Page 112 of Deadly Secrets
“Ten hours up the mountain on a donkey? Why?”
“To tell you something important.”
Her face fell. “Is everyone okay? Polly? Win? Nadia?”
“Everyone’s fine, but they miss you.Imiss you.”
She blew right over his admission as if she hadn’t heard him. “Did Uri get loose? Is he coming after me?”
“Uri, Mikhail, and the other men who were part of The Reverend ring have been rounded up and are awaiting trial. What remains of the Zion family back in Russia have been arrested. Their empire continues to crumble and we’re dismantling their international operations. You’re safe.”
She breathed a sigh of relief, her gaze running over him from head to toe. “Sorry to be so self-centered, it’s just been a concern of mine. I didn’t want to put my colleagues here in danger. How are you? How’s the leg and shoulder?”
So polite. So…professional.
“I. Miss. You.” He moved closer, touching her arms, letting his fingers trail down to her hands. “My body is healing. My heart not so much.”
He saw her throat work as she swallowed. She took a small step toward him, her gaze searching his face. “What’s wrong with your heart?”
“You broke it.”
Fake surprise lit her face. “I did, huh?”
“I love you, Brooke Heaton. I know I screwed up and betrayed your trust, but I’m hoping you can forgive me and let me make it up to you.”
Her lips quirked. They had an audience now, her colleagues watching. “How do you intend to do that?”
He leaned in, putting a hand on her warm neck as he whispered all the intimate things he planned to do to her if she would take him back. The pulse in her neck sped up under his fingers, her breath hitched at the last suggestion.
Moving back, he let go of her and motioned behind him. “And then there’s this.”
Justine took her cue, coming forward, her eyes, so much like Brooke’s, filling with tears as she met her daughter’s shocked gaze.
She held out a hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you, Brooke. Roman isn’t the only one who owes you an apology. I have so much to make up for, and I hope you’ll at least give me the chance to tell you what really happened between me and your father. Your biological father.”
“M…Mom?”
A sad smile spread across the older woman’s face. “I’m so, so sorry, Brooke, for putting you in danger. I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought I was keeping you safe. I never meant for you to get hurt. I love you more than…”—her voice broke—“anything.”
“So do I,” Roman said. “We both want you to know it, and we couldn’t wait any longer.”
“The grand gesture,” Brooke murmured.
Justine sent Roman an inquisitive look. He shrugged, not really understanding. This must be another term from her romance books, like cerebral sex.
Brooke smiled, dashing at the corners of her eyes as she chuckled. “I can’t believe it. I cannot freakin’ believe it.”
“Believe what?” Roman asked. “That we love you enough to come find you in this godforsaken place and ask for forgiveness?”
Without warning, Brooke threw her arms around her mother’s neck, then around Roman’s. She held on tight to him. “You are the perfect hero after all.”
He hugged her close, winking at Justine. “Far from it, I’m afraid, but I hope I’m worth coming home to when you’re done with this job.”
Brooke broke from the embrace and eyed him. “Home?”
He took the small, blue box from his pocket. It had pressed ceaselessly into his leg the whole way here, reminding him he was about to make the biggest decision of his life. Risk it all for a woman who’d turned her back on him and walked away.
He swallowed the lump cutting off the air in his throat and opened the little box in front of Brooke’s face. He’d given it plenty of thought and risking his life without her was far worse than risking his pride right here in front of these people.
