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“Earlier…in the interrogation room…” The fact Annie was hesitating was concerning.Ordinarily, she was a straight shooter, who didn’t mince words.“You saw a side of me, saw a person I’m not proud of.I hate thinking that the two of you might be looking at me differently.”

Colum grasped her hand, giving it a squeeze.“You forget we saw you fling that tiny knife into a man’s eye in New York.”

Xavier feigned a shudder, meant to make her laugh, but Annie never cracked a smile.He leaned forward, tilting his head as he looked at her more closely.“You didn’t like becoming that person again.”

“I didn’t, yet it was very easy to do.She lingers just beneath the surface, always ready to break out.”

Xavier gave her a soft kiss on the forehead.“That part of you will always be there.Is that badass Annie terrifying?Yes.Is she sexy as sin itself?Also yes.”

“Terrifying,” she repeated softly, her eyes lowered, that word distracting her from the second part of Xavier’s statement.

“Hey,” Colum said gently.

When she finally lifted her gaze, that same coldness Colum had seen when she took over the interrogation had returned.“I can’t apologize for scaring you, even though I don’t like doing it.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Colum said.

Annie’s expression softened, and the sweet woman who’d stolen his heart returned to them, giving them a crooked grin.“You need to know.I would become that woman again every single day for the rest of my life if that was what was required to keep the two of you safe.”

Colum swallowed deeply, overwhelmed by her assertion.

“The rest of your life?”Xavier repeated breathlessly.

Annie smiled at Xavier, cupping his bearded cheek.“I’m in love with you.Both of you,” she added, looking over at Colum.

Colum’s heart swelled, and all those bad thoughts that had plagued him for most of the day fell away.She loved him.Lovedthem.

Xavier grasped her hand, keeping it pressed to his face, so that when he turned his head slightly, he could place a soft kiss on her palm.“I’ve been falling for you and Colum since the day we met.”

“That’s because you’re French,” Annie teased.

Xavier chuckled.“But of course, I was raised in the City of Love, after all.”

They shared a laugh, both sobering too quickly as they glanced over at Colum.He didn’t doubt Annie and Xavier had experienced love before, had given their hearts to another, had shared the parts of themselves that were reserved for lovers.

But he hadn’t.

He’d never felt the emotion or said the words, and now, he was slightly panicked because he was afraid they would think he was just giving those three words back because they’d said them.He needed them to know, needed them to understand just how much they meant to him.

And that was when he knew what he needed to do to prove the depths of his feelings.

“I’m giving up my job,” Colum said.

“What?”Annie asked, surprised.

While Xavier scowled, shaking his head.“No, you’re not.”

Colum persisted.“Yes, I am.I told Eric I don’t want to be married to Nikolett.It’s too…I don’t want to be married, even if it’s in name only, to the woman my brother loves.”

“Yeah, that’s deeply fucked up,” Annie agreed.

“But I have to marry an admiral because of my position as the archivist.It’s my job that’s keeping us apart.I don’t want that.I wantyou.”

Colum paused, taking a shallow breath, his heart racing out of control.When Annie looked up at him, her eyes sparkling, and Xavier gave him that familiar, much-beloved smirk, he found the strength to keep going.

“I want Xavier whispering dirty things in my ear, want Annie whipping out that wee knife of hers to protect us.I want the rest of our lives…just like you said.So the solution is simple.I’ll quit.”

“That’s nowhere near a solution,” Annie gently replied.“Because there are countless reasons why the three of us can’t be together.”