I kissed him again, panting, “He has to get through you first, right?”

He smiled, his ego liking the sound of that. “Yeah, he does.”

“Please, baby.” I pulled at the bars. “Please?”

I kissed him again, moaning, and finally, he released me. “Fuck him. Let’s go.”

I stumbled back, righting my clothes again, and he swung open the door, taking my hand and pulling me.

We ran back into the office area, and I tossed the keys back onto Bruckheimer’s desk as we raced through the rear door and out into the night.

Digging in our heels, we hurried across the street, darts of cold rain hitting my head as we made our way to the waiting car.

“Get in!” Damon yelled. “Hurry!”

We jumped into the backseat, slamming the door, and Damon hit the gas, speeding off down the road. I dove into the third-row bench seat, looking out the back window for any sign that we were seen, but there was no one coming after us. Lightning pierced the sky as droplets wet the ground.

I whipped around, no longer sad or soft or panting after Will. I was mad. “What the hell were you thinking?” I growled.

Damn him. I may have gotten caught up in that kiss inside, but sex was never our problem.

“I had a plan,” he explained.

“Did you?”

He twisted around and looked at me. “I’m going to have face him at some point, Emmy,” he shouted. “May as well have fun while I’m at it.”

“We still don’t know who put you in Blackchurch!” I shouted, growing angrier. “If you get into any more trouble, who knows what will happen? You’ve learned nothing! Absolutely nothing. You don’t have any idea how to plan your moves and keep your shit quiet until it’s time to strike. You’re like a bull in a China shop. When are you going to grow up? Demonstrate some patience?”

One fucking night back, and he was already in jail again.

I lost it. “This is why I don’t love you!” I screamed.

And he turned on me, a scowl and piercing glare lighting him on fire.

He jumped into the back seat, pushing me down and coming down on top of me.

“Hell yeah, you love me,” he said, sucking my lips into his mouth. “You’re crazy about me, and you may not be blonde or eighteen or named Heidi, but you’re fucking mine, little trouble.” He pushed up my shirt, yanked down my bra, and covered my nipple with his mouth, sucking hard. “And you can still walk my dogs someday if you want, but I’ll for damn sure be peeling down your panties on my desk and letting you pretend like you don’t love every second of it right before I write you that little check.” He gripped my neck, his other hand trying to rip down my pants as he kissed me. “You’re never getting free of me.”

I pushed at him. “Will…”

“Never.”

He thrust between my legs, sinking his tongue into my mouth, his hot body covering me and making the world spin.

I whimpered.

“Um…” someone said, and I blinked, noticing the car had stopped. “Okay, wow. I…um…I’d love to watch this, actually,” Damon called out, “but Winter will consider it cheating if she’s not here, too. I’ll go ahead and walk home, and you fucking owe me, Will.”

Damon opened the door, the rain coming down hard now, and got out, closing it again.

I shoved at Will, crawling out from underneath him. “I’m walking, too.”

Opening the back door, I jumped out of the G-Class, seeing that we were in the village, and raced in the rain toward the cathedral.

“Oh, surprise, surprise,” Will shouted behind me. “She’s running again.”

I spun around. “It’s called being dumped, Grayson! Watch. I’ll show you what it looks like again.”

I ran harder, glancing up into the little park and noticing a new gazebo where mine once stood.

I narrowed my eyes. What…?

But then arms caught me and whipped me around, Will picking me up. I pounded his chest, feeling him lose his footing, and both of us fell to the ground, the pavement and our clothes soaking as the rain streamed down my face.

I swatted at him again, pushing my glasses up onto the top of my head. “You burned up the Cove!” I yelled.

How could he do that? The gazebo and now that? It was like he was determined to self-destruct and leave nothing of us to remember.

He hauled me into his lap right there in the middle of the street, people sitting under the awning of the White Crow Tavern gasping and rising from their seats to see what was going on.

He sat up, and I straddled him, gripping his collar.

But before I could fight, he said, “I still have the bus.”

The bus.

Our bus?

I paused, looking down into his glistening, sea green eyes as he blinked up at me.

“I don’t need the Cove,” he said over the rain. “I need more memories with you.”

I breathed hard, but I couldn’t move as tears filled my eyes.

“Memories that aren’t tainted with all the years apart right afterward,” he explained.

Everyone watching us from a distance faded away, and I looked down at his hair matted to his scalp and temples, droplets cascading down his cheeks and over his lashes, and all I wanted in the world was to stare at him forever.

“I build with you now,” he whispered to me, the heat of his mouth on my lips. “We make Thunder Bay together, Em. I love you.”

I love you.

I closed my eyes, my face cracking and my eyes filling with tears. God, I was exhausted.

So tired that I longed for the days when Martin beat the shit out of me, because those were also the days I saw Will laughing at school and playing basketball with his friends.

The day he sat with me in the theater and joked around, and the night he took me to ride roller coasters and we were a couple, holding hands. For just a couple of hours.

Sliding off of him, I sat at his side, his words coursing their way through my heart as I wondered where the hell we were going to go from here.

“You came for me,” he said.

Yes. Yes, I did.

I didn’t need to search for an excuse. I knew why.

“I couldn’t lose you anymore,” I told him, staring at the street ahead.

I drew in a deep breath and tipped my head back, letting the rain cool my skin as I thought about my future and all of the things I thought were going to work out for me without him.

I fucking loved Will Grayson. I wanted to eat every meal with him, have that damn Mission: Impossible marathon with him, and let him knock me up as soon and as much as he wanted.

He stood up, standing over me. “I love you,” he said again. “But I’ll let you go.”

He started to walk away, my heart ripping in two, and I shook my head.

No.

He couldn’t let me go. He couldn’t move on without me. Everything we’d been through—everything—meant something. It all meant something.

Didn’t it?

This wasn’t where we ended.

Nothing was over.

“Will you marry me?” I asked, breathing hard and my heart hammering.

Slowly, I climbed to my feet and turned to face him, seeing him stopped.

He stood there, frozen, not turning around, but that was okay. I wasn’t sure I could do this if he looked at me.