I nod. “Me too. And Artemis? I’m pretty sure innocent girls who are fucked over by the people sworn to protect them go to the fluffy clouds, harps and toga parties. Not the other place. She’s watching, Apollo, and she knows you never would have judged her. She saw you take in Camilo. She knows you had nothing to do with what happened to her. And she knows you were trying to get revenge on Jackson by setting me up with fake evidence.”
“How did you—”
“Please,” I tell him, rolling my eyes with a grin. I only just put it together, but I won’t tell him that. Let him think I’m too clever for his games. “That whole thing with making sure I saw where your office keys were? Kind of obvious.”
“Rose—”
“Cassandra. I think it’s time we stopped pretending, right?”
He nods. “Cassandra. Agent Divine. If you ask for it, I’ll give you real evidence. I’ll do my time. If I know you’re here waiting for me, I can take it. Even if we only get a few years by the time I’m out, it will be worth it. Just please tell me you’re not going to leave me.”
I take his hands in mine, and meet his eyes. “There’s no more Agent. I’m just Cassandra Divine. I can’t go back to work there now. And I’m not going to turn you in. But I need to ask you something else. And I need the truth, Apollo. I deserve that, and I can handle it.” He nods and I draw a deep breath, then forge ahead. “Did you kill Pete? The guy who attacked me,” I add when I see his confusion. “Did you kill him after we…you know?”
For a long moment, we stare at each other in silence. Then he nods. “Yes I did. I could lie to you and say I couldn’t live with the idea he might hurt someone else, but I won’t. I killed him because I needed it. The thought of someone thinking they could do that to you and get away with it… That’s the man I am, Cassandra. Warts and all.”
Hearing the words from his lips, they’re not as frightening as I imagined they would be. Apollo is no crazy psycho. Whatever he did, Pete had it coming. And after all, what if he had gone and attacked someone else? How would that be justified? That might not be Apollo’s reasoning, but it is a fact nonetheless.
But can I condone taking the man’s life?
“OK,” I say finally. “OK, you did what you did. I don’t…” I shake my head. “I never want to know about those things. If you do anything like that, you don’t bring it home. You hear me?”
“Home,” he says with a grin. “Does that mean you’re staying?”
“I can’t understand why you’d want someone who was going to betray you.”
“You were never going to betray me, kora. I thought we were going to stop pretending.” Suddenly, and without any ceremony, he drops to one knee in front of me. In a way, it should be comical with him in his boxer shorts and me naked beneath one of his large shirts. But it isn’t. Instead, my heart thunders as I see the look in his eye and wonder…could he be about to…? “I…there’s a ring in the bedroom. I bought it before…” Apollo gulps, and I know what he’s going to say.
He bought it before we even met. He knew who I was. What I was. And still…
“Yes,” I say, and wipe tears away from beneath my eyes. “The answer is yes, you big lug. Of course it’s yes. I was yours from the moment I met you. I was yours from the moment—”
“I heard your name,” he finishes. And then he takes my hand and kisses my fingers.
And I know that we’ve both found our place. I know that no matter what happens, this will always be home.
In his arms.