Epilogue
Keanu stood alone on the edge of the property, just beyond the wash of warm light spilling from the house, where the trees gathered thick and the night pressed close.
Portland’s air was cool, damp with pine and rain and things that had nowhere to go.
He breathed it in like he needed it to steady himself.
His mind wasn’t here.
It was still in Kansas City.
Still in that house.
Still in the room where two men had moved like death given human form.
Rangi and Alexios.
They were together. Keanu had known it the instant he saw them—how they’d moved in sync, how one always knew where the other was without looking. That wasn’t luck. That was connection. The kind built over years of blood and trust and shared survival.
And somehow, impossibly, both of them had looked at him like he was part of that equation.
It had hit him like a physical thing. Not just attraction—though that had been there, sharp and immediate—but recognition. The way Rangi’s eyes had held his, steady and curious. The way Alexios had smiled like he already knew something Keanu didn’t.
For a moment, Keanu had felt ... seen.
And that was the dangerous part.
He dragged a hand through his hair, huffing out a breath. He’d spent a lifetime not letting anyone get close enough to read him like that. Not letting anyone look at him like he might be something worth wanting.
And yet—
Rangi hadn’t known him.
That was what twisted.
Rangi hadn’t recognized him. Hadn’t flinched. Hadn’t reacted like he was looking at a ghost or a memory or something that wasn’t supposed to still exist.
Keanu leaned against the railing, staring out into the dark, the faint sound of the lake somewhere below.
He stayed where he was, alone with the echo of two men who had crossed his path like a spark thrown into dry tinder.
Keanu pushed away from the railing, a slow smile tugging at his mouth despite himself.
Some fires didn’t need to be chased.
They came back on their own.
The End