Page 36 of Code Name: Reaper (K19 Allied Intelligence Team Two #5)

REAPER

I n the month since my brother and I met my parents at the Geneva airport, I told them I planned to ask Charity to be my wife, and she’d said yes, my life—our lives—had changed in ways I never could have predicted.

We’d spent several long days at the Protocol’s main facility, learning about its inner workings. We also found out more about Eleanor’s vision, the role her husband had played in the organization, as well as how she’d infiltrated SMO Romanov.

At the start of our second week in Switzerland, Dagger had arrived, giving me the opportunity to thank him for the intel he’d been able to pass on to me and to introduce him to Charity.

Later that same day, Mercury made an announcement, “officially” welcoming him to Minerva’s council of twelve, taking over the position previously held by Eleanor’s late husband.

Soon enough, Charity and I would also move into our official roles, missions would be crafted, and ops would be carried out, but today was the start of our real journey together, the one we’d take as man and wife.

When I’d asked him to be my best man, my brother wanted to know if I was sure about the commitment I intended to make.

As I’d told Charity when I proposed, I had been since the day we met.

Whatever was in store for us, then and now, didn’t matter as much as our being together, working and living side by side, arguing and making up, loving and supporting each other.

Charity had flourished in the brief time we’d been in Lausanne, which we’d decided to make our permanent home. She’d spent time with her grandmother, Lyra, Katarina, and Polina, forging bonds I knew she’d never dreamed possible, happily settling into her role as a granddaughter, niece, and cousin.

Today, Katarina and Lyra would stand by her side for our ceremony while Bishop and Hornet would be by mine.

Uncle Henry, as we affectionately called him, would officiate the wedding as her family and mine, along with friends who were as close as they would be if we were also bound by blood, celebrated with us.

“Ready?” Bishop asked when Hornet knocked on the door, saying it was time for us to take our places in the solarium.

As we walked out of the suite that had been Charity’s and mine since the day we arrived in Lausanne, made our way down the grand staircase, and toward the room where the ceremony would take place, I glanced into the main living room and up at the portrait of Horatio Hyde that hung above the fireplace.

“I need a minute.” I stepped inside and motioned for them to go ahead. “I’ll guard your granddaughter with my life and spend every day loving her as much as you loved Anna.” I looked up at the man whose legacy I’d also vow to honor.

“He’s counting on it.” I turned around and saw Anna, arm in arm with Lyra. “And so are we.”

“I won’t let you down. Any of you.”

“Someone’s waiting for you.” Lyra winked as she led her mother out of the room. “Turn around,” she added over her shoulder.

When I did, Charity stood in front of me, looking radiant in the same wedding dress Anna had worn the day she and Horatio married.

I walked over to her. “You take my breath away.”

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

I took her hands in mine. “I’m listening.”

“As much as it means to know my mother’s family, there’s something else that means more—the one you and I are creating together.”

“You’re not alone anymore, Charity, and you never will be again.”

“I haven’t been since the day you threatened to throw me over your shoulder and carry me out of the safe house in Berlin.”

I shook my head. “You’re wrong.”

Her brow furrowed. “I am?”

“When you opened the door in Budva and we met for the first time, I knew you were meant to be mine and I was meant to be yours.”

“Should I pronounce you man and wife here and now, or shall we do it with an audience?” Henry winked from where he stood in the doorway.

I looked into my soon-to-be wife’s eyes and knew. “Here and now,” I responded.

“Here and now,” she agreed.

“All that’s left is for you to kiss your bride,” said Henry, who hadn’t moved from beyond where he stood. “Then we’ll go join the others, and you can do it all again.”

We kissed like we had in Berlin. With the same passion and promise we’d share every time our lips met. Every day, for the rest of our lives.