“My place,” I confirm.
She grips my hand harder.
“No. I mean home. With you. For good.”
My breath catches.
She’s still shaking, still pale, still wrecked from what almost happened, and still she’s standing here telling me she’s mine.
Mine.
“What about New York?” I ask, brushing my thumb over her cheek.
“What about it?” she whispers. “I’m done. I’ll tell them everything. Then I’m leaving. I want you. I want our babies. I want your family close. I want… this.”
Emotion swells so hard in my chest it almost hurts.
“Screw the acquisition,” I say. “Screw all of it. You and those babies are all that matter.”
“I love you,” she whispers.
I close my eyes for half a second.
Then I kiss her forehead.
“I love you too.”
She smiles through tears.
I gather her against me again and hold her there, right where she belongs.
“Let’s go,” I murmur. “We’re going home. You’re getting cleaned up, getting into bed with me, and you’re not leaving it for a week.”
A watery laugh escapes her.
“That sounds like heaven.”
Her fingers brush my cheek, stopping near the bruise the man gave me.
“He got you.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.”
“No, not really” I say, pulling her in tighter. “But you are. And the babies are. That’s all I care about.”
She tucks herself against me.
Behind us, Vito and the others begin the brutal, efficient work of making the scene disappear.
But I’m already done with it.
I’ve got my woman in my arms.
My children safe inside her.
And for tonight—
