But I’m starting to like her.
Teterboro Airport is very quiet at dusk.
We’re near the private terminal, which sits apart from the main facility. It’s a clean building with tinted-glass windows and a parking area reserved for the kind of cars that cost more than most people’s salary.
Gabriel’s own car idles near the entrance, Dante behind the wheel. We’re standing on the tarmac, the early May wind cutting across the open runway. It’s warm, the hint of summer ahead.
“Where is she?” I ask.
“They’re dealing with the necessary paperwork,” Gabriel says. “It needs to be done right. Trust me, the last thing we want is for her to be sent back.”
I open my mouth to speak, but before I can, I catch sight of her.
Amanda.
She’s being escorted across the tarmac toward a waiting Gulfstream. Two of Alexei’s men flank her. They’re not rough, and she’s not in cuffs, but their posture makes it clear that she has no say in what’s happening. She’s carrying a single bag—no briefcase, no phone, no heels.
She looks ten years older. Her polish and poise are gone. What’s left is a scared woman in a wrinkled gray coat, with dark circles under her eyes and the expression of someone who’s finally realized that every door has closed.
Something twists in my chest, and I almost feel bad for her. Almost. Amanda was a woman with a career, a life, money, and power, and because of the wrong choices she made, this is now her fate.
“Where’s she going again?”
“Krasnoyarsk is the city’s name,” he says. “It’s in Siberia. Alexei said it would be just the place—and he has contacts there. She’ll be relocated under a new identity with no access to her accounts, her credentials, or her former life. She’ll work and she’ll survive. But she’ll never practice law again, never return to the United States, and never contact anyone from her previous existence.”
“That’s rough.”
“After what she did, it’s mercy. The alternative was a shallow grave.”
I watch Amanda climb the steps to the jet. At the top, she pauses, turns, and looks across the tarmac toward us. Our eyes meet.
I wonder what she sees.
Whatever it is, she turns away and disappears inside the plane. The door closes and I exhale.
“I feel sorry for her. I know I shouldn’t. But I do.”
“That’s because you’re a good person. Better than she deserved to ever know.”
Gabriel turns to face me. The wind ruffles his silver hair, the last light of day catching his features, highlighting exactly what he is—a dangerous, beautiful, impossible man who killed for me and would do it again without a second thought.
“I have something for you,” he says.
With that, he reaches into his jacket and takes out a small box of black velvet.
My heart stops.
“Thea, I’ve spent years protecting you from a distance. And during that time, I’ve lied to you. I’ve kept things from you. I’ve made decisions for you. But no more. Your life is yours to live how you see fit. There’s only one thing I want, something I want more than anything, and that is for you to live that life with me.”
He opens the box and reveals a simple, but gorgeous, diamond set in platinum.
“Marry me. Marry me, and we’ll start a new life together, no longer under the shadow of the past. Marry me so we can leave all of that behind and build something new with our child, something full of love.
Behind him, the Gulfstream’s engines whir to life. The plane turns, positioning itself on the runway for takeoff.
I look at the ring, then I look at Gabriel.
There’s no doubt in my mind what I want.
