Page 75 of His Captor

He stepped back, and Simon moved in to say, “Dad, Papa, and I will meet you at the hospital.”

“Great,” I said. Or, at least, I thought I said. I was too busy gazing in wonder at the baby in my arms.

I didn’t notice much else as Mace climbed into the ambulance and sat beside me, reaching for one of my hands. The paramedics did their thing, securing everything, then shifting into the front so they could drive us away from the craziness of the evening.

“I’m not gonna lie,” I said, squeezing Mace’s hand. “I am so incredibly glad that I have you with me. Not just here in the ambulance or for Junior’s birth.”

“We’re not calling him Junior,” Mace said in a playfully flat voice.

I made a face at him, then trained my eyes on our son again. “I’m so grateful that I have you in my life,” I went on. “Not a day will go by when I’m not grateful to fate for bringing us together again. I might even be grateful to Colin for?—”

I stopped with a gasp, whipping to face Mace with wide eyes.

“That was Colin under the white sheet on the beach, wasn’t it,” I said, suddenly feeling sick.

Mace’s face pinched and he squeezed my hand, like he didn’t really want to say anything. “It was,” he said.

“You didn’t?—”

“He had a gun in the waistband of his jeans, and it went off while I was chasing him.”

I gaped, not only because that was horrible, but because I’d called it.

I really didn’t like the fact that I’d called it.

My mind flew back to my captivity, and I remembered another detail.

“There was someone else,” I said in a rush, wishing I didn’t have to think about it at all. “Someone came to the door and got into a fight with Colin. I didn’t see who it was. I don’t know for certain, but I feel like Colin was in trouble for everything he was doing, but I don’t know who with. Maybe there’s security camera footage and you can?—”

“Shh.” Mace shifted to lay a settling hand on my shoulder. “You don’t have to worry about any of that now. You’re safe, Colin is dead, and the police will handle everything else.”

I drew in a deep breath and relaxed back against the softness of the gurney.

“The only thing you have to worry about is recovering from tonight’s trauma and being the best papa the world has ever seen,” Mace continued, his voice so wonderfully soothing again.

I barked a weak laugh. “I’m going to be a disaster as a papa, you know.”

“No, you’re not,” Mace said with a smile. “You’ll be an unconventional papa, to be sure. The kids will all think you’re the cool papa when they’re little, and they’ll be so embarrassed by you when they’re teenagers.”

My brow shot up. “Kids, plural?”

Mace matched my look of surprise. “Don’t you want to have more kids with me?”

I smiled. No, not just smiled, I burst into tears of joy. “Yeah, I do,” I said, sniffling wetly.

Mace’s expression turned suddenly hopeful and uncertain. “How would you feel about marrying me, too?”

That pushed me over the edge. I wept ugly tears, snotting all over. But I nodded as I snotted, squeezing Mace’s hand in mine with a death grip.

“You have to do a big deal proposal, though,” I wailed through my emotion. “I mean, I’m saying yes now, but I want the whole romantic dinner and ring hidden in a glass of champagne thing, too.”

“Of course,” Mace laughed, leaning in to kiss my forehead, then Junior’s. Thank God Junior had drifted off into an exhausted post-birth sleep. He would have been embarrassed by his papa right then already.

“I love you, Mace,” I whimpered, exhausted myself. “I’m so glad I found you.”

“I love you, too, Hayden,” Mace said, resting his forehead against mine. “And I’ll love our entire family for the rest of my life.”

EPILOGUE

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