“Ithoughtabout running,” I admit quietly. “But I didn’t. I couldn’t. Not after everything—not after you.” My fingers brush against the side of his jaw. “You found me when I didn’t even know I needed to be found. And you held on, even when I didn’t make it easy.”
“You almost got taken,” he rasps, the words raw. “I was too far. Too fucking slow.”
“But I wasn’t taken,” I say gently. “I’m here. I’m alive. And you? You’re the reason I made it out. You killed someone for me, Liam.” I still haven’t fully processed that that happened. I wonder if he has.
He exhales shakily, like the weight of it all is finally allowed to land. “I can’t lose you like that again. I won’t.”
“You’re not going to,” I murmur. “Because I’m right here, Liam. And I’m not going anywhere. Not when it’s easy. Not when it’s impossible. Not ever.”
He studies me like I’m something precious. Fragile, but his.
“You scare the hell out of me,” he murmurs. “You make me want things I didn’t think I could have. A future. A real one. With you.”
I grin and tuck my head under his chin. “Good. That means I’m doing something right.”
He lets out a soft laugh and tightens his hold on me, squeezing me close, as if we aren’t still defiling the O’Toole library’s table.
“Promise me something,” he murmurs against my hair.
“Anything.”
“When we fight again—and we will, because I’ll fuck up again—you’ll still come back to this.”
“To us?” I whisper.
“To me. This feeling. This forever.”
I press a kiss to his chest, right over his heart.
“Always.”
TARYN
Elizabeth was one hundred percent correct that her father does not care for the Greeks, and now I understand how deep that hatred runs. The Italian mafia don was okay with our conversation with the senator, but he had limits. That took a full day to discuss and negotiate, and I wasn’t in the room for those conversations. I’m not going to lie: I was okay with that. Honestly, knowing that this is a brutal world and seeing up close and personal how brutal it can be are two entirely different things. I was glad to return to my classes the next day. Even if Liam followed me to every class, and I had one of our other guys watching at all times.
A meeting was finally arranged, to which I was invited, with Senator Sutton. When Liam brought him what he’d uncovered—financial transactions, investor lists, shipping routes—he didn’t hesitate. He’d needed the match. We gave him the flame.
According to Liam’s father, the Greeks won’t be officially charged, not in ways that would lead to public downfall. That was one of Victor’s conditions. But quiet investigations have begun exclusively into their trafficking activities. They’re being watched by more than just the Irish now. By Washington. By Interpol. Their operations in the U.S. will shrink, and fast. Funding frozen, safe houses raided, shipping lanes flagged. They’ll regroup somewhere, maybe. But here? They’ll be bleeding for a while.
I should be exhausted. Instead, I feel electric. I didn’t just survive a shootout. I didn’t just stand in a room full of men raised to believe women are porcelain and say what needed to be said; I helped end something. Something vile.
And Liam was by my side the entire time. He trusted me. Not just as his wife—but as his equal.
I glance around the quiet courtyard outside my parents’ place, the late afternoon sun catching the edges of the stone as I sit on the bench, killing time until my reception tonight. I smile to myself.
Footsteps approach.
I don’t have to turn around. I know it’s him.
Liam always walks like he’s got the world by the throat—confident, loud, a little cocky. But today, there’s something softer under his steps. A weight. An intention.
He sits beside me.
“Hey,” he says simply.
“Hey.” I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, suddenly nervous. “Everything okay?” Despite all that’s happened, I keep waiting for him to tell me that something fell through. That the Greeks have a new playbook. That I was wrong to have so much hope in the future.
Instead, his lips curve. “Everything is perfect.”
