“As in, your men are?” Fear danced on the surface of her eyes, wishing for an answer I wouldn’t give.

“Yes. Along with Magnus and me.”

“No…” Her hand released my arm as she stepped back.

“Chérie—”

“They killed everyone at the camp. I don’t want you going back there—”

“I have to.”

“Send someone else—”

“Chérie.”

Her eyes watered as she shook her head.

“Chérie.” My hand cupped her face, trying to calm her with my confidence. “I have to do this.”

“Why?” She turned her cheek into my hand, wanting the callused fingertips for comfort.

“Because I’m the best. So is Magnus.”

“I can’t live without you…”

“I can’t live without you either, chérie. I’ll come back.”

Tears that sparkled like diamonds dripped down her cheeks.

“Nothing will stop me from coming back to you. I will marry you. I will have a family with you. We will live the rest of our lives together—in peace and quiet.” I didn’t know who I was without my business, but looking at her told me who I would become. Husband. Father. Brother. We would be everything that I’d lost.

“Peace?” she whispered.

I nodded. “We’re taking back the camp for vengeance—and freedom.”

Realization came into her eyes. “You’re…you’re letting them go?”

“Yes.”

She cupped her face and stepped back, the revelation hitting her in a way she could barely handle. More tears came. Her breathing skyrocketed. An emotional crescendo washed over her, breaking her in two. “Oh my god…” The look she gave me was unique, special, never seen before. “I knew it…I knew you would.” She dropped her hands from her face and moved into me, gripping me as tightly as if she hung from a cliff. “I always knew.”

The night was spent with her in my arms.

She kissed me in a way she never had before.

Made love to me in a way she never had before.

Our relationship had always been intense and passionate, but it was much deeper now, much bolder.

She’d fallen more in love with me.

She’d never be able to give me that final piece of her, not when I continued to do something she detested. But once she allowed herself to, that small piece was heavier than all the rest.

If I’d known, I would have done it much sooner.

She was everything to me. It was hard to believe that she hadn’t always been a part of me, that this powerful connection was recent. My memory played tricks on me, and sometimes I thought she had been in the dumpster with my brother and me. That she was right there with me the night my family died. The connection between us seemed to disobey the laws of physics—because time didn’t apply to us the way it did with everyone else.