“And you.” His expression softened. “In my line of work, I’ve had to become a lot of things—hardened, blunt, often seemingly without an ounce of empathy—but something in me seemed to soften, to almost break. What if I did report the real story and wasn’t able to get the evidence to put Hector and the whole business away? What if the FBI swooped in and still couldn’t manage to get anything to send Hector away for life? I didn’t even have Victor’s original notes and didn’t even know they existed at the time. Every way I looked at it I realized that, for once, I couldn’t take a chance on everything falling through. I couldn’t gamble with your lives. I wouldn’t. So I changed the names the way Hector wanted and hoped you’d never look into it.” He gave her a wry smile. “But then you showed up with Victor’s original notes and an unwavering amount of loyalty.”
That relaxed her a bit. She gave him an apologetic look. “Sorry,” she said, not at all meaning it. Dennis waved his hand to dismiss what he also knew was a lie. “How did they know I had the journal?”
Dennis didn’t hold back his anger for the answer. “When I came to speak to you at your new house—to try and get you to stop—I had already been visited by Hector. He said if I didn’t get you to stop and get the notebook, then you’d pay. He also let me in on the fact that apparently my house was bugged so he could ensure I wasn’t up to anything. Something I had suspected but hadn’t been able to prove yet. He may have been arrogant but he was also clever.”
“So at the Foundation dinner—” she started.
“I gave him the notebook and told him to leave you all the hell alone.” He motioned to the fading bruise across his nose. “He wasn’t happy.”
“I’m sorry,” Kelli said, meaning it that time.
“In the end, it turned out better than I could ever have hoped. I heard Mark was able to be the one who grabbed Hector from Florida, right?”
Kelli loved being able to nod at that.
“Mark and Jonathan tracked him down and now the FBI have him back in town. I’ve since been assured that no amount of money will keep him out of a lifelong prison sentence. I also learned that, thanks to some publication that has been blasting the story all over the internet, the Feds publically confirmed that Hector’s entire operation has been shut down while all of those that followed him have admitted to their part in everything. I also couldn’t help but notice that my name and Grace’s were never mentioned. I think the publication is called the Scale?” She smiled and cocked her head to the side. “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
It was Dennis’s turn to lie. He shook his head. “I’ve been attached to this bed since they brought me in. I wouldn’t even be able to do that.”
Kelli laughed, and just like that, the weight of the unknown lifted. She finally had the entire story behind Victor’s death. Justice had been brought not only to the man at the top of the operation but also to those who had helped build his tower.
“Thank you, Dennis,” she said, holding his gaze with a look of absolute sincerity. “If Victor were here he would thank you, too.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed it.
He squeezed back. “He was a good man.”
“Yes, he was.”
* * *
KELLI PULLED UP to the house for the last time and got out with a much lighter heart. The Dallas weather had been kind enough to revert to its normal heat instead of the freak storms that had plagued the city the past two weeks. If Mark hadn’t resigned from his construction job to become a full-time Orion agent again, he probably wouldn’t have had work for a while. Kelli couldn’t help but smile when she thought about the bodyguard.
After he and Kelli had gotten back from the police station, he’d told Nikki she could go home. He had—with permission—fallen asleep next to Grace and Kelli. Kelli had awoken hours later to the sound of Mark and Grace playing blocks in the living room. Since then, the three of them had fallen into a groove of being together.
One that just felt right.
One that, without saying it aloud, they’d both decided to continue to explore.
One that Kelli hadn’t expected but absolutely loved.
“Hello?” she called into the boxed-up house.
“Back here, and please bring your camera,” Lynn called.
Kelli, not one to question Lynn’s excited voice, pulled her phone out and hurried to Grace’s bedroom. Once there, she almost doubled over in laughter.
Mark sat on the floor, a bright pink boa wrapped around his shoulders, a plastic crown on his head, cheeks tinted with blush. He had a plastic teacup in his hand while Grace—also wearing a crown and blush—sat in Lynn’s lap across from him.
“I see someone just had his first taste of Pretty Princess,” Kelli said around her fits of laughter. She quickly snapped a picture while she spoke. She looked at Lynn. “I thought you were supposed to help save him?”
Lynn put her hands up in defense. “I tried!”
Mark snorted. “By tried she means she tried to get me to wear some of your lipstick,” he said. Kelli almost hooted at that.
“Hey, listen here, buddy, I was trying to offset the blush we had to put on to match your boa,” Lynn shot back.
Grace just giggled between them.
“Is this my life now?” Kelli joked.
Mark’s lips stretched into a grin. “One can hope,” he said.
His words made Kelli’s stomach flutter.
Lynn stood and picked up Grace. “Okay, gag me, guys,” she said. “You’re all over here making Pretty Princess somehow romantic. I think it’s time we go outside and look for bugs or something, don’t you, Grace?”
Grace nodded so hard that her crown nearly fell off. Kelli adjusted it and kissed her forehead before the two left the room.
“Do you want to keep that on or take that off before the movers get here?” Kelli asked the bodyguard.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s a really good color on me,” he joked.
“Well, how about I make you a deal?” She walked over to him and took the boa from his neck, her hand lingering beside his cheek. “Help me box the rest of this, and Grace’s toys, and I’ll let you play dress-up with us whenever you want.”
Mark laughed. “Deal.”
Together they finished boxing the last of the house’s stray contents. Kelli spent the time telling him what Dennis had said. He also admitted his opinion of Dennis had gone up exponentially.
“Lynn’s been spending a lot of time at the hospital with him, I’ve noticed,” he added when they had finished.
Kelli put her hands to her ears.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get me started on how weird that is,” she said. “But after today’s talk, maybe I can come to terms with the possibility of them spending more time together. Then again, when have I ever been able to stop Lynn from dating a man she likes?” She paused, then elaborated, because Mark probably didn’t know that answer. “Never.”
They conducted a walk-through to make sure everything was ready for the movers. When Kelli was able to confirm that it was, they found themselves standing near the front door in a house devoid of sound. Mark took her hand in his and pulled her close.
Bending down a fraction, he met her lips with a kiss that took her breath away. It put fire in her body and passion back into her heart. He pulled away too soon, much to her disappointment.
“How about I make us all some dinner tonight?” he asked, voice transitioning from husky to an attempt at a normal tone. “I make a mean mac and cheese I’m pretty sure Grace will like better than yours.”
Kelli tossed her head back and let the laughter come from her gut.
“I’ll believe that when I taste it!”
“Then it’s a date,” he said, all smiles.
“It’s a date.”
&
nbsp; Mark kissed her forehead and let go of her hand.
“I’ll give you a moment,” he said without even asking if she needed one.
He already knew she did.
Kelli watched him walk away until the front door closed behind him. She let a moment go by before slipping off her shoes. The hardwood kept her feet cool as she started one truly last walk-through.
The hallway Grace had learned to walk in. The one Victor had carried Kelli through after coming home from their wedding.
The master bedroom where Grace often slept with Kelli when she was afraid of being alone. The same room where Victor had held Kelli until they’d both fallen asleep countless times.
The bathroom with the tub that Grace had dubbed “the rubber duckies’ home” with its awful green walls that Victor had promised he’d paint “one of these days.”
The spare bedroom that had become Grace’s haven. The room that had been waiting for Victor and Kelli’s future child.
The kitchen that Grace always ran through, unaware of her mother’s worry of falling. Where once upon a time Victor had tried to convince Kelli his burned lasagna was, in fact, edible.
The living room where all three Cranes had lived, laughed, and loved together and separately.
Kelli paused in the opening of the nook attached to the heart of the home.
The office that had been solely Victor’s. She imagined the man at his desk, bent over his laptop with a look of pure concentration on his handsome face.
Kelli couldn’t help but smile.
“I love you,” she whispered to the quiet.
The urge to say goodbye to the house—to him—faded as she made her way to the living room window. Outside Lynn was doubled over laughing while Grace chased Mark around the yard. He slowed down just enough to let her catch him before turning around to tickle the toddler. She couldn’t hear the girl’s laughter, but she felt it in her heart.
She would never stop loving Victor—or their only home—and the life they’d had together, but now it was time to be somewhere else.
As if on cue, Mark turned toward the window. His expression softened, and his smile was genuine. Like her daughter’s laughter, she felt it in her heart.
One last time, Kelli tried to memorize the cool hardwood against her feet before slipping her shoes back on. She patted the front door and opened it wide.
They would never forget the past, but it was time to start moving toward the future.
As Kelli shut the door behind her and walked toward the laughter of her diverse little family, she knew it was exactly what Victor would have wanted.
* * * * *
Look for more books in Tyler Anne Snell’s
ORION SECURITY miniseries later in 2016!
Read on for an excerpt from
HARD RAIN,
the next installment in
New York Times bestselling author
B.J. Daniels’s series
THE MONTANA HAMILTONS.
When Brody McTavish sees Harper Hamilton’s runaway horse galloping across the pastures, he does what any good cowboy would do—gives chase and rescues her. But they soon have bigger problems when they make a gruesome discovery—human remains that will dredge up old Hamilton family mysteries...and bring about a scandal that could threaten all Harper’s loved ones.
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Hard Rain
B.J. Daniels
CHAPTER ONE
Thunder cracked overhead in a piercing boom that rattled the windows. As she huddled in the darkness, rain pelted down in angry drenching waves. Lightning again lit the sky in a blinding flash that burned in her mind the image before her.
In that instant, she saw him crossing the field carrying the shovel, his head down, rain pouring off his black Stetson. It was done.
Dark clouds blanketed the hillside. Through the driving rain, she watched him come toward her, telling herself she could live with what she’d done. But she feared he could not. And that could be a problem.
* * *
BRODY MCTAVISH HEARD the screams only seconds before he heard the roar of hooves headed in his direction. Shoving back his cowboy hat, he looked up from the fence he’d been mending to see a woman on a horse riding at breakneck speed toward him.
Harper Hamilton. He’d heard that she’d recently returned after being away at college. Which meant it could have been years since she’d been on a horse. He was already grabbing for his horse’s reins and swinging up in the saddle.
Runaway horse.
He’d been on a runaway horse when he was a kid. He remembered how terrifying it had been. With that many pounds of horseflesh running at such a deadly speed, he prayed hard she could hang on.
He had to hand it to Harper. She hadn’t been unseated. At least not yet.
Harper, yards away on a large bay, screamed. He spurred his horse to catch her and as he raced up beside her, her blue eyes were wide with alarm.
Acting quickly, he looped an arm around her, dragged her off the horse and reined in. His horse came to a stop in a cloud of dust. Her horse kept going, disappearing into the foothill pines ahead.
Brody let Harper slip to the ground next to his horse. The minute her feet touched earth, she started screaming again as if all the wind had been knocked out of her when he’d grabbed her but was back now.
“You’re all right,” he said, swinging out of the saddle and stepping to her to try to calm her.
She spun on him, leading with her fist, and caught him in the jaw. He staggered back more from surprise than the actual blow, but the woman had a pretty darned good right hook.
He stared at her in confusion. “What the devil was that about?”
Picking up a baseball-sized rock, she brandished it as she took a few steps back from him, all the time glancing around, seeming either to expect more men to come out of the foothills, or looking for a larger weapon.
Had the woman hit her head? He spoke as calmly as he would to a skittish horse—or a crazy woman. “Calm down. I know you’re scared. But you’re all right now.” It had only been a few months since the two of them were attendants at her sister Bo’s wedding, not that they hadn’t known each other for years.
She pe
ered under the brim of his hat as if only then taking a good look at him. “Brody McTavish?” She stared at him as if in shock. “Have you lost your mind?”
Brody frowned, since this hadn’t been the reaction he’d expected. “Ah, correct me if I’m wrong,” he said, rubbing his jaw. “But I don’t think this is the way most women would react after a man saves her life.”
“You think you just saved my life?” Her voice rose in amazement.
“You were screaming like either a woman in trouble or one who has lost her senses. I assumed, as any sane person would, that your horse had run away with you. No need to thank me,” he said sarcastically.
“Thank you? For scaring me half to death?” She dropped the rock and dusted the dirt off her hand onto her jeans. “And for the record, I wasn’t screaming. I was...expressing myself.”
“Expressing yourself at the top of your lungs?”
Harper jammed her hands on her hips and thrust out her adorable chin. He recalled her sister’s wedding back at Christmastime. While both attendants, they hadn’t shared more than a few words. Nor had he gotten a chance to dance with her. His own fault. He hadn’t wanted to get in line with all her young suitors.
“It was a beautiful morning,” she said haughtily. “I hadn’t been on a horse in a long time and it felt so good that I couldn’t resist expressing it.” She looked embarrassed but clearly wasn’t about to admit it. “Do you have a problem with that?”
“Nope. But when I see a woman riding like a wild person, screaming her head off, I’m going to assume she’s in trouble and needs some help. My mistake.” Didn’t she know how dangerous it was riding like that out here? If her horse had stepped into a gopher hole... A lecture came to his lips, but he clamped his mouth shut. “You have a nice day, Miss Hamilton.” He tipped his hat, grabbed up his reins and started to walk back toward his property.
“You’re just going to walk away?” she demanded to his back.
“Since you aren’t in need of my help...” he said over his shoulder.
Full Force Fatherhood Page 18