Epilogue
MICAH
Three weeks later
To say things had been tense since my woman shot and killed that piece of shit Cormack would have been a massive understatement.
When word got out it was one of our own that had killed Darrin Callo simply because the man was a good cop, it had shaken the whole department.
After that nightmare of a day, things in his operation began to unravel quickly.
After it came to light that the deputy in Hidalgo had been framed for Callo’s murder, a task force was put together, led by me and Leo.
Two other Hope Valley officers were arrested for being a part of his drug ring, as well as a handful of cops from Grapevine and Hidalgo.
That wasn’t counting the people involved who weren’t in law enforcement.
We were dismantling Cormack’s operation, piece by piece, and we weren’t going to stop until there was nothing left.
“Langford,” I heard Hayes call. Lifting my head from the report I’d been filling out, I looked over and saw him jerk his chin toward the entrance of the bullpen.
When I shifted my focus in that direction, my whole body locked tight. Sidney Callo was climbing the last step and heading in our direction.
“Look alive,” I muttered to Leo just as the young woman reached our desks.
“Detective Langford,” she greeted before tilting her chin to Leo. “Detective Drake.”
“Afternoon, Mrs. Callo,” I returned. “What can we do for you?”
There was still a sadness in her eyes that I feared might never go away, but I guess that was to be expected. However, even with that, she looked a bit better than she had the last time we’d seen her.
She clutched her purse in front of her, her fingers gripping the straps so tight her knuckles were white. “I just . . . I don’t mean to interrupt—”
“No interruption at all, ma’am,” Leo insisted, pointing to the chair beside his desk. “Would you like to have a seat.”
“No, I won’t be here long. I just wanted to come in and tell you .
. . well, thank you. Thank you for not giving up.
Thank you for pushing until you got to the truth.
” She stopped to sniffle as her eyes grew glassy.
“It won’t bring him back,” she rasped, “and my girls and I will still miss him, but . . . this helps. You got justice for Darrin, and that really helps. So . . . thank you.”
She moved before either of us could speak, surprising me by leaning down and giving me a quick hug. She did the same to Leo, then stood tall and gave us a watery smile. “I’m grateful for you both. Now, I’ll let you get back to your job.”
With that, she turned and started toward the exit, and as I watched her disappear down the stairs, I felt as if a weight had just been lifted from my chest. Because I knew, with the people of this town at their back, she and her girls were going to be all right.
Hayden
Four months later
My body no longer experienced the same aches and pains it had when I first started taking pole lessons with McKenna, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t still stiff as I climbed out of my car and started up the front walk.
After weeks of poking and prodding, I’d finally convinced Charlie to come with me today—or more to the point, I threatened to drag her out of her house by her hair if she didn’t agree, and I had to say, it rankled a bit that she turned out to be a complete natural while I was still flopping around like a toddler who was trying to walk and eat an ice cream cone at the same time.
It had been months since she nearly died trying to save me, and with every day that passed, we grew closer.
She’d been hesitant at first, attempting to push me away, but I’d been persistent.
She was a woman who meant something to Micah, but what was more, she’d become a woman who meant something to me, then to my family.
Charlie was good to her very core, it didn’t take much to see that, and I wanted to do everything I could to give her as much good as possible, so I gave her me, Micah, Ivy, and Sylvia.
Once she accepted that—not that she had much of a choice since my baby girl was as persistent as me, and she’d taken an instant shine to Charlie—I gave her my friends.
They’d accepted her with open arms, and she was officially part of our crew.
What I couldn’t give her, no matter how hard I tried—and I’d tried really freaking hard—was Dalton.
The man was crazy about her, but the woman had put a wall around herself that rivaled the ones of a maximum security prison, and she wasn’t having any of it.
Micah liked to call me stubborn, but I was nothing compared to her.
My man told me over and over to leave it alone, but I’d seen the way she watched him when she didn’t think any of us were looking. There was something there, and for Charlie’s sake, the rest of the girls were determined to see this through.
No matter how much she fought us on it.
“I’m home,” I said as I closed the front door behind me. I hung my purse on the hook by the door and pulled off my coat and scarf, doing the same with them.
“Hello?” I called when I didn’t get any kind of reply.
It was Micah’s day off, which meant he’d kept Ivy home from daycare because he liked having those days, just the two of them. It had become their thing ever since he’d moved in with us three months earlier.
“Where is everybody?” I asked the silence as I moved down the hall. The kitchen was empty, but a glow from outside the window caught my attention, and when I turned to look, I lost my breath.
Moving to the back door, I pulled it open and stepped onto the porch, lifting a hand to my lips as I took in all the beauty around me.
There were fairy lights strung up everywhere, from the garden all the way to Ivy’s treehouse. Glowing paper lanterns hung from all the trees. It looked like something out of a fairy tale, and standing in the middle of it all was Micah, with Ivy to his left and Sylvia at his right.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I got closer. “What is all of this?”
Micah stepped from between my family and moved to me.
“The first time I met you, I knew I’d found something special.
There wasn’t a day that came after where I didn’t regret walking away from you.
Then I ran into all that beauty and fire in the middle of a grocery store, and the first thing you did was throw attitude. ”
I sniffled and lifted my free hand to bat the tears from my cheeks. “That’s because you deserved it,” I said on a laugh. “You started it.”
He smirked, making my belly flutter. “Red, you’re stubborn, and full of attitude.
You’re also loving and loyal. You’re wild.
And when you burn, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
” I covered my mouth to stifle a sob as he continued.
“There isn’t a single thing about you I’d want to change, because I love it all.
And I know down to my bones, that I’ll keep loving it until I take my last breath. ”
He took my left hand and lifted it up. I sucked in a gasp, feeling my eyes go wide when he slipped a stunning antique ring on my finger.
“Micah,” I breathed, looking into those beautiful green eyes.
“You’re my safe place. Even when I’m having a bad day, you make everything better, and I want to spend every day from here on out sharing my life with you. I want us to protect each other. And I want you to be my wife.”
“He already asked me!” Ivy shouted from behind him, jumping up and down exuberantly. “I said yes!”
He nodded in confirmation, one corner of his mouth kicking up in a smirk. “She did, so it’s kind of already a done deal.”
I threw my head back on a long, deep laugh as Micah pulled me against him and banded his arms around me. “Well, then I guess it’s settled,” I said on a giggle, staring up into the gorgeous face of my fiancé.
“Good, because, just so you know, Monster was prepared to use The Look if necessary.”
“You forget, that look doesn’t work on me.” I arched a single brow. “You’re the easy target, honey.”
At that, he gave me a big, brilliant smile. “Sure the hell am. And I’m not the least bit ashamed of it.”
I threw my arms around his neck and lifted up on my toes, pressing my lips against his in a slow, steamy kiss.
“You ready to spend every day for the rest of your life burnin’ wild with me, Red?” he asked once I pulled back.
I felt my lips stretch so big my cheeks hurt as I gave him the God’s honest truth. “I can’t wait.”
The End.