He clinked his glass to ours.
And neither of us objected to his words.
“Cheers,” we chorused.
The champagne only lasted all of ten minutes. And Remo declared that he had to go get more so he could celebrate with his brothers.
Which meant Milo and I were perfectly alone again.
“You’re sure everything is settled?” I asked, moving to sit on his lap in the quiet aftermath of the celebration.
“As settled as it can be right now. Frank is holed up in a safe house under constant guard. Remo isn’t taking care of his debts until after the paperwork is all official and there’s no backing out.”
“And then… then Frank takes a nice vacation, right?” I asked, resting my head against Milo’s chest, listening to his steady heartbeat.
“Right.”
“Can you be sure that he takes this…vacationbefore he does something else horrible to another woman?”
Milo’s arm tightened around me.
“Don’t worry, baby, his days of using his power against women are over.”
“I still can’t believe I’m getting a salary. And Archie is getting a retirement. And the pit boss keeps her job. How can he afford to be so altruistic?”
“Remo won’t even notice that money being gone. Especially once he gets the casino renovated and run properly. Besides, he owes you. He was right, though. You won’t need it. You can invest it or sock it away in a secret account. If you come with me, that is.”
“To Navesink Bank,” I clarified, needing confirmation.
“Yeah. To my apartment. Temporarily.”
“Temporarily?” I asked, belly shrinking.
“I want to get rid of the apartment and get a house. Within the year.”
“You have all sorts of plans, huh?”
“Ton of ‘em.”
“Can you tell me some of them?” Did I sound a little small and needy? Yes. But if there was one person I felt comfortable being that way around, it was Milo.
“So, I plan to hire some movers sometime in the next few days.”
“Movers?”
“To pack up your place. I figure it can all fit in one of those boxes we can have shipped up to Navesink Bank. We can take out essentials if you want and leave the other stuff in the pod at the docks.”
“I don’t think everything I own would even fill up half of one of those boxes. I’m not sure I even want to bring it all. It was all kind of junk because that was all I could afford.”
“I can walk around and take videos if you want. Then you can tell me what you want to take or not.”
“I can’t come?”
“You probably could, but I just want to be careful. I get it if you’re going stir-crazy here. But if you can just give me one or two more days.”
“I’m not stir-crazy. It’s been nice to have nowhere to go. And, you know, to have you here with me.”
“Well, you got me as much as you want me now.”
