Epilogue
One year and six months later
The October afternoon was the slow, lazy kind that felt like summer making a final stand while a hand made of crisper days pulled it toward autumn.
Summer tended to linger in Georgia though.
It was something I remembered from a job here years ago, and one of the many reasons I’d chosen the state as my new home.
Another reason was a university that didn’t do a deep dive on my fabricated high school transcripts before accepting me.
I sat in the quad now at a picnic table under a willow tree idly stroking the thick breeze.
I had my latest reading assignment spread on the table and was jotting notes in my notebook.
My dog Buster’s leash hooked around my ankle beneath the table, but he was too loyal to leave my side anyway.
The leash was a formality and really just a way to keep the campus security guards off my back.
I sipped my sweet tea left over from lunch and turned the page in my book.
I was several weeks into my first official semester—ever—and relishing every moment of it.
The routine of going to class, doing homework, visiting office hours.
Riding my bike through the quaint college town and not worrying anyone was watching or trying to kill me.
Heading home to my cute little apartment off campus with a regular lock on the door and no armed guard babysitting me.
I’d even made friends with a few classmates, even though I was nearly a decade older than them.
It was everything I’d ever wanted, and I finally had it. On my own terms.
That night I’d jumped off the bridge, Bray didn’t follow me.
He apparently didn’t try to stop the boat from leaving the bay, and if he did, it hadn’t worked.
I’d stowed away undetected on board for days, stealing in and out of empty cabins and borrowing a maintenance crew outfit I’d found in a locker.
We’d ended up at a port in Panama. From there, I backchanneled my way to Javi, who was equal parts stunned and thrilled to hear from me.
I stayed in South America for a while, trying out different cities, different countries, until an ache for home called me back.
I missed hot dogs, and the Fourth of July.
And even the stupid Super Bowl. Most of all, I wanted my own place, and a dog, and to take classes at a local university simply because I was interested.
So I reached out to yorkiedork123, who helped forge me a new identity, and returned to the US.
I kept my word to the moms and wired their cut of the diamond money into the account Melanie had told me to, though I never set foot in Del Rio again.
They cleared their debts and may have carried on misbehaving or maybe not, I couldn’t be sure.
That part of my life was over. I was a new person.
Every day becoming more me than I’d ever been and enjoying figuring out who exactly I was.
I turned another page in my book as Buster sat up with a small whine.
He’d stretched out in the sun at my feet, exposing his soft white belly, but now he came to my side and nudged my leg with his nose.
He was a Border collie mix with a black and white coat and enormous ears.
Those ears were the best security system I’d ever had.
“What is it?” I cooed at him and stroked his soft head.
He looked off toward the grassy quad and panted. I thought he’d caught sight of the Frisbee a group of students were throwing around and wanted to go snatch it, but then I noticed someone walking toward our table.
A man with a bulky frame, shiny brown hair, and gray eyes I could see even from a distance.
My heart flipped over, and I couldn’t tell if it was fear or straight-up longing. Perhaps a mix of both.
A different air hung about him from the last time I’d seen him. He was looser, calmer, and—to my great relief—void of the telltale weapon bulge at his hip. He wore jeans and a tee with a light windbreaker over it. A slim folder was tucked under his arm.
I watched him approach without saying anything, but that was mostly because my mouth had sealed shut with anxiety.
Bray stopped at the end of the table and held out his hand to let Buster sniff it.
The little traitor sniffed him once before lapping him with his tongue.
“Who’s this?” Bray asked with a laugh.
“Buster,” I said. “He’ll bite you if I tell him to,” I lied.
“Oh, I doubt that. You wouldn’t bite me, would you, buddy? No, you wouldn’t,” he cooed, and leaned down to scrub his ears. Buster responded by licking Bray’s face and pawing at his legs.
“Some guard dog you are,” I muttered and pulled on his leash.
Bray gave him a pat on the head and slid onto the bench across from me.
He folded his hands on the table and studied me like I’d been studying my book.
“You know, you should have picked a less obvious name if you didn’t want me to find you, Katherine Wallace,” he said.
I could hear the pride in his voice. The triumph that he’d pieced together my new identity and tracked me down, even if it took him over a year.
He knew my mother’s name was Katherine because I’d told him as much that night in Houston.
And through it all, Agent Wallace was more of a father than my own ever was, so taking his name felt right.
I stuck my pen into my book and folded my hands to match his. “Maybe I wanted you to find me.” I couldn’t fight the upward bend in my lips, despite still not being sure what his intentions were.
In truth, I’d longed for this moment. I’d been looking over my shoulder since that night on the bridge, hoping I’d see him there. Hoping he would find me, and we’d sort out what to make of our messy lives together.
And here he was.
“So, are you here to arrest me?” I asked.
To my relief, he shook his head. “No. I’m here to ask you on a date. Well, I have something to give you first, and depending on how that goes, then I’ll ask you out.”
The sudden buoyancy in my chest could have floated me off like a balloon. “Consider my interest piqued, Agent Bray.”
“You don’t have to call me that anymore,” he said.
“Oh? Why not?”
“Because I quit.”
At this, I reeled. “You quit the DSA?”
A flush curled into his face. “Well, I guess if we want to get technical, I was relieved of duty.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. See, I fell in love with a CI and spent the better part of a year using DSA resources trying to find her when she disappeared. Apparently, that’s frowned upon.”
I shyly laughed, feeling my heart lift once more. “I can’t imagine why, you absolute rebel.”
“DSA regulations, what are you gonna do? And I never really liked that job anyway. I just did it out of some warped familial obligation I’ve been seeing a therapist about,” he said, and I could sense the relief in his words, even if he was pretending to be blasé about it.
The freedom he felt now that he was on a different path.
“But the good news is, I eventually found that CI, and before they gave me the boot, I managed to do one last thing.” He pulled the folder from under his arm and placed it on the table.
“I know you’ve built the life you want here.
You’ve got the apartment, the dog.” He nodded down at Buster, who’d returned to leaning against my leg.
“You’re enrolled in classes you like. I can’t say much about your dating life, but I’m hoping your calendar is still open?
” His voice rose to a comical pitch as he lifted his brows.
“It is,” I confirmed with a laugh.
He let out a dramatic sigh of relief and opened the folder. “Good. Then all that’s left is your freedom. Officially.” He slid it across the table with a smile.
I had no idea what he was handing me, but my heart stilled when I saw my name—real name—inked into an official-looking document. I spun the folder around to read the form right side up.
“Congratulations, you’re dead,” he said with another grin.
My eyes scanned the document in disbelief.
“Well, Erin Daniels is dead,” he added.
As he said it, I realized I was looking at an official death certificate—my own death certificate. According to the dates, I’d died the night of the gala heist.
“Word has it you jumped off a bridge trying to land on a freight barge but fell into the water instead. Recovery efforts never found your body or the diamond,” he said with a shrug. “Tragic.”
I lifted the certificate and held it up to the sun. The proper watermarks were in place, the stamped seal from the county where I’d died.
“I understand why you did what you did that night, and I’m hoping we can have a fresh start. This means no one will ever look for you,” he said and nodded down at the table. “Erin Daniels doesn’t exist anymore.”
I was still struggling to form words. He’d erased my past for me. Even after I’d chosen my future over him the night on the bridge, he’d done everything to find me and hand me my freedom. Officially.
“Bray …” I whispered, still unable to fully speak.
He stuck his hand out over the table. “Call me Cal. Please.”
I startled at his abrupt movement but caught the smile on his face. It pulled me in like a pair of arms. I smiled back and stuck my hand out to slip my palm in his.
“Call me Katherine.”
“Nice to meet you, Katherine.”
“It’s a pleasure,” I said with a bubbly laugh. Joy was shooting out of me like it had burst inside and needed to escape. “So, what do you do now that you’re not a secret agent hero anymore?”
“I’ve been trying out a few things here and there. Might get back into music.”
“Playing the cello?”
“Sure, why not. Or maybe I’ll take up teaching. I’ve always liked school, and I want to do something with my heart in it, for once.”
“This is a good school,” I said, hinting he could stick around.
“It is. Nice town too.” He smiled at me.
I smiled back, still unable to fully believe he was here. It seemed too good to be true. “What about your mom? Won’t she—?”
He shook his head to cut me off. “Don’t worry about her. She has come around to letting me follow my heart. In all ways.”
A swell of relief hit me. He’d even removed the obstacle of his mother knowing the truth about me. The woman may never fully approve of me, but at least she couldn’t send me to prison anymore.
“So, do you have any plans tonight?” he asked.
I shook my head with a hot burn in my cheeks. “Just some homework I have to finish.”
He slid out from his side of the table and joined me on mine. His eyes were glued to me, as if nothing else in the world existed. “Good. And after that?”
“I’m free,” I said, and bit my lip.
He used his thumb to pull it from my teeth and watched my mouth as he spoke. “For how long?”
I looked into his gray eyes and knew in my bones all was forgiven, we could have a fresh start, and I was one kiss away from having everything I wanted.
“Forever,” I said.
“Good. Me too,” he said, and then he kissed me like it was the first of many to come.