Page 94 of Code Name: Reaper
There was another knock at the door.
“Sorry to bother you again. I forgot to bring this with me.” Henry handed me a book. “Lyra thought it might be easier to process all of it if Amaryllis was able to read the family history. Naturally, she’ll be happy to answer any questions she might have.”
“Please thank her for me.” Amaryllis came to stand beside me.
“I will.”
“Wait,” she repeated when he started to walk away. “Do I know you?”
He smiled. “Economics 201 when you were a freshman.”
She gasped. “Yes, of course. Dr. Carrington. I’m sorry. I didn’t put it all together.”
“No need to be sorry. As you already know, there was much happening behind the scenes we all worked hard to shield you from.”
She took a step closer. “Can I hug you?”
Rather than answer with words, he opened his arms.
After he walked away and Amaryllis shut the door, I set the book on the bed and looked around the room for our bags. When I didn’t see them, I searched the suite. The first room I foundwas an elaborate bathroom; the second was the closet. Our clothes had been put away, some hung, some I found in drawers.
I returned with pants and a shirt slung over my arm. “I’m going to get cleaned up and change.”
Amaryllis looked down at her clothes and gasped. “I should too.”
I held out my hand. “Come with me. You are not going to believe the size of our bathtub.”
The bathroom wasas impressive as everything else in the house—marble surfaces, gold fixtures, and a bathtub that could easily fit four people. I started the water while Amaryllis stood in the doorway, looking lost in thought.
“Come here.” I reached for her to help her undress. As she did, I watched her movements, looking for signs of shock or injury from the day’s events.
She moved into my arms, and I held her close, feeling the tension gradually leave her body as the steam began to fill the room. There would be time later to process the trauma of the warehouse, the violence, the loss. Right now, we were both breathing. Both alive. Here together.
“I have a family,” she whispered against my chest.
“You do. And they’ve been looking out for you for years.”
After testing the water, I helped her into the tub, got in behind her, then pulled her against me so she rested against my front. I wrapped my arms around her waist and breathed her in. I’d come so close to losing her today. That was what I wanted to think about instead of the reel playing on repeat in my mind—the moment when Vasiliev came at her and Eleanor had raced forward out of nowhere to shield Amaryllis. In a split second, it was over. Vasiliev’s bullet hit Prism, and she went down as flash-bang grenades detonated around us.
“What are you thinking about?” Amaryllis—Charity—asked.
“How thankful I am that we’re here. You’re in my arms. That we both lived to see this day when you’ll meet the rest of your family.”
“Anna must be in her eighties, right? All this time, I never knew she even existed.”
I brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “You do now, and that’s what’s important.”
“And Beacon—to think I didn’t trust her. I actually thought she’d led the FSB to us.”
“Another thing that no longer matters. Your suspicions were justified at the time.” I tensed with the use of the word suspicions, tightened my hold around Charity’s waist, and kissed the side of her face. “I’m so fucking sorry I ever doubted you.”
She turned in my arms, got on her knees, and put her hands on either side of my face. “I’m not just saying this, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Yoursuspicions were justified at the time.” She held my gaze. “I love you, Kingston. Like you, I’m so thankful that we’re here. Yes, I’m excited about meeting Anna and knowing that Mercury is my aunt and Beacon is my cousin, but if all that went away, if they weren’t my family, you would be. You are.”
She leaned forward, and we kissed. At that moment, I knew that, as soon as the time felt right, I’d ask her to marry me.
