Page 50 of Room Six

“You said you love me.” Until tonight I never thought I would see them again, much less hear confessions of true love.

“With our dying breath.” Oliver slowly slips from my body and takes a cloth from Danika. Rune takes all my weight and clutches me to him. Our hearts sync.

Danika unties me and slowly rubs my wrists. “Can you find it in your heart to give us another chance at loving you?” For the first time since knowing the man, he has actual fear in his eyes. Candlelight flickers and the flames seem to grow brighter around us.

Sitting up in Rune’s arms, I look between Danika and Rune. I find Oliver digging clothes out of the same duffle bag they pulled the rope from. “I need to hear you all promise to never keep me on the outside again. I’m stronger than I look. You pushed me away when I could have been there for you.”

“You’re a goddess of love and war, as far as I’m concerned. In my defense I never wanted to keep you on the outside. It was those two idiots.”

Danika pops the back of Rune’s head but there is no malice in the interaction.

“It’s true. He wanted to go to you that night. Don’t be angry at him. Oliver and I deserve all your wrath.”

“I second that.” Oliver comes back and takes me from Rune. “But I’m a selfish bastard. We all are. We want you in our lives. Every single day we have left on this planet. Please find it in your heart to let us back in.”

Danika holds up a box and then pulls back the black velvet top. Candle light reveals three gold rings inside and on each of them are two words: Until death.

“You will love me forever?”

Raja’s words of protection filter through my mind. I grip the pendant around my neck and wish for my happiness to be real. For our love to last until the end of days.

Please. Please. Please.

Oliver lowers my feet to the warm floor. Standing in front of them, dripping with their release, my mafia men drop to a knee and press their foreheads against any part of me they can reach.

“And after.”

That is Rune.

“This life.”

Danika.

“And the next.”

Oliver places a kiss to the center of my belly. “If you will have us.”

Each of them takes a ring and holds it up. Black onyx edged in gleaming gold. Candlelight catches on the shiny metal and my tears in equal parts as I hold my hand up and they slip on the rings. Together they form an invisible shield around my heart.

Their hands shake a little but not as much as my knees.

That is when I notice Danika has filled in the Roman Numeral on his ring finger, completing the series across all his fingers. I once asked him what each date meant and why the one on his left ring finger was missing. He told me they were important dates and the one missing was for the day he married the love of his life.

“You put the date you met me.” I trace the Roman numeral for six.

“I picked the room number we spent our first night in.”

“Room six?”

He nods.

“I never had a chance to see.”

“I did and I think fate has a sense of humor putting us in the same room number again.”

My smile is genuine.

“How fucking disgusting. How could you let them touch you, you whore? You were daddy’s special girl. No one was supposed to touch you. You belong to me.”

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