Chapter 86. Bad Men with Bad Ending

Ava

We stepped out of the house into bright, cold sunlight, and the second the front door shut behind us, the weight of the last year slid off my shoulders like an old coat I never had to wear again.

Adrian stopped on the bottom step, turned to me, and just… grinned.

Big, stupid, boyish, the kind of smile I hadn’t seen on him since the very first night he ever kissed me.

I laughed really loud, unstoppable and he pulled me into him, arms tight around my waist, lifting me clean off the ground. My legs wrapped around his hips on instinct.

“We did it,” he said against my mouth, voice cracking with joy. “We’re free.”

I kissed him hard, tasting coffee and relief and a future that finally felt like ours.

He spun me once, right there on the cracked walkway, both of us laughing like idiots while the neighbors probably peeked through their curtains.

When he set me down, he kept his hands on my face, thumbs brushing my cheeks, eyes shining