Jackson looked at his brother. “I’m sorry I doubted you, bro.”
“I depended on it, and it was justified,” Bruce said, then looked at Morgan. “I won’t ever forget what you did.” His eyes filmed over, and he blinked hard. “Laura trusted you completely. I wish I’d been as wise.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t think Kunz would kill her. She and Judy were such close friends, you know?”
Kunz would have killed his mother, anyone, to keep his sanctuary intact, but telling Bruce that would serve no constructive purpose, so Morgan kept it to herself.
“Well.” The commander stood up. “I’d say that puts this one to bed.” She looked at Bruce. “I’m glad you’re out of jail, Bruce, and I am so sorry for your loss. Laura was a brave woman and totally devoted to you. I hope there’s some small solace in knowing that.”
“Thank you, Commander,” he said. “Maybe in time.”
She nodded and repeated, “Maybe in time.”
Jackson, Bruce, and the commander shared a few words.
Morgan sniffed, and Joan passed her a damp tissue. “Sorry, it’s the only one I’ve got.”
Her eyes were red-rimmed, too. “At least you can blame your pregnancy. Raging hormones and all that.”
“Honey, look around the table. Even Dr. Vargus is misty eyed. It’s called being human.”
Morgan glanced around and gave Joan a teary-eyed smile. Tears streamed down Jazie’s face. Taylor Lee was dry-eyed and actually smiling, though whether it was because of the tender moment or because her Saab would be replaced, Morgan didn’t hazard a guess. “Human. Sometimes it’s too easy to forget.”
“Don’t worry.” Joan clasped her arm. “We’ll remind each other.”
“Yeah, we will.” Morgan smiled at her.
“Did the commander warn you that Kate is giving Amanda’s bridal shower?”
Laughing, Morgan nodded.
“Let me walk you out, Bruce,” the commander told him.
“When will I be able to bury Laura?” he asked. “Do you know yet?” He blinked rapidly. “I can hardly stand to think of her being in the morgue.”
“I know.” She patted his arm. “The ME just released her body, so you’re free to proceed. Just let him know what funeral home you want to use after you’ve made the arrangements.”
Bruce looked back at Jackson. “Will you be here a while, Jax?”
Jackson nodded. “For as long as you need me.” He sent Jackson a bittersweet smile etched with relief. “Well, I’m going car shopping,” Taylor Lee said. “I’ll go with you.” Jazie grabbed her purse. “They’re having a scratch-and-dent sale at Toyota. We could see—” Taylor guffawed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. A scratch-and-dent sale? Have you lost your mind?”
“From the storm,” Jazie said, clearly at a loss for the cause of Taylor Lee’s objections.
“I will not buy a car from a scratch-and-dent sale, Jazie Craig. Not in this life or the next. Forget it.”
They walked past Morgan and Jackson and into the hall. “Oh, you’re such a snob, Taylor Lee …”
Joan rolled her gaze, paused beside Jackson. “It was a pleasure, Captain.”
He shook her hand. “Thank you, Joan. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done.”
“Yes.” She patted their clasped hands. “I know you are. I’ve been there, too.” She had relied on the S.A.S.S. to spare her and her family two years ago, just as Jackson had in this situation. “It gets better … easier to swallow.” She rubbed her stomach. “Oh, geez. You’ll have to excuse me.”
“What’s wrong, Joan?”
She winced. “My water just broke.”
“The baby’s coming?” Jackson sounded mortified.
Joan nodded. “Commander, could you help me waddle over to Admitting.”
“It’s not time yet.”
“I know,” she said. “The baby, however, doesn’t. He’s coming.”
“You!” Commander Drake barked at an orderly coming down the hall. “Wheelchair. Here. Now.”
The guy looked shell-shocked, until his gaze lighted on Joan.
“The baby?”
She nodded, and he smiled.
“Move your ass, soldier!” Commander Drake shouted. “If she has this baby in the hall, you’re going to be pulling extra duty until the boy graduates from college.”
He took off running.
Less than two minutes later, he returned with a wheelchair and two nurses. They loaded Joan in the chair and then rolled her down the hallway. The commander went with her, barking orders, and dialing her cell phone. “Simon? Simon, get over to the hospital … stat. Joan’s in labor …”
Morgan smiled, watching them go, and when they disappeared around the corner, she looked up at Jackson and smiled. “You okay?”
“Yeah. Just remind me never to piss her off.” He lifted Morgan’s hand and brought it to his lips.
She chuckled. “Commander Drake gets a little excited about family matters.”
“I noticed with her reaction to Bruce.” He lowered their hands and they started walking out of the hospital. “A new record,” he glanced at his watch. “We’ve been together, and it’s been at least forty hours since anyone’s taken a shot at me … including you.”
“Are you going to hold that over my head for the rest of my life?”
“Absolutely not,” he said emphatically. “Just for forty or fifty years—you know, until it wears thin.”
She exaggerated a frown and held it so he wouldn’t miss it. “You’re putting your forty-first hour in serious jeopardy,” she warned him. “We’ll see how it goes, then take a longer-term look.”
“Fine.” He grinned. “But we should hurry and celebrate this success before something else happens and we have to start a new countdown.”
“Stop it, you.” Morgan elbowed him in the ribs. “Let’s go clear our heads.”
“Anything you say,” he told her, clasping their hands. “I never argue with a smart, armed woman.”
“That’s a sound policy.” Morgan gripped his hand, and they walked outside. “I strongly suggest you hang onto it.” And finally she gave him the words. “And me.”
He stopped right outside the door. “You’ve decided what you want, then?”
Morgan summoned her courage and looked him right in the eye. “For now.”
“Now’s good.” He nodded. “Now works.”
And hand in hand, they walked out of the kill zone.
EPILOGUE
Two months later
“Morgan!” Jackson came in through the back door, shouting for her. “Where are you, honey?”
“Right here.” She walked into the kitchen, dropped the cell phone on the counter, and let herself be swept up in Jackson’s arms. He nuzzled her neck, and she giggled. “Whatever’s happened, I like it.”
“I got it,” he told her, his eyes shining. “The transfer to Providence.”
“Oh, Jackson!” She squealed her delight, squeezed his neck in a heartfelt hug. “When do you come?”
“Three weeks.” He untangled her hair from the button on his collar. “And I’m on leave until then.”
“Awesome, honey,” she said. It was fabulous news. “No more commuting between Magnolia Beach and Biloxi for either of us.”
He whirled in a circle, holding her up off the floor. “They created a slot for me. I’m working directly under Colonel Gray.”
Commander Drake’s nemesis. “Oh, boy.” The pissing contest would remain on for the foreseeable future. But to have Jackson here with her, Morgan would gladly endure it. “We should do something special to celebrate.”
He nipped at her neck, snuggled her suggestively. “I’m ready when you are.”
She laughed again. “Great idea, but lousy timing.”
“Why?” He let her down on the kitchen floor.
“Bruce is coming over for dinner.” She reached into the fridge for a soda.
Jackson snatched it, put it back, and then passed her a bottle of wat
er. “Drink this instead.”
Morgan gave in gracefully. “My kidneys love you.”
“I love them, too,” he said, peeking into the pots on the stove. “Mmm, looks good.”
“It’s starch,” she said in a droll tone. “You’ll love it.” She plucked a grape from the fruit bowl. “Check the fridge door. We have other news, too.”
He walked over, looked, and paused on the wedding invitation. “Amanda and Mark. Well, they’re all set, eh?”
“It’s to us,” Morgan said, beaming. “Our first official joint invitation.” They were a couple in the eyes of their friends and coworkers.
“We should frame it, hang it on the wall, or something.”
He was trying to support the significance. Morgan smiled. “I think we’re good without the frame, but I’ll keep it in mind.”
He looked to something stuck up on the fridge door beside it. “Kate is giving Amanda’s shower.” He guffawed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Morgan slipped on an oven mitt, fully appreciating his reaction. “I thought I told you.”
“I don’t think so, but you might have during the ordeal and I just forgot it.”
The ordeal. It was a safe way to refer to the time of Laura’s death, Bruce’s arrest, and all the trouble with Thomas Kunz without reliving every event all over all again. “I might not have,” she said, really unsure herself.
He rubbed his neck. “I think you better be armed for that wedding shower,” he said. “Maybe wear my bomb-squad gear.”
“Jackson,” she admonished.
“Hey, you know as well as I do that Kate likes nothing better than to blow up stuff.”
Morgan couldn’t deny it and chuckled. “Commander Drake warned me a couple days ago. The cake is shaped like a brick of C-4.” He grunted and grabbed a grape. “Be grateful she didn’t use the real thing.”
Morgan laughed, but his point was valid. Kate did love to blow things up. “She is planning fireworks.”
“For a bridal shower?” He arched an eyebrow. “Even I know that’s not … done. But it should make it memorable.” He walked toward the door.
“She’s trying so hard to make it special,” Morgan said. “No one has the heart to say anything.”
“They’d damn well better not,” he said. “If Kate’s doing it and it isn’t her way, Amanda and Mark won’t like it a bit.” He opened the back door. “Objecting and dealing with Kate is bad. But dealing with her and Mark and Amanda? Who’s that crazy?”
Interesting take. One Morgan hadn’t considered. But he was right. “Where are you going?”
“To stick an extra fire extinguisher in the back of the Jeep while I’m thinking about it.” He shrugged. “Just in case Kate’s a little too enthusiastic.”
Morgan started to tell him that wouldn’t be necessary and then thought better of it. “Couldn’t hurt.”
He walked back and pecked a kiss on her lips. “You’re awesome, you know.”
Morgan smiled, her heart full. “Damn right.”
Her cell phone rang.
Jackson lifted it from the counter and answered. “Cabot’s phone.” “Jackson?”
“Hi, Commander Drake,” he said, recognizing her voice. “How are you?”
They chatted for a moment, and then Jackson said, “She’s right here. No, no problem. I’m on my way out.” He passed the phone.
“Hello.” Morgan watched him duck into the garage and shut the door.
“I was hoping we’d get a bit more of a break,” Sally Drake told her. “But I guess Kunz is settled into his new crib, wherever it might be.”
Kunz. Making trouble again. “What’s up, Commander?”
“I just got a call from our friend Gaston,” she said. “He thinks double number forty-five has just shown up. I need to activate the S.A.T. report ASAP.”
She wanted the team at Regret as soon as possible. Morgan shot a wistful look over at the stove. So much for a quiet family dinner. Jackson and Bruce would have to enjoy it without her.
“Darcy will contact Taylor Lee and Jazie. I need you here right away.”
Morgan grabbed her purse and headed for the garage. “Yes, ma’am.”
The line went dead. She folded her phone and looked for Jackson. He was straightening up at the back of the Jeep. “Activated. I’ve got to go right away. Ten more minutes and the stuff in the oven is done. Watch the pots. Don’t let anything burn.”
He opened her car door. “I’ll manage.”
“Yeah, you’ll burn everything and tell Bruce I did it.”
“I swear I won’t—unless it’s absolutely necessary. He’s bringing Laura’s recipe for peach cobbler. If I have to lie to get it, you’re toast.”
“Well, considering how much you love her cobbler, I’ll make the sacrifice, but only if I have to—and, Jackson, it will cost you.”
“I’ll pay. Anywhere. Anytime.”
“Oh, yes. You surely will.” She smiled and planted a quick kiss on his lips. “I’ll be careful, and if I have to deploy, I’ll call.”
He closed the door, stepped back, and gave her a smart salute. “Be careful, and tell Taylor Lee no cracking anyone in the head with beer bottles—use the gun.”
Morgan winked. “I will.” She depressed the garage door button, and it opened. Backing out, she called, “Jackson?”
Heading into the house, he stopped and turned back. “You’re awesome,” she yelled out to him.
He smiled. “Damn straight.”
She smiled back, pulled out of the driveway, and headed down the street, her cell phone ringing. She answered it. “Cabot.”
“Morgan, did you get the call?” Taylor Lee asked. “He’s at it again.”
“I heard.” Morgan sped up. “I’m on my way …”
Vicki Hinze - [War Games 04] Page 27