Page 87 of Dearly Betrayed

“I never thought you were,” I say and it’s true, it never once occurred to me that she’d be able to fake everything that went on between us so well. I’ve been with plenty of women in my life, from noble daughters to prostitutes, and I’ve never met one that could make me feel this way. Not even when they were trying to fake it.

This is real. I could second-guess and worry about it all my life, but I’m going to take the leap.

“What do we do then?”

“First, we’ll talk to Adler together. We’ll explain to him how things are.”

“Which is?”

“You are my wife.”

She nods, blinking back tears. “Okay.”

I kiss her gently. “Don’t start crying again. I hate how much I’ve made you cry.”

“It’s fine, really, I just thought we were finished. The more I sat in here alone, the more I figured you’d send me home.”

“No, you won’t go back to the UK without me, baby.”

She sobs again and I hug her tight. I hate myself for the way I made her feel, the way I let her worry, but it couldn’t have happened any other way. I needed to realize how badly I missed her and how much she had to be in my life. I needed to kill, risk myself, pull the trigger—and that brought me back to her.

“What if Adler wants to get rid of me?”

“He can say what he wants.”

“He’s the Don.”

“I don’t give a shit about that. You’re my family now.” I kiss her, making sure she understands. “We’ll have to be careful for a little while. Don’t do anything that might make Adler suspicious. And you’ll have to stay in the casino until I can find and finish off the last Grady men left behind.”

“Are you sure you have to? They haven’t escaped?”

“If they have, my people don’t know about it. Maybe they’re good enough to slip past—” I shake my head though, because it’s very unlikely. We’re monitoring every single international flight and watching every stretch of highway. If they try to sneak past, they’ll be found.

“I don’t want to make trouble for you,” she says as she runs her fingernails down my cheek. “It’s been bad enough already.”

“Stop worrying. I made up my mind, and I’m not going to change it again. You are mine, Fallon, my wife and my everything.”

She nods, blinking back tears again. “You’re my everything too.”

“You don’t know how happy that makes me, baby.”

“Would you really defy your brother so we can be together?”

“I’d defy him and everyone else.” I stand and offer her my hand. “Come on. Let’s go find Casey and give her the good news.”

Fallon beams at that. We leave the condo together and it doesn’t take long before we run into both the Costa children running around the lobby, little Damian laughing as he chases after a teetering Jessie. The pair of them are adorable, and Casey’s standing over near a coffee bar, and she beams as we approach.

“I like this,” she says, gesturing at us. “I really like it.”

I take Fallon’s hand in mine. “We made up.”

“No. Really?”

“Really.”

“God, I’m so relieved.” Casey pulls us both into a hug. “Adler’s not going to like it though. He’s been convincing himself to send her back to Ireland.”

“He wouldn’t,” Fallon says, looking panicked.

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