“Let them scatter. Anyone who comes back gets a choice of legitimate work or severance.”
Viktor raises an eyebrow. “You’re offering Karpov’s men jobs?”
“I’m offering them an alternative to the life that got their employer killed. Whether they take it is their choice. As long as they don’t consider me the bad guy in this, they won’t come after me. I’ll do anything or pay any amount for peace for my family.”
He nods. “I’ll put Fedor in charge of that. He’s eager for something to do, but Dr. Zarlova still wants him resting for a few days to let his ribs and concussion heal.”
“Perfect.” I take a step away from him. Not looking back at Karpov’s office, where his body belongs firmly in my past, I say, “Let’s go home.”
We landnear the safe house at four in the morning and take a waiting car the last two miles from the landing pad. Aurora is asleep in the bedroom, and Irina is asleep on the couch with a blanket pulled over her shoulders. I stand in the hallway between them and relish the silence of completion rather than the silence of waiting for the next attack. Nothing out of the ordinary is coming to disturb this peace.
It’s over. Eric and Karpov are dead, the archive is destroyed, and the investigation will close as a dirty cop’s arms deal gone wrong. Aurora’s name won’t appear anywhere near it. The restructuring will accelerate, the criminal infrastructure will be dismantled within the year, and the organization my father built will become something he’d barely recognize. I’m counting on that.
I wash my hands in the kitchen sink. The water runs clear because the operation was clean, but I wash them anyway, slowly and thoroughly, because I’m about to climb into bed with a woman who deserves better than gun powder residue on hands that did what they had to. She needs the man who was given a second chance after pulling the trigger in the marina office, not any vestiges of the man I was in those moments before.
I dry my hands, undress in the bathroom, and slide into bed beside Aurora. She stirs without waking and reaches for me in her sleep, pulling my arm across her waist. I hold her and press my face against the back of her neck to breathe her in.
When she wakes two hours later, the first thing she sees is me. She looks at me for a long moment, and I let her because I have nothing left to hide.
“It’s done.”
She searches my face. “Karpov?”
“Gone. It’s all over. Viktor’s team made sure of it.”
She nods slowly. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I believe you.” She turns fully toward me. “I believe it’s over, and you’re going to build what you said you’d build. We’re going to raise these babies in a life that doesn’t require shelf brackets as weapons.”
I almost laugh, and the sound surprises me because I don’t remember the last time I laughed before she was taken. “Aurora.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t have a ring yet. I’ll get one. I’ll get whatever you want, or I’ll let you pick it out, or we’ll go together. I could ask Marisol to help because she’ll know what you’d like. I want you to be happy with every part of our life.” I take her hand. “Marry me.”
She looks at me for a long time. The morning light is coming through the window, highlighting the bruises on her arm, ropeburns on her wrists, and she’s looking at me with love and anticipation.
“Yes.” She says it immediately, without conditions or the careful weighing she usually does before making decisions. “Yes, Adrian. Of course, yes.”
She laughs, and the sound is startled and full of joy. I pull her toward me and hold her as the future stops feeling like something I have to control. Instead, it’s something I get to choose.
29
AURORA
I’m sitting on the porch of the estate at seven in the morning, drinking decaf from the Marathon Half-Marathon Finisher mug I stole from the safe house, when Braden kicks me so hard I spill coffee on my shirt. I look down at the stain spreading across my chest and address my stomach. “That was unnecessary.”
Diana responds by pressing what I’m fairly certain is an elbow against my bladder, and I set the mug on the railing before I lose the rest of it. Thirty-seven weeks with twins means I’m carrying two active humans who have already divided the available real estate between them and seem to spend most of their time arguing about the border.
Adrian appears in the doorway with a fresh shirt in one hand and a warm washcloth in the other. He saw the spill on the security camera in his office, which means he was watching me drink coffee on a monitor instead of doing whatever Viktor sent him this morning.
“I’m fine. It’s just coffee.”
“I know.” He hands me the shirt and wipes the coffee from my collar with the washcloth. “Dr. Miller’s office called. Your thirty-seven-week appointment is confirmed for Thursday.”
“I confirmed it yesterday.”
