“I did offer them immunity. They fought for me, and they are loyal to me now. To us.”
Without hesitation, Seamus agreed. “Okay. Now, what can my men do to help?”
It felt crazy to have the boss of a crime family asking me for orders, but I gave them like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Have them chase down Fedor’s men. Get them out of the city or kill them. Either way, I don’t care, but we don’t want them here anymore.”
“Done,” Seamus says. “I’ll put an Irish guard on you guys at the hospital and the Italian dons. You just worry about getting your husband healthy, okay?”
So, that is what I did.
All night, I’ve held Viktor’s hand and waited for him to regain consciousness.
“Is Daddy okay?” Theo asks, running to Viktor’s bedside, staring at the tubes coming out of his arms.
“He is getting better,” I assure him. “He is resting right now so he can get strong.”
“He’s already strong,” Theo frowns. “The strongest.”
I smile, tears welling in my eyes as I meet Niamh’s gaze over Viktor’s hospital bed. “He is the strongest, babe. You’re right.”
Theo is with Seamus and Niamh when Viktor finally wakes up two days later.
“Molly?” His voice is harsh and dry, and I look up from the magazine I’ve been flipping through, and blink at him.
For the last two days, I’ve had nothing but time to think about what I learned while I was held captive. About Viktor nearly hiring men to pretend to kidnap Theo.
I’m angry with him. So fucking angry.
But I was even more angry that he wouldn’t wake up so I could tell him how angry I was. I was more upset that he was unconscious and injured and sick than anything else, and therein lies the answer to my unspoken question.
“Molly?” Viktor asks again, squinting at me. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where’s Theo?”
The heart monitors next to his bed start beeping faster, and I jump out of my chair and kneel next to his bed. “We’re all fine. You’re the one who is hurt. You lost a lot of blood.”
He tries to sit up in his bed, and I press him back down and then work the lever on the railing to lift the back of the mattress forward until he is sitting half up.
“I should call for a nurse,” I say, laying my hand over his. Immediately, though, Viktor closes my hand with both of his and shakes his head.
“Not yet. Please.”
“But—”
“I’m sorry,” he says, cutting off my protests. “I’m so sorry, Molly. About everything. I should have never even considered hiring men to scare you, and I shouldn’t have tried to manipulate you into marrying me. And I should have been paying better attention and known that Hannah was up to something. I messed up, and I’m so fucking sorry. You have no idea. If I could go back and change things then I would.”
“I wouldn’t,” I say quickly, realizing all at once that I truly mean the words. Viktor looks up at me like I’m crazy, his eyebrows pulled together in the center, and I smile at him. His hair is mussed from days of lying down, and his face is creased from his pillow. He looks so much younger like this, and I reach out and stroke my hand across his cheek. “I wouldn’t change anything because … we’re here. We’re alive. We are all okay.”
He blinks and then lays his hand over mine, pinning my palm to his cheek. “We are?”
I nod. “We are, but you do have to promise me something.”
“Anything,” he says without pause.
“You can’t ever lie to me again. About anything.” I shake my head. “If we are going to do this, there has to be honesty between us. Always.”
Viktor’s lips are dry when they pull up into a smile. “If we are going to do what thing?”
The hope in his voice cracks the ice around my heart, and I can’t keep back my smile. “Life. Marriage.”
His grin splits his face, and he looks happier than I’ve ever seen him. Despite his horrible breath and his sweaty forehead and the tubes and wires and monitors, I lean down and brush my lips across his, leaning into the comfort of his kiss.
“So, you’re staying?” he asks when I pull away.
I shrug. “If you can promise me that—”
“Done,” he says before I can finish. “Done. Definitely. Whatever you want, it’s yours.”
I laugh. “You might come to regret that.”
He runs his thumb over my knuckles, staring down at my hand like it is the most precious thing he has ever seen. When he looks into my eyes, I want to melt. “Regret isn’t possible where you’re concerned, Molly. I could never regret you. I love you.”
The tears I’ve been holding back for days finally spill over my cheeks, and I swipe at them with my free hand, laughing at myself. Viktor pulls me towards him, curling his strong arm around my back, and I bury my face in his newly grown-in whiskers. “I love you, too.”
“Daddy?” Theo’s small voice breaks through our moment, and Viktor tenses under me.
“Theo?” His voice breaks when he sees Theo crawling over the bed to get to him, and I uncurl myself from his chest and let the two of them hug. Theo is the only person I’d allow Viktor to choose over me.
Theo is talking too fast to keep up with, telling us about all the things we’ve missed while we’ve been away, and while he talks, Viktor reaches out and grabs my hand, pulling me to the edge of the bed. We sit there, holding hands, listening to Theo regale us with stories of life as a four-year-old, and it is the most perfect beginning to our new life together I could ever imagine.
For the first time in years, I think that everything just might be all right.
Epilogue
Molly
One Month Later
“You’re late!”
I slip out of my heels and tuck them in the closet by the front door. It used to be where my full-time security team set up shop, but now it hardly gets any use, so we use it more as a coat closet.
“I know, I’m so sorry. I got to talking with Hannah and Niamh about Niamh’s upstairs bathroom remodel, and we lost track of time.”
“Bathroom?” Viktor asks. “I thought you were doing the library.”
“We are, but we’re almost finished with that. Now, Niamh wants the bathroom done, too.”
“Seamus loves that, I’m sure,” Viktor says, sarcasm thick in his voice.
I pad barefoot into the kitchen, expecting to see Viktor, but he isn’t in there. I grab a glass from the cabinet and fill it with water, leaning back against the counter to drink it.
“Seamus doesn’t have much of a say.”
Viktor laughs and then hesitates. Even from a room away, I can feel his tension. “And things with Hannah are okay?”
Viktor still hates Hannah. He doesn’t trust her or forgive her, and I understand his anger, but I don’t feel the same way. She made a mistake under serious duress and then did her best to fix it. She kept her distance for weeks after everything happened, but just last week she called me to talk. We spent two hours on the phone that night and again the next night. Eventually, we went for coffee and then lunch. Now, she has been helping me with Niamh’s remodel projects. Niamh hasn’t come out and said it directly, but I know she has a soft spot for Hannah. Niamh has a soft spot for anything that needs a little work, interior design related or otherwise. She likes to fix things up, and Hannah is the perfect project.