Chapter 8
Sadie filled a plastic cup with water.
She wore one of Dominic’s dry sweaters over her sweatpants, and her hair remained damp from the rain.
She handed him the cup.
Dominic drank it in a single pull.
Then he looked at her.
The adrenaline was gone.
The immediate threat had been eliminated.
There were no assassins waiting in the tree line.
No bounty remained on her head.
Dominic reached toward the counter and picked up a thick manila envelope.
He dropped it between them.
“What is that?”
“Your life.”
His voice had returned to the flat, cold tone he had used when they first met.
“There’s $500,000 in there. Cash. A passport with your photograph and a new name. The deed to a house in a quiet town in the Pacific Northwest. Keys to a car. Everything.”
Sadie stared at the envelope.
“I don’t understand.”
Dominic finally looked at her.
The mask was breaking.
“The Morettis are dead. The immediate threat to you is gone. My mother is safe. The debt is paid.”
He swallowed.
“You didn’t ask for any of this. You didn’t ask to be shot at. You didn’t ask to be locked in a gilded cage with a man who has blood on his hands every time he touches you.”
“Dominic—”
“I forced you here.”
His voice sharpened.
“I dragged you into my hell because I couldn’t bear the thought of letting you go. It was selfish. It was cruel.”
He stood despite the pain in his leg.
“Tonight, when Carmine got hit, I realized that if you stay with me, eventually the bullet is going to hit you.”
He towered over her, his expression carrying grief and fierce attachment.
“I’m giving you your out.”
His voice dropped.
“Take the envelope. Walk out the front door. The car is waiting. I will never look for you. I will never contact you.”
He paused.
“You get to go back to being a civilian. You get to live.”
Sadie looked down.
A week earlier, the contents of that envelope would have represented everything she wanted.
Freedom.
Money.
An escape from rent, the diner, and exhaustion.
She could disappear.
She could become normal.
She looked at Dominic.
He was holding his breath, preparing himself for her departure.
Sadie picked up the envelope.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
He closed his eyes.
Then Sadie crossed the room to the stainless-steel biohazard bin.
She stepped on the pedal.
The lid opened.
She dropped the envelope inside.
Its heavy impact against the bottom of the empty container echoed through the room.
Dominic’s eyes opened.
“What are you doing?”
Sadie walked back toward him.
She did not stop until they were almost touching.
“A week ago, I was tired. I was a waitress drowning in debt, walking home in the rain, waiting for something to happen.”
She raised her healing hands.
“Then I walked into a fire.”
The skin remained pink and scarred.
Sadie placed both palms against Dominic’s chest, directly over his heart.
“You told me that night that my old life was over. You told me I belonged here.”
“I was forcing you. I was keeping you prisoner.”
“You built the walls to keep them out.”
Sadie looked directly into his eyes.
“Not to keep me in.”
She took the lapels of his sweater.
“I don’t want a quiet house in the Pacific Northwest. I don’t want a new name. I don’t want a normal life.”
Her grip tightened.
“I want the man who stood between me and a bullet. I want the man who burned a warehouse to the ground to make sure I could sleep at night.”
Dominic stared at her.
She knew what he was.
She knew about the blood.
The violence.
The darkness.
She was choosing him with full knowledge of all of it.
“Sadie.”
His voice was almost broken.
“If you stay, I will never let you go. If you make this choice, there is no taking it back.”
He looked at her.
“You are mine completely.”
“I know.”
Sadie did not hesitate.
She closed the final distance and kissed him.
This kiss was not the frantic collision they had shared before he left for the warehouse.
It was a seal.
A vow.
Dominic wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her against his battered body.
He buried his face in her hair and released a long, shuddering breath.
May you like
Outside, the storm continued washing the blood from the streets.
Inside the fortress, behind the heavy iron gates and armed guards, the king had finally found his queen.
