Chapter Eight: The Reckoning

The safe house was small.

One bedroom. One bathroom. A kitchen that hadn’t been updated since the eighties.

Sarah didn’t care.

She was alive. Luca was alive.

That was enough.

“We can’t stay here long,” Luca said. “He’ll find us.”

“How? This place is off the grid.”

“The traitor.” Luca’s jaw tightened. “Whoever betrayed me knows all my safe houses. Romanov probably has the locations already.”

He pulled out his phone. Scrolled through something. Cursed.

“What?”

“The GPS on my car. It’s been tampered with. Someone activated a secondary tracker.”

Sarah’s stomach dropped.

“So Romanov already knows where we are?”

“Not yet. I disabled it when we arrived. But he’ll figure it out. A day. Maybe two.”

Sarah sat on the edge of the bed.

“Then we need a plan.”

“I have a plan.”

“Does it involve killing Romanov?”

Luca was quiet.

“I thought so.” She stood. “I’m not going to try to talk you out of it.”

“You’re not?”

“No.” She crossed to him. “Because I’ve seen what happens when good men do nothing. When the system fails. When monsters are allowed to walk free.”

“Sarah.”

“I’m not saying I like it. I’m saying I understand.”

Luca pulled her close.

“I don’t deserve you.”

“Probably not.” She smiled. “But you’re stuck with me anyway.”

He kissed her.

Long. Deep. Full of everything he couldn’t say.

When they broke apart, his eyes were wet.

“After this,” he said. “After Romanov is gone. I want to do things right.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I want to marry you. I want to have children with you. I want to grow old with you.”

Sarah’s heart stopped.

“Luca.”

“I know it’s soon. I know we have a lot to work through.” He took her hands. “But I’ve wasted six years being afraid. I don’t want to waste another day.”

“Are you asking me?”

“I’m asking you.”

She looked at his face.

At the hope. The fear. The love.

“Yes,” she said.

“Yes?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you. Yes, I’ll have children with you. Yes, I’ll grow old with you.”

Luca laughed.

Actually laughed.

The sound was beautiful.

“You’ve made me the happiest man alive,” he said.

“I haven’t done anything yet.”

“You stayed.” He kissed her forehead. “You stayed when everyone else would have run.”

Sarah wrapped her arms around him.

Outside, the sun was rising.

A new day.

A new beginning.

They had a war to fight.

But they’d fight it together.

And when it was over, they’d build something new.

Something real.

Something that would last.

The text message wasn’t a mistake.

It was fate.

She just didn’t know it yet.