Six Months Later
“What’s this?” I asked, a smile tugging at my lips when Dare casually slipped a piece of paper into my hand from where he was relaxing between my legs.
His dark eyes flashed to mine, humor and love dancing in them before he fixed his adoring stare on the small bump growing between my hips. His fingers gently traced over my bare stomach, the touch so light I might not have noticed if I hadn’t been watching him.
“Open it,” he murmured.
Tearing my eyes from him, I opened the folded paper, my smile widening when I read it.
“Hmm . . . truth.”
“Boy or girl,” he said immediately. “What do you want the baby to be?”
I didn’t have to think long. I’d been going back and forth ever since we’d found out, and I had come to the same conclusion every time. “I don’t care. As long as the life we both grew up in never touches the baby, I don’t care.”
When he looked at me again, his expression was grave. “It won’t,” he promised.
I knew Dare would do everything to make sure of that.
Ever since Dare stopped Mickey’s human trafficking ring, we hadn’t heard from Mickey . . . or Kieran, for that matter. And no Borello member had been involved in any illegal activity.
Well, except for Einstein and her impulsive hacking.
Some of the older members who weren’t happy about the changes had left town, looking for mobs that were still thriving. The others were happy to have the gang put to rest.
Einstein had taken over Dare’s bookkeeping so he’d have more time to help the businesses in town and with me. And when the twins weren’t helping Dare, they were working at The Jack. We saw them every few days because they were as much Dare’s family as Libby, but everyone seemed to be settling into their own routines of normal living.
As were we.
It had taken a while to get used to going where I wanted, when I wanted, but the freedom never stopped feeling exhilarating. We took care of my faked death—again, Einstein and her hacking. Dare took me on spontaneous trips, just so I could breathe air that wasn’t tainted by memories of Holloway. He taught me to drive, and I got my license. And I was now managing Brooks Street for Sophia, where Beck came to see me every other week.
He’d given me a few updates on Holloway before understanding that I didn’t want to know, but every now and then he continued to update me on how Teagan was doing . . . wherever they had her hidden. He’d let slip that Mickey’s charges had been dropped but hadn’t brought it up again when he’d seen the fear and worry that had nearly consumed me, knowing that Mickey might come looking for me to lock me up in that prison again.
Not once had Beck mentioned Kieran, and I wasn’t sure if I was thankful for that or not. For the most part we just sat there, and I tried to ignore the deep sadness and betrayal that lingered in his eyes when he looked at me.
Not that it stopped him from coming.
Dare pressed another scrap of paper into my palm, forcing me to bite my lip in an attempt to contain my smile. “Another one?”
His teeth flashed with his brief smile before he went back to tracing patterns on my stomach, and when I opened the piece of paper, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The note was in my handwriting, and was from the morning I’d slipped out of the house, sure I would never see him again.
“You kept this?”
He dipped his head in a nod, the corner of his mouth twitching into a brief grin. “When I found it, I remember thinking I’d gladly love you forever. A few days later I was packing up everything to move back here and saw it, and I realized what you’d really been asking when you left me this. At that point, I’d already spent nearly every waking moment trying to figure out how to move on from you.” He glanced up at me and said, “Took another couple days not only to understand I couldn’t, but I didn’t want to.”
“I know the feeling,” I whispered. “It’s terrifying realizing you’re lying in your greatest enemy’s arms. Even more so when you realize you never want to leave because you’ve never felt safer, and he has the ability to touch your soul.”
His eyes darkened with some emotion I couldn’t place as he dropped his head to press a tender kiss on my stomach. Reaching up, he pushed another piece of paper in my palm.
A laugh tumbled from my lips, excitement thrumming in my veins at what would be next. But as soon as I opened the paper, my breath caught. After a painful pause my heart started up again and began racing as I read the paper over and over again.
“Dare,” I whispered, lowering the paper to look at him. Tears pricked my eyes and my mouth fell open when I saw a large diamond ring resting on my belly.
“The baby and I want to know if you’ll spend the rest of your life with me.”
Tears slipped down my cheeks as I nodded. “Of course I will.”
A wide smile burst across his face as he grabbed my hand and slid the ring onto my finger, that same unknown emotion swirling in his eyes. Some mix of pride and excitement and desire . . .
“Don’t ever leave,” he begged, his voice soft as he lifted himself higher so he was hovering over me, his lips a breath away from my own.
“Anywhere I go, I’ll be waiting for you to find me lighting up the dark.”
The corner of his mouth tipped up in a quick, perfectly crooked smirk. “Goddamn firefly.”