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“I love it.”
“I’m gonna call you that every day.”
I grabbed his hips and pulled him farther into me. “You better.”
23
Calloway
“You’re engaged?” Jackson asked over the phone. “For real?”
“Yep.” I sat in the same office chair I had since the day I opened Humanitarians United. I looked out the window and over the city, knowing this was the very office where I’d been shot. But no bullet was going to keep me from where I belonged. “I asked her last night.”
“Wow…you’re getting married.”
“Yep.”
“You know I’m happy for you. I just…I’m surprised. You made it sound like you were gonna wait awhile.”
“Yeah, I was going to. Changed my mind…” My black ring still sat on my right hand, but once I was married, I intended to switch it over to my left hand. I didn’t want to wear any other ring for the rest of my life. I may have worn it with Isabella, but it meant something completely different with Rome.
“Why?”
“Almost dying changes your perspective on things.” I’d always been a selfish and stubborn man. If someone had told me I was going to let me myself bleed out and die to save a woman, I wouldn’t have believed it. But Rome was special to me. She was my whole world. “I almost lost her to Hank…almost lost everything. I love her, I want to be with her, and that’s all that matters.”
“Yeah, I can understand that. Well, congrats.”
“Thanks.”
“When’s the big day? Are you gonna do a huge wedding with every figurehead in New York?”
No. Not my style. “We’ll do something small. Something private.”
“I’m invited, right?”
“Shut the hell up.” I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see my face.
“So…does that mean I’m invited?”
“Yes, idiot.”
“Oh, good. Because I was gonna come regardless.”
I eyed my watch and knew I needed to get back to work. “I’ll talk to you later, alright? I need to get back to work.”
“More like fuck your fiancée in your office.” He hung up.
I chuckled then returned the phone to the base. I got to work and focused on my emails, trying not to think about the beautiful woman down the hallway…who was going to be my wife.
Holy shit, I was going to have a wife.
If you’d said that to me a year ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.
I was going to be someone’s husband.
Damn.
A few minutes later, a light knock sounded on the door before Rome stepped inside. She looked just as beautiful as she did that morning. The ring I gave her sat on her left hand, a black diamond that made an unusual engagement ring. But it fit her—it fit us. “Hey.” She tucked her hair behind her ear as she walked up to my desk.
“Hey.” I looked her up and down, liking the curves of her body.
“So…this is hard for me to say, so I’m just gonna say it.”
That was basically a death sentence. Was she reconsidering marrying me? Did I do something to push her away? Everything seemed perfect, so I had no idea what the problem was. “Okay…”
“My birth name is Lisa. I changed it the day I ran away.”
Now that I knew what this was about, I stopped breathing. I knew she had a secret, something she’d never felt comfortable telling me about. But now she was coming clean—without my asking her to.
“The man who adopted Christopher and me was a pedophile. Adoption agencies usually have foolproof techniques to make sure kids are going to great homes, but this guy was too smart for that. When I was sixteen, he started making his moves. He would force me to lie down while he jerked off—”
“I don’t want to know.” I thought I was prepared for this information, but I would never be prepared for it. I had to walk in on a man trying to rape my woman. I couldn’t handle any more of this bullshit. Now that she was mine, she would never have to worry about being treated like that again. “I’m sorry…I can’t handle it.”
“I understand,” she said quietly. “Long story short, he wasn’t a good guy. I ran away as soon as I turned eighteen and moved in to an apartment next to the university I’d secretly applied to. I didn’t start class for a few months, but that’s where I stayed—with Christopher. I changed my name, so my school application was updated. I knew he would try to find me, and changing my name was the only way to ensure my safety.”
Now I needed his name—because I was going to kill him. “Has he bothered you ever since?”
“No. Haven’t heard anything from him.”
Maybe that asshole was already dead.
“So…that’s the truth. The only reason why I didn’t tell you was because I didn’t want to talk about it. I wanted a fresh start. I didn’t want to drag my past everywhere I went.”
