Page 128 of Between Desire and Denial

“My business is as much yours as it is mine.”

She puffed out a breath. “Okay, well, you say that now.”

“I’ll sign on the dotted line tonight if you want.”

“Okay.” She waved away my declaration. “Either way, this is the right thing to do. The Armanellis are working with the United States government—and with you and other big companies—to make sure money is legitimate and not coming from sex trafficking or drugs or smuggling—”

“Yes. You’re right. But we can’t stop them.”

“You can stop the Irish Mob from infiltrating a huge secret society that has pull, Dimitri. If Jameson and Lucille, along with all of the Diamond Syndicate, have your support, they have the Armanellis’—which is the biggest Italian Mob family on the globe. They will think twice about hurting anyone or spreading their business in the way they already have. This was a desperate grab for them anyway.”

I nodded. I’d done the research after I’d gotten the information from Bane. I just didn’t want anything to do with it. “My job isn’t to protect the world, Olive.”

“What is it then? The HEAT empire practically prides itself on that with the Armanellis—”

“My job and sole purpose is to protect you now. And our baby. And this is fucking dangerous.”

“More dangerous than letting them continue to do what they’re doing?” She lifted her chin, so much confidence in her all of a sudden. Olive was home, finally comfortable in the place she knew she belonged. “I know where I stand, Dimitri. I’m going to stand here in Paradise Grove with them. I won’t leave.” She whispered out the words like she was sure about it, but then her next ones wavered. “The question is where doyouwant to stand?”

Didn’t she know already? Didn’t she understand that this was forever between us? “I’m always going to stand with you, Honeybee. Even if we’re burning in hell together,” I responded, because it wasn’t a question for me at all.

“You think that’s what will happen?” I finally saw a flicker of vulnerability in her eyes and knew she understood the gravity of the situation.

I chuckled as I shook my head at the whole situation. “The funny thing about all this, Olive, is I would have signed on to fuck around with an alliance that would have pissed people off so fast before we came here. Now, I want nothing to do with it. I don’t want to risk it with you.” I thought about the moments she was out of my reach, the seconds she’d disappeared at the airport, about losing her again, and tried one last-ditch effort. “You could say no, Honeybee. We could go to Hawaii for a while. A lifetime if you wanted.”

She sighed. “I hated the memories here but loved them all the same. The pain in this place was rooted in my love for it too. I think a hometown always has all that, no?”

“It’s a great risk partnering with this syndicate. You realize that?”

“Take a chance and enjoy the dance, right? Someone told me that once.” Her eyes twinkled as she said it to me.

“So, if I do this… you’re going to marry me, yeah?”

“Are you negotiating this partnership now, Dimitri?”

“Yes.”

“If I say no to that?”

“I’ll renegotiate until you say yes, but why deny what you want, Olive?”

“I’m not, Dimitri Hardy. There’s no reason to deny how much I love you at this point anyway. I want to marry you and live in this twisted little place I call home for as long as possible.”

~The End~

EPILOGUE

Life always seemsto make you lemonade even when you think the only ingredient you have is lemons. Or maybe Dimitri showed me how to take a few more chances and enjoy the dances, because my life had completely changed.

Dimitri proposed the morning of the graduation. I’d come down the hall, grumbling about not being able to find my necklace but then I saw the gold gleaming on the dining table where Knox and Dimitri sat.

I glared at them both and went to grab it before I froze. It was laying on top of theParadise Grove News, a special edition. On the cover was a picture of Knox, Dimitri, and me that we’d taken earlier that month and the headline article that was featured on the front read “Marry me, Olive Monroe.”

I was crying even before I saw that my mom’s gold fountain pen had a diamond ring threaded around it. Knox cheered for us as Dimitri rounded the table with intentions to kneel, but I lunged for him and jumped into his arms, screaming yes and bawling.

So now I was on my way to graduation with a family, a baby, and a fiancé along for the ride. Even though I’d told Dimitri andKnox a million times that I didn’t need to go to the ceremony since I’d been in an online program, for God’s sakes, they’d absolutely insisted.

It made sense now.