Jarrett grinned. “That’s good.” He frowned as he scanned the waiting room again. “Hey, has anyone found out what happened to the real Josiah Flynn?”
“No, but he’ll no doubt turn up in some non-extradition country somewhere,” Sarah said. “Chances are, he saw the writing on the wall when Drake Archer ordered him to come into the office. He was pretty smart to get out when he had the chance.”
Jarrett nodded, glancing around the room. “Where’s that big son of a bitch who carried Dayan out of the building… Parker? He okay? I owe him a debt of thanks.”
Sarah smiled sweetly. “Yessssss,” she hissed, drawing the word out as she waggled her eyebrows. “He’s sitting with Adael in the recovery room. It turns out he’s also a former Green Beret. He wouldn’t allow himself to be treated until he made sure Adael was okay.”
“Huh. I knew I liked them Army guys,” Jarrett said.
Thayne reached over and took Jarrett’s hand. “I’m a bit partial to Marines myself.”
They all chuckled and Jarrett marveled at how good it felt to be in the company of people he loved.
Epilogue
Three weeks later
“You sure Mac is here?” Sarah asked, looking up at the massive house as her boyfriend pulled his large truck into the circular drive in front of the two-story structure. It was located in the prestigious neighborhood of Brentwood with sweeping driveways and wide streets. Old-growth trees lined the boulevard. It was one of the richest neighborhoods in LA, and when Sarah had looked up Devecchio’s address, this was the one the ATF had on file for him.
Lincoln nodded. “Yeah, I swear. I pinged his phone’s GPS after he didn’t answer this morning. I tried him last night and left a message but he didn’t return the call.”
“Well, I hope they’re here. We are due to meet the others for breakfast in like an hour. Stanger told us we can’t be late. He has some kind of announcement,” she said.
“Come on.” Lincoln parked the truck and got out, then walked around to the passenger side where he opened Sarah’s door. She smiled at him and he reached up, taking her by the waist and holding her like a china doll as he lifted her from the seat, setting her on the ground. He leaned down and kissed her softly. This being pregnant stuff was kind of nice and from the moment she’d told Lincoln they were going to be parents after the Stryker-Dunn case, he’d been treating her like she was made of glass. She glanced at the ring that sparkled on her left hand. That sweet thing was anything but glass.
The night after she’d told him about the baby, Lincoln had taken her out to dinner, gotten down on one knee, and asked her to be his wife. She’d never been so happy or so in love in her entire life and Lincoln was over the moon with happiness. She had no idea how the poor man would take it when she told him she had no intention of retiring from the ATF once the baby was born. Sarah was a born crime fighter so giving up something she loved, even if it was dangerous, was not going to happen. He was going to freak out about it but that conversation was for later.
They walked over to the front door and down a brick walkway that had rose bushes on either side. The wide front porch was covered with wisteria vines in full bloom with brightly-colored purple flowers. White jasmine vines were interspersed with the wisteria and it gave the whole porch an amazing spring fragrance as honeybees danced in the air around them. Sarah walked up the three stairs with Lincoln’s hand engulfing hers. He picked up the brass doorknocker and slammed it down three times.
“I’m coming,” Mac bellowed from somewhere inside.
“I hope we didn’t wake them up,” Sarah said, looking up at Lincoln who smiled indulgently at her.
“Wake them?” Lincoln asked. “Oh, you think Mac stayed over… just in case Nico needs his help after his recovery.”
“Pfft! What? You really are blind, Linc.”
“What are you talking about? I mean I know Nico needed help after he came home. That’s great that he and Mac got to be such good friends.”
“Friends… Right!” Sarah said, dismissively.
Lincoln scrunched his face in confusion just as the door opened. Mac stood in the doorway wearing jeans and a long-sleeved, sand-colored camouflage shirt.
“Sorry, I was…” Mac let the words trail off as he hooked his thumb into the bowels of the house. “Come on in.”
They stepped inside. The downstairs had high ceilings with wide arched doorways leading off to other large rooms on either side of the massive foyer. A quick perusal had dollar signs ca-chinging in Sarah’s head. Devecchio is loaded. This was a lot more dough than an ex-cop from NYPD should have made unless he’d been on the take in a big way. California real estate in this neighborhood ran in the millions. Maybe he had family money but he’d never said anything. Huh. Who knew.
Lincoln reached out and shook Mac’s massive mitt as Sarah stared at the trappings of wealth all around. It was hard not to gape at the antique mission-style furnishings or the authentic hand-knotted Persian rugs lying over gleaming hardwood floors. Even the art on the Italian plaster walls looked genuine. Whew.
“Where the hell have you been, man? I’ve been calling since yesterday,” Lincoln bitched. “Stanger and Diaz want us to meet everyone at Denny’s this morning. Stanger has some kind of announcement and the gang is anxious to get together. I talked to Evans last night and I guess he has some kind of surprise too.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry… I-I… well, I guess I got busy,” Mac stuttered. Sarah thought it was sweet. He was usually so unflustered but here he was, standing—looking mighty fine—in Nico’s foyer, stammering and nervous.
“Mac! Mac!” Nico’s voice called from the second floor. “Where the hell are you?” The voice got closer. “Do you know your phone is beeping? You have like ten messages, baby.” The voice got even closer and then two bare feet and hairy legs appeared at the top of the stairs. “Someone desperately needs to talk to…” Nico’s voice trailed off as he came charging down the stairs completely naked except for a bright yellow towel slung low around his waist. One hand held it in place while the other held Mac’s phone. “Oh shit,” Nico muttered the moment he spotted Mac standing with Sarah and Lincoln in the entry hall.
Sarah and Lincoln looked up at Nico and gaped. It wasn’t every day you caught your best friends red-handed.
“I… uh…” Nico said, walking down the stairs, getting closer to them. “I… uh… oh hell…”
“Mac, what’s going on here?” Lincoln asked.
Sarah turned to stare at her fiancé… her completely stupid, clueless, fiancé. Really?
Nico stared at Lincoln and then glanced at Sarah before looking back at Lincoln. He finally sighed and opened his mouth to speak.
“Seriously, Lincoln? I worry, man. How is it even remotely possible for you not to know what is going on here?”
Lincoln just looked too stupid to live. Sarah reached out and slapped his bicep as hard as she could.
“Ow! Fuck! What?”
She planted both hands on her hips. “Seriously, lawman?”
Mac burst into laughter and stepped over to his partner, reaching up and hugging his shoulder. “She’s right, man. We seriously gotta talk if you haven’t figured it out yet.”
Lincoln opened his mouth… then shut it… then looked at Sarah… then back at Nico. A light finally came into his eyes and he smiled. “Ohhhhh…” He reached up and rubbed his hand over his face. “Well, shit.”
They all laughed.
****
“Where are they?” Sarah asked. She looked out the window from where she sat in Denny’s with Lincoln by her side a little over an hour later. Dev, Jose, Mac, Nico and their bosses, Lloyd Stanger and Claudia Diaz were waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive. It was still early morning but they sat in one of the large booths designed for families. The waitress had come over and poured coffee and tea but they wanted to wait for Thayne and Jarrett to arrive before they ordered their breakfasts.
“All Wolfe would say is that Evans has a surp
rise for us and they were running ten minutes late,” Galvez drawled in his thick East LA accent.
“Late as usual,” Stanger muttered.
Sarah took a sip of her coffee, reaching for Lincoln’s hand under the table. He took it and smiled at her, squeezing her smaller fingers.
“Wait a minute!” Dev cried. “Will you look at this guy?”
Sarah turned her head and looked out the window where Dev pointed. A beat-up hearse had just pulled into the parking lot. It looked… wait a minute… the hearse was riding really low to the ground.
Jose laughed. “Looks like something the low riders drive in my hood but I gotta admit, I never seen a lowered hearse. What a tool.”
Lincoln sat forward, dropping Sarah’s hand. She turned back to look at her fiancé. “What?”
“Is that? Is that… Jarrett at the wheel?”
“Naw…” Mac said, sounding incredulous.
“What the hell?” Nico exclaimed, suddenly scooting out of the seat and standing up. The rest of their party did the same, sliding across the Naugahyde seats until they’d all gotten out of the booth.
“Be right back,” Sarah called out to the waitress as she followed her friends out of the restaurant.
They walked over to where the hearse was idling near the entrance to Denny’s. Sure enough, Sarah spotted Jarrett in the driver’s seat. He was grinning from ear to ear with an exasperated looking Thayne sitting in the front passenger seat. He leaned over to look out Jarrett’s window as he cranked it down.
“All… my… friends… know the low rider…” blared out of the hearse’s sound system. “The… low… rider… is a little higher…” The song lapsed into War’s familiar tinny beat, counting out the melody as the lead singer continued. “Low… ri… der… drives a little slower… low… ri… der… is a real goer…” Thayne reached out and grabbed one of the retro dials on the stereo and turned it down so he could be heard over the song.
“My husband insisted on surprising you with his newest toy,” Thayne said, sounding resigned as War continued to play in the background.
Sarah glanced between both of her grinning friends and then her eyes were drawn to a plastic Madonna stuck to the dashboard by a suction cup. The Virgin Mary bobbled wildly back and forth from the momentum of the car. It was the stupidest thing Sarah had ever seen. Jose was laughing so hard he had to bend over, holding his stomach.
“Oh, my… God!” he gasped. “Never seen anything like that thing in the Hood.”
As they all laughed, Jarrett turned back to Thayne. “I wanna show them the best thing.”
“Why not? It couldn’t get any more humiliating sitting in this seat than it already is.” He waved at the dash. “Have at it.”
Jarrett grinned again and then reached for a button on the dash before turning to look at everyone who’d gathered around.
“Stand back for the full effect.”
“Oh, jeez,” Sarah said, grabbing Lincoln’s hand again as the group stepped back from the hearse ten feet or so. She was shocked when the back of the hearse suddenly rose up though the tires stayed on the ground. They all burst into laughter when it lowered again with a loud hum and the front of the car rose up. When the whole car began to bounce off the ground, tires and all, they laughed hysterically. Tears poured down Sarah’s face and Jose pointed at the car, unable to say anything as he doubled over again.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Diaz howled. “Reminds me of my childhood.”
Sarah was shocked to see the FBI SAC laughing so hard tears streamed from her eyes.
“That’s it, Evans,” Lloyd Stanger said. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but please… don’t ever change.” He was red from laughing so hard.
Sarah turned her gaze back up to Lincoln whose white grin gleamed in his dark face. He was beautiful and she was going to marry him. Surrounded by friends, standing with the man she’d soon marry, she’d never been so happy in her whole life.
****
The waitress took the last of their empty plates away as the group of friends finished up breakfast. Jarrett’s surprise had gone over about as Thayne had known it would. For some reason, Jarrett always inspired the people around him with his clown antics. If he wasn’t playing the fool and rappelling down the side of a skyscraper or telling his wild stories, he was saving the day, pulling people he cared about out of a burning building or a mine in West Virginia. His husband was a hero and Thayne adored the hell out of him.
Stanger cleared his throat and they all turned to him. He’d told them that he had some sort of announcement to make which is why they’d all gathered for breakfast.
“Thanks for coming out this morning,” the SAC said. “I gotta say, my announcement can’t top Jarrett for pure entertainment value, though.”
They all smiled.
“What is it, boss?” Sarah asked. She’d worked for Lloyd Stanger for over ten years and she loved him but she’d never seen him this flustered.
Stanger smiled indulgently at her and then glanced at Dev. “First of all, I want to preface this announcement by saying it’s been in the works for a while so nothing on this last case predicated my decision.”
Sarah frowned and opened her mouth to say something when he held up the palms of his hands.
“Let me get through this, Sarah.”
She swallowed hard and tears pricked at the back of her eyes as she guessed what was coming. She finally nodded and squeezed Lincoln’s hand which was once again holding hers under the table.
“I’m going to retire,” Stanger said.
Protests and groans erupted around the table but Stanger held up his hands again and they all quieted.
“It’s okay. Like I said, I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It’s time I hung it up. After I sent Sarah and Dev up north to the prison in Susanville, well, let’s just say, after everything that happened, I realized that was the wrong thing to have done and it just hurried my decision along.”
“But boss, you couldn’t have known what was going to happen,” Dev protested.
“Yeah, Boss. No one blames you for that.” Sarah reached across the table and took his grizzled hand. “We’re fine and there’s no way you could have known. We’re both trained agents. It was just piss-poor timing that those assholes decided to riot when they did.”
Stanger offered a sad smile and squeezed Sarah’s hand. “And, I’ve come to terms with my decision since you made it out all right. Thank God that happened, but now that you’re engaged and you have a little one on the way, I think it’s the right time for me to hang up my spurs.”
“Boss…” Thayne whined.
“No, it’s the right time. Especially since I’ve got just the person to fill my position.”
Sarah noticed Jarrett reach up and wipe a large hand over his face. “Who’s gonna put up with my shit like you do, Boss?”
Everyone at the table chuckled and Stanger grinned.
“Like I said, since Sarah and Lincoln are going to be married and are expecting a little one, I thought that perhaps Lincoln would appreciate it if Sarah stayed in the office more.”
“You mean you want my fiancée to take your place?” Lincoln asked, eyes going wide.
Sarah stared at him, recognizing the expression of happiness on her man’s face. Stanger nodded.
“Yes. Sarah’s been on my team longer than anyone in the office. She’s sacrificed a lot over the years and I think…” He turned toward her. “If you agree, I want you to take over. I think you’d make a hell of an SAC. Not only that, the position comes with a nice pay bump which your new little family could use.”
“Hell yeah!” Thayne said. The rest of her friends whooped and Sarah blushed as she looked at every one of them. Her gaze rested on Lincoln.
“Would you mind if I did that? I mean I didn’t want to tell you that I wanted to keep working after the baby is born but I really do, Linc. As much as I want to stay home and take care of our baby, I can’t imagine leaving my job and not wo
rking with my other family.”
Lincoln smiled and put his arm around her, leaning over to press a kiss to the top of her blonde head. “That would be perfect, honey. I didn’t know how I was gonna ask you to make the sacrifice but this way, you can stay involved and still be safe. You think you can be an effective SAC and still be…”
“Your wife and mother to our baby?”
“Yeah,” Lincoln smiled down at her.
She let a slow smile spread across her face. Not working out in the field on everyday assignments was going to be weird but hell, she only got into the thick of it when they had a really big case. Most of the time, what she did—what the whole team did—was average everyday investigative stuff. She glanced around the table at the smiling faces of the people she loved.
“Well, if you all have faith in me, I guess I can do that.”
“Hell yeah!” Thayne said. “No one else can keep Jarrett on his toes like you’ll be able to do.”
“Hey!” Jarrett protested but then he smiled as he looked over at her. “I look forward to you keeping me on my toes, little girl.”
“Ohhhh… little girl… Those are fighting words, Evans,” Galvez said. “Someone’s gonna get it!” He laughed as Sarah reached out to punch Jarrett in the arm.
“Ow!” Jarrett yelped.
“I’m so proud of you, partner,” Dev said. “Just promise to hire me a good partner.”
Sarah grinned. “I will.” She looked over at Nico who sat beside Mac. “You okay with this, Devecchio?”
“Of course I am. I think you’re brilliant and I can’t wait to take direction from you.”
Jarrett snorted. “Yeah right. I’ll get you some body armor, my man.”
Sarah chuckled and glanced back across the table at her boss. “Well, I guess that’s it then. If you have that much faith in me, I’ll take the job.”
Stanger grinned and shook her hand. “That’s terrific. I’ll put in your papers immediately, then.” He let go of her hand and sat back in the booth, looking overly pleased with himself.
Endings and Beginnings (Death and Destruction Book 8) Page 30