Page 91 of My Dark Ever After

“Ginnie,” Dad murmured, studying her with mild shock and warmth before he realized that she was exclaiming about their father’s death. “If anyone knows how much he deserved it, you do.”

My aunt stared at him for a long moment before her face crumpled. “I’ve wanted to do that for years.”

I was pulled from their exchange by the fact that Raffa had crossed the room to my side and was cupping my cheeks tenderly to tip my face to his gaze.

“La preda diventa la cacciatrice,” he murmured, his thumb rubbing through the blood under my eye.

The prey becomes the huntress.

“I knew you would find me,” I told him, clutching at his wrists, the gun still held in one hand as I did so. To my mild horror, tears prickedthe backs of my eyes. “Even when they hurt me, I thought of you, and I knew it would be okay.”

I had never before now seen the expression that seized Raffa’s face, a softening of every feature except for his eyes, those pale-copper orbs burning like firelight as they stared down into mine.

“I will always come for you,” he swore. “Across oceans and any degree of space or time, I will come for you.”

“Me lo prometti?” I asked, suddenly desperate to hear it. “Promise me.”

“Te lo giuro,” he said solemnly.

I swear it.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, tipping my head forward to rest my bloody forehead against his chin. My fingers curled into the straps of his bulletproof vest and tugged him closer.

“Hush,” he ordered, kissing my chin. “I am just happy to have you alive and in my arms once again.”

I pulled back to look up at him, a stranger’s blood on his lips, which I had transferred to him like a lipstick mark. The force of the love I had for him momentarily overwhelmed me, robbing me of my voice, stripping reality away to nothing but the gorgeous man holding me like a treasure even though I had hurt him, even though I was damp and bloody.

I thought of Petrarch’s quote “To be able to say how much love, is love but little,” and I understood it. There would never be enough language to harness the power of that singular sensation in my chest that existed just for Raffaele Romano.

As I opened my mouth to say something to that effect, I heard Dad say, “Jinx?”

And I was returned to myself jarringly, suddenly back in a safe room in the Pietra compound with a dead man to my right and an estranged family to my left.

“Dad,” I said, choking on the word.

Raffa reluctantly dropped his hands and stepped away so I could move toward my dad, who had his arms spread, waiting for me. I threwmyself into them without thought, taking the comfort he had offered me most of my life.

“Guinevere,” he whispered, a sorrowful orchestra of pain in those three syllables. “My sweet girl, I thought I might have lost you.”

I didn’t know if he meant physically or emotionally, because both had been real possibilities. In the end it didn’t matter.

I could now understand how much he hated this life and everything it had stood for in his memories, so it meant everything to know he had crossed the Atlantic to make sure I was safe.

“I love you,” I told him, because somehow it was so much easier to say those words to him than to Raffa. Maybe because I had spent my whole life loving Dad already. “I’m sorry you had to grow up in this crazy family. Thanks for giving me a normal childhood.”

Dad’s laugh was wet in my hair as he held me close. “It was the only option acceptable for you. Your mother and I never wanted this life for you and Gemma.”

I laughed a little. “Well, it seems I was destined for it anyway.”

He pulled away to search my face with dark eyes. I kept my expression open, letting him read whatever was written there.

No more secrets between us.

“I suppose you were,” he murmured, both proud and disappointed.

“What have you done with the rest of the crew?” Ginevra asked Raffa, standing behind Dad with her hands on her hips.

Across from her, Raffa stood with his feet braced and arms crossed, appraising her coolly. “Many have been killed. Though having John with us spared us the necessity of killing everyone. You really should update your security more often.”