He pulls his finger down from my lips, dragging it, and I shudder against him while staring into those too-familiar blues.
“It was the safest way to tell you. I didn’t think it’d take them so long to find him. And I couldn’t do it sooner because I couldn’t even walk without crutches until—”
He silences me when his lips come down on mine, and I melt against him, reveling in the feel of his kiss. Tears spring from my eyes as I kiss him harder, clinging to him like I can’t let go.
I’m breathless and dizzy when he finally breaks the kiss, but I manage to blink the tears away and speak.
“How’d you find me?”
“You said if you could be anywhere, you’d be in Greece with me. I hoped that meant you came to wait,” he says softly, thumbing my chin.
“But your job—”
“I left it,” he says, studying my eyes.
“And your life—”
“Is wherever you are. Guess you shouldn’t have been so perfect if you didn’t want me to love you this much.”
I blow out a frustrated breath over that word. Perfect. He knows the truth is so far from that now.
“I didn’t want you to sacrifice everything for—”
He kisses me again, most likely to shut me up, but I don’t care. Any reason for his lips to be on mine is a perfect reason.
Finally, he breaks the kiss.
“I signed up to ensure justice,” he says, brushing his lips over mine. “I didn’t sign up to play politics. I’d rather be in Greece with you than sitting in someone’s pocket back home. And before you get the clever idea to leave me behind because you think you’re ruining anything for me, you should know I can’t ever go back.”
My brow furrows. “Why?”
“Because I made sure there was no way to leave you with any doubt.”
My eyes search his, and it finally dawns on me. “It was you who shot Christopher,” I whisper in shock.
“That was my message to you,” he goes on. “Didn’t realize it’d take them so long to find the body.”
I shiver in his arms, realizing how fucked up this token of love would be to the rest of the world. But to me, roses and poems can’t compare.
“So you’re here to stay?” I ask, still reeling.
“You can’t ever leave me again. I’m assuming there aren’t any other secrets?”
“No other debts to collect,” I assure him.
He stares at my lips like they’re fascinating, still cupping my chin as he starts backing me toward my room. I guess he’s been getting familiar with the home.
“Where’s my cat?” I ask, which sounds stupid.
“I was surprised you had a pet,” he says, amused as he dodges my question.
“Did he run out?”
“No,” he says, smiling broader. “He’s probably purring away with—”
“Oh, good. You’re here.” Hadley’s voice has me snapping my head around as she walks out of my room, holding a purring Bennett in her arms. “Your cat has bald spots that are confusing me.”
“What are you doing here?” I ask, shocked.
She shrugs, inspecting Bennett’s ugly coat that is gradually getting better.
“Where else would I be? Now about your cat… What’s wrong with him?”
“He was a stray and had something stuck in his fur. Jake shaved off the glue-like stuff about two weeks ago when we found him.”
She rolls her eyes. “Speaking of Jake, where is he?”
“He’s the bum with his arm over his face who is sleeping on the beach.”
Hadley grins at us and puts Bennett down as she skips toward the door. I hope Jake is prepared to be surprised. I also hope she wasn’t just a fling to him, since she’s sort of in Greece right now.
“Back to where we were,” Logan says, turning my face back to meet his. “I had Hadley do a search of a list of surnames. I knew you wouldn’t change your first name. Lana Vorhees was pretty obvious, considering I watched Friday the Thirteenth all the time when I was a kid.”
I smile like an idiot for no reason at all.
“Me too.”
He brushes his lips over mine again, still backing us toward my room.
“Then it was even more obvious when I saw Jake Vlad listed under this address as well. Not sure that Vlad is the best name for him.”
“He used to dress up as Vlad the Impaler every Halloween when we were kids,” I explain, still smiling.
We’re so morbid.
“I picked a little less obvious name,” he says with a shrug.
“Oh?”
“White,” he says, shrugging while smirking.
“As in Carrie White?”
He nods slowly, still backing me toward the room until my legs finally hit the bed. In one motion, he bends and tosses me to the bed, and I squeal like a little girl.
He comes down on top of me, and I giggle like an idiot, smiling up at him as he kisses the tip of my nose.
“So this is real. You and me. We’re actually going to get to be together?”
“Not possible for you to get rid of me,” he says, kissing my lips.
“I can’t believe you’re actually here,” I moan as his lips start trailing down my neck.
He leans up on his elbows as I start stripping. He watches me, but finally he decides to shed his clothes too. As soon as we’re both bare, he settles between my legs, but he stares into my eyes while pushing a piece of hair away from my face.
“I decided if I could choose anywhere in the world to be, it’d be wherever you were,” he says before he kisses me, silencing whatever girly, swoony thing that would have come out of my mouth.
And I kiss him back with everything in me as he thrusts inside me, filling me so completely that every nerve in my body feels electrified.
“I love you,” I whisper across his lips.
“I love you, Lana Vorhees,” he says, grinning.
It’s our own twisted version of perfection.
EPILOGUE
Three years later…
LOGAN
Lana is laughing with Hadley as they read Laurel’s latest letter. Lindy May sends all of Laurel’s letters to Olivia. And Olivia sends them to a home in Greece that Lana owns, but we don’t ever stay there.
Laurel has turned into a fun, witty girl who has managed to put her past behind her and move forward. Lindy has given her all the tools to do that, and she’s finally moved on herself in her quest to save Laurel.
Her ex-husband killed himself a little over two years ago. Lana and Jake broke out the champagne to celebrate, since they’d apparently driven him to that.
Olivia also writes, telling them about Cheyenne and Alyssa, who both still live with her. No one ever suspected Olivia after I put a round of bullets in Christopher Denver.
Diana Barnes went to live closer to her son. He bought her a home, and she’s finally able to enjoy her life without the past hanging over her like a daunting shadow. She thinks Lana died in that explosion, and Lana says it’s best if she believes that.
I check in on my team from time to time, using a burner phone to contact Leonard. He assures me that no one on our team is looking for me. Most everyone thinks I snapped. He’s the only one still there who knows the truth.