The news broke before dawn.
"Gunfight Erupts in Manhattan Cathedral—Billionaire Mafia King Austin Montgomery Implicated in Violent Showdown."
The footage looped across every major network. Flames roaring behind broken stained glass. A woman in a red dress clutching a smoking gun.
Clair.
They didn't know her name yet, but the world would soon.
Inside one of Austin's private estates upstate, she stared at the television, numb. Her hands still smelled faintly of smoke and gunpowder.
Austin stood behind her, silent, arms crossed, eyes locked on the screen.
"They'll come for us now," she said softly.
"They were always coming," he replied. "Now they just have a reason."
She turned. "You could've died, Austin."
"So could you."
Clair crossed the room and pushed him in the chest.
"I told you not to make me care, and now look at us! You, bleeding all over a church, and me shooting people like I've been doing it all my life."
Austin grabbed her wrists. His voice was low, strained.
"I would've burned the whole city to keep you safe."
"And what happens when it's too much? When loving you gets me killed?"
He pulled her closer. "Then I'll go first."
She hated how those words made her heart skip.
"I'm not built for this life," she whispered.
He brushed a thumb over her cheek. "Then we'll build our own. One where no one touches you. No one threatens you. You'll cook. Bake. Laugh. And I'll kill anything that dares to ruin that dream."
Clair closed her eyes.
She wanted to believe him.
Wanted to fall.
But there was still one truth neither of them had spoken aloud.
"You think I'm pregnant," she said.
Austin's jaw tightened.
"It's why Elias used it against me," Clair continued. "Because you believe it's already happening. That we're going to have a child."
He didn't answer.
Clair stepped back. "Say it."
Austin looked at her like she was made of glass and fire.
"I want that with you," he said finally. "A future. A family. You're already everything. That would just be more of you in my world. And that thought doesn't scare me."
Tears filled her eyes.
"I'm not pregnant," she whispered.
"I know."
"But if I were…"
She paused.
Austin waited.
"I'd want it to be with you."
He exhaled like he'd been holding his breath since the church.
The silence stretched between them. Tense. Raw. Electric.
Then she walked into his arms.
And he kissed her like it was the first time again.
No threats. No enemies.
Just skin.
And heart.
And truth.
Later, they lay tangled in silk sheets. Moonlight spilling across her bare shoulder as his fingers trailed lazy circles along her spine.
"You know this won't stop, right?" she murmured. "Elias will recover. More enemies will come. We can't hide forever."
"We won't," he said. "But we'll face it together."
She lifted her head.
"You promise?"
Austin looked at her with a rare softness.
"Clair Johnson, I promise that I'll protect your peace with violence if I have to. That I'll give you a kingdom and let you rule it with kindness while I keep the monsters outside the gates."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
He caught it with his lips.
And in that moment, she believed him.
Outside, the first rays of morning touched the broken world they lived in.
Inside, two broken people had found a reason to hope.
Maybe love didn't make you weak.
Maybe it made you dangerous.
Especially when it bloomed in the arms of a king.