"You're a lot more confident than you were. But you seem to think you're indestructible sometimes. With Katie and the truck, giving so much blood to save Stacey, and then taking a bullet for me." She touched the bullet hole in my shirt. "A few inches difference and it would have been a head shot. You could have died."

When she put it that way, I sounded like Rambo. Hell, maybe there was a part of me that acted on pure instinct. But I had learned one thing about myself. I would do anything for the people I loved. And Heaven help anyone who got in my way.

"If I have a chance to save someone I care about, I'll take it," I told her. "But especially for you." I caressed her cheek. "I'd do anything for you. If that means killing someone—" The image of Sherriff Skinner's crushed body, the way his eyes, wide and accusing, stared at me after I'd slammed him into that wall lingered at the front of my mind. I felt sick even if the monster deserved it.

"I can take care of myself, Justin." She said it without anger, without scolding me.

I nodded. "I know. But I want to be there for you even if you are my ninja girl." I pressed a hand to the small of her back and pulled her tight. Kissed her hard on the lips. "Are you ready to ride a white horse into the sunset now?"

She grinned and looked at the noon sun. "It's a little early for sunset."

"Who cares? I just want to find a nice safe place where we can be alone together."

"Oh, Mr. Slade? You planning to seek out my inner goddess?"

"Is that what it's called?"

She raised an eyebrow in a very sultry way and said, "Why don't I let you find out yourself?"