This was really her daughter, there in flesh and blood. She felt Olivia’s hand on her arm, and the joy that flooded her made up for every bit of pain and fear she had experienced. She opened her eyes and focused slowly on her daughter’s face, the pretty features she knew so well swimming before her eyes.
“Olivia,” she croaked, her voice dry and cracked. “Liv …”
“Mom, it’s going to be okay,” Olivia said, taking Victoria’s hand and sitting down beside her, making Victoria realize for the first time that she was in a bed. In a room. In a house. Stable. Steady. Clean. Pain-free.
Victoria tried to sit up, but Olivia gently eased her back down.
“Stay still,” her daughter said. “You’ve been through a lot. Something happened with a fight somewhere. I don’t know. But it’s all okay now. That’s what Hannah told me to tell you. She found me, you know. Hannah.”
“Found you—.” Victoria said, more memories rushing back to her. “God, Cade took you. Honey …,” she said, gripping Olivia’s hands. “You must have been terrified. I’m so sorry. I never meant for you to be involved in any of this.”
“Mom,” Olivia said, speaking firmly and gripping her hands to keep her in place. “I’m fine. I have a lot of questions—yeah. Like …dragons? I mean, holy shit. Dragons.”
“Don’t swear.”
Olivia rolled her eyes. “Really? You’re going to tell me not to swear right now?”
She had never been so glad to see someone roll their eyes. Victoria pulled her daughter close and wrapped her arms around her, ignoring the twinges that the movement created. “No,” she said, tears forming in her eyes and slowly slipping down her cheeks. “No, I’m not going to do anything but be so, so, so glad to see you, beautiful girl. I love you. I’m so sorry that you were scared.”
“I love you, too,” Olivia said, the words muffled against Victoria’s shoulder. “I was pretty scared for a while, but Hannah found me, and she’s amazing. She’s like really, really amazing, Mom. And I know how hard you fought for me. That doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Victoria released her daughter, and this time when she started to sit up, Olivia allowed it, helping her to get situated. Blowing out a breath, Victoria looked at her daughter, then around the room. She was in Barrett’s house. In his bedroom.
“Where …?”
Victoria cut herself off, not sure how much Olivia knew about Barrett or their relationship.
“Were you going to ask where your boyfriend is?” Olivia said, giving her mother a pointed look. “He’s fine. He’s pretty hurt, but he’s okay.”
“He’s not my …,” Victoria started to say. But she stopped herself again. Because he was her boyfriend. At the very least, he was her boyfriend, but she hoped that he was a whole lot more.
Olivia shifted the pillows behind her mother. “I know a lot more than you think,” Olivia said. “Hannah has been telling me everything. Barrett got mad at her for telling me so much, but Hannah says that kids have a right to know things. She’s really cool.”
Impulsively, Olivia reached out and squeezed her mother.
“But not as cool as you,” she said. “I love you, Mom. I really do.”
“I love you, too,” Victoria said, hugging her daughter back. As she did, she saw Barrett appear in the doorway, and her heart, already filled with joy, swelled even further until she thought it might burst.
He smiled gently when their eyes met, and she felt tears welling up all over again.
Olivia sensed Barrett’s presence, and she pulled back from her mother. “I’ll let you two talk. I’ll be out here with Hannah.”
Olivia hurried out of the room, and Barrett gingerly pushed away from the wall and walked over to the bed, moving slowly and limping slightly but still managing to look entirely impressive. He sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand.
“How are you?” Barrett murmured.
“Me?” Victoria asked, shaking her head. “How about you? How are you? You’re hurt, Barrett.”
“I’m fine,” Barrett said, leaning in and brushing his lips over her cheek. “As long as you’re okay, I’m fine. Victoria …I …”
She understood why the words wouldn’t come to him. She put her arms around his neck, and he held her carefully, burying his face in her hair and breathing her in. For a long moment, they just held each other. She didn’t know what time of day it was, or even what day it was, or what had happened after Barrett and Adele had both shifted and gone to war with each other. But she was fine, and so was her daughter, and so was Barrett. It was all she could want.
“I’m sorry that I said those things to you,” Victoria said, pulling back finally and resting against the pillows of the bed. Barrett took her hand in his, holding it gently, his thumb stroking over her knuckles. “Adele had Cade on Olivia, and he had instructions to kill her if Adele didn’t call him off by the time she left school that day. I was panicked. All I could think was that I had to play her game better than her. I had to play along with her, and she wanted to crush you.”
Barrett lifted her hand and kissed her palm, the gesture sweet and tender. “You did crush me,” he said, pressing her palm to his cheek. “But only for a minute. I saw through you, and I understood. You have nothing to apologize for, Victoria. You did what you had to do to keep your daughter safe. If you had done anything else, you wouldn’t be the woman I love so very much.”
Tears filled her eyes again, and she leaned into him, careful to avoid his obvious injuries, but leaning against his shoulder and chest as much as she dared to. “I love you, too,” she whispered, as his arms moved around her. “What …happened out there? You and Adele fought. That’s all I remember …that and pain and fear and …blackness.”
Stroking her hair as he held her, Barrett rested his cheek against her head. “That thing that Adele wore to make her invisible? Remember that?”
Victoria nodded.
“It was a totem, enchanted by some person with strong magic. It wasn’t just an invisibility band—it also contained a charm so that any person who handled it—other than Adele—suffered what you experienced. Extreme pain. The playing out of all their worst fears. Confusion. Dizziness …”
“And so much pain,” Victoria murmured. “It hit me in the back. It didn’t feel big, but I was suddenly on the ground …I was twitching with agony.”
Barrett kissed her forehead, holding her closer. “I know.”
She looked up at him. “You experienced it, too, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “After I had killed Adele, you were still under the spell of the charmed bracelet. I had to break it.”
“You touched it.”
He nodded again.
“Directly?”
Again, he nodded.
“God, Barrett,” Victoria said, easing back from him to look over his battered body. “No wonder you look like that. If it did what it did to me just from hitting me in the back and falling to the ground …I can’t even imagine what it did to you when you broke it.”
Barrett shrugged a shoulder, as though it was no big deal. “Remember,” he said. “I’m a Rockwell Clan dragon shifter. My body is as close to invincible as it gets. There’s very little that can do any lasting harm to me. I’ll be right as rain again, soon enough. I’m in more pain now from Adele ripping open my guts than from the charmed bracelet.”
He was obviously downplaying what he had gone through. His skin was pale, and he had bruises covering much of his arms and his neck. One even shadowed his cheek. He moved stiffly, and he was sitting gingerly. He looked like he had been through hell and back.
“What do you mean ripped open your guts?”
Barrett sat back and lifted his shirt, showing her a wicked scar that now ran across his abdomen. “Jordan has healed it pretty nicely,” he said, tracing the red, angry line. “Jordan has healing powers—did I tell you that? She helped stabilize you when you were under the charm earlier. Anyway. I’m perfectly fine. Or, I will be tomorrow.”
She t
ouched her fingers to her lips and then placed them on his abs gently. “I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry I wasn’t more help.”
“Don’t be silly,” he said, pulling his shirt down. “Your first priority was Olivia. And if you hadn’t brought Adele to me, there’s no telling how much longer she might have chosen to mess with me before I was able to actually locate her. It was a bad battle, there’s no doubt. But we made it through, and we’re on the other side.” He took her hand again and smiled down into her eyes. “Together.”
She smiled back, enjoying the way that his expression lit up his handsome features.
“What time is it?”
“It’s tomorrow morning,” he said. “We gave you something to help you sleep off what you’d experienced. So, the battle with Adele was yesterday.”
Victoria huffed out a breath, leaning back against the pillows again. “So, it’s Saturday.”
“It’s Saturday.”
That reminded her of Olivia and her school schedule, and her eyes darted towards the door through which Olivia had disappeared. “She said Hannah found her. She’s crazy about Hannah.”
“Most people are,” Barrett said. “I was in no shape to go find her after I had broken the bracelet in half. I put Hannah and Quentin on that job. They were all at the field. Quentin had gotten the sense that something was wrong when I called him off the search for you, and he tracked my phone and brought everyone out to help fight Adele. It was a good thing he did, because she was a warrior. A desperate warrior. Anyway—I sent Hannah and Quentin to track down Cade. They were able to use Adele’s phone to call him and narrow down his location. He had taken Olivia to an empty house.”
“Had he …”
“He hadn’t hurt her,” Barrett said. “He’d scared her pretty badly, but he hadn’t hurt her. I don’t know exactly why he took her to that house, or how he knew about it. The moment he learned that Adele was dead, he became a useless mess. He hasn’t said an intelligent word since. Hannah left Quentin to deal with him, and she brought Olivia to me. Olivia has been by your side, and she’s been holding up through the shock of everything like an absolute trooper.”
Victoria smiled. “That’s my girl.”
“And this is my girl,” Barrett murmured, stroking her cheek and looking into her eyes. “Victoria, I need you to know that I’ve taken care of Annie’s body. Your partner, Izzie, has been talking with Ryan. She knows a lot. Not everything—but a lot. She’s been to see you. She helped Ryan arrange it, so that the body was discovered, and we’re not implicated, but Annie gets justice—well, whatever justice we can provide her now.”
“Thank you,” Victoria said, still deeply saddened over the innocent woman’s fate. She hadn’t been a part of any of this—she’d only been Adele’s pawn. But she could rest better knowing that Annie’s family would get at least some answers. “That means a lot to me, Barrett.”
His expression became intense, but tender all the same. “I’ve never felt more panic in my life than I did knowing that you were missing or knowing that you were hurt. I love you, Victoria. I love your strength, and your compassion, and your principles. I love how you’ve fought the past couple of days, and I love how tender and passionate you are beneath all that strength and power you project. I love you, and when I was taking back the Rockwell Clan, I told them that you were my life partner. That you were the woman I wanted by my side. I meant it, and it’s even more true now, and I never ever want to feel like I’m losing you again.”
Her heart melted, and Victoria captured his hand in hers, kissing his fingers as she brought them to her lips. “I love you, too.”
“Enough to stick with me?”
Victoria nodded. “Yes.”
“Even though you’re a cop, and I’m a supernatural private investigator who has to play by my own rules to run my Clan of dragon shifters?”
Victoria chuckled, softly. “Yeah. We’ll work it out.”
“We will,” Barrett said, leaning in to kiss her. “As long as you stay with me, everything will be absolutely fine.”
Epilogue
Barrett
It had been a year.
It was hard to believe that twelve months had gone by since he’d learned he had a sister and a brother he had never known about, confronted and banished his father, and lost his mother. Those were the tragedies he had gone through, but it had also been a year since he’d found the love of his life and gotten to know her amazing daughter. A year since he had stood up for his right to lead the Rockwell Clan, and had gotten a mandate from the Clan to revitalize and modernize everything about the way that they achieved their mission to protect the greater area of Baton Rouge.
So much had changed since then. Norman was still by his side, helping him every step of the way. Ryan, Quentin, and Hannah had gotten married, and Jordan was getting married in six months. The agency was flourishing under the new policies of transparency and openness. And the rot that had seeped into the Clan, imposed by his father’s forced secrecy, was gone. Barrett had never realized just how distant the whole Clan had become, suffering under the weight of silence. With all secrets removed, there was momentum for a reunification and revitalization of the Rockwell Clan, and everyone was thriving—even Cade, who lived with Norman now and was slowly being reintroduced to what it meant to be a member of the Rockwell Clan after years and years of brainwashing by his sister. Cade had never been the evil one, and Barrett wouldn’t let him continue to pay for Adele’s manipulations. He would fight to give his brother a good life from here on out.
He would fight to give everyone a good life from here on out.
Barrett was standing by the window in his agency office, reminiscing, when he heard a light tap at the door. He turned, and when he saw Victoria standing there, her red hair falling in soft waves around her face and an emerald-green dress hugging every curve of her body, his heart melted and his body hardened simultaneously.
He crossed to her, drawing his beautiful fiancée into his arms and kissing her deeply. “God, you’re beautiful. What are you doing here?”
“Well, I thought that we should celebrate,” she murmured, winding her arms around his neck. “It’s been one year today since you really stepped into your role as the leader and saved the world.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know about the world.”
“You saved me.”
“You saved me right back,” he said, letting his hands slide over her beautiful body, exploring with slow, sensuous deliberation. “I was treading water before I met you, Victoria. And I would have imploded during all of that if I hadn’t had your strength. You saved me. You have me now.”
Victoria ran her hands down his chest, her eyes lifting, so that she looked up at him through thick lashes. “That’s exactly what I plan to do now,” she said, pushing him back towards his desk. “I intend to have you. And then you and I are going to a very nice, private dinner with the other couples.”
“Dinner sounds delicious,” Barrett said, sliding his hands down her legs until he reached the hem of her dress, and started to pull it up, turning them just as they got to his desk, so that it was her ass that pressed back against it, and his hard length that pressed against her. “You sound even better, though.”
He kissed her fiercely, his passion for her stronger than ever. They had loved, and fought, and moved in together, and worked cases together, and navigated parenting together, and built a life together. He had loved every minute of it. She was his partner and his mate, and she had adapted to the shifter life better than he could have ever imagined. They flew together at least once a week, soaring above the trees in the darkness of night, and then they came home and got into bed and did this—exactly what they were doing now.
He could do this forever. He planned to do this forever.
Barrett ran his hands all over her, pulling down the straps of her dress to fondle her full breasts and sliding his fingers up her inner thigh and teasing them against her panties. It
was hot and heavy, and his need was only amplified by the knowledge that their friends were waiting for them, wondering where they were.
When he slid his hard length into her warm, welcoming body, he groaned with pleasure and kissed her over and over again. “I love you,” he said, gripping her hips and setting her on his desk. She leaned into him, her head falling back, and he gripped her hips so that he could drive into her again and again, looking down and watching as his body thrust into hers.
“I love you too,” she murmured, between groans. “Oh, God, Barrett. Don’t stop.”
He didn’t plan to—not for the rest of his life.
Barrett made love to her desperately—as desperately as if it was still the first time. He kissed her everywhere, and he drove her pleasure higher and higher, his finger on her sensitive clit as he pounded into her. When she came, it sent shock waves of pleasure through him, and he followed after her, calling out her name, as he spilled himself inside of her, shuddering through his climax.
When he rested against her, his pulse was hammering and his breath was coming fast. He was still fully dressed, and so was she. They had only taken the time to push clothing out of the way and unzip his pants. It often happened that way as they took advantage of any fleeting moment that came upon them.
Barrett kissed Victoria’s neck, holding her close to him as they both came down from their high. She laughed softly, and he chuckled in her ear. They carefully untangled themselves, righting their clothes and fixing each other’s hair, a spark of impish pleasure in their eyes.
“Well, Mr. Rockwell,” Victoria said, when they were presentable again. She held her hand out for his. “Would you like to go have dinner with our friends?”
“The only thing that sounds better than that is having you again right here and now,” Barrett said, lacing his fingers through hers and winking at her. “But I can wait for that until tonight. Let’s go—I’m starving.”
They walked out to the car, the Louisiana summer heat oppressive but familiar. Dinner was only a few blocks away, and they arrived within minutes, walking into a private room that Victoria had blocked off for them. The others were already there, drinks in hand, but they turned towards the couple as they walked in, and the sight of the smiles on his friends’ faces gave Barrett a good feeling inside. A man was nothing without the right woman at his side and the right friends surrounding him. And he was lucky enough to have both. No matter what they had gone through to get here—he had everything. And he had a wonderful seventeen-year-old soon-to-be stepdaughter who lit up his life as well.
Rockwell Agency: Boxset Page 119