Epilogue
Three months later
E lla jogged up the back porch steps of Gage’s home. She had so many shopping bags looped over her arms that she had to edge sideways through the door he pushed open for her.
He immediately started sliding handles off her arms and helped her carry the bags to the kitchen. “If I’d known you wanted to go grocery shopping, I would’ve offered to drive you.” He leaned closer to brush his mouth against hers.
She kissed him back, not wanting to admit that she’d purposely gone shopping without him, so he wouldn’t try to talk her out of what she was about to do.
“These aren’t groceries,” she chuckled. “They’re for your living room.” She’d already decorated his guest house for Christmas, whereas he hadn’t done more than hang a red dish towel on the handle of his stove. Granted, he’d been swamped with cases at work, but that was no excuse for skipping Christmas. Since it was their first Christmas together, she wanted it to be spectacular.
A quick glance around the living room proved that Johnny and Rock hadn’t held up their part of the deal. Dismay clogged her throat.
“What’s wrong, babe?” Gage hastily set her shopping bags on the coffee table and swung back in her direction.
With a moan of defeat, she wilted against him. “I was going to decorate a Christmas tree for you, but?—”
The front door swung open, and the pointy top of a bushy evergreen poked through the opening. It was followed by lots of male grunting and heaving sounds.
“Oh! They made it!” She gave a hoot of delight and threw her arms around Gage’s neck in a celebratory hug.
He lifted her off her feet and swung her in a full circle before setting her down. “If it makes you happy to have those two goofballs rub all the new paint off the front door frame, then I reckon I’m happy about it, too.” Despite his grumping, his gaze twinkled into hers.
Ella winced as Johnny’s elbow slammed into the hall tree bench and sent it careening sideways.
Gage leaped forward to catch it before it crashed into the lamp on the end table closest to the door.
Johnny finally waded into the room with his upper body buried in the branches of an impressively full evergreen.
Ella muffled a snort of laughter as the tree with legs stumbled its way toward the agreed-upon corner of the room.
Rock marched into the living room behind the walking tree and shut the door behind them with the tip of his cane. “Mission accomplished.” He dusted his hands in satisfaction .
“All you did was brandish your cane like a cattle prod,” Johnny howled from the depths of the tree branches. Gage squatted down to help him set it on the tree stand and anchor it in place.
Rock spread his hands as he faced Ella. “Obviously, my methods worked, because my Grinch of an older brother has his first Christmas tree set up.”
Johnny muttered something about wrapping Rock’s cane around his ears as he stomped past him into the kitchen. He returned with a pitcher of water to fill the pan beneath the tree.
“Is it really your first tree?” Ella clasped her hands rapturously as she pictured what it was going to look like after transferring all the ornaments in her bags to its lush green branches.
“What can I say? It’s been a year of firsts.” Gage leaned out from beneath the base of the tree to lock gazes with her for a moment charged with infinite tenderness. “We make quite a team, don’t we?”
“We do.” She knew he was referring to their success in avenging her father’s death. The SWAT team had captured Blain, and Johnny had collared Cora. And because of Blain’s bragging, the SWAT team also managed to dismantle the bombs in the Bolanders’ silos before they went off. Like Billy Bob Bolander, the Strattens were now behind bars.
Another cause for rejoicing was Walker Radcliffe’s new lease on life. It was amazing how quickly his health was bouncing back now that he was no longer being poisoned by an employee he’d mistakenly trusted. Ella had no doubt that the peace he’d made with his Maker was helping, too. The locals were calling his long-overdue walk through the church doors last Sunday the biggest Christmas miracle Heart Lake had seen in years. It was right on the heels of announcing his intention to cover the cost of rebuilding Heart Lake Animal Rescue Sanctuary. Well, mostly. The Bolanders had already provided the replacement silos.
She blinked back happy tears as she dug the first box of ornaments out of the nearest shopping bag and popped the lid open. “Where did you guys find such a gorgeous tree?”
“We stole it from the mayor’s yard,” Johnny informed her blandly.
Since she’d purchased shatterproof ornaments, she launched one of the red balls in his direction.
He caught it behind his back, pivoted in mid-air to zing it like a baseball at Rock.
Rock shot a hand up to catch it, but his fingers closed around nothing.
“Gotcha,” Johnny crowed, waving the red ornament that he was still holding. He tucked it back in Ella’s box.
“Really?” she protested. “A full, MLB-worthy windup, and that’s all you have to show for it? Seriously, Johnny! It would’ve taken a lot less effort to go hang it on the tree.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” he grumbled.
She slapped the ornament back in his palm. “How about you hang it on a branch and find out, Private Investigator Cuba?”
Giving a whoop of elation over hearing his new title said aloud, he jogged to the tree, pretending to dribble it before jumping into an impressively high layup to position it near the tip of the tree.
“Not there,” she scolded with a chuckle. “That’s where the star goes.”
Johnny spread his hands at Gage, who’d finally finished anchoring the bottom of the tree to his satisfaction. “There’s just no pleasing your woman, bro. ”
“Only because you’re not doing it right.” Gage remained on one knee while Ella leaned around him to place a reindeer ornament in a perfect spot on one of the middle branches.
When she straightened, he was still kneeling there. “Gage, are you—oh!” She gasped at the sight of the black velvet box he was holding open in front of her. A square diamond winked up at her in the morning sunlight pouring through the window.
“You’re my best friend, Ella, and the love of my life. Will you marry me?” His dark gaze was fixed on her with so much hope, longing, and love that her hands flew to her heart. She would’ve dropped her box of ornaments if Johnny hadn’t swooped in to catch it.
“Yes!” She could barely squeak out the word he was straining her way to hear. As she reached for him, he stood and slid the ring on her finger. Then he dipped her back into an adoring kiss that left her breathless.
Johnny clapped loud enough to make her wince. “Congratulations! Now all the single and lonely guys in the room feel even more single and lonely.”
Gage shook his head at him as he straightened with Ella. “You can’t be that lonely. You practically live here.”
“If you’re worried about how crowded it’s getting, it’ll be less crowded when Rock moves out,” Johnny assured.
“You’re moving out?” Gage’s head swung toward his younger brother. “When?”
“When he gets married.” Johnny moved back to the tree with Ella’s box of ornaments and started hanging more of the red balls. “Childhood pact. Double wedding. Blah, blah, blah,” he reminded. “If y’all keep your brotherly promise to each other, you can’t marry Ella until Soldier Boy over there gets back into the dating game. ”
Ella glanced laughingly over at Rock, who’d parked himself in his favorite leather recliner.
Instead of raising the TV remote like he usually did to flip on a football game, he was riffling through a folder of papers balanced on one knee. “Congratulations, sis.” He winked at her. “Guess it’s time to up my game.”
Rock listened to Johnny’s nonstop horsing around and discreetly watched the way Gage’s fingers kept brushing against Ella’s fingers as they hung ornaments on the tree together. Yeah, it was a miracle that Ella had managed to get a Christmas tree in his brother’s living room, but it was an even bigger miracle to see his brother so happy. He deserved it. They both did.
Which was why Rock was going to do everything he could to land a date soon.
No, Gage probably wouldn’t hold him to their silly boyhood promise of getting married on the same day. It had been more Rock’s idea than anyone else’s. After being orphaned at an early age and nearly plopped into the foster care system by an aging adoptive mother, he’d been terrified of being separated from his brother. Gage had enlisted in the Army by then, but that hadn’t stopped him from moving heaven and earth to convince a judge he could finish raising his nine-year-old brother alone. Then he’d gone and done it.
Yeah, I owe you buddy.
Rock flipped through the folder on his knee, knowing he had another promise to keep. His new boss at Lonestar Security, Decker Kingston, was breathing down his neck to get another forensic artist hired. Decker wasn’t thrilled about the fact that Rock had taken three months to wade through resumes without scheduling a single interview. Deck was going to be even less thrilled when he heard who Rock had decided to call for his first one.
Mila Kingston. Rock was smiling on the inside as he read the name of the woman he was going to contact today. He’d done a little asking around to confirm his suspicions about her last name. She was his boss’s stepsister, of all people. Three years younger than him and a former makeup artist, she’d gone back to school to earn her certification in forensic art. She had no professional experience in the field yet, but Rock didn’t care. Putting together a successful team was mostly about getting the right people in the right positions, and his gut told him that Mila was the right person for the job.
He hadn’t bothered bringing any other resumes home. The folder was filled with the pages of her application and three accompanying samples of her work. Her sketches were nothing short of phenomenal. One of them was a simple application of charcoal on paper. The second one she’d used a pen to complete. In the third one, she’d actually gone to the trouble of adding the full spectrum of colors with acrylic paint. All three were worthy of framing and hanging on a wall.
Her style of drawing spoke to him on an elemental level. He could feel the wind in the trees moving in the first sketch. He could hear the water lapping against the banks of Heart Lake in the second one, and he could smell the sweet, freshly piled hay in the corner of the painted one. Her work made the viewer feel like they were present, experiencing what she’d so meticulously brought to life on paper.
Lonestar Security could use that kind of talent. She had the potential to capture more details about future crime scenes compared to her peers, even the more experienced ones, because she noticed things that others often overlooked — like the tail wrapped around the bottom edge of the haystack in the third and final scene. Just a tail. A furry little tail. It might be a dog, a fox, or even a long-haired cat. He intended to ask her when he met her. He sensed there was a story behind the little critter’s presence in the drawing, one he had no doubt she’d remember since she’d taken the time to put it there.
He found himself hoping like crazy that Mila would agree to schedule an interview with him before Christmas. Yeah, it was only a week away, but she was the one . He’d spent three months searching for her before discovering her like a needle in a haystack. Or a furry tail in a haystack, in her case.
A woman who could spin that kind of magic with the tip of a pencil was exactly who he wanted to team up with to build Lonestar’s newest department.
Who knows? Maybe an interesting woman like her would have some interesting single friends. Maybe one of them would be willing to overlook the fact that he was a wounded soldier, limping his way through life with a cane. Maybe one of them would see the man inside, who didn’t believe he would ever find the kind of love his brother had found, and maybe she’d prove him wrong.
Just maybe.
Ella watched the way Rock’s eyes glowed over the folder in his lap, wondering what was going through the mind of the man who was about to become her brother-in-law. Though it was way too bad about his injured leg, she couldn’t have been happier about having another family member in town.
She’d gone from having no family in a moment of tragedy to having more family than she’d ever dared to hope for. A mother. A stepfather. Two grandfathers. A grandmother. A soon-to-be brother-in-law. The most amazing, adoring, seriously hot fiancé on the planet. And Johnny was enough like family that she was claiming him, too.
Gage curled an arm around her and tugged her close as they surveyed the Christmas tree together.
“Do you like it?” she asked softly.
“Nope. I love it.” He nuzzled her cheek. “But I love you more.”
“I love you, too.” She tipped her head against his shoulder. “We did it, Gage!”
When he pressed a kiss to her temple without speaking, she knew he understood what she was really saying.
They’d gone head-to-head with unspeakable evil; and through the grace of God, they’d come out on top. Because of it, Gage was going to get to sit on their living room floor after they were married, wearing a tutu at their future daughter’s tea parties. They would have homemade Christmas ornaments on their family tree, made from messy fingerprints and love.
She couldn’t wait to say I do and then do life with him.
Her fearless Ranger.
Her champion of justice.
Her avenger and protector.
Her dearest friend.
Thank you for reading
Silos and Sabotage.
Find out how Rock arm-twists his new boss into hiring his boss’s smoking hot stepsister in
Haystacks and Hoaxes .
And whether he was right or wrong to recommend her for the job as their newest forensic artist…