Chapter 48
“ N ow this is something I never would have experienced with the FBI,” Callie said as she buckled herself back into the luxurious leather seats of one of the HICC jets.
“Back-of-the-cattle-car coach class all the way. And never any of that.” She nodded to the refrigerator filled with everything from fresh fruit to salmon paté and the now-empty table on the other side of the Gulfstream.
The plane dipped again as they made their final approach. Philly leaned over and kissed her. “You’re not really talking about the food and the transport. Although that’s not bad either.”
She smiled back at him. “You’re right. I’m not.”
They looked at the seat diagonally across the aisle.
Laura Nolan sat with twenty-two-month-old Emma Nolan on her lap, entertaining her daughter with a game of patty-cake.
The little girl was the spitting image of her mother—a mop of dark wavy hair, delicate features, and bowed lips.
But she had her father’s blue eyes. The father she was about to meet for the first time.
“She seems so calm,” Callie said, referring to Laura.
“If it were me, I’d be bouncing around the plane.”
“Like Tigger,” Callie agreed. He bumped her shoulder. Her good one. The knife wound Aiden inflicted hadn’t been long, but it had been deep. The doctors had dosed her with antibiotics, then sent her home with a prescription and four stitches.
“I’m glad the prosecutors aren’t relying on Laura’s testimony,” Callie added.
Between the evidence the HICC team provided to the government and Aiden’s own confession, Laura’s testimony wasn’t pivotal to their case.
If it had been, they would have kept her tucked away in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she’d been in hiding the past few years.
Not on a plane back to the US to reunite with her husband.
“I agree,” Philly said. “Although, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you, of course.” She flashed him a smile, and his stomach did the little swoop it did every time he saw it.
The wheels touched down on the tarmac, and Laura’s head jerked up. Her shoulders tensed and her arms tightened around her daughter in the first show of nerves since they’d boarded the pair onto the plane four hours ago. Then she glanced over her shoulder at them.
“I can’t believe this is finally happening,” she said, a tentative smile on her lips.
Minutes after Aiden’s arrest, Philly had sent Rian Laura’s contact number.
They’d likely spent hours on the phone in the past few days, but seeing each other for the first time?
Well, he didn’t blame her for being nervous.
They’d have adjustments to make—she’d been a single mom for nearly two years, and he’d missed out on so much.
Those realities wouldn’t disappear overnight, but the couple would work through it.
“Do you want us to take Emma when we get off the plane?” Callie offered.
Laura glanced at her daughter, now playing with a cloth book. Her arms once again tightened as the plane turned toward the private hangar HICC had arranged. “No, thank you,” she said. “I need us to be together.”
Callie nodded, then took his hand as the plane slowed, then inched into the hangar, away from prying eyes.
The arrest and charging of Aiden Nolan had been big news.
He doubted many people in Vegas cared, but it was better to keep the family secluded.
The last thing they needed was to end up on the cover of a tabloid or website.
Philly smiled as the engines switched off.
Aiden Nolan was taking an entirely different kind of flight.
Given the number of federal crimes he’d committed, the Feds had taken him into custody the night before.
He’d still be charged with the assault and attempted murder of Callie in California as well as the state crimes in Utah, but the federal charges trumped the state ones.
Regardless, it would be a cold day in hell before Aiden Nolan walked anywhere other than a prison yard.
The pilot came out of the cockpit, a woman about his age whom he’d swear he’d once seen on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. She smiled at Laura. “Ready?”
Laura gave a shaky nod. “Ready,” she said, unbuckling her belt.
The copilot exited the cockpit as he and Callie stood. Despite believing the danger to Laura was over, they weren’t taking any chances, and he and Callie planned to exit first.
The pilots opened the door, easing the ladder down with a familiarity he recognized—they’d done this a time or two hundred. After stepping back, they nodded to him and Callie, and Callie took the lead.
“Stay here until we tell you,” he said to Laura as they passed her. She gave another nod and rose, leaving Emma in the seat as she grabbed her diaper bag and purse.
Callie paused at the top of the stairs, then started down.
He did the same, his gaze sweeping the area from the elevated perch.
His heart stuttered—in the good way—when the only thing he saw was Rian standing with his back to a door holding a little plush bunny in his hands. His first gift to his baby girl.
Callie held a hand up and Rian remained where he was. When Philly stepped onto the cement floor, he repeated the sweep Callie had already done. Satisfied with their search, she gave him a nod.
“Okay, Laura,” he called back.
A beat passed, then she was there. Diaper bag and purse draped over a shoulder, her daughter perched on her other hip.
Laura froze at the top of the steps, her eyes locked on her husband. A strangled sound came from Rian. Callie’s fingers slid across his palms and tangled with his as she pulled him back toward the plane.
In the next heartbeat, Laura was gripping the railings as she navigated the steps down and Rian was jogging across the hangar.
Rian swooped both his girls up before Laura even set foot onto the floor, burying his head in his wife’s neck as her free arm wrapped around his.
Tears fell freely from Laura’s eyes, and while they couldn’t see Rian, his occasional sniffles told them his wife wasn’t the only one overcome.
Beside him, Callie sniffed too. Raising their hands, he kissed the back of hers, then dabbed his own eyes.
“Mama, mama,” Emma said, patting her mother’s head and her father’s shoulder. Rian squeezed his wife one more time, then drew back only far enough to see his daughter. His already red-rimmed eyes filled with tears as he drank in the sight of her.
Tentatively, he reached up and held the bunny out. Emma looked at the toy, then to her mother, before reaching for the plushie and immediately bringing it to her face and rubbing the soft material over her skin.
“She looks like you,” Rian said, his voice choked as his finger delicately brushed a curl from Emma’s face.
“But she has your eyes,” Laura said, her voice as gravelly as her husband’s. “She also has your fastidiousness,” she added with a smile. “There is nothing this girl likes better—at this age—than to tidy up.”
Rian stared at his daughter. More tears came, but this time with a laugh. “Well, someone had to keep you from losing things since I couldn’t be there.”
Laura laughed, too, drawing her husband’s attention. “God, I’ve missed that sound,” he said. “You laughing.” As he’d done with his daughter, he reached up and pushed her hair away from her face, only this time, he cupped her cheek and stared into her eyes, the moment almost painfully intimate.
Slowly, he lowered his head, brushing his lips against hers.
Philly knew he should look away, knew he should give the couple their privacy, but he couldn’t bring himself to. The love between the couple felt like a whirling force, pulling everyone nearby into its orbit. Even the two pilots stood side by side at the top of the stairs watching.
The kiss lingered, gentle and almost chaste, but the emotions surrounding the couple were anything but.
Finally, Rian pulled back, staring at Laura for the space of two heartbeats, before touching his forehead to hers.
They both closed their eyes and inhaled.
A benediction marking the end of this particular trial and the beginning of something new.
He whispered a few words too quiet for Philly to hear; Laura responded with a simple “yes.”
Rian stepped back but kept his wife’s hand firmly in his. Turning to him and Callie, the couple offered up watery smiles.
“Thank you is inadequate,” Rian said.
“Leave it at that,” Philly said. Neither he nor Callie wanted or needed any more.
Rian hesitated, then nodded. “Joseph sends his regards. The doctors think we can take him home in a few days if we can arrange transport.”
“That’s good,” Callie said. “I’m sure HICC will help, if needed.”
Laura smiled. Philly wondered if she realized she was leaning into her husband. “HICC has done enough, but thank you,” Rian replied.
“Are you good here?” Philly asked.
Rian nodded. “A friend owns a hotel in town. Upscale. Excellent security. He’s given us one of the suites with our own entrance directly from the garage.
And Ben is sticking to me like glue since, well, since the night my father came after you,” Rian said, shooting an uncertain and apologetic look at Callie.
Philly glanced around wondering where the operative was, as he didn’t appear to be sticking to Rian like glue. As if on cue, he stepped through the door, nodding to the reflective window beside the opening. One-way glass. He’d been watching the whole time.
“The sins of the father and all that,” Callie said, waving off Rian’s concern and the apology hovering in his eyes.
“Who’s with Joe if you’re here?” Philly asked Ben.
“A friend,” was all he said.
Philly glanced at Rian. He didn’t care who Ben brought in so long as HICC approved and Rian felt comfortable.
Rian flashed him a wry smile. “Her name is CJ. She’s tough as nails and putting up with Joe’s incessant flirting. It’s all good.”
A moment of silence fell over the group—well, as silent as an airport ever got—then Philly smiled. “I guess this is it, then,” he said.
“For now. I have a feeling we’re going to see a fair bit of each other over the next few years,” Rian said.
“And I want us to bring Emma out to Mystery Lake next summer,” Laura said. Rian’s grip on her hand jerked and he lifted them, dropping a kiss on Laura’s. No doubt, the thought of being able to plan a trip with his wife and daughter a little overwhelming, in the good way.
“We’d love to have you,” Callie said.
Another beat of silence stretched between them as an odd sort of reluctance hovered in the air. As if they were all about to jump out of a plane and needed a moment before the free fall.
Then the spell broke, and Laura stepped forward to hug Callie. More hugs ensued all around. Ben stood to the side, his expression and body as still as a statue.
Once the goodbyes and promises to keep in touch were done, he and Callie watched Ben usher them back through the lobby.
When the door closed behind the four of them, he turned to Callie and let out a long exhale. “Okay, can we plan our honeymoon now?”