AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He was there, and I was safe.
“You okay?” he asked, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
I nodded, taking a deep breath, as I let my eyes sweep over each tombstone that we passed. One was bigger and newer than all the others. It was shaped like a heart and had two names on it instead of just one. I didn’t have to look to know which two names were chiseled there.
But I looked anyway.
CHAPTER 31
CLOVER
Damien stared at the priest’s house as we passed, letting me steer him into the woods. I didn’t have a bleeding clue where we were going. I only knew that if we went anywhere other than the woods that madman was going to come after us with a pitchfork.
“I know that house,” Damien muttered, pulling his eyes away just in time to lift a branch and duck under it. “I had a nightmare about it, back in the cave.”
“Sorry.” I frowned, stepping over a tree root. “You probably had nightmares from me reading those books to you. They’re very … vivid.”
“Vivid.” Damien let out a dark chuckle. “I’m the heir to the largest, most powerful Mafia organization on the planet, and I’m having nightmares over a fuckin’ fairy tale.”
I pulled Damien’s blazer closed over my chest as a shiver ran through my body. I didn’t know if it was from the drop in temperature when we entered the forest or the reminder of who exactly I was traveling with.
The only son of a Bratva kingpin.
A deserter from the Russian Navy.
A traitor who’d killed so many of his own men that I’d lost count.
This wasn’t going to be as easy as running away to America. The Bratva had endless power, connections, resources. They would never stop looking for him.
Never.
“Hey,” Damien said, pulling me to a stop. His silvery eyes, rimmed in black lashes and dark, worried brows, bored into mine as he gripped my shoulders. “You know that’s not who I really am, right?”
I nodded, trying to smooth my tense features as I forced a small, reassuring smile. “I know. I do.”
“Then, what were ya thinkin’ about? You got quiet.”
I looked around, finally taking in our new surroundings. The forest was dark and green and soft around the edges. Every boulder and tree trunk—every hard, jagged thing—was wrapped in a blanket of velvety moss. The lake at the bottom of the hill was green, too, mirroring the trees, even through a layer of mist. The light was so filtered by the canopy and clouds that it seemed as though it had no source at all. It simply swirled in the air, like the breeze that rustled the leaves and played with my hair.
It was as if we’d found a portal to a secret world.
To the otherworld.
And it was exactly the way I’d pictured it.
“Clo?”
Reaching for his face, already prickly with late afternoon stubble, I pulled Damien toward me and kissed his frowning mouth. Our lips met for only a moment, but in that one held breath, I felt an eternity of stillness, of peace, that I knew I’d never feel with anyone else.
“Let’s just stay here,” I whispered, my hands sliding from his cheeks down to the hard expanse of his chest. “We can build a cabin, live off of squirrels.”
The corner of Damien’s mouth curled up, exposing that dimple I loved so much. “I hope you’re better at catchin’ squirrels than ya are fish.”
I smacked his chest with a scoff. “I kept you alive in the cave with my food-catching skills, didn’t I?”
Damien’s eyes darkened, and his smile disappeared. A sizzle that had nothing to do with the gathering clouds charged the air as his hands wove into my hair, pulling the wind-whipped strands away from my face.
“You did,” he said, his voice rough with emotion as he tilted my head back, capturing me in the steel trap of his stare. “You saved me in every possible way, Clo. I owe you my life.” Placing his hands over mine, he pressed them harder against his solid, thumping chest. “This blackened heart”—he glanced down the length of his torso—“this bullet-shredded body, every drop of hate pumping through these veins—it all belongs to you.”
