I blink against the late afternoon sunlight, trying to orient myself. We're parked in front of an old warehouse on the industrial side of town, brick and broken windows and the particular kind of decay that speaks to abandonment. It takes me a moment to recognize it, another moment for the memory to click into place with perfect clarity.
"This is—" I stop, my chest tightening with emotion. "This is where we first?—"
"Where I first had you," Zay finishes, his hand finding mine and squeezing. "Where you let me see you. Really see you. Where everything started."
It feels like a lifetime ago—getting grabbed in that club bathroom by Zay and Asher, terror and adrenaline flooding my system as they hauled me out of there. Zay looking at me in the alley like he'd been searching for me his whole life, eventhough I didn't understand it then. Everything that came after—the protection, the slow burn, the night he finally took me somewhere that wasn't about the club or danger or survival.
The night he took me deep into the woods on his bike, my arms wrapped around him as we rode toward dawn. Higher and higher into the forest until we crested a cliff that looked out over the valley, the world spilling open beneath us in shades of dark blue giving way to gold.
The way he'd looked at me when the sun started breaking over the trees, called me Angel like it was the only name that mattered. The thermos of vanilla bourbon tea—my mother's favorite blend, the one I thought I'd never taste again—that he'd somehow found, somehow remembered from watching me drink it on my roof months before.
The way he'd spread blankets on the cliff's edge while golden light spilled through the pines. The first time he kissed me like he'd been holding back for years and couldn't anymore. The way he touched me—reverent, careful, like I was something precious instead of dangerous. The way he made love to me while the sunrise painted everything in shades of pink and gold, whispering "mine" against my skin like a prayer.
The first time I gave myself to someone completely. The first time I felt safe enough to be vulnerable.
The cliff where we're standing now—this is where that happened. Where everything between us became real.
"Why are we here?" I ask, even though part of me is starting to suspect, starting to hope for something I'm almost afraid to name.
"Come on," Zay says, his hand finding mine and lacing our fingers together. "There's something we need to show you."
We walk toward the cliff's edge where the view opens up, and I see it—candles. Hundreds of them, creating a circle of warm light against the approaching dusk. String lights have been hung in the trees, transforming the forest into something almost magical.
Someone has been here recently, preparing this space, transforming it from wild nature into something almost beautiful.
My breath catches. "What is this?"
"This," Zay says, stepping into the circle and turning to face me with an expression I've never seen before—vulnerable and certain and completely open, "is me telling you something I should have said a long time ago."
He reaches for my hands, pulling me into the candlelight with him. Xavier and Asher move to flank us, close enough to be part of this but giving Zay space to speak.
"Six years ago," Zay begins, his voice rough with emotion, "an angel crashed into my life. Literally crashed—you came through that door running from Vipers like your life depended on it, all fury and fire and the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen." His thumb strokes across my knuckles. "I thought I was just helping someone in trouble. Thought it was a one-time thing. But then you looked at me with those eyes and I—I knew. I knew you were going to change everything."
Tears are already building behind my eyes, my throat tight with emotion I'm trying desperately to control.
"You're not like anyone else, Valentina. You're fierce and deadly and so fucking strong it scares me sometimes. But you're also kind. You're loyal. You love with your whole heart even when it terrifies you." He pauses, his own eyes bright with unshed tears. "You're my angel. The person who saved me from a life that was all violence and emptiness. The person who taught me that loving hard and fighting harder aren't mutually exclusive."
He lets go of one of my hands to reach into his pocket, pulling out a small box. My heart stops completely.
"I'm in love with you," he says, opening the box to reveal a ring—rose gold with a deep red stone that catches the candlelight like captured fire. "I've been in love with you since that first night in that warehouse when you let me see past your armor. And I want to spend the rest of my life proving that you made the right choice when you chose us."
Before I can respond, before I can process what's happening, Asher steps forward. His hand finds my face, turning me toward him with that gentle precision he brings to everything.
"It's rare," he says quietly, "to find someone who matches your wit. Who can keep up with the way your mind works, who challenges you to be better while accepting exactly who you are." His smile is small and private and meant only for me. "You're that person, Valentina. You're brilliant and strategic and protective of the people you love in a way that reminds me of myself, except you do it with so much more heart than I ever could."
He produces his own box, opening it to reveal a ring in white gold with a clear stone that refracts light in rainbow patterns. "You're the strength I didn't know I needed. The person who makes me want to be more than just the strategist, the planner,the one who sees three steps ahead. You make me want to live in the present moment. To feel instead of just analyze."
The tears are falling now, streaming down my face unchecked as Asher steps back and Xavier moves forward. He's not using his cane anymore—hasn't needed it for months—but there's still something careful in the way he moves, something that speaks to the year of recovery, of learning to trust his body again.
"Beautiful," he says, his hands cupping my face, thumbs brushing away tears that just keep coming. "That's the first word I thought when I saw you. Beautiful and dangerous and absolutely devastating. I knew you were going to destroy me. I just didn't know it would be in the best possible way."
His hands drop to find mine, his fingers lacing through mine with familiar ease. "You're smart. So fucking smart it makes me crazy sometimes when you outthink me. You're capable—more capable than anyone I've ever met. You kill with the same efficiency you love with, and somehow that makes sense, somehow that's exactly what I need."
He reaches into his pocket for the third box, opening it to reveal a ring in yellow gold with a stone that shifts between blue and green depending on the angle of the light. "I never knew I wasn't breathing right until I met you. Never knew that every breath before you was just surviving instead of living. You taught me the difference. You saved me from Marcus's ghost, from my own anger, from a life that was all revenge and emptiness."
He holds up his ring next to Asher's and Zay's, and I see it now—the way they're designed to interlock, three bands that fit together perfectly when stacked, creating something stronger together than they are apart. Rose gold, white gold, yellowgold. Red stone, clear stone, shifting blue-green stone. Each one distinct but designed to complement the others.
Just like us.