Page 133 of Crossed

“To myself.”

My hand tightens on her face.

She grins. “And to you, Cade Frédéric. My heart belongs to you. In all our lifetimes.”

Epilogue

CADE

ISTAND BACK IN THE SHADOWS AND WATCH HER.

Ma petite pécheresse. Mon trésor.

My wife.

She’s covered in blood.

It turns me on.

Five years have gone by since I first saw her dancing in the club, and although she was transfixing as Esmeralda— still is, when she chooses to put on private performances for me—she’s absolutely stunning like this.

Deadly. Disastrous. Devilish.

There was a lot of inner trauma that Amaya kept bottled up for years, not ever allowing it to rise to the surface, stuffed so deep down that nobody knew it was there. Not even her.

But as monsters tend to do, it grew strong in the dark, feasting on untapped pain and inhaling it like vitamins.

I’m no stranger to the feeling, so I’ve taught her how to let it free.

And she’s taught me how to separate my true faith, mytrueideals from what I was brainwashed into thinking as a child.

Together, we’re balanced. Impenetrable. Unshakeable.

Still, as she stares at me, a bright gleam coming from her smile, splitting apart the splotchy blood-soaked cheeks on her face, there’s a hint ofsomethingthat flashes through her eyes.

As though she’s waiting for me to tell her what a disappointment she is. Or how she should do things differently. How she shouldfeelknowing that what she did is something a former priest of the Catholic church would look down on and condemn.

I smile at her, swooping across the floor of our private cabin, hidden away in the Auvergne Mountains, and I grip her face in my hands, tipping up her chin so our eyes meet.

“Mon trésor, you are a vision.”

She grins back, relief coasting across her gaze.

As though I would ever shun her.

There’s nothing she can do that I would turn away from.

As a former priest. But even more so now that I’m just a man.

I still have my faith. Still believe in the unshakeable force that is God. It just all pales in comparison to her.

She is my Bible. My scripture. My religion.

She is everything, and I am nothing without her.

There is nothing I wouldn’t do for her.

No suffering I wouldn’t endure just to make sure she lives a pain- free life.