Epilogue
EVA
My next Instagram post -
Taken
That was two weeks ago.
I’m still screening Dan’s calls. Like Mum used to say, it’s always best to let bad news marinate. That and I’m too consumed by my moment of bliss in Sicily before we go back to Fort.
When Mason told me he was planning to leave for Sicily before I came knocking at his door, I freaked out.
I couldn’t believe I was so close to losing him to the world, not just me, but his parents and friends have been scared will tip him over the edge.
He was actually going to uproot his life and move here.
Everything was pre-arranged. A secluded villa, virtual access to Kingsden, he even arranged for his Ducati to be brought over.
And as it turns out, his parents were not wrong.
The things I have heard and seen since we landed here, I would rather not say.
I was terrified to meet Mason’s grandfather, since he already admitted I was the reason for his two cancelled trips. But as usual, he ignored my voice of reason, flung me over one shoulder, and carried me on to the Morelli private plane, giving me his usual no one touches what’s mine, crap.
That led to me being detained by Border Control until I personally spoke to the Deputy Commissioner and confirmed I had indeed not been kidnapped, despite what it may have looked like on their security feed.
Because, of course, Dan, the jerk, reported me missing when he caught Grace packing my bag and sneaking my passport to me.
Just the usual fun.
Nothing new.
Mum and Dad would be so proud.
And yes, I can finally talk about them in the past tense.
I’m still healing, still carrying the memories of that night, and it still hurts, but I’m surrounded by too much Mason to let it consume me anymore.
With his warmth around me, I don’t need the pills to sleep.
Not that he would let me take them anyway.
My weekly sessions with Dr. Janet are more useful now that my amnesia is in remission and she no longer has to tiptoe around me or report every session to Dan.
“Are they always like this?” Elena, Mason’s cousin, asks beside me.
We are perched on a cluster of large volcanic rocks jutting out from the edge of the marina, bathed in the afternoon sun that casts a soft, golden glow across the Sicilian coastline.
I nod as we watch Mason and James, trying to throw Hugo into the deep, turquoise sea. “Most of the time.”
Elena bites her lower lip, checking Hugo out. Shall I warn her?
“So, when is the wedding?” Elena asks again.
Alessia’s family has been very welcoming. Though I see why she was keen to leave. They are very persistent. His cousins have been insisting on taking over the wedding planning before I have had the chance to get used to the heavy solitaire on my left hand.
“You’ve got to have the ceremony in Sicily,” Elena continues. “Nannu would—”
“Finiscila!” Stop it. Mason walks back to me, looking like a modern-day Roman god in his usual jeans, black T-shirt, and leather jacket. “You’ll scare her away.”
Mason settles in front of me, then leans back and lets his head fall into my lap. Elena laughs at Hugo’s funny yoga poses and decides to join them.
“Will you stop doing that?” I complain when she’s out of earshot. “Your cousins will start hating me.”
“They are not allowed to hate you,” he murmurs, eyes closed, as my fingers rake through his hair.
“Still, butt out,” I mutter. “And no one is scaring me away.”
His eyes snap open, locking onto mine. It took us a while to calibrate, but Mason still looks at me like he is waiting for the other shoe to drop. That I might change my mind. As if there is any world where I could live without this man.
“You sure about that?” he asks with a cocked eyebrow.
This, again?
I’m returning to London tomorrow. Mason thinks it is because of Dan, who has had the Etheridge plane camped out at the Sicilian airport since the day I landed.
In case I needed a quick escape. But my sudden plans to return have nothing to do with my annoying brother, and everything to do with my reckless boyfriend, no—fiancé.
It has been good to get away from the Fort and London noise, the beach walks, the repeats of The Ritz night when Mason fucks me while I’m wearing nothing but his ring, proof of his ownership, as he calls it.
But yesterday, I received a desperate call from Alessia, begging me to get him back to England. She didn’t say why, and I didn’t ask.
I didn’t have to.
Mason’s grandfather—a short, scary Italian man—has been kind to me the few times I have met him, which I soon learned was because in his eyes, Mason can do no wrong.
According to his cousins, Mason always gets a free pass.
Which kind of scares me. Mostly because I can see how easily he fits into this world, with the guards bowing to him, the way his grandfather introduces him to everyone who walks in the door like he is next in line, or the way the cousins fight to gain his favor, like it’s a certainty he will.
Even though I know who Mason is and what happens at Fort isn’t that different, at least Fort is under Reginald Grant, who has a conscience.
Mason having a part of the operations here scares the crap out of me.
And then there is the Cold War between Alessia and her father, which I’m guessing comes with a bloody backstory.
Whatever it is, I’m definitely Team Alessia.
Besides, I have missed too many assignments and this semester’s tests. The vice-chancellor has been understanding, but I don’t want my catch-up pile stacking any higher. I’m ready to return to normal—go back to chilled evenings with Caden, Thea, and Penny, and the quiet of The Barrel with Mason.
I didn’t know how to ask him to return without dropping Alessia in it, but I have a feeling me heading back will make him follow soon.
Or so I hope.
“How many times do I have to say it?” I drawl. “I’m not changing my mind. I know what Dan will say, word for word, and I know what I’m going to say to him. You don’t have to worry, I promise.”
“I’ll give you ten minutes,” Mason mutters. “If he’s still talking, he’ll be speaking to my fists.”
I roll my eyes. “Wait, ten minutes?”
“You didn’t think I was going to let you go back alone, did you?”
“You’re coming with me?” My lips curl up.
“I’m like that ring on your finger, little dove. I go wherever you go.”
His fingers tangle in my hair as he pulls my face down into a hungry kiss that feels very much like coming home.
THE END