“I just want you, Stephan. I just want us.” She began crying, and I held her steady while she cried into me, letting out all of the emotions she’d had bottled up inside for days. I knew she was strong, I knew she was going to be able to get past this, but I understood that it was going to take time.
I promised myself to do whatever it took to help her, to make sure that she received all the happiness in the world.
It’s what she deserves, and nothing would make me happier than to know she has everything she could ever ask for.
I’d heard the stories of my brothers’ adventures before I left home for good, and I was one of the only ones remaining at our family home before everyone decided to go off looking for a new beginning. For a long time, I felt like I would never measure up to what they had achieved, but now I see that I was capable of so much more. I looked over at Annika, realizing that she brought out the best in me, and that was all I could ever ask for.
I knew that we were going to do incredible things together, and we finally had a bit of uninterrupted time to figure out how we were going to begin.
“Stephan, can I ask you something?”
“Of course, Annika. What is it?”
“When you were unconscious, both Viktor and my father asked about the location of the painting, but I didn’t think it would be right of me to tell them, so I decided to wait until you woke up. What are you planning on doing with it?” she asked.
“To be quite honest, I haven’t really given it much thought. I know how much that painting is worth, and as much as I would like to hand it off to a seller, your father, or even my brother, I think after everything we’ve been through together, I want you to have it,” I said, genuinely believing that she was the right person to keep that painting safe, and I knew she would appreciate it much more than I ever would.
“I couldn’t possibly accept that, Stephan. You’ve been through so much to protect that painting, and you’ve put your life on the line for it countless times. I can’t imagine taking it away from you after all of that,” she said, and I squeezed her hand tightly.
“I want you to have it, Annika. That painting nearly cost me the love of my life, and I need you to know that I am never going to put myself in a position where I ever have to make a decision like that again. Let’s go get it together, and when you find a space for it in your gallery, everyone is going to come flocking,” I said, remembering that the gallery had been a dream of hers that she abandoned a short time ago to pursue a life of crime.
“Would you really do that for me?” she asked, beaming at me.
“I would do anything for you. I should be better very soon, and as soon as I am, we can head out together to retrieve it from its hiding spot, then we can start looking into starting a few collections of your own. I take it you still want to open that gallery, right?” I asked her, trying to figure out where her head was at.
“I hadn’t given it much thought with everything going on, but yes, I do miss the little things like that sometimes. It would be lovely to start collecting again, and it may even make for a pretty profitable business venture if that’s something you’re interested in pursuing alongside me,” she said.
I hadn’t even thought about it that way, but she was certainly right. There were criminals all over the globe that would pay an incredible amount of money to secure pieces like the Malevich painting for their collections, and it would be quite the ride trying to secure some of these pieces the old-fashioned way.
“Who taught you to be such a good criminal, huh?” I asked, teasingly.
“I learned from the best. After all, you were the one that taught me how to shoot, steal cars, and gun down a bunch of goons in the middle of a cramped hallway if I’m not mistaken,” she said, with a chuckle.
“You really are something, Annika Novikova. I love you.”
“I love you too, Stephan,” she said, and I sat on her thoughts for a while, really thinking about what our lives were going to be like if we could enjoy the ride again.
For such a long time, all I ever focused on was business, wanting to secure more money, and not really caring about enjoying the fun parts of the job anymore. Now, with Annika by my side, I knew all of this was going to change.
She brought such light to my life, and she was even more skilled than either of us realized, making getting into business with her probably one of the best decisions I could’ve ever made for my career. I could see the excitement creeping into her expression, realizing that she was finally going to have everything she wanted, opening up a gallery of her own, flipping pieces to criminals for cash on the side, and not having to compromise anything.
It was the perfect middle ground to meld our two worlds together, and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start chasing the dream again with her by my side. Now, our families were getting along, our enemies were laying dead, and we finally had everything we needed to start anew without the worry that we still had targets on our backs, at least for right now. I knew that the time would come where we’d have no choice but to get involved in such issues again, but I wanted to enjoy the slow periods while I could.
