Page 57 of Misted

It’s my duty to protect that slowly-fading smile before it’s snatched away.

“Let’s leave,” I say.

She swallows and slowly sits up. “This isn’t funny. Don’t get my hopes high, Hawk.”

“Have I ever joked?”

She carefully shakes her head, suspicion still loud and clear on her face.

I clutch her by the shoulders so she’s facing me. “We’ll hit our fifty targets in a couple of months or weeks. The guards who follow us will be fewer and Hades thinks he controls us through Omega, so he believes we’ll always go back to our doses. We won’t.”

“We won’t?” She asks with an incredulous note.

I shake my head. “We’ll kill the guards following us and escape. It won’t be hard if they’re only a few.”

She gulps. “How… how about Omega?”

“That’s the hardest part.” I scratch my chin. “We can store from our daily dose, just half or so, but we can only do that when we’re outside, not inside The Pit where there are cameras. Then we’ll take the rest with us when we escape. We’ll run out of Omega at some point and Team Zero members died once the dose is taken, but I’m ready to gradually get off it. I’ll take that risk over spending the rest of our lives in this hell.”

I stare at her soft face. That’s the most talking I’ve done since I met her more than eight years ago. But I’ve been planning this for months on end, making sure there’s no loophole.

Mist gathers my hand in hers and brushes her lips against my knuckles. “I’m ready to take that risk, too. I want to be out of here with you.”

I release a breath, feeling accomplished that our freedom is around the corner.

“You’ll still take me to France?” She grins, and her nose does that adorable scrunching.

“I’ll take you anywhere you want, Hellion.”

“Ghost and Shadow can come, too, right?”

I nod. “But let’s not tell them our plan until we know for sure that it’ll work.”

“And Ink.”

I growl deep in my throat. I don’t like the time she spends with him. I hate that she talks to him in the first place when she should be spending all her time with me.

I’m still contemplating how to kill him. He has to finish my tattoo first.

Mist nudges my side. “Come on. He’s a friend.”

I grumble an affirmative sound. It’ll be easier to kill him outside The Pit. Better yet, he might die of accidental withdrawal and I won’t have to dirty my hands.

Mist squeals and crawls into my lap, arms wrapping around my neck. At the feel of her soft curves and round breasts, I harden in an instant. Fuck. I’ve been having blue balls for years because of her, but I’ve been doing my best not to push her. The Pit and all Omega’s madness aside, we’re still young.

We fool around, touching and making out until we’re out of breath, but I always stopped it before it got too far.

This time, I don’t think I can even kiss her without my dick demanding entrance inside her.

I try to push her off me, but instead of sulking and not speaking to me for a day, Mist tightens her hold around my neck as she stares up at me with those bright hazel eyes. “I love you, Hawk.”

I smile a little. “Do you even know what that word means?”

She lifts a shoulder. “It means that I would die for you.”

I grab her chin and shake my head. “Don’t you ever repeat that. You’ll never put yourself in fucking danger for me. If anyone will die, it’ll be me.”

I was going to die that day she was shoved into The Pit. Since then, I’ve been living for her.