“It’s okay. I wouldn’t know what to say either. None of this seems real. Like, how could there be a real life that someone is living with evil twins, pedophilic clowns, homicidal mothers, and the twisted schemes and plots that destroyed all our lives. It’s like something out of a movie, except it isn’t,” I said. “It’s real and I know it’s real because no one is ever going to gaslight and make me doubt my reality again.
“Ever since I got my first recorder, and then my first cellphone, I’ve recorded everything.” Dropping the bag, I took out my phone and showed him the screen.
Alex paled when he saw my recording app open and doing its work.
“Everything that people say to me and all that they do, I keep it all, Alex, and that’s how I know... you love me.”
He snapped up, his chest heaving as his body tensed and coiled like a snake.
“You, Rhodes, and Micah. The way you laugh with me, joke with me, tease me, touch me, and hold me—it’s real,” I said softly as I closed the distance to him. “And I know this because even before you started making nice with me to protect yourself, you had already started thawing. You probably thought I missed your covered laughs and smiles when I made a joke, or how your eyes always followed my ass out of a room.
“You want me, Alexander Montgomery. You wanted me that day in the auditorium, and you want me just as much if not more now.” The veins shown stark in his neck and forehead. He tracked my approach with bared teeth—a predator backed into a corner, readying to strike. “What we have now isn’t three-fifths of a family, it’s a whole one. A real one. And it’s one worth fighting for, so this is what’s actually going to happen now.”
Taking his hand, I dropped the drive on his palm. His surprise compounded when I followed that by dropping the bag at his feet.
“You didn’t kill my mother.” As it left my lips, I knew it was true. “Because the man who was falling in love with me just wouldn’t do that to me. He’d never hurt me like that.”
Alex looked from me to the drive—agog. “Just like that? You believe me?”
“I do.” I cupped his face, smoothing out the lines between his brows. “It’s over, baby. It’s finally over. The cops have their killer, and I’ve had enough of being Soo Fucking Min,” I groaned. “First thing we’re going to do is move out of that hotel, and start packing this place up. You guys can get started on putting the manor for sale, and I’ll contact the lawyer as myself, collect my inheritance, and finally give Omma the funeral and goodbye she deserves.
“Once she’s laid to rest peacefully, we’ll— I don’t know, charter a boat and leave this miserable place behind.”
Alex blinked at me. “We?”
“Yes, we?” I cocked a brow at him. “You don’t really plan to be parted from your dream girl, do you?”
A slow grin lit up his beautiful, sinful eyes. “Girl, I wouldn’t be parted from you if you killed me. And forget my fucking dreams because the reality is so much better.”
“Then stop talking,” I whispered, leaning in, “and kiss me already.”
Alex snapped me to his chest before I finished my sentence. Flinging away the evidence that could put him away for life, Alex cupped the back of my neck and crashed his lips on mine.
The world fell away.
All the blood, pain, and tragedies of the present and past—none of it touched us as our bodies fit together—two puzzle pieces left in the box, finally becoming whole.
Alex didn’t mess around or ask for permission. He broke the seal and tangled with my tongue, teaching it the true meanings of ceasefire and surrender—and I surrendered.
I went limp in his hold, giving in to pure, explosive bliss. Fireworks lit in my mind. Electricity surged through my veins. Waves crashed through my body, making me writhe and shiver in his strong, steadying arms.
I moaned into the kiss, giving myself over to him completely.
We were all liars and thieves. We wore masks to hide our true selves, and battled the harsh realities of the world with coldness and duplicity. We ran from the right ways to live, and the proper ways to be, but when we were done running, Micah, Rhodes, Alex, and I ended up in the same place—
Together.
Alex heaved me squealing over his shoulder and marched out the door. “Enough. I’ve held myself back for too fucking long. We’re going into that car and fucking in the backseat.”
“Alex!” I cried, laughing my head off next to his shapely tush.
“After that,” he said, “we’re going home. To our family.”
“Yes.” I smiled as he began undressing me before we hit the door. “To our family.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The week after Alex and I made our peace, and made love in a truck, I lay down in Sue’s bed, mulling over all the things that had happened, and would.
