I take a deep breath. Doesn’t matter that the threat is over, it still pains me to think about it. “There was a hit on her. Through a pretty fucking big assassin group… I couldn’t risk anyone knowing where she was.”
Cyrus’s expression tightens. “So…you let us think you were some crazy sociopath.”
“After killing forty-two assassins for my wife, I kind of am a crazy sociopath.”
“That’s not the point.”
“They’re all dead now,” Matteo adds quickly. “Every last one.”
The weight of that settles in the room.
Jaxson lowers his drink.
Cyrus exhales slowly. Then he steps forward and grips the back of my neck before pulling me into a hug. “You idiot. You should’ve trusted us.”
“I did. I do. Just not with her life,” I answer honestly.
He nods once.
Jaxson claps my shoulder. “What’s her name?”
“Victoria.”
Cyrus smiles. “Victoria.”
Tobias tilts his head. “Does she know about you? What you do?”
“Yes.”
“And she still stayed?” Trent asks.
“She chose me.”
Alaric lifts his glass. “To Victoria.”
They all raise their drinks.
“We’re happy for you,” Cyrus says, serious now. “You deserve happiness.”
Jaxson nods. “Yeah, you do. As much as it pains me to admit it.”
Gideon smirks. “We expect to meet her.”
Matteo folds his arms. “Preferably before Lorenzo locks her back in a vault.”
I let out a sigh. “Fuck you, Cuz. I didn’t lock her in a vault.”
Cyrus arches a brow.
“I didn’t.”
With that the room fills with laughter again.
I welcome it.
Because for the first time in ten years, Victoria doesn’t live in secrecy.
And neither do I.
