Page 96 of Unleash Hades
“I thought that it was going to be the end.”
“You doubted me?” I was offended. Never had I broken a promise. But somehow, everyone continued to question it. “Even when I gave you my word?”
She smiled. “I fear that some things are even outside your vast capabilities.”
I held her close to me, taking in her warm scent. Her sweat, her blood, her fear. The metal on her fingertips, and the salt of hertears. All such light fragrances, that embodied who and what she was right in this distinct moment. The moment she was free, and she was mine.
“You saw my screens.” I bent down to place my arms behind her knees, lifting her like a bride. “I have faithfully waited for you for ten years. I have protected your sister, even though I think she’s a brat.” She slapped me on the chest, her brows knitting in mock annoyance. “I have turned the world upside down for you.”
I began to walk her over the blood, past the fallen splinters and rubble, over the smashed glass, and the violence. Back to the clean car, where she belonged. Safe and sound.
“There is nothing I will not do for the woman I love, who loves me.”
“You think I love you?” she raised that haughty brow.
“I know you do.”
“I haven’t said it.”
“You don’t need to.”
“Christian Saint-Martin,” she said, trying out my real name on her mouth. I liked it. But it fit me like a pair of jeans that had been hiding at the back of a closet for over a decade. It stretched and bowed in odd places, and fit a different person. “Or do you prefer Hugo?”
I shrugged. “Call me Benedictine Cumber-snatch if you like. I do not care.” I kissed her, gently. Like a man who could kiss like hehad all the time in the world. “As long as you are calling to me, it does not matter the sounds you make.”
“Will you still love me, now that I’m not a woman on screen? A woman you can’t have?”
“I have always had you,” I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “I have always been yours, and you have always been mine. It was fate.”
Chapter 33
Calissandra
Six months Later
Everything changed fast forus. The boys started school, and in the midst of their first semester, Richard Davenport was found Guilty in Absentia for murder, racketeering, blackmail, conspiracy to human traffic and so much more.
Then there was the charge for conspiracy to commit murder.
He was trying to hire an elusive assassin called the Ferryman to end my life, with the request it look like a suicide. Thus far, he had always refused him, but he thought he could throw enough money to entice the Ferryman to take the job.
That was in his back pocket the whole time.
I had been closer to danger than I ever dreamed.
Bellamy and I broke the story but omitted any mentions of the Underground Circuit. Why? Well, in his words, “Because no one will believe it, darling. Anyway, they’re irrelevant.”
The more flippant he was, the less I believed him.
It was clear to me that he was not all he seemed.
As for me, I moved back to the house in Leeds, and began spending more time with my sister and her family. Caledonia Security was hired to guard our growing family, with Hugo, of course, at the helm.
Even the boys had discreet bodyguards now. Before, Richard had said guards were a waste of money, and that no one would try to kill us. He was mostly right, since the real danger came from within.
Hugo no longer watched me through a screen, but slept in my bed, sneaking out before dawn to get reports from the overnight shift. Stalwart and certain, he was always by my side.
My duties as the head of Laurent Media overwhelmed me, at first. But all I had to do was look at my bodyguard, to know thatit would all be alright. That I had walked through fire, and come out stronger for it.
