Percy whirled in the direction of her finger and took to the maze wall, finding prickly hand holds in the heath that bit through his thick gloves.
Peering over the top, he surveyed the trees to the south, looking once, twice, making out lines of white trunks in the fading light that didn’t look quite right on his third pass. He squinted and saw the faint outline of a pulley system and a heavy bag.
She’d found the bomb.
“Shit and fire,” he whispered. The bastard had somehow circumvented all his traps.
No one without a hawk’s gaze would be able to see it unless they knew it was there. No one except his exceptional wife.
Heart thudding the inside of his chest, Percy dropped back to the flagstones and planted a kiss on Danny’s lips. “You’re a marvel, wife.”
Give the woman simple instructions to locate the enemy and she found the ultimate weapon. He feared what would happen if she needed her rifle.
If Danny could stomach the bloodshed, she could pick off the first of the mercenaries entering the clearing around the mansion. Or cover him while he made his way to the site.
But as soon as an enemy got too close, the rifle would be useless.
“Here, take this.” He handed her a knife from inside his coat, one of two that had been with him since his first mission for the Home Office, a set that had never failed him. He still mourned the loss of the mate, lost forever in the thorny vines of Lady Leishire’s courtyard garden. “I assume you know how to use it?” He made light.
Danny smirked. “I do.” She pushed away the offered handle and extracted a different knife from the waistband of her trousers. “But I prefer this one.”
Percy blinked down at the familiar ivory handle, the silver design twinging through the white like streaks of lightning. He hadn’t lost it that night at the Leishires’ ball at all. The swelling of emotion wasn’t just for seeing the set reunited. “You kept it?”
Her mouth quirked in a teasing smile. “Once I knew how dangerous it was to confront villains in the dark, how could I not?”
Percy saw through her lie, saw it and felt his heart swell to bursting. “You kept it as a reminder of me.”
“Yes,” she said, something deep and warm and too much resembling affection in her eyes. “I kept it as a promise to myself that I would see you again.”
The pain in his chest tipped over the edge and into a place Percy couldn’t describe. How this perfect woman—lovely, brave, and loyal—had known their fates from the start was of no consequence. What mattered now was that he would make that same promise to himself now.
Grasping the blade of her knife, Percy let the edge slice into his palm and vowed with every beat of his heart, every drop of blood in his veins—hell, every drop dyeing the stones at their feet. “I will see you again, Daniella Cole.”
She paled at the blood, but her reply was steady. “I’ll be waiting.”
Percy stepped back, her strength and resolve rejuvenating his own, and wrapped his hand with the edge of his coat. “Go now, Danny.”
She went without a word, turning into the maze with confident steps.
Percy knew a moment of true pride watching her walk away, not once looking back.
That was the woman he’d married, the woman he’d asked to be his partner.
Fuck, who was he kidding? He was lucky enough that she’d chosen him, trusted him. He hadn’t pursued her. She’d deigned to accept what meager offerings he’d foolishly taken ages to give. She’d found him much like she’d found that knife and waited, not knowing if he’d come back or that he’d come up to snuff. Thank God she’d had patience. Thank God she’d seen worthiness in him when he couldn’t see it in himself.
Whatever sins he carried, the past he’d survived, he would do what he must to be a better man, starting with keeping his promise. Because Danny deserved his everything and a lifetime was a perfect start.
He hadn’t meant to survive this reckoning, not really. Deep down, he’d resigned himself that this would be the end of him, the end of all the ugly he’d wrought on the world.
But there was more growing inside him than death and destruction. It had been growing now for some time. A seed of hope had been planted in the bowels of his darkness by a young, defiant lady who didn’t let her fears define her.
If it were possible, Percy’s love grew, until that seedling inside burst through the cracks in his armor and overtook everything else.
He felt reborn, alive, like the darkness once dominating his entire life flinched away in decimated defeat.
All because of her.
Settling his mind, Percy wove his way through the maze and out onto the clearing. Heading for the southern forest, Percy shoved away his former training. An agent didn’t cling to attachments or let emotions hamper his mission. But that wasn’t him anymore.
