EPILOGUE
Three Months Later
JACQUES
Traveling had been fun, but Ezra was antsy. We’d both been out of work, and he’d been offered a speaking position at a conference in Vegas, so we cut what was supposed to be six months of travel down to three months and took a one-way flight back to the States.
It was surprisingly easy to settle back into life.
Mercy was already calling me through burner phones, telling me she knew it wouldn’t be long.
And Ezra’s job at the now defunct pharma company was completely gone, but many people now knew his name in select circles as being the driving force of compliance auditing.
This wasn’t my first time in Vegas, so I knew better than to get sucked into the casinos.
So I acted as Ezra’s personal bodyguard, which gave me a reason to get a nice new suit—matching Ezra’s suit—and stand at the back of the conference hall as he spoke.
My soft kitten, speaking to hundreds of people.
It was an incredible thing to watch, considering he’d been absolutely frightened to answer questions in front of lawyers a couple of months ago.
He came right up to me once he was done. I stood at the bar, nursing a scotch.
“Did you hear me?” he asked.
“Every word. You were brilliant.”
“Can I have some?” he asked, wrapping his hand around my glass.
“Sure, it’s a little warm, though.”
He drank the entire thing, his face already turning red and flushed. “I needed that.”
“You did a great job up there, kitten,” I told him. I wanted to keep telling him, to keep blanketing him with positive words. The love of my life.
“Have you had any contract stuff come through?” he asked through a sharp inhale.
I shook my head. “You and me. This is the only contract I want to honor.”
“Saying stuff like that, I might think you want to put a ring on my finger.”
“We are in Vegas, so maybe it’s time.”
He giggled. “But only if I get to pick my ring.”
“Deal! Although I’m not sure we can.”
He continued to snort and laugh. “Maybe we should wait until we’re back in New York.”
“I want to do it for real, and big,” I said. “With friends, with—well, a huge party afterwards. And the Bianchi brothers would want to come. Your legal team. A bunch of people who helped. I think it’s only right we reward them with a party.”
He hugged me tight. “I like that idea.”
Ezra was the pure to my darkness, and I was the drop of ink in his light. But together, we were something amazing. We were bonded, and a bond like ours was forever.
THE END