“There will be no reconciliation necessary,” Vlad promised. “I am getting you, and your family’s business, out of the mafia’s line of fire. You’ll have nothing to fear from my father’s organization ever again.”
“And you?” The question ghosted past her trembling lips. “What about you, Vlad? Do you intend to carry on with your father’s organization?”
“I intend to carry on with my investigation in whatever way I can,” he said. The hand on her stomach slid to the small of her back, and he wound his arms around her waist, reeling her in tight against him. “But as for the mob, I’m out. I’ve done my time; enough time to know what matters most.”
Madison sobbed and buried her face in his chest. Vlad raised a hand, but he had no intention of relinquishing her. Instead, he cradled the back of her head, letting her hair cascade through his fingertips. He let the day’s events catch up with her, momentarily overwhelm her, but he knew the tears wouldn’t last. This was Madison O’Connor, after alclass="underline" the object of his all-consuming passion, and now the mother of his child. There was no danger in the world he would allow to touch her life ever again.
Even if it meant he had to pull down the entire world in the process.
“I choose you,” he murmured into the crown of her hair. “Both of you. I choose us.”
It was the easiest choice Vlad had ever made in his life.
Epilogue
If Madison O’Connor never saw another moving van, it would still be too soon.
“Can you just… can you not set that there on the grass?” she stressed to the man in coveralls. Her hand sought out the distended swell of her belly, as it often did nowadays when she needed to summon reserves of mental strength. She felt the baby give a little kick in response.
The mover glanced from Madison’s face to her stomach and back up again. He switched the toothpick he chewed from the right side of his mouth to his left, his expression unchanged. Madison wanted to leap across the sidewalk and snap that damn toothpick in half, but was uncertain if she still had the agility required to pull off the move. She settled for being direct.
“It rained last night,” she clarified, trying to smile through her clenched teeth. She wasn’t sure it worked. What’s more, she wasn’t sure the mover cared about whether she was being cordial at this point. “So when you set the boxes down, the water leeches through the cardboard and gets everything inside the box wet: dishes, books, undisclosed firearms. Do you comprehend any of what I’m saying to you?” she finally erupted when the man took off his hat to scratch his head.
“Lay off, lady,” another mover advised her as he exited down the ramp of the van. “We know what we’re doing. Harping on us ain’t good for the baby.”
“Excuse me?” Madison exclaimed. “I didn’t realize I was in the presence of… of doctors!”
It wasn’t her finest comeback, and she was mentally kicking herself as much as the baby was when the weight of a familiar arm settled itself across her shoulders, its sudden intrusion effectively calming both mother and child. Madison turned helplessly, taking in Vlad’s expression and surprised to find he wore a look of casual amusement. The movers returned to work without a word, although they looked decidedly less intimidated than Madison would have liked.
“You’re losing your touch,” she muttered, reaching up to grab hold of the tattooed hand that dangled limply off her shoulders.
“I have no interest in telling anyone how to do their job anymore. Except you,” Vlad corrected himself thoughtfully. “You work too hard.”
“Great,” Madison muttered, crossing her arms above her belly in defeat. “When we agreed you’d exit your line of work, I didn’t realize you’d be putting your managerial experience to such effective use in our relationship.”
The couple stood together on the dew-damp lawn, watching in thoughtful silence as their new life took shape before them. The house was a single-story structure with two bedrooms; nothing fancy, but after living in an apartment for all of her adult life, Madison thought it was the perfect place to start a family.
“Three moving companies, Vlad,” she stated. “Three. That’s three that I’ve gone through in this city, and I’m not sure there are any more left. I swear they must talk about me amongst themselves. I bet they get together wherever movers go for a beer after work and map out new ways to make my life miserable.”
“You’re paranoid,” Vlad replied. “Trust me, it’s a compliment. You won’t sleep well, but at least you’ll be awake and ready when they come for you in the night.”
“You can take the man out of the mob, but you can’t take the mob out of the man,” Madison sighed in exasperation. “But thank you for the compliment, I guess?”
“You’re welcome.”
Madison burst out laughing as Vlad punctuated his words by sweeping her off her feet. She was only five months along, but that didn’t change the fact that she was weighing in for two now. Most days she felt gargantuan, but her lover still had a way of making her feel absolutely beautiful.
Vlad carried her up the walk to their new home, brushing past several movers on their way out; Madison blushed furiously, knowing that after seeing her like this, none of them would ever take her seriously again.
“Let them do their job,” Vlad advised quietly, as if reading her thoughts. “If I can let others take on the investigation into my father’s murder, then you can definitely take a step back from bossing around the hired help.”
“If it’s on your mind, then let Savannah help you,” Madison pleaded as the Russian carried her into the living room. “Please, Vlad. She’s only a phone call away.”
“Are you saying she hasn’t already inserted herself completely into the investigation?” Vlad asked as he deposited her on the couch. “Because I hear differently. I may not be donning the suit anymore, Madison, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have my finger on the pulse of my father’s organization.”
Madison winced. “So long as it’s not wrapped around a trigger,” she muttered. “All I’m saying is you can trust her. There’s no way the person responsible for Sergey’s death is going to get away with it. Not with Savannah on the case.”
“I have a case for her,” Vlad said as he settled himself down on the couch beside her. Madison inserted herself beneath his arm once more and snuggled close, deciding she could care less what the movers thought about PDA. “A case involving sculptures mysteriously full of diamonds.”
“You’ll have enough to worry about once we get our new insurance business up and running—which those same sculptures could have used, by the way.” Madison sighed as she settled her hand on her stomach. “I’m tired of mysteries, Vlad. I thought I could relax now that we’re forging a new life for ourselves, but maybe we’re taking on too much already. A new house, a new pursuit, a new little life to take care of…”
“I couldn’t do it alone,” Vlad admitted. He closed one of his inked hands over her own, a gesture meant to comfort and protect. Madison stared at that hand in awe. She would have never thought the inked hands of Vlad Karev would shield her from a world he had helped to make so dangerous. If loving her this fiercely was the lone wolf’s penance for past crimes, then maybe he stood a real chance, in time, of learning to forgive himself.