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I cup his rough cheek, trail my eyes over his tortured features, and I realize that it hurts me to see him like this. That I’d do anything to smooth the furrow between his brows and ease the tension in his jaw so that he smiles again.
Because I love him.
Letting out a long breath, one of many more to come, I let my heart do the talking. “Yes. I still want to kill you. But I might die without you. So I have no choice.”
* * *
“Are you sure about this?” I ask when, a few days later, we walk into the five-bedroom house in Chestnut Hill, only a block away from my old home. Arran bought the place and paid an insane amount of money to have it vacated quickly so that we could move in and start our new lives together.
“It’s going to be well guarded. Maisie will be able to see her old friends and attend her school again. Things will never be the same, but it will be good for her.”
My sister walks in behind us, looks around the place, and nods. “It’ll do,” she says.
“Where are you going?” I ask when she begins up the stairs.
“I’m going to stake my claim ’cause I have a feeling someone will take the best room if I don’t.”
I sigh. “Knowing her, she’s probably going to take over the master bedroom.”
“Let her.” Arran grazes my cheek with the back of his fingers. “As long as you’re in my bed, I don’t care where it is.”
Wrapping my arms around his waist, I lean into him. “Thank you, Arran. You didn’t have to do all this.”
“I did. I made promises to your father.”
My brows pinch together. “What?”
“I went to church the other day. While I was there, I promised that if you came back to me, I’d take care of you forever. That I’d make sure Maisie had a family. That I’d give you two the home I robbed you of. That I’d love you more with each passing day.”
“That’s a lot to promise.”
“Actually, that’s only the tip of the iceberg.” A smile curves his lips. Then he bends his head as if he’s going to kiss me, but I pull back.
Grinning, I say, “Only do that if you mean it, Arran. You might not have a collar, but if you kiss me, you’ll belong to me.”
“Didn’t you know? I’ve belonged to you all along. And I’ll be yours always.”
With those last words, he presses his lips to mine, emblazoning his name on the contract that will bind us forever.
EPILOGUE
ROWAN
“That motherfucker Gideon Black is fuckin’ with our shipments again,” Axle tells me, tossing the newspaper on the desk in front of me. He points hard at the article that shows the accident which destroyed three of our trucks.
“You’re sure it was him?” I ask unperturbed, my fingers steepled beneath my chin.
Axle bristles. “Who the fuck else would it be? He’s makin’ sure we can’t fulfill our orders. We’ll lose power before we even get it.”
“We have power, Ax. But so does he. And money.” I take the folded newspaper that’s so worn, I can see the stress he’s been under. And who the hell actually reads the paper anymore?
I peer at the photograph of the trucks that carried the coke from Mexico. They’re still there. The three million dollars’ worth of blow is not.
“If this were Gideon’s handiwork, he would have burned it all. Whoever took this is just a thief.”
“Then who?”
“The question we should be asking ourselves is, who would be able to sell that much without being caught?” It annoys me that anyone would have the balls to take what belongs to me. I also admire that type of gutsiness. “When is the next load coming in?”
