Page 63 of Sniper

One Month Later

Diesel and Rocky stood in front of the table where I was job hunting, arms folded wearing matching grave expressions. “We need to talk.” Over the past month I’d learned that Diesel wasn’t as intimidating as he seemed, but when he didn’t smile, his voice still sent a shiver through me.

“Um, okay. What’s up?” I closed my laptop and folded my hands in my lap to avoid the nervous fidgeting I could feel coming on. I squared my shoulders and sat tall, waiting for whatever bad news they would convey.

“Not here. Follow us,” Rocky instructed.

I nodded and stood on shaky legs, forcing them to move forward one step at a time while my mind raced with possibilities. This was serious if they didn’t send Sniper, and suddenly I was worried.

“Take a seat,” Diesel ordered.

Slate pushed out a chair and I sat on the very edge of it, tension tightly coiled in my belly. “What’s wrong?” The waiting was too much, and I was going to scream if they didn’t just spit it out.

“Nothing is wrong,” Slate assured me. “It took some time, but Ethan’s entire network has been dismantled. The relevantevidence was sent to the appropriate authorities in the right jurisdiction and most of them have been swept up already.”

My body nearly went limp. “That’s good.”

“That’s great. The two hold outs, billionaires, are on the run but I’m confident telling you that there’s nothing else to worry about. You’re safe, free to live your life however and wherever you want.”

I nodded and looked around the room until I spotted Sniper, who stood in the back of the room with an unreadable expression on his face. “Thank you, all of you, for this. I can’t ever repay you.”

“You saved Falcon and Sniper, that’s plenty,” Diesel assured me.

“There’s something else,” Slate said and pulled up a bank account on the screen. “We wiped out the network completely and this is what’s left,” he pointed to an obscene number on the screen. “Ten million was put into an account for the girl, Tamara. Sniper said you’d want it that way.”

I nodded, numb. “Okay.”

“The rest is yours to do what you want.”

I gasped as I stared at more zeroes than I’d ever seen in real life. “What?”

“It’s yours. This account is yours,” he said and handed me a folder with bank cards and account numbers.

I don’t know how long I stared as blood hammered through my veins, but eventually I found my voice. “I, um, I want to stay.”

“Of course you’re staying.” Sniper finally spoke from the back of the room.

I smiled and turned to Sniper, and then the other six men in the room. “You guys let me into your home, put yourselves and your family in danger all to protect me. I’m still here because of you so I think it’s only fair that you take half of this as a show of my gratitude.”

“That’s a lot of gratitude,” Diesel said with a hint of a smirk.

“It’s the least I can do, and I want to do it. That’s how much this means to me. You gave me back my life and that’s worth at least this much.” What was left would still make me a millionaire several times over, and that was on top of the salary I would make when I got back into the ER. “I’m sure. It’s what I want.”

Slate looked to Diesel for confirmation and at his small nod, he made the transfer. “Done.”

I stood. “So we’re good?”

“We’re more than good,” Diesel assured me. “We’re family.”

I smiled and flashed one last look at Sniper before I headed to the door.

“Katey,” Diesel called out again.

I turned, feeling less intimidated this time. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“We’re family,” was my only response.

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