Page 108 of When Hearts Ignite

He grabs the lapels of my suit and hauls me to him. “H-How did you get the evidence? John is loyal, he’s my son-in-law. He’d never betray me. Tell me how you did it. Everything was done through the Caymans. They’re traceless. I handled the interactions with McGinnis and Hancock myself so no one would have those records. It’s impossible. I did everything right. He wouldn’t have turned on me. It’s impossible!”

He pulls me tighter against him. “How did you get this?”

Letting out a low chuckle, I grip his hands tightly and rip them off my body. “I have my ways.”

I now owe Elias Kent a favor in the future. The man already had the dossier packaged in a fucking red bow when I met him this morning, all the while wearing a smirk on his face.

Looking at Grace, I heave out a breath. “You should’ve gotten a lot more for harassing her.”

Stepping back, my hand takes Grace’s again, and she glances at me, her breathing quickening and she blinks, apparently overcome with emotions in seeing the man who terrorized her cower at our feet.

“We’re leaving, darling,” I murmur and press a kiss to her hair.

We reach the door in a few strides and I wrench it open. Two men in loose gray suits, standard uniforms of government agents, it would seem, stand at the doorway and they walk in, holding out a warrant. A crowd of employees gathers in the background, shock registering on their faces.

“Timothy Voss, you’re under arrest for corporate espionage and blackmail in relation to the acquisition of TransAmerica Corporation. You have the right to remain silent…”

“And in case there’s any doubt about your guilt,” Grace pulls down her neckline by a few inches, her eyes flashing in both anger and victory, revealing a microphone and a wire, “You just admitted it all on a recording.”

“Y-You…” Voss points his meaty fingers at her, his face red with rage.

“You should’ve never underestimated me.” Her voice is sharp. Cutting. A warrior slaying her enemies. A heat rushes through me. She’s fierce and amazing.

And she’s mine.

Giving the Feds a nod, Grace and I leave the room.

My pulse riots against my ears, my heart a swirling tempest in my chest. My eyes burn as my vision blurs. I hold my breath as I drag Grace behind me to the elevators, my hands shaking from the chaos—elation, thrill, anger, relief, too many emotions for me to name.

The elevators close and I haul her against me, needing to feel her warmth in my arms. She looks up, her violet eyes glistening with unshed tears, as if she knew how important this moment was for me, how she’s proud of me, how relieved she feels now knowing Voss will be behind bars for good.

“You did it, Steven,” she whispers, her trembling fingers caressing my face.

I nod, the lump in my throat thick, rendering me mute. Blinking, I attempt to clear the moisture from my eyes as my body shakes underneath her embrace.

She rises on her tiptoes and presses a soft kiss on my lips. “You saved your father’s legacy. You took a bad man off the streets. You did it. You’re worthy with or without this win. But I’m so, so proud of you.”

I let out a shuddering exhale as a guttural sob escapes me. I collapse against her, my lungs raking in desperate gulps of jasmine scented air, and she holds me tightly in her arms, her hands softly rubbing my back.

“No, Grace. We did it. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

In this moment, a calmness enters my being.

And I realize, I’m fucking worthy.

Standing in front of the palatial mansion on the quiet hills of Palos Verdes Estates, my hometown, I breathe in the cool salty breeze carrying the scent of the Pacific. The air is drier here at my childhood home than in New York, but being a stone’s throw distance from the ocean, a dampness from the marine layer permeates the air in the early morning hours.

The sun is hidden behind the clouds today, denying us its warmth and light, and a chill seeps through my suit and buries itself under my skin. A few seagulls squawk as they fly overhead, no doubt heading toward the beautiful beaches nearby.

Lush foliage decorates the massive front lawn in a sea of deep green. The California drought doesn’t extend to the wealthy here, like everything else in the world. Every hedge is carefully trimmed, every tree well taken care of, including the large oak trees on the premise, the ones I would climb up as a kid and hide amongst the branches as I played hide and seek with my sisters. I remember Emily screeching as she ran around searching for me, and Jess…she always found me first but then pretended she didn’t see me, even though I’d hear her pointing another direction to misdirect Emily whenever she got close to my hiding spot.

I smile at the fond memories of this front lawn. I played soccer with my friends here, stargazed into the heavens at night when I couldn’t sleep inside the large house, which grew even quieter and lonelier when Emily and Jess both went away for college, leaving me behind. I’d look at the stars and wonder what was up there.

My mind flits to Grace when she grabbed my arm that night at the High Line and made me wish under a shooting star. I guess I found my answer years later. Perhaps during those nights when I was lying on a beach blanket, watching the stars twinkle in the clear night skies, a lonely girl on the opposite side of the country was doing the same, and we were all along tied by this thin string between us, which pulled us closer and closer until a year ago when she stepped into Pietra.

I smile as I remember her soft lips, the very ones I kissed late last night before I got in my jet to travel back here to deliver the news of Voss’s downfall in person to my father.

I heave out a breath, my lungs taking in one more gulp of my childhood, and another memory cuts to the forefront as I’m standing on the manicured lawns, staring at the front door separating me and my parents.

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