Chapter Twenty-Three
Scott Keys went down in a blaze of glory.
A blaze of glory that was documented so well that the news stories went viral across the country.
He had tried to make his brother look like a victim of a greedy new wife and her lover, and instead he had ended up playing the main role of the greedy millionaire versus the underdogs.
At least Maria Sanderson had been quick to take her name out of the credits.
Once the feds had gotten involved and officially opened an investigation into the Keys Foundation and the man at its helm, she had made a deal. She had sold Scott out completely before ever seeing the inside of a jail cell.
She might have skipped prison altogether had another woman not stepped forward and made her own deal.
Lana had, as far as anyone could tell—and by her own insistence—never actually killed anyone.
Not in Seven Roads and not during any of her previous contracts.
Darius wasn’t sure he believed her, but when she provided audio recordings and physical evidence of being hired and instructed by Maria to kidnap and kill Eve, Darius and Mitchell, he couldn’t help but feel a bit grateful to her.
Especially when Eve explained that Lana had been the one to get her out of the house when Jon had shown up.
“If she hadn’t shown up at the window, I would have walked into the living room with the two of you like it was nothing,” Eve had said, during their ride in the ambulance after the rest of the sheriff’s department had come to the warehouse.
“Without her, all of us might have met a much different outcome. Even if she did do it for herself.”
Darius didn’t push his opinion on the matter, but he did decide to thank Lana before she was taken away in cuffs.
“You could have run,” Darius had told her. “Thank you for staying with Eve instead.”
Lana had surprised him with a laugh.
“To be honest, if she had been my boss, I think I would have done whatever she asked of me. Evelyn is pure loyalty. Even us bad guys can appreciate that.” Lana had paused before following the federal agent to their car.
“I know my words don’t mean much, but just in case no one has told you yet, I think you might want to marry that woman. ”
And Darius did.
Three months later, in between their childhood homes and the windows that had shaped their entire lives, Darius and Eve were married.
Darius wore a nice suit, Eve had a dress that poofed out at the bottom, and they even managed to find folding white chairs like Mrs. Dunphy used to have when they were kids.
Which, according to Eve, had been an important detail.
Her father walked her down the aisle while Theo and Winnie stood on either side of an arch her father had made by hand.
After Winnie and Price had been ambushed by Jon and the one last hired hand Maria had running around Seven Roads before being arrested, Theo and Price’s wife JJ had raised hell to find and rescue them.
Unlike Jon, their attacker had survived their retribution and had gone to prison, where no deals were made and no promises of an early release were given.
Since then Darius’s Oil and Water duo had become somewhat inseparable.
So it only made sense when they became the new tenants of the house next door. At first Eve would pass by Darius’s old bedroom window and wave at across to Winnie, who had taken over Eve’s former bedroom.
Then, one day, Winnie moved out.
And right into the main bedroom with Theo.
The whole of Seven Roads was more excited for their wedding years later than they had ever been about Mitchell Keys and Evelyn Myers tying the knot.
It almost felt like a holiday as nearly all the town showed up in their finest and watched as the oldest children of the sheriff’s department said I do.
Their wedding reception became a reunion all its own for the department.
The men and women who had spent their careers protecting Seven Roads to the best of their abilities gathered around for a toast about the past.
“I came to Seven Roads because I wanted quiet,” Liam started. The sheriff looked at his wife, Blake, and grinned. “Now I live in the loudest house in the zip code.” Everyone laughed, but no one disagreed. They had six kids, a live-in mother and father-in-law, and two dogs. Loud didn’t cover it.
Price went next, raising his glass as his wife JJ currently held one of their surprise set of twins. Winnie had the other on her hip as she swayed back and forth with Theo on the dance floor.
“I wanted to leave the second Winnie was old enough to move out,” Price said. “Now we’re looking at building a house down the road.”
Rose went next, her husband towering over her, a little girl fast asleep against his chest. She was the first of four who they had adopted from foster care, taking their family from three to six. Something that her husband James boasted about quite often.
“I always knew this Seven Roads was where I belonged, but I’m glad you boys finally figured it out for yourselves,” Rose said, sassy as ever. “Though, I did snag the best mechanic in town, so I guess there’s something I changed for us.”
They all did a quick cheers for that, laughter mixed in.
Deputy Gavin went next, already grinning ear to ear.
“I went from thinking love was dead to marrying a millionaire, so I can’t complain.”
That got Darius really good. He and Eve couldn’t hold back as they looked at the millionaire in question, currently talking the ear off JJ’s brother at the bar.
Mitchell Keys hadn’t only taken over the Keys Foundation once Scott had gone to prison.
He and Eve had transformed it into something entirely different and absolutely impactful.
Making the headquarters in Seven Roads had not only helped the town with new jobs, it had also given Mitchell and his deputy time to fall in love.
A love that the department had been happy to endorse in place of his brother.
It also had made Eve jump for joy.
One night, in between the sheets, Eve had admitted to Darius that at one point, she had been afraid that she really had missed out on life.
“But now I have a best friend who I see every day, a job I really care about that makes a difference and I got to keep a promise I made a long time ago.” She had sighed in contentedness. “I guess I didn’t miss out on life. I was just waiting for you to start it.”
Darius had seconded that sentiment.
Now he raised his glass, the last of them to speak, and said what he had always known to be true.
“I accepted a life in Seven Roads that only saw me growing old and grumpy by myself,” Darius said. He looked to Eve. He could hear their children’s squeals of laughter from the dance floor. He smiled. “Turns out I was just waiting for the drama to come back to town.”
Eve was the loudest as the group around him burst into laughter at that before they all lifted their glasses together.
“It’s been a wild ride these past few years with all of you,” the sheriff called out. “And I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. So here’s to McCoy County’s finest. May we go to the dance floor now to embarrass the younger generation with dance moves that will embarrass us in the morning!”
The group all yelled and cheered and clinked their glasses together before following their sheriff to do just that.
Darius, however, caught Eve’s hand before she could make it too far.
She giggled as he pulled her into his arms.
He cut that giggle off with a kiss born from a love that had never once wavered, no matter how many years had gone by.
Eve returned it with an answering love.
Then she swatted him away with laughter in her eyes.
“You better not try and get out of dancing with me, Detective Williams.” She pointed at him, a beautiful smile playing at her lips. “You have to listen to me no matter what, remember? Your life is mine, after all.”
It was a joke that they often exchanged through the years. The promise that Eve had made to his mother that Darius’s life would forever be hers. And while no one who heard the story thought the promise made by a child had been taken seriously, he knew better.
Darius had always been Eve’s.
And as he followed his wife to the dance floor surrounded by their loved ones, Darius knew without a doubt that he always would be.