Chapter 6 - A New Empire
The snow fell heavily against the glass windows of the diner, turning the streetlights into warm, golden blurs.
I opened the velvet box. Inside rested a simple, elegant platinum band inlaid with a single, dark sapphire that caught the dim light of the diner.
I looked up at him, my heart full. "You really don't do anything by accident, do you, Dante Moretti?"
"Never," he admitted, a rare, genuine smile breaking across his handsome face. He took my hand—the right wrist, completely healed and free of any shadow—and slipped the ring onto my finger. "Some things are worth claiming from the moment you find them sleeping in your house."
I laughed, wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders as the bell above the diner door chimed softly against the winter wind.
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Ray Miller was long gone, forgotten in a federal penitentiary upstate. The fear that had once ruled my life had evaporated completely, replaced by the warmth of a man who ruled an empire just to keep a single frightened girl safe under his coat.
"Pack your bags," I whispered against his collar. "We're going north."
