Epilogue
VIVIAN
SIX MONTHS LATER
The wildflowers are blooming.
I stand on the ridge overlooking the valley and watch the morning sun paint the mountains gold. The spring air is crisp and clean, carrying the scent of pine and new growth.
We got married here three weeks ago.
The ceremony was everything I wanted. Small.
Intimate. Just our families and the Guardian Peak team, gathered on this plateau as the sun set behind the peaks.
I wore a simple white dress with wildflowers woven through my hair.
Deck wore a suit for the first time in a decade and looked so uncomfortable I almost laughed during our vows.
Almost. Then he started speaking, and I couldn't do anything but cry.
Sheriff Tom Parker walked me down the makeshift aisle. I'd asked him after we'd grown close over the past months, after learning we'd both lost fathers who wore badges and gave their lives protecting others. He'd teared up and said he'd be honored.
Savannah stood beside me as my matron of honor, her hand finding mine when my voice cracked during my vows.
Mace stood beside Deck, steady and solid as always.
The rest of the team filled the small gathering—Wolfe lurking at the edges like a beautiful ghost, Hayes cracking jokes to cut the tension, Cade watching everything with those gentle medic's eyes.
Family. All of them.
Now I'm standing in our spot, waiting for my husband to finish his morning perimeter check, holding a secret that's about to change everything.
The test is in my pocket. Two pink lines that appeared twenty minutes ago while Deck was pulling on his boots and kissing me goodbye.
I haven't processed it yet. Haven't let myself believe it's real.
I hear him before I see him, his footsteps on the trail so familiar now I could recognize them anywhere. He emerges from the tree line and stops when he sees me, that slow smile spreading across his face.
"You're up early." He crosses to me and pulls me into his arms. "Couldn't sleep?"
"Something like that."
He pulls back slightly, studying my face with those sharp green eyes. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong." My heart is pounding so hard I'm surprised he can't hear it. "I just have something to tell you."
"Okay." He's instantly alert, his body tensing. Still a soldier, even now. Still ready for threats.
"It's not bad. At least, I don't think it's bad. I hope it's not bad." I'm rambling. I never ramble. "I mean, we haven't really talked about it, not specifically, but we also haven't been preventing it, and I know you said you wanted—"
"Vivian." His hands cup my face, steadying me. "Whatever it is, just tell me."
I reach into my pocket and pull out the test. Hold it up between us.
"I'm pregnant."
He goes completely still. His eyes drop to the test, to the two pink lines visible in the little window, then back to my face.
"Pregnant." The word comes out strangled.
"About eight weeks, I think. I've been tired lately, and my period was late, and this morning I just had a feeling, so I took the test, and—"
He kisses me.
It's not gentle. It's fierce and desperate, his hands sliding into my hair, his body pressing against mine. When he finally breaks away, his eyes are wet.
"We're having a baby." Wonder in his voice. Awe. "Vivian, we're having a baby."
"We're having a baby." Saying it out loud makes it real. My own eyes start to burn. "Are you okay? I know we didn't plan this. I know you might not be ready—"
"I'm terrified." He laughs, the sound thick with emotion. "I'm absolutely fucking terrified. But I'm also happier than I've ever been in my entire life."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." He rests his forehead against mine. "I spent five years convinced I didn't deserve a family. That I'd lost my chance at anything good. Then you crashed into my life and proved me wrong about everything."
"I didn't crash. I arrived in an armored SUV with federal escort."
"You crashed." He kisses me again, softer this time. "Into my cabin. Into my walls. Into my heart. And now you're giving me something I never thought I'd have."
"A baby."
"A family." His hand slides down to rest on my stomach, flat and unchanged, holding a life we created together. "Our family."
I cover his hand with mine. "I'm scared too. I don't know how to be a mother. My own mother barely remembers who I am most days. What if I screw this up?"
"Then we'll screw it up together. And we'll figure it out together. That's what we do." He tilts my chin up. "You taught me that, Vivian. That I don't have to carry everything alone. That asking for help isn't weakness."
"I taught you that?"
"You taught me everything that matters." His thumb traces my cheekbone. "How to love. How to trust. How to believe in something bigger than my own fear."
The tears spill over. I stopped fighting them months ago. This man has seen me at my worst, terrified, hunted, covered in his blood as I ran through the darkness. He's earned my tears.
"I love you," I whisper.
"I love you too. Both of you." His hand presses more firmly against my stomach. "God, I love you both so much it hurts."
We stand there on the ridge as the sun climbs higher, wrapped around each other, his hand never leaving my belly. The mountains stretch out before us, snow-capped peaks against a brilliant blue sky. The wildflowers sway in the breeze, purple and yellow and white.
This is where he first showed me his soul. Where I started falling for him before I knew what was happening. Where we got married under a sunset three weeks ago.
And now it's where we learned we're becoming parents.
"We should tell the team," I say eventually. "They'll want to know."
"Later." He pulls me down onto the grass, settling me between his legs with my back against his chest. "Right now I just want to sit here with my wife and think about our kid."
Wife. The word still sends a thrill through me.
"Do you want a boy or a girl?"
"Doesn't matter. As long as they're healthy. As long as they have your stubbornness and your courage."
"And your eyes," I add. "Those green eyes that see everything."
"Those green eyes that only see you."
I lean my head back against his shoulder. "We're going to be okay, aren't we?"
"We're going to be better than okay." He presses a kiss to my temple. "We're going to be happy, Vivian. The kind of happy I didn't think existed for people like me."
"People like you?"
"Broken people. Damaged people. People who've done things they can't take back." His arms tighten around me. "You showed me that broken doesn't mean beyond repair. That damaged doesn't mean worthless. That the past doesn't have to define the future."
"You showed me the same thing." I turn my head to kiss his jaw. "I was so afraid when I came here. Afraid of dying. Afraid of trusting the wrong person. Afraid that I'd lost everything that mattered."
"And now?"
"Now I have everything." I rest my hands over his on my stomach. "A husband who loves me. A home in these mountains. A family that's growing." I smile. "I came here running for my life. I found a life worth running toward instead."
We sit in the wildflowers until the sun is high overhead and my stomach starts growling. Deck helps me to my feet and we walk down the trail hand in hand, pausing every few minutes to kiss because neither of us can stop smiling long enough to make real progress.
At the cabin, he makes me breakfast while I call my mother's care facility to check on her. She had a good night, the nurse tells me. Ate all her dinner. Talked about her daughter the lawyer.
She remembers me today. Not every day, but today.
I'll take it.
"What do you think about Elena?" Deck sets a plate in front of me. Eggs, bacon, toast. The same breakfast he's made me a hundred times. "For a girl."
"Elena Cross." I test the name. "After your grandmother?"
"She left me the ring. Said it was for someone who made me want to be a better man." He sits across from me, his eyes soft. "Seems fitting to name our daughter after her."
"And if it's a boy?"
"I don't know. We've got time to figure it out." He reaches across the table and takes my hand. "We've got all the time in the world."
All the time in the world.
Six months ago, I thought I was going to die. I was hunted, terrified, hiding in a mountain cabin with a grumpy stranger who didn't want me there.
Now I'm married to that stranger. Carrying his child. Building a life in these mountains that feels more like home than anywhere I've ever lived.
"Thank you," I say quietly.
"For what?"
"For protecting me. For training me. For loving me even when I was impossible."
"You're still impossible." His thumb strokes across my knuckles. "I'm counting on our kid being impossible too. It'll make life interesting."
"Is that what you want? Interesting?"
"I want everything with you." He lifts my hand and kisses my palm.
"The boring days and the exciting ones. The fights and the make-ups.
The sleepless nights with a crying baby and the quiet mornings watching the sunrise.
" His green eyes hold mine. "I want all of it, Vivian.
Every single moment. For the rest of our lives. "
I believe him.
That's the miracle. After everything I've been through, everyone who's betrayed me, all the reasons I had to keep my walls up and my heart protected—I believe him.
Because Deck Cross doesn't say things he doesn't mean. Because he's proven himself a hundred times over. Because he loves me in a way that makes doubt impossible.
"You'll have it," I promise. "All of it. Every moment."
He smiles, and my heart does the thing it always does.
Some people wait their whole lives for this kind of love.
I found mine on a mountain, in the arms of a man who thought he didn't deserve it.
We both did.