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306 - Unarmed

작가: Moon
last update 게시일: 2026-08-16 22:29:06

The second day at the lake passed without a single siren, gunshot, or raised voice.

Ariana woke to the sound of water lapping against the dock and the warmer weight of Nick’s arm across her waist. For a long minute she did not move. She simply catalogued the absence of danger the way she had once catalogued exits. No blood. No radio static. No one sleeping with a weapon within reach.

Nick’s breathing changed. He pressed his mouth to the back of her shoulder.

“You’re thinking loud.”

“I’m trying
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  • CRAVING THE BAD BOY   306 - Unarmed

    The second day at the lake passed without a single siren, gunshot, or raised voice.Ariana woke to the sound of water lapping against the dock and the warmer weight of Nick’s arm across her waist. For a long minute she did not move. She simply catalogued the absence of danger the way she had once catalogued exits. No blood. No radio static. No one sleeping with a weapon within reach.Nick’s breathing changed. He pressed his mouth to the back of her shoulder.“You’re thinking loud.”“I’m trying to remember what people do when nothing is hunting them.”He made a low sound that might have been a laugh and rolled her onto her back. Morning light cut across the bed in clean lines. There were no bandages to change, no bruises to check with careful fingers. Only skin and the slower curiosity of two people who no longer needed to prove they had survived the night.They stayed in bed until the sun cleared the trees.Later, Nick made coffee with the focus of a man performing an unfamiliar ritua

  • CRAVING THE BAD BOY   305 - Learning How to Stay

    They left the motel before the sun fully cleared the horizon.No convoy this time. No second vehicle trailing at a careful distance. Daniel had taken a different route at the last junction, heading toward the city to finish what remained of Victor’s network. Evelyn rode with them only as far as the regional rail station, where she would board a train south to stay with an old university friend who still owed her silence and a guest room.The goodbye was quiet.Evelyn held Ariana for a long time on the platform, then looked past her daughter’s shoulder at Nick.“Take care of her. And let her take care of you.”Nick inclined his head once. “I will.”Then Evelyn was gone, swallowed by the morning crowd, and the car felt larger without her.Nick drove west.He had not told Ariana the destination, only that it was far enough from every name they had used and every place they had bled. She did not ask. For the first time in weeks she found she did not need the map. The simple fact of the ro

  • CRAVING THE BAD BOY   304 - Where He Takes Her

    The retrieval team arrived just after full dark.Three unmarked vehicles rolled into the clearing without headlights. Men and women in plain clothes stepped out, efficient and silent. They secured Victor without ceremony, checked his injuries, and loaded him into the middle vehicle. No questions were asked in front of Ariana or Evelyn. Daniel spoke quietly with the team leader for several minutes, then returned with a simple nod.“They’ll extract every name he has. After that, he disappears into a system that doesn’t lose people.”Nick stood with one arm around Ariana’s shoulders, watching the vehicles turn and disappear back down the access road. Only when the last taillights vanished between the trees did the tension in his body begin to ease.“It’s done,” he said.Ariana leaned into him. “Part of it.”“The worst part.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “The rest we handle together.”They spent one final night at the station. Daniel and Evelyn took the ground floor. Nick and Ariana r

  • CRAVING THE BAD BOY   303 - After the Fire

    The ranger station smelled of cordite, dust, and the metallic edge of blood.Victor sat on the floor against the far wall, wrists bound, shoulder roughly bandaged with strips torn from his own shirt. Daniel stood over him with a weapon loose at his side, expression unreadable. Evelyn had retreated to the side room, the door half-closed, giving herself a moment to absorb the fact that the man who had once been family now bled under guard.Nick had not let go of Ariana since the moment Victor hit the floor.He held her against the wall just inside the main room, one arm locked around her waist, the other hand buried in her hair, forehead pressed to hers. His breathing was still uneven. Every few seconds his fingers flexed against her as if confirming she was solid, warm, alive.“I’m here,” she whispered. “Nick. I’m right here.”He made a low sound and kissed her—hard, desperate, the kind of kiss that belonged to the seconds after almost losing everything. She kissed him back with the sa

  • CRAVING THE BAD BOY   302 - This Ends Now

    The next wave hit harder.Victor’s remaining men stopped testing and committed. Gunfire hammered the front of the ranger station in controlled bursts, chewing splinters from the old wood. Nick stayed low beside the doorway, returning fire only when he had a clear angle. Every movement pulled at the wound on his arm, but the pain never reached his eyes. Those stayed locked on the clearing, cold and absolute.Ariana pressed herself against the wall just behind him, weapon ready, breath shallow. She could feel the heat of his body even with the space between them. Every time a bullet struck near the door he shifted instinctively, angling himself to keep her covered.Daniel’s rifle spoke from the upper floor—measured, lethal. One of the flankers went down and did not get up. The other scrambled deeper into the trees.Victor’s voice cut through the noise again, closer than before.“You’re outnumbered and outgunned, Nick. Spare her the trauma of watching you die. Send her out.”Nick’s reply

  • CRAVING THE BAD BOY   301 - On Our Terms

    First light turned the boarded windows of the ranger station the color of old bone.Nick was already awake when Ariana opened her eyes. He sat on the edge of the cot, shirtless, rewrapping the bandage on his arm with clean strips from the medical kit. The wound looked better than it had the night before—still angry, but no longer bleeding. When he noticed her watching, the hard line of his mouth softened.“Morning.”She sat up and reached for him, fingers tracing the warm skin just above the bandage. “You should have woken me.”“You needed the hour.” He caught her hand and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm. “Daniel’s already outside setting the first line of alerts. Evelyn’s making something that might pass for coffee. We have work to do.”The station felt different in daylight—less like a temporary shelter and more like a place they had chosen to make their stand. Daniel had scavenged old ranger equipment from a locked storage closet: coils of wire, motion sensors that still h

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