Page 184 of The Hunter's Empire

The corner of his mouth lifts slightly. "You probably should have."

Despite everything, I smile. "I love you too."

For a long time, we simply look at one another, both of us trying to come to terms with the fact that the future we'd convinced ourselves we couldn't have is suddenly sitting right in front of us.

Then he leans forward slowly, giving me every opportunity to pull away. I don't.

His forehead rests against mine for a moment before a familiar smirk appears.

"I thought you didn't kiss men hired through auctions."

I raise an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't fall in love with the woman you were supposed to kill."

For a moment, he simply looks at me before a soft laugh escapes him. "Fair point."

And then he kisses me. Softly. As though he's still afraid that if he moves too quickly, the moment might disappear.

For the first time since our paths crossed, there are no secrets left between us. No lies. No revenge. No ghosts standing between us.

Just Nico and me.

Epilogue

Domenico

The cemetery is quieter than I remember. Perhaps it has always been this quiet, and I simply never noticed because grief has a way of filling every empty space with noise of its own, making it impossible to hear anything except the things you wish had been said and the conversations you keep replaying long after everyone else has moved on.

I stand in front of the gravestone with my hands buried in my pockets and my attention fixed on the familiar name carved into the stone, wondering for what feels like the thousandth time whether disappointment survives death or whether fathers are fortunate enough to leave that behind with everything else.

"I still haven't managed to keep my promise." I admit after a while. "For a long time, I convinced myself that avenging youwas the same thing as honoring you, and somewhere along the way I stopped being able to tell the difference between love and obligation."

The wind moves quietly through the cemetery as I continue. "I told myself that one day I would stand over your grave and finally feel something resembling peace, because that was how stories like ours were supposed to end. The son finds the man who took his father from him, settles the debt, and walks away lighter than he arrived."

A quiet laugh escapes me. "Turns out life had other plans."

My gaze drops briefly toward the flowers resting against the stone. "I met his daughter."

The words sound strange even now.

"And somehow, against every law of reason and self-preservation that should have existed between us, she became more important than the revenge I spent half my life chasing."

I shake my head slightly. "You would hate how cliché that sounds."

Another small smile. "Actually, no. You'd probably find it hilarious."

My gaze drifts toward the horizon beyond the cemetery before eventually returning to the grave.

"I think you knew her before I did." I say eventually, finding the thought strangely comforting rather than absurd.

"You would have liked her." I continue quietly. "Although she probably would have threatened to shoot you at least once during the first week, so perhaps'liked'is a strong word."

The thought pulls the smallest smile from me.

"She changed things I thought were permanent. She changed ideas I had carried for so long that I mistook them for facts, and somewhere along the way she convinced me that surviving and living were not actually the same thing."

The sound of footsteps approaching through the gravel reaches me a few seconds before she does, and I feel her presence beside me before I feel the warmth of her hand wrapping around my arm and the familiar weight of her leaning gently against my shoulder.

For a while neither of us speaks. Neither of us has ever been particularly afraid of silence.