Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
Juni hit Maren at a dead run.
One second, Maren was stepping through the front door of Arden and Kyle’s ranch house, exhausted, wrung out. The next second, forty pounds of preschooler launched across the great room like a missile.
“Mama!”
Maren’s bag hit the floor as she went to her knees.
Juni crashed into her so hard Maren nearly tipped backward.
“I’m here,” Maren said, wrapping both arms around her. “I’m here, baby. I’m right here.”
Juni clung to her neck. Her little body shook. Maren held on tighter.
“I knew Colin would bring you back,” Juni said into her shoulder. “He pinkie-promised.”
“He did,” Maren whispered. “He brought me back.”
Juni lifted her head. Her eyes were wet, her curls wild around her face. Then Juni saw Colin standing behind Maren. Her whole face lit up with the biggest smile Maren had ever seen.
“Colin!”
He had barely enough time to brace before Juni threw herself at him, too.
Colin caught her and lifted her up. He held her against his chest. Juni pulled back enough to look at him.
Her hands went to either side of his face.
She studied Colin with the solemn intensity that had undone half of Watchdog in a week.
“You brought Mama home safe.”
Colin’s gaze found Maren. “I did. Just like I promised.”
Juni buried her face against his neck. “Daddy.”
Colin stopped breathing. He squeezed his eyes shut.
So did Maren. She flashed back for a moment to the first time they ever saw Colin at the gate—
Are you my daddy?
—and the way Colin had recoiled at her words as if she’d just handed him a poisonous snake. Now Maren understood why, and it broke her heart. But Colin was a different man then from the one who stood here today holding her daughter.
My daughter.
Colin’s voice came out low and unsteady. “You don’t have to call me that, Junebug.”
“I want to.”
His throat worked.
“Then yeah.” His arms tightened around her. “You can call me Daddy.”
Juni turned her head and gave Maren a small, relieved smile. Then she put her head back on his shoulder.
Colin opened his eyes and looked at her then, his gaze full of both hope and fear, wrapped up in a question.
Maren nodded, tears streaming down her face.
Yes to all of this. Yes to us.
Maren heard Arden sob. She looked up to see her turn her face into Kyle’s chest. Kyle wrapped one arm around her.
Juni lifted her head from Colin’s shoulder. “I saved you a cookie.”
Maren laughed through tears. “Just one?”
Juni thought about that. “Half.”
“Fair.”
Colin shifted Juni in his arms and reached toward Maren.
She went to him and wrapped her arms around both him and Juni.
Juni wiggled until she had her arm free and threw it around Maren’s shoulder.
For a moment, the three of them stood in the front hall, Juni holding both of them together and smiling like she’d known how this story ended before anyone else did.
Maybe she had.
In the days that followed, Maren learned what happened after they’d left the parking garage.
Lynn Carr had survived the trip to the hospital and gone into surgery with Malcolm waiting outside like a grieving relative, which sounded absurd until Maren remembered the way Malcolm had lowered himself beside them in the garage, taken over pressure on Lynn’s wound, and told them to get the hell outta here like he was ordering lunch.
The man had everything under control, and what he couldn’t touch, Elissa and Gina smoothed over.
Voss did not fall with gunfire. He fell with paperwork.
The first call came the day after they got home. Colin’s stern expression told her everything before he said a word.
“It landed.”
Maren stood from where she’d been sitting on the couch.
“Rivera verified the recording is real. The financials line up. Lynn gave a statement before Watchdog stashed her away in a safehouse.”
Maren pressed a hand to her chest.
“And Voss?”
“Picked up for questioning as he was trying to flee the country. The contract is suspended pending investigation. Several people on Mira’s list are already being isolated before they can coordinate stories. You got him, baby.”
Maren closed her eyes.
Mira. We did it. We actually did it.
Colin’s hand settled at her waist. “Ray’s going to be reviewed, too. With everything Lynn’s already said, he’s going to be cleared.”
That was the news that finally made her cry again.
Maren leaned into Colin and he wrapped her in a hug. “He should have lived to see it,” she whispered.
“He should have. But he saved lives, and now people will know he was a hero.”
Two days after that, Maren was in the middle of making plans to move their things from San Diego to Colorado when her phone buzzed.
“Arden, hey.”
“Sorry to bug you, Maren, but there’s something up at the ranch you and Juni need to see.” Arden sounded tired, maybe a little winded.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yeah, great! But you two need to get up here.”
“Okay…we’ll be there in twenty minutes.” She hung up and found Colin and Juni watching cartoons.
“Arden wants us up at the ranch. I’m not sure why.”
Colin’s smile faded. “Then let’s go.” He swept Juni up and flew her like an airplane to her room to get her shoes.
When they walked in the door, the first person they saw was Gina. Maren couldn’t help it—her heart sank and dread filled her.
Gina looked very pleased with herself.
Behind her came two men who made Maren’s heart stop.
Reid, her oldest brother, with his stern mouth and watchful eyes. And Beckett, broader through the shoulders, serious expression already cracking.
For one second, she couldn’t move. Her brain refused to make sense of them standing in Colorado, in Arden and Kyle’s home, wearing civilian clothes that still somehow looked military because her brothers could not help themselves.
“Mare,” Beckett said.
Then she was moving.
Both of her brothers caught her at once and Maren disappeared into their arms.
She had forgotten what it felt like to be so small between them, protected in the old childhood way, when Reid seemed so much older and all grown up, and Beckett could make her laugh so hard she forgot she’d been crying.
“You’re here.”
“We’re here,” Reid said, his voice rough.
“Gina pulled strings,” Beckett said. “Possibly illegal ones.”
“Legal-adjacent,” Gina said from somewhere behind them.
Maren laughed and cried at the same time.
Reid’s arms tightened. “My God, Maren. We were briefed on what happened.”
“I’m okay.”
“Don’t start lying to me in the first thirty seconds.”
“I’m alive.”
“That’s better.”
Beckett pulled back first, his hands coming to her face like he needed to see every inch of it. “You get hurt?”
“No.”
“You positive?”
“Beck. I’m fine.”
Then her brothers looked past her.
Juni stood beside Colin, one hand tucked in his, watching the two men with wide eyes.
Beckett went very still.
Reid did too.
“Hey, Juni-Baby,” Beckett said as both men crouched down and opened their arms. Juni launched herself like the love-seeking missile she was. Her uncles hugged her tightly.
“You were on a mission.”
“We were,” Reid said.
“Did you win?”
Beckett’s mouth twitched. “Eventually.”
“Good.” Juni looked at Reid. “I have a daddy now. His name is Colin and he fights battles, too.”
Reid’s gaze flicked over her head to Colin. So did Beckett’s.
Oh boy. Here we go. Pissing contest in five…four…three…
Juni pointed helpfully. “That’s him.”
“Is it,” Reid said.
Her brothers stood as Colin stepped forward.
“Colin Hale,” he said, extending his hand. “Maren’s told me all about you.”
The room seemed to shrink around the three men.
Maren closed her eyes briefly.
Of course this is happening less than five minutes after the hugging.
Reid shook Colin’s hand first. The handshake lasted exactly one second too long.
Beckett watched Colin like he was checking for loose bolts. “You the one who protected them?”
“That’s me.” He extended his hand to Beckett, who shook it.
“My niece just called you Dad.”
Colin’s gaze flicked to Juni, then Maren, then back to Beckett.
“Her choice and I’m good with it.”
Maren grinned at his understatement of the year. “Will you guys please cut it out?”
Reid’s gaze stayed on Colin. “You planning to stick?”
“Yes,” Colin replied without any hesitation.
Maren’s heart flipped over.
Beckett studied him for another moment, then looked at Maren. “You love him?”
“Yes.” She lifted her chin. “I do.”
“You love her?” Reid asked Colin.
“Completely.”
Beckett’s eyebrows went up.
Colin didn’t blink. “I love both of them.”
Juni beamed. “Daddy,” she said quietly, as if affirming it to herself.
Maren lost the ability to breathe.
Reid and Beckett stared at Colin for another two seconds.
“He’ll do,” Reid said, nodding.
Maren snorted.
Beckett frowned. “We haven’t checked his teeth yet.”
Colin’s mouth twitched. “Excuse me?”
“Or kicked the tires,” Beckett added.
“Mama?” Juni looked up at Maren. “Is this a Marine thing?”
“Probably,” Maren told her. “But I think it’s mostly a big brother thing. Now, what do we say when the uncles are being goofy?”
Juni grinned and stared both big men down. “Have you been eating crayons again?”
That did it. Everyone—Maren, Colin, Gina, Arden, Kyle, even Reid and Beckett—burst into relieved laughter as the tension broke.
Reid clapped Colin on the shoulder. “We’ll talk later.”
Colin nodded. “Figured.”
Beckett looked disappointed. “You’re not even nervous?”
“Nope. This is the only Walsh who scares me.” He picked Juni up and she threw her arms around his neck.
“Wise man,” Reid said. Beckett laughed.
Juni looked from one man to the other. “Can we have cookies now?”
“Absolutely,” Arden said, voice thick with emotion. “Cookies solve almost everything.”
Juni nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
Kyle’s phone buzzed. He turned serious and everyone went quiet. He answered with, “Garrett,” then listened as his contact at Lackland spoke.
“Understood,” Kyle told him, his voice flat enough that only someone who knew him would hear the tension underneath. Arden put her arm around him as he listened some more.
“Appreciate the call, Garrett, thanks.” Kyle disconnected. For a second, he just stood there holding the phone.
Arden’s hand moved up and down his back. “California?”
“The review is resolved,” he said. “Application is back on track and the inspection is in five days.”
Arden wrapped both arms around his waist and pressed her face against his chest. Kyle exhaled long and slow like he’d been holding his breath since the first call from Lackland as he hugged his wife to him.
“Can we have cookies now?” Juni asked.
Kyle looked down at her. Then he gave her a smile.
“Affirmative, Junebug,” he said. “I think we’ve earned cookies.”