“It sounds like you were never fully ‘adopted’ at your agency, either.”
“Nope. I didn’t even have a work family.”
He exhaled a long breath. “I’m sorry you’ve suffered like that. Without knowing all the details, I suspect that their exclusion of you at the office wasn’t personal.”
“No?” I arched a brow, curious about where he thought he could guess that.
“No,” he replied. “I bet they saw how morally straight you were. When they realized that you wouldn’t compromise your ethics and let them mess up your moral compass, the corrupt ones knew you couldn’t fit in like that.”
That did make sense in hindsight.
“But now you can have both. A family with my son, with all of us. A work family too, in the organization.”
I smiled, thinking back to how Emil and I had been vaguely discussing our future. “I have a hunch Emil won’t enjoy my working too much.”
“Don’t underestimate him. He has a good eye for talent and intelligence and he wouldn’t try to hold you back.”
That meant a lot. “Yeah, but he has some crazy idea to have five more kids after this one, and that sounds quite time-consuming.”
He chuckled.
“Time-consuming in a good way,” I added, trying to imagine having a huge baby bump like this five more times.
“However it pans out, I think it’s fair to say that Emil understands why your career meant so much to you. How that determination to make the world a safer place is a noble one to fuel, not extinguish.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “And that is a cause you can continue with us. Our policies are different from the organized branches of law. We take matters into our own hands. I won’t sit here and apologize for anything I’ve done in my life, but you can rest assured that the targets we go for and punish are the same kind of people you would’ve been wanting to put away yourself if you were still an agent.”
I smirked. “Are you suggesting that we were in competition in the same industry, then?”
He smiled. “I guess I am.”
That was an oddly funny yet accurate way of comparing my duties as a law enforcement agent and his as a Mafia boss.
“We share the same commitment to making the world safer, Sadie. Even if it means the Dubinin organization deals with more violence and according to our own rules and codes of conduct.” He held his hands out like a slight shrug. “Whatever it takes.”
Whatever it takes.
That was the concept I believed when Emil rescued me from being held hostage. It was the running theme that I considered while I directed the project. And I felt that it was true deep in my heart right then as I envisioned the men ambushing the meeting site in Haiti.
So long as evil was dealt with, I wouldn’t judge how that peace was achieved.
“I know.” I nodded once at him. “I’ve thought that myself, that sometimes it doesn’t matter how justice is delivered, just that it is. And I’m okay with that. If you want to know how I’m adjusting and handling the shift from one side of the law to the other… I’m more than okay with it.”
His smile was soft but sincere. Like one I’d wish to see from my father again. Almost like I made this Mafia boss proud.
“You are just the kind of strong and wise woman I ever could’ve hoped to have as a daughter-in-law.”
I laughed. It burst out of me. “What?”
He smiled wider. “You heard me.”
I did. But Emil and I had only just told each other that we loved one another. I’d only just come back into his life. We had talked about our futures and our plans, but marriage seemed like a technicality, not a necessity.
“He hasn’t even proposed.”
“All in due time,” he replied.
Excitement filled my heart at that becoming true. To be his wife. To have that legal and sentimental stamp on our lives.
So far, it was implied that I would be a permanent part of their family. That I would live with Emil, somewhere, and raise our child together. But the idea of his proposing was a little extra thrill.
