He doesn’t say anything for a long beat as he thumbs the corners.When he looks up, the lethal goes soft.“You wrote me into your head.”
“Into the parts I don’t show anyone.”
I’ve saved the riskiest one for last.A matte, low-gloss black field watch.It has a clean dial, no shine, no brand shouting.It looks like him.
“And because I said I wanted honesty,” I say, “it has a GPS chip.Adrian helped me.”
For a second he just stares, then he laughs, low and wrecked, completely shocking the hell out of me because I’ve never heard his full laugh before now.“My wife put a leash on me.”
I shrug.“Knowing you’re safe makes me feel better.”
“I’ll never hide from you, Lindy girl.”The way he says it turns my knees to water.He sets the boxes aside and offers his knuckles—L I N D Y /// G I R L—and I lace my fingers through one side.We step out into the hall, the house already bright with Christmas.I feel the diamond’s weight and the weight of everything else.Odd numbers and inevitability.I am seen.Chosen.And, God help me,his.
Twinkling lights coat every inch of the lobby atAshenheart Defense Agency, wrapped around exposed beams and trailing across the rafters.Three trees: one traditional, one covered in deep crimson and gold, and another shamelessly decked out in horror-movie ornaments.A fire crackles, casting golden light across the hardwood, and garlands drip from the walls like ivy.
“You okay?”he asks.
I nod.“Yeah.Just taking it all in.”
He leans in like he’s going to kiss me, but doesn’t.He brushes my hair behind my ear instead and says, “Twice more?”Before he tucks the hair on the other side and then re-tucks the first one.I’m not used to being wanted like this.A man who can break me so easily in a thousand different ways, and chooses not to.
“Mrs.Ashenheart,” he says to his uncle, Leven, first.Leven’s grip is iron wrapped in velvet.“Welcome to the family, niece.”
Cassius and Leven share the same stillness, the weight that makes a room hold its breath.The air picks up a faint scent of juniper and dust that doesn’t belong to this decade.Gideon watches our exchange.I watch the angle of Leven’s jaw.It's almost the same as Gideon’s when his whisper threads through the chatter.Tell Leven to keep looking for London.
We’ve never talked about his parents.Or why it’s always his Uncle and brothers and cousins here, never mother, never father.I’m dying to know who put the first blade in Cassius’s hand.Is Leven who decided he needed to know how to slice up a man?
I catalog questions the way I count, odd and endless, tucking them behind my smile for later.Leven releases my hand and Cassius’ palm returns to my back, warm and possessive, and the questions go into their box.For now.
Eland and Evie arrive as a pair, beautiful in entirely different directions.Evie kisses both my cheeks, fox-bright eyes never leaving mine, and when she pulls back my wedding ring is gone.I don’t feel it leave.Three seconds later it’s back on my finger.I watch her take and return things all night: cufflinks, pens, a piece of chocolate from Caleb’s plate.
Eland’s suit fits like a verdict.I bet he doesn’t hate his suits.His handshake is cool, palm firm.He slides a card to the edge of my plate.“If anyone ever questions you about Cassius,” he murmurs, mimicking Adrian’s words from our first breakfast together, “call me before anyone else.”
Elsie, the third Ashenheart triplet, is a surgeon.She gives me a long, clinical once-over that somehow isn’t unkind.“You sleeping?”she asks, like she’ll prescribe rest whether I think I need it or not.
Cassius feels me tracking the quiet man skirting the walls and dips to my ear.“Mavik,” he murmurs.“Head of cyber security under Adrian.If something with a signal breathes in this city, he hears it.He’ll monitor your ring, and I’m sure also my watch.”
Cassius steers me toward a knot of leather and ink.“Dead Man’s Hand,” he says against my hair.“You met Dominic Estrade, the president, atMirage” he says as he points men out.“Vex is his vice.”He gestures to the only woman in the group.“That’s Havoc’s girl, Graciela.And Havoc is Dominic’s enforcer.”His hand stays heavy at my waist.
“That’s a lot of names,” I say.He squeezes my waist.
“You don’t need to remember them.You’ll never be alone with them, so I can always whisper their names to you.”He kisses my cheek seconds before Dominic catches me in a bear hug that lifts my feet.
“Cassius said you like books,” Dominic says, pressing a beautiful copy ofComplete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poeinto my hands.
“Stay away from my wife,” Cassius says, releasing my hand to stand toe-to-toe with Dominic, who looks down at him, a mountain considering a storm.
“Relax,” Dominic smirks and shakes his headnoto the two men at his sides.
“He will kill you bro,” Atlas says as he strolls up, laughing.“And not in a metaphorical way.”
“I’m well aware,” Dominic replies, still calm.“But he knows I’d never truly touch her.”
Vex tips his chin, grin crooked.“Like my man the Grinch, Cassius is a misunderstood anti-hero.”
Graciela bursts out laughing and everyone follows.Cassius doesn’t laugh, but his shoulders loosen.“Come on, Mrs.Ashenheart,” she says, catching my hand and spinning me under the lights until I’m breathless.Cassius’ ring and knuckles flash at the edge of every one of my turns.
We cross the floor and the party parts.It isn’t dramatic.It’s a subtle shift, a thinning.Bodies angle, chairs nudge, a path appears.Wherever he walks, the energy tilts, and people, powerful people, give him space.The smiles aimed at him are polite and a shade too tight.Their eyes dip after they meet his.Even the ones who don’t know what he is know enough to feel it.He and his brothers built this night, and still, people keep to the edges when he passes.
