Page 146 of Surrender to Me
She blinks once, slow, and I watch the realization sink in, layer by layer. Her fingers tighten around mine, almost painfully.
“The raid on Kress’s vault happened two days ago. Swiss Federal Police, acting on an anonymous tip—Hawkeye’s tip. They found everything, and more. The Hollingsworth Collection pieces have been catalogued and tagged. The locket and fob were in a separate drawer. Provenance will tie it back to the Romanov estate. And if there is anything the vault…”
“The Russians could wake up half a billion richer without lifting a finger.”
“Yeah.” A weight I hadn’t known I was still carrying lifts off my shoulders. “The press is calling it a miracle recovery. Hawkeye gets the credit, the finder’s fee. Kress is locked up, and his accounts are frozen. Moscow thinks he skimmed what was theirs.”
Her breath catches, audible in the quiet.
“There will be no blowback. You’re not a target. Not legally, not physically. Not ever again.”
She stares at me, eyes wide and shining, lips parted like she’s forgotten how to breathe.
“You’re free, Lyra.” The words come out rougher than I intend, scraped raw. “Completely. Permanently. We can leave tomorrow if you want. Or the day after. Or never. The lodge is yours as long as you need it. But the world outside—No one’s hunting you. You get to choose. Where you go. What you do.” I pause, then force the words that I don’t want to say but have to. “Who you’re with.”
The silence stretches, thick and charged. Her hand trembles in mine, just once, then stills.
She shifts closer, knees sliding over my thigh as she moves into my space, quilt pooling around her waist. Her free hand comes up to cup my jaw, thumb tracing the stubble there, eyes locked on mine with an intensity that steals the air from my lungs.
“Stryker.” My name on her lips is soft, steady, absolute.
She leans in, so close that we breathe the same air.
“I choose you.”
The words hit me harder than any bullet ever has.
Her mouth finds mine, not gentle, not tentative—hungry and sure and everything I’ve been waiting for without realizing it.
She kisses me like she’s claiming, like she’s choosing with every press of her lips, every slide of her tongue. Her fingers fist in my shirt, pulling me down with her as she reclines back against the pillows, dragging me over her until I’m braced above, her legs parting to cradle my hips.
I groan into her mouth, the sound ragged, and she swallows it, arching up against me, heat searing through layers of fabric. Her hands slide under my shirt, nails raking up my back, urging, demanding.
She is free.
And she chooses me.
I pull back just enough to meet her eyes, dark and fierce and shining with something that looks a hell of a lot like forever.
“Then you’re mine,” I rasp against her lips.
She smiles, slow and wicked and utterly unafraid. “And here’s the truth. I always was.”
Chapter Forty-One
Lyra
The SUV pulls away from the lodge. It’s the first time since we arrived that we’ve left the premises. Stryker asked me to join him for dinner to celebrate all the good news from headquarters.
And since it feels like a weight has been lifted, I’m excited to finally get out.
Tires crunch over packed snow that glitters under the security floods.
My pulse thrums steady in my throat, not fear, just the low electric hum of stepping back into a world that no longer has my name on any list.
We’re in the back together, and Stryker’s hand finds my thigh the instant we turn onto the plowed road, palm warm through the thin wool of my dress that I had delivered.
His thumb strokes slow arcs that keep me anchored to him. I watch the mountains slide past the tinted windows, dark shapes against a darker sky, and I truly taste freedom.
