Page 78 of The Saint

I didn’t want or need an apology from him, not when he’d done nothing wrong, but it still meant the world to hear it. “I’m sorry about Bear.”

“Yeah…it still hurts.”

I stared at my brother with new eyes, seeing him as a quiet teenager who had grown distant from me. It felt like we were back in time, still possessing a fraction of innocence before we became the barbaric men we were now. “You’ve had my back…all this time.”

His eyes averted in guilt. “I knew Ivan took her.”

“And you went and got her.”

His eyes hesitated before they found mine again.

“Why else were you there?”

He didn’t answer.

“It wasn’t a split-second decision, Godric. You were there to save my girl.” My hand moved to his shoulder, and he flinched at the touch. “Because you’ve always had my back.” I shook him. “Always.”

His eyes stayed on mine.

“And I’ve always had yours, even after all this time, even after all this bullshit.” I felt the burn in my eyes, but I didn’t let the tears fall. My fingers dug into his arm, and I felt his heat and his pulse,felt the blood that was the same as my own. “You’re my brother—and I love you.”

My father never told me he loved me. Not even in an obligatory manner. I waited and hoped it would come, but it never did. Those daddy issues had followed me all this time, even as a grown man. I didn’t want to be like him. I wanted to show love rather than not feel it at all.

Godric didn’t meet my gaze for a while, either uncomfortable by my words or overcome with emotion he didn’t show. But he eventually looked at me again. “I love you too, brother.”

I smiled for the first time that day, felt a peace I’d been searching for in the wrong places. “Let’s kill this asshole together. You and me.”

He nodded. “The Fifth Republic stays.”

“Yeah?” Another thing I’d never expected him to say.

He nodded. “Hurt people hurt people. I’m done hurting people.”

I stepped into my bedroom and found her standing near the window, too anxious to sit and wait.

Her back was to me, and I wanted it to stay that way, because the sight of her ugly injuries made me sick as hell. I wanted to kill the guys who’d done this to her, but they were already dead. So all I had left was Ivan.

She turned to me when she heard the door close, and she rushed to me like it was the first time we’d seen each other.

I hugged her tight and rested my chin on her head, squeezing her like she was made of stuffing and cotton rather than flesh and bone. The single most important thing in the world to me—and I was about to lose it.

I pulled away and looked at her, focused on her green eyes and did the best I could to ignore the bruises and swelling and the evidence of her horrible mistreatment. But it wasn’t as bad as what could have come to pass, and that was all I had for consolation. “You should leave me.” This was the woman I’d chased relentlessly, the woman I’d loved from the night we met, but I needed to let her go.

Her eyes turned wounded. “No.”

“This is the second time it’s happened?—”

“I’m not leaving.” She stepped back slightly, clearly offended by the suggestion. “It’s you and me, and that’s it. I’m marrying you, and we’re going to be together until we’re old and die. So get over it.”

Despite my stare, I felt myself crack a smile. Her ferocity was so fucking beautiful. “Then I’m done.”

Her eyes shifted back and forth between mine. “What do you mean, you’re done?”

“With this life.”

When she realized what I meant, the emotion crept back into her stare.

“I swear to you that my life has been unremarkable for the last five years. And then you show up, and it’s fucking mayhem. The first time was an anomaly, but now there’s this, and I don’t trust it anymore.” No one tried to cross me. No one came afterthe people I loved. But now, my world was upside down, and I couldn’t keep the one promise I’d made—that I would protect her. I’d fucking failed, and it was the most painful experience of my life. “I’m done.”

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