Chapter 28: The Kiss in the Snow

They stayed in Vermont that night because a snowstorm closed the roads.

The safe house belonged to the Moretti family, a stone cabin hidden among pines. It was smaller than Alexander's mansion, warmer too, with a fireplace that cracked softly and windows silvered with frost.

Scarlett sat near the fire, wrapped in a wool blanket. She had not spoken much since Clara's confession.

Alexander brought her tea and placed it beside her. 'You should try to sleep.'

'Every time I close my eyes, I see her.'

He sat across from her, silent.

'She was alive,' Scarlett whispered. 'My mother was alive, and my father let her die.'

Alexander's expression softened in the firelight. 'Grief becomes different when betrayal is attached to it.'

'Is that what happened to you?'

For a long moment, he said nothing. Then he leaned back, eyes on the flames.

'My father trusted Victor Hale. Hale sold our routes, our allies, our security. My parents were killed in an ambush when I was twenty-two. I inherited an empire and a graveyard in the same week.'

Scarlett turned toward him. 'I am sorry.'

'I became what was needed to keep the rest alive.'

'Necessary,' she remembered.

He looked at her then. 'Yes.'

The space between them changed. Pain recognized pain. Loneliness recognized loneliness.

Scarlett moved her chair closer. 'You keep saying you are dangerous.'

'I am.'

'So am I now.'

His eyes darkened. 'Not like me.'

'No. Like myself.'

She reached for his hand. He let her take it.

'Alexander,' she whispered, 'I am tired of losing things before I ever choose them.'

He stood slowly and bent toward her, giving her every chance to pull away.

She did not.

His kiss was careful at first, almost restrained. Then Scarlett's fingers tightened around his collar, and the restraint broke. He kissed her like a vow made in darkness, like a man who had denied himself too long.

When they parted, snow tapped softly against the glass.

Alexander rested his forehead against hers.

'This changes everything,' he said.

Scarlett smiled through her tears. 'Good.'