My brother calls me to tell me that him, ZZ, and Storm are on their way and that I will get the start to extract my revenge. Can’t say I am not beyond fucking thrilled, but I don’t want to leave Piper just yet. I know she can take care of herself and she doesn’t need me, but I want to spend every moment I can with her. I want to explore what we have and I can’t do that when I need to fucking kill motherfuckers for hurting my best friend. This is a perfect example of a rock and a hard place. But if I don’t take this opportunity for revenge, my brothers will, and it is not their fucking job. Protecting Piper is my job, no one else’s. She is my girl, not theirs.

“Storm is on her way. She’s gonna stay with you while I go shoot some lead,” I say to her as I sit next to her on my sofa. She is watching reruns of some girly show. I gaze at her, and even with her bruises, wrapped up face, and slow movements, she is still the most beautiful woman in this fucking world and I am goddamn lucky we are going to try this out. She reaches for her notepad, scribbles quickly, and hands it over to me.

Piper can talk, but we both don’t want her to risk her jaw to the point where she might need to have surgery. The Doc says she only has a week or two left until the swelling should be down enough to where she can talk a little each day. Not a lot, but enough to where I can hear her sweet voice and giggle.

God, I can’t wait for that fucking day.

I take the notepad from her and read it out loud. She likes when I do that. She says my voice sends shivers down her spine. And being the man that I am, I love making a woman happy, especially when that woman is mine.

“Shoot some lead, my ass. You’re gonna go kill some people,” I read and laugh so loud, it echoes around my living room. “Shoot some lead is killin’ people, darlin’. You know that.”

She does her best to smile at me and takes the notepad from me to write something else. I tap my fingers on my knee while I wait. I have learned to be patient because for her, it counts. It matters. Waiting for her means everything.

“Kiss a bullet for me?” I read. God, I fucking love this chick. “Of course I will, darlin’. Do you even need to ask?”

I taught her that phrase. Kissing a bullet means marking it with a name to exact revenge for the one that was harmed.

I read the rest of her note. “My gun, where is it?”

That right there breaks my heart, because no matter my love for guns, or my obsession with them, it sucks she feels she needs it all the time. And my woman should not feel that way at all, at any fucking moment. “The shotgun is loaded next to the door, and the handgun I gave you is in the drawer in the bedroom beside our bed.”

The smile that spreads should look ridiculous, what with the white gaze wrapped around her head, but it doesn’t. She has doe eyes and love shines through them while her mouth sings to me.

“What?” I ask.

She hasn’t smiled this big since before she was kidnapped.

She jerks the paper away playful like, writes something underneath the part I haven’t finished reading, and hands it back.

“You said our bed.” I read.

Silly woman, I have her now. If she thinks she is going anywhere while we see if this connection of ours is the forever kind, she is fucking wrong. I finish reading what she wrote above that line before I answer her. “I have another gun with the safety off in the drawer beside this couch. Do you not know me at all, darlin’?”

A small giggle escapes her and she groans. I hate her sweet giggle causes her pain, but deep down, I am fucking thrilled to know it is still in there.

“And yes, it is our bed. Baby, I wouldn’t risk you and me if I weren’t serious, yeah?”

Piper once again takes the paper from me and scribbles so fast my eyes cross.

“I’ll be okay,” I read over her shoulder as I wrap my arm around her. “Continue to write, darlin’. I’m quite comfy.” I chuckle in her ear and sniff her hair. Fuck, I love the way she smells.

“I know you’ll be okay. You’re Piper.”

She huffs and writes some more. “I want them all dead,” I read with a growl to my words. “I don’t want them to do to anyone else what they did to me and Jinx. Kill them. Kill all of them,” I seethe out.

I unwrap my arm and turn her to look at me. When her green eyes are staring back at me, I speak. “They’re all gonna be six feet under, yeah? They hurt you, the woman who has been my best friend for over a year and now the woman that I’m pretty fuckin’ sure I’m in love with. So yeah, baby, they’re fuckin’ dead,” I say a tad louder than I should.

Piper gasps and tries to write, but with a gentle ease, I move her face back towards mine. “Yes, I think I’m in love with you. I’ve never been in love, but I’m fuckin’ damn sure this is what it feels like. I want to kill every last motherfucker that has put a hand on you, and I know I for damn sure don’t want any other man havin’ what’s mine. So yeah, darlin’, I think I’m in love with you.”

I watch a single tear slide down her face, and this time when she reaches for the paper, she stops herself and holds up the I love you sign. And for the first time in all my years, I say those three words to a woman besides my mother, and mean it with every fiber of my being. “I love you, too, darlin’.”

I kiss her on the forehead because, now that she is mine, I want her healed quickly, and I don’t want to fuck that up. When I lift my mouth from her, she pens something and I look down to read it. “Sniper, my heart is happy.”