Chapter Forty-­Seven

Chapter Forty-Seven

Cecelia

"H oly fucking shit," Christy utters for the umpteenth time as Tobias chases her two-year-old around his playground while Josh mans the grill.

Midway through our confession, she switched her tea for wine. Not long after she finished her first bottle, Josh came home and decided to barbecue in the dead of winter, which led us to huddling on her back porch as the two men juggled both the grill and one of her toddlers.

"It's insane, I know. And I really don't think you should tell Josh. At least not all of it ."

She looks at me with the stress of a thousand spilled secrets etched into her face and practically screams. "How can I not?!"

"I mean, you can, but I doubt he'll let us back in the house if you do. I don't want that."

"You wouldn't put me in danger," she says confidently. "Never."

"We have the Secret Service protecting us now, and you're right, I wouldn't."

"This is absolutely crazy. I don't know whether to be pissed, or amazed, or excited or—good God, that man has me wanting to make another baby."

Tobias stands with the toddler in his arms as the baby points to the slide. "Don't get me wrong, I love Josh—" she glances at her husband, who's wearing an "eat my meat" apron over his hoodie—"but door number two sure is appealing."

"Door number two is a reformed egomaniac and gigantic ass, who I'll have to fight every day for the rest of my life."

"Hot," she says, eyeing Tobias and completely unfazed by my words as she looks back to me. "You know, even if I told Josh, he wouldn't believe it."

"Do you believe it?"

An emphatic nod. "Every word. There were too many holes in your other stories and too many inconsistencies. Now it all makes sense. I thought you were losing your mind for a while, then you seemed to get straight with Collin, so I figured it was just a spell."

I haven't heard Collin's name since we parted, easing some of the guilt associated with it. A sudden sting of remorse eats at me now at the mere mention of him. In my grief-stricken state, and my will to start a new life, I'd shifted from grieving one to another, but the full weight of my destructive path rears its ugly head now.

Christy reads my expression. "He's okay, you know. He's met someone."

"How do you know?"

"I saw them together at a swanky restaurant in town on our last date night."

"Really? Did he look happy?"

"Yeah, he did."

"Why didn't you text me?"

"Because ever since you moved to Nowhere, Virginia, you haven't been texting much either."

"I got in my head again, and I was tired of burdening you with it."

"That's not what this is about," she snaps. "There's no limit in being a friend, in being there for a friend. There's no limit."

"I'm sorry if my distance hurt you."

"Well, it did. "

"I'm sorry. And it won't happen again. I swear to you. I'll never lie to you again. I don't want us growing apart."

"I don't either, and I know why you did it. I understand it now. And I've got your back. But my God, Cecelia... I'm still crazy numb. Like, this shit is real?"

"One hundred percent, and mostly because of him." Tobias glances over at the two of us after uncapping a fresh beer Josh offers him. Tucker runs up to us, bundled in his winter coat.

"Mommy slide, pease, pease, Mommy!"

In a flash, he's pulled from the ground and hoisted over Josh's shoulders. His sweetheart eyes shining down on us with apology. He's a considerate husband and knows our time together is limited.

"Daddy's got this." Josh bends and kisses Christy, and I can see her inwardly swoon. She's happy, truly happy, and I briefly wonder if my life will ever resemble hers in any form. But the truth is, I don't care, as long as I have them both in it. As long as I have the man who looks at me now with flaming eyes of observance, no doubt wondering the same thing as he looks to Josh wrangling his son and then to me.

I try to picture us in her scenario, in the suburbs and it doesn't at all compute. And I know for certain it won't be us, not anytime soon.

"So, what will you do now?"

"We're going back in." I sip my wine.

"Seriously?"

"With the protection and aid from the government, we're going after them— all of them. Any we can get to while Monroe is still in office. We're not going to poke the bear. We're going to fucking bitch slap him."

"This is . . . so crazy."

"I know, I came in somewhere in the middle of this, and it took me years to fully wrap my head around it all."

"I really should have ignored you and come up to see you anyway."

"Christy, I had to protect you."

"I know. I'll try not to hold a grudge, but it will take some time. But we'll be fine. You and me, we'll always be fine. And I'm behind you a hundred percent. But—" she shifts her gaze to me, her tone growing serious—"shouldn't there be some perks to this arrangement?"

"Like?"

"Think you can get us out of paying taxes?"

We both burst into laughter, and two curious male heads turn our way. Tobias reads my expression and gives me a whisper of a smile before going back to his conversation with Josh.

"What in the world could those two be talking about?" Christy contemplates watching them interact. "What could they possibly have in common?"

I study Tobias, who's at this point completely at ease in suburbia with a practical stranger. He's here for me because this family, these people, matter to me—because he loves me. And hopefully, our future consists of more gatherings like this even though our future doesn't look a thing like the Baldwins.

"You see a refined, nearly impenetrable man in an expensive suit. And he is that, but I don't see that anymore. I see a boy who started as just an orphan determined to protect his brother. Just a poor kid living on a bad street, intimidated by a world he didn't understand and determined to change it for himself, for his brother, and for us. I see the man he's grown into, who's never forgotten where he came from and how it shaped him, no matter how much he's evolved."

"It's admirable . . . he's truly . . . he's some kind of man."

Tobias's gaze drifts over to me as electricity spikes in the air between us.

"He is," I agree.

A true king.

I turn to Christy. "I know I've asked a lot of you today, but I need a favor. "

I run my fingers along Beau's ears, fighting tears. Tobias bends, repeating my movement, his suit jacket brushing the frozen grass.

"We don't have to leave him here. We can—"

"There's no safer place than here. It's okay. I'm okay."

He tilts my chin up and knuckles away the evidence of my lie. "What hurts you, hurts me."

I manage a laugh. "You won't miss him."

I can tell by his expression that may no longer be the truth. My pooch has grown on him. And maybe one day we'll be able to give him a home, but he doesn't belong in our world for the moment. He runs a hand along Beau's back.

"Are you sure?"

"We don't know where we're going to end up. He needs a good home until we figure it out."

Christy stands feet away, her eyes drifting between us before I walk him on his leash over to her.

"He's a good boy. He shouldn't give you much trouble." The shake in my voice gives me away, and Tobias curses behind me, no doubt out of guilt. But it was my call, and I made it. Mustering my strength, I make it only seconds before Christy pulls me into her arms.

"When will I see you again?" she asks as I hold her tightly to me.

"I'm not sure, but I'll call you as soon as we get somewhere."

"I love you."

"Love you too."

We hug until the blacked-out Mercedes pulls up to the curb, cueing the end of life as I know it. Christy releases me, her pleading gaze on Tobias. "Don't give me a reason to come after you."

He gives her a nod before ushering me inside the idling SUV.

And with the slam of the door, we pull away from the curb. I can feel Tobias's gaze on me a second before he shouts to the driver.

"Arrêtez!" Stop.

The driver frowns as Tobias shakes his head, giving the order in English. "Stop!"

Confused by his outburst, I turn to him a second before he leaps from the SUV. The driver glances back at me, equally as confused as I scan the streets for any threat I might've missed while grabbing my Glock from my purse. A minute later, Tobias opens the door with my other Frenchman in hand, both of them panting as he climbs back into the car, the dog clutched tightly in his embrace as Beau licks his jaw. Tobias flicks his gaze to me, daring me to argue with him before his lips tilt up and he speaks. "I can teach him to shoot."

Relieved laughter bursts from me as Beau settles across our laps, resting his head on Tobias's thigh as he lovingly strokes his ears.

"You're getting soft, King."

"I don't give a fuck."

"I knew you loved him," I insist as I kiss his upturned lips.

We lace our fingers together in anticipation as we're swept away from the curb and hurtle into the unknown, hearts pounding, excitement building between us as we speed toward our future.

"We loved with a love that was more than love."

—Edgar Allan Poe