Chapter Thirty-nine – Making Memories Of Us
Chapter Thirty-nine
Parker
MAKING MEMORIES OF US
Performed by Keith Urban
PRESENT DAY
HIM: When is everyone leaving?
HER: What’s got you so growly, Husband?
HIM: You promised I could tie you to the bed. It’s been hard to concentrate on anything else since then.
Fallon’s house was packed to the brim yet again as dinner wrapped up.
Our families, the ranch’s staff, and our friends had been in and out all day.
The mood had been celebratory. Evil had been banished.
Love had won. But it still had come at a cost. A price had been paid in lives and trust and nightmares that would haunt us.
My new goal was to make so many good memories that the dark ones would be lost in the shadows.
Watching Fallon smile with her family and seeing her light shining brightly once more was a start to the happily ever after I wanted more than anything.
How had I denied myself these moments tucked up next to her for so long?
Not simply as her friend but as her lover, her bae, her husband.
All I wanted to do was shower her with love and kisses.
I wanted everyone gone so I could do just that.
Theo’s giggle drew my gaze from the text I’d just sent her. He was teasing my dad about something he’d drawn. The kid was an artist. I’d have to find a way to encourage those skills…no, we’d figure it out. Fallon and I together.
That thought twisted happily in my chest.
Fallon and I had each tried to shoulder our lives alone for too long. But there was a beauty to shouldering it with another person, in sharing both life’s burdens and joys.
“Time for bed, bud,” I said. Theo groaned, but didn’t put up a fight.
“Let me help you move the cot into my room,” Fallon said, starting to rise, but Lauren stopped her.
“Keep him in my room. I’m only here for a day or two before I go back to the rehabilitation center to finish my therapy. I’ll stay at the hotel.”
“Mom—”
“I’m sure, Fallon. Don’t argue with me on this one thing.”
Fallon and I exchanged a look, and she shrugged.
So I had Theo say his goodnights and helped him get ready for bed.
He fell asleep before I even finished a book again, and I sat looking down at him for a long moment, wishing Will was here to see how much he’d already changed in just a month.
How much he flourished tonight under the attention of a room full of adults.
Emotions were weighing heavy on me—love and regret and hope—as I came out of the bedroom to find everyone but our parents had left. In the place of friends and staff was the sheriff, and Fallon was watching him with a wary look on her face that made her seem paler than she’d been all day.
I strode over to the couch and slid in beside her, pulling her hand into mine just as he started talking.
“I wanted to give you all a final update before I headed home for the night. Lorenzo Puzo called the Las Vegas PD and pointed them in the direction of a cousin he thought might have helped Ike,” Wylee said.
“Bruno Manziniti has done demolition work for Lorenzo in the past and was one of Ike’s best friends growing up.
They caught Bruno on video leaving your hangar in Vegas the night before last. While he was being interrogated, a warrant was executed on his house, and they found two more bombs and timing devices similar to the one used here at the cabin and on the Cessna.
We’re still unclear how Celia was able to get Fallon’s fingerprints on some of it.
” When both Rafe and I made annoyed noises of disapproval, Wylee cleared his throat and continued, “But we all agree that it doesn’t matter at this time. ”
“I’d like to do something for the families of the men who died at the airport,” Fallon said. “They were trying to help us, right? When the plane crashed. He killed them because they ran out of the tower?”
I heard the agony in her voice, the frustration that someone else had been hurt in this war that had been waged against her family.
I hadn’t checked the plane myself before we’d taken off from Vegas.
That was on me. I’d failed. My head had not been on the mission.
My love for her and my desire to find Ike had me rushing off instead of assessing all the possibilities.
It wasn’t the only time I’d lost focus. If Sweeney and Cranky hadn’t been here to help remind me of my training when I’d arrived at the ranch, I might have done something stupid.
I might have gotten myself or Fallon hurt rushing in without a plan.
While Sweeney and I had followed the beads Fallon had left behind, he’d talked sense into me. He’d centered me on the mission.
Get in, get the job done, and get out.
But those moments over the last two days proved I was doing the right thing by resigning my commission.
I’d never be able to focus on the job when I had Fallon and Theo waiting for me here.
I’d always be wondering and worrying about what was happening with them.
My head would be on returning home instead of on the job.
“We’re not sure exactly the order of events at the airport, and we’ll never know for sure, as Ike is not alive for us to question him,” Wylee said, sending me a dark look.
But I didn’t give a shit. I’d done what I had to do, and I’d do it again.
If I had any regrets, it was not making him hurt before I’d killed him.
But it hadn’t been worth the risk. It was cleaner and easier to end him before anyone else got hurt.
“We’ll pay for the funerals and put together a trust fund for their families,” Rafe offered, regret in his voice before it hardened again. “What’s happening with Ace Turner?”
“Detective Harris scooped him up just as he was packing his car to leave. They had a look at his phone, and the last message was from Celia, telling him Ike had Fallon. Our best bet is that he was on his way here. He’ll go back to jail for aiding and abetting and won’t be out any time soon.”
“And JJ?” I asked, his name burning my tongue.
“He seemed legitimately surprised Ace was involved in any of it. He hadn’t seen Celia in months. JJ will do time for the charges already stacked up against him, but we can’t tie him to any of this.”
It burned inside me, knowing he’d be out before too long. But I’d have a nice little chat with him to ensure he knew if he ever came near my wife or her family again, no one would ever find his body.
The sheriff smacked his notepad shut and looked around at all the faces in the room. “I think that closes up everything.”
But it didn’t. An elephant still existed in the room that no one had mentioned today, even though his absence had been felt.
“You’re forgetting Teddy,” I said, purposefully keeping my voice calm and steady, even though every time I’d thought of him, his betrayal infuriated me. “What role did he have in any of this?”
Fallon’s eyes snapped to Lauren’s face. Her mom looked pale and shaky.
“If it’s okay”—Wylee stood, making his way to the door—“I’d like him to be able to explain it for himself. He’s waiting outside.”
I wanted to say no. I wanted Teddy far away from Fallon, Theo, and Lauren, where he couldn’t hurt them emotionally or physically. But Fallon squeezed my hand and said softly, “He deserves a chance to defend himself.”
The sheriff left, patting Teddy on the shoulder as he passed him in the doorway. Fallon’s body stiffened and tension returned to the room that had drifted away throughout most of the day.
Teddy’s shoulders were sloped, and he spun his hat around in his hands while taking everyone in with eyes so sad I wondered if I’d jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Maybe Lorenzo Puzo had thrown us in the wrong direction simply because he liked pulling strings and watching people jump.
Or maybe he’d wanted time to ferret out the bad seeds in his nest before the cops started looking too closely at his organization.
When Teddy’s gaze settled on Lauren, the look in his eyes was pure love. Adoration. Not a hint of animosity or anger existed. He was the same friendly man I’d always known, who Fallon had grown up caring about.
“I appreciate you all seeing me tonight,” he said. “I realize I’ve got some explaining to do.”
“Damn straight you do,” Rafe said, stepping toward the man. Sadie grabbed his hand and held him back in much the way Fallon held me.
Teddy shifted, ran a hand through his hair, and then looked again at Lauren.
“You didn’t know what you would do when Fallon came home from college.
You didn’t want to crowd her—not at the resort and not here.
” He waved his hand around the house. “You said it was time for you to step back, but you didn’t know where to go or what you’d do next. ”
Lauren blinked rapidly as she nodded, and Fallon’s fingers tightened around my hand.
“Then, you got hurt…” Teddy’s voice cracked. “And I knew, even with your prosthetic, there’d be days you’d be in a wheelchair. You needed a home with accommodations. A place with a ramp and bathrooms that would be safe for you to maneuver in.”
Fallon looked from her mom to her dad and then back to Teddy. Her voice was choked with emotions when she said, “We didn’t… God, we didn’t think. Mom?”
Lauren shook her head as if to shake off the apology that coated her daughter’s words. But she directed her response toward the farmhand nervously twirling a hat by the door. “Oh, Teddy. What did you do?”
“You’d talked about restoring the old Hurly place.
No one has taken care of it since Adam went to jail, but it was yours.
Your family’s. It needed work to be habitable again and even more to accommodate your needs.
I talked to a few banks, but no one would loan me the money, seeing as the house wasn’t mine. ”
“So, Lorenzo gave you one,” Rafe said, frustration in his tone. “How the hell did he find out?”