Page 81 of Close Protection

The question hung between them, weighted with everything neither had articulated since the rescue. The hospital had provided medical safety but no privacy for the conversation they needed to have.

"Professionally or personally?" Ivy asked.

"Both."

Ivy set down her fork, meeting Julia's gaze directly. "Professionally, I've been offered a consultation position with the FBI's financial crimes unit. They were impressed with how I tracked the syndicate's operations." A smile touched her lips. "Apparently taking down criminal organizations creates certain career opportunities."

"You'd be exceptional at it," Julia said, her voice carrying genuine respect beneath the personal implications.

"The position would be based here," Ivy continued, watching comprehension dawn in Julia's eyes. "In Phoenix Ridge. I turned down their Washington offer."

Julia's fingers stilled on her glass. "You're staying?"

"I've spent my life running, Julia. From my parents' expectations. From emotional entanglements. From anything that felt like it might trap me." Ivy reached across the table, covering Julia's hand with her own. "I'm done running."

Something shifted in Julia's expression—barriers crumbling, professional distance giving way to naked hope.

"What about you?" Ivy asked. "Diana mentioned you've been offered leadership of the new anti-corruption task force."

Julia nodded, turning her hand to thread their fingers together. "It’s a specialized unit operating outside traditional department structures that reports directly to the Chief."

"You'd be good at it."

"I'm considering it." Julia's thumb traced patterns against Ivy's palm. "It would mean staying in Phoenix Ridge and building something new within the department."

"Building something new," Ivy repeated softly. "I like the sound of that."

Outside, a gentle rain began falling, droplets catching city lights as they tracedpaths down the windows. The apartment's renovated security didn't just keep danger out, Ivy realized; it created space for something delicate to grow within.

"Knox threatened everything," Julia said, voice low with contained emotion. "Not just your testimony. Not just the case. He threatened this, whatever was beginning between us."

"And now?"

"Now he can't." Julia's expression carried certainty Ivy hadn't seen since their night together. "His organization is dismantled. His influence is neutralized. His threats are eliminated."

The rain intensified, drumming against the windows, creating a cocoon of sound around them. Beyond the glass, Phoenix Ridge continued its night rhythms, unaware that its structural integrity had been saved by the two women now sitting in quiet communion.

"I was afraid," Ivy admitted, the confession easier than she'd expected. "Not just of Knox. Of this." She gestured between them. "Of how quickly you became essential."

"I know." Julia's fingers tightened aroundhers. "I spent my entire career maintaining distance, following protocols, and building walls. Then you walked into that hotel bar, and nothing has been the same since."

The honesty in Julia's voice stripped away pretense, leaving something raw and real between them. Not the desperate connection of their first night, nor the careful professional distance that followed, but something new—chosen, deliberate, aware of the costs and choosing anyway.

"I don't want to go back to who I was before," Ivy said. "The woman who kept everyone at arm's length because connection felt dangerous."

"And I don't want to go back to protocols without purpose," Julia replied. "To rules that protect systems but not people."

Outside, thunder rolled across the sky, a distant reminder of forces beyond control. Inside, something delicate crystallized—commitment forming like structure from chaos.

"So we move forward," Ivy said, rising from her chair without releasing Julia's hand. "Together."

Julia stood, closing the distance betweenthem until only breath separated their bodies. "Together," she confirmed, the single word resonating with promise.

As the storm intensified beyond the reinforced windows, they moved toward the bedroom that had been invaded, violated, and now reclaimed. The path forward wasn't without complications—with the grand jury testimony, syndicate remnants, department restructuring all happening—but for this moment, those complexities receded before simpler truths.

They had found each other against impossible odds. They had fought Knox's empire and won. They had broken rules and created new ones. And now, in the aftermath of chaos, they were choosing to build something neither had believed possible.

Something that felt remarkably like home.

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