Page 97

"And you killed them for it." Nash watches her for a few seconds. "What happens if we let you walk out of here? You go back to Romania and forget we exist? Forget about the money?"

She looks past him at me, and whatever fear was there a few minutes ago is replaced by hatred.

"No. Given the chance, I would never stop coming after you. I should have finished what Maria started."

Nash nods once. I don't need him to explain why he asked. Alina just did that for him. She killed her own parents over money they didn't have, nearly killed Nash trying to get to me. Even with death staring her in the face she's still saying she'd do it again.

Alina opens her mouth, but Nash is done listening. He ends it before she can say anything else.

For several seconds afterward, Nash doesn’t move. I step in behind him and wrap my hand around his wrist, taking the knife carefully before setting it on the table. The second his hand is empty, I turn him toward me and pull him against my chest, keeping my arm high around his back so I don’t put pressure anywhere near his healing wound.

Nash wraps both arms around me and lets more of his weight settle against my body than he has since we walked into the room. I keep him there while his breathing slowly evens out, and when Alessia comes closer, she rests her hand against the middle of his back.

“You didn’t have to do that for me,” she says.

Nash turns his head enough to look at her without leaving my arms. “Maybe not, but you didn’t have to make me part of this family either. You did it anyway.”

Alessia’s expression softens before she leans in and kisses his temple. Nash closes his eyes for a moment, still tucked against my chest, and I tighten my arm around him while her hand remains on his back.

Kieran comes to Alessia and slides his arm around her, drawing her into his side. Declan still has Xavier against him a few feet away, and Conor has moved closer to Ronan near the door. There’s nothing celebratory about the room or what happened in it. There never is. Alina and Dare made themselves threats to this family, and now neither of them can hurt anyone again.

Nash shifts against me, and when I look down, the exhaustion he’s been fighting is beginning to show around his eyes. His weight is heavier against me than it was a few minutes ago, and there’s nothing left here important enough to keep him on his feet.

“You ready to go home?”

I keep my arm around Nash’s waist as we leave the others to finish what needs to be done. He doesn’t complain when I slow our pace through the building, and by the time we step outside, he’s leaning into me enough that I’m carrying some of his weight.

I rarely thought about Maria unless something forced me to. She died that night, Declan survived, and I raised my son without allowing what she did to control the life we had afterward. Finding out her family was still coming after me all these years later should make me angry, but as Nash rests his head against my shoulder, I can’t find a reason to give her that much of me.

Alina almost took him from me. That is the part I won’t forget, just as I won’t forget what it felt like to have his blood covering my hands or to sit beside his hospital bed waiting for him to open his eyes. I tighten my arm around him when his steps slow, and Nash gives me more of his weight without arguing about it for once.

“You’re tired.”

“I got stabbed a week ago. Apparently, that shit takes a minute to recover from.”

My hand moves carefully over his side as we reach the SUV. “I seem to remember telling you that before we left the house.”

“Don’t ruin the moment, Daddy.”

I look down at him, and the smile pulling at his mouth finally eases some of the tension I’ve carried since the ballroom.

“Get in the car, brat.”

Nash laughs as I open the door for him, and I keep one hand on him while he climbs inside. Maria is dead. Alina and Dare are gone. Whatever was left unfinished from twenty-two years ago ends here, and when I get behind the wheel, the only thing I’m thinking about is taking Nash home.

Chapter 44 Nash

A month after Alina and Dare are dealt with, Duncan drops me off at Max’s apartment with enough instructions to make me wonder whether he remembers I survived more than thirty years before he came along.

I’m finally getting back to normal. The incision has healed, the bruising is gone, and I can make it through most days without needing a nap in the middle of the afternoon. I’m still not cleared for everything I was doing before the gala, but I stopped needing Duncan’s help getting out of bed weeks ago. Apparently, nobody told him that means he can stop watching me every time I stand up or asking if I’m tired when I sit down for more than five minutes.

Before he leaves, he pulls me against him and kisses me long enough that Max finally tells us he does have other places he can be if we need the apartment. Duncan ignores him, gives me another kiss, and tells Max he’ll be back in two hours.

“I can stay at my best friend’s apartment without supervision.”

His hand slides around the back of my neck, and he kisses my forehead before looking at Max. “Two hours.”

Max waits until Duncan’s SUV pulls away before closing the door. “He realizes I managed to keep you alive for years without written instructions, right?”