Chapter 17
Damian
Three weeks did not fix the world.
It only gave it a new direction.
The investigation moved through Alana's hands into federal rooms Bishop could not buy his way out of. Elaine testified from a hospital bed. Julian testified with guards at the door. Jalen cooperated and stopped pretending fear was innocence.
Maya went home with her mother.
Keisha and Ava were moved twice before I believed the threat had eased.
Kira moved into Tammy's guest room temporarily, which meant until she decided the rest of us were competent.
Rico went to Savannah's grave every Sunday.
Sometimes Tammy went with him.
Sometimes I did.
Sometimes nobody spoke.
That was fine.
Grief did not always need a speech.
What I needed was to prove that I could build without caging.
Tammy noticed when I told her things before they became walls. She noticed when I asked instead of ordered. She noticed when I checked my own fear and did not make it her responsibility to wrestle me back from becoming the man whose name I carried.
She noticed everything.
That was one of the reasons I loved her.
One morning, I stood in her kitchen trying to make breakfast.
Eggs should not have been difficult.
They were.
Tammy leaned in the doorway wearing a robe and the kind of smile that made men rethink entire lives.
"You know they're already dead, right?"
I did not look up. "I know how to cook."
"You know how to have people cook."
"Disrespectful before breakfast."
Smoke lifted from the pan.
She raised an eyebrow.
I turned the burner down.
"I had it."
She laughed.
That sound did more for me than rest.
The doorbell rang.
Both of us stopped.
That was what danger left behind. Normal sounds had to prove themselves.
I checked the camera. "Rico."
He came in with a white bakery box, looked at the pan, then at me.
"Breakfast died."
Tammy laughed harder.
Rico placed an envelope on the counter.
"Marker proof."
Tammy opened it.
Savannah Vega
Beloved Mother. Beloved Sister.
Her song survived.
Returned home by her daughter, Tammy Brooks.
Her eyes filled.
"It's perfect," she said.
Rico looked away toward the window like the morning needed supervision.
"I'll be outside."
When he left, Tammy touched the proof with one finger.
"I think I want the dedication to use both names."
"Then it should."
"Tammy Brooks and Savannah Elaine Vega. Not because I'm confused."
"I know."
"Because I'm not hiding either one."
I stepped behind her and rested my hands on her shoulders.
"Both," I said.
She turned into me.
"What about us?"
I smiled a little. "You hiding me?"
"You are hard to hide."
"That wasn't an answer."
She lifted an eyebrow. "Damian King, are you asking if you're public?"
"I am asking if you plan to keep loving me loudly or quietly."
She pretended to think.
"Loud enough."
I kissed her.
The toast burned.
Neither of us moved.
When the kiss ended, I stayed close.
The ring was in my safe. I had planned dinner. Flowers. Something controlled.
Then Tammy looked at me with morning in her eyes, grief behind her, future in front of her, and I realized the production did not matter.
The question did.
"Marry me."
She went still.
"That was not smooth."
"I know."
"You don't even have a ring."
"I have one."
Her eyes widened. "Where?"
"Safe."
"You asked me without the ring?"
"I wanted the question to get here before the production."
She laughed, then cried, then laughed again.
"Is that a yes?" I asked.
"You burned my breakfast."
"I'll buy you a restaurant."
"Ridiculous."
"Tammy."
She touched my face.
"Yes, Damian. I'll marry you."
I kissed her like the house had been waiting to breathe.
Rico knocked on the window.
I looked over her shoulder.
"I'm going to kill him."
"No, you're not."
"He interrupted my proposal."
"You proposed without a ring while toast was burning. Rico is not the issue."
I laughed because she was right.
She usually was.
? ? ?
Later, Tammy stood at the back door looking into the yard.
I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist.
"You okay?"
"No," she said. "But I think I can be."
That was honest.
I could live with honest.
She leaned back against me.
"Loving you is dangerous."
"I know."
"But not because love is the danger."
I waited.
"Because loving you means standing beside a man powerful enough to burn the world and asking him to build something instead."
I held her tighter.
"Then I build."
She turned in my arms.
"With me."
"With you."
She smiled.
Tammy Brooks.
Savannah Elaine Vega.
Evelyn's daughter. Savannah's daughter. Kira's sister. Rico's family. My choice.
But more than all of that, her own.
The queen had come home.
And this time, she stayed standing.