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I can feel my body stiffening. My own eyes are burning, my heart beating too fast. I know her husband is watching.
But also . . . there’s something familiar and comforting in Aunt Yelena’s clean, sweet scent, and in the shade of the silver-blonde hair that falls across my shoulder.
So I push away my usual response to fear and confusion. Instead, I take a deep breath and I hug her back.
When she lets go of me at last, I face Sebastian Gallo and I look him in the eye.
This is the man who mutilated my father and strangled my grandfather. He’s also the man who loved Yelena Yenina enough to marry the daughter of his worst enemy.
I hold out my hand to him to shake.
Sebastian grips my hand in his warm grasp and pulls me into an embrace, hugging me just as hard as his wife.
“Welcome home,” he says.
EPILOGUE
CAT
Chicago
Dean and I had only intended to visit Chicago for a couple of weeks, but we end up staying almost the entire summer.
We stay at Leo’s parents’ elegant mansion in the downtown core. The six of us—Anna, Leo, Miles, Zoe, Dean, and me—explore every part of the city and the surrounding countryside. Sometimes Miles’ little brother Caleb tags along, incensed at being left out when he himself will be attending Kingmakers in thefall.
I thought Dean might be irritated by Caleb, since Caleb is brash and loud and desperate to prove himself. But Dean responds to him with surprising patience, even consenting to meet Caleb on his favorite basketball court, despite Dean barely having played before.
It reminds me of Dean’s strange protectiveness of Kade Petrov.
I always thought Dean was a bully. But in actuality . . . he’s got a soft spot for the underdog.
Soon Dean, Caleb, Leo, and Miles are all playing basketball together on the outdoor courts almost every morning. With his typical determination and total disregard for his own physical safety, Dean is picking it up much faster than anyone expected.
When Dean teams up with Leo, the best player of the bunch, they’re fairly evenly matched with the Griffin brothers.
“Dean’s gonna be better than you soon,” Leo teases Miles.
“I’m not exactly practicing on the regular,” Miles scowls. “I’m running a business, not fucking around taking three months off like the rest of you.”
“Oh, you’re working right now?” Leo says, pretending to look around the court. “That definitely explains the score.”
All four boys are sweating under the sweltering summer sun. Dean and Leo join Miles and Caleb in stripping off their tops, though it’s supposed to be shirts against skins.
When Miles sees Dean’s back he grimaces.
“Jesus, Dean,” he says. “There’s easier ways to get a tattoo removed.”
Dean lets out a huff of air that’s something like a laugh. “Well, that’s Penmark for you—he didn’t respect my safe word.”
He tips me a wink.
I shake my head at Dean, surprised at his willingness to find the dark humor in anything.
That was one of the most painful and impactful experiences of my life—the agony of watching the man I love be tortured, but also the moment that I finally understood how much Dean loves me.
The boys asked Zoe and me if we wanted to play, but Zoe said it was too hot and I was in the mood to sketch. Zoe is stretched out on the park bench reading a novel. I’m filling some of the last pages in my sketchbook with yet another drawing of Dean—this time, sweating and laughing as he manages to sink a shot over Caleb’s head.
Caleb scowls, but acknowledges that it was a pretty good shot.
