Epilogue
Grayson
Five months later. Astoria, OR.
“Grayson,” she gasped, her skin slapping against mine.
I grunted, my fingers digging into the extra flesh at her hips. “Yeah. Fuck yeah, Sunshine,” I groaned, pounding into her from behind. She was bent over the counter, her ripped panties in the pocket of my jeans, that cute pink and yellow sundress she’d been teasing me with all morning scrunched at her waist, her breasts swaying with every powerful thrust of my hips.
Her hands shot out, trying to find something to hold onto as her cunt began to spasm around my cock. “Please,” she begged. “Please, please, please.”
“No,” I growled, shoving a hand into her hair, yanking her up, forcing her back to arch. “This is what you get for teasing me. Good girls get to come. You weren’t a good girl when you teased me all fucking morning with this dress.” She whimpered, bracing her hands on the counter, my hips snapping faster and faster. “I had fucking work to do, dammit.”
“Grayson,” she panted as I leaned over to see her eyes rolling back.
“Fuck, but you’re going to make a mess all over my dick either way, aren’t you, baby?” I taunted, kissing her temple. “Needy fucking girl, always hungry for my cock.”
She moaned as her body tightened against me, her walls fluttering. Yeah, she was fucking ready. Without another word, I reached around, slipping my hand between her thighs and finding her clit. She exploded around me, her body bucking, her knees giving out.
My balls tightened. With a growl, I shoved her forward again, taking her hips in my hands, pounding into her sweet little pussy, her cries like music to my damn ears. “That’s right, Sunshine, milk my cock,” I grunted, looking down at where we were connected.
Picture fucking perfect.
When I came, I groaned her name.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” I said into the phone, watching Carrie walk out to meet Sarah in the front yard. Carrie’s hands went to Sarah’s swollen belly as she beamed at her, her smile brighter than the sun.
“How are things on your end? Everything nearly set up?” Jake asked.
“Almost. You heading out here when it’s done or you staying in Charlotte?” I asked.
My tech genius was quiet for a moment. “I think I might stay here for a while,” he answered softly. “There’s no place like home, after all.”
Carrie threw her head back, her curls bouncing in the sunlight. “You’re absolutely right about that,” I murmured.
Red Snake Investigations was relocating its Denver offices to Portland, and while I would be popping into the office a few times a week, but I’d mainly work from home. Since I’d gotten shot, my ability to run was taken away, and after four months of rehab, the best I could do was a light jog for two minutes. That complicated things, especially if I was on a hunt. So for right now, I’d be handling the desk work.
“How’s Hayes?” Jake asked.
“Working, as always,” I answered. We both knew the truth. Hayes was in a bad place, and there was nothing any of us could do about it. Hayes was Hayes, which meant whatever he was going through, he would work it out himself.
“Dominic and Ash should be heading your way soon,” Jake confirmed, answering my unspoken question. They were in charge of packing the Denver office up and getting everything here. They’d gone back to take care of the leasing agreements.
Once that was done, we’d be diving into Ash’s missing woman, as promised.
“Roger that,” I said, turning away from the window and walking into the kitchen, leaning against the counter I’d just fucked Carrie over an hour ago. “Have you heard from Garner at all?”
“Nope. Nothing but radio silence from St. Louis. Guess that means it’s finally water under the bridge,” Jake assumed.
“We hope.”
He barked out a laugh. “Yeah, we fucking hope. You never know with that city.”
After Carrie dropped the biggest truth bomb of the century on the FBI, things started unraveling. James went to the St. Louis PD, where Chief Amara Harrison issued a statement. From there, more evidence started flowing in and eventually, about three weeks after I was released from the hospital, we got a call…
“I know it’s late,” Garner said, sounding tired over the speakerphone.
“No, no. It’s fine,” Carrie assured, pulling our sheets to her chest, staring at the phone sitting between us. “I told you to call me whenever you had news.”
“Right,” James muttered.
“Well?” I prompted. “Do you have news?”
“We found Whitelock.”
His words hung in the air as my eyes met Carrie’s wide and worried ones. She reached for me then, and instantly, I shifted us, grabbing the phone so she could be in my arms. “What can you tell us?” I asked.
“My forensics team has been at this site for the last three hours and so far, we’ve found eighty graves.”
I bite down on my jaw, holding in the curse as Carrie gasped. “Eighty?” she breathed, her hands shooting to her mouth.
“Yes”
“Where is Whitelock?” I asked.
James sighed. “It’s an abandoned farm close to Edwardsville.”
“God fucking damn,” I muttered, leaning my head back to the ceiling.
“It will take a while, but once we I.D. the bodies, we’ll begin reaching out to the family members, just like you asked, Carrie,” the agent said quietly, sadness lacing his voice. “I promise.”
A small whimper left her, followed by a sniffle.
Fuck, she was crying—again.
“Thank you, James,” she pushed out.
Later that night. Astoria, OR.
“Be good,” I whispered to Tic-Tac before I took another look at Carrie, who was sound asleep on the couch, her favorite strawberry blanket wrapped around her. The orange fluff was stretched out on the back of the cushion behind her head. He blinked up at me before stretching his paws.
My lips twitched, and I grabbed my phone off the coffee table, leaving the movie credits rolling as I walked through the kitchen, heading out to the screened-in deck. I dialed the number and put the phone to my ear, listening to it ring.
“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t call,” a rough voice answered.
I looked out into the night, the warm lights of Astoria giving me a glimpse of the water as it bounced off the waves. “Sorry it’s so late,” I returned, knowing what day it was.
The tenth of June.
Mags chuckled. “Stop apologizing and tell me you grew some balls.”
I shook my head, smiling. “Yeah, Mags. I grew some fucking balls.”
I could hear the happiness in his voice as he asked, “Did she like the ring?”
“Fucking loves it,” I murmured.
“So, when’s the wedding?”
“Hell, I’d marry her tomorrow if she’d let me.”
“I know you would,” he replied before adding, “Congratulations.”
“She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” I confessed.
“I know that’s right because I sure as fuck wasn’t,” he chuckled, causing me to laugh.
“That’s not what I fucking meant, dipshit.”
I spent the next few minutes talking to my best friend about his life, asking him about the ranch, and then finally, about his mental health. “You doing okay?”
“Mhm,” he hummed. “Work’s good, the ranch is good. I’m good.”
There was a voice in the back of my mind that disagreed, but I kept quiet.
“Did you tell your mom?” Mags asked, changing the subject.
“Yeah, I called her when I bought the ring three months ago.”
Once I could walk, I flew my mom out to Astoria so she could meet Carrie. The two of them hit it off, and the three of us spent the weekend together. It was one of the most healing experiences of my life.
“How’s therapy?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m supposed to be the one checking on you, fucker.”
“And I said I’m good, asshole,” he shot back, his voice light. “Now, answer my damn question.”
“It’s going well, better than I expected. I’m going bi-weekly now,” I told him.
“Good.”
“Grayson?”
I looked over my shoulder to find my fiancée standing in the doorway in her cute PJs, her bun lopsided. “Hey, Sunshine,” I greeted, smiling at her.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked, wrapping her arms around my middle.
“Talking to Mags,” I answered.
She perked up. “Oh.”
In a flash, the phone was out of my hand and against her ear as she walked to the other side of the deck. “Mags! Guess what?” she screeched, holding out her hand to look at the fat rock I’d put on her finger at dinner. “I know you know, but you’re supposed to act excited,” she scolded.
I chuckled, shaking my head.
“Because you’re my friend, and that’s what friends do,” she said, turning to face me.
Pause.
“No, this isn’t like the pinky promise thing,” she sighed, smiling at me when I tilted my head.
Pinky promise thing?
Another pause.
“I know,” she murmured, her eyes shining. “Goodnight, Mags.”
She handed the phone back to me, my screen showing the call had ended.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“That he’ll kill you and put your ashes on Denver’s mountain if you hurt me,” she said plainly.
I reached for her. “Never in a million years, gorgeous.”
She hummed, rising to her toes to press her lips against mine. “Are you happy, Grayson?”
“Yes, Sunshine. I’m happy. Are you?”
She rested her head against my chest, staring out into the night. “I can’t believe I finally got it.”
I wrapped my arms around her, staring at her face. “Got what?”
“My happy ending.”
I chuckled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “No, Sunshine. This is just the beginning.”
The End