Chapter 10 - The Price of an Empire
The rain was falling hard now, mixing with the saltwater spray from the Nantucket harbor as I ran down the slippery wooden planks of slip fourteen.
Little Elena was clutched tightly in Nurse Hallowell’s arms, both of them shivering, wrapped in a heavy wool blanket handed to them by the captain of the sleek black motor yacht idling against the dock.
“Get them on board,” I ordered the captain, my voice steady despite the adrenaline roaring in my veins.
“Mrs. Cross, Mr. Arthur gave strict orders—,” the captain started, eyeing the dark, stormy horizon.
“I don't care about his orders!” I shouted over the wind, grabbing the captain by his jacket lapel. “Get this boat out of the slip and wait fifty yards offshore. If Mr. Cross isn't on the dock in ten minutes, you bring this boat back and ram the bulkhead. Do you understand me?”
The captain swallowed hard, seeing the cold, absolute fury in my eyes—the exact same look Nathaniel wore when he meant business.
“Yes, ma'am,” he muttered, turning to help Hallowell and Elena into the cabin.
I turned back toward the hotel, my boots splashing through the puddles of the dark, deserted alleyway behind the resort. My trench coat was soaked through, my hair plastered to my face, and my hands were cut and bleeding from the fire escape.
Footsteps echoed behind me. Heavy, hurried, uneven.
I whirled around, lifting the iron lamp base like a club.
Out of the shadows of the brick wall stepped Nathaniel.
He was leaning heavily against the brick, his left arm hanging uselessly at his side, blood soaking through the dark fabric of a makeshift bandage he had tied around his shoulder. His face was pale, his dark hair plastered to his forehead, but his eyes—those fierce, unyielding eyes—were locked entirely on me.
“You missed your boat,” he rasped, a faint, exhausted smile touching his bruised lips.
“You told me to wait ten minutes,” I said, running across the alley and throwing my arms around his waist, careful not to hit his injured shoulder.
Nathaniel groaned softly, wrapping his good arm around my back, pulling me against him so hard I could feel the violent hammer of his heart.
“Sterling?” I whispered against his chest.
“In federal custody,” Nathaniel murmured into my hair, his voice rough with exhaustion and relief. “The Coast Guard intercepted his transport off the cape twenty minutes ago. Cross Meridian Holdings is safe. And Julian won't be seeing daylight for the rest of his natural life.”
I pulled back just enough to look up into his face, the rain washing the blood from his cheek.
“And Elena?”
“She’s safe,” Nathaniel said softly, his thumb gently wiping a raindrop from my cheek. “She’s going to live with my sister in Vermont under a new name. The war is over, Ava.”
“And us?” I asked, the last four years of lies and secrets hanging in the cold autumn air between us. “What happens to us now, Nathaniel?”
Nathaniel looked down at me, his gaze dropping to the thin gold band and dark sapphire ring on my finger—the ring he had designed based on a sketch in my old notebook.
“Whatever you want,” he said, his voice completely stripped of its corporate armor, leaving only the raw, broken truth. “You want a divorce? I’ll sign the papers before sunrise. You want to walk away and never look at a shipping ledger again? I’ll give you half my empire and disappear.”
He paused, his dark eyes searching my face with a terrifying vulnerability.
“But if you stay... I promise you, there will never be another lie between us. Not a single one.”
I looked at the billionaire who had built a kingdom on deception, the man who had fought a war in a seaside hotel just to keep a little girl and his wife alive.
Slowly, I reached up, my hand resting against the warm, steady beat of his heart.
May you like
“We have a lot of painting to do, Nathaniel,” I whispered. “And you’re going to help me clean up this mess.”
He let out a low, rough laugh, pulling me tight against him as the sirens began to wail in the distance, signaling the dawn of a new, dangerous world we would rule together.
