Page 147 of Mila: The Godfather

I choose happiness over sadness.

Now, I’m choosing Riagan over my fears and my reservations.

I’m choosing life.

“That’s how it’s done, Cap.” Cianne’s loud voice snaps me out of it, and I follow his gaze to the cage where Riagan is now standing over Locke’s body, staring at me with a look I’ve seen on his face many times before. The pressure in my chest increases, and I feel my heart start to beat a mile a minute as I look at him and just him. He looks like an evil villain in every old-school classic horror movie, and yet he takes my breath away. Oh, what a pair we are.

Lifting my hand to my chest, I tap it three times, and so does he.

Somehow, the gesture stopped being one of comfort but a way for me to communicate with him. To let him know how he makes my heart race and stop at times. How I’m barely able to breathe when he looks at me the way he is doing now.

As if I’m the only person he sees in this room.

Like I’m the only person who matters.

That’s how I see it.

In a sea of people laughing and cheering him on, there is only us.

I stand frozen in place, watching as he throws the cage’s metal door open, climbs down, and moves in my direction. Every step he takes my way is in sync with my heart.

Then, one second, my feet are firmly planted on the ground, and the next, I’m being lifted into his strong arms. My safe place. He hugs me tightly to him, and oddly, I don’t dwell on the fact that he has someone else’s blood on him and now on me. No. I just feel the moment. A beautiful and pure moment.

After a few seconds of holding me up in the air, he put me down, his arms going around me, and his lips press into the top of my hair. I hug him close, feeling my heart full of joy. Leaning back, I look up at him to find him smiling despite the blood in his teeth and the bruises already forming on his skin. “Told you, a chusle.” He breathes out.

Beaming, I stand on my tippy toes and press a soft kiss on his bearded chin. “You were…”

“Scary?”

I frown at that. “No.” I shake my head, and then smile up at him. “Very impressive.”

He laughs, then removes his arms from around me, and I already feel the loss of him. But then he takes out the earplugs from my ears. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

“Good.”

Focusing on the gash on his left cheek, I ask. “Riagan, will you teach me how to fight?”

“There’s no need for you to fight, butterfly. You don’t ever have to fear for your life. That’s why I am here.” He says roughly, while twirling a curl on his finger. Lifting my gaze from his bloody cheek, I try to hold his gaze for as long as possible before I can’t any longer. “But if you want to learn how to fight, I’ll teach you.” How sweet it feels to have someone who never belittles your capacity to learn new things or your intelligence. Someone who believes in you and wants to protect you without clipping your wings. How sweet it is to be cared for by this man. This man covered in blood after taking a life.

“How did you know about him?” I turn to look at the cage where Locke’s body is being lifted off the ground. Riagan grabs my chin and turns my face his way.

“Bain and Carlotta.”

“Do you know all of th—”

“I do.” His voice is rough, and his eyes turn darker.

“But why?” Deep down, I know why, but I need to hear it from him. I need to know for sure.

And what he says takes my breath away and lifts my feet off the ground, and I find myself never wanting to come back down from the high that is Riagan.

“Because there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you, butterfly. If I have to fight the world for you, I will, and that bitch, Locke, was just the start. I’m not done, and I won’t be done until every person who made you cry meets the same fate as him. You have my word on that.” And with that, he takes me in his arms once again and kisses me fiercely.

And with his kiss, he makes a thousand promises.

Promises I know, down to my bone, he will always keep.

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