Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
I snatched my ringing cellphone off my desk, saw Shannon’s name, and smiled.
“Hey. How’s everything going?”
There was a beat of silence then conversationally Shannon started, “You know, in the last few weeks I’ve realized in all the years I’ve known you I’ve never heard you happy.”
That felt like a punch to the gut.
“Shannon—”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m here for it, Lizzy. Happy sounds good on you.”
“Thanks,” I whispered.
When I first called Shannon to tell her I’d be emailing in my resignation I was worried she’d be pissed. Then I felt bad because I was still out on medical leave and was calling her instead of giving her the respect of a face-to-face meeting. But within minutes she’d gone from boss to friend and assured me she understood. Since then she’d called me once a week to check in on me. There were still loose ends with the ATF, when the charges got sorted with Jake Sutton and his friends, I’d have to testify, and Greg had been in touch numerous times to discuss my after-action brief. But I’d finished my official employment while recovering in Georgia.
“Business first then I want to hear about your new job,” she declared, sliding back into her Branch Chief tone. “This morning Frank quit.”
“What?”
“Quit. No notice, just walked into my office, tossed his credentials and service weapon on my desk, and told me to go fuck myself.”
I rolled my lips to stop from laughing.
“Why are you laughing? I know you want to.”
“I can’t believe he did that.” I chuckled.
“Yes, you can. He’s a disrespectful twit on top everything else he is, or I should say isn’t. If you tell anyone I said this, I’ll deny it, but as soon as he left I closed my door and danced around my desk with both middle fingers up. Good riddance.”
Damn, I wished I could’ve been there to witness that.
“My lips are sealed. But now you’re down two agents.”
“With you gone it feels like I’m down five,” she muttered and that felt good. “Frank being gone is a relief. We’ve got three new agents rolling in next week. I hesitate to say this but they have to be better than Frank. Unfortunately none of them will be you.”
“I’d say I’m sorry, but I love my new job.”
“I’d love it, too, if I worked for Carter Lenox—both of them, Nick Clark, and Jason Walker.”
Shannon was in a committed relationship with a very nice man named Elliot. They’d never married but had been together for twenty-one years so I knew she wasn’t talking about my three bosses being the hallmark of good-looking men (even though they were). She was talking about their reputations in the private security sector.
“The other thing I wanted to tell you is Melanie Hurst turned herself in.”
Out of all the players, it was the coffee shop owner Melanie that had managed to get out of Rogersville unnoticed and hide out for the last two months.
“Did she have anything interesting to say?”
“Better. She has voice recordings of her meetings with Mackenzie Archer.”
Hell to the yes.
“Tennessee’s a one-party consent state,” I noted.
In some states you needed all parties to consent to a conversation being recorded. Tennessee was not one of those states.
“Mackenzie’s fucked.”
I smiled at that. Though I’d been smiling a lot since I got home to Georgia.
“Is this privileged or may I tell Allyson?”
“Tell her, I’m sure she’ll be happy.”
She would be. I couldn’t say Allyson smiled a lot these days, but she was getting better. She’d moved back to Georgia and in with her sister Jessica. Colleen would be moving to Hollow Point next week. The other members had scattered. It hurt my heart that only a few of them stayed in touch with each other, most of them just wanted to move on from Mackenzie Archer and Nu Dawn. None of the community members stood by Mackenzie.
“Okay, business done, tell me what’s going on with you.”
I glanced down at my ring. That time my smile was so big it hurt my face.
“I’m engaged.”
I startled and had to pull my phone away from my ear because Shannon’s screech was so loud.
Yeah, I’d missed a lot of signs when my head was screwed up, including Shannon had always been more than just my boss, she’d made numerous attempts to be my friend. It was me who didn’t recognize the gestures.
It sucked I no longer lived close to her, but I knew I could firmly call her my friend.
We chatted for a little while longer before I had to go. I had a standing lunch date I had to get to. We rang off, I grabbed my purse, hustled out of my office, down the hall, peeked into Tucker’s office, and seeing it empty I made my way to reception.
Lily was already waiting for me.
The woman was always five minutes early and I was always two minutes late.
“Sorry.”
Lily waved off my apology and pulled me in for a tight hug like she hadn’t seen me for years when I’d seen her yesterday. Damn, but I loved this woman.
“Ally and Ren will be right back; they went to grab Liberty.”
Since that day in the hospital when Lily saw me at one of the lowest points of my life, she’d succeeded in keeping her promise.
She’d seen me through.
She’d held my hand when I first saw Tucker.
She’d held me while I cried.
She and Lenox had stood by my side when I’d talked to Tucker’s doctor.
The both of them were all in to help me heal.
Lenox by hilariously calling himself a girl dad of a grown woman who drove him crazy. I’d reminded him, I wouldn’t drive him crazy if he didn’t insist on doing the most bizarre things for me like taking my car in for new tires because he deemed them unsafe. Tucker told me not to fight this, so I didn’t but I did demand to pay for my own damn tires. My insistence was what drove Lenox crazy. The weird part? When Lenox complained about me being hardheaded and not allowing him to take care of what he felt he needed to, it felt good. When he rumbled, it made me smile. When he frowned at me when I would’ve give in, I felt love.
It was the strangest, most beautifully weird thing I’d ever felt.
Lily was quieter in her care and protection and it was different than Lenox’s. Lily was a mom, she loved her boys. Her watching my mother tear me to shreds had awoken the mama bear and now at her demand we had lunch once a week. Sometimes it was the two of use, sometimes Liberty or Ren would join, and other times like today, Allyson would meet us and we’d all go out.
Speaking of Ally, she and Ren rounded the corner sans Liberty.
“She’ll be right out,” Ren told us but my attention was on Allyson.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
“Who me?” Ally singsonged.
I glanced at Lily. She smiled but shrugged. No help there. Ren pinched her lips to hide her grin, she knew what had Ally smiling.
That was something else that made me love my job. Not only had everyone welcomed me, this included all of the Lenox, Clark, Walker, and McCoy families but the women had welcomed Ally and her sister Jessica. Ren and Ally had become good friends, and Ally and Jess had gone with me and Tucker to Chelsea and Matt’s to help them put in temporary fencing for the horses. Construction on their new barn was due to start in a few weeks. Tucker had been right, the insurance company was jacking Matt around. He was paying out of pocket and very loudly and creatively told the insurance people where they could shove it.
“Ally?”
“I have a date,” she blurted.
“Really? That’s great.”
“He’s a fireman,” Ren announced. “I’m waiting for Quinn to text me back to see if she knows him.”
Fire.
God, if I never hear that word or any form of it again or see flames again it’ll be too soon.
Quinn’s husband Brice was a fireman.
“You know just because Brice and Jackson are firefighters doesn’t mean they know every fireman in Georgia,” Lily put in.
I forgot Jackson Clark, Nick’s brother, was a firefighter, too.
“I know, I just want the scoop if there’s one to be had.”
Something I learned about Ren, she liked to meddle. Not in an ugly way, in a friendly, rabid way that made her a good friend.
“Scoop about what?” Lenox’s voice boomed around reception. “How’s my girl?”
He was talking to me. I’d learned Lily was his woman, I was his girl.
Something else that could’ve been seen as offensive, I was hardly a girl, but damn if I didn’t love it.
“Great. Though my oatmeal wore off hours ago and I’m starving.”
Lenox’s gaze dropped to my left hand. A slow smile formed. No one had noticed my ring and I hadn’t made a big deal about it or announced my engagement to anyone but Shannon. Tucker could’ve said something but the way Lenox was smiling made goose bumps pebble on my arms.
“Did you know?” I asked.
Lenox’s eyes lifted and his smile turned smug.
“Of course I did, he’s a good man, smart, too. So seeing as he is smart he knew better than to ask you without my permission.”
I didn’t bother fighting my eye roll.
“Ask about what?” Ren inquired.
I lifted my hand and showed off my diamond.
“Eek!”
Yes, Ren actually said eek. The woman was crazy in all the best ways.
“Oh my God! You’re getting married!” Ally did a little jump and clapped her hands. “Dress shopping and I’m calling being a bridesmaid.”
Yes, she absolutely would be a bridesmaid. No, she’d be my maid of honor, without her I wouldn’t have Tucker.
I felt him before I saw him.
Tucker Mitchell, the sexiest, bravest, most honorable man I knew.
And all mine.