Well, that was wild. Not the bracelet, but that he’d worked with Milly. Maybe they had gotten past things. Maybe I’d needed to be out of their way for a bit.

Pamela thanked us again, and again, and finally, I sent her to bed.

Liam flopped back onto the broken down couch, and I sat beside him, my hand curling around his thigh.

“Rylee, I’m still pissed at you for sending me away with Blaz.”

“Hmm. I’ll take a spanking for it if I must.”

He cleared his throat. “Woman, you are a devil, you know that?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve heard that a time or two.”

We fell silent, the sunrise peeking through the windows.

“Liam?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s the calm before the storm, isn’t it?”

He turned my face to his, kissing me lightly. “Yeah, I think it is.”

So much to do, so much was coming, and yet for the first time, I felt hope. The crushing despair that had nearly consumed me after Dox’s death had lifted. I knew there would be more losses—that was the way of things. There was never a world so perfect that everyone survived a war.

But since this really was the calm before the storm, and it wouldn’t last forever, I took advantage of it.

“Liam?”

“Yes?”

“About that spanking …”