Logan International Airport

They stood in a small circle, apart from the Swiss Guards, Cardinal O’Mara, and the rest of the Pope’s entourage who traveled with him.

Joe had insisted on leaving the hospital after being bandaged, against the advice of the doctor and everyone else with a mouth within hearing distance. He didn’t care. He needed to see her off, needed to let her go this one last time. For good. He needed to see her physically disappear from his life to make it final for him.

Now she stood with him, holding him up, sharing her warmth and energy on the clear crisp spring morning. She’d spent the night by his side, but he knew better than to read anything into that. It was the fierce protector in her, looking after the vulnerable. That, and she was probably showing how grateful she was that he’d saved her life.

The Alitalia jetliner referred to as Shepherd 1 stood ready thirty feet beyond them. Pope Luke Paul would take his volo papale back to Rome with an entourage of more than the usual thirty people, beefed up with extra security Joe had called in from Omega Team. But it would be light one passenger.

She stood there next to Joe on his wounded side, with her look of momentary shock already dissipating into understanding. He’d expected her to argue once the sudden realization hit him, but one didn’t argue with the Pope. Not even Ariana Day, His Holiness’s personal security detail, his protégé, his little bambina he’d loved like a granddaughter all her life and had held beside him for many years.

She left Joe’s side with a squeeze of his arm and went to Pope Luke Paul, hugging him, kissing each cheek as he held her arms. When she stood back from him he reached out and wiped the tears from her cheeks. Joe watched and almost stepped forward until the Pope pinned him with his wise all-seeing eyes.

“Ari, bambina, you are too dear to me to watch you suffer this way.”

“Suffer? What do you mean?”

Pope Luke Paul gave her his signature knowing smile, with that hint of sadness that pierced Joe’s heart. His heart fired up like a racer stomping on the gas pedal to rev his engine, ready to fly. Joe tried breathing steady but he found himself not breathing at all as the Pope continued.

“I want you to be happy. I do not want you to give up your whole life in service to me. Your father and I never meant for this as a sentence for you. I am grateful for how much of yourself you have given to this old man already.”

Joe’s chest tightened as he watched tears streaming down Ari’s face. His heart broke for her.

The Pope paused and Joe had never seen this calmest of calm men struggle to find words before. Somehow he thought the Pope hadn’t encountered this difficulty in a very long time, if ever.

“You’re firing me?” Her voice was calm and sad, like she was resigned to the punishment she deserved.

Pope Luke Paul nodded his head.

“Only because I know you would never resign. I want your happiness most of all,” he said to Ariana. She nodded. Her tears streamed unabated as she stood there still as marble.

“And I want you protected most of all.” Strength reverberated in her voice in spite of her tears.

“Alas, even I am not immortal, bambina. Give me babies from you and Joe to live for and I will see what I can do to survive long enough to see them.”

Her laugh was strangled and Joe watched the pink rise to her face. Pope Luke Paul nodded to the head Swiss Guard then and turned. Two guards closed in to escort him. They retreated to the plane and climbed the steps onto the jetliner for the volo papale back to Rome and Vatican City.

Joe’s heart stuttered, caught between profound sadness and ecstatic joy. They watched, standing where they were when he left them, as the dark oval of the jet’s doorway swallowed the wise old man, his Eminence Pope Luke Paul.

Joe didn’t move. He didn’t speak. He didn’t know what to say or how to feel. After a moment, Ariana heaved a breath and turned away from Shepherd 1, back to him. She made a perfunctory swipe at her tear-stained cheek with one hand. Her eyes glittered at him.

He stopped short of the consolation he was about to offer her. He watched her morph from heartbroken over the destruction of her career as she knew it to angry and determined. The change in her took too few heartbeats to count. He hoped to hell the anger wasn’t aimed at him.

“I want a full partnership in Black Knight Security. I won’t take a subordinate role.”

Boom.

“Just like that?”

She went to him and slipped her arm through his.

“I’ve cried more than enough over you and my career. I’m done.”

“Don’t hold it against Pope Luke.”

“You think that’s why I’m angry?”

He hoped that’s why she was angry. He said nothing. She propelled them back toward the cardinal’s limo that had taken them to the airport. The driver was to take Joe to his home and then return.

“I’m not angry with Pope Luke. I take him at his word that he is letting me go for my own happiness. Did you think he meant otherwise?”

“I don’t know Ariana. Maybe I’m feeling guilty, like we betrayed him.”

“You heard the story he told us. He knew. He saw the handwriting on the wall before we did.” She paused and studied his face with that scary blood stirring intensity that she had. “What are we going to do about it?”

“I’ll make you a full partner in Black Knight Security.” He smiled.

She laughed.

“And?”

“And I’ll make you my wife. If you want.” He spoke without thinking, not something he ever did. His heart beat at a punishing rate and he felt sweat pop on his forehead. They’d never discussed this, not really. He had no idea what he was doing.

She stopped and studied his face again. The engine of Shepherd 1 roared to life as it started taxiing away. Wind swirled around them. She looked more tender than intense this time.

“I do want that. I don’t know why, or when I decided, but I do.”

He swung around and hugged her to him without wincing at the pain in his side. They stood a few yards from the limo. His gaze swept the area to determine that they were alone. A few airport workers followed the jet as it maneuvered to the runway. Cardinal O’Malley and his attending priests were gone. All the security personnel had gone with the Pope or disbanded. There were no reporters.

After the incident at the cathedral, all concern about appeasing the public had disappeared. Arrangements for the Pope’s departure this morning were quick and quiet.

They were alone enough for Joe to kiss her now. He lowered his head and met her lips with his, brushed them and then lingered, tasting her and savoring.

This is right. Was it possible that this was what they could have forever now?

The limo horn beeped.

Joe raised his head and looked over her shoulder at the driver. Ari laughed, sounding giddy, happy. Peace settled around him like a cozy blanket. He separated from her and put his arm around her on his good side, walking her the rest of the way to the car.

“How are you at cooking?”

“As good as you.”

“We can eat out.”

“We could hire a cook.”

He stopped at the limo door before opening it.

“I’m still in charge, even though we’re partners.”

She laughed again, even giddier than before.

“You think that’s funny?”

She nodded. “It’s always going to be a negotiation.”

He sighed and opened the door, his heart racing and his mind spinning with the exciting possibilities. They settled in the back seat.

“Where to?” the limo driver asked.

Joe gave him his address. The driver whistled as if he knew the location.

Ariana raised a brow. “A swanky address?”

“Only the swankiest for you.” Then he realized, “You have no clothes. All of your things were on Shepherd 1.”

The limo driver cleared his throat.

“Not that I’m eavesdropping, but Ms. Day’s luggage is in the trunk. His Holiness asked me to keep them there.”

Joe watched Ariana open her mouth and look startled, then the sad look come back. Tears glittered then spilled and he knew what to do this time, now that the shock had gone and the reality had begun to sink in.

He held her tight and she rested her head on his shoulder, burying her face. She cried, softly, for a long while, for the loss of the way of life, the one she’d spent with the one other man on the planet who might love her as much as Joe did.

“I bet Pope Luke will let us visit.” He spoke when tears had soaked through his shirt and she stopped crying.

This time he wiped the tears from her warm, soft cheeks and looked into her sad eyes.

“I bet he was serious about wanting to see our babies,” she said. “I bet he won’t let us visit until we can bring him a new bambino.”

He feigned dismay, but the thought warmed him to the marrow. She smiled.

“Do you think we could do both?” She asked. “Make babies and work on assignments?”

Joe flicked a gaze to see the driver’s eyes waiting for his answer.

A squadron of men flashed into memory. Grey. The men he’d fought with on his last official special ops mission with the armed services. Some were dead, some were still in the service and the rest had moved on like him and others who were members of the Omega Team.

Any number of them had married and started families. Why the hell not?

“Why the hell not?”