by Rachel Grant
He shifted, turning to face her, and lifted her chin so he could meet her gaze. “Us failing is not an option.”
She smiled. Trust an operative to couch a relationship in mission terms. “I feel the same way. But I wanted to say it, in case you’re having second thoughts now or will later. We have no way of knowing what things will be like between us when the world is normal again. I won’t abandon Ava, no matter what happens between us.”
“I am not having second thoughts, and I can’t wait for normal. I want it all. I want to wake up with you every morning and hold you in my arms every night. I want to have scary conversations about things like children and if you want to have them. I want you by my side for all of Ava’s milestones like graduation and college, and I’m frankly hoping you’ll be willing to teach her to drive, because I’m pretty sure I won’t have the patience for that.”
Maddie let out a sharp laugh. “No, you’ll be too kind and try to make her feel better when she’s almost killed you by pulling out in front of a speeding car.”
He chuckled at that. “Nailed it.”
“Do you want kids?” she asked, feeling a flutter in her belly that they were even entertaining this question. But today was the kind of day that made one seize the moment.
“I do, actually. Always have since Ava was a toddler. But if you don’t, it’s not a deal breaker. I want you.”
She leaned into him and whispered, “I’ve thought a lot about whether or not I want kids since my ectopic pregnancy, and if I can—there’s a chance it could happen again—then yes, I do. With the right partner.”
“I’d like to be that partner.”
She kissed him. “I’m pretty sure you are.”
Epilogue
One Month Later
Portland, Oregon
Maddie pulled the roasted chicken and mixed vegetables from the oven and covered it with foil to let it rest. The rice pilaf was ready and the salad was made, but the sounds coming from the other room stopped her from calling everyone to dinner.
Desmond, Chase, Ava, and Josh were having too much fun playing a four-person racing video game. The laughter and shouts were comforting and joyful. Like the ocean when the surf was up, the sound gave her energy.
Dinner could wait. She could reheat it for ten minutes in the oven if need be.
She poured herself a glass of wine and brought the bottle into the family room to top off Josh’s and Chase’s glasses, then sat on the arm of the couch next to Josh and watched the screen. Desmond and Ava were cutthroat players, while Josh and Chase were more laid-back.
At least, that was how they were in the four-player game. Maddie happened to know that one-on-one, the two Raptor operatives were fierce competitors.
“Want to play, Auntie M?” Ava asked.
Ava had gone through a string of names for Maddie in the last month as she tried to find a way to show honor, affection, and her own brand of wit, and this week’s name was Auntie M, which was probably Maddie’s favorite so far.
“No, thanks. I’ve been crushed enough for one day.”
It had been quite a month, since that day that started with a hate rally and ended with a showdown in a billionaire’s office suite, but tonight was a bittersweet culmination of sorts, as tomorrow, Chase was flying back to Washington, DC.
Tricia was moving out of the rehab center and back into the compound, and Chase wanted to be there for her in addition to it simply being time for him to return to his life. Chase wasn’t needed for the nonexistent Nielsen Steel contract, and Josh had hired and borrowed operators from the Alaska and Hawaii compounds to meet the needs of the influx of clients he’d landed after the events on that wild Sunday in August that had placed him and Raptor front and center in the local news again.
As much as she looked forward to the new normal of life with just Josh and Ava, Maddie would miss Chase, who was sweet, funny, and kind, and absolutely vicious when he needed to be.
Troy Kocher had needed dozens of stitches on at least a dozen wounds. But the guy had been eager to carve a Nazi symbol on Ava’s cheek, so a fitting private justice in addition to the prison time he and the others faced.
The video of her brother and C-IV discussing their plans and options had been hacked and leaked and played on the news ad nauseum. There was no way in hell either man could escape without prison time. They’d blown up a bridge, after all.
The White Patriots organization had fractured. Apparently, Nielsen had been behind much of the organizing and funding, but his attempted false flag had put a stain on the organization as the FBI attempted to root out how many were involved. Dozens of conspirators had been rounded up, along with an arsenal of weapons that Nielsen had been stockpiling to prepare for the battle when they seized the Painted Hills.
While there was still a level of threat from the doxing, the White Patriots had their own problems as they were arrested one by one, and Ava, Josh, and Maddie had been able to relax a bit. After the bombing, the city would no longer issue permits for gatherings, so the organized hate rallies had ended for now.
Maddie had dived into her research notes to find more evidence against Nielsen and Kocher and had discovered that some of the papers she’d photographed in the archives had been forged to show the Nielsens had purchased far more land than they had in the 1920s and ’30s. Nielsen had intended to destroy the archives to hide the evidence of the forgeries, and use Maddie’s photos to authenticate his claim. The bulk of the original land records had been lost in a fire seventy years before, so he would have had a plausible claim.
Likewise, there were papers in the Kocher collection that were equally fraudulent. Nielsen’s claim was bogus from the top down.
The pollen test she’d sent out for analysis had come back as a birch variant not found in Oregon—but was common in Norway. This was just further proof the bones she’d examined in the Kocher Mansion were not Native American. Eventually, police had recovered the Norwegian skeleton, finding it hidden away in Shields’s museum. That was enough to put the entire private collection into question. A NAGPRA specialist would comb through their holdings, but Maddie wasn’t interested in that job. She was just glad that the museum would be closed indefinitely.
The Kocher family members who were not part of Troy’s scheme had agreed to repatriate everything stolen by their great-grandparents to the tribes, even the nonfunerary artifacts. This would free them to sell the house and distance themselves from the cousin who’d planned to burn their inheritance to the ground. Maddie would spend the next months going through the collection to determine tribal affiliation for artifacts in addition to the remains. Everything had been removed from the house to an off-site storage facility with supervision from the FBI.
Troy Kocher was in jail awaiting trial as his family declined to pay his bail. He was there alongside his partner in crime, Clifford Nielsen the fourth. Because of his massive wealth and foreign holdings, C-IV was considered a flight risk.
Maddie took great joy at the thought of the almost billionaire locked in a cell, dining on institutional food.
The video game ended, and Josh took first place. Maddie gave him a kiss worthy of the gold cup while Ava groaned in feigned horror at the display.
“You shouldn’t have let him win, then,” Maddie said.
“Hey! I won fair and square.”
“Sure you did, Uncle Josh.”
Maddie laughed. “If you’re done playing, dinner is ready.”
They moved into the dining room, and dinner was warm and fun, with many toasts to Chase. In a way, she felt like she was losing a brother, which was ironic considering she’d only known him for a month, and in that time, she’d lost her actual brother.
But family was a funny thing, the word not as narrowly defined as the dictionary had led her to believe.
There was no legal arrangement between her and Josh. She’d just moved into his house and his bed the moment the security upgrades were complete. She wasn’t Ava’s aunt or mother, and yet she fel
t like a cross between both, even though their relationship was just over six weeks old. Josh and Ava were her family now, as she faced life without her parents or brother.
Her mom and dad had seen the video like everyone else, but neither—her mom especially—could cope with the truth. Her mom alternated between accusing Maddie of lying and altering the video and accepting her son was the monster he presented in the video.
It was a yo-yo Maddie refused to ride, and she’d cut off relations with her mom. Her mom needed to accept that Alan had plotted Maddie’s and Ava’s deaths to cover up crimes he’d committed for the sole purpose of getting elected. Until her mom could see that Maddie was the victim, she could not have a relationship with her mom. Once again, Maddie found herself grieving the loss of her brother and parents, but on a much deeper level than the first time around.
She didn’t think she’d ever understand Alan’s need for power. He’d always been ambitious, but when had his drive turned pathological?
They moved to the backyard after dinner for ping-pong on the outdoor table. It was a beautiful mid-September evening, and Maddie felt a wave of contentment.
Chase and Desmond were playing a fierce game, with Ava sitting on the stone wall close to the table, cheering on her almost boyfriend. Maddie had it on authority they were taking it slow and weren’t using the terms boyfriend and girlfriend, but it was pretty clear they were a couple.
Maddie and Josh sat at the outdoor table closer to the house, slightly removed from the action.
“You okay?” he asked.
She smiled. “It’s a perfect evening. With Chase leaving, I’ve been thinking about found families and real ones…which made me think of Alan.”
He took her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. “Yeah. I’ve been thinking about Ari too, and how my SEAL and Raptor families made up for so much. I want to take Ava to DC sometime so she can meet everyone.”
“That would be a great spring break trip. Cherry blossom time.”
Another ping-pong game started up, this time with Ava squared off against Chase, and her warm laugh filled the yard.
Josh squeezed her hand and nodded toward the side yard. “Come with me?”
She smiled and rose from the lawn chair. He pulled her around to the side of the house and led her through the gate to the place where he’d kissed her the first night she’d come here and met Ava.
With his hands on her hips, he pressed her to the wall, then placed his hands on either side of her head, blocking her in. “I’m looking forward to this next phase ahead of us. With Chase gone and now that Ava’s in school, we’ll have more time for just you and me.”
Given that they both worked from home most of the time, they’d have a lot more alone time together. She cupped her hand over the back of his neck. “I’m looking forward to that too.”
“I want to do something really selfish. Just for me.”
She grinned. Josh’s kind of selfish totally worked for her. “Yeah, what’s that?”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. “I want to make you mine, forever and for always.”
It took her a moment to take in his meaning. Right after it sank in, he opened the box, revealing a beautiful solitaire stone, and said the words. “Maddie, will you marry me?”
It should be too soon to talk of marriage, and yet, with Josh, it was just right. Because this was right. He was right. And it would mean a lot to Ava too, that it was official, that Maddie was staying.
“Yes. Absolutely.” She felt her eyes tear. She’d done that a lot in the last several weeks, but this was pure joy. “I love you, Josh. I want to be your family, and I want you and Ava to be mine.”
He slipped the ring on her finger. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Maddie.”
“And you’re the best, most caring man I’ve ever known.” She stared at the ring, a symbol of their coming legal union, when in her heart, they were already joined.
Never before in her life had she been so utterly certain she was on the right path. She rose on her toes and kissed him softly on the lips. “You’re mine, Josh Warner, and I’m never going to let you go again.”
Thank you for reading Tainted Evidence, I hope you enjoyed Maddie’s and Josh’s (and Ava’s!) story. If you are wondering what happened to Tricia, don’t miss the second author’s note below for information.
The Evidence Series will continue, but while you wait for the next installment, you can check out my USA Today bestselling Flashpoint Series of steamy military thrillers. In TINDERBOX, Dr. Morgan Adler has made the archaeological find of a lifetime, which puts her in the crosshairs of a warlord eager to claim Morgan and the fossils. Green Beret Pax Blanchard is assigned to protect the scientist in the scorching desert heat, but can he keep his hands off her when the sun goes down?
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Author’s Note
This book was in final edits on the day George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. The protests that have stemmed from that horrific act bring me hope that there is a path to a different kind of policing in our future, as well as leaving me sickened at the brutality inflicted by officers on so many protesters around the country. This story has an idealized version of counterprotesters working with police, with only a mild nod to corrupt officers who aggravate the situation. I did consider revising those portions of the story to reflect reality, but aside from being a major rewrite just weeks before publication, it also would shift the focus of the plot, and this story was intended to be about the danger presented by white supremacists (some of whom are police) and the way they are using our systems to recruit new members and sow discord. After careful consideration, I decided to publish the book with the original intended focus.
Black Lives Matter and anyone who disagrees with that likely hasn’t made it to the end of the book, but I want to be clear that I support the movement and the protests, and I’m filled with grief and hope for our country.
The following is a list of names of lives ended too soon by racist violence. It was posted on the website, BabyNames.com with the heading, “Each one of these names was somebody’s baby.”
EMMETT TILL • ERIC GARNER • JOHN CRAWFORD III • MICHAEL BROWN • EZELL FORD • DANTE PARKER • MICHELLE CUSSEAUX • LAQUAN MCDONALD • TANISHA ANDERSON • AKAI GURLEY • TAMIR RICE • RUMAIN BRISBON • JERAME REID • GEORGE MANN • MATTHEW AJIBADE • FRANK SMART • NATASHA MCKENNA • TONY ROBINSON • ANTHONY HILL • MYA HALL • PHILLIP WHITE • ERIC HARRIS • WALTER SCOTT • WILLIAM CHAPMAN II • ALEXIA CHRISTIAN • BRENDON GLENN • VICTOR MANUEL LAROSA • JONATHAN SANDERS • FREDDIE CARLOS GRAY JR. • JOSEPH MANN • SALVADO ELLSWOOD • SANDRA BLAND • ALBERT JOSEPH DAVIS • DARRIUS STEWART • BILLY RAY DAVIS • SAMUEL DUBOSE • MICHAEL SABBIE • BRIAN KEITH DAY • CHRISTIAN TAYLOR • TROY ROBINSON • ASSHAMS PHAROAH MANLEY • FELIX KUMI • KEITH HARRISON MCLEOD • JUNIOR PROSPER • LAMONTEZ JONES • PATERSON BROWN • DOMINIC HUTCHINSON • ANTHONY ASHFORD • ALONZO SMITH•TYREE CRAWFORD • INDIA KAGER • LA’VANTE BIGGS • MICHAEL LEE MARSHALL • JAMAR CLARK • RICHARD PERKINS • NATHANIEL HARRIS PICKETT • BENNI LEE TIGNOR • MIGUEL ESPINAL • MICHAEL NOEL • KEVIN MATTHEWS • BETTIE JONES • QUINTONIO LEGRIER • KEITH CHILDRESS JR. • JANET WILSON • RANDY NELSON • ANTRONIE SCOTT • WENDELL CELESTINE • DAVID JOSEPH • CALIN ROQUEMO
RE • DYZHAWN PERKINS • CHRISTOPHER DAVIS • MARCO LOUD • PETER GAINES • TORREY ROBINSON • DARIUS ROBINSON • KEVIN HICKS • MARY TRUXILLO • DEMARCUS SEMER • WILLIE TILLMAN • TERRILL THOMAS • SYLVILLE SMITH • ALTON STERLING • PHILANDO CASTILE • TERENCE CRUTCHER • PAUL O’NEAL • ALTERIA WOODS • JORDAN EDWARDS • AARON BAILEY • RONELL FOSTER • STEPHON CLARK • ANTWON ROSE II • BOTHAM JEAN • PAMELA TURNER • DOMINIQUE CLAYTON • ATATIANA JEFFERSON • CHRISTOPHER WHITFIELD • CHRISTOPHER MCCORVEY • ERIC REASON • KIONTE SPENCER • MICHAEL LORENZO DEAN • TRAYVON MARTIN • BREONNA TAYLOR • AHMAUD ARBERY • TONY MCDADE • GEORGE FLOYD
We must put an end to this violence, and stop putting white supremacists in positions of power, be they police officers, politicians, prosecutors, or judges.
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to all the protesters who are risking assault and COVID-19 by showing up and making your voices heard.
Rachel Grant
06/09/2020
Author’s Note 2
Wondering what happened to Tricia Rooks, or how Owen ended up at R&R?
To find out what happened in Indonesia, read Toni Anderson’s COLDER THAN SIN.
Hostage Negotiators can talk themselves out of anything—except falling in love.
Top FBI negotiator Quentin Savage is hurled into his worst nightmare when a terrorist attack on a luxury hotel propels him from esteemed keynote speaker to powerless captive.
Haley Cramer is a rich CEO and prides herself on her independence, but she is shaken to the core when gunmen attack a conference she is attending. She survives, but only because Quentin Savage pretends she’s his wife.