He loves me.
I’d finally said the words to him at the hospital, but he hadn’t said them back. I’d been in the shower when that realization had struck. I’d been drying my hair, robe wrapped around my waist, when I’d seen my phone on the dresser next to my purse. The voice mail icon had lit the screen when I touched it.
Rix pushed open the bedroom door, a white take-out bag in one hand. “You feeling better now that you’re cleaned up?”
I did. There was something cathartic about watching the remnants of dried blood wash down the drain. I might have cried a few more tears, but with the rush of the water, you couldn’t ever tell.
I nodded. And then my words came out quietly, colored with wonder. “You love me.”
Rix eyed me, confusion on his face. “Of course I fucking love you, duchess. I would’ve taken every bullet fired in that house today if it meant they never would’ve touched you.”
“But . . . you never said it.”
He lowered the take-out bag on the dresser and walked toward me. “I’ve been living it. Feeling it with every breath I take. Always on my mind. In every beat of my heart in my chest.”
I bit my lip as his words washed over me. “We should probably send a thank-you to D-Rock.”
Rix huffed out a laugh, shaking his head. “I’ll pass. That punk isn’t coming around your girl again.” He pressed a knee to the bed and leaned forward until his lips brushed mine. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
One less thing to worry about was certainly welcome. But what about the rest of it?
“And you being undercover? What happens next with that?”
Rix pulled away and stared down at me. “NOPD crushed the FND ring. I’ll stay under long enough to wrap up anything else I need to, and then I’m out. Done.”
“How does that work? Is it safe? Do you . . . have to leave town?”
I thought of the gallery and everything I’d have to leave behind to follow him. I would. I pictured living on a beach somewhere, a paintbrush in my hand as I stared out over the sparkling water of some tropical vista. I could do that.
He didn’t answer me immediately. “Depends on what you want. I’m not walking away from you. I can stay with the department. I got an offer to head up the gang task force when I’m ready for it.”
I can have it all.
“Do you want to stay?”
“I want to be where you are. If that’s NOLA, then I’ll stay under until the enemies I’ve made are off the streets and you’re not gonna be in danger.”
“How long will that take?” I couldn’t help but wonder if we were talking weeks, or months, or years.
A smile curled the corner of Rix’s mouth. “I got a hell of an incentive to wrap it up pretty fucking fast.”
“And then?”
“And then we start the next chapter. You and me. Out of the shadows and into the light.”
“That sounds perfect to me.”
“Good. Because it’s happening, duchess. You’re mine. Not giving you up for anything.”
“I’m not giving you up either.”
He leaned down and pressed another kiss to my lips. “I love you, Valentina.”
The words glued back together my remaining cracked pieces. “I love you too. Rix or Beau, or whoever you are.”
“Yours. That’s who I am.”
One week later
I LAID MY BADGE AND gun on the deputy chief’s desk, and it took only seconds for me to feel wrong without them. I’d only ever wanted to be a cop, and now I didn’t know what the fuck I was going to do with my life. But one thing was certain—I couldn’t stay with the NOPD.
“Don’t think I need to explain why I’m doing this.”
The truth about what my father had done had made it up the chain of command, and an investigation had already been launched. My mom was shattered, and there was no way my dad wouldn’t end up in prison.
The deputy chief’s face was solemn. “No, I don’t need an explanation, but you don’t have to do this.”
A harsh laugh scraped its way out of my throat. “We both know that’s bullshit. I’m done.”
He nodded. “Then I accept your resignation. Best of luck to you, Hennessy.”
I turned and left his office, the entire precinct seeming to go silent as I grabbed the box on my desk and walked out the door for the last time.
To protect and serve. It was all I knew. But that life was over.
STANDING IN THE BACK HALLWAY of the courthouse, I fought the edge of nerves moving in.
He won’t say no.
Harold Noble had made it clear in our passing conversations that he was waiting for this visit.
The opinions of other men had rarely mattered to me, but Valentina’s father was a different story. He would give his blessing, but it went deeper than that.
Acceptance. Family. The things I’d never really had before. The Nobles had let me into theirs, and now I wanted to make it official.
I knew I wasn’t good enough for Valentina the first day she showed up on my porch, looking fine as hell in her skirt and blouse and fancy heels. But for some reason, she didn’t care. Not then and not now.