Page 177 of Restitution

He yanks me to him by the throat and kisses me. “Then I guess we’re both dying. Because there isn’t a life for me without you.”

We fall apart together – muttered words of praise and love and kisses to the forehead and shoulder. I stay straddling him, desperate to fill my lungs, sweat sticking to our skin as his hand strokes my back, tracing his fingers over each vertebra.

“Are you worried?” he asks, his fingers still playing on my spine.

“About what?”

“This has become routine. What if I don’t fit into your life outside of here?”

“You fit into every aspect of my life, Kade. This isn’t routine – this is us waiting for your freedom.”

He takes a deep breath. “I’m nervous. What if I don’t adjust? I’ve done all my therapy in here. I’ve worked on everything in here. What if I get out and the seizures and blackouts start again?”

Shaking my head, I wrap my arms around him and press my forehead to his. “Then we’ll work on them like we have in here. Together.”

He blinks at me, curling a strand of hair behind my ear. “Always fighting for me. I need to get out of here and make sure everyone knows you’re mine.”

“The entire world knows I’m yours,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“I would still like to claim my girl on the outside.”

I blush and stand, grabbing my bra and dress from the floor, and shoving my ripped underwear in my bag. “Can you still call me your girl even though I’m almost thirty now?”

“You’ll always be my girl,” he says.

I smile and sit on the table in front of him, leaning back on my palms. His hands slide up my thighs, kneading the muscles there. I’ve still been dancing and teaching. Luciella came back from Russia two years ago, and I’ve spent a lot of time with her and the twins. I’ve had to hire more instructors in the studio so I’d have more time to help her.

The door beeps behind me, and I sigh.

Kade ignores the guard and stands, moving between my legs to tip my chin up and kiss me. “See you on the outside, Freckles.”

We never planned on the media being here. We never planned on the entire world waiting patiently at the gates of the prison either. Crowds upon crowds, news stations set up, people with signs and whistles, all of them giving us space at the front of the crowd as we wait.

And wait, and wait, and wait.

Eden is hurting my arms with how heavy she is, and Anastasia is holding Luciella’s hand. The Prince twins have been told not to try to speak to their daddy while in public – it’s a sad necessity to keep them safe.

Luciella doesn’t let her eyes slip to the father of her girls as he stands with all his bodyguards. His wife is on his right, her main bodyguard behind her, and she keeps looking at me.

A silent hello.

“Can I please go see Daddy?” Eden asks me, and I fix the nearly five-year-old in my arms as I tell her I’m sorry, but she canonly see Daddy when he’s by himself.

Anastasia is the well-behaved one. She stands with a stone-cold expression like she always does. Even when Base does manage to sneak away from his duties in the mafia, she doesn’t pay much attention to her absent father.

It’s not his fault. If the Russians find out the twins are his, they’ll kill them and Luciella.

That’s definitely a story for another day.

I look over my shoulder, my gaze clashing with Gianna’s as a little boy the same age as the twins clutches her leg. It’s not hard to tell that he’s Jason’s son. Jason Junior. He’s his father’s double.

She gives me a stiff smile – before she glances at the cameras and pulls Jason Junior’s hood up. The fact she’s here is the first step.

The mass of people starts screaming, and my head snaps back to the main gate as a group of guards walk out of the double doors, all of them crowding around one person, taller than most of them, his black hair a mess as he runs his hand through it.

I lower Eden to her feet, and Lu takes her hand. Aria is crying, because she’s always crying; Ewan is beside her, his grey hair flapping in the wind; and on the other side, with a cap on, his hood up, wearing glasses and a short beard to hide his identity, Tobias waits for his son.

The gate slides open, and everyone stays put as I run. I don’t even need to think about it – my feet carry me straight to Kade, and he catches me in his arms as everyone cheers. My legs hook around him as he keeps walking, further and further away from his cage, my head buried into his shoulder.