt and inspect the seared skin on his back, just near his right shoulder. A part of him he carefully kept hidden from me. I realize that no matter what he has in store for me, I will never run from him again.

He’s been branded, his skin fused together by a hot metal iron in the shape of the letterK.

Marked.

For me.

A faint, unfamiliar sound escapes my throat. A whimper. I roll off of him and onto my back, feeling sick to my stomach. “WhyK?” I choke out. “Is it because every time you’d look at it, you’d remember what I did to you? An ugly, painful reminder of how much you hate me?”

“Just the opposite.”

“The opposite . . .”

“Don’t get me wrong. It hurt like a bitch and for a long time, I was ticked off about it. But if I was going to be sporting a letter on my body like some twisted tattoo, I figured it’d better represent someone I love. Someone I fell in love with so damn fast my head spun, and it hasn’t stopped spinning. Someone I’ll love to the end, no matter what.”

“But—”

“Shush. Let me finish.”

“Did you just shush me?” But if there were ever a time I needed to zip it, it’s now.He still loves me . . .

“Kylie . . .” he warns. “Yeah, you pissed me off. Seven is a far cry from two, right? That’s what your text said.”

“Francis told Novák . . .”

“I heard you on the phone. Jesus Christ, I can’t believe you called him like that. They could have shot you dead right then and there. And this time, there’d’ve been nothing I could have done to prevent it.”

I roll off my back to sit cross-legged. “This time?”

Jaxson doesn’t answer right away and takes his sweet-ass time readjusting his big, beautiful body into a seated position, stretching his long legs out on either side of me.

“How many times have there been?

I stare at him, incredulous, as he begins to count on his fingers.

“You didn’t terminate the big-bellied Prick on the sidewalk because you were trying to even the odds?”

“Hell no. You know what you are doing. You could have handled two of them.”

“Why protect me if you planned on terminating me?”

“If I wanted you dead, you’d never have survived our initial reunion. Didn’t I wait until the last possible minute to report in to Hayden?”

“Yes, but why risk it?”

“The same reason why I’ve got thisKon my shoulder.”

He loves me. Oh my God. He loves me.

“You shot at me. Multiple times.”

“Like I said, I was pissed off. Needed a little time to cool down before we talked.”

I don’t know whether to clobber him or hug him. “What if you missed?

“Show me your bullet wounds.”

I gasp.