“I don’t need your promises anymore.”
“You never did. That doesn’t mean you can’t want them.” Fireworks explode next to us, flashing purples and greens against our skin, but my attention is fixed on the man I’ve always loved. “I’ll make you another promise: From this day on, there will only ever beus. Everything we do, we do together,” he says. “I love you, Isabella Riviera.”
I grin. “It’s Garcia.”
“Not anymore, it’s not.”
I kiss him before saying the words that have lived in my heart since I was six years old. Giving him every crack in my fractured heart.Fate, that’s what this is. Two lost souls finding each other in the darkness and knowing they’ll always have a place to call home.
“I love you too, Roman Riviera.”
Epilogue
ROMAN
EightMonthsLater
Alice Benson and Mike Key.
The modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, minus the crime, publicity, and recklessness.
I never thought I would like the silence that comes with safety, but now I find comfort in it. The quiet of the forest or the roaring waves have become second nature. I thought nothing could compare to the exhilaration of standing in a ring, staring at a man who wants to rip my spine clean from my body. But, as always, I find what I need in Bella. Chasing her through the woods, arguing over a board game, and making risky turns on the road because she sucks at giving directions.
I could live like this for the rest of my life and die a happy man.
A slap echoes through the forest when my gloved fists meet the punching bag. It doesn’t stave off the desire to beat someone the fuck up, but it makes the burning need more manageable.
I glance over to my girl, sitting under a tree beside the lake, wearing my favorite sundress, brows locked in concentration as she sketches away on her drawing pad.
“Margaret said if I get an A on all my papers, she’ll get me a gaming computer.” I can barely hear Jeremy’s voice from here.
“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Bella grumbles, grabbing an eraser off the picnic blanket.
“TJ’s aunt bought him one,” he protests.
“TJ is also the smartest kid in school and can only play on it over the weekends.”
“Ugh. Don’t remind me. Margaret still makes me sit at the table with her every day to study. It’s basically corporal punishment.”
“Trust me, little guy, it isn’t.”
Their conversations continue back and forth until he gets a call on the other line, then Bella goes back to drawing.
We’ve created quite the duo with her commissions. Sometimes, we collaborate on a piece to create a contrast of her soft curves and light shading with my sharp lines and dark strokes. Our version of Bonnie and Clyde.
Except she’s the star of the show because sometimes I really can’t be bothered drawing. I have to be in the right state of mind, and half the time, I’d rather be touching Bella than wasting my attention on some no-name on the internet.
Bella is here, and she’s all mine. Except when she neglects me because she’s talking to Jeremy on the phone.
She’s not the only one working while we travel around the country—twelve states and counting. Thanks to the internet, I can pick up whatever job I want. Including getting my money’s worth after I forked out a little too much on a whole ass professional tattoo kit on an impulse.
Am I good at it?
Meh.
Is it up to safety standards?
Eh.
