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I immediately looked down at the ground, the only safe place to look at the moment. I couldn’t look out onto the patio without seeing people getting hurt, and I couldn’t look up at Jimmy, afraid I wouldn’t see in his face what I wanted to see. Maybe I should have given him a chance to speak then, but I needed to get everything out and in the open. Screw being afraid of saying your truth—clearly, there were worse things in the world to be afraid of.
“I know I may not be what you wanted, and I am a pain in your ass. I know you would much rather be alone, but even if I believed in divorce, I wouldn’t want to leave you. This whole time I was worried about getting back toyou, not just getting away. I missed you, and then when I saw what Ivar was going to do to you, I just…” I looked up at him finally, hoping he could see the sincerity in my face. He was looking at me with a slightly shocked expression, mouth agape. “I am completely and totally in love with you, Jimmy Morelli. And I know you don’t feel the same way, but…”
He grabbed my face and kissed me, quieting my rant by pushing his tongue into my open mouth and then moving to kneel in front of me so he could get a better angle without breaking the kiss. When he finally broke away, he held me to him, cradling my head in his arms as if I were precious.
“Natalia, you might not be what I had wanted at the start, but you are everything to me now. It was killing me to stay at the office all those nights, and I think part of me was still fighting what I was beginning to feel for you. But baby, you are the highlight of my life. I want nothing more than to come home to you every night, and I am proud to be your husband. I love you too, so damn much, and I can’t imagine my world without you in it,” he told me and I looked up at him, tears streaming from my eyes, but this time out of happiness.
“You mean that?” I asked him and he nodded, his forehead not leaving mine.
“Every word, baby. Come on, let’s get you home,” he said and got to his feet. He put out a hand to help me up, and I took it, feeling wobbly and uncertain with a lack of energy.
“Not just yet,” Marco said, suddenly appearing from inside the house. I looked around and noticed that most of the Russians were gone. And those that remained were lying in heaps on the ground. There were blood stains and splatters everywhere, but at least the shooting had stopped.
Marco pushed Daniel in front of him, the younger man looking more like a boy than ever. He was shaking and had blood smeared across his face like he had a bloody nose. His face had gone very pale, and his clothes and hair were extremely disheveled. Marco kicked the back of one of Daniel’s legs, and he fell forward onto his hands and knees in front of me. He stayed there, his whole body shaking, looking at the ground.
“Apologize,” Marco ordered, and Daniel looked up at me. He looked pitiful, his eyes streaming tears, his nose running. He blinked up at me.
“I’m sorry,” he said, mumbling. His mouth didn’t seem to be working quite right.
“What for?” Marco prompted.
“For setting you up. For selling you to Ivar… for coke.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.
“Daniel will no longer be a problem. He is going to be sent to Italy to be taught a lesson about family. Clearly, it has been too long since he felt like he was a part of one. I am sorry, my son brought this upon you, and I promise, it will never happen again.”
“It better not,” my father growled from behind Marco. He walked past the taller man, kicked Daniel in the ribs, which made him completely collapse on the ground holding his side, and came over to me. Instantly, I was out of Jimmy’s arms and in my father’s, his big warm embrace more like home than ever. I found myself forgiving him for everything. There were worse things than his lies, and they had been only to save us. Plus, I couldn’t argue with the end result. I loved Jimmy, and he loved me. There was no longer anything to be mad about.
“I am so sorry this happened to you, sweetheart,” Daddy said, crying into my shoulder so the other people around couldn't see. I hugged him as close as I could.
“It’s alright, Daddy. I’m fine now. By the way, thank you for taking me to the shooting range when I was little,” I added, and both my father and Marco laughed. Jimmy put a hand on my shoulder like it was causing him pain to not touch me for even a second.
“I have to thank you for that too, Ray,” Jimmy said, clapping my father on the back with one of his hands. “If it wasn’t for your lessons and Natalia’s impeccable aim, I’d be taking a dirt nap right now.”
“Well… I’m just glad everything worked out okay,” Daddy said and finally let me go so that Jimmy could put his arm around my waist. “Come on, let's get out of here before the cops show up.”
“They’re five minutes out!” Patrick announced, approaching us with his cell phone attached to his ear. His arm was covered in blood.
“Alright, roll out!” Marco directed. “Come on, son, let's go visit the doctor and get you stitched up before you bleed out. We will get the cleaners out here after the cops put in their report. Daniel, on your feet. Come on, you’ll ride with me.”
“Seth, can you bring us home?” Jimmy asked, but before Seth could answer, Patrick interjected.
“Take my truck, bro. I’ll be riding with Dad.” He passed Jimmy the keys with his one good hand while holding his phone to his ear with the same shoulder. “Cops are four minutes out! Let’s get a move on, people!”
We scattered and Jimmy helped me walk to the vehicles parked down the street. When we got to Patrick’s truck, he picked me up by the waist to help me in, then got behind the wheel. Right after we had turned around and were heading down the road, the first of the squad cars passed us, lights flashing, horns blaring. They were traveling at a near breakneck speed. A moment later, two more flew by. By the time we turned off the street completely, eight cop cars had passed us, plus a fire truck.
“Really glad we weren’t there when they showed up,” I said, staring out the window. As happy as I was, I kept thinking about the man I had killed in the bedroom. I felt little to no regret about shooting Ivar. He had deserved it, and it was his life or Jimmy’s, and I would choose Jimmy over him any day. But the guy who had just been checking up on me? He wasn’t innocent by any means, but he also didn’t deserve to die. I kept looking at his blood on my arms and remembering the look in his eyes as he faded away, leaving his lifeless body to stare into nothingness.
“You’re frowning,” Jimmy said, and he put his hand on my knee. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
“No… I just… I killed two men today, Jimmy. The blood…” I lifted my arms to show him. “This isn’t my blood. I killed a man upstairs, which was how I got out to the patio. He was just checking on me, and he startled me. I found a pair of scissors and…”
I shuttered.
“It’s alright, my love. You don’t have to tell me any more if you aren't ready,” he said, giving my knee a squeeze. He looked over at me and smiled. “You did what was necessary to survive, that’s all. He wasn’t a good man. Everyone there knew what Ivar had planned to do to you, so that makes them all guilty. You survived, that’s the important part. And you kicked some serious ass. You saved both my life and yours, you know.”
That at least made me smile.
