“How do we move forward?” My voice cracks, because honestly, I don’t know.
We’re standing in the wreckage of everything that we thought was true. And that wreckage and chaos, it isn’t just ours—it’s tangled in the middle of something bigger than us. The biggest conspiracy, the most catastrophic corruption the UK has ever seen. And here we are, in the thick of it.
Owen doesn’t hesitate. “We face it together.”
He lifts his pinkie.
I stare at it.
It’s stupid and childish.
But yet—
When I meet his eyes, my chest tightens in a different way.
A warmth spreads through me, fragile and hesitant, but it’s there. A flicker of something that I thought had burnt out years ago.
Hope.
“Just like we used to.” I wrap my finger around his.
The second our fingers entwine, he pulls me to him, his hands cradling my face, his breath warm against my lips. My pulse pounds against my ribs, wild and chaotic. Then his mouth crashes to mine.
It’s not soft, it’s not careful. It’s desperate and unyielding, a collision of anger, and grief, and forgiveness, and all the things left unsaid between us. His lips claim mine with a fierceness that leaves no room for any doubt, any space for hesitation.
We stand beneath the stars, in the stillness of the evening, wrapped in something far bigger than the chaos surrounding us.
Where there is absolutely nothing insignificant about us.
44
Lucy Cook - Present
We’relyinginthesmall double bed in Maria’s spare bedroom. His arm tucked under the pillow, making his top hang tight against his muscle.
“Luca and I were cellmates. We spent three years together at Wandsworth prison. You learn a lot about someone when you spend that much time together.”
“Or learn what he wants you to learn.”
“For someone who helped himdisappear,you really do dislike him.”
“I helped him disappear because I owed him one.”
“Yes, pray tell, why did you owe Luca Knight?”
“Because he saved my life once, when I found myself caught in a sticky situation with his best mate and second in command, Roman Rook. And well, when you fuck his best mate, your paths cross.”
“Rome?” he asks, grinning. “That man hardly talks.”
“That’s probably why we hit it off.”
Owen laughs then, the sound rich and warming, and I can’t hide my smile.
“That’s all I’m going to get though, isn’t it?He saved my life once.”
“I can tell you the story if you really want, but I’m more intrigued as to how he managed to hide so much of your past. And Maria’s. The press has some of the best investigators in the world, and the vetting in government is robust. So, how have you managed to keep your background so buried?”
“No idea. Luca said he would deal with it.”
