“Priest?”
“Marry me?” he asked.
****
Four months later
Cleo held on to her father’s arm.
This was surreal after growing up without parents, without anyone to love her. There were times she imagined her father. Wondering what he was like. Thinking about him coming to rescue her. Wanting him to take care of her. On one or two occasions, she might have also imagined what it would be like to have her father finally walk her down the aisle.
It had never been like this. This reality was far better than anything she imagined.
What she also couldn’t believe was the church, packed with friends and colleagues, but the truth was, they were all family now.
On one side was the Killer of Kings. Priest’s men. His family. On the side of the Circle of Monsters, her father, his boss, and a few of the killers. Not a whole lot of family there.
She realized that was what was different. Killer of Kings had family. The Circle of Monsters didn’t.
Cleo didn’t know the circumstances for all of the men and a few of the women who were present, but she did know her father’s.
The file he’d given her had shown part of a life she couldn’t remember. Pictures of her as a baby, with her mother and father. They all looked so happy. There were also coded explanations. That had been tricky. Priest helped her to decode what her father had been trying to tell her.
The truth.
Her father had told her exactly what happened, why he did what he did, and that he hoped within time, she’d be able to forgive him. If that day never happened, then she was to know that he loved her with all of his heart and would be there for her always.
Cleo would have let Target go if it made Priest happy.
Yes, it would hurt as she had always wanted her father, someone she had hoped would love her, but if Priest didn’t want her to, she’d do it for him.
She knew Priest. Loved him with her whole heart.
He completed her.
Priest had told her to make the call when she was ready. That no daughter should be without her father. And that was how they came to this day.
They talked several times a week on the phone. When it was safe, her father, in disguise would visit them for dinner. They didn’t have the closest of relationships, but it was getting better with every single passing day.
Like now, holding on to him.
Before stepping into the main church, he’d offered to help her run. To escape. She wasn’t going anywhere. Staring up at the altar, she saw Priest. The man she wanted more than anything. They were going to build a life together.
When they first met, he rarely said a word, now, they both filled the silences, and she loved every second of it.
The music played, but it didn’t help her nerves. Her father placed her hand within Priest’s, and with that one touch, she knew she was making the right decision.
There was no time for cold feet.
Staring into Priest’s eyes, she knew without a doubt that this man loved her.
The priest began his prayer and started their wedding. The room faded away. They were the only two people to exist in the world.
Cleo couldn’t wait, and as the priest told her man to kiss his bride, announcing them as husband and wife, it was a moment she’d never forget.
Priest wrapped his arms around her, and there, in front of their families, he kissed her. The kiss wasn’t polite, but it was full of passion, of love. It told her there would be no more revenge. This was the start of a new beginning for both of them.
Breaking from the kiss, Priest stroked her cheek. “I thought you’d run.”