It seemed as though the blood moved a bit slower through my veins. Thicker, warmer. Molten.
My gaze lifted, our eyes locked, and I was riveted. I still couldn’t breathe.
Something flickered in those hypnotic emerald pools of his. Something curious, like a warning to be heeded. Not menacing, but … definitely intimidating.
* * *
My breath was slow now, suddenly labored. I stared at Dane, seeing all the strength, power, determination that I’d noted in those first few seconds of meeting him.
Only this time, there was a warm aura surrounding him as he held our son in his arms and gazed lovingly at me.
“I—” My brain stalled out as myriad feelings rushed through me. Making the backs of my eyes prickle.
“Shh,” he said to me. “Let me say something.”
“I don’t need words,” I told him as I stared at him settled in a chair pulled close to where I lay on the sofa, Amsel cradled close to his chest. “You’re here. You have our son. There’s nothing more I need.”
“But there’s something you deserve,” he insisted. His emerald eyes glowed with affection and pain. An agonizing combination. “I’m sorry I didn’t come home right away. I needed some time. I needed you to take some time to really think about what you saw the other night. I shot Ethan.”
“I actually didn’t see it,” I said through my tears. “I dropped the mini and it cut the stream temporarily. I heard the gunshots and I had no idea who’d fired. There were a few petrifying seconds when I didn’t know what had happened. If you were dead or alive.”
“Jesus. I’m so sorry.”
“Stan fixed the feed. I saw that you were alive.” I pulled in a shaky breath. “Dane. I lost you once when I walked away. I lost you again when I thought you’d died in the Lux explosion. I lost you just the other night. I can’t—”
“You won’t—”
“Ever lose you again.”
“You won’t.”
“How can you guarantee that?” I asked as I choked on a sob.
Dane looked thoroughly devastated by my torment.
But he kept an even tone. “The FBI has everything, sweetheart. Everything I know, everything they need. I spent the past twenty-four hours with Nik and Qadir. The society is done, dissolved, no more. The Lux is mine and yours—no other investors. We’ll open in the spring. Amsel will have a legacy. Our other children will have a legacy. It’s done, Ari. The bad shit … It’s all over.”
“You promise?” I quietly demanded as tears tumbled down my cheeks.
“Swear to God. And this is a promise that will not be broken. Ever.” He leaned toward me and kissed my forehead. “We won, baby.”
I stared at him for endless moments—minutes?—through watery eyes. I felt a shift inside me; embraced it wholly.
“We did it,” I finally said with great relief.
And smiled at my husband and our son.
epilogue
KYLE & ARI
six months later …
kyle
I officially hated weddings.
The one I’d been best man at nearly two years ago was where I’d first met Ari. I’d seen her a few times at the bride-to-be’s house. Later Ari had been all business at the rehearsal dinner. And then she’d hunted down the groomsmen at the bar just before the ceremony was about to start at a resort here in Sedona.