50. Anastasia
When it feels like I’m waking up to the worst hangover of my life, I wish my consciousness would quit for a while longer. I never sleep on my back, and that’s not helping matters, but I also don’t recall my bed having a forty-five-degree angle.
I peel my eyes open reluctantly to investigate, hoping to find Rhett and that he’ll make some quippy remark about how I fell asleep when I don’t remember doing so.
My groggy attention starts to sharpen quicker when I don’t recognize my surroundings at all. A beeping machine starts to bring my awareness back to the fact I’m in a hospital. Then I’m suffering the flashes of memory of what brought me here.
“Rhett.” I can barely get his name out of my bone-dry throat.
“Darling,” a voice says gently.
My head falls to find my dad, and that doesn’t help—my panic surges more, and the beeping intensifies.
“Where’s Rhett?” I demand, trying to sit up, but I wince at the sharp stabbing pain in my shoulder that shoots across my chest and my arm, which I realize now is in a sling.
Right, I was shot.This fucking sucks. Somehow I know it could have been a lot worse. I feel okay, all things considered.
“Please keep calm, Ana. You’re okay.”
But I’m not worried about myself.
Two nurses enter and check things around me, but I can’t take in any of it.
“Where. Is. He?” I demand again.
“In the hospital. Detained for now.”
I can’t think straight, see straight, but as I’m consistently pressured to calm down by the nurses I fear they might sedate me, so I try to reel myself back in to prove I’m fine. I just need Rhett here.
“I want to see him,” I say, unable to look at my dad with the way I know he’ll be torn with concern and anger.
“Your mother is on her way.”
I close my eyes. He’s not fucking listening to me.
“If you let them take him out of here, I’ll never forgive you.”
He drags his chair closer to my bedside, and neither of us speak for a painfully long moment.
“I’ve been trying to understand, Ana,” he says in defeat, “why you continue to defend someone who is dangerous, and with all the things he’s done. He told me who he is, what he does.”
My heart picks up again at that, and I pull the stupid pulse monitor off my finger. “You don’t know him. You’ve never once tried to. Never asked why.”
“I’m asking now. Because Adam and Liam seem to be on his defense too. As much as I’m not sure I can trust Liam either after his father’s exposure.”
I turn my head, and my look isn’t friendly. “It took them saying something for you to finally listen? My word wasn’t enough. Telling you I loved him wasn’t enough. Because I’m just a silly little girl, too lovesick and emotional to make a valid fucking judgment.”
“Ana—”
“I told you he only ever protected me. I didn’t deny what you found out about him, but you wouldn’t hear his whole story. You don’t deserve to, because Rhett is a better man than you’ll ever have the privilege of knowing.”
Dad shakes his head, and I twist in disappointment. But he surprises me with his next words.
“If you’ll let me, I want to know. All of it, every truth, and I promise it’ll be held as your dad, not as the president. If you can trust me to tell me, I won’t take it as anything legal.”
“The truth? The truth is, Rhett Kaiser is exactly who you think he is and nothing like it at all. He kills bad people and saves innocents by sacrificing his own morals. He’s a criminal in your eyes, but a savior in far more. And he loves me—more than I can ever explain. There’s nothing he wouldn’t risk to protect me, no limit to what he’d do for my happiness. If you ask me to choose, I’ll choose him.”
Dad sits with my words in silence. I don’t really care what he does next, because my mind is made up. I’m ready for the next outlandish plan if we have to break Rhett out of custody, and I’ve come to terms with the fact I might have to sever ties with my parents to do it.
“Tell me why he took the job. Start right at the beginning. I need to hear it all,” he says.
I have nothing to lose in telling our story. So it comes pouring out of me. I’m lost in it as if I’m replaying the memories just for me. I laugh, and I cry, and my stomach erupts at all our firsts. I leave out a lot of details about our private life, but everything that brought us to now is so unique and terrifying and wonderful. By the end, I’m reminded of how bonded we are, and how inevitable we’ve always been.
When Dad stands, I don’t know how much time has passed. He smiles, and I don’t flinch away when he leans in to kiss my head. I whimper because I’ve missed him so much.
“So it was all a misunderstanding,” he says. Confusion knits my brow, but Dad merely heads for the door. “I’ll make sure the press flips the story as soon as possible. Rhett Kaiser didn’t take you. He saved you from a trafficking operation led by Alistair Lanshall, which you got caught up in because of Gregory Forbes. They tried to frame Kaiser to get away with it and faked his death.”
Relief slams into me and my eyes pool. “Thank you, Dad.”
“I’ll get a coffee and meet your mother outside. I think there are some other visitors waiting in line for you.”
My tears fall as he leaves. We’re going to be okay. More than okay. We’ll have the life we’re owed for the hell we walked through to get here.
I’m not alone for long before Rix, Jeremy, Adam, and Allie all file in.
“Thank god!” Allie gushes, coming around to my side and leaning in for a hug. I wince, trying to return it. “Sorry. I can’t help it. I’m so glad you’re awake.”
“It’s okay,” I chuckle. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”
Allie’s eyes flood with yearning, and pain furrows her brow. It tells me there’s a lot behind what happened.
“Hey, I snuck you in a little pick-me-up,” Jeremy says, pushing his brother out the way. He turns, and I burst into laughter though it hurts. I reach a hand up to pat the Chihuahua heads poking out of his backpack.
“Don’t make her laugh, dude—she’ll rip her stitches,” Rix scolds. Then his face softens on me. “You really are a Kaiser to have survived this shit, that’s for sure.”
Pride bursts in me.
Adam sits on the end of my bed and squeezes my calf with a concerned smile.
“Are they letting Rhett go yet?” I ask.
“We haven’t heard anything,” Rix says.
“Liam?”
Allie says, “Don’t worry about him. He happens to have a damn good lawyer on his case.”
That reminder is a flood of relief. “You’ve really been with him all this time?”
A blush creeps along her tanned cheeks, and my intrigue piques.
“Oh, I am definitely getting that whole story,” I say with giddy amusement. “Save it. I think I’ll want wine and chocolate to hear it all.”
Allie flushes more, but her smile widens. “I guess it’s been a very long, nonexistent while since I’ve had a decent girl’s night. You’d better recover fast. I’m looking forward to it now.” She squeezes my hand, and just then the door opens.
When I see the stunning silver locks and Rhett’s worn, dirt-smudged face, I crumble inside.
Allie stands from the chair, and Adam slips off my bed.
“I guess I shouldn’t leave Liam suffering at the station any longer. I just know he would have wanted me to stay to see you pull through.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“Can you give me a ride, Rix?”
He nods, and they all bid me farewell. Jeremy coos into the bag like a crazy person when one of the dogs gives a little yap, and I giggle.
When they leave and I meet Rhett’s eyes, I don’t expect to fall apart so much that I have to cover my face with the one hand I have right now as the emotions rock through me.
“What’s wrong?” Rhett asks softly, pulling my hand away and brushing my tearstained cheeks.
“I don’t know,” I say, smiling now, and maybe I am concussed and someone should be concerned, because my emotions are all shades of fucked.
I scoot over, but Rhett eyes the space warily.
“I’d barely fit on that thing myself,” he says.
“Please.”
He gives me a look that reprimands me for using the sympathy card. Rhett slips off his shoes and lies beside me. We maneuver carefully and slowly in consideration of my wounded shoulder, until I’m comfortably tucked against him.
Rhett strokes a hand down my hair. “How are you feeling?” he asks in a whisper.
“Happy.”
“You might be the first to wake up after an explosion and a bullet wound and say that.”
“I mean, physically, I feel like I want a new body, because this sucks big-time.”
I can practically feel his smile. “That’s more like it.”
“But I’m happy to suffer in this one. To heal in it. Because it’s yours.”
He tips my chin back to press his lips to mine. “Yes, you are.”
“How many ice-cream trips do I get for this?”
Rhett breaks into a grin. “Fuck me, Ana. I’ve been pacing and worried and going out of my mind, but I’m so damn relieved you have your spirit in full swing.”
I say nothing, basking in our comfortable silence, which feels different. It feels like true peace.
“We made it,” I whisper, lighting up inside with so many hopeful endeavors we’ll get to take. No more looking over our shoulders.
“Yes, we did. And somehow your dad decided I’m an okay kind of criminal after all.”
“We should get a plaque,” I say. “‘Xoid: Presidentially approved criminals.’”
The vibration of Rhett’s chuckles under me lighten my chest.
“They’d love that, actually.”
Rhett takes my hand, and I only notice my ring is gone when he slides it back on. It takes my breath away and turns me inside out like the first time I saw it.
“They had to take it off for surgery.”
I wiggle my fingers to watch it sparkle. “You can get the upgrade,” I say, pushing up on my good arm. “Husband.”
Rhett cups my face, his eyes flaring. “Say that again.”
“Well, I mean, we need the vows and the cake, and—oh! Can you imagine Shadow in a little doggy tux? Then, of course, choosing wedding bands and guest lists—or should we elope and save the hassle?”
Rhett lets me ramble on, and I find his stare so preciously content, so happy and burdenless, that I hope today is the beginning of seeing far more of it.
“Whatever you want, baby. But even without all that, I want to hear it again now.”
I lean back down, hovering my lips over his. “So demanding, husband.”
Rhett erases the space to kiss me, hooking an arm around my back and coaxing me to lie back instead. He breaks it first but trails his lips featherlight along my jaw.
“I won’t test my luck by asking your father’s permission yet.”
“Probably for the best.”
“But you’ve been my wife for a while, because if I wasn’t going to make it past what we had to face, I had to feel what it was like to call you that, think of you as that. Mine, forever.”
My brow pinches tightly. Fuck, I don’t want to cry, but these are tears of such joy and belonging. “Say that again,” I whisper.
Rhett smiles, and it’s all the treasure I ever hoped to find in life.
He kisses me once. “My wife.”