Book Review: Truth

Title: Truth
Author: Penelope Sky
Genre: Romance, Dark Romance, Fiction

What It’s About: Balto visits Heath while Catalina is out visiting Damien. The two of them discuss Vox, including the fact that Heath had made him into a blood traitor. Balto is of the opinion that Vox will continue coming after Heath so Heath should put him in the ground for good by killing Vox. Heath tells Balto that he’ll leave it alone and hopefully it’s enough to stop Vox now that he cannot reign as the Skull King. The discussion turns towards Heath potentially leaving the Skull Kings to be with Catalina for good because it’s the best thing that Balto did for himself and Cassini. Heath considers it, but he wants to have a bit more time. Balto leaves just as Catalina comes home from her conversation with Damien. She grabs a glass of wine, and tells Heath that Damien will not hurt him again or come after him, but she does not tell him the truth about what Damien had told her—choose Heath or choose her birth family. They go to sleep together in the same bed without having sex due to Heath’s injuries, and they tell each other their I love yous before they fall asleep.

Heath starts therapy in his gym with the physical therapist, and though she comes up to see this, she decides to head back down in the house to give him space. Catalina knows that he most likely won’t want her to see him in this state. Instead, she goes out with Annabella to talk with her, and learns that Sofia has had Hades’s and hers second son, whom they named Demetri. Anna and Catalina talk a bit about Heath, but the conversation stalls, and Catalina already can sense the awkwardness, the distance between her and her own family which includes Anna. She admits to Anna that she doesn’t know what she will be doing about Heath, and during their conversation, Anna points out that it seems like Catalina has already made a decision, one where she chooses her family over Heath. She realizes that Anna is correct.

Catalina returns home to Heath, and they kiss before spending a little bit of time together. Later that evening, Catalina packs up her bags and tells Heath that she will be working that night and the following night so she is going to her apartment. Heath is extremely clingy, telling her that he doesn’t want to let her go because it feels like he just got her back and doesn’t want to lose her. Catalina replies and tells him that what he went through at Damien’s hands doesn’t make her think any less of him, and reaffirms her feelings for him. She works over the weekend, coming to her own empty apartment, which she also wanted to do in order to get some space from Heath to figure out what to do about him. Damien then invites her for dinner with Ash, Sofia, Hades and their children, as well as their father and Anna. She goes to the dinner where everyone gathers around the dining room and she talks to Hades and Sofia, who tell her that two is enough for them. Damien then proposes to Anna, who says yes, and it makes Catalina’s father happy because it is one step closer to grandchildren. She wanders around talking to various people, and feeling the distance, because she sees what it’s like to be there without Heath, and then imagines the rest of her life like this with him. At some point, her father calls her over, and introduces her to Ash in the hopes that they’ll hit it off, because he is very much taken with Ash. They do talk and get along well, but she admits to Ash that he’s already seeing someone, and he takes it gracefully. As everyone starts to leave, Catalina speaks with Damien, with both of them talking in double meanings about Heath, saying things like their dad liking everyone but not being a fan of certain people.

A couple of more days pass, and Heath cannot handle being away from Catalina so he messages her on Tuesday with a reminder of what happened the last time she was busy. Catalina comes to his place, and Heath demands to know why she hasn’t reached out to him in four days. He tells her to make a choice—either she is with him or not—and stick with it. This results in a conversation where Catalina reveals what Damien told her about dropping his fight with Heath but never accepting Heath into the family, and that she wants a husband that would be friends with her brother. Heath asks her to give him a chance to change Damien’s mind, especially now that she’s mentioned the possibility of marrying him, and that Damien just needs time. Heath wears her down with this to the point that she agrees to give him a chance to make things right with Damien and eventually become part of the family. They have sex for the first time that night since his injuries, and then they fall asleep.

In the middle of the night, Heath gets a phone call from Balto asking him to take Cassini to the hospital because she is having pregnancy pains, and Balto cannot leave the Underground, where he is covering for Heath. Heath rushes over with Cassini to the hospital, ashamed and upset at himself that his brother is covering for him instead of being with his own wife and child. It turns out that everything is okay, and Cassini only requests to have her husband back, which Heath agrees to. He drops her off at Balto’s house, calls Balto to telling him the updates about Cassini and to inform him that he will be going back to the Underground the following day because Balto has already done enough for him. Heath returns home to Catalina and they talk about the whole situation as well as Heath’s return to the Underground. During this conversation, Heath admits that if she asked him, he would leave the Skull Kings for good.

A week later, Catalina goes out with Anna to get a wedding dress since Anna is eager to pick one out for her wedding to Damien. Richard, Catalina’s father, comes along with them as a stand in for his wife, claiming that she would have loved to be a part of this, so he will do this for her. During the whole wedding dress viewing, Catalina tries to be neutral as possible so that Anna can pick the dress that she loves rather than be swayed one way or another. Richard, however, makes comments about every single dress Anna tries, and when he’s confronted about it, he says that his wife would have done the same type of commenting about how the dress is not good enough for Anna. Catalina admits to Anna later that this is true, their mother would have been a critic about the dresses. She then asks Anna to intervene on her behalf with Damien for Heath, because she really loves him, but Anna tells her that she doesn’t want to get into the middle of Damien’s and Catalina’s fight about this as they just got engaged and want to be in bliss and happiness. Catalina understands, but she tells Anna that she is staying with Heath because he had promised her that he would make Damien feel differently about them eventually. Anna responds that she doesn’t think that it will be as easy as Heath thinks.

Later that day, after Catalina has finished one of her performances, she gets a text message from Heath, and she invites him to come along with her and her crew to a bar. The other girls in the crew keep staring at her with some jealousy and at first Catalina thinks it’s because they’re all fascinated with Heath, but Heath tells her that they’re not jealous of him, but of her because she’s with him. They talk a bit about his job and then head home in his truck. She teases him on their way to his truck about underwear, and he starts trying to guess which underwear she is wearing. Only when she gets into the truck and just about he is to slam the door shut behind her, she tells him that she doesn’t have any underwear. He stills for a moment before they drive off. After having sex, they have dinner, during which they talk about Damien and Anna. Catalina explains what she asked of Anna, and that she was hoping that Anna would have been able to help her, but Heath tells her that it is too early to approach Damien about things, and to leave it alone. They talk further about marriage and children, and Heath tells her that if that is what matters to her, he will be fine having children. When prodded, he admits that he doesn’t think that he would be a good father to children because of how he is—authoritative, selfish, and so on. Catalina response that being authoritative is a good thing for children, but the most important thing is to love them, which he admits he can do.

Heath visits Balto, bringing Cassini flowers and sweets, joking that Balto runs the house like a prison. Balto is still mad at Heath about not being there for Cassini when she was in pain, and Cassini tells Balto to just let it go. Ultimately, Balto and Heath work it out with Heath telling Balto that he does understand why it matters to him. They talk about Damien, and Balto suggests having Bones take Damien out, but Heath says that he won’t do it. Later, he goes to Catalina’s apartment and they have sex. Afterwards, Heath goes picking up bags in the Underground, and Steel confronts him—he tells Heath that he knows that it was Balto that was leading them over the last couple of weeks because Steel had worked closely with Balto in the past. Heath tells him that he had a personal issue to take care of that was related to the woman he told Steel about previously.

On another day, Heath visits Catalina backstage after one of her performances, and makes out with her. Unfortunately, Damien and Anna had come in to watch the performance as well, and made their way to the back, where they witnessed this. Damien tells Heath to leave, stepping towards his own sister in a protective manner. They trade a few words, with Heath telling Damien that he loves Catalina, to which Damien tells him that if he did, he would have left her alone. Heath leaves out the backdoor, which Catalina knows is not usual for him to do without a fight. Catalina doesn’t want to go out for dinner, so Damien tells her that they’ll drive her home. When they get to her apartment, she and Damien get into an argument about Heath, with Damien refusing to believe that Catalina loves Heath. He refuses to try to make things work for Catalina, and tells her that the most he can do is not hurt Heath for her.

Heath goes to her apartment after she doesn’t answer his call, knowing what is about to happen. He finds her crying on her couch, and the way that she is acting tells him that he has already lost her—whatever Damien had said to her was strong enough for her to put up walls. After a small talk where he tries to convince her, she tells him to just go and not make it any harder on her. Heath visits Damien at his lab and tries to talk to him to let it be. Damien refuses to do anything and tells Heath that he would rather that Heath disappears. Damien just tears down anything Heath says about loving Catalina and tells him that he should be grateful he’s still alive, rather than whining like a dog. Heath brings up the fact that Damien took Catalina to the gypsy in Marrakech, and what the gypsy had said—that Catalina would ever only love one guy, who would be an enemy of her family. This clearly has some meaning to Damien, who asks if the gypsy said anything else, but Heath doesn’t know because that was all that Catalina had told him. Despite this, Damien doesn’t change his opinion on Heath, telling him that Catalina can be with Heath, but he himself will not have anything to do with Heath, and that it shows that Catalina’s family matters more to her than Heath does if she ended it with Heath.

Heath returns to Catalina apartment, running into her in the kitchen though it is past midnight. He tells her what went down with Damien, including mentioning that he had told Damien about the gypsy, and asking her why she never told Damien about it and whether the gypsy said anything more. Catalina tells him that gypsy didn’t say anything more, and also reveals that she never told Damien about her almost being trafficked because she knows that it would kill Damien. Heath tries to convince her again to stay with him, because he can’t lose her. But Catalina tells him to get out, and it takes all of his strength for him to leave her.

Catalina is depressed for the first week, and expects that Heath would call her or text her, but he doesn’t. She stops moping around, by going back to work where Tracy invites her to go out to a restaurant/ bar after the performance. She goes, but she isn’t having fun picking up other guys, and tells Tracy that she should have fun without her. Catalina then decides to head out and sees Heath at the bar, so she goes up to him and just sits on his lap for a while.

Heath visits Balto at two in the morning after sitting with Catalina at the bar, and tries to avoid Balto seeing him, though Balto is awake. When Balto sees him, he is silent, and Heath tells him that Catalina left him and that she will not be back with him again. Balto comforts him, and they do talk about how they could get her back, but Heath doesn’t see that there is a path to getting Catalina back since Damien refuses to accept him. Balto tries calling Damien to get him to let it be, and Damien does listen him out, but tells him that his answer is still the same—no, and that he would rather Heath stays the Skull King because a new one would cause him more problems, when Balto tells Damien that Heath would step down for Catalina.

A week goes by and Heath doesn’t sleep well, and is down. Catalina comes to visit him in the middle of the night, by showing up in his place, and they have sex. Once it’s done and they cuddle for a little bit, Catalina leaves after telling him that she didn’t want anyone else, just him. She asks him if he’d be willing to have a purely physical relationship and not any other connection. Heath can’t deny her anything, and ultimately agrees to having a physical relationship only with her, because he’d rather have a piece of her than none of her at all.

Catalina knows that her dad is used to seeing her at least once a week, but she hadn’t wanted to see Damien or her father since her argument with Damien. She went to see Heath because she couldn’t stand the loneliness, and she finds it hard to not be able to talk to him, to tell him she loves him, or to sleep without him. She gets a phone call from her dad, checking in on her, and when her dad threatens to have Damien drive him to see her, Catalina tells him she will come for lunch the following day. She goes to see him the next day for lunch, dressing up to look good, and they talk, during which she tells him that she has been working a lot on the upcoming performances. He needles her into telling him a bit about her problems and why she’s down—she tells him about Heath without telling him everything, including the part about how Heath had kidnapped him, but more about her feelings and the issue that she is having with Damien. All he tells her is that if she loved this man the way that he loved her mother, and the way Damien loves Anna, then she should try to work it out. She tells him to leave it alone because Damien won’t change his mind.

She doesn’t hear from Heath for over a week, and yet when she goes over to his place to get what they both need, she can tell that Heath is keeping his distance. She tries to not think about what Heath does in his spare time, and she knows that she will not be able to be with anyone for a long time after Heath. She sits at her apartment one night reading in bed, when she hears Heath come in, put flowers in the vase, and come to her bedroom to have sex. The instant they are done, he leaves, after which Catalina begins to cry.

She has the opening performance of the new ballet she has been working on, and during the second act when she has her solo, she does a good job but a piece of paper floats up onto the stage, and when she lands from a jump, she slips and falls hard. She tries to stand and then quickly realizes that her foot is broken, specifically her ankle. She gets taken backstage while her understudy gets to go into the role. Tracy tries to call for an ambulance, while Andre tries to comfort Catalina, and Heath shows up to tell them that he’ll take her to the hospital. He takes her off the bench, into the car, while she cries into his shoulder, finding the safety to hide her face and feelings.

He stays with her in the hospital, and then takes her home once a diagnosis is received with some pain killers. He carries her to her bed, brings her medicine, and she thanks him before telling him that he can go as they are over and it would not be fair to him to stay around. She begins to worry about the finances because she knows she won’t be able to afford things while not dancing, and then she doesn’t know if she will be able to go back to dancing. Heath tells her that he will stay with her until she is better, and he’ll take care of her like she took care of him. He helps her change out and they cuddle in bed, where he tells her it will be okay and that she will dance again. The next morning she wakes up and calls out to him, so he can help her to the bathroom by giving her the crutches. He carries her instead, telling her that he can carry her around instead of letting her use the crutches. Time goes by and he takes care of her, reminding her that it’s not over for her when she thinks about the performance, and she loves the fact that he knows what she is thinking about without her coming out and saying it.

That night there is a knock at her door and Catalina wordlessly tells Heath that she doesn’t expect anyone. Then Damien calls through the door, so Heath puts her on crutches and walks into her bedroom before shutting the door behind her. This sickens Catalina, but she makes her way over to the main door and opens it for Damien and Anna, quickly realizing what had happened. She explains the situation to both of them and they talk for a moment, before Damien realizes that she has been taken care of and notices the closed bedroom door. Damien becomes furious and barges in through the bedroom door with a struggling Catalina coming after him, where he threatens Heath and tells him to get out. Catalina tries to talk to Heath, but Heath tells her it’s fine and starts walking out of the apartment. She raises her voice at Heath and tells him to wait, before she turns to Damien to explain what happened. Damien interrupts her during her explanation, and Catalina erupts in anger at him, yelling at him that she doesn’t care how Damien feels about Heath anymore, because she is going to stay with Heath as he is her soulmate. She yells at Damien to get the fuck out of her apartment and that he’s no longer welcome to her place, while Heath has every right to be there. Damien starts going on a spiel about how their father wouldn’t approve, to which she tells him that she thinks he’s more open minded than Damien and repeats her order for him to get out.

Heath is shocked by the outburst, but he gets out of the way of the door so that Anna can leave. Damien is momentarily shocked but he also heads out the door in anger, after which Heath locks the door. He comes to the couch where Catalina had found her way to sit down and rest, and they end up talking. She apologizes to him for hurting him, but he tells her that she has made up for all his hurt by the outburst that she had and saying the things she did. They profess their love for one another, and Heath tells her that he would marry her right now. Catalina responds altho she wants to marry him too. It takes a moment for it to register to Heath that she had said yes, so he confirms if she is serious, and they get engaged.

Heath doesn’t want to leave to go to the Underground, but he has to. He gets approached by Steel to talk in private, and learns that Vox has been telling people that Damien no longer pays Heath anything. Afterwards, he visits Balto in his apartment, and tells Balto what happened between Catalina and Damien, and also that he’s engaged with Catalina. They talk about getting a ring for Catalina, but Heath doesn’t know what she likes so he’ll have to figure out something for her. When he returns to her apartment, he finds her doing dishes, so he puts her on the couch, and brings her food that he bought at one of her favorite restaurants. He tells her that he told Balto about their engagement, and they talk about that for a bit, with Catalina not being sure about whether Balto would want her to be married to Heath, but Heath assures her that Balto would die for her. That night, they have sex for the first time as an engaged couple, though she still has to wear the cast.

Damien is thinking about how Catalina had treated him, and what she said to him, when he is interrupted by Hades in his office at the Bank. The two talk about Catalina and Heath, though Hades tells him to leave it alone and let it be, while Damien tells Hades that she deserves better than him. Later, he has a drop-in client at the Bank, Vox. Vox asks him why Heath isn’t collecting payments from Damien, and then explains that Heath had run into this woman—pulling out a picture of a woman who is none other than Catalina—at a human trafficking ring, got her out, and then started changing the rules around what the Skull Kings were doing. Vox tells him that he’s going to use this information against Heath to bring him down because he’s making a lot of terrible business decision. When Damien asks about the woman, his sister, Vox tells him exactly how she ended up in the situation—knocking out one of the men in the bathroom and getting him arrested, causing them to kidnap her from her apartment. He starts putting all of the information together and realizes that things changed after the trafficking incident, where Heath saved her and it was pretty early on in their relationship, when they barely knew each other. Damien tells Vox that he’s still paying Heath, but that his business has been bad for the last month because he gave Heath the profits from the prior month. He lies to Vox knowing that he now owes Heath for what he did for Catalina.

Heath is in the Underground with the rest of his men, when one of his men comes up to him to tell him that Damien wants to see him, with a few men and a lots of bags of money. This confuses Heath as their last conversation was not amicable, and he’s even more confused when Damien drops his money in front of him, and walks out after saying a sentence in anger to him. Heath’s men start to look at him with respect. He goes home to Catalina, who has been sleeping, and then the next day they go to the doctor to remove her cast. The doctor tells her that it will be normal for it to hurt for some time, but that she should start physical therapy and begin to walk more in a couple of weeks. They return home, and Catalina wants to start walking right away because she needs to pay her bills, but Heath tells her that he pays her bills for her. While he prepares lunch for her, he tells her that Damien showed up to the Underground the night before with money. This surprises her because she wasn’t expecting this to happen and it seems like an odd repercussion for yelling at her brother. Heath gets a text message from Damien telling him that Damien wants to speak with him at his office right this minute. He does goes to the Bank and finds Damien sitting with two glasses of alcohol, so he drinks some from one and waits. Damien asks Heath to tell him everything that happened around the trafficking, so he does, not in as painstaking detail, but not leaving anything out either. Damien tells Heath that he wants all of the men involved in that ring that held Catalina killed, and Heath promises him to get it done. Heath then asks about the money, and Damien tells him that he knew that his men were beginning to doubt Heath’s leadership and when he found out what Heath did for Catalina, he knew that he owed Heath. Heath only asks him to give him what he wants, and Damien remains silent on that topic. Instead, Damien tells Heath that Vox has been following him around, and he’s pieced enough information to know that Catalina is the woman from the trafficking basement, which resulted in Heath changing a lot of things for personal reasons. Suddenly a lot of things become clear for Heath, but he also knows that Vox has to be killed, which means that Balto was right. Damien says the same thing, and Heath tells him that he will take care of it. Damien thanks him, and Heath asks him to show his gratitude by putting their past behind us. Damien tells him that even if he willing to give his blessing, their father might not be so open-minded. Damien decides to go talk to Catalina without warning, and asks Heath to give them privacy.

Catalina has been sitting at her place worrying about Heath because it’s been over an hour, when Damien shows up. She demands to know what Damien did to Heath, but Damien tells her that he just wanted to talk to her in private, and Heath is giving them that space. Damien tells her that he knows what Heath did for her, and mentions that her telling him about the situation would have made it possible for him to like Heath. They talk about it all, with Catalina telling him that she’s going to be with Heath regardless of his decision or feelings. Damien brings up their dad again, but Catalina just asks him to try to see Heath as another member of their family, and Damien agrees to try. Catalina messages Heath when Damien leaves, and he comes up, so she tells him everything, including that Damien would try to give them a chance, which surprises Heath. Neither one of them, however, told Damien that they had gotten engaged, and he tells her that they’ll get there when they get there. They also talk about Vox, but Heath tells her not to worry about it because it’s going to be his problem.

Heath heads over to the Underground that night with the intention to kill Vox, but he is not able to find him because Vox took his men and left the Skull Kings. Heath tells Steel that their number one priority is to find Vox and his men, with the order to shoot on sight, because Heath doesn’t care who kills him, just that he’s dead. He returns to Catalina’s place, and thinks through the options that Vox would take, so he’s not able to sleep, and lays on the couch. Catalina wakes up and finds him on the couch, so she joins him and asks him what is wrong. He tells her that they should move into his place for a while, and tells her the truth about Vox. She moves into his room at his place, taking over his closet, and Heath tells her that he doesn’t mind that she’s taken over the walk-in closet with some of her stuff. Catalina starts her first session of physical therapy and she is frustrated afterwards. Heath tells her about his physical therapy session, and how rough it was for him. Heath calls in every favor he can to find out where Vox is, but he knows that he needs to keep his guard up. Heath goes wherever Catalina goes in order to make sure that she is safe, and over time, she gets better with the physical therapy, and her fire comes back to her. They have dinner together one night, that he’s cooked for her, and they talk briefly about Vox and the situation, before she asks him what he is thinking about. Heath puts a massive diamond ring in front of her, and she is shocked—falling in love with the ring as it was what she wanted. She affirms that she’ll marry him with or without a ring. Catalina and Heath have sex that night, Catalina loving her ring, and they profess their love to each other.

Christmas is a week away and she intends to go to Damien’s for lunch, but she takes off the ring because she feels like it is an insensitive way to announce her engagement to anyone. She comes into the living room, and finds that Heath had brought in a Christmas tree, which he admits he got for her because he normally doesn’t have a Christmas tree in his house. She tells him that she is going to her father to speak with him about them, though Heath is a bit disappointed that she is not keeping her ring on. She explains that her family is traditional and he will have to ask her father for her hand in marriage, and that she will be with him regardless of what happens. She asks him to put on the show for the family because of how they are, and Heath is irritated, though she knows why—she’d hurt him enough times and he’s afraid of losing her. Heath agrees to take her though he wants to talk to her father, man-to-man. He still acts upset when they arrive at Damien’s house, but she tells him that she’s not leaving him in any way, though he admits that no daughter will want to marry a man that her father doesn’t approve. She reiterates the they are spending their lives together and there’s no two ways about it.

Catalina goes into the house, finding her dad with Patricia’s help, and they make small talk about Damien, the weather, her ankle, and even when she will be going back to ballet. She tells him that most likely she will be going back in February, and she talks to him about Heath, telling him everything about Heath. During their talk, it does get a bit heated, but her dad tells her that his issue is that Heath is the Skull King, which means that she will have a target on her back and he doesn’t want that for her. He does agree to speak with Heath, and Catalina tells him that Heath is outside. She goes out to the car, and tells Heath that while it didn’t go as well as she expected, it was still different because her father wants to talk to Heath.

Heath goes in to see Catalina’s father, Richard, and Richard tells him that he doesn’t care that Heath attempted to get him executed, because that was just business and he gets it. He also tells Heath that if Damien could drop his prejudice, so he could too, but that he doesn’t want Heath for his daughter, which is a blow for Heath. Then Richard tells him that he will give him a chance to change that, and Heath tells him that it is all he needs. He tells Richard the life that he can give Catalina, and that he would do anything for her. Richard tells him that his one request is for Heath to step down from the Skull King role, and explains why it’s not possible for Heath to be both a husband and the Skull King, reiterating that if he does, he will give his approval for Heath marrying Catalina. Heath agrees to it without hesitation, which surprises Richard, and tells his future father in law that he wants to marry Catalina. Richard demands that Heath leave now, but Heath pushes back against the short timeline stating that he will wrap it up as quickly as possible. There’s nothing more beyond that as Richard tells him that Catalina does love him and wants to spend her life with him, and he doesn’t care about the past but rather just how much Heath loves her, which Heath just proved by saying that he’s willing to step aside as quickly as possible. Richard tells him that it’s hard to do for powerful men, and he knows this because he was one. Heath tells him that he likes him, and notes that Richard’s reactions are so different to Damien’s about the whole situation—all he cares about his daughter’s happiness, not the man’s past. When Heath gets back into the car, Catalina has a lot of questions, especially when Heath tells her that her father accepts him. When they get home, Heath tells her that he has to step down as the Skull King in order to get her father’s approval to let them marry, and he agreed to do it with.

Catalina is at home alone when she gets a call from Damien, to talk. He had gone by her apartment but she wasn’t there, as she is at Heath’s. He asks to swing by, and she gives him the address. Damien comes by and is impressed with the security, though luckily he doesn’t notice that she has her engagement ring on, and she is able to slip it off into the front pocket of her pants. Damien and Catalina talk about the conversation that Dad had with Heath, and Damien promises that he will try. He invites both of them over to their house for Christmas Morning, which makes Catalina happy. While they’re still talking about their father and Damien’s wedding, Heath comes in and grabs a plate of food for himself. Damien continues eating, so Catalina nudges him, but he kicks her back, so Heath breaks the silence by asking about Catalina’s cooking. The two men talk about the front door, and then as Damien is about to leave, Catalina demands that he tell why he came over to Heath’s. Damien invites them both again to his house for Christmas morning, which surprises Heath. When Catalina threatens to stab Damien for being rude by leaving early, Damien sits down with Heath and the two men talk about when he is leaving the Skull Kings, with Heath telling Damien it will most likely be two weeks. They even talk about Vox and how Heath is trying to find him, as well as how the new Skull King might demand Damien to give him the money. Damien leaves, and Heath is angry—it turns out that he noticed that Catalina had taken off her ring again, and tells her to either put it on or not but not to go back and forth, and to choose to either be with him or not. They argue about it a little bit, and Catalina raises the point that her father said that he couldn’t marry her until he quit, to which Heath says that he didn’t say anything about putting a ring on it. Heath reiterates that he doesn’t care about whether she wants to wear the ring or not, but it’s the idea of her taking it on and off as if she’s not certain about her commitment, which is what this symbolizes. Catalina chooses to put it on and never take it off, including wearing it when they go over to her family on Christmas morning.

Catalina starts to leave later that evening, and Heath catches her, so she offers for him to come with her to buy him a gift. She has a whole plan on how she could take him with her without him seeing where they are going and what she is purchasing for him, so Heath agrees. Later, they spend some time watching Home Alone, and Catalina quickly puts it together that Heath hasn’t ever been able to see any Christmas movies because of his upbringing. When she offers to invite Balto and Cassini for Christmas Dinner, Heath doesn’t know what that is, so she explains it and she can see that this is something that excites Heath.

The next morning she wakes up, showers and thinks about the fact that she doesn’t have any money to her name, and that she had started to use Heath’s money which didn’t bother her as much as she thought. They exchange gifts, and Heath gets her pink ballet slippers—something he purchased her a month prior. She really loves them though she is doubtful that she will return to dancing. In return, she gives him a wedding band that matches his tattoos. He loves it a lot and takes off the Skull King ring, telling her that he prefers this ring anyway.

They arrive at Damien’s house with presents, and Catalina notices that he is taking it well. Heath tells her that compared to him and Damien attempting to kill each other, breakfast is going to be like taking a nap. She walks through the door and introduces Heath to Patricia, Damien’s housekeeper, as her fiancé. She walks into the dining room, and Annabella screams when she sees Catalina’s engagement ring. Heath just drops off the presents and watches the reactions of Catalina’s family members, noting that Richard recovered a lot faster than Damien. Richard congratulates his daughter, and then orders his son to get up and do the same. Damien doesn’t do that, and instead looks at Heath, telling him that this wasn’t the deal, though Heath points out that he didn’t marry Catalina, he asked her to marry him and is still going to uphold his side of the deal. Damien struggles with this and Richard talks to Damien about it all, telling his son to let it go and be happy for his sister, which also raises Heath’s respect for Richard. They all go around shaking hands, and there is some tension between Heath and Damien, though Damien nods at Anna to free her to greet Heath. Later, when they’re opening up presents, and Catalina and Damien argue about getting each other gifts, Heath talks to Richard. He tells Richard about his twin brother, and how Catalina chased him off, punching him in the face while thinking that it was Heath. They talk about Catalina and what traits she gets from her father, and mother, and then Richard asks Heath what he purchased for her for Christmas, to which Heath tells him it’s pink ballet slippers. He explains the significance of them to Richard—her fear and how he wants it to be a reminder that she will get back to dancing. The conversation then turns into Heath’s Skull King Ring, and Heath tells him that he’s got a successor in mind but still needs to tie a loose end. Then he realizes that Richard asked about the ring, asking him how he’d know about the ring. Richard tells him that this stays between them, and then reveals that he was once the Skull King.

This secret changes the way that Heath sees Catalina, in that he loves her more and realizes that she is made for him. He knows that it’s not a secret that he can share with Catalina or Damien, and Damien doesn’t know, because otherwise he would have understood Heath better. It also explains why Richard is so different with Heath, giving him a chance when Damien wouldn’t. In the days after Christmas, Heath and Catalina have more sex, though she doesn’t understand what has gotten into him. One night, he tells her good night and goes out to work.

Catalina wakes up upon hearing what sounds like a train crashing into the building. She realizes it is someone trying to break into the house near the entrance, and realizes that she wouldn’t be able to drive away as that is too risky. She calls Heath as she runs for the door, and he picks right up, telling her it will take them a while to get through the door but he’s on his way. He coaches her on how to get an automatic rifle and what to do, telling her that he’s called Balto and Damien already and they are on their way but that he will get there first. He tells her he loves her and hangs up. She hears as people enter through the door and someone calls out into the house. She hides from sight and waits, striking at the right moment, shooting with the gun. She runs out of bullets, while the last man is standing and taunting her, so she goes to the closet to grab more, but is only able to get a pistol before the guy shoots at the glass near her. She stands her ground against the man but he grabs her anyway, and starts dragging her forward around the house. Heath arrives and is terrified, but finds them in the bedroom. Heath watches them for a moment, but Vox doesn’t let him use his pistol because he puts Catalina in front of him so Heath can’t shoot. He is forced to step aside and tries to bargain with Vox to let her go, but Vox won’t let Catalina go because that keeps Heath in line, before getting her down to the ground. He starts dragging her across the floor by her hair, and at one point she grabs the gun in his pants, clicking the safety, pointing it into Vox’s body and shooting him. Heath pulls her against him after she’s run out of bullets, shooting Vox multiple times, and she cries into his shoulders. Balto comes in to check on them and make sure she is okay, with Damien right behind, but Balto tells him that she’s fine and Heath asks them to give them a minute.

They sit together for a bit, until she calms down, and he tells her that she took out half the men on her own, and tells her that she was a badass for pulling out Vox’s gun from his pants and shooting him. He lets her go and tells Damien that she’s free now, so her brother comes running up to check in on her and make sure she’s fine. She asks him not to hate Heath, and Damien tells her that it’s Heath’s last day anyway as Vox was the loose end. Heath then tells her that he wants her to stay with Damien that night because he wants the place to be cleaned up and he has something to take care of as well. She doesn’t argue.

Heath goes to the Underground while his place is being cleaned, and spends it with the men who work for him—these men no longer have any doubts about Vox, and were happy to get rid of him. He talks to Steel, handing over the Skull Ring to him, telling the man that he is now the Skull King. Steel is surprised but takes it well and Heath tells him that he’s a phone call away. Then he pats people on the back as he heads out of the Underground, and closes a chapter to begin a new one. He visits Balto, talking to him for a little bit about him walking away from the Skull Kings. He tells Balto that Catalina had given him a better ring that he will wear for the rest of his life, and then he tells Balto Richard’s secret, which surprises Balto, and they figure out that he must have been a Skull King something like thirty or forty years ago because Heath never asked him when it was.

Heath then goes to Damien’s house, where he runs into Richard first, and Richard takes him to play chess. Heath tells him that he has resigned, and Richard teaches Heath how to play chess though Heath is a very fast learner, winning on his first round. Catalina comes down when she hears that Heath is there from Patricia, and comes down to watch Heath win the first match. They come home later and Catalina realizes that it has been cleaned of the marks and the bad memories, because Heath had a crew out there working on cleaning it up. He promises to take her to his house in Tuscany, where he grows the sunflowers for her. Heath tells her that her father is not the type of person who likes it when others throw their game for him to keep winning, which surprises her because that is what she had done. They talk about getting married, and she says that she has always wanted a summer wedding, but Heath tells her that he cannot wait that long to marry her. They check in with each other, Heath confirming that he’s not going to be bored married to her, and Catalina confirms that she’s okay after everything that happened.

Heath takes her to the cobblestone house in the Tuscan countryside, and Catalina loves it, though she admits that it’s not a house he would buy. He tells her that he actually won it in a poker match. He realizes that they’re moving and also shows her the greenhouse, before they go and lay in the master bedroom. Catalina asks him if they could get married in the greenhouse, and admits that she just wants a small wedding with her family and his. He says that he would marry her wherever and whenever, and so she suggests that they get married on Saturday. So Heath tells her that he will start moving them over into this house, with his brother’s help, and make sure that everything is perfect while she stays at her brother’s place. He also tells her it would be romantic if they could sleep apart for five days until they get married.

Balto helps Heath move, and set up the new place, along with Cassini’s help. They talk a bit of shit with each other, and joke. Richard and Damien stop by to check in and see how the house is coming along, and Richard comments that he sees his daughter everywhere on the walls. Damien gets a tour, and Heath shows him the greenhouse, where they talk some more about Catalina, their past, how Richard had taken a liking to Heath, and Damien admits that his mother would have loved him. Damien admits to Heath that what changed his mind on giving him his approval was how much Catalina misses Heath when he’s not around.

The night before the wedding, Catalina plays against her dad while talking about Heath and the house. She wins, so Damien plays against her and tells her that he had a conversation with Heath, in which he told Heath that he approves of him. The day of the wedding arrives, and Catalina gets dressed in her mother’s wedding dress, which was modified a bit to fit her style. Damien drives her to the house, with their father in front, and Anna in the back with Catalina. She sees Balto and Cassini near the door with Heath, and she gets out. She can tell that Heath loves the dress, as she walks to him, but she cannot wait much longer so she makes her way to him as soon as possible. After dinner, Balto welcomes her to the family before leaving. Damien embraces Heath with a hug, and her dad gives her a kiss on the cheek before telling her that she looks even more beautiful than her mother. Richard turns to Heath and tells him to come over whenever he wants because he wants a rematch. Heath locks the door and comments on her dress, and then takes her to bed.

Years later, the curtains close and Clint sits on Heath’s lap, so Heath grabs his hands and helps Clint clap for mommy. Marie, his daughter, sits with Grandpa and claps as well. He guides them to the back stage, as Marie and Clint say that they will be ballerinas like mom, and Clint runs off towards Catalina the minute that he sees her. She gives Clint and Marie kisses, and Marie comments about becoming a ballerina, to which Catalina responds that they will get her slippers tomorrow so she can start dancing if she’d like. Catalina then gives her father a hug and a kiss, thanking him for coming, and then turns to face Heath—he’s been the last priority since they had kids, except for when they’re in bed together, and he becomes the top priority. They kiss, while Richard tells the kids off about using makeup as crayons, and talk about finding a dark alleyway somewhere.

My Thoughts: Whoa, this is by far the strongest story and ending in the series. I loved Sofia and Hades, but this was next level with the heart break and rollercoaster of emotions. I am so damn happy that Catalina and Heath ended up together, and Damien came around somewhat—though I did notice that there was no epilogue for Damien and Annabella, which is strange as I would have like to know whether or not they also had children and had a happy life, though I don’t really like Damien at all after this book. Such a level of chemistry between Catalina and Heath, and it feels like something that would happen to actual soulmates. I really loved this story and ending, and I know that it will take a little while for me to become okay with the heartbreak of saying goodbye to them. It’s a wonderful read.