“Did I hurt you?” I run my fingers through her hair, unable to hide the hint of guilt in my voice. I let my true nature out like never before, demanding everything from her.
Lilly lifts her head to meet my eyes and touches my face. “No,” she says. “I loved every second. I love everything you do to my body. I don’t think I could give myself like this to anyone else.”
“You won’t. There’s no going back for us. I’d be lying if I said the idea of something happening to you, just because you’re my woman, doesn’t terrify me. These people . . . They’d stop at nothing to punish me for ruining their business. They’re animals, using and killing innocents without a shred of remorse. But I can’t stay away from you anymore. I tried. But I’ll only leave if you ask me to.”
“Why would I do that? I’m crazy about you, Amos.”
“But you don’t fully know me. When I was away these past few days, it was to interrogate the man who shot Theo.”
“Your adoptive father?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get the answers you wanted?”
“I always do, Lilly. They can’t escape my methods.”
I see no fear in her expression; she just listens intently. “And what else?”
“They were watching you . . . because of me. They took pictures, tried to get into your apartment.”
“Oh my God!”
“And that’s not all. They were planning to kidnap you. Use you against me. That’s the only reason I agreed to Ethan’s plan—to make it look like you didn’t matter to me. Because if they knew the truth . . .”
“What truth, Amos?”
“If they knew you are my world . . . you’d always be in danger.”
“I am?” she asks, focused only on that, oblivious to the rest of what I said.
“Completely. I want a future and everything that comes with it for us.”
“I want forever.”
“Do you know what you’re getting into?”
“I don’t care what you think of yourself. To me, you’re the hero of this story.”
“You deserve better, but I won’t give anyone else the chance to take my place, Lillyana. You had your chance to run and you didn’t take it. From now on, our ‘forever’ begins.”
“I’ll never run. I’m yours. But there’s something you haven’t told me. I want to know about Ramon. Were you involved in that?”
“I was. And it’s not over yet.”
“What does that mean?”
“His arrest was only to humiliate him publicly. But he’ll never face justice in a court of law—he’ll face mine.”
“You . . .”
I nod. “That’s what it means to be with me, Lilly.”
She leans in and kisses me. “I choose to stay. I won’t go away. But what saddens me most is knowing that even if you take them down, they’ll still have stolen part of you, of Bruno, of so many other innocents those monsters abused. Even after all these years, you still let them control you, Amos.”
“I don’t—”
“You do. Every time you think about what happened in your childhood, you give them power over your life now. They stole part of your past. Don’t let them keep stealing your present and your future.” She strokes my face. “I’m making that choice right now—talking about Ramon. I know you getting involved in his arrest and wanting to punish him means you foundsomething about me. But I’ll tell you this: I don’t want to know what it was. I don’t want to hear it.”
