My heart stutters, then pounds harder.
Just a few days ago, I would have scoffed at the idea.
Love is weakness. Vulnerability. A weapon to be used against you. Roman hammered that lesson into me with every assignment, every kill.
But with Chloe, warm in my arms, her heartbeat a steady rhythm against mine…I understand what Roman never could.
Love is strength. Purpose. Worth fighting and dying for.
Worth living for.
The realization floods my system, chasing away lingering aches.
My arm tautens around her waist. I cup the back of her neck, splaying my fingers against her skin. I can’t get enough of her.
“I know I do.” The words rip from somewhere deep inside me. “I love you, Chloe Jane Davidson.”
Her smile breaks across her face like a radiant sunrise, chasing away my shadows.
She kisses me again, softly and sweetly. She presses close, and her warmth—her love, I realize with a tug on my chest—washes through me like a benediction. Reanimating my cold, dead heart from the grave.
I can’t understand what I did to deserve her, but I don’t care.
I’m never letting her go.
When she pulls back this time, her smile remains. “We’re quite a pair. The enforcer and the kindergarten teacher.”
“The monster and the sunshine.” I waggle my eyebrows the way I’ve seen Vanya do.
“Dork.” She stifles a laugh against my shoulder. “No. Just two people who found each other in the dark. Two people who, despite everything, chose each other.”
I drink in the determined set of her jaw. The kindness in her eyes, even after everything she’s endured. The strength that has nothing to do with physical power and everything to do with an unbreakable spirit.
Attaching myself to this woman is the best thing I’ve ever done. My only real decision in twenty years.
For the first time in my life, I’m not just surviving…I’m living. All because of her.
I made my choice. I found my home.
And she’s right here beside me.
There’s one question nagging at me, though.
“Dushka, which parent gave you the globe?”
Chapter 35
Chloe
The yellow police tape crisscrossing my fence appears fake in the morning light, an unnatural boundary marking what used to be my safe haven.
My stomach drops as Kolya pulls the stolen SUV to a stop half a block away. He kills the engine with a soft click that seems too loud in the quiet neighborhood.
I release a shaky breath. Everything looks the same, though nothing is.
Kolya scans the street with that familiar predatory focus. The bruises on his face have deepened to purple, a painful testament to what he endured to find me. “We go in the back. No time to waste.”
I nod, hating the way this vehicle exposes us. Every second we linger increases the risk of someone recognizing me, calling the police, and raining down more trouble than we can handle.
