Page 152 of For a Price

“Is that what you would want, devochka? For us to take him in?”

I’m thrown for a couple seconds working my way through the possibility. I’ve been questioning whether Roman and I would still be together now that everything was over, yet here he is open to the possibility of taking in a child together?

He’s presumed our relationship will continue.

The talk about the future wasn’t just talk. Not to him.

It was real. He was serious.

I crack a small, hesitant smile. Tears I thought I’d cried myself out of emerge fresh in my eyes. “Rosita would’ve wanted that. For me to… look after him if she wasn’t around.”

He cups my face in his hands. “Then that’s what will happen. We’ll take him as our own.”

“Are you sure? I mean, all of it. Me? Our relationship? Lucero? He’s a real boy, Zver. If we do this…”

It’s forever. For the rest of our lives…

“Is that what you want? Tell me, kitty cat.” He rubs his thumb along the curve of my cheek, his intense sapphire eyes studying every detail of my face this close up. It’s as if he hasn’t done so a dozen times before. “Tell me if you want to go. If this is no longer what you want…”

“Roman…”

“You may have your freedom. You aren’t my captive. You’re free to go.” He brings our faces even closer together ’til there’s only an inch separating us and sends a sharp shiver down my spine. “But that’s not what I would want.”

“No?”

“I want you to stay. I couldn’t be held accountable if I missed you… and took you again for myself.”

An abrupt giggle bubbles out of me. I lean in and give him a peck on the lips. “Are you really telling me you’d kidnap me all over again, Zver?”

“I said I can’t be held accountable. It would be outside my control.”

“Because you’re such a beast.”

“You get it, devochka. Beasts do as they please. Especially when the woman they’re in love with leaves.”

I go still, yet my heartbeat triples. “Are you sure you really love me?”

“No,” he answers. “I’min lovewith you, kitty cat. I’ve fought it and pushed it away, but it turns out beasts do have feelings other than rage.”

“I’m in love with you too,” I whisper almost shyly. “And… I’m not going anywhere. I choose to be free with you. If that’s what you still want.”

“You can be by my side. We can make a life together. But it may be a dangerous one. I am the new pakhan. There might come times where more threats emerge.”

“I just want to be with you. We can survive anything, don’t you think?”

He kisses me in between other strokes of my cheek. “I think we will be very good together.”

“And Lucero…”

“You’ll come home with me—the new home I build for us—and so will he.”

It’s the last puzzle piece I realize that I’m missing in order to feel complete. In order for the distress that’s been plaguing me to morph into feelings of security. While it’s not a perfect fix to the trauma and grief—nothing could be except undoing the past—it’s an opportunity for a brighter future.

The kind of life I could’ve only hoped for.

One full of danger, but also full of excitement and happiness. A life by the side of the only man who has ever made me feel valued and loved. Things that have always seemed so out of reach for an orphaned, street thief stray like me.

I’m speechless, my throat dry from the emotions crashing over me. Roman puts his arms around me and I melt into him like I’ve always dreamed of.

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