Chapter 13 The Merger
One hour earlier
T hough Gage was under contract to protect Ella, he couldn’t have taken his eyes off her if he’d wanted to. She looked so beautiful in her red dress that it made his heart ache.
Despite the fact that Johnny was hovering like a pesky fly by her other elbow, Gage wound an arm possessively around her waist and drew her snuggly against his side.
Johnny raised his eyebrows at him over her head, but he kept his mouth shut for once.
They flashed their badges at the nurse’s station in the intensive care unit. Without any fuss, they were ushered into the patient hallway, where they found the police buzzing around Jordan’s room.
Cassie Cordell was weeping in the doorway as she gave her statement to the sheriff. Her blonde ponytail was frazzled, and she was in cutoff jean shorts and a wrinkled flannel shirt that looked like they’d been thrown on at the last second .
Luke Hawling nodded at Gage to acknowledge their presence, but he didn’t look surprised.
“May I see him?” Ella quavered.
Cassie nodded, wiping her eyes. “We were just about finished. Right, sheriff?”
“Right.” Luke scribbled something else in his electronic notebook before shutting it. He angled his head at the stretch of hallway past Jordan’s door, indicating to Gage that he’d like to speak with him away from the others.
“Can you give me a minute first?” Gage needed to see for himself that Jordan was going to be okay.
“Yep.” The sheriff reached out to clap him on the shoulder. “Take as long as you need.”
“Thanks.” Gage remained glued to Ella’s side as Cassie led them to Jordan’s bedside.
His face was swollen almost beyond recognition.
Gage felt Ella’s breath leave her chest in a whoosh of agony. “Oh, Jordan,” she whispered.
He hugged her tighter against his side, noting out of the corner of his eye that Johnny had respectfully removed his Stetson.
“He was with Western Storm, as usual.” Cassie sniffled damply as she reached for his hand. It was heavily bandaged, so all she could do was lightly run her fingers over the white gauze. “I was catching up on some files at the front desk. Even though we got the back door repaired, the intruder broke it clean off its hinges this time. I?—
“Wait a sec,” Gage interrupted. “You think it was the same guy?”
“It’s just a gut feeling,” she declared hastily. “I can’t prove it, since we don’t have a security camera, but he was after Ella again, just like last time. When I heard the commotion and ran into the stable with a gun, the man was literally trying to beat her whereabouts out of Jordan.” A sob tore out of her at the memory. “The doctor says he has taser burns on his chest, so it wasn’t a fair fight.”
His heart pounded at the possibilities her testimony laid open. “Can you describe him?” She’d already told the police, but he hoped she’d be willing to repeat her story to him.
She threw her hands into the air. “This is the part where you write me off as crazy, because he didn’t have a face. Not really. It was all…” She paused to circle a finger around her own face, “melted together or something. I could see the indentions where his eyes should’ve been, but that’s about it.”
It was him, alright. The same guy Ella had described who’d attacked her father.
Gage exchanged troubled looks with her and Johnny.
“What?” Cassie demanded, frowning at the three of them. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Johnny waved a hand impatiently at him, urging him to confide what they knew about Jordan’s attacker. Gage gave him a rigid up-down nod. “The faceless creature you just described may have been at the scene of another crime.”
Her frown deepened. “Oka-a-ay.”
“Would you be willing to meet with a sketch artist to recreate the melted face?” He dropped his arm from around Ella so he could dig out his cell phone.
“Right now?” Cassie looked astounded.
“Only if I can reach my brother.” He mashed Rock’s speed dial button, fully expecting it to go to voicemail. As a precaution, he stepped outside the room to lean against the wall in the hallway while it rang.
Rock picked up on the fourth ring. “How’d you know I was back in town?” His familiar voice rang jovially across the line.
“I didn’t.” Gage tipped his head back against the wall, thankful to hear that his last living relative had survived yet another deployment. “So, what’s next? A long-overdue vacay, I hope? One with a detour to Heart Lake, I also hope.”
“About that,” Rock drawled. “I was thinking more along the lines of borrowing your guest house for a few days. Or weeks. Or months.”
Gage gripped the phone tighter. “What’s going on?” As a retired Army Ranger, he was well aware that the military didn’t send their soldiers on vacation for months on end.
“Medical retirement, bro.” Rock sounded wry. “I took some shrapnel in the knee and underwent a few surgeries.”
“When?” Gage didn’t realize he’d spoken so loudly until a few heads turned in his direction.
“Couple of months ago.”
Gage swallowed a groan. “You’ve been in the hospital all this time? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m telling you now.”
Gage straightened and started pacing the hallway. “How soon can you get here?” He’d have to figure out living arrangements, but there was plenty of room in the farmhouse.
“I’m about to pull into your driveway, bro,” Rock bragged. “You home?”
“Nope. I’m visiting a friend at the medical center.”
“That’s alright.” Rock didn’t sound the least bit bothered about crashing into his life like a twister on the water blowing inland. “I know where you keep the spare key to the guest house.”
“It’s occupied.” He hated admitting it over the phone, knowing it would raise a bunch of questions he didn’t have time to answer.
“Who?” Rock had always been skilled at zooming in on the most important stuff, including the stuff Gage didn’t want to talk about.
“My girlfriend. It’s a long story. I’ll be sure to share it during our next slumber party.” His voice was dry. “In the meantime, what are the odds of you turning yourself around…” He had no idea what his brother was driving these days. “And hightailing it to the Heart Lake Medical Center? We’re in urgent need of a sketch artist here in the intensive care wing.”
“Oh?” Gage heard the skid of tires in the background.
“Please assure me you didn’t just do a donut in my driveway.” He’d just had new gravel laid earlier in the day.
“Nope. It was your front yard,” Rock joked.
It wasn’t, because skidding on the grass didn’t sound like that. “Just get here, okay?”
“Give me five minutes, bro.”
“Ten,” Gage barked back.
Rock chuckled. “In case you don’t recognize me, I’m the guy with the long hair and the permanent limp.”
“Man!” Gage’s shoulders slumped. “I’m so sorry.”
“Hey, at least I can walk,” Rock cajoled. Then he sobered. “One of my squad mates will never walk again. A third guy came home in a box.”
So, whatever had gone down was bad. “I’m sorry, Rock. Really sorry.” About the loss of his comrade. About his battle wounds. About his career that had been short-circuited. Gage remained in the hallway, bracing himself for whatever he was about to see.
In exactly eight and a half minutes, a rangy-looking guy limped into the hallway with an olive backpack slung over one shoulder. Gage was grateful to Rock for giving him a heads up about his forthcoming arrival. Otherwise, he might not have recognized his own brother.
Though clean, his dark hair was in desperate need of a haircut, and he’d lost a lot of weight. Too much. His t-shirt and basketball shorts were bagging on him like a beach towel on a broomstick. His left leg was covered with bandages, and he was all but dragging it along. If it weren’t for the cane in his hand, he probably wouldn’t have been able to remain upright. He belonged in a wheelchair.
They reached for each other in moving silence, holding each other in a rib crunching death squeeze for a long, emotion-charged moment. Gage’s eyes were damp when he finally let his brother go. “Are you in much pain?”
“Only right here.” Rock slapped a fist against his heart. There were shadows beneath his eyes and deep within them, the badge that most soldiers wore after returning from combat.
He was lying about not being in any physical pain. They both knew it. There was no way a leg in that bad of shape wasn’t keeping Rock in an excruciating amount of pain. However, there was a desperate note in his voice that told Gage he didn’t want to dwell on the negative right now, so Gage changed the subject.
“You ready to sketch?” He scanned the area and found the sheriff leaning on the counter at the nurse’s station, cradling a cardboard cup of coffee. He nodded in their direction and headed their way.
“This is my brother, Rock,” Gage announced proudly. “He just returned from a deployment. Rock, this is Sheriff Luke Hawling.”
Luke thrust out a hand, ever so briefly dipping his gaze to Rock’s cane and bandages. “Thank you for your service, soldier.”
“Right back atcha, sheriff.” They shook hands heartily.
Gage lowered his voice, stepping closer to Luke. “Is there someplace private we can go to have Ella and Cassie sit with Rock for a few minutes? He’s a sketch artist.”
“No kidding?” Luke looked ready to salivate in his cup of coffee. “What I wouldn’t give to have someone like you on staff at the police department.”
“It may not be as unlikely as you think.” Gage gave his brother a speculative look. “He just retired.” Rock was twelve years younger than him. There was no way a twenty-six-year-old was ready to stay home and play video games for the rest of his life.
“First things first.” Rock swung his backpack from his shoulder and unzipped it to retrieve his electronic pen and tablet. “Let’s figure out who your perp is.”
The sheriff scrounged up a small break room that the nursing staff promised they could use uninterrupted, and Rock went to work.
Despite how long it had been since Ella’s father had been murdered, she was able to remember details about his attacker with startling clarity. Also of note was how well her and Cassie’s descriptions overlapped.
Rock was able to draw a decent rendition of the guy’s height, build, and murky features. He airdropped it to the sheriff’s work phone. “The next part is up to you, chief.”
“Thanks.” The sheriff called it in to his department and had the deputy on night duty run it through their facial recognition program. Unfortunately, there was no match to it in the system.
Gage was disappointed but not surprised. Since he was seated next to Ella in the break room, he reached for her hand beneath the table. Twining their fingers together, he rested them on his thigh. “It might not hurt to have your mother weigh in on the sketch, since she was there, too.” It was a long shot, but she might remember something the other two had missed. Something significant.
The sheriff’s phone buzzed with an incoming message. He read it, frowning, and shoved back his chair.
“Raleigh Bolander was shot. If anyone asks, you didn’t hear it from me.” He waved his phone at them on his way out the door. “It’s going viral on social media.”
Ella caught her breath sharply. “I hope my mom made it home before it—” She paused when her phone started ringing. She accepted the call, lifting the phone to her ear. “Mom?” She listened. Then she covered the mouthpiece to hiss, “She’s in the ER with my uncle.”
Gage caught Johnny’s eye. “You mind hanging back with Cassie and Jordan?” There were police swarming the hallway, but he preferred having their own eyes and ears on the action.
“Not at all.” Johnny eyed Rock’s bum leg. “You wanna have my back, bro, since he’s ditching me?”
Rock smirked. “As long as it involves a few cups of coffee and holding down a chair, count me in.”
For an answer, Johnny leaped to his feet to go brew them a round at the coffee station against the wall.
Gage leaned closer to his brother’s chair on his way out of the room. “If you head back to my place, you know where I keep the key for the farmhouse, too. Make yourself at home.”
Rock bumped fists with him.
Ella grappled with a mix of emotions as she and Gage stepped into the ER waiting room to meet with her family.
The fact that she had family again was both wonderful and terrifying. It meant she was no longer alone in the world. But having family came with a whole set of its own challenges. For one thing, it meant she had something to lose again.
The biggest question burning inside her was why Uncle Raleigh has been targeted this time. Had her mother been with him when it happened? Had the bullet he’d taken been intended for her?
A disheveled version of her mother came stumbling in their direction. Her silk pantsuit was wrinkled and stained, and she was walking with a mild limp.
“Mom! Are you okay?” Ella lunged in her direction.
“I’m fine. Your uncle is not. He’s in surgery.” Her mother enclosed Ella in her arms. “Oh, honey,” she sighed brokenly. It was all she said for the longest time. Then she let Ella go and drew Gage into their tight huddle. She announced shakily, “If Raleigh Bolander survives the shooting, he and I have decided to get married.”
“Wh-what?” Ella felt her knees grow weak. She leaned against Gage for support. His arm came around her shoulders, cuddling her closer. After being alone for so long, it was a wonderful feeling to have someone like him in her life. Someone who cared deeply for her. Though it was still early in their relationship, they were a perfect fit on every level, two people who were meant to be together.
“I’m engaged to your Uncle Raleigh,” her mother repeated. “It will merge our two companies and pull you out of the crosshairs once and for all, dearest.” She drew a deep breath. “Or so we hope.”
Ella wanted to ask a thousand questions about the bizarre business transaction her mother was describing. However, her mother’s tearstains held her back. Her anguish over the possibility of losing Uncle Raleigh was telling. There was more going on between the two of them than the age-old feud between their families. More than the memories they shared of Mick Lawton. Just…more.
Whatever it was, it felt real. Like it was meant to be.
There was only one thing left for Ella to do. She sent up a silent prayer to the God she hadn’t spoken to in a while.
It’s me again. Ella. I’m sorry for giving You the cold shoulder for so long. It’s not Your fault that people choose to do bad stuff sometimes. I’m sorry for channeling my anger at You instead of at the nameless, faceless creep who deserves it. And even though You don’t owe me one blessed thing, my uncle seems like a really good man. He didn’t deserve to take that bullet tonight. So, if You would please, please, please, please, please bring him safely through his surgery, I promise things will be different between us going forward. Not just because of the favor I’m asking, but because You deserve it. Period. Amen.
While her uncle was still in surgery, Gage received a call from the sheriff with a crime scene update. Whatever the sheriff told him made him grimace. After he hung up, he slowly lowered his phone from his ear.
“What did he say?” Ella hissed, keeping her voice down so as not to further alarm her mother.
“They found Billy Bob hiding out in one of the silos that was supposedly haunted. He’d rigged himself a makeshift loft apartment in there.”
Her heart sank. “And the shooter?”
His jaw tightened grimly. “They matched the bullet to a gun he had on him. It’s not looking good for him.”
Her heart raced sickeningly. “He shot his own brother? ”
“It might’ve been an accident.” He scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Sounds like he wasn’t too sober.”
“Oh, Gage!” This was bad. Really bad. Her heart ached for her family.
One week later
Avery Radcliffe spun around from the window overlooking Heart Lake. “How do I look?” She was wearing a strapless ivory column gown. Her dyed white-blonde hair was pulled up in a complicated twist of waves and curls that were anchored in place with sprigs of baby’s breath.
“You look stunning.” And happier than you’ve been since I stumbled into town, dragging a mountain of danger behind me. Ella wasn’t surprised that her mother had already owned a suitable gown for a wedding in her impressive wardrobe. The bedroom in Raleigh’s weekend retreat on the lake, however, would require extensive renovating to hold her entire wardrobe — but only if they were planning on living there after they were married, which Ella doubted. Either way, she was glad that her mother would finally have the getaway with lake views that she’d always longed for.
Her mother stepped closer to cup her shoulders. “Please assure me you’re not upset with us for getting married in the middle of our search for Mick’s killer.” Since they were about the same size, she’d lent Ella a strapless A-line dress in lacy red fabric that swished around her knees every time she took a step.
Ella hastened to reassure her. “Considering that you’re doing it to protect me, how could I possibly hold it against you? ”
Her mother looked relieved. “There’s something else you should know, hon. I think Raleigh loves me.” Her mother sounded breathless and off balance. “Years ago, he and Mick were close, and apparently they both, er…” She halted, blushing madly.
“Fell for the same girl?” Ella was thoroughly intrigued by the story.
“According to Raleigh, yes.” Her mother fanned at her face with both hands.
“Who ultimately yielded the playing field to my father?”
“Yes.”
Ella supposed she should be grateful for that. Otherwise, she might not be alive. “Someday, I want to hear the rest of the story.” Her regard for her uncle grew exponentially.
“I think we’re living the next chapter right now.” Her mother’s voice grew tremulous.
A knock sounded on the bedroom door. “That will be Gage.” Her mother spun her toward the sound and gave her a nudge toward the door. “Go. Be happy with him, dearest.”
Ella chuckled. “I’m pretty sure we’re only heading to the sunroom.”
“You know what I mean.” Her mother made a shooing motion. “You caught a good one. I approve. So does Raleigh, in case you’re wondering.”
Ella was still chuckling when she opened the door.
Gage stood there, stealing her breath in his three-piece beige suit. He had a white rose pinned to his lapel.
“No jeans or cargo pants? This is a first.” She placed her hand on his outstretched arm.
“Get your eyeful,” he grumbled good-naturedly. “Because it’ll hopefully be the last time. ”
Her heart sank. “Is that your way of saying you’re not the marrying type?”
“Nope. It’s my way of saying the woman of my dreams better love me enough to marry me in jeans.” He reached over to tip her face up to his. “I love you in red, by the way.”
“Watch the lipstick,” she warned breathlessly.
“I’m watching it.” His mouth came down to hover over hers — close enough for their breath to mingle. “Imagine me kissing you silly, because that’s what I’m going to do after the wedding pictures.”
An exaggerated throat clearing on Johnny’s part made his head come up. “You’re like a cocklebur. You know that?”
Johnny grinned. “Yep. You can always count on me to stick around.” He had on the jeans and Stetson that Gage probably wished he was wearing. However, he’d swapped out the t-shirt he normally wore when he was off duty for a white dress shirt.
“Thanks for being here, Johnny.” Ella sent him a grateful smile. After what had happened to her uncle, they weren’t taking any chances on security today.
“Fair warning.” He broke into a rapid two-step. “You’d better step aside after the ceremony, because I intend to catch the bridal bouquet.”
She burst out laughing. “Aww! You’re that tired of being single?”
He cocked his thumb and forefinger at her.
She shook her head at him in mock dismay. “If you catch the bouquet, I’ll have to abandon my theory about your wife and six kids, once and for all.”
“Yep.” He snickered as he waved them into the living room.
Uncle Raleigh was standing by the mantle with one of the ministers from the church on the lake. Though Ella remembered his face from a Sunday service she’d attended recently, she couldn’t remember his name. He and her uncle were talking like old friends. Uncle Raleigh looked so at ease in his ivory tuxedo that Ella never would’ve guessed he’d taken a through-and-through shot to the left shoulder a week earlier — by his own brother, no less. The story was blowing up across social media. For once, however, the Bolanders had something positive to offset their latest round of bad news. The timing of Raleigh and Avery’s wedding couldn’t have been more perfect.
As soon as she and Gage took their places at the front of the room, Walker Radcliffe led her mother through the doorway. He’d once been a tall man, but he was stooped over and moving much slower these days.
The pinched set to his mouth made Ella’s heart go out to him. Though he had a reputation for being an unpleasant man, she sensed he was in pain — the physical kind. He walked with such a heavy limp that, at times, it appeared her mother was holding him up instead of the other way around.
Ella ventured a quick peek at her Uncle Raleigh and found his eyes glowing like blue fire as he watched his bride approach. Warm reassurance nestled in her heart at the affirmation that her mother was marrying a man who cared deeply for her.
The kiss they shared at the end of the ceremony further corroborated her theory. It was so slow and tender that it made Ella feel like blushing.
When Gage escorted her from the room, his voice sounded low in her ear. “I’m going to kiss you the same way later on.”
The wedding reception took place on the covered boat dock. A long wooden table with benches had been placed out there and dressed with white linen and roses.
Ella was seated with Gage on her left and an achingly familiar face on her right. “Grandmother?” Though she’d called the woman a few times since her arrival in town, all she’d gotten was her voicemail. According to her mother, Betsy Lawton hadn’t been “right” since the brutal loss of her only son. She’d lived like a recluse ever since in a cozy little cottage away from the other employee cabins. She was rarely seen outside the compound, choosing instead to have her groceries and other necessities delivered to her door so she could pass her time doing the only thing that gave her an ounce of peace these days —puttering over the flowerbeds and shrubbery she’d spent her entire career nurturing and sculpting across Bolander & Sons Ranch.
The petite, bird-like woman jolted at the sound of her voice. “Ella!” Her exclamation was accompanied by an intense flash of pain across her features. “It’s so nice to see you again.” The tremor in her voice gave lie to her words, suggesting their encounter was anything but pleasant for her. The pink A-line dress she was wearing had white piping around the collar and the cuffs of its sleeves. It looked like something straight out of a 1950s or 1960s clothing catalogue.
“I tried calling you,” Ella said softly.
“I know.” Her grandmother stared at her plate, blinking. “It’s just so difficult…to be here. Every bit as difficult as I feared it would be.” Despite the hint of a sob in her voice, the irritated look she gave the man to her right had a surprising amount of energy and passion in it.
Ella was surprised to note that her grandmother’s comment had been aimed at none other than Creston Bolander. “I’m sorry, ma’am.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“For what?” Her grandmother snapped out the question. “None of this is your fault. None of it,” she repeated fiercely. “Or mine. The only reason I put on my makeup and showed up today is because I was goaded into it.” It was unclear if she was referring to the tragedy she’d endured or some deep-seated resentment against the Bolanders at large. Or both.
Creston leaned her way to announce in a dramatic rasp, “I choose to believe her presence today is at least partly due to her soft spot for my macaroons.”
“I adored macaroons long before I sampled yours,” she retorted stiffly. However, a faint twinkle had crept into her eyes that was at odds with the rigid set to her shoulders.
“Macaroons that I promised to serve with the side of justice she so righteously deserves,” her grandfather added in a fiercer tone.
Betsy Lawton briefly closed her eyes. “If you do that for me, Creston, I might just have to admit my weakness for your macaroons and bury the hatchet.”
The longing in his gaze as he absorbed her words wasn’t lost on Ella. It dawned on her that she was looking at the prime reason the billionaire owner of Bolander & Sons had never remarried. Whether her grandmother realized it or not, she was his one and only.
It was yet another bittersweet discovery about their dysfunctional family.
Ella wasn’t sure how Gage did it, but he managed to shake Johnny off their trail after the wedding reception .
“There’s something I’d like to show you,” he announced as he drove her back to his homestead. “It’s gonna require you to change into something you don’t mind getting wet in.” He kept glancing through his rearview mirror, making her dart a few glances over her shoulder. She saw nothing out of the ordinary, so she wrote it off as paranoia on her part.
As for what he wanted to show her, she sincerely hoped it involved a return trip to the lake. I’m so very much my mother’s daughter. There was something about the sparkling, sun-drenched water of Heart Lake that enchanted them both.
Like Gage always did, he parked between the farmhouse and the guest house. “Need me to carry you inside, so you don’t scratch your heels on the gravel?”
“Yes, please.” She leaned her head back against the front passenger seat of his Bronco, chuckling, since she knew it was only an excuse to get her back in his arms.
He moved around to her side of the vehicle to open the door. Instead of immediately hauling her into his arms, he pointed at her mouth. “You have two options. Makeup remover or I can kiss your lipstick off.”
She fished out a tissue from her handbag and did the honors. “How’s this?” She puckered her lips and blew a kiss at him.
“Let’s find out.” He leaned inside the vehicle to claim her mouth.
He hadn’t been bluffing about kissing her silly. He drank her in like a man dying of thirst.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on for the ride. “Wow, Gage,” she whispered against his lips when he finally came up for air.
“You mean the world to me, Ella.” He nipped at her lips again.
She smiled adoringly at him. “The wedding got to you, huh?”
“ You got to me, babe.” He leaned in for another kiss, slower and even more tender than the last one. “I love you.”
His words drew a sigh out of her. “Oh, Gage!”
“Was it too soon to say that?” he asked anxiously.
“I think your timing was perfect.” She drew her fingertips down his jaw line. It was sporting an evening shadow, though it was only midday. “Because I love you, too.”
He lightly pressed his forehead to hers. “I can breathe again.”
“I love you so, so much,” she declared softly.
He was still for a moment. “Never mind.” His voice was thick with emotion. “Breathing is overrated.”
As it turned out, Gage had forgotten to return Jillian’s lake pass to her, which turned into an excuse for an impromptu paddleboarding date. He drove Ella to the same gazebo where her mother and Creston Bolander had faced off in the secluded section of the lake. She and Gage had it to themselves again, which was a good thing since she was down a bodyguard at the moment.
They paddled their boards to the middle of the lake, intermittently splashing each other with their paddles.
She only stopped when he used his paddle to point at the tree line separating them from the larger body of water. “There’s a sniper up in that tree.”
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. If he was joking, it wasn’t funny. But he wasn’t. Her heart thudded sickeningly at the glint of a scope.
“What are we going to do?” Was this the end of the road ?
“Nothing. I’m betting they’re on your uncle’s payroll.” He moved his paddle to the opposite bank. “There’s another sniper lying prone behind that pile of rocks.”
“How did my stepdad know we’d be here?” She didn’t know whether to be relieved or horrified.
Gage drifted closer to her on his paddleboard. “Johnny found a tracker on the underside of my Bronco earlier. When he tried to remove it, one of Raleigh Bolander’s personal bodyguards asked him to leave it. He said the groom wasn’t taking any chances on his wedding day.”
No sooner had he spoken than a trio of black Cadillac limos rolled into the parking lot. A man and a woman emerged from the one in the middle. Armed bodyguards spilled onto the pavement to flank them in a semi-circle.
Avery Bolander shaded her eyes to call out, “What are you doing, honey?”
Ella hid a grin and called back, “Enjoying the merger!” With a sheepish look at Gage, she paddled toward her parents.
In short order, they had her and Gage wrapped in beach towels and snuggly ensconced in the middle vehicle with them. The cabin held two wide leather seats facing each other.
“You took a horribly unnecessary risk,” her mother scolded.
“Did we?” Ella gave them a laughing look. “Johnny found the tracker on Gage’s vehicle. And Gage pointed out two snipers embedded around the lake.”
“Snipers!” Her mother gave her new husband a startled look. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
“Yes.” He winked at her. “I love you, Avery Bolander. I always have and always will. ”
Her gaze grew dreamy. “I was talking about the snipers.”
“Oh, that.” He lightly caressed her chin. “That was my way of assuring that no more mercenaries packing guns will get anywhere near the biggest blessings God has ever given me. That would be you,” he assured tenderly. “And our daughter.”
“Ah.” She broke into a tinkling laugh. “That’s what she meant about enjoying the merger.”
“Yes. That.” He reached for her hand.
“This is the best wedding gift ever,” she gushed, giving him a joyful hug.
“I was hoping you’d feel that way.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “How about we get back to enjoying our end of the merger?”
“I would love to.” The dazed look in her eyes suggested she was only dimly aware that Ella and her boyfriend were still in the car with them.
Ella and Gage were soon back on the dock with their beach towels, waving goodbye to her parents.
“Wow!” She stared in wonder at the disappearing taillights. “What should we do next?”
“Anything you want to, apparently.” His grin was challenging. They had a security detail surrounding their security detail.
“Let’s get back to our quest for justice.” There was nothing she wanted more.
“That’s my girl.” He sounded approving. “As usual, I’ve got a plan.”