I was ready to do anything to keep her safe even killing someone else. “Then let me just fake it
using you in the video and your DNA on the cremated body, someone that’s already dead.”
She scowled, pensive. “Can you do that?”
A rush spiked through my body. “Yes. It’s gonna hurt a little to make it convincing, and maybe
you’ll have to lose a tooth or two for the dental records, but I can totally do it.”
“We can use the music box, too,” she mused.
“Yes. Yes, baby girl, yes!”
“Anastasia Romanov will be gone forever. My family will have their closure. Whoever wants to
kill me will be satisfied. Even Leo will stop looking for me.”
“And we can live together where I can keep you safe and happy, where we’ll never have to leave
each other again.”
Her eyes glistened with tears. “I like that. I like that so much.”
I mashed my lips against hers, holding her, tangling my fingers in her hair. “I love you, Sia.”
She tore her lips from mine, her eyes wide. “What?”
“I know it’s fucking fast, stupid crazy fast, but I love you.”
Her mouth twitched with a smile. “I love you, too.”
“Yeah?”
Her smile turned into a full grin. “Yeah.”
Seventeen
Sia
I hadn’t felt that happy in so long. Years. Freedom was one of the most valuable things in life, and when you could have it with the one you loved, nothing could ever feel better.
Love. Who would have thought I’d fall in love again? After Leo, I’d sworn off men, especially the
dangerous, murderous kind. But Jesse Savage was a different kind of dangerous. The hot kind. The
one that had a heart, and once it was full, it’d change him to the better. To a man who cared and didn’t hurt the ones he loved. To a protector, not a killer.
Naïve? Maybe I still was, but I’d never felt like this before. The true meaning of freedom. Real
love that crossed boundaries without fear and healed broken hearts.
With Jesse, I could wrap my arms around his, close my eyes, let the wind ruffle my hair and tickle
my face, while I trusted him to lead, to get us to our destination safely without a doubt.
As we returned to the motel, he interlaced his fingers with mine in the parking lot, lighting a
cigarette with the other. I scrunched my nose. “If I asked you to quit, would you do it?”
