Well then, it looks like I have created a monster. The bruises from her torture are now fading but she still wears make-up to cover them. I think she wants to void the questions that follow.
“I have to say, Max has always wanted to do that so, you were going to have to battle it out.” I say and she throws her head back laughing and the image is just so beautiful that I’m suddenly transfixed by her.
“You still have the most beautiful laugh baby.” I murmur vowing to myself that for as long as I live, I want to hear more of that angelic, blissful sound.
I’m fascinated by her blush as she hides her face in my chest and I chuckle but I feel the sharp stinging pain. After everything we have been through, she is still feeling shy whenever she is around me or whenever I give her a compliment. I will compliment her until we both take our last breath.
“Giovanni?” She questions.
“By the time you were kidnapped, I figured out that Hamilton was part of the syndicate then I read the police report you were reading. Genius move of leaving that phone by the way, baby.” I say, feeling proud of her yet disappointed in myself that I put her in that situation.
“Well, I figured you or Tom would figure it out.” She answers.
“Yes, so that’s when I really started thinking about everything and while Max was searching for you, he found a picture of Giovanni meeting with Lawrence Harvey. He did some bio thing and there it was, his eyes were the exact shade as yours and that’s when it clicked.” I explain, thinking back to all the events that have happened since the day I met her.
“What happens to him now?” She asks.
“Well, I figure the FBI and CIA both want him but for now, we have him and Harvey.” I explain.
“What? How?” She questions.
“Peter didn’t stay behind for fun times. He had work to do and when we are done with them, I think I’ll hand over their dead bodies to the boys at the Bureau.” My jaw is hard, as I grind them together.
“Wait, what about McGuire?” She questions and I remember the report Max gave me while he was visiting me before Charlotte came in. Max knew I was aware of my surroundings but I just couldn’t acknowledge them but he still gave me a summary of everything. But I can’t tell her that, not yet.
“McGuire must have been captured by his own.”
“There were undercover feds there right? Including that guy who posed as Demetri’s goon?”
“Yes, baby. The feds have been on to the syndicate for a long time now.” I answer.
“I don’t want to be related to him!” She exclaims out of nowhere but I understand where she is coming from. The idea that she is related to Giovanni has been eating at her since the night she found out.
“I know and you don’t have to do anything or be anything that you don’t want to be.” I whisper, lifting her chin with my fingers. My body is screaming at me not to move and waves of pain wash over me but I ignore each of them. My main priority is Charlotte.
“Do you understand me?” I grit out, needing her to understand that she is her own person. She manages a nod and I growl. I need to hear words. And like always, she knows what I need.
“Yes, I understand.” She whispers.
“And you will let go of this anger in you that is causing you to fight me, fighting us.” I demand because that’s where the core of the situation is.
“I know you love me but you won’t ever love me fully or be ready for me when you still hold grief in your soul. You need to let that shit go.” I instruct, not allowing her to look away and she doesn’t. She stays, listening to the harsh truth. She is crying but I know she needs to hear this.
“Gideon. . .” She cries, her heart visible in her eyes.
“I can’t let you go and I just won’t give you up no matter what. So, I need you to stop fighting me.” I whisper, forcing myself to shift her so that she straddles me in the bed.
“I know my grandfather gave me the lung, I’m not stupid. I know.” I tell her, and she gasps. “I have known the man my whole life and right before coming to get you, I knew that was the last conversation I was ever going to have. And he asked me something that day.” I say, looking up at her as I snake an arm around her waist, forcing her to lean forward, making sure the maneuver connects her sweet pussy to my hardness. I can feel she is drenched and ready to be fucked.
“What did he ask?” She questions on a gasp as I grind up into her, ignoring the pain in my body, dry humping with her. I pull her to me and lock our lips into a kiss that leaves her breathless after a whole minute of fucking her mouth.
I watch as her plush lips open on a gasp, a moan escaping them and I grind into her again. “Take off your panties.” I instruct.
“Gideon we shouldn’t. . .” But she still does it. She needs the connection as much as I do. She is desperate for me as I am to sink into her and make her understand. Making quick work of it, she tries to stand and remove them but my patience is wearing thin so I reach over and rip the material.
“Sink onto me.” I instruct, watching as her eyes begin to dilate with arousal so sharp and potent it can’t be ignored.
She sinks onto me and I groan loudly while she silently screams. With this angle, I’m in to the hilt and can feel her greedy, tight walls gripping me and I almost explode right there. It’s never this exquisitely painful with anyone else but her.
“Now ride me.” I instruct and she starts moving, slowly at first and I lay back, and watch her beautiful hair framing her face as she fucks me to hell and back. Fuck.
It’s a race to bliss and we are both in it. I love the look of rapture on her face. I love the way she grips me as if she doesn’t want to let me go yet she knows I’ll back for more. I love the way she is attuned to every sound I make and I love that she knows just how to take me without me even directing her/
Grabbing her hips, I hold her still and begin thrusting in earnest and she screams and I hit her sweet spot. I watch as her eyes roll to the back of her head.
“He asked me if you were worth it.” I tell her, the words ripping out of me as I try to control myself, forcing myself not to explode when that’s all I want to do.
We haven’t broken gaze, watching each other as we race to the peek. It’s so fucking good with her.
“And what did you say?” She questions on a gasp and I thrust into her, sending her hurling to the edge. She creams, her whole body shaking as she grips the sheets around her tightly, being careful not to press her body into me.
Her orgasm prompts mine and I follow, releasing my seed into her with a loud growl. It’s large, comfortable luxurious room but I know people in the hallway can hear us but I don’t fucking care.
After we both come down from our high just slightly, I gather her to my side after she comes back from cleaning up. I turn her chin up to me, looking into her eyes to check if she is alright.
“I told him you are the one.” I explain. She isn’t puzzled, she knows exactly what I am talking about.
“And if you are wrong?” She questions.
“I’m never wrong.” I tell her, “And either way, you are likely right now pregnant with my baby. You are the one for me and I’m not going to allow you to fight it anymore.”
Then I bend over and ravage her mouth with a kiss I’ve been dying to get from her. A knock sounds from door, breaking us apart.
“Hey man, are you done in there? The whole hospital can heard those loud ass moans. Damn!” Max’s voice comes through the door, making me roll my eyes but Charlotte only hides her face in the crook of ,y arm as a blush steals across her features.
“Go the fuck away!” I shout back at my best friend.
“Just look out for you man, just looking out!” And with that he burst out laughing.
Somethings will never change.
“Hey.” I say to her, prompting her to look up at me. “Tell me.”
“You heard?” She questions with disbelief but I don’t say anything.
“Tell me baby.” I feel so d
esperate to hear her say it. It almost feels like I will die if she doesn’t. This moment means everything to me. It means our future.
“But you have already heard it. Are you going to force me to say it?” She cries out.
“Charlotte.”
“Okay okay.” She concedes and then she moves to sit upright. Our bodies aren’t touching anymore, but her eyes. . .God those eyes—they cut me open each time.
“I’m in love with you.” She starts and then closes her eyes, her hands clasped together. “I love you and these past three days have been a horrid nightmare that I never want to relive again. Don’t you dare do that to me again!” She cries and this time I just can’t take it.
I feel like she just cut me open with those words. My heart is pounding in my chest and somehow, I can’t control the pride I feel at realizing that she loves me.
“I just can’t. . . I can’t live without you. I can’t breathe without you and I don’t think I can navigate this new life ahead of me without you. I don’t think I will make it. Not without you.” She says, and although she is crying, her chin is up, hear shoulders broad and I watch as this woman, this strong woman that I met in a frenzy of manipulations, lies and plans—this woman is strong, beautiful and brave. I’m the one in awe of her majestic beauty.
“You are everything, Charlotte. I’m not good at words but if you let me—hell, I won’t give you that option—I will spend the rest of my life showing you just how much you mean to me.” I say as I adjust the bed to raise me up until I am able to reach for her without jostling my wounds.
“I love you baby. I will spend forever loving you.” I vow, my voice deep and low. I want to make sure that she understands it. I want her to feel my life each day that she opens her eyes and right before she closes them to sleep. And even beyond that.
“God, Gideon. . . fucking kiss me.”
And I do. I kiss her with the passionate fire that she created in me to begin with. I kiss her with the very essence of my life. I just. . .kiss her.
EPILOGUE
Chloe
Six months later. . .
We buried Gideon’s grandfather a few days after laying John to rest in his home town, Iowa. That was two weeks later when Gideon was discharged from the hospital. Watching Gideon say goodbye to one of the pillars of his life was tough but saying goodbye to John almost broke me, but Gideon was there to hold me together.
A lot has happened since that time. Countless of cases were opened by the state against Giovanni Lorenzo, Lawrence Harvey and many of their associates. The news about the fall of the syndicate was everywhere for months and I think the news still lingers.
I don’t know what Gideon and Peter did to them but when Giovanni and Lawrence Harvey were handed over to the officials, they were right in the hand and they fully confessed to all their crimes and I mean all of their crimes. I’m not sure what happened exactly or how to explain it but my involvement as well as Gideon’s was never mentioned anywhere, yet the FBI knew all about it.
I thought I was going to be arrested at any moment for killing a man. I did after all, kill Alexander Hamilton, but nothing happened. Infact, then Special Agent Felix—who now works for Gideon—told me that there is no record of that and I should never mention that to anyone.
As for Sofia, she moved out of the country to go and live in France. I heard that she is now pregnant, expecting her first child with the large man who coincidentally was the one to give me the drug at the gala night when he—and Giovanni’s goons—attempted to kidnap me.
He is the same man that was also part of Demetri’s ‘security’ detail and he knew that McGuire was onto me. In a way—although he was undercover—I commend his ability to get into character, because even when I knew he was familiar, I did not once suspect that he was a fed. And it also happens to be the same man who found me all those years ago when I ran away from the orphanage and the police came to find me? Yeah, that was him again. He has been watching over me all this time. Did I mention that he is also the contact my father talked about? The one who lived in Chicago? Yeah, my mind almost exploded when all the pieces began falling into place.
Somehow, Tom and Peter cleared up a lot of stuff and it was never leaked. Another announcement that we celebrated was when the FBI announced in a press conference that Black House Inc was in fact, framed for the Ponzi scheme. All rights were given back and I must admit, Gideon has been working extra hard to make Black House a monster of an organization.
It’s a global empire, with a king at the top. A king with his fingers in each part of the company. That’s what I love about him. The way he commits himself, loyally, to everything he does. It’s a huge turn on for me.
It turns out, Gideon was right all along and I fucking knew that this was what he was aiming for since the first time we fucked without a condom, which so happens to be the night of his fucking birthday. And now, I’m pregnant.
I must say when I found out for sure—before Sam examined me, I took a home test—I was chilled to the bone with fear. I couldn’t move, nor could I say anything but Gideon was there with me. In that big bathroom of our new home three months after everything went down, he was there with me.
It’s the look of pride and happiness that was on his face that shone light through the fog that had entered my mind and he made me realized that the fear is blocking the euphoric happiness that I was actually feeling and he was also right about that.
I didn’t know I needed a family—a family of my own—until Gideon picked me up and twirled me around the bathroom with a shout of happiness.
I honestly didn’t know that I was empty and lonely until that day when I realized that I’m carrying an important, precious and invaluable part of Gideon and I inside me.
I didn’t know that I really didn’t know where I fit in or where I belonged until the day when Gideon held my hand on my first day of culinary school a day after we found out I pregnant and the same day that we started drafting plans for an organization to help the ‘system’ kids—I still loathe that term of reference—and we named it after my mother.
And now, with a swollen belly, a large head on head and my swollen feet in sandals, I stand there in a cemetery in Pennsylvania, looking down at where my parents were laid to rest.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I turn to look at the man beside me. The man who still manages to cause a zoo of animals to stampede in my stomach each time he speaks or enters the room.
Each kiss he gives me makes me breathless and I die a little and then come alive with every touch I get from him. I crave our intimate phone calls and when we are apart and I seriously look forward to when comes back from work.
“You were right, I need to let it all go and move forward.” I say as I place the wreathe of red roses down on my parents’ tombstone with their names engraved on it.
I haven’t been here in almost two years, too transfixed in my need to avenge my patents. I got so caught up in Demetri that I forgot to live for myself. I spent fifteen years of my life stuck in that trailer. Stuck in a nightmare where Demetri’s name was being said in a loop. I’ve spent fifteen years of my life on a path that I thought would bring me peace but it never did. Infact, each day that crept back, I felt hollow and empty inside, trying to hold on to them.
As I kneel there, I search the overgrown grass covering the base of the stone and that’s when I find the latch there. “I found it.” I say to Gideon but he knew it was there. He has known all these months but he was waiting for me to find it.
I press the lever and just like that, a hidden compartment creaks open and behind the stone, covered by overgrown grass and I grab the box I find in there.
I sit down and then take a deep breath before I open the both. In it, I find a stack of papers now yellowed by time but still legible. I take out the first paper and my mother’s name is scrawled on top of it.
I look up at Gideon and he gives me an encouraging nod. “I got you baby. Go ahead.” I open the letter and I read i
t, tears falling down my cheeks when I realize that it was written by my grandmother. A grandmother I never knew.
To my baby Sandra,
Apologizing now can never atone for all the trouble you have gone through. You are too young to have to pay for my sins.
I know you are pregnant baby and it fills me with so much joy and a sad kind realization at the same time because I know what that means. It means you are eternally part of this stupid game and now, so is my grandbaby.
I just need you to teach them that he/she needs to find their own happiness and be the best versions of themselves that they can ever be.
If there is anyone that I believe can be the best mother on earth, It's you Sandra. And I just know it will all be passed down from one generation to the next.
I have given James this letter and he will give it to you once you are far away from this place. I knew James was the one for you from the moment he laid eyes on you. You can never find that kind of love, I’m not sure books actually depict it correctly.
Love that man Sandra and rise above everything. James will explain the rest of the papers to you.
I can’t kiss you goodbye but I know my time is up.
Rise above baby, rise above!
Love, Mama
I re-read the letter again and then pass it on to Gideon. It’s obvious to see that my grandmother knew that her time was up but she wasn’t going to go without a fight.
I look at the documents once again and see another letter. This one with my name scrawled on top with my father’s hand writing that I remember. Quickly, I tear the seal of the letter and open it.
To Princess Charlotte,
You have always been a smart girl and you don’t need your mother and I telling you which of these letters to start with or what these documents are.
By the time you are reading this letter, your mother and I are envisioning that you are the most beautiful young woman on earth and you have the world at your feet.
I probably won’t ever approve of whatever fool you fall in love with. But I know whoever he is, he is probably a great one because you have never really been good at allowing anyone into the inner workings of your mind or heart. (I’m afraid, you got that from me.)
Billion Dollar Hearts (Inconguity Series Book 3) Page 20