Chapter 27
OLIVIA
M arcus’s body is covered with a black tarp.
The motel’s neon sign casts magenta and orange light over it, almost causing it to glow in the night, as if his soul is just about to rise from his body. That man haunted me for too long, and for the first time since I left him, I feel like I can truly breathe.
Every moment in Ember Ridge when I experienced that sensation, it was nothing more than a sweet illusion. Only now am I truly free.
“Your vitals look good,” Beck says, having taken over for his fellow paramedics. “Oxygen level is fine. Your blood pressure is a little high, but that’s to be expected under the circumstances. I still want you to go to the hospital for a full checkup, though.”
“Of course,” I reply, giving him a soft smile. “Thank you for taking care of me. ”
“Always, baby,” he says, and plants a kiss on my temple.
Leo comes over with a bottle of water from the motel’s vending machine. The flashing red and blue lights, the presence of police and the coroner, along with the dead body in the middle of the parking lot, has attracted most of the motel’s guests.
“How are you feeling?” I ask Leo.
Dax sits next to me on the gurney outside the ambulance while the paramedics prepare to take me to the hospital. Deputy Wilkes is with the crime scene photographer, planting yellow markers next to any evidence and pointing out the blood spatter from the headshot wound that killed Marcus.
Leo gives me a surprised look. “You’re worried about me?”
“Yes. I know you swore you’d never take another life, Leo. I can’t even imagine how it feels?—”
“Olivia, I would kill him a thousand times over if it meant keeping you safe,” Leo replies. His voice is low, the depth so powerful that it makes my heart vibrate with an intense emotion.
“As dark as this may sound, that is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me,” I reply, then chuckle dryly.
“It’s weird, I know,” Leo sighs. “I didn’t want to have to do it. But he was coming after you, Olivia. I had no choice.”
“I would never blame you. I know it couldn’t have been easy,” I say, taking his hand in mine as I pull him closer. “Thank you for saving my life.”
“I don’t regret it, if that’s what you’re wondering,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong—I don’t feel good about it either—but I don’t regret it. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to save you and the babies. I love you.”
“ We love you,” Dax adds, giving me a soft look as the aftermath of the tragedy unfurls around us with the clicking sounds of cameras, the scratching of radio transmissions, and the mumbling voices of bystanders as the deputies jot down their statements.
“We were waiting for him to come out,” Dax says. “Jocelyn gave him a meeting spot from which he was instructed to collect a key for a different car. We tailed him from there all the way to the motel, knowing that he’d come get you before leaving town.”
“You took us by surprise,” Beck laughs lightly. “We’d barely gotten into position.”
“I hadn’t even finished setting up my rifle stance,” Leo adds with a bitter smile. “For a second there, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to take my shot, if push came to shove.”
“That was a close call.”
“Risky, too,” Dax tells Leo.
“Because I was in the line of fire?” I ask, a cold shiver blowing through me.
Leo shakes his head. “I wouldn’t have taken the shot unless I was sure you were out of the way. Luckily, you were just a smidge faster than the prick.”
“Will you be in trouble? You’re not law enforcement,” I say quietly, suddenly even more worried about Leo’s future.
He has Luke, he has us. I can’t bear the thought of losing him, not when we’re so damn close to an actual life together. But he just shakes his head while Dax and Beck exchange smiling glances.
“Carlos called the sheriff and had him come over to the hospital to deputize us,” Leo explains. “I fired that shot in full accordance with the law. It’ll go on record as an officer-involved shooting.”
“With the way things are going, I’ve got a feeling that Carlos is going to be our next sheriff, anyway,” Dax mutters.
I give him a troubled look. “How so?”
“Well, it turns out Jocelyn’s got dirt on pretty much every higher-up in law enforcement within the regional justice department,” Dax replies. “And she’s spilling her guts to an interviewing IA detective as we speak in exchange for leniency.”
“Leniency?”
Beck scoffs and shakes his head slowly. “You didn’t think she’d get away with everything she put you through, did you?”
“I still can’t believe she actually helped Marcus,” I say, a sadness to my tone.
“Apparently, Marcus approached her discreetly outside the courthouse early one morning,” Beck says.
“It was right after Carlos decided not to book you. She asked Marcus to intervene, but he said he wanted to go easy, to see what you were up to. I’m pretty sure they were sexually involved, too.
Jocelyn didn’t admit that outright, but the guilt was written all over her face. ”
“Oh, I could puke,” I groan, genuinely nauseated. “Then again, it kind of tracks. Marcus was a manipulative bastard. He always found a way to get what he wanted.”
“We don’t know the rest of the details, but the bottom line is that Jocelyn collaborated with Marcus to get you away from us,” Beck says. “When she realized that he was the one behind the arson fires and heard about Carlos, she felt bad enough to come clean about what she had done.”
“We probably would’ve figured it out eventually,” Dax says, then lovingly runs his fingers through my hair. “But fortunately, she had the shred of a conscience left. She did the right thing in the end.”
I nod slowly before resting my head on his shoulder, basking in his affection. Leo can’t take his gentle eyes off me while Beck takes my blood pressure again.
“Okay, it’s dropping a little bit,” he says.
“That’s good, right?”
“It’s great. It means the little guys are doing just fine in there,” he replies and glances down at my belly. “I’ll feel a lot better after we run some tests and another ultrasound, though.”
“Oh, wow, I just realized,” I gasp, looking around at the scene.
“What?” Dax asks with a subtle frown.
“This string of tragedies has left Ember Ridge without a fire captain, without a sheriff, and without an ADA,” I say. “Looks like there’s going to be a few changes coming.”
Beck taps Dax on the shoulder. “You should start studying, brother.”
“For what? ”
“For the captain’s exam.”
I nod with excitement. “Oh, wouldn’t that be awesome?”
“Carter has more experience,” Dax replies, shaking his head. “He came in from Jackson to take over.”
“Carter is old,” Leo says, dismissing the argument. “He came to Ember Ridge to ride out his last few years before he retires. Beck’s right. Get cracking on those books, brother. I look forward to someone pinning the extra bugles to your collar.”
“Look at you, so optimistic,” Dax chuckles.
Leo snakes an arm around my shoulders and pulls me close. “You’re damn right, especially now that we’ve got our woman back.”
Everything seems brighter in the hot summer night. Even in the absence of streetlights, basking solely in the neon glow of the motel’s sign and the flashes of red and blue from the sheriff’s cruisers, it looks as if the dark veil has been lifted from our world.
“I love you three so much it hurts,” I confess with a shudder.
Dax tightens his hold on me. “Good, because there’s a lot of us for you to love, and there’s a lot for us to love about you.”
“It’s really over?” Chloe asks.
We’re sitting on the edge of my hospital bed while Dax, Beck, and Leo discuss the details of my checkup with Dr. Kravitz, who was kind enough to come in during the middle of the night to make sure I’m okay .
Carlos had a deputy bring Chloe back into town since Marcus is no longer a threat, and I find comfort in having my best friend close to me.
“It is, yes,” I tell her. “We get to live again.”
“How are you feeling?” she asks. “I was worried out of my mind. I wanted to walk back into Ember Ridge when Beck called to tell me what had happened.”
“It’s better that you stayed in the cabin. Marcus had no idea you were still alive, otherwise, he would’ve come for you, too.” I release a sigh of relief, one of many since Marcus was killed.
“Leo said that Jocelyn never told him about me.”
I hold back a bitter smile. “I think she was already having a bad feeling about Marcus. She didn’t see the point in telling him about you. I was always the target, anyway.”
“I am so sorry you had to go through all that.”
“I’m okay. Dr. Kravitz says that both babies have perfect little heartbeats.”
Chloe laughs lightly. “I know it sounds kind of crazy, but despite this entire ordeal, you got so lucky, Olivia. You’ve got three amazing men head over heels for you. They’re going to be wonderful dads; I just know it.”
“And the twins also get an older brother. Luke is waiting for us back at the house. Leo called him to ease his mind.”
“That poor kid. Brushing past hell again. I’d hate to think what would’ve happened if Marcus had come after the guys. Luke would’ve gotten caught in the middle and he’s already lost so much. ”
“Marcus was still smart enough to weigh his options,” I say and sigh deeply. “He knew he couldn’t hold a candle to Dax, Leo, and Beck. Hell, he had to woo Jocelyn into helping him. He couldn’t even take Carlos out that easily.”
“A coward, through and through.”
“Pretty much.”
“You’re going to be okay from here on out, you know that, right?” Chloe says, giving me a gentle, loving smile.
I respond with a tight hug. “I know. I’m just wondering how the rest of the dominoes will fall now in Devon and in Ember Ridge.”
“Knock, knock,” Carlos says, wheeling himself into the room.
“Ha! Look what the cat dragged in,” Chloe jokingly says.
He whips up a broad, charming, and sincere smile for her. “Back from the dead, so to speak. My mother had a saying in Spanish: You’ll never see a dead devil or a drowned duck.”
“Which one were you?” I ask.
“On a good day, I was her sweet duckling.”
“You’re a devil alright,” Chloe chuckles, blushing pink as he captures her gaze with his own. “I’d hug you, but I understand you’ve got a couple of cracked ribs.”
“Three, to be specific,” he replies. “You can hug me all you want when I’m better. I won’t say no.”
“Deal.” I give Chloe an amused sideways glance, then wiggle my wrist at him. The charm bracelet is still there, along with the USB stick. “This will be waiting for you as soon as you’re back on the job. Marcus may be dead, but his accomplices should still go down for their crimes. ”
“Oh, absolutely. Give me a couple of days, though,” he grunts as he shifts in his wheelchair. “Make that weeks. I’ve got a lot of healing to do. I just wanted to check in on the two of you before they take me down to radiology again.”
“Again?” Chloe asks, visibly worried.
“Nothing serious. Just a follow-up to make sure they caught everything before something pokes into my lungs.”
“Way to reassure a girl,” she mumbles, half smiling.
There is definitely chemistry brewing between the two of them. Good. They both deserve happiness, love, and loyalty galore after everything they’ve been through.
“I understand the sheriff is stepping down?” I ask him.
He nods. “Jocelyn’s been singing like a bird since we booked her. Wilkes cuffed her, but I had the distinct pleasure of reading her Miranda rights.”
“How do you feel about all that?”
“Strange, angry, embarrassed. I’m still working through it all,” he says. “I’m just grateful that we get to clean up the sheriff’s department now. The people of our county deserve law and order, protection, and justice, not tax-funded corruption and back-door deals.”
“I guess Marcus sort of brought everything out into the open,” Chloe replies.
“Marcus drew the worst out of wherever he went,” I say.
“The guys got their spark back, too,” Carlos chimes in, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. “I think this is only the beginning of our happy ending.”
“I’ll take it,” I tell him .
Dax, Leo, and Beck join us, each smiling broadly and eagerly looking at me. Finding myself on the receiving end of so much attention, so much care and affection, fills my heart with a glowing, golden light. I hold on to it tightly, savoring every moment.
“Ready to go home, Olivia?” Dax asks.
“As I’ll ever be.”