Илона Эндрюс - Emerald Blaze (Hidden Legacy)

“And what would that be?”

“A stable House. Political and financial connections. Alliances. Wealth. Security. I have none of it. I come to you with nothing. Right here, right now, this is all I will ever be. I can’t leave you on my own, Catalina, but if you tell me to go, I will. I promise I’ll never bother you again.”

He waited.

His words floated from my memory. You’re beautiful, you’re brilliant, and if they knew how dangerous you were, you would get buried in proposals.

It was my turn.

“Alessandro, you’re the most powerful antistasi on the planet. What you did in the Pit was beyond anything I could’ve imagined. You’re strong, skilled, educated, and you have this incredible brain that unravels complex schemes in seconds. You walked into a building full of trained killers and eliminated everyone there to save a child you barely knew. And then you went to see Victoria Tremaine and threatened to cut her head off, and she let you go because you are charming, and your bearing is flawless. Who in this world can do that? You’re kind to my relatives when you have nothing to gain. You’re probably the only person aside from my family who understands me and can call me on my crap. And with all of that, you love me. You bring so much, Alessandro.”

He stared at me.

“Don’t you get it? Right here, right now, you are everything I ever wanted. I don’t care about money, connections, or reputation. We can earn all these things, together. I just want you. You’re so much more than I hoped for. If you come home with me, I’ll be the luckiest person alive.”

I didn’t see him move. One moment he was standing by the fountain and the next he kissed me, his lips hot and desperate. He stole my breath away.

“Stay with me,” I asked him.

“Always,” he promised.

Epilogue

The hospital hallway lay shrouded in shadow. An older, distinguished man was waiting by the nurses’ station, a lone nurse nervously pacing by him. An elevator chimed quietly. The doors parted and an older woman stepped out, accompanied by a young man with a sharp haircut and dressed in a black suit.

The older man by the station raised his arms. “Where have you been?” he whispered.

“Spare me,” the older woman hissed. “This wasn’t exactly easy.”

“Hurry. We have fifteen minutes,” the nurse told them. “This baby is guarded like Fort Knox.”

She ushered the three of them into a room and shut the door. The young man in the suit parked himself by the door.

The older woman paced. “What if he’s a dud?”

“He is not a dud. None of them have been.”

She pressed her hands together and walked some more.

Hurried steps came from outside.

The door swung open and the same nurse entered, carrying a newborn, two guards behind her. The young man in a suit raised his hand and the two guards halted, their eyes blank.

The old woman rushed to the nurse and gently took the baby out of her arms. “Leave us.”

The nurse glanced at the older man. He nodded. She stepped outside and closed the door.

Tenderly, the old woman peeled off the blanket revealing the baby’s round face and tiny fists in pale mittens.

“What a beautiful boy. What a lovely, lovely boy.”

The older man grinned.

The woman rocked the baby and smiled. “Look, Trevor, isn’t he the most beautiful child you’ve ever seen?”

For the first time the young man in the suit spoke. “Yes, ma’am. He is.”

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our wonderful editor, Erika Tsang, for making a mess into a book and “having faith” in us. We also would like to thank all the people we tortured at Avon: Nicole Fischer, Christine Langone, Brittani DiMare, and Pamela Jaffee. You thought you would escape unharmed, Pam. Ha-ha.

We are incredibly grateful to Nancy Yost, our agent, and the amazing and long-suffering crew at Nancy Yost Literary Agency: Sarah Younger, Natanya Wheeler, and Cheryl Pientka. Yay, we finished another book, somehow, against all odds.

A special thank you to Stephanie Mowery, who helped us to make our copyedits even more thorough, and Jessie Mihalik, Jill Smith, and RJ Blain for their advice and friendship. Huge thank you to poor Jeaniene Frost, who put aside her own novel to critique chunks of unfinished manuscript and endured our endless whining about it.

We also would like to thank all the people who kindly lent us their expertise. All mistakes in the manuscript are ours alone. Thank you to Chiara Prato, Harriet Chow, Jing Ting, Sherene Neo, and Nina Z. Javan, Esq.

Last but not least, we would love to thank all of our beta readers, who have read the working version of the manuscript and somehow survived: Hasna Saadani, Kate Small, Jeanine Rachau, Julie Heckert, Scott Drummond, Tori Benson, Robyn Huffman, Kristi DeCourcy, and Debra J. Murray. If we forgot someone, we are so sorry.

About the Author

ILONA ANDREWSis the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101, where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.) They have co-authored four New York Times and USA Today bestselling series—the urban fantasy of Kate Daniels, the rustic fantasy of the Edge, the paranormal romance of Hidden Legacy, and the Innkeeper Chronicles. They live in Texas with their two children and many dogs and cats.

Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

By Ilona Andrews

Hidden Legacy series

Burn for Me

White Hot

Wildfire

Diamond Fire(novella)

Sapphire Flames

Emerald Blaze

Kate Daniels series

Magic Bites

Magic Burns

Magic Strikes

Magic Bleeds

Magic Slays

Magic Rises

Magic Breaks

Magic Gifts (novella)

Magic Shifts

Magic Binds

Magic Triumphs

The Edge series

On the Edge

Bayou Moon

Fate’s Edge

Steel’s Edge

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

emerald blaze. Copyright © 2020 by Ilona Gordon and Andrew Gordon. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.

Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2020 ISBN: 978-0-06-287837-3

Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-287836-6

Cover photography and illustration by Gene Mollica Studio, LLC

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HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.