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Pushing back, I almost go sprawling from the ice beneath the snow, but I keep my feet. Barely. He takes advantage, throwing his weight against me and swinging in a perfect arc for my throat.
“Charles!” Clover screams.
He looks up, the distraction perfectly time. With the little balance I have left, I thrust my knife forward and twist it hard. The warmth spilling onto my hand tells me I’ve struck true.
The assassin staggers back, his gaze going to his midsection. He presses a hand to the wound, but it’s fatal. When he looks at me again, he knows it’s over.
Two shots sound, and he flies back and lands in the snow, bullet holes through his forehead and his heart.
“That’s my kill.” I turn and point at Diego as I wipe my bloodied hand on my pants. “And you know it.”
He shrugs from his perch on the roof just above me. “His heart was beating until I put a hole through it. So my kill.”
I glance up and see Aurora staring out the window, her hands to her face. She should look terrified. Instead, she beams at Diego like he’s a god.
“Charles!” Clover runs from behind the tree and flings herself into my arms. I catch her. I always will.
“You saved me.” I kiss her cold nose and warm lips, then pull back to look into her eyes. “I know you saw.”
She swallows hard and nods.
“This is who I am, pretty eyes. Who I’ve always been and on some level, who I’ll always be.” I hold my breath, waiting for her to reject me, to call me a monster, a killer.
“You saved me. First on the road. Then with your love. And now with your knife.” She kisses me hard, a burst of passion in the middle of the bloodied snow. “I want you always, just the way you are.”
I’m not a sentimental man. Never have been. But when she says those words to me, my eyes start to tingle, and I kiss her again before she notices what she’s done to me. Even so, she knows. I can tell from the way she clings to me, embraces me, and loves me. Forever. Just the way I am.
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