“You already saved me. You saved me.”
“I would do it again.”
My eyes move to his shoulder, remembering the sound of the bullet hitting his flesh, the scream that left my mouth.
“It’s fine,” he says, trailing my line of sight to his shoulder. “It’s like it barely happened.”
“It did happen, though. You took a bullet for me.”
“And I’d do it again to get to him. To save you.”
I feel my eyes start to water, and when the tears fall onto my cheeks, he reaches out, wiping them away.
“No tears, Ara Bane.”
“I’m just sad this has all happened because of me. You were hurt because of me. All those years ago, it was my fault.”
“No, not because of you. Because of a man who couldn’t be happy with what he had.”
Just as he says that, the door opens and Angel peeks his head in, gasping when he sees my eyes open. A shriek leaves his mouth, and he rushes over to me. And then minutes later, the room is filled with people.
My family. The ones I chose.
Then I see Anthony move through the crowd, everyone falling silent.
He stops at the edge of my bed and stares down at me.
“Glad you’re awake, Bane,” he says lowly.
“I’m so sorry” is the first thing I say. “This is all my fault.”
But he stops me with a gentle hand on my arm. “No. None of it is your fault.”
“He wanted your ports, your business, and his way in was me. I was his son…”
“No, he’s not your father, and you’re not his son. You’re mine. Ours…” He gestures to the room of people, and I see Agatha and Tatum with tears in their eyes, Teddy, who is bobbing his head, and finally Luca and Viktor, who are staring at me intently.
“Weare your family. Not them.”
I bite my bottom lip to keep myself from crying, but it doesn’t help. The tears flow freely.
“Are you sure? Even after everything that happened?”
He hands me a jar, three tongues inside. “These are theirs. I made sure to keep them for you. And yes, even after everything, I won’t give you up, none of us will. I’ve already discussed this with Georgiy.”
I turn to look at him, and he just nods his head. Once.
“Yes. We have discussed this. You are a lucky man, umnyashka. To have so many who love you.”
That makes me sob so loudly that Angel crawls into bed with me and carefully curls himself into my side.
“We’re keeping you,” he whispers into my ear, and that’s all I need to know.
EPILOGUE
EIGHT MONTHS LATER…
BANE
