Hell, I’d even miss the way she wasn’t afraid to stand up to me. Very few men had the balls to do that, and yet this little girl had pulled my own gun on me. And she probably would’ve shot me, too, if I hadn’t gotten it away from her.

I turned my hand so that my palm was cupping the side of her head, and watched as a tear slid silently down her cheek. I brushed it away with my thumb. “I’ve missed you,” I confessed.

Her expression hardened, and I took her mouth with mine before she could tell me to leave again. She pressed her lips together,...