Chapter 19
The sheets were tangled around Baily’s legs like seaweed, damp with sweat and the weight of another dream that slipped through her fingers the moment her eyes opened.
Her heart raced. The dark pressed in thick around her, and for a moment, she thought she was still trapped in a nightmare—until she realized the bed beside her was empty.
“Fletcher?” she whispered, voice raw from sleep.
No answer.
She sat up, clutching the sheet to her chest. Moonlight streamed through the open curtains, casting silver patterns on the hardwood floor.
She spotted him, a silhouette by the window, one shoulder propped against the frame, arms crossed as he stared out at the Everglades, like he was trying to read a message written in the stars.
“Fletcher,” she called again.
“Hey,” he whispered, glancing over his shoulder, his expression shadowed but soft. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“You didn’t.” She stood and padded across the room, wrapping her arms around his middle and resting her cheek against his bare back. His skin was cool, the tension in his body unmistakable. “What’s got you up?” she murmured. “Another nightmare?”
“Not this time. But there are too many ghosts out there,” he said.
“Too many what-ifs. I keep thinking about the boys. About what kind of life they’ve had.
I wonder what they know. Or don’t know. I worry about all the questions they’re going to have and how we’re going to answer them.
When I got out of bed and looked out this window, I was reminded of all the times Ken and I played out in that yard as kids.
How we’d catch snakes, and frogs, and torment you and Audra. ”
“There was a lot of tormenting going on.” Baily smiled against his skin.
“I loved my childhood here and even when you and I were at our worst, I still thought…believed…I’d always end up back here someday, in this house, with you, and that we’d be sitting on that porch watching a couple of kids do all the dumb things we did.
But now, I’m trying to envision what kind of life we can give Todd and Chad because it’ll be so very different from what they’ve known.
Neither of us has seen them since they were three and five. A lot can change in three years.”
“That’s some deep midnight thinking.” Baily kissed his shoulder and stared out at the ripples on the water.
The swamp shimmered in the moonlight, beautiful and unknowable.
Inviting and dangerous. The Everglades were both heaven and hell.
And this was the only place she ever wanted to be.
“We’ve made calls. We’ve done everything we can.
Enzo said the lawyer’s solid. But I just..
. I don’t know if that’s enough. I don’t have anything, Fletcher.
No money, no fancy legacy. Just a crumbling marina that, even after all this, might not still make it.
Even if all that money Ken stuffed away manages to be legal, it should go to his boys for their future. ”
He didn’t say anything right away. He just kissed her temple, then reached into the drawer of the nightstand, pulled something out, and then turned back to her. “We have everything because we have each other.”
“You sound like your grandma.” Baily smiled.
“She was a smart woman, and she always told me that people are more important than things. That the right partner in life mattered more than anything else because if you had that, you’d be able to make things happen.
Look at our friends. Dawson and Audra, they’re pure gold together, like two sides to a coin.
And Keaton and Trinity are the poster children for why opposites attract. ”
Baily giggled. “And Hayes and Chloe are like a perfectly worn pair of boots.”
“That’s one way of describing them.” He nodded.
“So, what’s your weird metaphor for us?”
“We’re like a river. We came together too fast, too soon. We split, gained strength, knowledge, and power, and then collided together at just the right moment to become one.”
Tears burned the corner of her eyes. “Well, oh, my Fletcher Dane. You just might’ve hit your first romantic note.”
“And at precisely the right moment.” He lifted his hand. A diamond ring sparkled in the moonlight, elegant and simple, set in a band that looked strong enough to survive a hurricane.
She gasped.
“I was going to wait,” he said. “Until things settled. Until we could breathe. But then I realized—we don’t get guarantees, Baily. Not in this life. We only get the people we trust. The ones who fight for us.”
He slipped the ring onto her finger, slowly and deliberately, as if anchoring her in place.
“Everything I have is yours. This house, the old Crab Shack, the airboats, every spare bolt in that shed. You’ve always had my heart.
There’s never been anyone but you in that space.
We’re better together. We always have been.
In the shadows of these damn Glades, I will never stop being your lighthouse. ”
“Now, you’re just being corny.”
He shrugged. “I tried.”
“Maybe a little too hard.” With tears in her eyes, she lifted her hand and stared at the ring. “It’s beautiful. Your mom loved this ring. She used to always tell me that someday, she’d take it off and give it to you to give to…” She let the words trail off. “I miss her.”
“I miss her, too.” He pressed his lips over the ring on her finger. “This ring was always meant for you. No one else. What do you say, Baily Mitchell? Will you marry me?”
She opened her mouth, but she didn’t get the chance to speak.
A sound—sharp, jarring—echoed from downstairs.
They both froze.
Fletcher moved first, stepping away and grabbing the Glock from the drawer. He handed her a second handgun, smaller, but still deadly. “I know how much you hate these, but—”
“No, I’m good.” She nodded. “I’ve been practicing with Audra, just like you asked me to.”
“Stay behind me.”
They crept down the stairs in silence, the creak of the old wood beneath their feet sounding like thunder in the otherwise still house.
The living room light was on.
Baily’s heart jumped to her throat. They always turned that light off.
They rounded the corner into the open kitchen.
“Don’t move.” A man’s voice. Cold. Familiar.
And there they stood.
Julie. Damen. Valenia.
And Bingo.
Bingo was on his knees, a split lip and blood at his temple, with his arms yanked behind his back. A gun pressed to his head by Julie with her perfectly manicured hands.
Valenia stood behind her with a small duffel bag in one hand. Damen looked bored—like he was at a PTA meeting and not holding a young man’s life in the balance.
“Nice place,” Valenia said calmly, eyes flicking to Fletcher’s gun. “But I’d suggest you put that down unless you want to clean up what’s left of Baily’s dockhand.”
Baily’s scream caught in her throat. The ring on her finger suddenly felt like a target.
“Not gonna happen.” Fletcher didn’t lower the weapon. His arm didn’t even tremble. “Let him go.”
Julie smiled—cold and calculating. “Let’s talk about what you’re going to do for us first.”
Fletcher took one small step forward, angling his body as if to shield Baily’s. She felt the shift in his energy—focused, fierce, utterly unafraid.
Where Baily was horrified—totally and unequally terrified.
She’d been in situations before that any normal person would describe as harrowing.
She’d come face-to-face with a six-foot rattlesnake.
She’d killed pythons. She’d been one wrong step away from being taken out by an alligator.
All things that happened in the Everglades, and people living there didn’t bat an eyelash.
She’d even had to deal with old man Jenkins when he’d threatened Cooney and his chickens with a loaded shotgun. That was never fun and could always lead to being on the wrong end of a stray bullet.
But this? Watching her eighteen-year-old deckhand being held at gunpoint by her brother’s wife? No. This was crazy town.
“Let the boy go. He’s got nothing to do with this,” Fletcher said. “And then we’ll talk.”
Julie tugged at Bingo’s hair, jerking his head back and running the metal of her weapon against his neck.
Bingo’s eyes grew wide, registering fear, but he didn’t cry. He didn’t whimper. He simply went rigid. Tense. Like fear gave way to anger.
“This one, he’s loyal,” Julie said. “Unlike my idiot husband.” She shook her head. “My parents seriously miscalculated his loyalties.” She smacked the weapon against Bingo’s cheek. It cracked open his skin. Blood trickled out.
“Leave him alone,” Baily cried, setting her gun on the counter with a shaky hand. “What do you want?”
“Two things.” Valenia wiggled her fingers.
“You give us the account information for the money Ken stole and stop your fight for custody of the boys. We have a plan for them, and no way are you part of it. If you don’t do those two things, we kill this young man right in your kitchen, you two will go to prison for it. ”
Fletcher had the nerve to laugh.
“I’m so glad you find this amusing, son,” Damon said.
“Don’t ever call me, son.” Fletcher kept his weapon aimed right at Damon’s heart. “No one would ever believe either one of us would kill Bingo. Your plan is seriously flawed.”
Valenia pulled out a folder from the bag, opened it, and set it on the counter. Inside were pictures…pictures of Baily and Bingo…together…looking intimate.
Baily gasped. “Those are fake,” she managed.
“Not the point. It’s enough of a deflection to cause a stir and an inquiry.” Valenia smiled. “Such a shame, and it looks like you got engaged recently, too. Your reputation will be tarnished. Such a tricky thing for someone like you to come back from.”
“You’re disgusting.” Baily glanced at Bingo, who hadn’t moved, nor said a word. Just stared at Fletcher with a hardened expression.
“This isn’t a very good plan,” Fletcher said with an amused tone. “First, we don’t have the money. It’s not being released anytime soon.”