Chapter 22

The rich scent of café mocha tempted my eyes open, and I flung out my arm. I made a grabby motion with my fingers, hoping whoever had brought me the drink would be kind enough to press it into my hand.

No such luck.

They were going to make me work for it.

Forcing my eyes open to thin slits, I took in my surroundings with confusion. "Where…?"

"The infirmary." Midas sat next to me. "After my meeting, I found you passed out on the couch with your head in Mom's lap." He flashed me his phone screen, but I was too blurry eyed to focus on the shot. "It was adorable. I took a picture for my wallpaper."

Grunting at him, I flexed my hand until he put the warm cup within reach. "Need coffee."

"You need to sit up first, or you're going to pour it all over yourself."

Grunting at him again, I wiggled my fingers more, hoping he would show mercy.

"Let me help you." He took my hand, slid an arm behind my back, and finally handed me the cup. "There we go."

With him keeping me from slumping back, I drained the whole thing in one long gulp.

Casual as you please, Midas leaned down to whisper in my ear. "How do you feel about a jailbreak?"

"Abbott—"

"Abbott is asleep in an exam room down the hall. He's been staying here so he can keep an eye on you."

"I must be dreaming." I gazed into my empty cup. "Dream coffee ought to refill itself."

"You're wide awake," he promised. "We can always wait on Abbott to clear you, if you prefer."

"Why are you willing to help me this time?" I narrowed my eyes. "This is all very suspicious."

Usually, he was the first in line to drag me to Abbott for treatment, whether I wanted to go or not.

And believe me, I never wanted to go.

"Hadley." He took my cup and set it aside. "You've been asleep for eight days."

Laughter burst out of me. "Good one."

Midas sat, his expression set, and waited for it to sink in.

"W-w-what happened?" Panic spiked, and I clutched his forearms in a death grip. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He removed my claws from his skin. "You're fine too."

Across the room, Ambrose materialized in his mostly Hadley shape and nodded once to me.

I nodded back.

He vanished, taking my shadow with him, which wasn't weird. At all.

"You wore yourself out," Midas explained, "absorbing so much power then flushing out your system."

Compared to the severity of my usual injuries, I was almost embarrassed to have been laid up for so long with a case of the overdone-its. "That's it?"

"You were exhausted," he confirmed. "That's all."

For once, Abbott must have been thrilled with my diagnosis. "What about you?"

"I brought you here and passed out in a chair." He chuckled. "I woke up two days later."

Midas had been given the least of the magic. I was used to the cycle, and I had built up a high tolerance. I had held and expended most of the run-off energy from Ambrose without Midas's help. Only the overflow from severing the tethers had washed into Midas, and we had figured out how to expend that quickly.

But now that those channels had been cauterized by the magic exchanges, I doubted we could stop a trickle from pouring into Midas every now and then. I regretted it, but it might be for the best. For him to fall into sync with Ambrose and me a bit at a time would be safer for him long-term than the trial by fire he had endured in the archive.

"I have more café mochas and a bag of chocolate croissants." He scooped me up in his arms. "Make it to the shower, and they're all yours."

The lack of tubes and wires tethering me to the bed made me question the spontaneity of this escape plot.

Ambrose had been mighty accommodating too, popping in then poofing just as fast.

"Are you, by any chance, implying I stink?" I jabbed him in the abs. "That I need to take a shower?"

Expression serene as he carried me into the elevator, he told me, "I love you no matter how you smell."

A sponge bath could only do so much, but I had been cleaned. "But you are saying I smell?"

No one else called the elevator, and we shot to the top of the building in a blink.

"I do have a hypersensitive nose."

He let us into our apartment and set me down in front of the bathroom door.

Hint. Hint.

"Mmm-hmm." I toyed with the ties on my hospital gown. "I was going to invite you to join me but—"

Midas had his shirt yanked over his head before I finished the taunt. "I accept."

"I don't know." I lifted my arm and sniffed my pit. "I should probably wash alone so as not to offend your delicate sensibilities."

"If you never bathed again, I would still love you."

"But would you still sleep with me?"

"Define sleep."

"You planned this," I realized. "You orchestrated my prisonbreak with Abbott, didn't you?"

"Define orchestrate."

"Does he think I stink too? Was I smelling up the infirmary? Were other patients complaining?"

"I bribed him with a new MRI machine, the item topping his wish list, for his cooperation."

"You conned him into unhooking me and then stood over me until I woke?"

"It sounds creepy when you phrase it like that." A frown creased his brow. "I was going for romantic."

Pursing my lips, I gave him some credit. "You did help me enact one of my wildest fantasies."

There were a million times I'd daydreamed about him sweeping me off those beds and carrying me away.

Granted, he hadn't implied I smelled in any of those half-formed wishes.

"The first thing you say after spending more than five minutes in the infirmary is you want a shower." He smoothed a hand across his scalp. "I had this planned out in my head. I brought your favorite breakfast, I granted your biggest sickbed wish, I carried you upstairs for a shower in your own apartment, where you could change into your own clothes. The details kept me sane while you were just…lying there." His arm fell to his side, and he huffed out a soft laugh. "And I got it wrong."

Until this exact moment, I would have sworn that each corner of my heart already belonged to Midas. Yet I couldn't deny the warm glow as every square inch lit with a bright and blinding love for him.

"You didn't get it wrong," I rasped, throat tight. "You got it just right."

He cast me a doubtful glance that roved across my face to decide if I was humoring him.

"You are the single best thing to ever happen to me." I crossed to him and rested my cheek on his chest, right above his heart, and tilted my head back to see him. "I love you more than chocolate, more than tacos, more than food trucks."

The aquamarine of his eyes, bright and shining, shaded to a darker hue as he stared at me from under his thick lashes. "Really?"

"I would give up coffee," I said solemnly, "pizza, and fried chicken for you."

"I would go vegan for you," he countered, unable to stop the twitch in his left eye as he made his vow.

"Big talk." I leaned back, a smile tickling my cheek. "Are you sure about that?"

"I said I would do it." His lips tightened on the verge of a curl. "I didn't say I would enjoy it."

"Hmm." I traced our initials over his left pectoral. "I bet I know something you would enjoy."

As my hand drifted over his stomach, the hard ridges of muscles clenched beneath my fingers.

"Are you sure you feel up to this?" He searched my face. "I could run you a bath instead, let you soak."

"Let me guess." I let him see how much I wanted this, wanted him. "You'll volunteer to scrub my back."

"It's a hard job, but someone's got to do it."

"I showed extreme maturity in ignoring the opening about how up to this we both obviously are, though some of us are more up than others." I cast a lingering glance down at where his hard length pressed against the front of his jeans, and a swarm of naughty butterflies launched an assault on my stomach. Which, when I thought about it, had the makings of a great B-movie title. "But a hard job? Come on. You're giving me way too much material here."

"You're a pervert, but you're a cute pervert." His lips twitched. "Even if you're not a funny pervert."

The growl that rose in my throat caught his attention, and he wet his lips, his eyes sparking crimson.

Then his hands got to work unbuttoning his jeans and sliding them—and the galaxy underwear I bought him as a joke—down to his ankles. He stepped out of his clothes and kicked them aside before cocking his eyebrow in a dare that I join him.

"I'm shy," I lied through my teeth. "You'll have to turn around while I strip."

"Not a chance." His interest stirred. "You'll run the second I give you my back."

"Why must you insist on insulting my honor?"

"Hadley."

I kept my arms where they were. "What?"

"Keep it up, and I'm going to take you to our cabin and clear the woods." He stepped closer. "I'm going to steal all your clothes, and then I'm going to chase you through the forest until I catch you."

Heat flushed my chest and worked up into my neck. "What happens then?"

"Use your imagination." He raked his teeth across his bottom lip. "And maybe pack some bug spray."

"Attack of the Gwyllgi Prince Part Three, huh?" I frowned at his discarded pants. "That's weird."

"Hmm?"

"I didn't hear a thunk when your roll of quarters hit the floor."

A growl revved up his throat, and I couldn't stop from pivoting on my heel and bolting across the living room. It was too much fun teasing Midas. And maybe I did enjoy a good chase to get the blood pumping.

The new furniture gave me a slight advantage. It cost him precious seconds to maneuver as I zigzagged around the couch, the coffee table, and the bar in the kitchen. I was about to finish a lap when he spun on his heel, reversed direction, and anticipated my next move. He leapt at me, grabbed me around the middle, and flung me onto the couch. I didn't get a chance to bounce before he jumped onto the cushions and settled his weight over me.

"I let you catch me," I said primly. "You were so worried about me, I tossed you a pity win."

"Mmm-hmm." He ducked his head like he meant to nuzzle me then scooped me up and over his shoulder. "I could tell."

"Hey." I popped him on the butt. "What are you doing?"

"To the victor go the spoils." He carried me into the bathroom, started the shower, and waited until the water got warm to set my feet on the tiles. "You can undress in there."

The glass booth made escape difficult. Not impossible. But I would have to Hulk-smash my way out, and I didn't want to break anything I would have to pay to get fixed later.

"Hmph." I yanked the ties on my hospital gown, slid it off, and rolled it into a ball. I let it get nice and soggy, then I hurled it at his face. It made a satisfying smack on impact, and I grinned. "There you go."

His growl shouldn't have made chills dance over my skin, not with the water so hot, but he was very naked, and he wore it well.

A steady rumble poured out of him. "Can I still join you?"

"You'll just stand out there and watch me bathe like a creeper if I say no, so why not?"

"How can I resist an invitation like that?" He followed me in and wrapped his strong arms around me. "How did I get so lucky?" He kissed my cheek. "How is it you're mine?"

"You set your bar low, I tripped over it, and when it hit the ground, I started to look good by comparison."

Laughter vibrated through his chest into my back, and he nipped my shoulder. "That implies I settled for you."

"The sucker prize had to go to someone."

The next bite was harder, and it made me shiver.

"Now you've done it," he whispered in my ear as he slid a hand down my stomach. "Say it."

Oh, I knew what he wanted, but only Addie could guilt me into voicing my mantra.

"Is that a roll of quarters in your…?" I frowned. "Dang it. You don't have any pockets."

The tips of his fingers continued their lazy downward path until he reached his destination, and I whimpered a sound that might have been his name.

"I love you." He got creative with his thumb. "Even if you refuse to let a good joke die."

"No man gets left behind. I've already priced custom quarter rolls as groomsman gifts."

The pressure of his hand between my legs had me pushing my hips back, begging for more.

Delicious pleasure sparked through my lower stomach, and I clenched around his fingers.

His thigh parted mine as I sank boneless against him, and he thrust into me.

I tipped my head back onto his shoulder and let him take what he needed from me, because I needed it too. We had survived. We had squared our debt with Natisha and severed our ties to her. Ferro had been punished for his crimes. And the city was safe.

Reaching back to cup Midas's nape, I turned my face into the damp skin of his neck and murmured, "I love you."

The words pushed him over, and he groaned in that foreign tongue as he shuddered within me.

We sank to the bottom of the shower and let the hot water drench us while we caught our breaths.

All of it had been worth it to get here, to exist in this moment, with him. All of the pain, the sorrow, the grief. All the lies, blood, and tears.

I had a mate, my brothers and sister, and my friends. I had a life I loved and a job worth doing. I had purpose, a calling, a future.

"I am enough," I whispered, a prayer that I would never let down those who loved me again.

Unsurprisingly, Midas had heard me over the pounding water. "You always have been."

Tears sprung to my eyes, blending with the downpour, and a tangible weight lifted off my shoulders.

"We need to talk about the apartment." He buried his nose in my neck. "Sooner rather than later."

A vague memory of his mother saying the same thing surfaced, and I groaned. "I don't want to move."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your mom mentioned our living arrangements too. I figured she was asking us to move to the den."

"No." His soft laugh brushed my cheek. "She gave us our wedding present early."

"I'm so confused," I admitted. "I can't brain yet."

"The pack put an offer in on the Faraday. The previous owners were more than happy to be rid of it, after the attack on the city. I believe the board described it as a money pit, and one man called Atlanta a hellmouth."

"Now that's just plain rude. I love our home." I burrowed closer. "So, what's the gift? Free rent for a year?"

"Mom gave us the penthouse free and clear to do with as we please."

"I'm sorry." I cranked my head toward him. "What?"

For her to make that offer, she would have first had to buy out Linus, and that would have cost a small fortune on top of the price of the building. I tended to think of the Faraday as a regular apartment building, full of renters, but that wasn't the case. A good third of the apartments were owned by the individuals who lived there. I wasn't sure how a buyout worked, or if the deeds transferred or what.

"Linus sold it to her for a dollar, with the provision it was gifted to us."

"A dollar," I squeaked. "What was he thinking?"

"That you deserved a home no one could ever take away from you."

Vision wobbly, I let my tears fall. "He really is the best boss."

And, it blew my mind to admit, he was one of the people I was closest to these days.

Amelie might have been Grier's bestie, but Hadley? Linus had been her very first and truest friend.

"He's a good friend," Midas corrected me, his thoughts in line with mine. "We're lucky to have him."

"I'm lucky period." I relaxed against him. "How else did I end up here?"

After everything I had done in my past life, I was beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel of this one.

One day, I would forgive myself. One day, I would fully accept myself. One day, I would shuck my guilt.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day I would be square with the universe in my eyes.

That belief was enough to content me, and I hadn't been that in a long time, if ever.

"I ask myself the same thing." Midas kissed the side of my throat. "Call it luck or fate or serendipity. We're here now, together, and that's all that matters." Noticing my shiver, Midas drew me tighter against him. "You're pruning." He reached over our heads and turned off the spray. "Are you ready?"

We clasped hands, his rough but gentle, and I let him pull me to my feet beside him.

"For chocolate croissants?" I teased, stealing another kiss. "Always."

With Midas by my side, I was ready for anything.