Chapter 10 - The Sound of the Future
The sun was dipping below the horizon as our car turned through the iron gates of the Mercer estate, crunching softly over the gravel drive.
Instead of heading straight inside, Jonah turned off the engine, killed the headlights, and reached across the console to take my hand.
“Walk with me down to the old boathouse,” he suggested quietly.
“It’s getting chilly,” I protested playfully.
“That’s what my jacket is for.”
Within seconds, his heavy wool overcoat was draped around my shoulders, swallowing me in warmth and smelling faintly of cedarwood and rain. We walked slowly down the winding dirt path that led through the forty acres of dense woods toward the private lake at the edge of the property.
The water was a mirror of glass, reflecting the brilliant orange and violet hues of the autumn dusk. A gentle breeze whispered through the tall pines, and in the distance, a pair of Canada geese glided silently across the dark surface of the water.
Jonah stopped near the edge of the wooden dock, letting go of my hand for just a moment to pull a small, velvet-lined box from his interior pocket.
My breath caught in my throat.
He didn't drop to one knee—his knees weren't quite back to full tactical flexibility yet—instead, he simply stepped close, holding the small box open between us. Inside rested a ring crafted of hammered white gold, holding a single, unpolished raw diamond that looked less like traditional jewelry and more like a stone carved straight from the earth.
“When you walked into my office nine months ago, you told me I needed a shower, sunlight, and a meal that didn't come from a whiskey bottle,” Jonah said, his voice thick with emotion, trembling slightly with a vulnerability he had never shown to another living soul. “You didn't care who I was, what I had done, or how broken I was sitting in that chair.”
He looked straight into my eyes, the harsh, dangerous mafia boss entirely dissolved, leaving only the man who loved me with every fiber of his being.
“You gave me my life back, Quinn. You gave me my voice, my home, and my future,” Jonah whispered, his gaze intense and absolute. “Spend the rest of your chronically late, brilliantly chaotic life with me. Stay, Riley. Forever.”
Tears spilled over my eyelashes, warm and bright against my cheeks, and a massive, helpless laugh bubbled up from my chest.
“Only if I’m allowed to keep being thirty-two minutes late to everything,” I choked out through my happy tears.
May you like
“Agreed,” Jonah smiled, slipping the hammered gold ring onto my finger.
He pulled me into his arms, kissing me with a fierce, tender desperation that tasted like victory, survival, and a brand-new beginning. Down on the lake, the water rippled softly against the wooden pilings, the wind sang through the trees, and for the first time in both our lives, there was nothing left to fight, nothing left to hide, and nowhere else in the world we needed to be.
