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Chapter Twelve
Kristo
I pushIris into Chloe’s arms for safety and bring up my fists, ready for battle. Lajos and Taavi are behind me, a tactical error I knew better than to make, but my focus was on my Iris and keeping her safe. Placing my body between hers and the two about to separate us forever was the right thing to do. The only thing to do.
“Put your arms down,” Dem hisses at me through clenched teeth. I throw him a look. Is he kidding me? I’m about to be jumped by a couple of Siccario’s men. There’s no way in hell I’m dropping my hands, my guard, or my attention.
“Bring it to me,” Siccario demands. When Lajos steps into my peripheral, Dem blocks him and forcibly removes something from his hands. He glares Lajos down until the man slinks back behind me.
“Sir,” Dem says and drops the item in Siccario’s open hand. He curls the old man’s fingers and holds his hand over them. They study each other and have a silent conversation before Dem nods once and steps aside, standing next to his former employer.
Former?I eye my cousin, finally seeing the truth. Dem hasn’t quit the Siccarios after all, it seems. “You still work for the family, don’t you?”
Dem flashes a charming grin. I narrow my eyes in return.
“Kristo, come to me please.”
I follow my boss’s instruction and approach, but only after glancing over my shoulder to make sure Iris is safe from Lajos and Taavi. Both men are leaning against the wall far too casually for my taste, matching grins on their faces. Even Chloe is smiling now and not making any effort to keep Iris restrained. Iris surges forward to stand by me, though she’s so frightened, she’s trembling. Always before she’s run away, not made a stand for what she wants. Today, it’s different. She’s different.
My heart swells with pride for my fierce, frightened woman, willing to face down her own family for me.
Falcone waves to us. “Iris should come too. This involves her, after all.”
Iris and I exchange confused looks. I wrap my arm around her to keep her safe. She curls to me and my chest expands as I suck in oxygen and realize I haven’t pulled in a full breath since leaving her side. I realize at that moment I’ll never be able to leave her side again.
I don’t want us to live out our days on the run, but if I can’t have Iris by my side, that’s exactly what we’ll do. I won’t live without her. I can’t live without her. She’s my life, my love, my everything.
“Kristo,” Siccario addresses me once we stop in front of him. “The Kostas family has protected the Siccario family for years. You have declined my invitation to move up in the ranks of my employment several times now.”
I brace myself to decline him again. I won’t have Iris married to a killer. “Sir—”
He brings up his hand to silence me. “I realize now the mistake I made.”
I swallow the rest of my protest. “Mistake, sir?”
“I was asking the wrong question. Or, asking it for the wrong Siccario.” He shifts his attention to Iris and smiles as his eyes shine with undisputed love. “You are my beloved niece. I want nothing more than for you to be happy.”
She lifts her chin. “Kristo makes me happy, Uncle Falcone.”
“Is he who you choose?”
“Yes!” she blurts. Then her mouth falls open as she bounces her gaze from her great uncle to me and back. “Y-You mean I have that choice?”
“Of course you do, my dear. You always have.” He holds up the ring he’s been holding in his hand, the ring Dem gave him, as he returns his focus to me. “Kristo, this ring has been in my family for generations. It passes from one generation to the next by way of marriage. I do not have children, so Iris is as close to a daughter as I have. With this,” he pauses to place the ring in my hand, “you are now as close to a son as I can have. You have my blessing to marry my great niece.”
I waste no time dropping to one knee and taking Iris’s hand in mine. Tears are streaming down her pretty cheeks. I can relate. I’m feeling a little choked up myself. I clear my throat. “Iris, agápi mou.” I don’t believe I’ve called her my love before. The smile on her face tells me she likes it. Good, she’ll have the rest of her life to hear all the ways I will call her mine. “You are my everything. Let me be yours. Marry me, Iris mou.”
“You already are my everything.” She holds out her fingers and I slip it on. “You are mine today, tomorrow, and every day of my life. I love you, Kristo. I love you!” She throws her arms around me. I jump to my feet and lift her into my arms, barking a laugh and twirling her, my future wife.
“Three sentences? Seriously?” Chloe points out. “I’ll give it to you Greeks. You like to keep your proposals short.”
Iris is laughing, crying, and has her face buried in the crook of my neck. She’s holding me tight, sobbing with joy. I won’t let her go until we are married and even then, I won’t ever leave her side. “You’re my forever, Iris mou.”
“And you’re mine, Kristo mou.” She accepts my kiss and the rest of the world disappears. It’s only my woman and me, lost in each other on this, the first day of the rest of our lives.
“Ah, hello, Mr. Driver,” Siccario announces, breaking Iris and me from our kiss. I whirl around at the unexpected intrusion, and hold Iris more tightly, ready to fight this billionaire and his army of lawyers if that’s what it takes to keep Iris at my side.
“Did it work?” To my surprise, the big, bluff American merely glances at Iris in my arms and grins wide. “Well, never mind then. I see it did. The name is really Adam Driver. Dirk is just a name I made up.”
