Page 72 of Reignite

At Last

Gray and I didn’t leave the loft for a week. We didn’t even leave the bedroom for the majority of that time.

Once I was sure his return was one-hundred percent real and I knew he wasn’t going anywhere, I got up the courage to ask him about Ilario.

I hadn’t made his voice up that day at the club. He had been there and he’d tried to save us.

Ilario had been the bleeding man in the car. When we’d left Texas and Ilario needed something new in his life, Gray had used his connections to get him recruited. To what I didn’t exactly understand. All I knew is that Ilario had military intelligence experience that he was putting to good use.

It was how Gray had found him for me in the first place.

Ilario hadn’t been trying to run me down in the parking lot, he’d been racing to save me.

My poor sweet Ilario.

My sweet super secret sneaky spy, Ilario. Who had given his life to save mine.

Gray held my hand, as we stood in the cemetery surrounded by our friends. Our family. “You’re sure this is what you want to do, Angel?”

“Yes. I’m sure. The club means mostly pain to me now. But it means a lot to many other people. This is the right thing to do.”

“We’re ready to begin, Miss Cruz.” The officiant I’d hired to conduct the funeral touched my arms and nodded toward the people gathered at the columbarium.

“Thank you.”

We moved over to the wall and I took the hands of both Cade and Dominic. They were the two other people closest to Ilario, and would miss him as much as I would.

“We are gathered here to remember the life of Ilario Russo. He was a bright spirit in a world with too much darkness and he will be missed by all those who knew him.”

The service lasted as long as it took for us all to say a few words about our beautiful friend. Which turned out was a lot of words and a long time. When it was over, we all met back at the bar at Devils and Angels.

Jim poured drinks for everyone and we toasted Ilario, his smiling face, and his true faithfulness.

Dominic raised his glass and we all followed suit. “To Ilario the Lothario. Our friend till the end. He died trying to save our skins, now he’s up in heaven. Here’s hoping you’ve found a big-bottomed angel of your own whose thick thighs you can spend eternity between.”

“Hear hear.”

We drank and told stories and laughed and cried a bit more.

“I can’t believe he’s gone.” Cade held hands very tightly with Vanessa.

I was glad they’d found each other, and Danica had been right. They were perfect together.

“I could kill the little bugger for trying to save us from Foster. If he hadn’t been in that car, if he’d just stayed in city….” Hawk was taking the news of Ilario’s death hard.

Lilly rubbed her belly, and I was sure it would pop at any moment even though she still had a few more months. Pregnancy had agreed with her, filled out her angles and given her curves. She was beautiful when I’d met her. She was stunning with this healthy glow of imminent motherhood on her. “We’ve been meaning to talk to you all about this, and I guess now’s a good time. We’d like to name the baby Ilario.”

I hugged Lilly and let one more tear fall. “That would be lovely. He would be tickled.”

“The lad’s going to have a mouthful trying to get his own name out. Ilario Callum Robert Finn.

Lilly’s eyes got wider with every syllable Hawk said aloud. She rolled them when he’d finished. Under her breath she said to me, “If I have my way, and you know I always do, two or three of those names are not making it on the birth certificate.”

“I heard that, lovey.”

She winked at me, and I had no doubt about who would win that battle.

A few of the club’s other members who felt like family, but who hadn’t known Ilario in person came to the wake to lend their support, including Danica.

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