“Ren?” Enzo’s voice sounded from the doorway. There was a hint of vulnerability and uncertainty in his tone that didn’t sit right with me.
“Yeah?” I stood, smoothed my hands over my clothes, and braced myself.
He stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him. He looked tired, that kind of bone-deep exhaustion that had nothing to do with lack of sleep, just stress and loss. But when his eyes met mine, something eased in his expression.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up,” he said quietly. “I needed to… there was a lot of shit to deal with last night. I had to make sure everything was handled.”
Handled.He said the word like it was some item on a list to check off. “I figured,” I said, aiming for casual and missing by a mile.
He crossed the room in two strides and stopped in front of me. “Ren,” he said in a gentle growl. “Look at me.”
I took a deep breath and looked up at him.
“I love you,” he said simply. There was no hesitation and no qualifiers. “I never stopped loving you.”
His words knocked the breath out of me.
Enzo raked a shaky hand through his thick hair. “I hate that this is how we found our way back to each other,” he continued, his voice low. “But I can’t resent it because we’re here now. You’re here.” His hand lifted, hovering near my cheek for just a moment before his big hand cupped my face so gently that a tear slid down my cheek. “I want a life with you, Ren. So fucking bad.”
I want that too.My eyes burned.
“But,” he added, honest as ever, “asking you to uproot your life and move to California with me and Mattie—that shit feels so fucking unfair. I won’t do that to you.”
Relief hit first. Then love, so sharp it hurt. I held his face in both of my hands. “Do youwantme there?” I asked in a soft but insistent voice, because I needed to know.
His answer came quick and sure. “Yes.”
Relief pulsed through me so viscerally my legs buckled. I let my forehead fall to his chest and let out a shaky laugh. “Good, because that’s what I want too, Enzo. A life with you and with Mattie.”
His arms wrapped around me as if he would never let me go. In that embrace was a promise of forever, and I leaned into it with my whole heart. “We’ll have a good life, Ren. I promise.”
I nodded. “I know, Enzo. I’m not scared.” Maybe I should’ve been a little wary, but I wasn’t. We’d survived this mess, and I knew we could survive whatever came next.
He kissed me then, slow and tender. Every touch reminded me that we were here together. Every kiss grounded me in themoment. There was no sense of urgency, just warmth and love and certainty. Enzo undressed me with gentle hands, but the heat in his gaze as he stared at me was hot enough to singe.
We came together in slow, hungry strokes that stole my breath. The intensity of every flick of his tongue on my nipples, every open-mouthed kiss against my overheated skin, left me hot and aching. I was perched on the edge of ecstasy for so long that when he finally tipped us over, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be the same.
As we lay there in a tangled mass of hot, sweaty limbs, I knew that this time, we would both choose to fight. To stay.
To love each other forever.
Chapter 30
Enzo
California felt different now. From the moment the plane wheels touched down on the West Coast, everything felt different. Not in terms of safety or danger. Just…different.
My house in the hills hummed with the quiet efficiency of guards rotating around the property, phones buzzing softly from all directions, and business being handled in hushed tones. It was all so fucking normal, but it didn’t feel like the life I left behind weeks ago. It was the same, yet unfamiliar.
The chaos in the wake of David’s betrayal still lingered. His actions still hung in the air, coloring every interaction, but nobody dared say anything. Learning there was a traitor in the organization had shaken everyone, and it would take some time for things to return to normal, whatever the fuck that meant anymore. David was a traitor and died like one.
The Russians were still out there, and they were still a fucking problem, but without David, their reach had shrunk dramatically. We pushed back, slowly but surely, every single day. Each time they attempted to take something, we made them regret it. It was part of the plan, a tit-for-tat pushback instead ofa full-blown war. That shit would draw too much attention, and we were both content to fight this under the cops’ radar.
Aunt Valentina found me staring out the window in my office. I watched the swaying palm trees in the distance, the low haze of LA smog, without appreciating any of it the way I used to. “Lorenzo,” she said softly, studying my face for a long time when I turned to her. Light filtered through the tall windows, striping the room in gold.
“Aunt Valentina,” I sighed and went to her. It was so fucking good to see her. We hadn’t spent any real time together since I returned to California. She was one of the few living blood relatives remaining. “Hi.”
