Her eyes briefly meet mine and my lips twitch.
He pulls in a long breath, sitting up straighter, and with forced movements, her request the sole thought in his mind, he agrees.
It takes him several moments to accept the answer he gave, but once he perceives the happiness in her eyes, it’s enough to erase his concerns, at least for right now.
He grins, sitting back and while his shoulders seem to fall, I think it’s with ease, not weight. He knows she’s okay, and her deciding to stay a little longer lets him know it’s the truth, she’s being honest, not telling him what he hopes to hear as he thought she might.
His baby sister is okay, and soon, she’ll be more than that.
I scoot closer on the bench, and Ransom’s right arm falls behind me, bringing me closer to him.
I take a deep breath, nervous for some reason.
“I brought you something.”
Sienna looks my way as I pull the long, velvet box from my bag.
I open it, and her lips part, Ransom’s hand clamping on my hip in the same moment.
I didn’t tell him what my surprise was, only that I had something she would love, and judging by her reaction, I think I was right.
“Oh my god...” she breathes, and her glossy gaze flicks to mine, but only briefly, before falling to my hands again.
“They’re Blue Nile, South Sea,” I tell her softly, pulling the pearl necklace from its case, the necklace my mother spent more on than I’ll ever admit to Sienna, and the same one that I took from around her neck the day she was arrested.
I had it cleaned, polished, and reclasped with a sensitivity link, just in case. It’s sixteen inches long and has a total of eighty-five perfect pearls.
“Jameson... I can’t...” She gets choked up, swallowing hard, and I move to sit on Ransom’s lap, so I can be right beside her.
I set the box on the bench and unclip the end.
Tipping my chin, I slightly warn her I’m coming in and she doesn’t protest, so as gently as possible, I fit the necklace around her slender neck, then clasp and spin it.
I smile and hers follows, making me laugh slightly and Ransom’s chest expands at my back.
With slightly shaky movements she lifts her right arm, her fingers gently running along each pearl.
“Thank you,” she whispers. “Thank you for... for everything.”
She doesn’t have to say it, I know what she means.
She’s thanking me for loving her brother, for accepting her, for the events of the last week, but I should thank her just the same.
And I will, but not today. Today, it’s obvious she needed to say those words for herself, so I’ll save my gratitude for another time.
And there will be plenty more times to come.
“Okay, gorgeous, where’s that new fishpond you told me about?” Beretta wraps his hands around the handles of her chair, and she chuckles.
“Behind the garden,” she tells him.
“Behind the garden we go.” He grins and Arsen falls in step beside them as they head in that direction.
Slowly, we stand, and Ransom grips my hips, spinning me to face him.
His face is drawn tight, a look of adoration written along his every feature. “That was...”
“The least I could do. I know she wanted a perfect pearl, now she has eighty-five of them.”
He chuckles, pulling me in, but he quickly grows serious. “You do know that even if this shit wouldn’t have happened with your mom or my brother, that in the end, you’d still be mine, right? No matter what, you would have been with me, even if I had to hide you away?”
My grin is wide and I wrap my arms around his neck, guiding his lips to mine. “Yeah, baby, I know.”
I kiss him, and as I do, I find myself where I was before I met him.
Wishing the year would be over already so the end can begin.
Because that’s what he is, my end.
My messy, unclear, hopeful future is full of promise.
Full of us.
And our boys.
And Sienna.
And who knows... maybe even Monti, if she’s lucky.
I know I am, and tonight, when the lights go out and darkness takes over, I’ll show my man how lucky I feel.
And he’ll show me just how badly behaved he can be.
Bring on the blackout.
Five Years Later
Ransom
As a kid I wished for a lot of things, but nothing more than to wake up in a different place than the one I went to sleep, so long as my sister’s room was still right next door.
When I was in sixth grade, I got my wish.
Our grandfather, who we never knew existed, had passed away and left us what my twelve-year-old self considered a mansion. Just like that, I thought everything would be better, but life only got worse.
My parents were sick with something a home can’t heal, and money can buy.
The reality of the situation was my sister and I were never enough for the assholes who spawned us and we never would be, but then I met Beretta and Arsen, and suddenly I didn’t care anymore.
We were always together. They would stay in with me when no one was home to watch Sienna and brought food from their houses when we had none.
They became my family.
When I almost lost my sister, they were right there the whole time, sat in the ICU waiting room with me day in and day out. All three of us missed most of our sophomore years, fell behind to what felt like the point of no return, but not once did they consider walking out of that hospital when I wasn’t the first to push to my feet.
I fell into a bit of darkness after that, and together we tried to break me out, but it was no use. I was smirking on the outside, drowning from within.
And then Jameson Filano came along and every nerve in my body sparked. She lit my ass on fire.
She was a tempest, a gorgeous fucking hailstorm that beat down on my senses until they snapped. She woke me from the nightmare my life shoved me into without trying and completely unaware.
But she was a flame, and I was less than ash.
Once again, that nasty little whisper crept into the back of my mind and screamed I was a fool, that it was a long shot, that a girl like her could never want a guy like me, not for more than a night’s play.
That if I wasn’t enough for my parents, I could never be enough for her.
I knew the score, understood my place in the world, but I wouldn’t let that stop me from trying... and then I looked into her hazel eyes.
All it took was that one time, right there in the dressing room of a store I couldn’t afford to piss in.
In her gaze, I didn’t find heated intrigue of a society girl faced with a dirty little secret she wanted to cash in on.
I saw a layer of life tacked tight along every edge, a mirage she held high and strong to ensure not a soul could see what was on the other side, but I saw it.
I saw because it mirrored my own.
A desperate need to fucking breathe.
To scream, to be selfish and senseless, and to do it with her middle fingers held high.
To do all she wanted or do nothing at all and it be okay.
The girl was tired, bored.
Bold.
But she was holding back because the world around her wasn’t ready for what she had in her, and she’d repressed life for so long, even she was clueless.
I was not.
I knew what she was capable of and I wanted every bit of it.